Ampney Crucis Ampney St Mary Ampney St Peter
The Ampney Times
October/November 2005
Ampney Crucis Cinema
Wednesday 12 October, 7.30 pm The Interpreter, Cert 12A.. Political intrigue and deception unfold inside the United Nations, where a US Secret Service agent is assigned to investigate an interpreter who overhears an assassination plot. Ampney Crucis Village Hall £2.50 at the door. Bring cushions (chairs are hard!). Refreshments available.
Wednesday 9 November, 7:30pm. Film to be announced. Look for posters in the village. Refreshments available. Bring cushions.
Enquiries to Anne Bridges É 652471
Christmas Bazaar
Advance notice that a Christmas Bazaar in aid of Ampney Crucis Church will be held on 3 December, 2.00 pm, Ampney Crucis Village Hall. All gifts gratefully received at the hall from 11.00am. Contact Paddy Thompson 851619 for details.
Wine Tasting
Wine tasting with Roger from Oddbins. Saturday 26 November, 7:30pm, Ampney Crucis Village Hall. Tickets £7.50 from Anne BridgesÉ652471 or Beryl Dunford É851341.
Special church services
23 October, 5.30pm On this Trafalgar weekend, the Harvest Festival will celebrate the harvest of Ampney Crucis history with traditional harvest hymns in Ampney Crucis Church. A harvest supper (a light meal of finger food) will follow at about 6.30pm in Ampney Crucis Village Hall. There is no charge and all are welcome.
13 November 1040am Remembrance Day Service at the war memorial, Ampney Crucis
27 November is the first Sunday of Advent, beginning the pre-Christmas season. There will be a Carol Service at 3.00pm for everyone in Ampney Crucis Church. Come and set Christmas off to a good start together.
Her Majesties Pleasure
Come and hear medieval Christmas music and carols by candlelight, performed by Her Majesties Pleasure on instruments of the period in Ampney Crucis Church on Friday, 2 December, 7.30pm. Admission is £5.00 at the door on the night of the concert. Proceeds will be divided between church funds and the Cirencester Early Music Festival. Future concerts in the spring are being planned for Ampney St Mary.
Ampney Crucis School Report
The school is off to a good start, welcoming several new families and we are delighted now to have a total of 80 pupils.
We are in full swing with our new garden plans. We have a fantastic new tunnel to play in and our garden furniture has been given a face lift, all thanks to local help. Now the children will be landscaping and planting the garden. We hope soon to be selling plants and produce.
However we desperately need help to get started. Can you spare an odd hour or do you have spare gardening equipment, from greenhouses to trowels or gardening books? When you are dividing plants or sowing seed and have surplus please drop them at school or if you would like them collected ring Myra Bye on (851605. We are particularly keen to encourage wildlife so want lots of hardy flowers.
Several children participated in the annual Historic Churches Cycle Ride and had a great time! Thank you to all those who sat at churches and welcomed us on our journey and provided much needed refreshments. It is too soon to know the total raised.
Save the children
Christmas cards and gifts this year will be available at the Charity Bazaar in the Cornhall on Tuesday 15 November
Neighbourhood Watch/Rural Beat
Our Neighbourhood Watch Officer, David Bragg, has recently issued a news sheet and other information to our parishes. David is now the Gloucestershire Constabulary representative to the Regional Neighbourhood Watch Association.
He included a farewell message from our Rural Beat Officer, George Lager who thanks us all for the thoughtful messages sent during his convalescence. George is now the Firearms Licensing Officer based at Fairford so he will still be seen around the area. Meanwhile, George asks that we no longer use his direct or mobile number. We will be advised when a new appointment is made.
The information from David is available from your local Neighbourhood Watch Co-ordinator and includes an update on the named police contacts, their locations and telephone numbers. It also refers to the local car radio campaign and police support of the recommended ICE “In Case of Emergency” approach with mobile telephone address lists.
The South Cotswold Rural Adviser is able to offer help and advice to all the rural parishes within her area. This involves:
· Funding Advice for a project that you are trying to get off the ground.
· Help with applications for the Rural Initiative Fund which GRCC helps to administer
· Project management advice
· Help with starting a parish plan or other community consultation
· Helping to identify need within your community and then suggesting ways of addressing it, i.e. proving the need for Affordable Housing, or generating support for a village shop.
