May 2014 No. 474 A lamb with the most unusual markings named ‘Cowpanda’. Editors: Vanessa Druce & Roger Goodman 07972 240818 [email protected] 1 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE OXHILL NEWS The editors welcome any pictures, photographs, drawings, poems, puzzles, recipes, announcements or items of local news for possible inclusion in The Oxhill News. Please email [email protected] or place paper contributions in the box labelled ‘The Oxhill News’ in the Church. MOBILE LIBRARY The mobile library has books with large print, ordinary print, picture books, children’s books, paterbacks, non-fiction, novels,sagas, crime, mysteries, adventures, westerns and romance. The van has talking books, cassettes and CDs. The library van will continue to visit Oxhill every 3rd Friday (change from Wednesday), stopping at the Village Hall at 14:30 and staying there for 30 minutes. The van will visit us on Friday 2nd and 23rd May. For further info please telephone: 01926 851031 REFUSE COLLECTION Recycling and green waste bins (blue and green bins) will be collected on Tuesdays 6th and 20th May. The grey rubbish bins will be collected Tuesdays 13th and 27th May. WEEKDAY WALKERS Weekday Walkers usually walk on the 2nd and 4th Fridays of each month. If you are interested in joining or to find out further information, please contact Jim Saxton on 680613 or [email protected] PEACOCK EVENTS THIS MONTH Quiz Night Quiz night on Sunday 4th May at 8pm Village Events The village coffee morning is on Wednesday 7th May at 10:30am and the village lunch is on Wednesday 21st May. 2 PUBLIC MEETING Village Hall – Tuesday 13 May at 8.00 pm (Parish Council Meeting 7.30 pm) THE LEYS FIELD DEVELOPMENT PLAN (rear of Whatcote Road and Main Street) Stansgate Planning will be presenting a planning application shortly to Stratford District Council. The initial proposal is for 20 – 25 dwellings together with a large open public space. The Parish Council will have had a preliminary meeting with Stansgate (at their request) on 30 April 2014, and as a result will hold a public meeting to address this application. As I write this, despite a request from the Parish Council, Stansgate has refused to attend the public meeting but will instead at some point hold their own ‘drop-in meeting’ to present the proposals to the village. Grenville Moore Chairman – Oxhill Parish Council SPITFIRE CONSULTANTS – DROP-IN MEETING Spitfire Consultants recently held a drop-in meeting regarding the proposed Fithers Field development. Only a small percentage of the village was notified and even some of the Parish Council were unaware of this meeting. Their proposal was poorly presented and some of the queries were unable to be answered satisfactorily. It was in any event a pointless exercise as the plans had already been submitted to Stratford District Council. The Parish Council has opposed this application. 3 HELLO ALL NATURE LOVERS! I expect you have all seen the lovely yellow Brimstone butterflies around recently – a real harbinger of Spring. It is important that numbers and location of these, and all other wildlife, are recorded to determine the state and distribution of each species in the county. The Warwickshire Biological Records Centre (WBRC) would like all sightings of animals, butterflies, moths, plants etc for their records so, if you spot anything please consider taking the time to report it no matter how mundane it may seem. WBRC suggest that all records are sent to them from where they will be distributed to the relevant county recorders and specialist groups. This may be easier for you than separating them for the different organisations. They have sent me an excel template to store the records so, if you are interested I can forward this and their e-mail address to you (please mail me at [email protected]). Your spreadsheet can be sent in quarterly to save you from sending emails for every sighting. For further information, contact Grenville or other members of the OWLS team. CHERNOBYL’S CHILDREN FAMILY COFFEE MORNING AT THE OLD CHURCH HOUSE Saturday 5th July 2014 10 am - 12 noon 4 OXHILL GARDEN CLUB On Thursday April 17th, the members enjoyed a most interesting and entertaining talk by Bruce Smith on the subject of droving, in particular in the south midlands. We heard how geese were driven as long ago as AD 80 and although the talk was mainly about the driving of cattle, other livestock were mentioned including sheep, pigs, geese, donkeys and horses. Droving took place mainly in the Spring and the Autumn. The cattle were shod with two shoes to each foot and the drovers had to know where on route there was available water for the beasts and inns for the men, as sometimes the men