october 2017 no 445 - biddestone village€¦ · julie walton the old rectory 701784 chris draper...

October 2017 No 445

Editorial Committee [email protected] Editor Linda Lobl-Smith Home Farm 714475 Treasurer Annalisa Duff Willow Lodge 712247 Carolyn Madley Stonehaven, The Green 712831 Julie Walton The Old Rectory 701784 Chris Draper Home Farm Cottage 248557

Biddestone Broadsheet and the website seek to reflect the life and interests of the village. Written contributions are invited from readers on any subject that will be of interest. Photos, Drawings and Art work would also be welcome. Any opinions expressed or implied within this publication are not necessarily those of the Editor or Committee and no responsibility can be accepted for any errors of fact printed in these pages. We will of course endeavour to be as accurate as possible.

Last copy date 3rd Sunday in the month, copy should be sent to the Editor at the email address above.

Biddestone Village Website www.biddestonevillage.org.uk A full colour version of the Broadsheet can be found online, If you do not wish to have your contact details published

online then please make the editor aware of your preference. Any other notices or contributions to be posted specifically

on the website should be sent to the email address above. The website also has a live feed from the Biddestone Village Face-

book page ( you can view this without having your own Facebook account )

To post an item on the Facebook page, please email [email protected]

To post an item on the Biddestone Village Website, please contact the Editor Linda Lobl-Smith

Classes available in Biddestone Village Hall

Monday 9.45 – 11.45 am Painting Group Sue Tennant – 01249 720615 Monday 8.00 – 10.00 pm Hips & Haws Clog Jan Field – 01380 827140 or [email protected] Tuesday 9.00 – 10.00 am Real Life Yoga Emma Goodwin – 07771662567 or [email protected] Tuesday 7.00 – 9.00 pm Iyengar Yoga Class Edgar Stringer - [email protected] Wednesday 10.00 – 11.30 am Iyengar Yoga Class Lydia Holmes – [email protected] Wednesday 10.00 – 12.00 am Writing Group Tim Smith – 01249 714455 or [email protected] Wednesday 12.00 – 4.00 pm Quilting and Patchwork Class Anne Chapman - 01249 782842 (not 3rd Wednesday in the month) Wednesday 2.00 – 4.00 pm Womens Institute (3rd Wednesday in month)

Wednesday 6.00 – 7.00 Circuit Training

Simon Bennett – 07815619138 or [email protected]

Thursday 9.00 – 10.00 am Real Life Yoga Emma Goodwin – 07771662567 or [email protected] Thursday 10.30 – 11.30 am Pilates for begin-ners/intermediate The Stonehouse Clinic -01249 700417 or stonehouseclinic.co.uk Thursday 7.30 – 10.00 pm Modern Sequence Dancing Phil Fletcher – 01793 936091 or [email protected] Friday 6.30 – 8.00 pm Yoga for healthy backs, knees and shoulders Lydia Holmes [email protected]

mailto:[email protected]




Front Cover; Advent Supper at St Nicholas Church. Photo by Chris Draper. Thanks to everyone who helped with the slightly belated Village Spring clean on Sunday morning, 8 black bags of waste were collected from the verges banks and hedgerows around the village. Andy Short The White Horse pub quiz on 19th Sept. was well attended, teams puzzled over questions posed by Mike Chrystal and enjoyed delicious sausage and mash in the interval. A donation of £135 was made to the Brainstrust Cancer charity chosen by the winning team ‘The Dumb Belles’ well done girls! It is hoped to make this a regular fixture over the winter months. Trick or Treat! Just a reminder to watch out for witches, ghosts and ghouls roaming the village after dark. Time to get creative with pumpkin carving and stock up on sweeties for the little darlings!

Oct 2017

Bridge Club The Bridge Club will meet on Monday 2nd October at The White Horse Pub at 7.30pm and thereafter on the first Monday of each month The club will meet for a social evening of Bridge, no tuition is available, so players must have some level of experience. Anyone interested should contact; Ian Smith 01249 714475 Jane Iggulden 01249 713311

Speed Limit in Biddestone I write this comment regarding the speed limit in the village. Today a per-son stopped to complain that I was waving them down. She said she was driving at only 20 mph. For that I apologise. However I follow this with a big BUT…… I LIVE ON A BLIND CORNER IN THIS VILLAGE. It has become increasingly dangerous to attempt to walk out my house with my dog or on my own, at all times of the day. The parish council seem to have made many attempts to curb the speed. Nothing has worked. It would be in the interest of the whole village to come up with an idea or two. It has to involve a physical curtailment since few people bother to read the signs Penny Lloyd

