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Blewbury News

New talk by Prof. Emma Smith

August 22, 2024

The Motley Crew, our local Shakespeare fan club, is proud to welcome renowned scholar and broadcaster Professor Emma Smith to give a talk on Shakespeare’s ‘Romance Plays’ – Pericles, The Winter’s Tale, Cymbeline and The Tempest – right here in Blewbury!

Blewbury Climate Action

October 1, 2024

Sustainable Blewbury Repair Café, Sunday 15th September

This was our 15th Repair Café. The weather was fine, and we had a lot of grateful customers. We had a lot of customers for sharpening, and our volunteer specialists also repaired several bikes, clothing, a sewing machine, a table, radios … and a stone cutter. Repair Cafes are free, but customers usually give donations which cover the hire of the Village Hall and Vale Room. This time there was more than £40 surplus so that will go towards the expenses of our upcoming program of speakers. Details of the programme will be in the next SB Newsletters and elsewhere. The next Repair Café is on November 17th – put it in your diary

Why do we hold Repair Cafes?

For sustainability: The repaired items are reused rather than replaced, which minimises use of valuable resources, and as customers watch the repairs being done they often learn how to do them themselves, but please avoid putting yourself into danger.

Keeping warm this winter.

The consumer organisation Which? has tested and compared store-bought vs DIY draught excluders to see how much cold breeze they let in, and their results showed that best draught excluder for your front door won’t cost you a penny! They compared four popular shop-bought draught excluders for front doors with two homemade versions they’d seen recommended online. You can read their results in their magazine or online (for free!) Their tests showed that a rolled up towel was better than any of the shop bought ones (brush, rubber or cloth), and that the other often recommended home-made version (tights stuffed with rolled-up newspaper) was by far the worst option. The advantage of brush or rubber draught excluders are that they are screwed to the door, while all the others must be put back into position every time the door is opened.

Which? has also tested loft and wall insulation.                                                           Jo Lakeland

Sustainable Blewbury

 

Apple-juicing. If you’d like to juice your own apples, bring them washed (bad bits removed but not cores) and your own clean bottles or containers to the Manor, Berry Lane on: October 13 and 27 between 2 and 4pm. Arrive by 3pm if you want to pasteurise your juice (which will need glass screw top bottles). Costs: £1.50 to press a large bucket or basket of apples plus 30p per bottle to pasteurize. If you have a larger quantity of apples, you can hire our equipment for £15 per day (Blewbury and Upton residents), £20 if you live elsewhere. For further information or to volunteer to help, email Andy at andy3210123@gmail.com

Nature Reserve. We will be maintaining the site on Saturday 12 Oct, 9 Nov, and 7 Dec. If you would like to join our list of volunteers, please email the secretary below. Thanks to everyone who came on 15 Sept but there is still a lot to do if the hedging is going to survive!

Talks programme. We run this in the winter to help update ourselves about environmental, energy and climate change issues (and anything related to them). It’s also a good time to meet other SB supporters. Would you like to give a talk or know someone who would? We are looking for people who have a knowledge of relevant fields to come and inspire us. Contact the secretary, email below, if you can help us.

Quaker Wood. This is a big and exciting project for Blewbury to share and enjoy for generations to come. Contractors will be planting this autumn/winter as SB felt that tackling this was too big for the limited resources of our volunteers. Prior to the planting, contractors will clear the barbed wire fencing and prune some of the vegetation on the boundary with the Mill Brook. This is to allow more light into the stream to encourage biodiversity and to make safe some dead or dying trees. There are a lot of ash trees, some of which are showing signs of Ash Dieback.  We intend to leave most of these initially, but we may have to remove some or all of these if the disease takes hold. By the end of the year, we will have the beginnings of a new woodland on our doorstep. But then, we will need volunteers to help establish and maintain the new hedge, paths and trees.

We are planning an exhibition to show how the woodland will be laid out and the species of trees to be planted and an opportunity to volunteer. More details soon.

Anthony Stiff is our volunteer Project Manager for Quaker Wood. We thank him for all the effort that he has put in to get it to this stage.  For more information on the project, contact Anthony by email: anthony@stiff.org.uk

BLEWBURY FREECYCLE   FREE ITEMS TO A GOOD HOMEE-MAILTEL NO.
·    MuCullock petrol lawnmower 40cm cut model 40-450CP·    MuCullock petrol hedge trimmer (Virginia MH 555) 55cm blade, needs service·    Alpina VIP 25 petrol strimmer, needs serviceAlan Cooper
Agc.mc1@gmail.com
851725
Garden Set comprising Glass Topped garden table (needs some assembling), 6 x garden chairs, 2 x garden foot rests, 1 x small glass topped side table. Reasonable condition.Ann Aplin     annaplin55@gmail.com851246
To freecycle your item please send a short description, email & phone number to Lydia Inglis (lydandmuz@gmail.com)

If you want to know more about Sustainable Blewbury and become a supporter who receive occasional newsletters, email secretary@sustainable-blewbury.org.uk

Bridge Club

The Annual General Meeting will be held at 7pm on Tuesday 8th October in the Vale Room, ahead of a shortened session of bridge. Formal nomination for the appointment of Officers of the Club or Committee Members, and of issues individuals wish to raise under Any Other Business, should be notified formally to the Secretary or Chairman at least a week in advance.

On Friday 4th October, 7 for 7.30pm start, Menagerie Bridge Club are hosting a ‘Play with an Expert’ event on Realbridge for Blewbury and Wantage Clubs. If you would like to take part, and have not already done so, please contact the Chairman.