· Putting you in touch with other organisations who can answer your questions.
For assistance please contact Melanie Tarrant on ( 01452 528491
Lucy Champion
Lucy has decided to leave Ampney Crucis and move back to Bristol. She managed to meet up with most of her old friends before she left but has asked if, through these columns, she could say a farewell to all those she couldn’t.
She would be very pleased to hear from them – her number in Bristol is ( 0117 968 7748
Recording Ampney Crucis Church- Ben Woods
At the morning service at Ampney Crucis Church on 7 August, the congregation, represented by Paddy Thompson (in the absence of John Ducker, the Churchwarden), received a record of the contents of the church. During the winter of 2003-4 members of the Cirencester Decorative and Fine Arts Society had visited the church every week as part of a NADFAS (National Association of Decorative and Fine Arts Societies) project to record the contents of parish churches throughout England. They wrote descriptions, took measurements, made drawings and took photographs of all the contents, including windows, metalwork, textiles, stonework, memorials, library, woodwork, paintings and the organ.
Their record shows the materials used and the date when an item was made and introduced into the church. Members of the group also carried out research in order to identify, where possible, details of makers, donors and the history of items or of the families associated with them. The result is an invaluable historical account of all those features which make the parish church so beautiful and so memorable. It will be celebrated as part of the Harvest Festival, to which everyone is invited, on 23 October at 5.30pm.
As was announced in the previous edition of The Ampney Times, the idea of a new annual directory of village organisations is proposed. It would contain details of all the administrative, sports and social organisations which cover the three villages with details of the main contacts (chair, secretaries etc). It would also contain maps of the three villages.
If you would like your organisation to be included, please contact Elisabeth Gerver on (850508 by 31 December with details of your email address, address and telephone number.
There have been some enquiries about whether or not it is intended to republish the Village Directory which contains details of all addresses in the village, with telephone numbers in most cases. It is not an attractive proposition; the rate of change in Ampney Crucis alone would soon render any directory out of date and there are some issues of Data Protection which would be difficult to overcome.
Alfred Carman
Many of you will know Alf as one of the historical characters of our community. He died peacefully in his sleep at the end of August following a period when Alf was unable to be as active as he had been until recently. Nevertheless, all of us probably remember his stories from yesteryear about life in the Cotswolds and more recently the goings on at The Old Packhorse Inn. These covered at least 50 years in the Ampneys but much longer for his family at the Packhorse and at Chedworth. Our heartfelt condolences go to Joyce and to Myra and Ian Bye and their sons, Seth and Jed. Alf used to amuse his grandsons with many tales of daring-do and country mores and wisdom. He will be much missed by us all who have been enriched by knowing him.
The Moor
Following the usual careful haymaking by Reuben Smith we are also indebted once again to Dr Wilfried Bechtolsheimer for his staff topping the regrowth before the traditional Car Boot (Toff’s). Many thanks therefore to Frank Halliday for keeping an eye on what was needed. Work has since continued on the southern drainage ditch and the dam/barrier.
Thanks to the good housekeeping and the recovery of the overgrown areas the Moor now accommodates many more vehicles than previously. It is also being used far more and is proving to be an attractive walking area for both villagers and neighbours.
The Toff’s car boot
This was held on Bank Holiday Monday the 29th August and was an outstanding success. It was masterminded again this year by Joan Sparkes and her merry band of helpers. £1,920 was raised and will be divided between the Churches of Ampney St Peter and St Mary with a donation going to the Cirencester Hospital. 113 Boots came this year compared with 106 in 2004. The helpers and their families enjoyed a well deserved BBQ on the Moor once the cleaning up had been done.
Africa appeal
The children of Ampney St Peter held a concert in the Church and raised £151.00 for the above appeal.
A417
The Sunhill Composting saga is again covered elsewhere in this publication. In parallel with the road traffic considerations that the composting proposals (and the appeal) raise; there are also the two parallel initiatives:
· The reclassification of the A417 (AtoB campaign).
· The re-assignment of the route to allow lorry usage for access and diversionary purposes only.
