Gaydon Parish Magazine September 2026
index of magazines
Gaydon Gazette for September
Book Club Tues 1st at 7pm Malt Shovel
Parish Council Tues 1st at 7.30pm Village Hall
Coffee Morning Sat 12th at 11am Village Hall
GVH Committee Mon 14th at 6pm Reading Room
Mobile Library Friday 11th at 2.25pm Phone Box
Tai Chi Mons & Weds at 7pm Village Hall
Parish Council News
The zip wire in the playground was repaired very quickly during the school holidays after it was reported to have lost tension. A ROSPA inspection is scheduled for September. The Church clock was re-instated in August, having cost about £4500 to repair.
Next GPC meeting will be on Tuesday 1st September at 7.30pm.
Coffee Morning
Saturday 12th at 11am in the Village Hall - Coffee and Biscuits; Books and Jigsaws; Raffle; White Elephant.
Proceeds go to Church funds.
Gaydon Book Club
Tuesday 1st September at 7pm at the Malt Shovel.
Tai Chi
We meet in Gaydon Village Hall at 7pm on Mondays and Wednesdays. 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
This month the Mobile Library will call at the Telephone Box at 2.25pm for half an hour on Friday 11th.
Gaydon Village Hall News
The next meeting of the Village Hall Committee will be held at 6pm in the Reading Room of the Village Hall on Monday 14 September.
Flag Days
15 August - Birthday of HRH The Princess Royal. If you have something to celebrate or commemorate, give Siobhan a ring on 07780 689582 and she will raise the flag for you, in return for a £5 contribution to Church funds.
What's On in September at the British Motor Museum?
Weekend 5-6th Retro Truck Show
Monday 7th Mellow Mondays
Tuesday 8th Gaydon Gathering
Sunday 13th MX5 Owners Club
Sunday 20th DR1VR Show - Build your Dream
Saturday 26th Rustival
Sunday 27th Jaguars at Gaydon
Information and tickets at www.britishmotormuseum.co.uk
Carers4Carers
Carers4Carers are your local support group for family carers. We usually meet on the fourth Friday of the month (except December when it's the second Friday) from 10.30am to 12 noon at Kineton Village Hall. Loved ones are welcome too; they can join our Companionship Group during the meeting.
On Friday 25th September, please join us for a gentle movement workshop (seated) with Laura from Arts Uplift.
For further details about our group or help with transport arrangements to/from our meetings, please contact Gillian on 07947 893504, send an email to kcarers4carers@gmail.com, or explore our website www.carers4carersonthefosse.org.uk (new website under construction).
Nature Notes for August
At last the very hot temperatures are receeding. The obvious drought conditions still persist in the fields around our village, though. Crops and hay have been cut a month early and verges are tinder dry. I note that Jackdaws have left the village in flocks several times to forage. The Swifts had a good year, however, and have gone on return migration in early August. A few House martins remain but seem to be planning an early migration, too.
We are, however, getting quite a few migrants from a hotter southern Europe, notably Painted lady butterflies and a huge influx of Humming-bird Hawk moths, a true delight and reported nation wide. They are even laying eggs in some places - though will the resulting caterpillars survive our coming winter? Some spectacular moths have come to my light trap, notably Clifton nonpareil, convolvulus Hawk and red underwing. These are all large showy moths.
Buzzards have suffered from lack of water and several have been rescued in the local Area.
Now, if ever there were doubts about global warming they are being dispelled; it seems that this heat may return in forthcoming years too. I note that some birds and butterflies have fitted in an extra brood. Peacock butterflies might produce a third one, if their complete metamorphosis can beat the early frosts. Bumble bees are active although flowers are in short supply. Those of us who have kept them going by copious watering will have helped the bees last out the lack in general of pollen-bearing blossoms that have withered early.
What will autumn hold for us, I wonder? Many trees already shedding leaves and early fruiting. For example, my Fig tree is already heavily laden and a there is a great crop of Mulberries. I hesitate to speculate but we certainly live in changing times!
PLEASE do leave water in shallow dishes around the garden if possible: it will help birds (and even the odd vole or hedgehog) through these difficult times. Bernard Price
St Giles' Church Clock and War Memorial
The photograph shows parts of the village clock, which have been away since April for refurbishment by the Cumbria Clock Company. It includes the re-set bevel gears and newly painted rods which drive the four clock faces; also the re-painted pulley wheels which carry the cables between the drive weights and the clock mechanism and the re-painted hammer which strikes the bell. These were reassembled on 21st August and the clock is now fully operational again. Villagers will be aware that the clock was out of action for most of 2025 and the early part of 2026. This was largely due to the mis-alignment of the bevel gears because they had become very worn. The parish council therefore decided to organise the necessary repairs. As the clock is the village War Memorial, it has been maintained and repaired by the Parish Council since the demise of the village branch of the British Legion many decades ago.
