Burrator BEACON Winter 2018 Front page of the first Burrator Beacon 2 Burrator Beacon Editorial – Karen Batson In the last issue, Andy Paskins invited readers to submit articles of interest to the Burrator Beacon, following feedback from the Community-led Planning exercise undertaken in Walkhampton. I, for one, am always interested in reading about local people and issues and I am sure that there are others like me in the Parish who would welcome some more items of local interest to read about. Nigel Rendle, of Yelverton Local History Group delivers a fascinating read in each issue about diverse areas of our local history. Disappointingly, (and unbelievably), there was only one response to Andy’s challenge. But a big thank you to Tub Aves and Andy Gordon from Dousland PO for sending a copy of the very first Burrator Beacon from Winter 1982. You will notice from the front cover that it looked a bit different then. In fact, it was only four sheets of A4 stapled together. If you are interested in seeing the rest of it, you will be able to find it on the Burrator Parish website. It would be great to hear from anyone who was involved in its production in those days. The spring issue of the Burrator Beacon will be published at the end of February. Deadline for copy will be Tuesday 5th February, at the latest. That issue will cover the months up until the end of May 2019. Don’t forget, this is your magazine for your parish, so we would like to hear from you! Do consider writing a piece about anything of interest. Please send all submissions as Word attachments, as this makes the cut and pasting process much simpler! Parish Clerk’s Report – Lucie Luke The Planning Committee have recently been consulted on the following applications with the Parish Council’s comments in bold: 0436/18 Application for Certificate of Lawfulness for a proposed development, internal alterations to allow conversion to habitable floor space, 20 Boundary Road, Tavistock SUPPORT 0470/18 Proposed erection of covered manege and stable block, Moorland House, Burrator Road, Dousland SUPPORT 0477/18 Proposed new road for agricultural vehicles (160m x 2.8) at OS 534676, Land at Meavy, Yelverton. SUPPORT 0443/18 Proposed use of church for champing (retrospective) at St Mary the Virgin Church, Walkhampton NEUTRAL VIEW 0516/18 Proposed partial construction of existing loft space with no changes to roof structure other than addition of dormer windows at Quinta Park, Princetown Road, Dousland SUPPORT 0551/18 Proposed slate hanging to south gable at The Old Threshing Barn, Welltown, Walkhampton SUPPORT The new multi fuel burner and flue have been fitted at the Royal Oak Inn in good time for winter months ahead. The Parish Council and tenant are delighted with the installation. The inscription to the Meavy War Memorial has been a long ongoing matter, with the railings to be removed, to allow the inscription equipment to reach the newly flattened area of surface. This should now be resolved very shortly. Applications from Community groups are invited for grant funding from the Parish Burrator Beacon 3 Council, which will be subject to finance availability. Please write to me, the Parish Clerk with your proposals and amount requested, a recent set of accounts and outline the benefit of your proposal to the local community. May 2019 will see the Parish Council Elections take place. Burrator Parish Council has 16 seats. Now is the time to consider what you can bring to the Parish Council for the next four years. Nomination forms will be available from West Devon Borough Council and the Clerk of Burrator Parish Council nearer the time. If you wish to have an informal chat about what is involved, please do hesitate to contact me or any of your current Parish Councillors. Village Halls Please support our local village halls for your meetings, parties and activities. All the halls have disabled access and they vary in size and facilities so one of them will suit your requirements. All the Halls are run by willing volunteers who strive to keep them in good repair providing vital facilities for our communities. Meavy Parish Hall Alison Stoker 853389 Sheepstor Village Hall Patrick Drennan 853186 Walkhampton Memorial Hall Sheila Glanville 859215 They will be able to advise you on availability, hire charges and terms & conditions of hire. What’s on in Sheepstor… Sheepstor Village Hall Report Autumn 2018 Patrick Drennan - Chairperson Sheepstor Village Hall The Quiz evening at the beginning of October was much enjoyed by almost 30 locals, well fed by Corinna & John, entertained by Simon & Corinna as quiz persons, and gathered over £100 for the Village Hall repair fund. The SVH Committee will endeavour to make this an annual event. On November 