P/Council APM Thurs 1st 7.30pm Village Hall Coffee Morning Sat 10th 11am Village Hall Hall Committee Mon 12th 7.30pm Village Hall Jubilee Meeting Fri 16th 7.30pm Village Hall Friendship Club Tues 20th 2.30pm Almeley Lodge Messy Church Sun 25th 3.30-5.30pm Village Hall Parish Plan Sat 31st 10.30-5pm Village Hall Pilates Tuesdays 6.30pm Village Hall Mobile Library Thursday 15th
4th 10.30 Holy Communion Gaydon
11th 9.00 Holy Communion Gaydon
18th 9.00 Holy Communion BCP Gaydon
6.00pm Songs of Praise at Northend
Chapel of Ease
25th 10.30 Prayer and Praise Gaydon
Church of St Giles, Gaydon with Chadshunt Notice of Annual Parochial Council Meeting Wednesday 25 April at 7.30pm You are invited to attend our APCM to be held in St Giles' Church. Refreshments provided.
It is with regret that we report that Councillor Mrs Helena McGrath has resigned from the Parish Council. The Parish Council would like to thank her for the many hours she devoted to parish business and her support and help over the past five years. We wish her well.
Hamper
The Parish Council would like to thank Ellis Machinery for the hamper. This has again been given to Barnfields.
Parking on Verges
Could residents (or guests) please not park on verges or greens.
Chestnut Tree on Village Green
Two quotes have been received from arboriculturists for providing a written report on the condition and recommended action for this tree.
Play Area
The swing has been replaced.
Vacancy for Councillor
There is a vacancy for a parish councillor. If you are interested could you please contact the clerk.
Next Meeting
The next meeting will be the Annual Parish Meeting on Thursday,
1st March, at 7.30pm and it will be followed by the ordinary Parish Council Meeting.
Gaydon Roundabout
The 2007 flooding in Gaydon was aggravated by water coming down the Warwick Road and turning into Kineton Road at the roundabout. This was discussed at the last Gaydon Community Liaison Meeting.
There was talk of re-profiling part of the road to divert the water into the field on the motorway side. This would re-instate the field as a balancing pond as it used to be before the roundabout was built. JR
Second-Hand & Vintage Clothes Sale Saturday March 3rd,10am - 1pm Sheldon Bosley Hub, Shipston-on-Stour Free entry - Refreshments Available
Exclusive Private Viewing at Compton Verney: Gainsborough's Landscapes Thursday 15th March 1.30pm £40 for hour-long tour and full afternoon tea Call 01608 674929 for tickets (Di Yeoman)
Mothering Sunday Jumbles
Ingredients
6oz Self-raising flour
4oz Ground almonds Chopped almonds for decoration
4oz Butter
4oz Caster sugar
1 Egg, beaten
Method
Cream the butter and sugar together till soft. Add the egg and beat it in well, then work in the ground almonds and flour.
Place the mixture onto a greased tin using 2 teaspoons to form small mounds; sprinkle with chopped almonds.
Bake in a moderate oven for 20 minutes.
Mothering Sunday is on 18 March and children will enjoy mixing and shaping these delicious little biscuits for their mothers.
Supervision required!
This recipe is borrowed from McDougall's Biscuit Cookery Book which was probably printed in the 1950s.
Gaydon Village Store now has a Facebook page. Have a look and check us out! We are able to order small quantities of Fowlers Cheese made in Earlswood, Warwickshire. If you would like some, let us know. Bread from Wests of Wellesbourne is now delivered to the shop on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays between 11 and 11.30am and on Saturdays at 8.30am. Bread from Le Petit Croissant is delivered on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays at 9am. Place your orders in the shop or phone them through (24 hour notice).
Now in store are a small number of HEATLOGS (also to order). They are made of compressed sawdust and give out a lot of heat.
Warwickshire County Council, along with Solihull and Coventry Councils, have been allocated £4.07m by Government to help improve broadband connectivity. That amount has to be match-funded by the local authorities; and the private sector are expected to invest a considerably larger amount to ensure that all properties achieve speeds of at least 2Mbps and 90% of properties achieve at least 24Mbps by the end of 2015.
