A massive thank you to everyone in Blewbury who supported me throughout my Land’s End to John O’Groats cycle.

Everything went smoothly, which was unexpected and I completed

968 miles in 10 days.

We managed to raise a total of £4,730 for MIND, which will do an incredible amount for a number of people. The just giving page remains open so it is possible to donate if you want to at www.justgiving.com/fundraising/paul-sibley2

Thank you again,

Paul Sibley

I will be sitting down for the foreseeable!!

The Geo(rge) Knapp memorial, a splendid old survivor in St Michael’s churchyard, is back in place, after two months of technically very demanding work.

The principle problem was damp-rot (see picture below), which had entered the structure at several points and was so severe and accelerating that, if restoration had been delayed for another year, in all likelihood it would have been impossible.

It was necessary to replace the top and bottom rails with fine sycamore, and the top and bottom edges of the board with an inch of walnut. This was a hair-raising process, as the boards were crumbling almost as fast as they were worked upon (rather like an OXO cube!) At least 8-10 flaking and unstable previous re-paintings of the lettering had to be removed, which revealed that the letters had “drifted” slightly from their original positions. It was amusing to discover  that the sign board itself was an old, re-used, Elm floor-board!

The finials which surmounted each side-pillar were seriously damaged, and letting water in at each end: these were replaced with butt-jointed (and pegged) close-grained walnut. In addition, four drip-rails were added to the main rails to deflect rain run-off.  Over many years a great number of nails and screws had been bashed into the rails, which had caused great damage…and let in even more water.

The main consideration, after removal and replacement of all rotted timber (which included the lower ends of the side-pillars, which had been buried and needed considerable strengthening), was to render all the joints of the assembled structure totally waterproof. Then came the enjoyable part of the project: the “re-antiquing” of the new work to match the remaining original parts. Decades of previous experience had shown that stains are generally useless for this type of work, and flexible waterproof acrylic colours were used. These have excellent adhesion and resistance to fading. Both the grain character and colour were painstakingly recreated, even to the extent of a couple of fake bird-droppings and several straggling lichen patches! All joints, rail surfaces, finial tops and side-post buried-ends were given 8 coats of flexible waterproof acrylic varnish, but only after the entire Memorial had thoroughly dried out, and all mould and rot destroyed. Phew!

Many thanks to Peter Saunders, Father Jason, Marianne Suhr, and Calley for their help and support.

Edward Fitzgibbon (07964 663732)

From the Blewbury Village Society:

What fun Worzel’s Weekend was! Thank you to the 24 households that put time, energy, and bundles of creativity into their scarecrows.

We know that many people greatly enjoyed walking the scarecrow trail, and it was wonderful to do something as a community in a year of many cancelled events. Judging was made enormously difficult by the high quality of scarecrows across the board, but the three winning entries are shown here. The main photo above shows On The Beach at Bankside, winner of ‘Most outstanding in their green field (most imaginative use of junk materials’. Next, below, is Woody on Staycation at Brooks End, ‘Overall Winner & Most Shared Scarecrow #worzelsweekend’

And finally, here is Amity Island at 2 Eastfields, winner of ‘Furthest afield (on holiday) scarecrow and most ingenious choice &/or representation of a holiday destination’!

To see the complete set of scarecrows, head over to the BVS Facebook page.

Winners will receive their prizes in due course. Thank you to Style Acre tea room for sponsoring our Most Shared Scarecrow category with a voucher.

While we aren’t in a position to put on our usual autumn events (Comedy Night and Bonfire Night) due to COVID, the BVS Committee is resuming our monthly meetings to start brainstorming and planning what we can do as soon as conditions allow. We would be delighted to have some new faces and fresh ideas on the committee – you can commit as much or as little time as you like with no pressure. In a usual year, we put on a wide range of events in the village for all ages, and depend on many volunteers to make them happen. If you would like details, please contact us at blewburybvs@gmail.com.

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