It is good to see the correct time on all four dials and to hear the friendly striking of the hours once again. We are grateful to the Parish Council for their efforts and to those who endeavour to keep the Jackdaws and their debris away from the clock mechanism. Martin Phelps
Cover Picture
This month's cover celebrates the Church clock's glad return to village life: telling us the correct time on all its faces and chiming the hours for us when out of sight. We are grateful to those who keep it ticking over.
September Church Services
6th 9.30am Morning Service Gaydon
10.30am Holy Communion Burton Dassett
13th 9.30am Agape Service Gaydon
10.30am Morning Worship Northend
20th 3.00pm Holy Communion Gaydon
10.30am Morning Worship Northend
27th 9.30am Songs of Praise Gaydon
10.30am Morning Service Northend
Roman Catholic Mass
St Peter & St Paul 5.00pm Saturday Brailes
Our Lady & the Apostles 9.15am Sunday Shipston-on-Stour
St Francis of Assisi 11.00am Sunday Kineton
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
Obituary
It is with sadness that we report the death of Wayne Flowers on the 9th of August. We extend our sympathy to his family and friends. The funeral will be held at Oakley Wood Crematorium at 11.30am on Thursday 3rd September, with refreshments afterwards at Kineton Sports and Social club.
Something to Think about: Harvest Home
More than an inconvenience
We love complaining about the weather. Throughout this summer, conversations have begun with some variation of: “It’s too hot,” “The garden desperately needs rain,” or “I couldn’t sleep last night.”
After months of dry weather, lawns have turned brown, plants have struggled, and many of us have found the heat exhausting.
For most of us, the heat and lack of rain have been uncomfortable and inconvenient. For many farmers, however, they have been an economic disaster.
Across the country, crops have produced much lower yields than expected, while grass that would normally feed cattle and sheep has failed to grow. Some livestock farmers are eating into supplies of animal feed that were being saved for the winter, adding significantly to their costs and leaving them anxious about the months ahead.
Faced with problems on this scale, it is easy to feel powerless. None of us can make it rain. We cannot restore a failed crop or replenish a winter’s supply of animal feed. When we see the size of the challenge, what difference can we possibly make?
We may feel something similar when we hear that demand at our local foodbank is at record levels while donations have fallen and the warehouse shelves are running low. One extra tin or packet of food can seem hopelessly inadequate beside such enormous need.
The disciples must have felt something like that when Jesus asked them to feed a crowd of more than 5,000 people. They looked at the number of hungry people gathered around them and immediately recognised the impossibility of the task. All they had available were five loaves and two fish. What possible difference could so little make among so many?
But Jesus did not ask the disciples to produce enough food for the whole crowd. He asked them to bring what they had. Jesus received the loaves and fish, gave thanks for them, and somehow that little offering became enough to feed everyone.
We may look at the scale of the needs around us and conclude that what we have to offer could not possibly make a difference. But we are not responsible for meeting every need. We are simply invited to bring what we have and allow it to become part of a much larger response.
That principle reaches far beyond food. We may not be able to solve someone’s loneliness, grief or anxiety, but we can make a telephone call, offer a lift, cook a meal, listen for a few minutes or speak an encouraging word. Small acts of love do not solve every problem, but they can make a real difference to the person who receives them. When many people each offer something small, the combined effect can be greater than any of us imagine.
This harvest, there are two small but significant things we can do...
Firstly, please consider buying an extra item when you go shopping and leaving it in one of the foodbank collection boxes in our churches. We will be collecting food at our harvest services - but please don’t wait until then if you can give something now. One tin will not restock an empty warehouse, but it will help provide food for an individual or a family. Joined with hundreds of other small donations, it will become part of something much greater.
Harvest Thoughts continued:
Secondly, you can support people in farming by coming to our Charity Harvest Barn Dance at Kineton Sports and Social Club. It will be held on Friday 18 September and all the profits will go to the Farming Community Network, which provides practical and pastoral support to farmers and farming families during difficult times.
My prayer for us all this harvest is that we would notice those for whom changing weather, empty shelves and rising costs are not merely inconveniences, but serious threats to their livelihoods and wellbeing. Faced with needs greater than any one of us can meet, I pray we resist the temptation to think our contribution is too small. May we bring what we have (our food, our money, our time and our compassion) and trust that, joined with the offerings of others, it will make a greater difference than we can imagine. Rev. Barry Jackson
Gaydon Planning September Update
“Don’t Dream It’s Over” ? (by ‘Crowded Housing’ (Developments?)
Well, that didn’t last very long. We barely had time to catch breath to take in the new CEG reality. Along with ourselves, Derren Brown would have been equally wowed by the sleight of hand that conjured the CEG appeal result in their favour. Out of nothing.