Faster broadband will facilitate a step-change in all our lives, including working from home; the provision of health and care facilities to help people stay in their own homes for longer; business benefits such as less travelling and cloud computing; and many, many more technologies which just a few years ago were unthinkable but which are available now - providing you have a fast enough connection.
In order to encourage the private sector to invest, we need to show that they will get a return on their money and that people will actually use the service.
In order to do that we have set up two questionnaires, one for businesses and one for residential purposes. If you work from home please complete both - just because a building doesn't have a sign over the door doesn't mean that there is no business activity inside! The survey can be found at www.cswbroadband.org.uk
We are also looking to recruit local Champions who will be able to promote the project within their own villages and to encourage others to sign up (resources will be provided). If you would be interested in becoming a Champion or have any other queries about the project, please email broadband@warwickshire.gov.uk
It is with great sorrow that we record the death of David Kidner on 19 February. He and Alison lived in Gaydon for many years and David served on the PCC as secretary. They moved to Cornwall two years ago. We offer our sympathy to his family and friends.
Come along and join us for the next Messy Church, which will be held at Gaydon Village Hall, on Sunday 25th March from 3.30 until 5.30pm. Our theme will be Easter and we will be making Easter cards, Easter chicks and other fun things, followed by a short piece of worship and then a light tea.
All are welome, but children must be accompanied at all times. If you have any questions please contact Lesley Bosman: 01295 771171.
Armscote Manor Lecture Wednesday 21st March 7.30pm Chris Brown: Quirky and the Unusual For tickets call Deborah 01608 682375
One of the delights of being a part-time student is ready access to an excellent, specialist library and having the time and justification to over-indulge in books about gardening.
I've just finished an absolute delight, "We Made A Garden," by the 50s gardening guru Margery Fish. Some of her advice is a little eccentric:
I shall not be buying a sharpened sword to dead head the flowers more efficiently or a job lot of trophy animal heads to decorate the bare walls on the outside of the house while the climbers grow up. But her love of plants and gardens is quite infectious and makes you realise that anything is achievable; and it doesn't matter if it goes wrong, there is always next year.
So, coupled with an excellent workshop on designing based on plant shapes, I will tackle the bed at the side that has never been right. Everybody has one. Even Hidcote, I bet. I think my biggest mistake here was no hedge. Then as the years go by, it seems to be too late to put one in. Couch grass comes in from the field, the rabbits enjoy the lily bulbs, and the setting has no backdrop. But there is still time for hardwood cuttings, so I shall take some from the front mixed hedge and pop them in down the side and clear out the bed except for the gorgeous cherry which everything else will have to fit around. Then it's just a matter of taking photographs and drawing in the plant shapes, colours and sizes on them until I'm happy.
I will not just put things in to fill the space in a mad panic. No - very human, but very bad. I will follow the plan. Will there be rewards?
I'll let you know how it goes. This time next year there will be a sprinkling of shrubs and evergreens for structure and to set off my weakness for roses and scented flowers to best advantage. Okay, so I may have to use some annuals to fill in the gaps until things grow, but the scent from Nicotiana sylvestris is no hardship; and the giant leaves and pretty white trumpets are a must-have anyway on autumn evenings as you stroll round the domain, enjoying the peace and the sight of rabbits on the other side of the fence! Sarah Nield
www.gaydon.org.uk
The Gaydon Village Website is gradually growing and the Webmaster would appreciate some help in digitising old Parish Magazines to put up on the site. Scanning has so far proved difficult owing to the poor quality of the duplication: a lot of hand-keying might be necessary.
Please ring John Rickman on 640349 if you are interested in helping with the project.
The Coffee Morning, Bring and Buy and Produce Sale will be held in the Village Hall on Saturday 10th at 11am. Proceeds go to the Church Fabric Fund. Everyone welcome!
The Library will be in Gaydon on Thursday 15th March.
This month we meet on Tuesday 20th at 2.30pm at the home of Mrs Olive Richards, Almeley Lodge, Kineton Road.
Village Hall on Friday 16 March at 7.30
At the last meeting we discussed: Planning a Street Party; having a Best-decorated House Competition; and organising some Evening Entertainments.
