Our local composer in residence, Richard Blackford, not only writes beautiful music; now he films it too!

For his first foray behind the camera, he has produced a seven-minute introduction to his recent piece for piano and cello, Blewbury Air. “This is a love song to the village of Blewbury, where I’ve lived for many years,” says Richard as he cuts between beautiful shots of village wildlife and scenes from the studio where his composition was recorded by pianist Adrian Farmer and cellist Rafael Wallfisch.

Blewbury Air has three movements: On the Water’s Edge, Incantation with Bells, and The Wind in the Branches. While  these are all strongly contrasted in mood, Richard says that “they have an overall lyrical, positive and sunny – sometimes playful – feel”.

To watch the film, click here.

In the words of Eric Idle from the gospel according to Monty Python ‘Some things in life are bad, they can really make you mad, but always look on the bright side of life!’

None of us have ever experienced anything like this before but experience is something you don’t get until just after you need it. This is a time when we realise who our true friends are, those people who know you well but like you anyway. Blewbury has come up trumps in this time of adversity and talking of trumps, try telling Melania that social distancing is a bad thing.

Yes, even in Blewbury there are acute shortages caused by panic buying of avocados and goji berries and millennials shooting a line of bread flour but there are alternatives. Find something small and barely alive, put it on top of rice and strap it up with insulation tape – bingo, sushi! Or a cabbage from Savages, you know, that vegetable that’s as big and as wise as a man’s head. Going back to The Life of Brian – what did the Romans ever do for us, well they brought us tinned tomatoes, that’s what.

As well as bringing the community closer together, there have been other spin-offs, some good some bad. I no longer have to have as many meetings, where minutes are kept and hours are lost. Skipping the twentieth century we have embraced the twenty-first by having a Parish Council Zoom meeting which was ‘interesting’. But I have to say that I miss my twice weekly walk to the Blueberry with my mate Elphin for a couple of pints of Guinness, other makes of dark frothy beverages are available. This in spite of it now coming out of cans and brought to life with a vibrator. We would saunter along Watery Lane with his little legs trying to keep up in spite of doing four hundred Fitbit steps every hundred metres. He follows Ogden’s Law which states that the sooner you fall behind, the longer you have to catch up. But if I am inspired by anyone at this time to ‘always look on the bright side’ it is Elphin. In spite of a pretty ropey year before this mess he has still managed to come up with cartoons to amuse himself and others as he self isolates in Longridge, his house (see picture above).

So, no negativity. If we are all sensible, this will soon be a bad dream.  Chris Lakeland

Thank you so much to everyone who has contributed to the fundraising events over the past two years that has enabled the PTA to purchase new playground equipment for the school.

Special thanks to Lydia Inglis for her sponsored half marathon and for the kind donation from the Ratpack event. It is fantastic to finally have the climbing frame in place and it is fair to say that it has been a huge success with the children which makes it all worth while. We are continuing to fundraise and look for grants to support the school and further improve the outside space and support the curriculum.

Our next big event is ColourFest on SATURDAY 16th MAY. We will be running the fantastic colour 5K course as well as expanding the event this year to an amazing bar, delicious BBQ and live music bands. This will run throughout the afternoon and into the evening and will be a great event for ALL the village. Please save the date.

Have you been in the village and witnessed drivers travelling at excessive speeds? Would you like to join a team of volunteers to ‘encourage’ these drivers to slow down?

Community Speedwatch is a national initiative where members of local communities, supported by the Police, monitor speeds of vehicles using speed detection devices. Vehicles exceeding the speed limit are referred to the Police with the aim of educating drivers to slow down.

We have several volunteers but we need more, so if you could spare a couple of hours every couple of months please consider signing up. We also need to raise at least £3000 to pay for the equipment.  This could be from donations or:

• each household could pay an additional small premium on the council tax to pay for this, for one year only
• Oxfordshire CC could fund the equipment in lieu of more expensive traffic calming infrastructure
• we could share the cost and equipment with Upton and Harwell, who have expressed interest.

Any other thoughts as to how we raise the money or expressions of willingness to join us will be most welcome.

For more information and to register please visit the website https://www.communityspeedwatch.org/, select ‘Join Existing Group’ from the left hand side of the webpage and look for Oxfordshire, then Didcot – Blewbury Speedwatch Group, or contact Jill Ingoldby on 07824 552562 /jingoldby@btinternet.com

Almost two years after being broken in half by a person or persons unknown, Blewbury’s historic Grade II listed milestone, now fully restored, has been returned to its rightful place at the western end of the village.

Marking the distance from Reading to the east (15 miles) and Wantage to the west (9 miles), the near quarter-tonne triangular milestone from the old Harwell & Streatley Turnpike has languished in Savages’ car park while an affordable solution for its repair and return was explored. Responding to a social media post and an article in the November 2018 Bulletin, stonemason Ryan Morris, from Aston Upthorpe, volunteered his services free of charge and has restored the stone to the required conservation standards.

Howard Ward, who wrote the articles, has nothing but praise for Ryan’s work, and for the help and cooperation of the Milestone Society, Savages and local highways and conservation officers. “It was a complete pleasure watching a skilled stonemason at work”, says Howard, “He made everything he did look so easy. In fact, the whole team effort, involving experts in their various fields, has been a joy to see.”

Special thanks are due to four other people involved in the project, as well as the stonemason himself:

Emily Karau, the Conservation and Design Officer for South Oxfordshire and Vale of White Horse District Councils, was one of the first people to respond to the appeal for help and, although being subject to quite a long spell of illness, managed to keep her eye on the Milestone over and above of her normal work.

Derek Turner, of the Milestone Society, provided chapter and verse on regulations, as well as information on what the Milestone Society expected when repairing, repositioning and replacing the Blewbury Milestone.

Richard Savage gave sanctuary to the broken milestone while awaiting repair: “I don’t know what would have happened if Richard had not given his permission for it to be kept and restored on his property,” says Howard.

And finally, Mark Francis of OCC Highways was responsible for the Milestone’s journeys to and from the Highways Depot, and arranged the crane and crew for removing it from Savages to its original position alongside the A417.

Asked how he felt to see his appeal finally achieving a result, Howard said “I am simply happy that the milestone is back home.”