December 2020 Chaddleworth News In this edition A bumper end-of-year 10 colour pages of regular news, information and advertising from in and around the village including the tale of the Chadd Bear! and a few winter views around the village Note that the next Chadd News edition is not due until February 2010. So, as this year of keeping-calm-and- carrying-on is drawing towards a close, all involved in Chaddleworth News wish… Chaddleworth Action Group As we progress through another uncertain time, things feel very different this time around, the days feel much shorter and the weather is far from kind. But please be reassured that we are still here to help you. Whether you are shielding, if you or a family member is vulnerable, or you have been told to self-isolate for a period of time- we are still here to help you. Chaddleworth Action Group was set up at the beginning of the first lockdown in March, the group has many valuable volunteers who live within the village and are able to help anyone finding themselves in need in these strange and Royal British Legion Poppy Appeal sometimes difficult times. Lest we forget Between us we can help with shopping deliveries, a friendly chat over the phone and personal prescription collections. Chaddleworth raised £376.30 from the generosity of everyone who donated and also from Lyn Fisher-Garrett As you may be aware, we posted cards around the village who kindly offered her items to be sold with all the proceeds at the beginning of March, but understand that they may not going towards the poppy appeal. The total for West be to hand any longer, so please call any of the following Downland was £2,853.59 raised. Thank you to everyone numbers and we will get you the help you need. who made this possible. Sue Ridgeway Nikkie Macnamara on 07533 591831 Kim Lloyd (Parish Clerk) on 07867 310121 Thank you to the Parish Council for laying a wreath at the Please don’t think you need to be on your own. Chaddleworth War Memorial on Remembrance Sunday. Community DOES matter! www.chaddleworth.net • [email protected] Co-Editors: David Jennings & Grahame Murphy Distribution Team: John Ballard, Anne Bunn, Ray Doncaster, Joe Mills, Grahame Murphy, Christine Patterson, Sue Ridgeway Printing costs are paid for by Chaddleworth Parish Council. Electronic colour PDF copy available on the village website The History Bit – The Chadd Bear! parts suggests live bears were probably present and used in entertainment, including bear dancing and baiting. Some years ago Grahame collected loam for our garden from the side of the road at the top of Mount Lane going out Early medieval times (AD 410-1066): During Anglo-Saxon of Chaddleworth. After emptying the contents of several times, bear claws were found in cremation urns. And in the wheelbarrows onto our garden I started to rake through it Viking Age, large carved stones called hogbacks, used to and that’s when I came upon “the tooth”. As you can see mark graves, have been found carved with bears. People from the photo’s it is quite large and we wondered what type may have associated the bear with certain traits, such as of animal it came from. power. The discovery of tiny bear figurines at children's graves suggests they might have been put there to guard and protect the occupants. AD1066 onwards: After the end of medieval times, the only evidence for bears was found in London - because of bear- baiting arenas on the south bank of the Thames - and in Edinburgh, where specimens were kept at a medical school, possibly for teaching students. Bears were present in the Tower of London and continued to be imported into Britain until well into the 20th century. Dancing bears were a common form of entertainment. Bears were also widely used for their body parts, with bear grease still being sold in Britain in the early 20th century as a putative treatment for hair loss. Heather Murphy I volunteer at the West Berks Museum in Newbury and asked the then Curator, Victoria, for advice. She offered to contact the Natural History Museum in London and her contact there came back with some interesting information. From the photo sent and measurements shown they said it looks sufficiently like a carnivore canine. It is too big for any current UK terrestrial mammal. There is a very small tooth behind the canine which is not a consistent feature of carnivore dentition so will help in excluding some species. Neither of the common British seal species have this tooth so they can be excluded. The large cats, tiger, lion, leopard and jaguar do not have a small tooth behind the lower canine (they have a gap) but they do behind the upper canine. So if this is a lower then it is not from a cat. Their best guess is a large bear possibly a grizzly. Our Chadd Bear has travelled far as grizzlies come from North America but read on… Bears in Britain: A brief history Local Service New to the Chaddleworth News Before the Ice Age: The brown bear (Ursus arctos) was once widespread across Britain, found in the wild from Devon in southern England to Sutherland in northern Scotland. However, by the end of the last Ice Age, populations had dwindled and it had become rare. After the Ice Age: From the Ice Age onwards, there is evidence found of bears (alive or dead) at 85 places in England and Scotland, from the Stone Age to post-Medieval times. Bears were scarce in Scotland, Wales and the East Midlands, but more frequently found in Yorkshire, the east, Brownies, blondies, cupcakes and celebration cakes. Christmas boxes the south and London. There is little data from Wales, including Christmas Tree Brownies, Wreath Cupcakes and Reindeer possibly because specimens have not yet been analysed. Cakes. Numbers started to decline further during the Stone Age, Local delivery to Chaddleworth, Welford and Boxford free of charge. Or collection falling to very low numbers in the Iron Age. from Glenn Milla Close RG20 8HF. Brownies and Blondies can be posted Bears in Roman Britain (AD 43-410): There appear to have anywhere in the UK. Great for gifts! been more bears in Roman Britain - suggesting live animals Please contact Chloe on 07858599917 for prices and availability. were imported from continental Europe. The fact that Instagram and Facebook via @COCOBAKES.BERKS museum specimens from Roman times contain lots of body St Andrew’s Church, Chaddleworth or maybe you could make your own, so that we can all enjoy setting out the figures together? part of the West Downland Benefice Usually by this point in the year I look at my diary and realise Please mail Miri for the Zoom link and some suggestions that my feet won’t touch ground for the next 6 weeks for making your own nativity set. because I’ll be racing around doing lovely things! Nativity To receive the latest updates for services throughout the plays and mince pie coffee mornings, get togethers with year join our circulation list by emailing Miri giving your family and friends and of course midnight services and permission for us to send you regular updates about our carols! But this year my diary is a mess of empty spaces, services and church news. ‘maybes’ and question marks. The usual pattern of [email protected] traditional ‘Christmass-y-ness’ isn’t in place to cheer me through the short drizzly days of early December. So I’ve been wondering how the story of the first Christmas can Shefford Young Farmers inspire me during this Advent full of uncertainty. Of course there’s uncertainty at the heart of the story: when Unfortunately we have not will Mary’s baby be born? It was a ninety mile walk from been able to hold any Nazareth to Bethlehem so Mary and Joseph must have meetings in the hall since packed for the journey with the very real fear that the baby March, but Shefford would be born by the side of the road. I wonder whether Young Farmers have been their desperate search for a room in the city was on the one busy embracing hand exactly what they had feared, and on the other not the technology and holding very worst that could have happened. So how did this events virtually. ‘family-to-be’ find the strength to persevere and the grace to As our County Show was cancelled we held a virtual rally accept what was happening to them? I think kindness and during the summer with members doing their show classes faith are the keys. Joseph’s kindness in accepting Mary’s at home and sending in photographs of their entries. Our situation and caring for her, trudging next to the donkey for members rose to the challenge with some great entries and mile after mile; and the kindness of the innkeeper in offering we won the cup for the club with the most points. them basic shelter and a safe place for the baby to be born. Young Farmers Week in September resulted in members Mary’s faith that God was with them and that the baby she joining together on line to do pumpkin carving, cocktail was carrying would bring healing and joy into the world; and making and a quiz. It was a good chance for members from Joseph’s faith that however unlikely the situation God’s around the county to get together again via their computers.