NEWS ROUND

Wellesbourne & District Lions

June is here and lots of us are starting to look forward to our summer holidays. I certainly am and desperately hoping that the ash clouds will be kind in the airspace between the UK and Spain.

June is a busy month for us Lions. We will be taking part in this year's Wellesbourne Street Fayre which is due to take place on Saturday 5th June. I think we are owed a dry sunny day for this year's event!

Our big event is of course the raft race which takes place on Sunday 20th June. Between 50 and 100 Rafts set off in the morning from Wasperton and make their way down the river Avon to Stratford via two challenging weirs. Vessels range from expertly crafted formula one rafts to a few planks of wood strapped together over an array of plastic drums! Our charity this year is the Air Ambulance, a very worthy cause.

On 25th and 26th June we are heading over to Tesco in Leamington Town Centre, where we will be holding a bucket collection raising funds for local charities. We are extremely grateful to the Tesco management for giving us the opportunity.

I would like to remind you all that the club have a number of wheelchairs to loan out to people in need of some help. We have both manual and electric wheelchairs in stock at the moment.

Lion Andy Stokes

Once a year the National Federation of Women's Institutes sends a Resolution to HM Government on behalf of its members. The main business of the May meeting in Wellesbourne was to discuss the proposed resolution which was – “This meeting urges HM Government to introduce a clear and mandatory country of origin labelling on all meat, poultry and fish products sold in this country.”

Current labelling can be confusing since a product can be called “British” if it has only been cooked or packed here. It was felt that many people are concerned by the different standards of animal welfare and wish to know the real origins of food. A vote was taken and the motion to send the proposed resolution was carried unanimously.

With the serious part of the evening's activities over, members were given a culinary treat and invited to “taste the pudding”. Five members had each produced a delicious dessert and these were tasted and enjoyed by everyone. The talented cooks were thanked for their efforts – and asked for their recipes.

Wellesbourne in Bloom

We have been very busy completing the School Annex garden. With the help of the generous donations we received it is now looking fantastic. The gardening club have been very busy sowing and planting their vegetable seeds. Their new poly tunnel has arrived provided by Citadel Poly tunnels. We are doing a huge plant transfer from the library to the school and elsewhere in the village due to the new building works. We have also completed our project at Hastings Road in conjunction with the Parish Council and Orbit Heart of England Housing Association. It is now a lovely area with a bench and flower beds planted with grasses and heucheras.

Once again Scott the Fishmonger has given us a generous donation for which we are very grateful and we have received our annual grant from the Parish Council who are extremely supportive with our campaign and we appreciate all the help they give us. Finally some people were aware of daffodils being damaged on the Kineton Road. The persons responsible were found by PCSO Michelle. I received letters of apology and an offer to help Wellesbourne in Bloom.

Help they did, weeding extensively in the village centre and doing much more work than we would have been able to do. We hope we have some more helpers now as they enjoyed their gardening experience and were a brilliant help to us.
Mr McGrath the manager at the Co-op gave us lots of flower seeds for bees. The Co-op is joining the campaign to try and help save the bee with its “Plan Bee” campaign. The seeds were distributed around the village to the School, Pre-school, Brownies, the WI and the Allotment Society. The Allotment Society keeps bees on the allotments so they were very happy to plant some.

Thank you to everyone who has commented on the bulbs this year, although Wellesbourne in Bloom provide and plan where the bulbs should go it is the people of the community groups and individual members of the community who plant them. We had very few to plant ourselves. So it is a very big thank you to those who planted them in the Autumn: you deserve some praise too.

Heather Sims, Chairman, Wellesbourne in Bloom

Chedham's Yard

The Restoration gains momentum

New appointments for Chedham's Yard
Recently, the Parish Council appointed Border Oak as the named subcontractor responsible for the design, supply and erection of the timber visitor's building for the north end of the site.

We also welcome Emma Banks to the post of Heritage Project Officer for the next three years. Emma's job will be to organise the management of the yard once it is open, including recruiting and training of volunteers, involving the wider community, marketing the Yard, overseeing the displays and interpretation, arranging publicity and organising events. Emma writes:

“Let me introduce myself. My name is Emma Banks; I am the new Heritage Project Officer for Chedham's Yard. I will be coming to Wellesbourne in May after working as Heritage & Learning Manager at Saint Nicolas Place in Kings Norton, Birmingham. Saint Nicolas Place was also a winner of the BBC 2 Restoration programme in 2004.

I am originally from Birmingham but spent four years away at university, firstly at Cardiff University where I did a History degree and then a year in Nottingham completing a Masters in Museum & Heritage Management. I have also previously worked at Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery and The Black Country Living Museum.

In my spare time I enjoy going to music festivals such as Glastonbury and getting away to the countryside. There is nothing quite like a walk in the fresh air (and of course the tea & cake at the end of the day!)”

Progress report
In March the Parish Council finalised the agreement with the Heritage Lottery Fund to fund Stage 2 of the Project. HLF will be providing up to £780,000 and BBC Restoration will provide another £160,000.

With this agreement in place, work has started in earnest on the detailed planning of the project. The architects, Brownhill, Hayward and Brown, have been visiting the Yard regularly to finalise the details of the work required on the existing buildings and, at the end of April, presented their final drawings to the Parish Council.

At the same time, work is ongoing to plan the details of the new building, including the heating system, electrical and plumbing requirements. A significant element of the planning is to use sustainable technology wherever practical, so it is planned to install solar panels on the roof to the wheelwright's building to generate electricity, a ground source heat pump to provide heating and to install two composting toilets rather than have mains drainage.

Visit by Restoration Trustees
In May, the members of the BBC Restoration Trust held their regular meeting in Wellesbourne. Whilst they were here, they were taken to see the work being done by the Friends on the artefacts, and made a short visit to the Yard itself.