Blewbury will be hosting joint Realbridge sessions with Wantage Bridge Club at 7pm on October 10th and 24th. Wantage will be hosting similar joint events on October 3rd, 17th and 31st.

Hopefully, Social Bridge sessions will run on Friday evenings on October 11th, 18th and 25th

The Wessex League season is about to start again. Blewbury are in Division 1 this year. Finn Clark is running some Sunday afternoon online Seminars again – ‘How to win Wessex League Division 1 matches’. If you are interested please contact Finn – finnclark@yahoo.co.uk

October 31st sees the end of our competition year. A new set of competitions will begin on November 1st.

Michael Allen    851870

COFFEE & KIDS!

Our October session is on Monday 7th October – with activities for Autumn.

We welcome all bumps! babies & toddlers, along with parents, grandparents and carers. We meet in the Vale Room, Blewbury Village Hall, 9.30am – 11am. A friendly and safe place to enjoy the company of others and have some refreshment as the little ones have fun with toys, learning to play together. We finish the session with songs and action rhymes. A donation of £2 is appreciated towards our costs. Mothers’ Union hosts look forward to welcoming you.

Any queries, contact Louise 07837 009730

BELL RINGING NEWS FROM BLEWBURY TOWER

August and September are when we are often short of ringers because of holidays, but we have managed to keep the bells ringing on practice night and for Sunday worship throughout, thanks to some help with ringers from other local towers, and a bit of luck!

On Friday 13th September we met with only eight of us, so instead of the usual practice we decided to be ambitious and try to ring a quarter peal instead. None of us were expecting great things or a chance of success, but defying Friday 13th luck, we rang a very well struck quarter peal with almost no mistakes! Well done everyone, especially those who scored their ‘firsts’. Details and photo are here: https://bb.ringingworld.co.uk/view.php?id=1769434. The following day we welcomed bellringers from Cheltenham who were on a ringing tour of our area. They enjoyed our bells and were also really pleased to see the stained glass window, which they had read about in the bellringer’s magazine The Ringing World.

We always welcome anyone who has an interest in learning this ancient and traditional skill, and have just begun teaching some new recruits to continue the next generation of Blewbury bellringers. You might occasionally hear a single bell ringing for short periods, and this is when we are teaching the basic bell handling skills for brand new beginners. Please be patient with us during these occasional times. If you would like to get involved, please see one of the bellringers or come up the tower one Friday night at 8.00pm. Richard Loyd

Blewbury WI News

Are you new to the village and wanting to join in village life? Or been here for ages and now at a loose end? A great way to make friends and do interesting things is to join Blewbury WI. We generally meet on the 4th Wednesday of the month in the Vale Room. Loads of things to do during the month – see diary below – Just join in as much or as little as suits you.

In addition to our village WI, we join in with events at a county level – these will be speakers and outings on a variety of topics.  Home & garden, combined arts, public affairs, culture & science plus a variety of coach trips and holidays.

Next main meeting is on Wednesday 23 October at 7.30pm in the Vale room of Blewbury Village Hall. We will be welcoming Dr Muriel Pilkington who will tell us about “The Mitfords in the Cotswolds”. Did they really live scandalous lives? The talk covers the life of David Mitford, his six daughters and one son. A fascinating account of childhood and upbringing and their lives as adults. With brains, beauty and a scathing sense of humour, the girls were heralded as celebrities before they did anything to merit it. They were on the fringes of the ‘Bright Young Things’ of the period.

If you’d like to come along with someone else or find out more, ring our Secretary, Joy, on 850543 or email blewburywi@gmail.com. Come as a visitor – give it a try – you will be made so welcome!

Calendar of events

Wednesday 2 October7pmEvening ScrabbleJoy
Friday 4 October7pmCraft EveningKaren
Wednesday 9 October9.30amWalkJill
Thursday 10 October2.30pmRummikubEli
Friday 11 October10.30amCoffee morningTrish
Wednesday 16 October2.30pmAfternoon ScrabbleSusanne
Friday 18 October7pmBook ClubMary R

BlewSing

BLEWSING – Blewbury Choir

BlewSing meet weekly in term times on Thursday evenings at the Melland Room on the Recreation Ground on Blewbury 7.30 – 9.15 p.m. with Mark Stanley as their esteemed teacher and conductor.

The choir always sings for pleasure. There are no auditions and no requirement to read music; the only requirement is simply a love of singing. We need to know who is coming along so, if you would like to join us and/or would like further information re dates, fees, repertoire etc, please contact Sheila Loy on sloy24@gmail.com or have a look at our website: http://www.blewsing.org/

Post Office News

Our opening hours of 9-3pm Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday and 9-12pm on a Wednesday have been working well and the post office has been very busy.

Please note that from the 28th October to the 5th of November 2024 it is half term so we will be operating our reduced hours of 9am – 12pm. We are sorry for any inconvenience this may cause.

Royal Mail has announced that their prices will increase from 7th October. 1st class stamps will increase by 30p but 2nd class stamps will remain the same. We recommend you restock your stamp supplies soon to avoid the increase.

As always we have local honey and eggs on sale, and a variety of sweet treats, ice lollies, chocolate and cool drinks are available. As well as sending parcels, you can also do 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

Thanks from SID!

June 20, 2024

SID says: “I am pleased that traffic speeds have dropped since I was switched on. Along Bessels Way the number of vehicles speeding has dropped from 34 percent to 21 percent. On London Road a drop from 16 percent to 8 percent has been measured.”