This Month's Diary
Parish Council Meeting Tues 5th 7.45pm Village Hall Coffee Morning Sat 9th 11am Village Hall Friendship Club Tues 19th 2.30pm No.2 Cottages Bells & Beacon Thursday 21st Burton Dassett Library Mondays 4th & 25th Telephone Box Pilates Tuesdays 6.30pm Village Hall
GAYDON CALENDAR QUEEN'S BIRTHDAY W/E 11/12th JUNE TBA BIG LUNCH SUN 17th JULY VILLAGE HALL CHRISTMAS LUNCH SUN 4th DEC VILLAGE HALL
Speeding
The Parish Council has authorised the use of speed-monitoring equipment at five locations within the village. This will help to determine the number of vehicles using our roads, the type of vehicle, peaks times and the speed they are travelling at. The data should help us in securing funding from JLR's planning applications. It should also assist the Police in determining when to carry out speed checks and where in Gaydon.
The number one priority for the Police for the next three months is speed on the B4100 and local villages. Thank you to everyone who voted for this.
Parish Councillor Numbers
Thank you to all residents who signed the petition to increase the number of parish councillors from 5 to 7. We have been told that this will be discussed at the next full District Council Meeting at the end of April. A consultation period will follow and then another District Council meeting. We will keep you updated.
Tree Preservation
We have tried to obtain tree preservation orders on the Wellingtonias which line the drive of the Old Vicarage. Unfortunately the District Council hasn't got the time to place orders on them but assures us that they would be protected if they were to be threatened by building works or unnecessary felling.
Naming of the Gaydon Inn development. We have received lots of s
Gaydon Inn Development
We have received lots of suggestions for naming the Gaydon Inn development and these will be discussed at our next meeting.
Flooding
Following the recent heavy rain, a number of locations in the village have been highlighted as needing support from the County Council flood team. The pond on the Kineton Road needs clearing; the drainage on Church Road needs investigating; and the run-off of water from the agricultural land newly-acquired by JLR on the Kineton Road needs attention. If there are any other areas can you please let the Clerk know.
Date of Next Meeting
The next Parish Council meeting is on Tuesday, 5th April at 7.45pm.
Sunday 3rd
9.00 Holy Communion BCP Burton Dassett
10.30 Morning Prayer Fenny Compton
10.30 Holy Communion Gaydon
6pm Evensong Farnborough
Sunday 10th
9.00 Holy Communion BCP Farnborough
9.00 Holy Communion Gaydon
10.30 Communion by ext. Northend
6pm Evening Prayer Burton Dassett
Sunday 17th
9.00 Holy Communion Farnborough
9.00 Holy Communion BCP Gaydon
10.30 Family Worship Fenny Compton
10.30 Holy Communion Northend
6pm Songs of Praise Group Service Northend
together with Knightcote Methodists
Sunday 24th
9.00 Holy Communion BCP Fenny Compton
10.30 Holy Communion Farnborough
10.30 Prayer and Praise Gaydon
10.30 Morning Service Northend
If you find it difficult to attend a morning service - you have other commitments or would like a lie-in for a change - there are evening services at most of our local churches that you could try instead.
Evensong will be held at Farnborough church on Sunday the 3rd at 6pm. Evening Prayer will be at Burton Dassett on the 10th at 6pm. Songs of Praise for the whole group of churches, together with the Methodists of Knightcote, will take place at 6pm at Northend church on the 17th of April.
Sunday 3 April at 3.30pm at Temple Herdewyke Community Centre Taste and See, Café and Messy Church. Sunday 10 April at 3.30pm at Fenny Compton Village Hall, there is Messy Church with games, crafts, stories, songs and tea.
On Thursday 21 April a band of bellringers will celebrate the occasion by ringing a peal of bells at All Saints' Church, Burton Dassett.
This will start at about 9.30 in the morning and will last for three hours. It is the first peal rung here for many years.
Beacon: as part of a United Kingdom-wide chain of events, the local garrison will build and light a beacon at dusk at Burton Dassett.
Chris P and John R are thanked for joining the Chair and his family for doing a little litter picking in honour of HM the Queen on the 5th March. It was bit cold but the rain held off and we busily went around most corners of the village searching for all sorts of litter. The road to Kineton all the way to Bloxham Barn Farm was also litter picked. Favourite tastes in chocolates, crisp flavours and canned tipples could all be listed but the crown for most unusual finding went to John R for the retrieval of a formerly-stylish lady's shoe!