Just when it was thought that the long-running magazine ‘Updates’ had been firmly affixed to the CEG debacle, it took less than a week for another contender, the South Warwickshire Local Plan (SWLP) to appear on the Gaydon ridges and demand our attention. Songs and their titles have a way of bypassing our rational selves and connecting directly with our emotions. I’m sure that many of us have ‘dreamed it’s over’ in the past 3 years. Some song titles almost mock us with their easy wisdom and guidance, such as “All You Need Is Gove” (But I might have misread that.) There’s no mistaking the appropriate title for the latest contender to try to transform Gaydon:
“Here, There and Everywhere.”
The meeting held on Tuesday 25th August in response to the SWLP attracted 40+ residents. It was a relatively subdued and serious affair, probably due in part to a sense that ‘here we go again’ - another monstrous imposition on the village without any concern for us who live here and are expected to voicelessly tolerate it. After 40 years of tolerating major commercial, road and housing developments - all within a mile of Gaydon - we do not qualify for NIMBY badges, so the meeting’s attention was focused on the ‘legality’ and the ‘soundness’ of the plan.
Most people are aware that we can’t be just ‘agin it’: we have to probe and uncover, with the dexterity of a surgeon, the questionable nature of what is being proposed for our community and then respond to their: Justification? Effectiveness? Preparation? How are these plans consistent with national policy? It was agreed that there would be feedback, before the 8th September, to those people who attended the meeting and left their email addresses. I will make available any insights I have researched relating to infrastructure (particularly flooding concerns). Space and deadline constraints governing this ‘Update’ means that I can only focus on a couple of issues at the moment: legality and the complete loss of Gaydon’s green buffers.
In the absence of some, let’s say, overseas crypto-billionaire financing (‘entirely legit, your honour!’) a high-court appeal against the inspector’s CEG decision, we have had to absorb the new reality of the situation and live with this very large cuckoo in the Gaydon nest. It provides the background, the canvas, upon which the 5 proposed housing sites and the show-peoples’ yard will be placed.
But, what do you know, the SWLP in all its words and maps doesn’t show CEG as existing on the fields of Gaydon! The signing-off of the SWLP happened in the days around the Inspector’s approval of CEG. It seems probable that the Gaydon section of the plan was formulated on the mistaken assumption that the unanimous opposition from the Council (SDC) and us to CEG meant that Gaydon would be clear and available for new developments to fulfil targets.
Did CEG exist or not exist in the minds of the planners when they drew up the SWLP? Their maps, plans and utterances are ambiguous about this. They cannot, retrospectively, choose whatever suits their purpose. This is one aspect which we have to challenge in our submissions.
This brings into question, massively, the legality of the current Gaydon SWLP proposals. Against this background, we would be at liberty to say to the SDC - in a nutshell, you’ve made a serious, (legal term) ‘unilateral mistake’ - perhaps we will ‘trade’ CEG for your show-people’s yard! After all, we have been told (meeting at Elizabeth House) that the gargantuan presence of CEG will put us 40% in excess (credit?) of Gaydon’s site needs for commercial development.
When you look at the ‘Technical Evidence’ section of the SWLP on its front page it contains headings/phrases such as ‘a beautiful and well-designed…a healthy and safe…biodiverse and environmentally resilient …South Warwickshire.’ (There is more…!). How can those noble aims square with the imposition of developments that will change the village into an urban sprawl? Residents may be shocked to know that the official separation between the settlement of Gaydon and GLH, according to SWLP maps, is a ‘massive’ 50 metres-wide strip which flashes by on the right-hand side (travelling north) known as Gaydon Coppice. One of the stated aims of the SWLP is to prevent ‘the coalescence of two distinct settlements.’ This narrow strip is meant to be a separation barrier between us and the commercial/industrial and GLH developments! Are they serious?
If they truly believe in the health and well-being of villagers, they should, in fact, be suggesting the provision of even more green spaces (post CEG) not removing the last green area represented by the Old Warwick Road triangle by proposing a repair yard and settlement. We must vigorously oppose this removal of this green ‘lung’ (and soakaway) in our submitted responses to the ‘soundness’ of the plan and, go further, and insist they attempt to secure this triangle of land for bio-diverse planting and a healthy environment for all villagers to use.
Why is the SWLP imposing a facility (the yard) that will store, repair and test some of the largest and most elaborate vehicles and equipment that exist outside of agricultural machinery? In the process, they will be chugging out diesel particulates and toxic micro-particles to rain down on the village homes below them. (Because that’s what gravity does - who knew?) Even if the site was operated by monks or nuns with strict vows of silence, it’s the air, noise and light pollution with a side order of increased flood risk that threatens the village.
For the above reasons, Gaydon residents and all those who support village life (not just the ‘chocolate box’ or ‘Hovis ad’ iterations) should oppose the excessive transformations proposed by the SWLP and negotiate a modified, reduced-scale plan. It is important that we have a high number of responses by 8th September. To do nothing is to risk the worst outcome that could happen. We should not leave it to fate, otherwise we succumb to (another song title!): “Que sera, sera: Whatever will be, will be…”
(BTW the SWLP will be discussed at the Tuesday, 7.30pm, 1st September Parish Council meeting.) Tony Hughes