Skip to content

Village News

Thanks from Blewbury School

February 7, 2020

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.

Project Resound: Latest News

June 20, 2019

The full scheme of window, banners and lighting is now successfully installed in St Michael’s and only a few finishing touches are left to complete the project.

The window was blessed by the Bishop of Dorchester during a special service on 7th January and in celebration, the Westminster Abbey Company of Ringers completed a full peal of Stedman on Blewbury bells (that’s 5040 distinct changes of the ringing order of the bells made continuously over 3 hours).  The window and dedication event were featured on Radio Oxford and also in the Oxford Times.  We hope that everyone has now had the opportunity to see the full window scheme illuminated from both the outside and inside of the church and enjoy its reflections and colours.

We have raised £77,600 (as of 7th February) and we are currently projecting for the project to come in slightly under budget at £78,000.

Sale of artefacts from Edwardian Stained Glass

There are now only a few remaining Edwardian Glass panels available to order before the artifacts are sent to David Harber’s workshop for framing next week.  This is the final chance!

The rectangular glass panels (42x29cm approx) are being upcycled as follows:

  1. In an unpolished, antique brown bronze crush fold frame, enclosed in a circle of unpolished, antique brown bronze with two hanging points. £450.
  2. In an unpolished, antique brown bronze crush fold frame only. £310.
  3. Unframed £250.

David Harber will provide an unpolished, antique brown bronze plaque for each type of panel which will be engraved with date and details, a Latin motto, the number of the panel and David’s engraved signature.

There are also a few smaller/irregular pieces left and you can find out more from Gill Loyd on gillianloyd@gmail.com or call her on 01235 850459.

JustGiving https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/Resound.

Thank you for all of your support during the last 18 months

Project Resound Team

Community Speedwatch

September 19, 2019

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

Blewbury Table Tennis Club

September 25, 2019

Our weekly Club Sessions are every Tuesday from 6-8pm in the Blewbury Village Hall. These are open to players of all standards, and we welcome visitors. We have four tables, bats & balls and can provide coaching if required.

We would love to welcome some additional players this winter. Our aim is to have fun and be as inclusive as possible for anyone who would like to give it a try.

Any first visit to the Club is free. After that our weekly playing fees are £3 for Adults and £1 for those 18 and under.

From Tuesday 5th November we will be launching a Blewbury School After-School KS2 Table Tennis Club. This will meet each week during term time from 3:15 – 4:15pm. Blewbury School pupils can sign up now at the School Office.

A Milestone in Local Conservation

August 26, 2019

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.”

Blewbury app

August 27, 2019

HELP NEEDED TO SUPPORT THE BLEWBURY APP

It’s been a year since the Blewbury app launched and it currently has 500+ registered users – a mix of current & former residents, people from neighbouring villages and others with connections to the village. While the app largely self-manages, and we add new people every week, overall usage is unfortunately declining. To improve, it needs greater attention than I’m able to give and I’m looking for help in two areas.

First, I’m looking for someone to help with editorial, a point person to work with the Bulletin team and the village’s clubs and societies to get more content in the news feed and update the events list. The team at the Bulletin have been supportive but are too busy to take this on too. Currently I rely on those already in the habit of publishing to the app, but I believe others will post more often if the audience is there. The community self-moderates and doesn’t need policing; this is about getting content into the app, not deleting posts.

Secondly, I need someone to help with technical support; working with the team at Disciple (who host the app) to address any technical issues, and support people with simple things like password resets and logins. I currently do very little of this but my expectation is, if more people use the app more often, this will be required.

I will remain involved (not least as my company currently pays for the app’s running costs, and is responsible for data-compliance) – I’m just in need of some extra help. My guess is that each role need only take up to a few hours each week, as & when you can. Both roles are technically simple and you will get help from myself and others. The platform is simple to use with basic training.

This may appeal to anyone interested in media and marketing (practical experience like this can look good on CVs) or anyone in our community open to taking on something new. While I expect many others also want the app to succeed, I’m aware people are incredibly busy, and the community-minded are often called on to support other projects and take on more – which is why I have split this into two roles. I’m also aware that people may not want to be saddled with a job ‘forever’ so I’m only looking for an initial commitment until the end of the year. If you’re interested or have any questions, please email me at blewburycommunity@gmail.com. Thanks so much. Matt Phillips