Gaydon Parish Magazine September 2024
index of magazines
Gaydon Gazette for September
Parish Council Tues 3rd at 7.30pm Village Hall
Village Hall C'ttee Mon 9th at 8pm Village Hall
Coffee Morning Sat 14th at 11am Village Hall
Harvest Festival Sun 22nd 3pm Chadshunt Church
Mobile Library Fri 27th at 2.40pm Phone Box
Tai Chi Wednesdays at 7pm Village Hall
Clubbercise Thursdays at 7pm Village Hall
Something to Look Forward to
Book Club Tues 1st October at 7pm in the Village Hall
September Church Services
1st 9.30am Holy Communion Gaydon
10.00am Holy Communion Burton Dassett
8th 9.30am Prayer and Praise Gaydon
10.00am Morning Prayer Northend
15th 9.30am Agapë Service Gaydon
10.00am Holy Communion Northend
22nd 3.00pm Harvest Festival Chadshunt
10.00am Morning Prayer Northend
29th Group Service to be announced later
Harvest Festival
Our Harvest Festival Service will take place at the Church of All Saints, Chadshunt, on Sunday 22 September at 3pm. Afterwards, the congregation is invited to tea at Chadshunt House.
Roman Catholic Church of St Francis, Kineton: Sunday Mass 11am
Flag
The Flag was raised on 8th August to celebrate the Wedding of Siobhan and Paul Dodd. We wish them Every Happiness! The flag also flew on the 14th in honour of the 80th Birthday of Georgina Diston; and again on the 17th for the Retirement Birthday of Susan Lenna Middleditch. It was raised on the 21st for the Birthday of the new Mrs Dodd and on the 23rd for the Twin Birthdays of Sue Wilkshire and Jane Bennett.
If you have something to celebrate or commemorate, ring Siobhan on 07780 689582, and she will raise the flag for you - in return for a £5 contribution to Church funds.
Clubbercise
Village Hall onThursdays 7pm-7.45pm, £6 per session, PAYG - pay-as-you-go
Coffee Morning
The next Coffee Morning is on Saturday 14 September at 11am in the Village Hall. There will be Books, Bric-a-brac, Raffle; Coffee and Biscuits 50p. All money raised is for Church funds.
Tai Chi
The Tai Chi group meets every Wednesday evening at 7 o'clock in the Village Hall. Please text 07514 011406 so that we can look out for you. After a month, please donate a coin for the hire of the Hall.
Mobile Library
The Mobile Library will call at the Telephone Box at 2.25pm for half an hour on Friday 27 September.
BMM Events in September
Retro Truck Show Saturday & Sunday 7/8th
Gaydon Gathering Tuesday 10th
DR1VR Show Sunday 15th
Jaguars at Gaydon Sunday 22nd
Mini Motorists Mondays Monday 16th
Rustival Saturday 28th
Information and tickets at www.britishmotormuseum.co.uk
Gaydon Village Hall News
The next committee meeting will be on Monday 9 September at 8pm.
Carers4Carers
Kineton Village Hall Friday 27 September.
Join the Carers4Carers monthly gathering at Kineton Village Hall to meet with fellow local carers. Our next meeting is on Friday 27 September from 10:30am to 12:00 noon. We're excited to have Jude Cranfield from the Stratford District Council's Older People Team as our guest, to shed light on social services.
Come and enjoy some refreshments, biscuits, and engaging conversations with local carers. Your loved ones are also invited to participate in our Companionship Group during the meeting.
For further details about our support group or help with transport arrangements, please contact Gillian on 07947 893504; send an email to kcarers4carers@gmail.com; or explore our website
www.carers4carersonthefosse.org.uk
The Stan Bowley Trust
The Stan Bowley Trust is a dedicated charity based in Lichfield, Staffordshire, with a mission to raise awareness and funds for CyberKnife cancer treatment. This innovative technology offers a non-invasive alternative to traditional cancer treatments, providing hope and improved outcomes for patients across the West Midlands.
Ian Bowley. For more information visit the website www.thestanbowleytrust.org
Nature Notes for August
Our Local Swifts had been gathering in a large group over the village for a few days and they finally left for their long journey back to Africa on 3rd August. I mentioned previously that most of their long lives are spent on the the wing and they rarely touch the ground.