30th Corinna is hosting a German themed evening which will hopefully be as successful. Thank you to John & Dave who have undertaken a survey of the hall and advised on priorities for repair. The first will be replacing the soffit boards on the exterior, which may require some slate replacements on the roof as well. We will be seeking estimates from interested builders and then applying for grants from the appropriate authorities and aiming to raise monies from the hall events to top these up. The SVH Constitution & Deeds subcommittee is planning to have its inaugural meeting in the New Year, to tackle some of the anomalies and idiosyncrasies that appear to arise from the machinations surrounding the original sale of the hall to private ownership in the early part of the 20th century, returning ownership back to the community of Sheepstor in the latter part of the century. Someday, I hope to persuade the descendants of the families involved to give a talk in the hall one evening on their understandings of the history surrounding the Hall ownership, but if a local historian thinks they have the answer please let me know! You may also be called upon to act as an impartial chairperson for the proceedings! 4 Burrator Beacon Unfortunately, the request put to SWLT for the Hall to have its own representation on the Burrator Advisory Group has so far been rebutted, apparently on the grounds that Burrator Parish Council has a representative on BAG who can speak for the Hall. This seems to ignore the fact that PC rep has to speak for the four villages of Burrator Parish rather than just Sheepstor itself, and yet Sheepstor Village Hall is the only one immediately affected by SWLT’s activities because of geographical proximity. I have been asked by the committee to pursue our request vigorously, so I hope reason will prevail. Dates for your diary: Friday February 8th Bingo evening; 7 for 7.30 pm, with finger food, BYOB, raffle and prizes. Entry by donation and all profits raised will go to the repair fund. We also hope to follow up on an offer from our local twitcher for an escorted group early morning walk around the area he has been visiting and recording sightings for many years, followed by cooked breakfast in the hall. I think that should take us safely through to the AGM in May 2019! Sheepstor Villages in Action Patrick Drennan The Ninebarrow concert on Nov 24th (apologies for my date error in the previous Burrator Beacon edition) was not a VIA event, but the result of a collaboration between myself and the performers to fill the void after VIA’s house “went dark” two years ago. Despite their rapidly growing success, they honoured their agreement to come back, and reminded us all why they have such a following. I’m just recovering from the logistical nightmare of trying to squeeze 131 ticket holders into St Leonard’s Church without upsetting anyone! We had to follow the churchwardens’ example from the Carol Service and use the Lady Chapel as an overflow. There was only one sour face in that section that I spotted, and even she didn’t want to swap places when some very generous spirited concert goers offered to exchange seats at the interval. I did not think Ninebarrow’s inaugural performance here two years ago could have been surpassed, but they were even better this time, introducing their latest album “The Waters & the Wild”, some new songs, and taking our breaths away with one amazing unamplified and unaccompanied harmonisation. They have tantalisingly suggested we might like to consider becoming one of the exclusive club of venues that have had three sell out Ninebarrow concerts, so watch this space in a couple of years’ time! Kay very kindly allowed the use of the Hellingtown Farm field off Nelder’s Lane, but even so there had to be some overspill onto Portland Lane. Thank you to Sue for the lovely flower display in the church. Thank you also to the dedicated band of volunteers (Suzanne, Larry, Kay, Pat, Trevor, Simon, Mark and Annie) who did all the hard graft setting up and running the refreshments, donating food, manning the car park, managing the prepaid ticket queue, acting as toilet monitors, looking after the performers, and having to stand at the back despite paying for a ticket! The evening raised over £1100, which will be split equally between the Friends of St Leonard’s Church Sheepstor and Sheepstor Village Hall. This is the most money collected for one of our concerts, but I do feel that future concerts should have a maximum ticket sale which excludes the use of the Lady’s Chapel for seating. Burrator Beacon 5 I have a provisional date of Saturday April 13th 2019 for a performance of “The Drystones”, www.thedrystones.co.uk, as part of the Carn to Cove/Villages in Action menu.