Parish Council Meeting Thurs 6th 8pm Village Hall
Coffee Morning Sat 8th 11am Village Hall
Friendship Club Tues 25th 2.30pm Trevose
Pilates Tuesdays 6.30pm Village Hall
Mobile Library Monday 17th 1.30pm Telephone Box
GAYDON CALENDAR
BIG LUNCH 20 JULY VILLAGE HALL
CHURCH CHRISTMAS FAIR 29 NOVEMBER VILLAGE HALL
CHRISTMAS LUNCH 7 DECEMBER VILLAGE HALL
Core Strategy Consultation
Stratford District Council cabinet meeting on Monday, 13th January, recommended that a consultation take place on the draft Core Strategy in relation to changing the plan period from 2008-2028 to 2011-2031, adopting a housing requirement figure of 10,800 and how to accommodate an additional 2500 houses (options are: dispersal, Gaydon-Lighthorne Heath, Long Marsden Airfield, South-East Stratford or Southam North Stoneythorpe). The consultation is likely to be for 6 weeks starting at the end of January. Details will be posted on the website and the noticeboard. There will be no public consultations.
New Dual Carriageway from J12 M40 to Jaguar Land Rover
Between Christmas and New Year the Parish Council were informed of additional information relating to this application. The application now contains an urban lighting scheme for the road to the Gaydon roundabout and the whole of the dual carriageway. Councillors agreed unanimously to object to this. We understand that the District Council are also objecting to this scheme. The Parish Council is also unanimous in the view that the Gaydon roundabout should be removed as part of this application.
Junction 12 Improvements
This work is being carried out by the Highways Agency. Their consultant has contacted the Parish Council and asked for our views. Councillors have agreed that there should be a safe pedestrian/horse/cyclist crossing over the M40 to link us with the Centenary Way and Bishops Itchington. We have also requested more planting and no lighting. Lighting was not shown on the draft plans.
Improvements to Jaguar Land Rover site to support traffic
Jaguar Land Rover have told councillors that the internal road scheme needed to support the traffic from the new dual carriageway will be in place by the time the dual carriageway is finished
(estimated completion time August 2015).
Land opposite The Gaydon Inn
This land has now been removed from the draft Core Strategy as potential development land.
Starbold Windfarm
(Land between Bishops Itchington/Knightcote and Gaydon.)
Eric Pickles MP will be making the decision on this planning application. A decision is expected at the earliest in April 2014.
Gaydon Website
Anyone interested in helping with a Gaydon website should contact
the Clerk.
Liaison with Jaguar Land Rover
We have regular liaison meetings with JLR, Aston Martin and The Heritage Centre so if you do have any issues please let us know. We hope that the minutes will be displayed on the Gaydon website shortly.
Precept
There will be a 2% increase to the precept to cover inflation.
Hamper
The Parish Council would like to thank Ellis Machinery for the hamper. This has been passed to Barnfields.
Next meeting will be on Thursday, 6th February at 8pm.
2nd
9.00 Holy Communion BCP Burton Dassett
10.30 Morning Prayer Fenny Compton
10.30 Holy Communion Gaydon
6.00pm Evensong Farnborough
9th
9.00 Holy Communion BCP Farnborough
9.00 Holy Communion Gaydon
10.30 Holy Communion Fenny Compton
10.30 Communion by ext. Northend
6.00pm Evening Service Burton Dassett
16th
9.00 *Holy Communion BCP Gaydon
10.30 *Holy Communion Fenny Compton
6.00pm Songs of Praise Northend
23rd
9.00 Holy Communion BCP Fenny Compton
10.30 Family Service Farnborough
10.30 Prayer and Praise Gaydon
10.30 Morning Prayer Northend
Bishop John will be celebrating Holy Communion and preaching in Gaydon on Sunday 16 February at the 9 o'clock service. The Bishop will also take the service at Fenny Compton at 10.30am.
Holy Communion will be celebrated at St Giles' Church on Thursday 27 January at 10.30am.
Messy Church will be at Fenny Compton on Sunday 9 January at 3.30pm in the village hall.
Shrove Tuesday - Pancake Day - falls on the 4th March in 2014; Mothering Sunday on the 30th March - also the start of Summer Time. Easter Day is on Sunday 20th April.
Run, Rabbit, Run, Rabbit...
