There is a Sustainable Blewbury Repair Cafe on Sunday 30th June, 2 to 4pm.
Do make use of our bike repairers. They are very good, and completely free on the Sunday. If you need something complicated done, you will need to pay for the replacement parts. Jo Lakeland
BlewShed products: have been very popular this month and sales of garden trugs in particular have been booming at Savages. One of our range, a horseshoe handled wooden tray, was even posted on Blewbury Village Society’s FaceBook page by its proud new owner! As with all our products this was made from useful and valuable materials that would otherwise have been binned or burned. The horseshoes were salvaged from our village farrier’s skip and most of the wood from broken or non-returnable pallets from Savages or local building projects. With a bit of work such items can be repurposed for useful and attractive items. If any of you have been disappointed because items have sold out at Savages, please be patient as we are currently catching up with demand and you can always place an order for them either with Savages or with BlewShed when we are open.
DIY for beginners: Our next DIY workshops are in planning and will focus on helping DIY beginners with their individual projects using techniques they learned over the winter. More experienced members have been using the workshop facilities for progressing their own projects of varying levels of ambition ranging from a replica ‘Studley’ tool chest, making replacement boat parts, designing electronic measuring devices, renovation of a late grandfather’s tool chest, restoration of antique tools, carving traditional wooden spoons and many other items.
Community Projects: Recently BlewShed made and fitted a replacement turned wooden handle for the Blewbury Allotments Association garden roller, and several new projects are currently being planned, more news later.
Meetings: Members enjoyed a convivial social evening at the Blueberry and those who attended agreed this should be repeated more often. Watch this space. The next BlewShed club night will be Tuesday 11th June, 7.30pm at BlewShed, when member Mike Wrottesley will give a talk on rocking horses. All welcome.
BlewShed opening times and membership: Tuesday, Friday and Saturday afternoons 1.30-4.00 pm and Thursday afternoons 2.00-4pm for electronics, non-dusty work and a chat. BlewShed annual membership subs are £25 for individuals, or £37.50 for a family. This includes expert advice from members and use of a very well-equipped metal-working, woodworking and electronics workshop. BlewShed is here to help members and DIY beginners learn various woodwork, metal-work and other practical techniques, so come along and acquire some new skills, or just have a cuppa and chat. Everyone is welcome to club night meetings on the second Tuesday of the month.
Mike Wrottesley, BlewShed secretary https://blewshed.home.blog/news/
CROQUET CLUB – OPEN EVENINGS
Have YOU ever thought about having a go at croquet? Whether you want a social afternoon with friends, or are looking for a new competitive sport, our club caters for everyone from complete beginners to elite players. Blewbury’s courts are rated amongst the best in the country, as evidenced by the England internationals who’ve trained here. But we’re first and foremost a village resource, and would love to get more Blewburians involved.
We’re currently offering free open evenings, on Mondays (5:00-6:30 pm) from now until 1st July, for any adults (or accompanied teens) who want to give it a go. Please wear flat-soled shoes (e.g. trainers), but otherwise just turn up as you are and we can supply all the equipment you need.
If you want to take it further, full membership costs £200 a year (April-March). But we offer family discounts and, in this sport, anyone under 25 is classed as “junior” and only pays £40.
There’s a lot more about the club on our website, but feel free to give me a call if you’ve any queries.
David Long (07484 360169) secretary@blewburycroquetclub.org.uk
Hello! As summer approaches we hope you are enjoying the warmer weather. Just a reminder that from the 28th May to the 31st of May, during the School Half term, we will be operating our reduced hours of 9am – 12pm, Tuesday to Friday. Thank you for your understanding during this time.
We have tickets for the summer preschool raffle for sale. They have some excellent prizes so please do come along and buy some to support your local preschool. Tickets for the BVS summer dance are also available.
We have fresh kitty’s eggs and local honey on sale as the hay fever season kicks in. We have a variety of sweet treats, ice lollies, chocolate and cool drinks available to help keep cool this summer.
As well as sending parcels, you can also do all your banking at the post office, including cash withdrawals, cash deposits and cheque deposits.
We look forward to seeing you in the post office soon. Thanks so much, Sarah, Karen and Andrew
The Chairman represented the Club at the Annual Parish Meeting on 15th May and gave a short report on the Club’s activities.
Tuesday evening face-to-Face sessions will continue in the Vale Room through June. Our online Realbridge sessions will be held on Thursday evenings at 7pm on June 6th and 20th. We will join the Wantage Bridge Club sessions on the 13th and 27th. Attendance at our weekly online Funbridge sessions on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays seems to be dwindling. Michael Allen 851870
New members and supporters welcome
As we (hopefully) start to bid adieu to a long, wet winter and the daffodils start swaying in the spring breeze, attention drifts to warmer months and the bucolic sound of leather on willow. Blewbury Cricket Club is always looking for new members and passionate supporters. We market ourselves as a club for all ages and abilities with everyone welcome.
