Full colour issue online BIDDESTONE & SLAUGHTERFORD NEWS www.biddestone.org.uk Biddy Arms development meeting: Local Walks Pub Quiz Bingo Slaughterford Saunter Gardening Culture March 2020 Issue 471 What’s on at the WHITE HORSE MARCH Mon 2nd Bridge Club 7:00pm LIVE MUSIC! Sat/Sun 7th & 8th MONTHLY OPEN Six Nations Rugby on TV MIKE NIGHTS Thur 12th World’s Biggest Dates TBC Pub Quiz 8:00pm (Pubs across UK are OPENING HOURS participating- reserve Monday – Friday RESTAURANT a table early!) 11.30 to 2.30pm Weds-Fri 11.30 to 2.30pm 5.30 to 10.00pm (11.00pm Fri) & 6.00 to 9,00pm Sat 14th Six Nations Saturday 11.30 to 2.30pm Saturday 11.30 to 11.00pm Rugby on TV (final round) Sunday 12.00 to 4.00pm Sunday 12.00 to 7.00pm Sun 22nd Mothering Sunday full Lunch Menu Take Away 01249 713 350 (Reservations required) Menu to make a restaurant reservation available Last meal orders 15 mins before restaurant closing time Please check our facebook page for updates: www.facebook.com/TheWhiteHorseBiddestone/ SAVE THE DATE th th 12 – 14 June 2020 24 walks in and around Corsham Walks for all ages and abilities www.corshamwalkingfestival.org.uk @corshamwalkfest #corshamwalkfest 2 EDITORIAL COMMITTEE Editorial March 2020 [email protected] Welcome to the March issue, hopefully Many of you will have noticed the new Storm Ciara, Dennis etc. are all behind speed indicators as you enter the village, EDITOR us now! And it should be safe to venture it is hoped that these will remind people Linda Lobl-Smith, Home Farm 714475 outside without being swept off your feet to slow down and stick to the speed limit by high speed wind and rain. If it’s time whilst driving through the village. Let us TREASURER to tackle the garden, then we have advice know if they have had that effect on you! Annalisa Duff for you on page 5. There are plenty of local outdoor activities happening to The developers who have purchased Jo Holder inspire you, there is lambing at Lackham the Biddestone Arms site are holding a Alison Fovargue and bluebell walks in the woods. meeting in the hall on the 16th March, it Julie Walton is vital that as many people as possible June Pearce If you are in the mood for a spring clean attend this, it often happens that a poor then do remember to put things aside for response means that ‘no objection’ can DESIGN the Fete stalls in June, the newly invig- be recorded against public consultation. Chris Draper, Richard Eccleston, orated committee are gearing up for this See page below. Liz Turner popular village event, see below. Likewise, the Parish Meeting in April, If the evenings are still a bit nippy then make a note in your diaries, it is an op- why not join in the World’s Biggest Pub portunity to have your say about village GET INVOLVED Quiz at the White Horse on Thursday matters. 12th March. Biddestone Broadsheet and the village website seek to reflect the life and in- terests of the villages of Biddestone and Slaughterford. Written contributions are invited from readers on any subject that will be of interest. Photos, drawings Biddestone Fete 2020 and art work would also be welcome. At this time of year thoughts turn popular demand…Mark Saturday June Email accounts are often set up to longingly to summer… Hazy, golden 27th in your dairies. The countdown to compress images so they can be sent afternoons; Pimms with iced fruits; summer has begun. more quickly, but we need photos to be light-hearted games and jollity; sumptu- high resolution. So, when sending photos ous cream teas; long-cherished tradi- The Village Fete Committee is welcom- by email, please attach a file, preferably tions; friends and merriment; musical ing Ingrid, Nicole, June and Francesca a .jpg, and send it ‘Actual size’ or ‘Large strains floating by, as one browses books, to the team. June is taking over all rota ‘if possible. clothes, bargains… all on a picturesque responsibilities from Helen Perrett who Any opinions expressed or implied with- village green in Wiltshire. we would like to thank for all her tireless in this publication are not necessarily work and dedication over the years and those of the Editor or Committee and Forget Wimbledon; forget Henley; forget Ingrid has taken over from Anita no responsibility can be accepted for Ascot… the best of British summertime Powell as Chair of the Fete; a key role errors on these pages. We reserve the happens here in North Wiltshire, with that makes everything happen and we right to amend or edit any items sub- the much-loved Biddestone Fete. There would like to extend our huge thanks to mitted for inclusion, we will, of course, will be new stalls 2020 and of course our Anita