I still have childhood memories of the first outbreak of myxomatosis in the mid-1950s. I was reminded of it when a dog brought back a Rabbit with the familiar symptoms on the Boxing Day shoot. They have become quite scarce around our village of late.
Older residents of Gaydon will tell you that Rabbit pie or stew used to be eaten up to three times a week; but it was also a major agricultural pest prompting some farmers to introduce this viral disease which constantly reoccurs to this day. Immunity builds up in the rabbit population but I doubt if the huge numbers will return again.
Fifty years ago we lived on the edge of a large wood: when the virus struck every path was littered with skeletons, a gruesome aftermath. Our front garden, which never grew more than a few inches, burst into flower, after possibly a century of pruning by the local bunnies! Buzzards and Owls, once common, died out.
Rabbits returned in subsequent years but the familiar rows hung in butchers' shops did not return; and today you are most likely to buy tame Chinese joints on a polystyrene tray. The acceptance that you would skin, gut or pluck your meat was quite normal a few years ago. One of the traditions of Christmas was to pluck the Goose or Turkey and the feet were often kept as toys - you could pull the tendons to move the claws! Goose wings and Turkey feathers made good dusters, too.
My grandparents always sent us a Turkey fully-feathered in a string bag through the post from Ireland each year. (They always believed that we never got decent food in England!) We sat around the kitchen table plucking feathers and even examining the contents of the crop. I once found a victorian glass marble! I was around five when I was taught how to "paunch" and skin a Rabbit by an old poacher who kept his snares in our shed. He examined our little Beatrix Potter story books with a knowing smile.
A rare treat was to find a Turkey's nest in a hedge; the speckled eggs had a wonderful rich taste, I recall, similar to Plovers' or Gulls'. I think the early Bronze breeds had a lot of wild instincts. Once I saw our flock chase off a fox that was terrified by the rain of blows from beaks and feet.
My grandfather always hatched batches of Turkey eggs under bantam hens in April and it was amusing to see the mother trying to cover the huge black chicks with her wings. In a few months they were twice her size but still followed her around the yard. So preparing the odd pheasant is not a problem for me, obsolete skill though it may be. Bernard Price
The Library will be here on Monday, 17 February From 1.30-2pm. From now on, it will call at the Telephone Box only, no longer visiting St Marks Close.
Erratum: Last month's magazine said that the van would call at the village shop but that was a misunderstanding. The library van will stop at the site of the old shop which used to be a tin hut where Churchside Cottages now stand.
The meeting this month will be on Tuesday 25th at 2.30pm at the home of Mrs Pauline Layton, Trevose, Kineton Road.
Our monthly 2nd Saturday coffee mornings will start this year on Saturday 8 February at 11am in the Village Hall.
Contributions of cakes and other produce are welcome; also bric-à-brac; and there will be a small raffle.
Please come along! Proceeds go to St Giles' Fabric Fund.
Until further notice, please contact Eirwen Hughes with your Hall bookings. She lives at the Old House Cottage, Church Road, next to the Malt Shovel and on the corner of Kineton Road. Her phone number is 641889. The hourly charge for residents is still only £5.50 and for non-residents £11.
Village Hall News
At the committee meeting held on 13 January it was confirmed that there are sufficient tables and chairs in the hall to seat 80 people for a meal. Crockery and cutlery for the same number are also provided. Villagers are reminded that some of the Hall's tables and chairs can be hired at a charge of £1 per table and 50p per chair. Contact John on 640349 or Debbie on 640757 for further details.
Gaydon Report: another quiet month.
Lookout
A driver has been flagged down by a man (with a foreign accent standing in front of a car with hazard lights on a local country road) who asked for money and offered his business card and wedding ring as security. The stranger never asks for assistance - just money. This practice is well known to the Police. Please drive off and call the Police when you get home.
Theft
Offenders stole approximately half a tank of heating oil from a cottage in Banbury Road, Kineton. Please remain alert and actively on the lookout for suspicious people, vehicles or activity around your own or neighbouring homes and please report anything unusual or of concern to Police on 101.
Message from Warwickshire Fire and Rescue Service
Fire safety: the easiest way to protect your family and home from a fire is with a working smoke alarm.
SMOKE ALARMS SAVE LIVES - BUY IT, FIT IT, TEST IT!