were away from home for many weeks. We were also given tips on how to recognise a drove road - we shall view our local roads in a new light from now on! Members are now preparing for the plant sale which takes place on May 15th from 7 pm. Tea and coffee will be available so come along for a chat and restock your borders at the same time. We look forward to seeing you! Ruth Gibson PARISH PLAN UPDATE It seems a long time since the Village meeting! After that meeting the Plan was sent to Stratford District Council for comment. At first we were advised that the response would be within 2 weeks, but since then the Parish Council has been informed that the SDC repsonse will not be available until the end of April. The Plan cannot be 'approved' by SDC until this has been done. When we have heard from SDC we will consider their comments before a final version of the plan is printed for each household. We hope that will be soon! Sue Hunt Chair, Parish Plan Steering Group 5 ST. LAWRENCE’S CHURCH Sunday 4th Easter II: 9.30am Parish Communion (ML) Sunday 11th Easter III: 9.30am Sunday Worship (BR) Sunday 18th Easter IV: 9.30am Parish Communion (ML) Sunday 25th Easter V 9.30am Family Service (NM) Thursday 29th Ascension Day: 7.30pm Deanery Eucharist at Darlingscott For other benefice services see porch notice board VICARAGE NOTES Appreciations Our thanks to all who decorated the church for Easter this year – it’s transformed after the solemnity of Lent. Thanks also to the team involved making the Carice Singers concert such a success. There was a lot of hard work and generous hospitality behind the scenes – it is much appreciated! The 40 days of Easter People generally remember that Lent has 40 days – but forget that time is mirrored in the Easter weeks, which conclude with the celebration of Ascension. This year, the Deanery service is at little Darlingscott Church, whose future was questioned some years back, but with my support as R.D. in the 90s, it’s still a going concern. Restoration Project The work is continuing apace and I’m sure folk have stopped to have a look at what’s going on. The Croft site manager, Stuart, is a very helpful chap. Everyone is invited to St. Lawrence’s on Sat .May 17th at 10.30am for an open morning about the project. Anne Hale will kindly be giving a short talk about the history of the church – coffee will then be available, and I will be arranging for a display of the architects drawings and we’ll be looking around the building to see where the money has been spent. All very informal - come for as long as you wish! Vicar of Bray, Sir I occasionally have that said to me as Bray sounds similar to Brailes - nothing exotic about either, of course! So don't forget about the invitation to hear about the "Vicar of Baghdad" on May 6th in the Old Chapel... Best wishes and God bless, Nicholas Morgan 01608 685230 [email protected] 6 ST. LAWRENCES CHURCH PROJECT OPEN MORNING Sat. May 17th 10.30am – noon A short history – Anne Hale Coffees Informal “What’s been happening” PCC AGM The PCC Annual General Meeting was held on April 3rd. Canon Nicholas Morgan presided over the meeting. Vestry Meeting Minutes of the 2013 AGM were presented and accepted. Election of Church Wardens. Charles MacCall and Carol Fox were elected Annual Parochial church Meeting Minutes were presented and accepted. The Electoral Roll was presented: A report on Proceedings in Council was given by the secretary. The treasurer presented his Financial Report. Lilian Welsby reported on Social Functions for the last year. Jo Van Dijk reported on the state of the church building. Carol Fox reported on proceedings of the Deanery Synod Council. Election of officers as follows:- PCC representatives: Sue and Martin Hunt James and Linda Synge, Charles and Nadia MacCall, Diane Harper, Gill Rodwell and Belinda Marklew Ex officio and deanery Synod representative Douglas Nethercleft PCC Secretary: Linda Synge Treasurer: James Synge. Electoral Roll Officer: Douglas Nethercleft Clerk of Works: Jo Van Dijk Sidesmen: all PCC members plus John McKail and Bill Fox Churchwarden Emeritus Janet Gardner Canon Nicholas Morgan thanked PCC members for their hard work during the past year. He suggested an Open Meeting be held soon for all parishioners to attend if they wish, to learn of the Restoration work in Progress. Date of next meeting is June 10th. 7 Carice Singers Concert The concert on Saturday 12th April was well attended and extremely enjoyable. The Choir chose a wonderful programme of music and such beautiful voices resonated wonderfully in St Mary's church. The PCC wishes to thank George Parris and the singers for coming to help raise funds for the Restoration of Oxhill church project.