Since the issue date of the last Ampney Times, Cllr Malcolm Berry reported that progress had been made on the AtoB campaign and that there had been favourable reactions. Since then we have received a consultative letter and have referred in our response to our earlier comments on the Gloucestershire Local Transport Plan and the linkage with the comments, that had been co-ordinated with all affected Parishes, on the Lorry Advisory Map for Gloucestershire. Key extracts from our response are:
Since the earlier submissions we have unfortunately experienced attempts by local and national interests to enforce even greater volumes of lorry traffic on this route despite the high incidence of traffic accidents known to locals, but in many cases not recorded by the police. It is therefore imperative that the proposed action be initiated urgently to avoid a serious crisis arising with much more extensive implications.
Finally, we would draw your attention to the need to liase with Oxfordshire regarding the A417 between Lechlade and Faringdon. In order that proper restrictive signing could be installed at entrances along the route it will be essential that its whole length be reclassified. You are already aware that the section in Oxfordshire is assigned a lorry route status restricted to access only. To be effective, the same status would have to apply in Gloucestershire. Without these actions we doubt if the satellite navigation data bases would be changed.”
We hope that this approach along with the joint actions with the other Parishes will at last bring about the only sensible resolution. Meanwhile, please observe new signs on the southbound lane of the A419/417 at the Bibury road turnoff. They inform HGV’s bound for Faringdon to use the A419 and A420. (EUREKA!)
Ampney Crucis Paris Council news
Deferred meeting
The regular meeting of the Parish Council scheduled for 12 September was put off for two weeks due to the absence of four Councillors due to work and holiday commitments. There were a number of important items on the agenda and it was considered better to delay things until a full meeting of the Council could be arranged
Allotments
A number of residents in Ampney Crucis have approached the Parish Council regarding the possibility of providing allotments. Clearly, land is the main problem but the Parish Council is investigating what options are available.
Drivers take care!
Reports have come in that two cats have been run over and killed in two separate incidents over the last month. Both incidents were on the Village Street and close to the school. There is nothing to suggest that the loss of these family pets was specifically due to speeding but there is a growing belief that an increasing number of drivers are ignoring the fact that there is a 30 m.p.h. limit in the village.
The Village Street is narrow with many parked cars so, even within the speed limit, please drive carefully.
Drains again
It’s the time of year when the leaves start falling and the drains can become blocked. If everyone with a road drain near to their property took just a few minutes to move the leaves away from the gratings, it could ensure that the drains don’t become blocked when the rain finally does come
Sunhill
The situation continues to develop and get more confusing. There are now three applications being processed that relate to the proposed Sunhill composting facilities. The first of these is an appeal against the ‘non-determination’ of the original application (i.e. a direct request that the application is decided by the Planning Inspectorate on the grounds that it has dragged on longer than the time generally allowed for such applications). The Parish Council has written to the Planning Inspector requesting that the appeal be dismissed on two grounds:
o The application received objections from a number of Parish Councils, Town Councils and the District Council and the ‘delay’ is a reflection of the democratic process.
o The consultants instructed to report on the application commented that it had a number of shortcomings and contained comments that would be difficult to substantiate. In the Parish Council’s view, this made it an application on which a decision could not be determined with any confidence.
The remaining applications are a temporary application for the composting of ‘green waste’ (i.e. garden waste) and a revised application for the composting of both green waste and ‘mixed organic waste (i.e. kitchen waste). These applications will be discussed at the meeting of the Parish Council on 26 September.
Ampney St Mary News –
Nicoll Ferguson
Sad news
Michael Tranter died unexpectedly, recently. He will be remembered with great affection by all who knew him, particularly on his quad bike doing his early morning rounds. His co-driver was his Springer, Snoopy, who also died peacefully recently in her basket and will be remembered for her expertise in driving the quad bike. Our heartfelt sympathy is extended to his daughter Christine, Mark, and his two granddaughters whom he loved so much.
A departure and an arrival
Farewell to the Oldham family, who have been with us for many years. We shall miss Peter and Fiona, and David and Katherine, both of whom were born in the village – so to speak.
Welcome to Mike and Ann Speed, who are the new residents of The Hill Oak.
Dogs
I am reluctant to use this journal to raise this issue, but I have sufficient concern expressed to persuade me to do so.
While most dogs are well behaved and under control, there are a few owners who could take more care. There are two issues. One is that of control, lack of which can result in random fouling, particularly on other people’s property. The other is prolonged barking. In both cases there are regulations which no one wants to be invoked. To those to whom these comments apply, would they please take more care. I draw attention to a notice on the subject, posted on the parish notice board.