The official date for celebrating the royal birthday is the weekend of the 11th and 12th of June 2016.
The Village Hall Committee have booked the Village Hall on behalf of the village for the whole of that weekend.
If you are planning a public event and would like to use the Hall, please get in touch with Eirwen Hughes, the bookings manager, at the Old House Cottage or ring 641889.
The Village Hall Committee are looking for old photographs of the
village in the past. There are some already posted on the website and
also in the venerable Parish Book of the WI. However, many more are known to exist, mostly in postcard size.
The majority were taken on old Box Brownie cameras. Some may be of buildings now demolished or from as far back as the Victorian Era. One of the most interesting found so far is a group portrait of the workforce at the old forge, pictured on this month's cover. It would be very useful if someone could identify any persona.
We are hoping to select some photographs to be enlarged and framed for permanent display in the Village Hall. I quite realise that these are greatly treasured photos, so be assured, modern copy methods are very swift these days and any loans will be quickly returned.
Anyone kind enough to lend their pictures will get a free DVD of the archive of old images we have already collected. John Rickman has offered to provide the DVDs from the Village website. Once you hand over a picture, it will take just a few seconds to scan before it is returned to you. It can then be enlarged to up to A2 size for display.
This is an appeal to villagers both past and present. Please contact any member of the committee and share your historic pictures with all Gaydon villagers. Thank you in anticipation.
Bernard Price and the Village Hall Committee
Phone numbers: Bernard 640757; Sue 640695; Eirwen 641889.
Save Our Shop
Our shop is in danger of closing: please do not let this happen.
It is run by volunteers in the local community, selling excellent produce, much of it locally sourced. It provides an invaluable service to the elderly and to those without transport: their day-to-day needs are met and there is the chance of a chat and exchange of news and views.
Prices compare well with supermarkets and as has been stated before, if every adult in the village spent just £5 per week in the shop there would be no problems.
Another way to help keep the shop open is to become a volunteer. Could you not spare just one hour a week? Ask at the counter to leave a message for Sue. New residents may be interested to learn that they can become shareholders. It is £10 per share per person. Just ask in the shop for details.
Let's all do our best to keep this village amenity going! MF
from McDougall's Biscuit Cookery Book c. 1940 8oz or 250g Mc Dougall's Self-Raising Flour 5oz or 150g butter 5oz or 150g caster sugar 2oz or 50g raisins pinch of mixed spice 1 beaten egg
Cream the butter and sugar together until soft and pale. Beat in the egg, then mix in the flour, spice and raisins. Knead and roll out on a floured board, cutting into rounds. Place on non-stick oven sheets leaving plenty of space between the biscuits. Cook for about 20 minutes at 160°C until golden.
A bit late for Easter but good for Whitsun instead!
Burton Dassett Restoration Committee are holding a coffee morning to raise money for the upkeep of All Saints' Church. It will be held at Helen James' home, Kimbles, in Bottom Street at 10.30am. Entrance charge of £2 includes tea or coffee, cakes and biscuits; there will also be a raffle.
Shakespeare in Art: Tempests, Tyrants and Tragedy
This year's new exhibition commemorates 400 years since the death of Shakespeare and offers an exceptional opportunity to explore his pivotal works through a unique series of encounters with paintings, photographs, projections, sound scores and readings. See works of the past and present inspired by his plays: the artists include George Romney, Henry Fusili, John Singer Sargent, Kristin and Davy McGuire and Tom Hunter.
Go to www.comptonverney.org.uk for the new What's On guide.
At last we have seen the end of the severe frosts that came late this year after a relatively mild winter. Already we have a clusters of early blossoms from Blackthorn and Wild Plum in the hedgerows. Pairs of Blackbirds and Great Tits are now collecting nesting materials from my lawn and my neighbour's bees are collecting pollen from early blooms. An early small Tortoiseshell butterfly and a large Queen Bumble Bee have appeared during the sunny spells.
There is a crisp fresh atmosphere and pleasant sunny periods today. Rabbits, which seem more secretive of late, are now feeding on the verges in early mornings. One morning, a herd of deer were taking advantage of the roadworks and grazing beside Junction 12, venturing forth from nearby Itchington Holt. They were Fallow deer with a distinctive black colouration not common around here, rather than the Roe and Muntjak which leave numerous tracks around the village edge but are rarely seen.