Since Covid lockdown where outdoor sports were permitted, we have seen somewhat of a renaissance of cricket in the village. We are a club of about 50 members with fixtures taking place from mid-May to the end of August. We tend to host three different types of matches throughout the season. Midweek games are generally 20 overs and played against local opposition or indeed scratch teams. They start at 6pm and are normally finished by 9pm; they tend to take place on Tuesday and sometimes Wednesday and Thursdays. On Fridays we have an interclub turn-up-and-play match with two teams (The Badgers and The Roosters) playing a T20 against each other. These are fun for all the family with a well stocked bar and non-cricketers watching or indeed playing around the outfield. Finally we hold a few Sunday 40-over games against local opposition for those who like to take their cricket slightly more seriously. There is a pay bar at the ground and changing/toilet facilities. Thanks to the invaluable support of BlewShed we have had our gang mowers serviced which will no doubt improve the quality of the outfield. In addition this season a local team called The Berkshire Royals will be using our pitch every Saturday and may well be looking for some eager cricketers to play for one of their teams. If you are interested in becoming a member or indeed just simply coming up to watch, contact details for some of the committee members are below as are the links to join the club WhatsApp group and the new club website (thanks to Adam Stockley). Fixtures will appear on the club website and WhatsApp group shortly. We would also like to take this opportunity to thank the Parish Council for their ongoing support of the cricket club.
Contact details: Rob Southwell-Sander (Club Captain) rsouthwellsander(at)yahoo.co.uk; Ian Bacon (Chairman) ian.bacon(at)blewburton.com; James Barratt (Secretary) james(at)ashbrooklets.co.uk; Club website: https://www.blewburycricketclub.co.uk/; Whatsapp: https://chat.whatsapp.com/Ini9dXhahm48Gb0Z8LRLgS
Blewbury’s rector, the Revd Jason St John Nicolle, has been made an honorary canon of Christ Church Cathedral. The award, in recognition of distinguished service to the church, was presented during a service in Oxford.
Fr Jason (3rd from right in photo) was ordained in 2004 and has spent all his time in local ministry. In 2008 he moved to the Churn benefice after his curacy in Kidlington, serving Blewbury and six other neighbouring parishes.
The awards recognise the dedication of lay and ordained people to the Diocese of Oxford and the wider church across a variety of areas of ministry and mission. This includes roles supporting theological education in the worldwide Anglican Communion, the deaf and hard of hearing in the diocese, and community organising and church growth.
Speaking on his installation as honorary canon, Fr Jason said: “It is a great honour. It comes with a great sense of responsibility. I look forward to the role. God’s holy spirit does not limit itself to the work of the church. I think God is calling our church to evolve and that’s exciting. The heart of my life is helping the church to cherish the best of the past together with an openness to the future and holding these two things together.”
[Editor’s note: The following article, by Oxfordshire Wildlife Rescue’s founder Luke Waclawek, highlights just one example of the great work being done by this Woodway Road-based charity. For more information visit https://www.oxfordshirewildliferescue.com]
Eight local uniformed Home Guard enthusiasts, complete with full kit and dummy rifles, were recently spotted patrolling in and around St Michael’s church.
Some of them apparently had a history of relatives (the Lalleys) who were in the Blewbury Home Guard, and they came to remember the volunteers who were positioned on the tower roof to watch for enemy aircraft or fires during the war. If anyone has any photo-graphs, documents, or memorabilia from the Blewbury Home Guard then they would be delighted to hear from you.
Photo: Gareth Clark Instagram: @garethclark_photography Facebook: garethclark_photography
Blewburton Hill has long stood muse to painters, players, authors and artisans. And now the natural beauty and distinct heritage of our local environment has inspired a gin!
My G&T journey began back in February after a conversation with Hawkridge Distillery, just over the Ridgeway in Compton. Their award-winning traditional London Dry Gin base, crafted using the Victorian tea method to draw out classic juniper and citrus flavours and deliver a richer, smoother mouth feel, has been accented with botanicals gathered from Blewbury.
Under the guidance of local eco expert and gin fancier Glen Meadows, watercress has been drawn from the crystal chalk streams of Watery Lane and flowering nettle tips foraged from the fringes of the Play Close. It requires a surprisingly small amount of each, so no chalk streams or verges were harmed in the making of the distillate! Meadowsweet and blackcurrant leaf bring a breath of pasture and hedgerow, whilst rose and lavender offer a fleeting glimpse of picturesque cottage gardens. This gin truly evokes a sense of place, even before you even remove the cork.
Resident artist and embroidery enchantress Yvette Philips has created the beautiful label – a Chalk Hill Blue butterfly surrounded by wild thyme, as found on the Hill. She also, under huge duress, lent her gin-honed palette in the quest to find the perfect blend for Blewbury.
Each bottle will capture and conserve our ancient and valuable environment with a share of profits contributing to the Blewbury Chalk Stream Community. Available soon at various village events. Register at www.blewburtonhill.co.uk to make sure you get to try a tipple. Andy Jarvis