.
Cricket club news - Phil Gearing
The cricket team finished the league campaign on a high with a resounding victory over Badminton. We scored over 300 runs and got them out for less than 100. This victory coupled with South Cerney's defeat at the hands of Sherston saw the club gain promotion after all!! We also beat Andoversford and had a cancellation against NATS. Our only defeat in August was away to Badminton on a dodgy wicket. The Sunday team had several close matches and welcomed young talent to their ranks. The season ends with a local derby against Barnsley, which is always sad as we now have a long wait for next season to come around!!"
In September the gardening club had a fascinating talk on plant propagation by Mr Geissler. He demonstrated seed growing and cutting techniques. We felt that there would never be a need to go to a garden centre again as propagation was so easy. Mr Geissler was so very experienced that he made it look easy. One had the feeling that if he planted a broom handle it would grow into a Brush.
Mobile Police Station
The mobile police station, with PC Reuben Wyatt, will visit the Ampneys, at these times (approximately)
A Crucis A St M A St P
4 October 1245 1300 1400
29 October 1245 1300 1400
7 November 1245 1300 1400
19 November 1245 1300 1400
É07734 068276
_______________________________________________________________________________________
Advertisements
Personal ads cost £1 per advert per issue. Local businesses may place an ad (£5) or sponsor an issue (£15).
Please contact David Vessey ((851438) for details.
|
|
Social Events
Ampney and District Royal British Legion Women’s Section
Usually meets monthly Tuesdays Ampney Crucis Village Hall 2.00 pm unless otherwise noted.
18 October Annual general meeting and sale table.
Contact Janet Gibbs É851227
Bingo
5 October, 16 November (Poppy Appeal) Ampney Crucis Village Hall, doors open 7.00 pm; eyes down 7.30pm.
Whist
11 October, 8 November, the Pop Inn, Cirencester, 7.30pm.
Both events are organised by the Ampney and District Royal British Legion Women’s Section.
Sixties Club
Meets Mondays Ampney Crucis Village Hall 2.00 pm unless otherwise noted.
3 October Harvest meeting
17 October Autumn tints to Salisbury and Wilton; departure time to be notified
31 October, 12 for 1230 Fish and chips lunch, followed by quiz
14 November Christmas shopping trip to Worcester; departure time to be notified
28 November Film show by Mr Norman Whereat.
Contact Paddy or Peggy Thompson É851619
Women’s Institute
Meets monthly Thursdays Ampney Crucis Village Hall 7.30 pm unless otherwise noted
27 October Deep Sea Fishermen’s Mission, a talk by Tim Mowat
24 November Quiz night and annual meeting.
Contact Sonja Payne É850267
Ampneys Gardening Club
Meets monthly Thursdays Ampney Crucis Village Hall 7.00 pm to 9.00 pm unless otherwise noted.
20 October The National Gardens Scheme, a talk by Mrs Stella Martin
17 November Fuchsias, a talk by Mr C S Lockyer
Contact Joyce Cutts É 851540
Mothers’ Union
Meets monthly at various venues and times; everyone is welcome.
6 October 2.30 pm, The Old Vicarage, Poulton, Pauline Compton speaking about her role as a Counsellor.
3 November 2.30 pm Waterton Farm House, Sybil Wakeley talking about her time at
Bletchley Park and the Enigma machine.
All are welcome to both events. Please let Diana Price 851689 or Rosemary Franklin know if you are coming and are not a member.
Contact Rosemary Franklin É654282
Youth Club
The club is open to all children in years 2 to 6 who live in Ampney Crucis and/or who attend Ampney Crucis School. If you are interested in your child/ren joining or for more information, please contact Rosanna Armitage 850005.
|
Copy deadline for next issue (Christmas): Thursday 15 December 2005
Send to Elisabeth Gerver, Cider Orchard, Ampney Crucis, Gloucestershire GL7 5RY
( 850508
Editors: David Vessey, Elisabeth Gerver, Christine Cridford, Terry Bloxham
Produced by Ampney Crucis Parish Council for the information of residents of the three villages. No liability can be accepted by the Council or Councillors or the Parish meeting Chairmen for any losses, however caused, arising from this publication