Any other ideas are welcome. Please contact Parish Councillors or Madeleine Hill (640636).
Saturday 31 March
The full analysis of the Parish Plan Questionnaire will be on display at a public meeting in the Village Hall from 10.30am-5pm on Saturday 31 March. Summary results are available now on the website: www.gaydon.org.uk
We would like to invite everyone who is interested in the future of Gaydon to come to the hall and help in the construction of our village plan. JR
We have kept ourselves warm during a chilly January and February with a wide range of trips and exciting activities going on in school. Years 2 and 3 have gone back in time to study the dinosaurs in a project that culminated in an amazing trip to the Natural History Museum in London.
The children were thrilled to see the skeletons and models of all the dinosaurs they had been learning about and really enjoyed travelling on the train and tube.
Meanwhile Years 4, 5 and 6 have been studying World War II. One classroom now has its very own Anderson shelter with sound effects! These children enjoyed a trip to Coventry to learn about how the city was bombed during the blitz and to explore the Transport Museum.
The younger children have also been out and about to the Heritage Motor Museum where they attended the opening of a new exhibition and met Olympic Athletes Marlon Devonish (gold medal sprinter) and Rhys Walker (award-winning badminton player).
All of the children have been working fantastically hard and making great progress. We look forward to an even more exciting Spring!
Juliette Westwood (Exec. Headteacher) and Michelle Cragg (Assoc. Headteacher)
The Toddler Group that used to meet in the village hall is no longer in existence and the toys that have accumulated over the years have to be disposed of. If anyone is interested in rescuing a toy, come along to one of the monthly coffee mornings and have a look at them. A small donation in exchange will be put towards any future playgroup activity in the hall.
Extract from May 1902
'A Public Meeting, convened by the Vicar, was held at the School-room on Thursday evening, April 17th, to consider the ways and means of celebrating the Coronation of King Edward VII on June 26. There was a large attendance and the Vicar was called to the chair. It was decided by a large majority to have a substantial tea provided for both sexes above a certain age, and a separate one for the children, the entertainment to include sports with prizes for the successful competitors. A large and representative committee was elected to carry out these and other measures that may be subsequently decided upon. A meeting of the committee is fixed for Friday evening, May 9th, at 7.30pm, when it is hoped there will be a full attendance.'
I write on the first day of the departure of the intense freezing temperatures that the Village has endured in the last week. Some nights saw -12°C although there were some gorgeous clear days of sun and blue skies.
The large number of deer around the village seem to have been very high profile, grazing patches of open meadow. A daily occurrence on Watery Lane has been an encounter with small herds of Roe deer. Tracks in the snow revealed that Muntjac (the smaller dog-sized species) had been active at night around the graveyard. A fall of snow is always a good indicator of secretive activity: tracks of Rabbit, Hare, Badger and, most common, The Red Fox could be observed in many places.
It is a hard time for predators during such severe conditions. I counted three Buzzards and two kestrels on the telegraph poles along the road to Kineton. All seemed to be watching intently for any movement of a small mammal or bird they might swoop down upon and grab.
I had one reckless dive on my bird-feeding area by a Sparrow hawk which then glided over the village hall, having failed to grasp a sparrow and still trailing it's yellow-taloned feet.
The rather well-fed birds in Church Road and St Giles seem to stay around all day. A flock of Goldfinches is a constant delight, fortified by high-protein niger seed which is available in a variety of garden bird feeders. No Waxwings as yet but the odd Bullfinch and Siskin joins this group in my Walnut Tree, the songs being quite distinctive.
Whilst I cannot match the amazing Moth from the David Attenborough series that remains a larva for fourteen freezing years, I have a Tortrix Moth that lives on my window sill Geranium, still alive through the cold spell for a month now. I disturb it each day to draw the curtains; it reveals its bright copper underwings before settling again.
Today I did see some midges hovering around my Hellibore flowers or maybe the early Wych hazel blossoms but I fear that for most insects Spring is still some distance away. Bernard Price
The next meeting of the Village Hall Committee will be held on Monday12 March at 7.30pm.