The Issue 131 - July 2017 VILLAGER and Town Life LOCAL NEWS • LOCAL PEOPLE • LOCAL SERVICES • LOCAL CHARITIES • LOCAL PRODUCTS In this issue Summer evening walks Win a set of top quality gardening tools Win £25 in our Prize Crossword Bringing Local Business to Local People in Biggleswade, Sandy, Potton, Gamlingay and all surrounding villages 11,000 copies delivered to over 30 towns and villages every month NOW BEING DELIVERED DOOR TO DOOR IN BIGGLESWADE Your To advertise in The Villager and Town Life please call 01767 261122 FREEcopy1 2 Please mention The Villager and Town Life when responding to adverts GREAT NEWS We are pleased to announce we are now delivering door to door every month in Biggleswade and would like to welcome all our Contents new readers Summer Evening Walks ...........................................................48 Win Tickets to the Safe Journey............................................................................51 Cambridge Summer Music Festival Rural Ramblings ......................................................................52 R.A.T.S. Rehoming Appeal .......................................................54 Animal Know-How ..................................................................57 10 Ask Alan - Potton Vets .............................................................58 Beware of Ticks when Walking your Dog .................................60 Children’s Page ........................................................................63 The Stars of the New York Motor Show ....................................65 Not Ready for Retirement? ......................................................67 Nick Coffer’s Weekend Recipe ..................................................68 Return of the Pawnbrokers ......................................................71 Wedding Customs .....................................................................4 Remembering Jane Austen .....................................................72 Where Am I?..............................................................................8 What’s On ................................................................................74 Win Tickets to the Cambridge Summer Music Festival .............10 Sandy Women’s Institute .........................................................78 Win a Top Quality Set of Gardening Tools .................................12 Puzzle Page .............................................................................80 I Want to Ride my Bicycle ........................................................15 Sculpture Parks .......................................................................83 Friends of Keech Hospice .........................................................16 Prize Crossword .......................................................................86 Wine: Gems of France ..............................................................19 Are you Committing Emoji Abuse? ..........................................90 Summer Concerts - Just Add Children .....................................20 Book Review ...........................................................................93 Bedtime Stories .......................................................................22 Summer of Fun .......................................................................25 Summer Evening Walks The Great Beyond ....................................................................27 48 Summer Sensations ................................................................28 Anorexia ..................................................................................30 How to Travel in Style ..............................................................33 Are you Financially Resilient? ..................................................36 Prague - Golden City of Bohemia ............................................38 Update your Bathroom ............................................................40 Why it’s smart to face up to change.........................................45 Employment Matters ..............................................................46 Editorial - Catherine Rose, Sarah Davey, Trevor Langley, Publishers Tracey Anderson, Kate Duggan, Jennie Billings, Solange Hando, Villager Publications Ltd Kate McLelland, Carol H Scott, Pippa Greenwood, Geoff Wharton, 24 Market Square, Potton, Bedfordshire SG19 2NP RSPCA, Potton Vets, James Baggott, Christine Harris, Nick Coffer, Tel: 01767 261122 Louise Addison, Alison Runham, Rachael Leverton [email protected] and Tracey Andrews, www.villagermag.com Advertising Sales/Local Editorial Disclaimer - All adverts and editorial are printed in good faith, Nigel Frost - 01767 261122 [email protected] however, Villager Publications Ltd can not take any responsibility Photography for the content of the adverts, the services provided by the Denis And Yulia Pogostins and Darren Harbar Photography advertisers or any statements given in the editorial. No part of this publication may be reproduced or stored without the express Design and Artwork - Design 9 Tel 07762 969460 permission of the publisher. Advert Booking and Artwork Deadline: Wednesday 12th July for the AUGUST edition To advertiseAdvert in The Booking Villager andand ArtworkTown Life Deadline: please call Monday 01767 261122 31st July for the SEPTEMBER edition 3 History By Catherine Rose Wedding The Roman goddess Juno presided over hard-earned cash to buy his beloved a diamond marriage, the hearth and childbirth, and June ring to propose with. Today 80% of engagement remains a popularCustoms wedding month today. As rings are still diamonds. wedding season begins, have you ever stopped to Wedding rings are depicted on ancient Egyptian wonder where many of our modern-day marriage papyrus scrolls. They are traditionally worn on traditions started? the fourth finger of the left hand because the Although diamond engagement rings were Romans believed this finger had a vein, the vena popularised in the 15th century by European amoris, which was connected directly to the nobility, particularly the Venetians, the tradition heart. However, its symbolism is not as romantic of giving a diamond engagement ring really as it seems. The ring represented the groom’s took off in the late 19th century at the height of wealth and formed part of the wedding contract diamond mining in South Africa. to provide for and own his spouse. This is never The De Beers Diamond Company was responsible more perfectly illustrated than in the case of for the ‘a diamond lasts forever’ advertising the Roman bride who had a gold ring to wear campaign; this was so successful that by the in public and an iron one to wear at home while 1940s every man was using a tidy sum of his doing the chores. 4 Please mention The Villager and Town Life when responding to adverts To advertise in The Villager and Town Life please call 01767 261122 5 The Victorians are responsible for many of our confuse would-be kidnappers of the bride (yes, modern customs. Queen Victoria started the in the days of rival tribes and warring families, trend for wearing a white wedding dress in 1840 bridal kidnap wasn’t uncommon). The role of (long a tradition in Japan). Before then women these attendants was also to act as witnesses to simply wore their best dress. the marriage. Veils symbolised a bride’s virginity and humility In many cultures, including High Church of before God, as well as showing she was saving England, the couple’s hands are either wrapped her beauty for her husband (who would lift the or bound together during the ceremony. This led veil when she arrived at the altar). But there was to the phrase ‘tying the knot’. another more sinister reason. One of the most famous traditions, the wedding In the days when arranged marriages were cake, also began in ancient Rome. A sweet bread common, it wasn’t unusual for the groom to have made with nuts and dried fruit was broken over never laid eyes on his bride before. The veil was the bride’s head as a fertility charm. Wedding an effective way of ensuring he didn’t cut and run guests would be served handfuls of the nuts and before she got to the altar! The Victorians turned dried fruits that were known as confetto. This was the veil into a status symbol: the more wealthy also thrown over the couple for good luck. Today, and important you were, the longer the bride’s our confetti is made of rice, petals and paper. veil and train. The custom of cake at weddings continued into Bridal bouquets were carried as a symbol of medieval times when they would be stacked to fertility and to hide unpleasant smells (the norm form a high tower. The bride and groom then had in ages when there was little sanitation). The to kiss over the top without toppling it over; if custom of the bride throwing it to the crowd they succeeded, a life of prosperity was assured replaced one where guests would rip pieces off and so the tiered wedding cake was born. the hem of her gown for good luck. Finally, the honeymoon, or ‘hony moone’ as it It was once even customary for the bridal party was known, dates from the 14th century and had to follow the couple to their bedroom and watch nothing to do with honey. It was simply coined to the act of consummation. The throwing of the describe the brief sweetness of that first month bride’s garter is symbolic of this (thankfully) long of marriage. dead practice. The notion that the bride should wear ‘something old, new, borrowed and blue’ comes from an old English saying that ends ‘and a sixpence in your