For the Residents of Mansel Lacy, Brinsop, Moorhampton, Upperton, Wormsley, Yarsop & Yazor
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Issue No. 67 Summer 2008 For the residents of Mansel Lacy, Brinsop, Moorhampton, Upperton, Wormsley, Yarsop & Yazor. Published by St. Michael’s Mansel Lacy Community Association With financial support from a Foxley Group Parish Council grant. Printed by Cal & Weobley Printing Services Foxley News 2 Editorial The printing of the ‘Foxley News’ will be done by a company in Peterbor- ough. The cost will be somewhat more expensive than Weobley Printing Services so that future Advertising costs may have to be increased slightly A number of people are selling up and moving out of the village and some are just moving. Hopefully in the next edition we will be able to say good- bye to those who are leaving and welcome to the incomers. Editors Cal Edwards & Elaine Hillier All articles, letters or other items may be subject to editorial discretion. The editors do not accept responsibility for articles printed in this magazine. Please send or deliver your copy to:- Cal Edwards, Yew Tree Cottage, Mansel Lacy. Tel; 01981 590625 e-mail:- [email protected] Web-site: www.mansellacy.org.uk Foxley News Publication Dates and Copy Deadlines Publication date Copy deadline Autumn Monday Aug. 25 Monday Aug. 11. Winter Monday Nov 24 Monday Nov 10 Spring Monday Feb 23 Monday Feb 9 Foxley Flyer The supplement to the Foxley News will be published at the beginning of the months when the Foxley News is resting. Viz. January, February April, May, July, August, October, November. It is a single A5 sized sheet. - Brief items of interest should be sent to Joyce Potts, editor, within the copy deadlines. 3 Foxley News Community Association As I sit at my keyboard I’m appreciating the warm weather and thinking I really must get outside to tend to the garden, Luckily the forecast is telling me that although tomorrow will be fine Thursday will be a wet day. Good - tomorrow I will work in the garden and Thursday I will finish off editing the Foxley News. Research is still taking place into the possibility of re-roofing the church and to include some insulation, which will of course improve the heating and lower the cost of running it. These things take time, effort and money will have to be found. In the meantime our application for £5,500 from the ‘Awards for All’ Lottery fund has been accepted and the money is in our account. However the decorator on whose estimate the application was based decided not to take on the job after all. The second estimate we had received from S C Joseph Ltd was £1,400 more expensive. In haste an application to the Community Buildings Grant scheme run by the Herefordshire Council was completed (some 50 pages) and submitted. After some minor glitches were sorted out, the application was approved and the grant awarded. This grant money will be paid on production of invoices, whereas the Lottery money was paid up front. Both grants have conditions and the Lottery time table is that the work should be completed before the end of May. The Council condition is that the work should not start until the grant had been approved. On the 14th of May the Council gave the go ahead and the decorator has agreed to start on Monday 19th May and finish by the 30th. Things do get tight at times but it keeps the adrenaline flowing. At the time of writing the painters are doing an excellent job. I feel sure we will all be pleased with the end result. As you will have read in the Editorial the printing of this edition is an issue to be resolved, however there are 33 small local magazines printed in Herefordshire and already the band of editors are finding alternative ways of proceeding. Since I started writing this piece, a quote to print the magazine, has been obtained from a firm in Peterborough, who will print from electronic data (PDF) and post back the finished product in 48 Hours. A little more expensive than previously but if the quality and service are good then a price worth paying. Having gained a worthy second place last year, in the ‘Calor Village of the Year’ competition, we have entered again this year in the hope that we can get just one place better. If we are short listed for a visit by the judges then help will be required from all sections of the community to put on a winning display of the village. With a newly decorated Church we should present a better image. On Page 23 you will see an advert for the Lamb Roast, still as popular as ever in the usual place - Brent Coetzee’s Keepers Cottage. We can always rely on good people to help and this is a big thank you to all of them before the event. It was hoped to have a couple of TV celebrities racing a soap box down our course on 8th June. This would have been part of four hour long programmes on Channel 5 entitled ‘Alternative Sports to the Olympics’ or some such title, which they were going to film. However the Media company have decided not to include Mansel Lacy in their programme. Had they done so and we had advertised the names of the celebrities we could have expected double the normal number of people through the gate. Very disappointing.!! It had been suggested that we had an ‘Open Gardens’ event this year in the Autumn. This has caused a number of different opinions to emerge. Please let us know by sending letters to the editor. In the meantime we have decided not to hold Open Gardens this year, but we are hoping to have a ‘Progressive Supper’ and a Duck Race. We need some friends to volunteer to lay on one of the courses of the ‘Supper at their house. Telephone 590625 please. Foxley News 4 Tribute to a dear friend Sadly, at the grand old age of 88 years, my dear friend and neighbour Molly Whitney, passed away quietly on April 27th. For our family this has special poignancy for many reasons, some of which I would like to share with you. Our current home belonged to Molly’s mother and was put up for sale after her death in 1983. Because of its lovely location, many people came to view it, including us. Molly and Whit knew Tony and his family as they occasionally imbibed of the odd drink at the Royal Oak, which belonged to Tony’s parents. Having realised that we were really interested in buying the cottage, Molly took the decision to take it off the market and wait for us to sell our house in Leominster, even though this actually took over a year. In the meantime, as the cottage required a great deal of renovation, she actually allowed us to remove the staircase, take down the chimney, gut the kitchen and to remove the plaster so we could have damp-proofing work done. All of this was before a single penny had changed hands! Molly trusted us implicitly with following through with the sale and I’m glad to say that it all worked out happily- I can think of no-one that would allow that to happen nowadays (including me). When we first moved to Brinsop I occasionally organised the odd theatre visit with my mum, mum in law and sister in law. Molly always enjoyed these outings greatly. In particular, I took her to see No Sex Please, We’re British in Malvern, starring Andrew Sachs (of Manuel, Fawlty Towers fame). One scene required him to hurriedly wrap a parcel containing top shelf magazines back up before his boss found them. When he had done this and tried to stand back up he had accidentally wrapped his tie into the parcel too and was completely stuck. This caused great hilarity to both the audience and cast at the time for several minutes, requiring some quick thinking back stage person to release him with a pair of scissors. Molly found it particularly amusing and, on our journey home, found it impossible not to keep laughing. With her chuckle infectious, we all literally ached from laughing for nearly the whole journey! Her knowledge of all things related to the countryside never ceased to amaze me. She could identify virtually any bird from its song, any plant (weed or otherwise) that I took to her, and the habitat of any creature from the clues left in her garden. My daughters constantly asked her about birds they had seen, noises they had heard, things they had found and she never tired of their inquisitive minds and questions. Any wounded bird would be tenderly cared for by her capable hands, stray insects in the house gently guided back outside and small unwant- ed furry visitors merely discouraged, never killed. All manner of birds would find a tasty treat waiting for them on or under the bird tables, and pheasants pecked gently on the patio window to remind her that they needed feeding too. When younger, Emma took pleasure in picking small posies of wild flowers to present to Molly. Some would have been carried in her little hand for just that little bit long and would droop over the side of the vase provided. Molly would simply prop them up gently with something and then tell Emma what each flower was, what insects liked them etc and Emma would return home full of half facts that she desperately tried to pass on to someone else.