for all her patience, hard work and endeavour to be as accurate as possible. cherished regular features will return, by passion over the past six years. ● Last copy date is the third Friday in the month, copy should be sent to the Editor at the email address above. VILLAGE WEBSITE www.biddestonevillage.org.uk A full colour version of the Broadsheet is available on the website. If you do not wish to have your contact details published online then please make the editor aware of your preference. Any other notices or contributions to be posted specifically on the website should be sent to the email address at the top of the page. ● To post an item on the Biddestone Village Website or Facebook page please contact the Editor Linda Lobl-Smith Cover photo: Julie Walton Julie photo: Cover 3 Recipes by Annalisa Duff Butternut squash soup for 8 Ingredients: Butternut squash (appprox 1.5kg) Large onion - chopped 2 carrots - chopped 2 sticks celery - chopped 2 red peppers (optional) - chopped in large chunks other vegetables which have been chopped. Drizzle with 4 5 tablespoons olive oil tablespoons of olive oil and place back in oven to roast for 45 1 tablespoon honey minutes. Drizzle honey over vegetables for last 10 minutes. 5cm knob fresh ginger grated 1.5 litre vegetable stock Meanwhile, add remaining olive oil to sauce pan and heat gen- salt & pepper tly then add grated ginger and stir for few minutes. Then add stock to pan. Preparation: When roasted vegetables have cooked (starting to brown) add Dig out a 4-litre saucepan and roasting tray, and preheat oven them to the stock pan and stir in. to 200 C/gas 6 Remove pan from heat, and blend the soup mix with hand Place butternut squash on tray, pierce skin with knife in a few blender (or mixer), until smooth and velvety. places, and bake in oven for approx. 1 hour, until it feels soft (can be done day ahead). Add salt/pepper to taste. Cut butternut squash in half, scoop out seeds & discard. Scoop Warm through before serving with crusty bread. Add a drizzle out flesh, in large chunks and place back in roasting tray with of olive oil to the soup adds a nice touch! The Cultured Vulture In turn, the contemporary artist Matthew Day Jackson inter- Already now the snowdrop dares appear, preted this crazy juxtaposition beautifully in his work. He has The first pale blossom of th’unripen’d yea used textiles, silkscreen, artificial grass and pigment on paper to interpret Brueghel’s flower paintings. In other pictures the Anna Laetitia Barbauld, “The Snowdrop” (1835) snowdrops are made from a white lacy textile or a pale printed paper, contrasting with the vibrant prints and patterns of the more exotic flowers. The delicate, unassuming snowdrop has been gracing our gardens and village verges since January. There is something uplifting and magical about its drooping flowers and the green of its foliage contrasting with the bare surroundings. It seems to be one of the first signs of life at the turn of the year, often appearing when there is snow on the ground. Hence the French name ‘perce neige’. Their simple, fragile, flowers have inspired artists and writers including Jan Breughel who used then in his innovative still life paintings. To the 21st century viewer the snowdrop is a humble, retiring flower but when Brueghel was painting in the 17th century it would have been relatively new and sought after. Brueghel painted flowers with scientific precision to create his fabulous, overblown still lifes that were usually set against dark backgrounds to emphasise their rich colours. These paintings reproduce flowers in arrangements that couldn’t possibly have existed in the same climate or season and Brueghel often had to travel to paint them. In his paintings snowdrops, daffodils, narcissi, grape hya- cinths, cornflowers, pansies, buttercups, and bluebells appear alongside roses, carnations, tulips, lilies, and irises. They rarely overlap so each bloom can be seen. 4 Farming notes by Ian Smith Where Britain’s exit from the EU will leave the parish’s farm- ers is anyone’s guess, but eagle-eyed readers with fairly long memories will recall that Farming Notes predicted food imports to the country would be the quid pro quo on any trade deals, to the inevitable detriment to our own agriculture. So it was no surprise to choke on my breakfast egg at the headlines stating that Ugandan beef would be welcome on the UK’s tables once the import tariffs imposed by the EU are no more, of course, for Uganda insert any other country you wish to. Sympathetic as I am to impoverished third world farmers with worse life styles than myself, this does raise a few issues.