North Cotswold Villages Childswickham, Murcot, Broadway and Leedons Parks, Aston Somerville, Willersey, Hinton in the Green, and Bretforton 40,000 hits on the internet in 2017 and 5000 hits in January 2018 V i l l a g e N e w s March 2018 And don’t forget STOP PRESS on the website DATES FOR YOUR DIARY see inside for more details • Sunday, 25th February Fleecy Folk: Damien O’Kane band at the Fleece Inn 8.00pm • Saturday, 3rd March Wedding Fayre at the Fleece Inn 10.00am • Taste and Tour evening at the Fleece 5.45pm • Saturday, 10th March Wedding fayre at Evesham Town Hall 11.30am • Sunday, 11th March MOTHER’S DAY • Sunday, 11th March Cheltenham Festival Preview at the Fleece Inn 7.00pm • Tuesday, 13th—Friday, 16th March Cheltenham Festival • Saturday, 17th March STEAMCHICKEN live at the Fleece Inn 8.00pm • Sunday, 18th March Fleecy Folk: Siobhan Miller at the Fleece Inn 8.00pm http://www.village-news.org.uk Send emails to [email protected] Visit the Childswickham website http://www.childswickham.org.uk Next issue April 2018 Deadline March 10th 2018 Village News MARCH 2018 Childswickham Church St Mary the Virgin Joan Barnet, Churchwarden 01386 858309 Carol Strotten, Churchwarden 01386 852312 Services in March at 10.30am. Prayer and praise on 1st and 3rd Sunday. Holy Communion on 2nd (Revd H K Nicholls ) 4th Sunday (Revd R Pestell). Come and join us as we share together in worship and fellowship. Wednesday, 28th at 12 noon Passover Seder. Come and be inspired by taking part in a re-enactment of the Passover meal which Jesus ate with his friends the night before he died. Lunch included. Revd Jean Herrick, who has much experience, having lived in Israel, will be teaching us about the Seder Meal. Please see Carol Strotten (Churchwarden) or phone 852312 to book your seat at the Passover table. Good Friday, 30th March A short service to remember our Lord’s sacrifice for all. Easter Sunday, 1st April Canon David Williams. Come and join us as we celebrate the Lord’s resurrection together. Advanced notice for April 8th Annual Parish Church Council meeting following the morning service. If you wish to vote on any items on the agenda please make sure your name is on St Mary’s Electoral Roll. Forms available from Carol. Cleaning Contacts Childswickham Coffee Rota Feb 23rd Mr & Mrs E Watts Joan Barnett, Churchwarden 858309 Feb 25th Brenda Wadsworth Mar 4th Margaret Flanagan Mar 2nd/9th Mrs P Hackett Carol Strotten, Churchwarden 852312 Mar 11th Carol Strotten & Mrs A Kirk Mar 18th Susan Morris Mar 25th Mary Burfitt Mar 16th/23rd Mrs Saville Bell ringers: Mar 30th/Apr 6th Tower Captain, Graham Lee Mrs Stephenson & Mrs Hawkins 01386 858422 The Great Daffodil Appeal www.mariecurie.org.uk Here is an opportunity to support a really worthwhile cause. March brings us the annual Marie Curie’s Great Daffodil Appeal, and volunteers are always needed for collections. Could you help? Founded in 1986, the Appeal helps fund Marie Curie nurses to care at home for people living with any kind of terminal illness. In 2013/14, Marie Curie was able to support 40,844 people living with a terminal illness. People cared for by Marie Curie Nurses are three times less likely to be admitted to hospital in an emergency at the end of their lives. Seven out of 10 people cared for by Marie Curie Nurses are able to die in their own homes. That daffodil time of year O how I love, as poets do That time when skies turn deeper blue, And all can know the vernal thrills Of landscapes filled with daffodils. I love to spend a pleasing hour Admiring nature’s golden flower; That trumpet shape, enhanced by dew That vibrant, cheering yellow hue! No better herald of the spring No flower can more pleasure bring; And spirits crushed by winter’s ills Are lifted by the daffodils! By Nigel Beeton Next issue April 2018 Deadline March 10th 2018 Village News MARCH 2018 Amazing grace You will not have heard of Ian Squire: or you have, but you have forgotten! He was the Missionary Optician from Surrey who, along with three others, was kidnapped in a remote village of Nigeria, last October, an event widely reported on the News and in the Press. Being where he was implied courage: what he did showed initiative – collecting glasses from the lost property department at Heathrow Airport and, by developing a solar powered lens grinding machine, enabling his clinics to make spectacles on the spot: a sort of Vision Express for the developing world. All this was brought to a sudden halt with the kidnapping by a gang of terrorists who were well known in the Niger Delta. His life ended when, having been handed his acoustic guitar by his captors, he was shot as he played ‘Amazing grace.’ Ian Squire was not part of any frontline Aid agency: he was an optician who, alongside two doctors and an optometrist was the ‘below the radar’ of Christian mission and service. Ian worked under the banner of ‘Mission for Vision.’ His doctor colleagues with ‘New Foundations.’ Their work, unseen and unsung, has made a difference. Quite apart from improved vision for many people, child mortality rates in the area were around 45%. They have reduced that to 2%. Even the local witch doctors have taken notice of that. Last month, the clinic re-opened in the village of Enekorogha. The three remaining returned – to find that locals are naming their babies ‘Ian’ in memory of Ian Squire. Not many of us in this highly privileged village any longer bother with the church, or the gospel it proclaims. But for those who do, we should feel honoured to be associated with the people like Ian Squire who, seeking nothing for themselves and without honour in the public eye, serve ‘the Master’ with the whole of their lives, even to the end. Ioannus Leave it Alone In my tiny front garden I have a shrub. I don’t know its name, but it has won a place in my life-long affections. Recommended about six years ago by a horticulturalist friend, it has produced every summer a magnificent array of splendid red blooms, much admired by my neighbours. They always ask what it is, but I can’t remember – I must find out the next time I’m in touch with her. In the Autumn it’s an absolute mess for a couple of months, dead leaves, stalks and trailing branches everywhere. However, ‘just leave it alone’ I had been told, and very willingly I have. The reward has been the astonishing sight of new shoots in early Spring, and eventually, in late May, the return of my beautiful bush and its glorious flowers. ‘Just leave it alone’ – Oh, the joy of that advice to a non-gardener. I could be an expert at just leaving things alone, like little Bo-peep in the nursery rhyme: ‘Leave them alone, and they will come home, bringing their tails behind them’. Sometimes the Creator really does know best. Join the Public! ‘When I arrived at the scene, a member of the public was assisting the victim’. We all recognize that as ‘police-speak’. To a police officer the world consists of other officers, paramedics, members of the armed forces and this mysterious identity, ‘member of the public’. I’m one, and so probably are you. But when did I join? And what exactly is this club I belong to? I know what ‘public’ is – public toilets, public houses, public right of way. But all of those mean ‘for everybody’. How does one join ‘everybody’? It can get odder. The word ‘public’ derives from the amalgamation of two Latin words: ‘people’ and ‘adult’. So was I automatically enrolled as a ‘member of the public’ when I was born, or when I became an adult? I’m very happy to be a member of the public (along with all the other bodies I voluntarily belong to). But it would help to know what the terms and conditions of membership are, and what the subscription is. The Leedons’ Day Trippers Group Our 2018 National Trust events and visits starts off with an illustrated presentation by Sarah Malleson, Head Gardener at the National Trust’s Hidcote Manor Gardens, explaining her role in this wonderful Arts and Crafts garden created by American Lawrence Johnstone. Wednesday, February 7th, at 7pm in Leedons Hall, Leedons Park, Childswickham Road. Tickets £2 to include light refreshments. Monday, April 16th Lacock Abbey, Chippenham. Monday, May 14th Calke Abbey, Derbyshire. Monday, July 9th The Workhouse, Nottinghamshire. Details and booking forms from Dave Bruton 18 Aston Road, Leedons Park 853148 Next issue April 2018 Deadline March 10th 2018 Village News MARCH 2018 Day Time Activity Contact Monday 9.30am–11.30am Baby and Toddler Group Lizzie Ellis 07834365441 Jen 07935 401598 6.30pm–9pm Carpet Bowls Robert Simms 01386 853752 Tuesday 9.15-10.15am Keep Fit Tess 01386 858796 10.30-12.00noon Yoga Aston Colley 01386 870893 6 pm-8 pm Puppy Training Sue 07857 277184 Wednesday 10am- 12.00noon Quilting Georgina 01242 820423 2pm – 4pm Evergreens 2nd/4th week of month Dawn Bindoff 01386 858769 7pm – 9pm WI (1st & last week) Innes Cole 01386 852740 Thursday 7pm – 9pm Dancing Ballroom Kleo Tanner 01386 858905 7pm – 9pm Parish Council (not April, June, August and December 01684 773236 Friday 9am-12noon Art Group Claire Watson [email protected] 10am-12noon U3A winter months only nd 2 Friday Charges Main Hall Residents £6.50 Non Residents £11.50 Helen’s Room Resident £6.50 Non Residents £11.50 Snooker Residents £4.50 Non Residents £5.00 For more information and to make a booking please contact Anne Wood 01386 854955 See web site for Rules and Conditions http://www.childswickham.org.uk Childswickham WI WI members enjoying lunch at the House of the Open Door in January.