NEWS ROUND-UP

Picture Perfect

The Big Draw 2010

As part of the national Big Draw initiative to get people drawing and being creative, Chedham's Yard held an event at the Methodist Hall on Saturday 9^th October – many villagers came to join in the fun and helped create the Chedham's Yard Big Picture.

The picture is made up of 30 different A4 paintings by children and adults alike to recreate a photograph by Darren Coilli-Lynch.

Lots of other activities were also taking place on the day and many people also stopped by to make recycling sculptures and decorated plant pots and planted bulbs.

Can you identify these objects?

These are among the five thousand or so artefacts that have been cleaned, restored and catalogued by the Friends of Chedham's Yard in the last two years. It has been a mammoth task and all the artefacts originally rescued from the yard have now been treated.

The job does not stop there however – more artefacts are still being recovered from the yard and these are being taken to the store and treated as well. At the same time, John and Rena McKenzie, with the help of Roy Garbett, are systematically photographing every item and these are two examples of their work.

Wellesbourne District Guiding celebrated the end of Girlguiding's centenary year at an event on the 20^th October. The girls and their leaders joined Rainbows, Brownies, Guides and adult volunteers from across the UK to renew their promises at 20:10 20/10 2010. This followed an evening of fun challenges and looking back at all the exciting activities that have taken place throughout the centenary year.

Wellesbourne Rainbows also held a very special Tea Party to say farewell to their leader “Foxglove”, Liz Walker, who has retired after running Rainbows in the village for many, many years. She has given her time and energy tirelessly to give so many girls the start to their Guiding life, as well as being involved with Guiding in many other ways. We would all like to say a huge “Thank You” to her for everything that she has done.

If you have a couple of hours to spare each week and would like to get involved with Guiding as we move into our next century, please contact Kate Skinner on 01789 842148, for more information.

First of all apologies for an incorrect email for our email co-ordinator, very careless of me. It should read andy@smithdom.force9.co.uk; do send him an email NOW if you would like to be on the email list and kept up to the minute on the latest scams etc. A couple of things to bring to your attention this month. The market in scrap metal is at an all time high, consequently merchants are constantly driving around touting for goods. Most are legal and above board, but the “cowboys” are becoming a nationwide problem. They will pick up anything they can lay their hands on without you even noticing before it is too late. Recently some valuable metal garden pots disappeared from a garden in Wellesbourne and this may have been the reason. SO bring on the famous and effective Smart Water and mark your precious goods. A dot here and there could catch the thief and a few well placed signs can act as a very sure deterrent. Special NW price of £15 available from myself (details below). Speeding vehicles though the village are a worry to us all and there is now an opportunity for you to help. Community Speed Watch is a Community Forum-driven initiative whereby you can volunteer to be trained in the use of the speed gun, just part of what could become a village scheme with Forum support, to really make a difference to the way fast traffic can affect our village. Initially we are looking for just five more volunteers. More information from PCSO Claire Murray 444600 or claire.murray@warwickshire.pnn.police.uk .

Note the next Community Surgery is in the Wellesbourne shopping precinct Wednesday 10th November. All welcome.

Frankie Stuart, Chairman Neighbourhood Watch 841819 frankiestuart@virginmedia.com

WALTON NEWS

I am writing this on a warm October Sunday - 10-10-10 - with the sun a silver disc in the misty sky giving us the hope that this is the promised extension of a summer that seemed to peter out somewhere back in July. Autumn in all its mellowness is a beautiful time of year, always tinged with a little nostalgia which can be aroused by the sight of conkers lying on the ground in their split green shells - to take them out and feel their smooth shiny-ness in the palm of my hand takes me right back to childhood. I am reminded too of the days when, as soon as we got back from school, my sister and I would rush out into the garden to try and catch the falling leaves - we somehow seemed to think that for every one we caught we would be assured a happy month in the year to come.

Recently a cousin, a grand daughter of Lilian, the third daughter of Sir Charles Mordaunt, came to visit me and I was able to show her photographs of her grandmother and her father Tony Hall as a child. He was in the Fleet Air Arm and she does not remember him as he died during the Second World War. Like the rest of us, she feels very grateful to Sir Charles's eldest daughter Adela who was not only an inveterate photographer, but most importantly put the photographs into albums and wrote down the names of all the people - something we must all remember to do for the benefit of future generations. The albums give such a vivid picture of life at the turn of the last century - the amateur dramatics, the parties, the boating on the lake, croquet and cricket and tennis on the lawns in front of the Hall. I was told that when old Lady Mordaunt emerged from the house - she dressed in black for fifty years after the death of her husband - everything had to stop and the tennis players lined up to shake hands with her as if she were royalty. How times have changed!

It may seem as if not much goes on in Walton these days but the Festival of Talents which was held in the Church gave an insight into the many activities and talents of the parishioners. In particular Dot Entwistle's costumes for the Civil War Sealed Knot Society caused much admiration. These included the wedding dress worn by her daughter which was backed up by photographs showing the bride emerging from the church after the ceremony to a guard of honour under an archway of raised pikes.

The last of this year's many weddings has now been and gone, and already some newlyweds have come back to a service to tell us about their wonderful visit to Mexico after the wedding. Many brides and grooms have expressed their gratitude to Kate and the other clergy, to the regular churchgoers who have welcomed them to services before their weddings and particularly to Ken who gives so unstintingly of his energy especially making sure that the banns are called on time! Now we are getting to know next year's couples, like the ones who joined us today who had got up at six thirty and travelled down from London to arrive in plenty of time for the nine o'clock service.

Just a reminder of the Christmas Fair at the Watermill on Wednesday 3 November from 10.30am to 2pm. We are hoping that the Walton ensemble will be giving their concert in the Church on Saturday 11th December - more details in next month's News.

EH