February—March 2014 Issue 25 Chairman’s Report Hello and welcome to the latest edition of the Highampton Messenger. Colin Pound, Post Office Area Manager for Devon & Cornwall, attended the January parish council meeting and we are hoping to open a post office in the village hall twice a week. The parish council will be working with the village hall to set this up. The following roads have been reported to the parish lengthsman due to standing water leading to a possibility of ice if the weather turns colder: Pulworthy Cross, Northlew Road and Burdon Lane. Please take care when travelling on these roads in hazardous weather conditions. Many thanks to Highampton PCC for another enjoyable Carol Service. Happy new year to you all Glenn Rose— Parish Council Chairman HIGHAMPTON CHURCH WINE & WISDOM at Highampton Village Hall Saturday 15th February 2014 7.30pm for 8pm Start Teams of Six £5 per team member Price includes a bottle of wine and cheese and biscuits per table! To book a table please contact Alma or Mary on 01837 810435 If you would like to submit an item for the next issue please email [email protected] or leave items at the Village Shop. Deadline for next issue: Wednesday 19 March 2014 Would you like to advertise your local business in the next issue? Please get in touch via [email protected] for more information about advertising fees and advert sizes . HIGHAMPTON MESSENGER Page 2 Legge Farm Coarse Fishery Highampton Area Pre-school Church Road, Highampton (at Highampton Village Hall) 01409-231464 Come and visit our small and friendly pre- [email protected] www.leggefarm.co.uk school and see what we are all about! Coarse Fishery - Five well stocked Coarse Lakes Everyone Welcome Self Catering Accommodation Toddler Sessions Caravan & Camping Site Caravan Storage Wednesday & Thursday 9.15 to 11.45 Now open for morning & afternoon sessions & LOCAL LAMB full day care Purebred Devon Closewool lamb, great flavour, from our small On Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday For 2 to traditionally managed Highampton farm lamb boxes half lamb cut to your requirements, ready to eat/freeze 5 year olds 9.15 to 3.15 8-10 kgs £55-65 Contact us for more details on 07837357815 in Free Delivery pre-school hours Or 07801581054 out of Beef from our pedigree Aberdeen Angus herd also sometimes avail- able hours. Sally Vergette 01837 810349 [email protected] First two sessions FREE Coombe Farm Highampton VILLAGE HALL TIMETABLE EVERY MONDAY BALLROOM DANCING 7 – 9PM EVERY TUESDAY BALLET CLASSES 7.30PM EVERY THURSDAY BADMINTON 7.30PM EVERY FRIDAY PAINTING GROUP 2.30 PM — 4.30PM EVERY SATURDAY KEEP FIT 10AM—11AM 1ST WEDNESDAY OF EACH MONTH PARISH COUNCIL MEETING 7.30PM 3RD WEDNESDAY OF EACH MONTH LADIES GROUP 7.30PM 4TH WEDNESDAY OF EACH MONTH HISTORY SOCIETY 7.30PM HANDYMAN REQUIRED Someone who would be willing to take on some painting and small general maintenance jobs as the Hall when required. If you are interested please telephone Jane Bull : 01837 810372 VILLAGE HALL CHRISTMAS BINGO The Village Hall Committee recently held its annual Christmas bingo and hope that everyone enjoyed the evening! Thanks to all who helped and took part. £400 was raised and the profit will help towards the recent replacement of the lights and emergency lighting system. T C M Plumbing Burst pipes? Taps dripping? Valves leaking? Radiators not getting hot? Gutters blocked? Based locally at Inwardleigh we cover the surrounding areas helping you with your plumbing need no matter how small Contact Tim Morgan on 01837 810599 Or visit our website www.tcmplumbing.org.uk To see what we can do for you Helen Squire Independent Phoenix Trader Affordable greetings cards, gift- wrap, invitations, stationery, posters and accessories for all occasions. Please contact me if you would like a free brochure, if you are interested in hosting a coffee and cards/wine and cards or to raise funds for your favourite charity. Come and see my range of stock at the Highampton table top events. Free delivery in Highampton area on all orders. Helen Squire 34034, [email protected] 01409231503/07791177029, Stewdon Farm, Highampton, Beaworthy EX21 5LU NEWS FROM HIGHAMPTON C.P. SCHOOL Although it seems a long time ago now, the children had a festive end of the Autumn term with a visit from a magician who stunned them all with a variety of tricks and in addition encouraged a few budding prospective members of the Magic Circle to demonstrate their skills to others in the audience. The end of term play, starring a postman on a bicycle visiting all those involved in the Nativity with invitations to Bethlehem for a celebration on the 25th December, was