Several will have done the journey to Gaydon many times and will remember the exact spot of their nest sites. The younger birds will also have our village location implanted in their memories. The village is very quiet without their rather discordant, albeit reassuring, calls from the skies. They drown out the twittering of the House Martins which may stay here until October.
This small colony often glides over my garden 'hawking' for insects. They once nested on several buildings around the centre of the village, including my own house. However, they have deserted this area now, in spite of nest boxes provided; they favour the new Spitfire housing with its protruding roof-eaves. They have nested there for some
years now.
The nearest Swallows, at Chadshunt, have several nests but, sadly, the large numbers that once gathered and weighed down our village telephone lines in September, have gone.
There is no doubt now that we live in rapidly-changing times. I still have my first bird book, the ever-reliable Collins 1952 edition, in which as a keen eight-year-old I ticked off every bird I had seen. I still recall the huge binoculars - taken from WW2 U-Boat Captain I was told - that I carried with me, oblivious of the considerable weight on a small child. They were incredibly accurate at distance!
A few years later I joined a couple of my school friends who would catch the Midland Red to Bewdley to explore the dense Wyre Forest; and getting a Red-backed Shrike (now extinct as resident in the UK), impaling insects on thorns around its nest in one of the old Plum orchards there.
I even took the binoculars on the boat train to Ireland when I went to stay on my Grandparents' farm in Rural Tipperary. Here, you could listen to Corncrakes at night and hear crickets chirping or collect jam-jar 'lanterns' of glow worms. My Grandad was also a keen naturalist who relied on his sharp vision and he was, of course, my main influence. He once even rescued a Skylark nest and nursed the fledglings back to health, making a special cage with a canvas roof so that they would not be injured as they recovered and took off vertically when they could be released.
Skylarks can still be heard around our village today. Although we have lost many familiar species around here, like some mentioned in A Postman's Tale*, we have gained some others.
I never saw a Red Kite, collared Dove or Buzzard in the 1950s as frequently as today. Sparrow Hawks are more common, wiped out previously by DDT which is now banned. Kestrels and Barn Owls are hanging on; and of course Magpies and Woodpigeons have increased greatly.
My concern this season is the complete lack of insects. Even a tabloid newspaper headline: 'To Bee or not to Bee?' And Wasps have gone AWOL too! A huge increase in wildflowers but nothing to pollinate them. Butterflies are scarce and even Wasps are rare.
We must hope that the reason is the terrible weather over most of this year and that there will be recovery; otherwise, the consequences could be grave for all species in the food chain. My main hope is that we may have a warm September and October which may extend the summer season. Bernard Price
A Postman's Tale was written by the then Gaydon Postman who lived in The Nest - older villagers will remember him as I do! There are a few copies around and it is an interesting read about pre-war Gaydon.
Parish Council News
The next meeting of the Parish Council is on Tuesday 3rd September at 7.30pm in the Village Hall.
Disbanding of MOD Police
Stephen Evans of Boundary Farm, Watery Lane, Chadshunt, writes:
'I was just wondering whether you were aware that the MOD Police will be disbanded and cease operations from 14 September 2024?
'We live next door to the biggest munitions facility in the UK. I was astounded when one of the patrol officers told me this was happening, apparently due to Ministry of Defence cutbacks. External patrols have already ceased. I will be writing to the local MP and the Defence Minister; I enclose their details in case some of your subscribers feel the need to complain as well.
'John Healey, Secretary of Defence: john.healey.mp@parliament.uk
and Sir Jeremy Wright: jeremy@jeremywright.org.uk'
Gaydon Development - September Update
Going down the drain - or not?
Two villagers performed a valuable service for the village a few weeks ago. Councillor Adrian Claxton and Andy Thomas inspected the village drains. Not a task that appears at the top of most people's 'bucket list'
but, as we have come to realise, we can no longer take it for granted that the water companies and Ofwat and cash-strapped councils can be left alone to protect our interests when it comes to water, drainage and sewage.
What they discovered was pretty sobering and not reassuring for a village which has experienced flooding. Of 70 plus drains they inspected throughout the village, just under half of them showed visible signs of blockage. This is in combination with many totally overgrown drainage ditches around the village into which the water from the drains is designed to flow. The (chronically under-funded) Warwickshire County Council's response was to offer £3,000 to hire a tanker to clear 9 drains. (There is one tanker and operator covering the entire South Warwickshire area.)