Red Kites are now quite often seen the nearer you get to Banbury. I find it so exciting that theses large raptors have returned - and exasperating that already Kites and Buzzards are being blamed for losses in lambing. It is impossible for them to kill a lamb but of course a dead one or the afterbirth will attract them. I well recall my own family keeping sheep and so know well that any excuse for losses is often blamed on wildlife, be it Badgers that have been culled without evidence or Buzzards because they take the odd sickly pheasant poult. When the guilty species are killed "en masse" like Magpies, Crows and Grey Squirrels they just get more common. Instead, poor husbandry and modern intensive methods are to blame, as no attention is paid to anything other than profit and over-production.
In more traditional countries like Romania, Hungary and Austria this is not a problem - though they are regarded as inefficient! Recently there has been a strike of Romanian Shepherds whose traditional grazing routes have been blocked by large international property speculators. In Iran, I witnessed the nomads who are still valued and helped to move their herds: they may be the last pastoralists.
Yet in the UK, sheep are overgrazed and other areas left as set- aside. Hill farmers are leaving the land. If only farming was less of an "industry" here!
On the optimistic side, I have seen several Murmurations (large flocks) of Starlings over the village. A local farmer (towards the Army Camp) tells me he has been planting a birdseed wildlife crop and has them feeding in thousands every day.
Bernard Price
The Library will visit Gaydon on Mondays 4th and 25th April from 1.30pm-2pm at the Telephone Box.
The next coffee morning will be held on Saturday 9 April at 11am in the village hall. There will be a bookstall, bring-and-buy and a raffle. Funds raised are in aid of the church.
The next meeting will be on Tuesday 19 April at 2.30pm at the home of Mrs Jan Ewers, No.2 Cottages, Gaydon Hill Farm.
The pilates group meets on a Tuesday evening in the village hall from 6.30-7.30. We have no teacher and use DVD's to work from. However, we now have a teacher on the first Tuesday of every month.
If you wish to join us on the first Tuesday of the month, for a taught class, the cost will be £5 for the session.
You will need to wear comfortable clothing and bring a mat to lie on. If you want to try pilates with a teacher then do come along and join us on Tuesday 5th April. SR
More than forty people came to the coffee morning at the Old Bakehouse last month and we raised over £200 to pay for the next lunch. I am very grateful to you all for such wonderful support! Everyone was so generous with raffle prizes, white elephants and donations of money. Many thanks to all the helpers, especially Josie who was run off her feet making all the coffee.
The date of the Christmas Lunch this year is Sunday 4 December: please put it in your diaries straight away. JR
We had beautiful lilies on the altar for Easter Day thanks to a kind donation. You do not have to be a regular worshipper at St Giles' to put flowers in church - perhaps to remember someone you love or to celebrate an anniversary. If you look at the notice board just inside the church door you will see a wide choice of dates available.
Spring 10km run or walk at Walton Hall on Sunday 17 April at 10am; Entry fee £5 Adult, £3 Child. Place prizes and Prizes for best team and best fancy dress. Dogs welcome on a lead. Refreshments available. More details from Gilda Gardner on 01789 740083 or from
Rebecca on 01806 684 835.
The flag on the village green was raised on 10 March for the birthday of HRH Prince Edward, Duke of Wessex.
There was excess surface water in parts of Gaydon in the recent heavy rains of 8/9th March. We are aware of one property that was flooded.
Re Church Road drainage, while further investigation may be useful, we are aware of what the problems are and fear that the solution is too expensive to be carried out.
On Wednesday morning, 9 March, while it was raining, John lifted the inspection hatch (in our front garden) of the main storm sewer (pipe A), which goes down Church Road and eventually comes out behind the flats into the ditch.
This pipe A was over-capacity as the water level was 4" above the top of the pipe.
Down at the lowest point of Church Road, pipe A crosses the road outside Church View and is joined by pipe B coming down Church Road from the Banbury Road direction. Water was backing up pipe B and adding to the water in the Old House's pond instead of draining it.
Pipe C
There is another sewer which runs down the centre of Church Road, the combined sewer (pipe C), which takes sewage and surface water from the KIneton Road down to the sewage pumping station. This was also flooding and bubbling up through the triangular cover outside Church View.
The non-return valve fitted by Severn Trent in the sewage outlet from the Old Bakehouse saved our house from being flooded this time.
The Bund which has been built at the back of Kineton Road was doing its job and holding back the flow of water. It is important that this is inspected annually and kept clear. J&J Rickman