a great success and enjoyed by parents, family and visitors alike – thank you to all who supported and attended the performance and also to those who joined us for our Christmas Nativity Service in the Church. We hope everyone enjoyed the performances by our brass band who worked hard at perfecting their skills in time for Christmas! This term we are learning about endangered habitats and species, beginning with the Rainforest and then the Arctic and Antarctica as well as discovering the habitats and natural life around our own coastal areas. During the term we will be visiting the Living Coast centre in Torquay to gain first hand knowledge of our own local area. The younger children are also doing their own studies of dinosaurs, while the older ones are finding out about Space. The school Netball team is continuing to go from strength to strength, with a win against St Giles on the Heath last week to add to their other successes this year. Working together as a team is their particular strength, and they have certainly proved so far that their teamwork proves dividends. Page 4 HIGHAMPTON MESSENGER Who are your wild neighbours? In North Devon’s rural parishes we value community and we like to feel that we know our neighbours and that we can (and do!) support each other. That statement is true but thinking more deeply, do we know enough about the place in which we live and that we share with a wonderful variety of wildlife? Just like our neighbours, it supports us but do we know enough to look after it? The Northern Devon Nature Improvement Area project (www.northerndevonnia.org) covers the parishes in the catchment area of the river Torridge and is set up to make our local environment better for wildlife, and of course in turn, for us. As a first step, the Project has brought together all the published information we can about the habitats and species in the area and mapped it on a parish by parish basis to produce a series of Parish Biodiversity Audits. Contact us to get a copy of yours. Nationally, only 25% of land is protected for wildlife leaving 75% that isn’t. A parish Biodiversity audit will show you where is and isn’t protected in your parish. Is it less than the national aver- age? Have we got it right for where you live? Quite possibly not, we can’t visit every field and hedge- row! Perhaps you or your friends can help us fill in the knowledge gaps? Contact us to find out how. The Northern Devon Nature Improvement Area is working to help communities make where they live and work better for wildlife and to maximise the benefits that high quality environments can bring such as improved community wellbeing, water purification, flood prevention etc. Perhaps you would like to take some positive action for wildlife in your parish, and have some ideas for practical wildlife improvements that we can help you put into practice. We are happy to visit your parish council, gardening club or other organisation to explain more about this and who knows, to work with you to help make a difference. Matt Edworthy (01271 3888508, 01409 221823) or Clare Manning (01271 3888508, 01409 221823) Highampton Ladies Club We will be holding our Annual General meeting on 19th February. On March 19th Caroline Munn will be giving a demonstration on Sugar Craft. Showing us how to make Easter Primroses and other goodies for Easter. Meetings are held at 7.30pm in the Committee Room at the Village Hall on the 3rd Wednesday of each month. Refreshments are available. Visitors £2 For more information please ring Jane Bull (01837 810372) or Mary Greenhill (01837 811804) I ssue 25 Page 5 The Community Projects Group To enhance community life in Highampton Parish Well it’s a new year and one the Community Group is looking forward to as marking the start of a number of new projects along with the continuation of others we have pushed in 2013. Our monthly pub lunches are going from strength to strength with a full programme for 2014 being planned. We have already enjoyed the first 2014 lunch at The Laurels in Petrockstowe which was well attended. If you haven’t yet been to one do look-out for future dates either in our monthly e-mail or on our web-site. These lunches are very enjoyable and give residents a chance to socialise together in an infor- mal and friendly atmosphere. Our web-site, www.highampton.com is becoming ever more useful to residents not only highlighting future local events but also as a source of local information and links to further useful sites. If you have a local event, information or site then let us know and we will include it too. We continue to press for high speed broadband for the village.