With the forecast that climate change will raise the risk of severe weather events on a more regular basis and the inevitable increase in surface water, now is not the time to be adding further pressure to our inadequate drainage system with the development proposed by CEG(Malta) Ltd. Sewage (sorry about this!) is also a problem at the moment. Parish Councillors have reported that tankers, on a more frequent basis, have been reported taking away excess from the 'previously adequate' sewage settlement beds located to the south of the village. Already the increase in housing development around the village in the past 10 years (with more houses planned) is overloading these two essential systems: drainage and sewage.
The proposed development's sealing of the acres which will comprise its site with a surface of (mostly) impervious concrete will destroy the natural 'soak-away' that the elevated fields above Gaydon have provided for all the centuries that the village has existed. Surface run-off water from the elevated site will be channelled into a proven inadequate drainage system. The same with sewage: it will be channelled into a system that is already inadequate.
Surely then, (you may say) the water company and WCC will improve the pipework and infrastructure to cope with these increased demands?
However, as we have seen over the past few years, nationally, the UK water, drainage and sewage provision is in crisis. Many people have lost faith in the privatised water companies. Taking them out of public ownership has been a disaster for consumers and taxpayers.
But not for the owners. It was reported in The Telegraph (30 August 2023) that ten water companies had paid no tax in the previous year. Over the past 35 years, £78 billion has been made in profit by the water companies' owners. Many of these water companies are non-UK owned and some are registered in tax havens (one such tax haven, Malta, has an effective corporate business tax rate of 5%).
'What's that to do with us in Gaydon?' (you may say).
We can no longer automatically rely on private water companies and chronically underfunded councils to prioritise financing solutions for future potential flooding and sewage overload. Our (relatively small) village - even with the proposed development - will be competing with many other communities for infrastructure funding. Furthermore, we, ironically, could face situations in the future where - should flooding and sewage disasters happen - we would have to pay for the solutions or remedies. Twice over.
Once, through increased water rates and secondly, through higher UK national and local taxes (to make up the shortfall caused by low or no taxes paid by corporates) to remedy the overwhelming neglect by the water industry and underfunded councils.
It is yet another reason why we cannot have the Gaydon development imposed upon us with these kinds of ominous possibilities. Tony Hughes
September Memorial Book
1999 1st Phil Goodwin
1999 2nd Dawn Comben
2013 3rd William Arnold
1982 9th John Neal
2018 17th Rosemary Davies
1980 29th William Holder
2002 30th Rene Mann
If there is a special entry that you would like to see, let me know and I will try to make sure that the Book is open on that day. Julie Rickman
Thanks
Josie, Tony and John would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for their kind thoughts and cards on the sad loss of Francis. I very much appreciate your kindness to me and the family, Josie Liddington.
Closure of Gaydon St Giles Church Churchyard, Gaydon, Warwickshire
'Notice is hereby given that it is the intention of the Secretary of State for Justice, acting on an appliction by the incumbent and churchwardens, to apply to the Privy Council for an Order requiring the discontinuance of burials in the above churchyard.
'The closure is subject to no exceptions. Any representations about the proposed closure should be sent by email to coroners@justice.gov.uk or by post to the Coroners and Burials Team, Ministry of Justice, 102 Petty France, London SW1H 9AJ (quoting reference CC/AUG24/023) within 21 days of this publication.'
Explanatory Notes:
Gaydon with Chadshunt Parochial Church Council points out that the above notice is just formalising the closure of the churchyard which took place in the 1950s, when there was no more space for burials.
Burials of ashes will still be possible but they will require a faculty, i.e. permission, from the Diocese of Coventry.
This is not linked to any future decisions about the church building.
Katharine House Hospice
Palliative Care Bereavement Support Service
Our Bereavement Service at Katharine House Hospice needs your help in the recruitment of new volunteers.
Since the end of widespread Covid, there has been a steady increase in demand for bereavement support. This charity will, from April 2025, once again provide open access to bereavement support for everyone in your neighbourhood, whether or not they have received palliative or hospice care.
We are recruiting volunteers in your area until December 2024 and after selection and training they will continue to receive training, supervision and support from our team.
If your are interested in finding out more, or applying, please contact us on email: pallcarevolunteerservices@ouh.nhs.uk; or www.khh.org.uk/bereavement-support-volunteers;
or Telephone 01865 225868.