Roof and Guttering Maintenance
Local villages are getting door to door callers offering roof and guttering maintenance or roof moss clearing. One name that crops up is BW Guttering and Roof Services of Coventry who may not be what they appear to be. If this contractor calls at your door please send him away and call the Police on 101 immediately. They will be keen to interview him. Ian Miller
Warwickshire County Council are keen to promote home composting. It is a great way for gardeners to make their own compost and it diverts garden and food waste from the waste stream, thus saving Council tax money.
To encourage residents of Warwickshire to either start composting or
help existing home composters improve their knowledge, the County
Council's waste management team are running a series of free home
composting workshops across Warwickshire. Each resident attending the workshop will receive a free 330 litre compost bin. (Limited to one free bin per household.)
Workshops last approximately 45 minutes consisting of a half-hour presentation by County Council officers with an expertise in home composting and waste, plus a question and answer session.
The workshops will take place as follows:
Stratford - Thursday 10th April at Holy Trinity Church Centre, Old Town, Stratford-upon-Avon, 6.00pm - 6.45pm.
Warwick - Tuesday 6th May at Hill Close Gardens, Bread and Meat Close, Warwick CV34 6HF, 6.00pm - 6.45pm.
Book a place online at www.warwickshire.gov.uk/composting or email Waste Management Team at composting@warwickshire.gov.uk or Telephone 01926 412593.
January saw another great oil price for both our kerosene and red diesel members.
A saving of £54.50 per 1000 litres against the average market price was made by members ordering kerosene, paying just 52.95pence per litre, whilst our members who use red diesel saved a massive 9pence per litre.
We are still able to provide bulk LPG at just 43pence per litre with an introductory £100 fuel discount and our LPG cylinders remain very competitively priced.
For more information email oil@wrccrural.org.uk call 01789 472611 or visit www.ruralwarwickshire.org.uk/oil
No flooding in January but still plenty of work to be done to prevent future inundations. JR
Boxes will be collected this month; or box-holders may bring them to me at the Old Bakehouse, if they prefer. If you are interested in having a box to collect in, throughout the year, please ring me on 640349. Julie Rickman
We are delighted to welcome two families to the village this month: Bari, Gemma and Aben Ferati have come to live at Gaydon Hill Farm Cottages; and Av, Nav and family have recently moved into Claylands on the Kineton Road. We hope that you will all enjoy living in Gaydon.
We are now stocking meat from Carpenter's Farm at Warmington. A selection of their locally sourced meat and homemade sausage will be delivered on Tuesdays and Fridays. Meat can be ordered as usual if you place your order with the shop by Wednesday or Thursday. You will also be able to order fresh fish to be delivered on Friday. Orders must be placed at the shop by Wednesday and the fish will be delivered vacuum packed.
If you haven't already tried Carpenter's meat, do pop in and buy some - BUY LOCAL!
If you have a special birthday or anniversary coming up, then Upton is ideal for you, your family and friends. In partnership with Aubrey Allen Catering, we can cater events for up to 60 people. The menu and drinks can be tailored to your requirements.
This amazing opportunity to have a very special venue 'all to yourself' means you can wander round the garden and have drinks on the terrace before going in to dinner in our fine Pavilion Restaurant.
More information and sample menus can be downloaded from our website at www.nationaltrust.org.uk/uptonhouse
To book your party, phone Cathy Kavanagh, Catering Manager, on 01295 671112.
Menu for Friday 14th February: Roasted Sweet Potato and Rosemary Soup or Smoked Duck Breast with Roasted Figs and Gaydon Honey or Avocado and Smoked Salmon Terrine ~~~ 6 oz Fillet Steak served with grilled tomato and mushrooms, chips and salad (£5 supplement) or Braised Lamb Shank in Red Wine with potatoes and vegetables or Grilled Seabass Fillets with Roasted Peppers and Basil served with new potatoes ~~~ Meringue with Mulled Wine Compote and fresh cream or Baked Chocolate Mousse or Toffee, Pear and Ginger Pudding
£19.95 per person Reservations Only 01926 641221 malt.shovel@btconnect.com
The Annual Macmillan Mammoth Quiz is back!
On Friday 28th February at 8.30pm teams from all over the country will be answering the same questions. In Gaydon the quiz will take place at the Malt Shovel at 8.30pm.
Last year Gaydon's residents and their friends raised hundreds of pounds for Macmillan Cancer Support as well as having a fun evening. This year they are planning to do even better.
Tickets are £5 each and will include cheese and biscuits. Buy them in advance from the shop or call Debi on 01926 641221.