Old Sodbury Times Issue 82 May 2020 Dates for your Diary: Lockdown Edition No 1 No Events due to Firstly a HUGE THANKYOU to everyone who has helped out the ‘vulnerable’ Covid19 lockdown residents in the village. In particular, all those who have helped get shopping or prescriptions and especially Nikki Waterlow and Darren Hales who organised the support network in the village. This newsletter will be different, as everything is, due to Coronavirus. There are no events so we will concentrate on things we can do. We cannot ask our deliverers to send round hard copies even if we could get it printed. So this will be available on line to those email addresses we know. Please pass it on to anybody in the village that you have email contact with. Darren will put it on the village hall website. It will be available as a hard copy on the village noticeboard on the green. Also we will put one page on each pole up Cotswold Lane and Chapel Lane. So have a walk and read day. Here is a quiz to start you off. Please find 27 figures of speech in this picture e.g. To spill the beans. The answers are on the back page. If you get all 27 you are a genius, 20-27 brilliant, 15 –20 brainy, 10-15 average. Now try a walk –see inside pages. Keep well and safe everyone 200 Club Winners March No 193 Mr J Nuevo £25 April Not Drawn Yet Welcome to the Baldock family, Nick and Clare, their children, Jack (15) and Cerys (10) who recently moved into Haresgrove, Cotswold Lane Clare writes 'In March, literally one week before the COVID-19 lockdown started, we moved into Haresgrove. Despite this, several of our new neighbours have found ways to make us feel very welcome and introduce us to village life. Our particular thanks to the lovely John and Sue Leah who helped us with a few unexpected moving in issues! We haven't travelled far, moving from Chipping Sodbury, where we have lived since 1999. We have some connections with Old Sodbury already; our daughter was christened in the church and I brought her to Sunflower Toddlers group, where we got to meet and have subsequently kept in touch with several lovely Mums and chil- dren. Cerys for the last year has attended the village school and enjoys it very much. Jack attends Chipping Sodbury School. When life returns to normal, we look forward to meeting more of you, in closer proximity than 2 metres! In the meantime, you may see us out walking our dog, Buddy. PAGE 2 OLD SODBURY TIMES Old Sodbury School by Jenny Jackman We had a wonderful start to 2020. The children had been focusing on “Lights Camera Action” and had several exciting visits for this topic. They enjoyed a science day with the Science Boffins including lots of bangs and slime. There was also a robotics coding morning and a visit from a female Custody Sergeant to talk about British Values, Citizenship and Empowering Women. The school has set up an orchestra with our local alliance schools and the children are busy rehearsing together to perform a concert. The older children have created their own flip books as part of their art and the younger children learnt about materials by building houses for the three little pigs and trying to blow them down. This term we are studying the Titanic. The children chose this topic and are very excited to be learning all about it. Our children and families have adapted well to the new way of working in the current crisis. We are all facing unexpected challenges, and the children have astounded us with their adaptability. We are sad that trips and outings relating to our topic are cancelled and so disappointed we won’t get to see Mrs Webber-Brown in the stage production of Titanic at the Redgrave Theatre. We hope that all our families and neighbouring community are managing, had a lovely Easter, as much as was possible, and we look forward to being back to normal and seeing you again as soon as possible. 1 2 3 4 5 Cryptic Crossword 6 Across 1. Hilly Lane. 7 8 6. Laugh at double ditch. 7. Dry raid goes wrong. 8. Excavated man heard. 9 10 11 9. Local hole, short man needs bolt back- wards. 12 13 12. Instrument sounds wrong. 13. Times are backward. 14 14. Well, I own that. 15 16 15. Figure this crossword number. 16. A cuppa and a plant right. Down 1. Man takes on the Spanish Lane. 2. Rower sounds alternative. 3. Town turf in the ground. 4. Ancient village with 3 across. 5. A pub animal. 9. Mate makes calm. 10. Not far done arranging inter- nally. 11. A way in two other clues. Primroses and Celandines in the Churchyard OLD SODBURY SCRAMBLE On Sunday 1st March, Old Sodbury School PTA put on their annual 5K cross-country run to raise funds for the school. After a wet, windy (& some- times snowy) start to the day, we were thrilled that as the runners arrived the sun came out and stayed out for the entire event. All 150 places were sold out and there was a fantastic atmosphere as the runners braved the slippery slopes and muddy terrain. A big WELL DONE to our winning male and female, Ben Rawlins and Caroline Nicholas. There are so many people to thank for making the morning such a fantastic success and for helping raise over £1500 for the school. Firstly, a massive thank you to the landowners and farmers John Edgar, Andrew Roach and Anthony Febry - without your kind permission to use the land we wouldn't have an event. We're so very grateful for your support. To our sponsor, Naomi Hales, of Footworks Bristol, Chiropody and Podiatry Clinic. You overwhelmed us with your generosity. Thanks also to Marshfield Bakery for kindly donating the most delicious flapjack to keep up the energy levels of the runners (& the spectators). With thanks to Gemma at the stables for ensuring all gates were open and for your patience with noise on the day! To all the marshals, especially those of you from The Village Committee, who again came to our rescue! A personal thank you from myself to Darren Hales, my silent partner (!) who took none of the credit despite doing loads of work behind the scenes with our facebook page and website. You made my life so much easier! We hope to see you all again next year! Alex Curry (Old Sodbury School PTA) Walking Many of us are doing our ‘Exercise’ walking around the village. Now that the weather has generally dried up we would encourage you to take advantage of the wonderful network of footpaths we have nearby. They are extremely well maintained and thanks must go to South Gloucestershire Council Rights of Way Team supported by the Cotswold Voluntary Wardens. If you do find any problems do let us know and we will report them to the R.O.W. team. Two walks can be down loaded from The Cotswold Conservation Board website: https://www.cotswoldsaonb.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/MWS-Sodbury-Final-v3.pdf https://www.cotswoldsaonb.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Walk-11-Old-Sodbury-Circular-Walk- FINAL2.pdf In addition to giving the route they also tell about such things as rabbit farming and translating the bible. On the next page we give a steep, adventurous walk close to home. The first part is steep and can be slippery in wet weather so do beware. That part is for the fit and able. The second part is less demanding except there is a steep pull up to the church. Follow the waymark arrows; yellow for footpath ,blue for bridleway. Where a right of way leaves any road it is a legal requirement to have a fingerpost similar to the picture below. Whatever you do please follow the Countryside Code listed below: The Countryside Code -Respect, Protect and Enjoy Respect other people Consider the local community and other people enjoying the outdoors Leave gates and property as you find them and follow paths unless wider access is available Protect the natural environment Leave no trace of your visit and take your litter home Keep dogs under effective control and pick up dog poo. If sheep are in the field make sure your dog is on a lead close to you. Enjoy the outdoors Plan ahead and be prepared Follow advice and local signs 2 15 16 3 17 1 14 13 4 5 11 7 6 12 10 9 8 A Walk with Views—3 stiles– 1 mile Start at The Village School point 1 -walk up the Cotswold Way by the side of the school. Just beyond the first kissing gate take the gate 2 on the right and go uphill. Look out for the stile on the right in the bushes halfway up the hill. Enter the wood at 3 Between 3 and 4 climb steadily uphill with a gorge below you on the right. This is where sledges and carts used to bring corn down from the top lands to the farms and Old Mill for processing. In Spring the wildflowers on the banks are wonderful. At the junction of paths just beyond the steps turn sharp right to arrive at 5 - another stile and a superb view out to the west. Return down the slope to a stile at 6 and Church Lane 7.