Film Review Hidden Figures Director: Theodore Melfi, USA, 2017, 127 min When a film claims it is ‘based on true events’ I always wonder just how much truth there is in what we see on the screen. Inevitably in the process of creating a dramatic story, elements of myth are introduced: true life rarely fits neatly into the conventions of the silver screen, particularly when the film is made in Hollywood. However, in this film the essential facts are so remarkable that the myth-making is justified, and a shamefully overlooked (hence the title) part of recent American history is brought vividly to life. The main characters are three real people: highly intelligent and motivated African-American women, who worked in the computing department of NASA during the early years of the space race. In reality these three made a huge contribution to the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo space programs, in the fields of mathematical calculations, space engineering and early mainframe computer programming. What the film exposes is the huge obstacles these women overcame, and how significant therefore their contribu-tion really was. In the US in the early sixties, black people could not vote, and racial segregation was still widely practiced. The film re-veals the endemic, casual nature of racism in everyday life, such as segregated buses and toilets for ‘coloured’ people: a situation which more than one white person in the film explains away as ‘just the way things are.’ However, this is far from being a depressing film: there is real humour in the way the main protagonists treat discrimi-nation as an inconvenience to be overcome, and racists as rather silly and unenlightened. There is a delightful lightness of touch as the three women gradually convince white men in positions of power that their contribution is valuable and indeed essential to the success of the space program. Overall the film is a joyful and uplifting tale of the triumph of the underdog – made poignant by the images of the three women in real life, and a list of their actual achievements, over the final credits. It left me thinking that, leaving aside all the moral objections to discrimination and prejudice, what a colossal waste of talent it is. In this respect it has echoes of the film The Imitation Game, which shows how the mathematical and computing genius Alan Turing was de-stroyed at a far too young age by prejudice, robbing the world of someone who would have no doubt made a huge contribution to the development of computer science had he lived.

Moviola @

Grittleton Village Hall on

Wednesday October 25th

Their Finest [12A]

Gemma Arterton plays Catrin, a diffident young Welsh woman who lands a job with a unit making short propaganda films for the Ministry of Information at the height of the Blitz. Hired to write ‘the slop’, as dialogue between women is dismissively termed by her jaded writer colleague Buckley (Sam Claflin), she ends up working on a morale-boosting feature film about the exploits of a couple of seafaring sisters during the Dunkirk evacuation. Bill Nighy as a vain and ageing ham and Jeremy Irons as the dictatorial but out-of-touch Secre-tary of War are on top comic form.

Tickets £6 adults from Lesley on 01249 783157 or email [email protected] [underscore between l and p] Doors open 7pm, programme starts at 7.30pm

Future dates for your diary All Wednesdays

22nd November Miss Sloane 6th December Beauty and the Beast

Advent Supper Friends of St Nicholas Biddestone

Join us to celebrate Advent with a candlelit supper. Friday 15th December 2017 at 7 pm.

£20.00 per person, all ticket money to the Friends of St Nicholas. Space in the church is limited and only 40 places are available.

Please book before 10th December so that tickets issued and seating arrangements finalised. To book or discuss special dietary require-

ments please email [email protected]

OCTOBER RECIPE AUTUMNAL FRUITS CRUMBLE CAKE THE FRUIT TOP 3 plums halved and stoned 1 stick of rhubarb cut into 2cm pieces 1 pear peeled, cored and cut into chunks THE CAKE 175g butter 175g caster sugar 225g self-raising flour 1 tsp baking powder 3 medium eggs 2 tsp almond essence 100g ground almonds THE CRUMBLE TOP 50g ground almonds 50g plain flour 50g butter 50g caster sugar 20cm deep sided greased loose bottomed cake tin on a baking sheet. Preheat the oven 180C, 350F, gas mark 4.

Place the fruit in a saucepan, add 2 tablespoons of sugar and 100mls of water or orange juice, simmer gently until the fruit is soft but still holding its shape.

Place all of the cake ingredients into a bowl and mix until combined, and put into the greased cake tin. Put all of the ingredients for the crumble top into a bowl and rub together withy our finger tips until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Place the poached fruit on top of the cake mixture followed by the crumble topping. Bake for 50mins, until a golden colour. Allow the cake to cool for 10mins before turning out on to serving plate. Serve warm or cold with custard or cream.

By Julie Walton

Record of meeting of Biddestone & Hartham Womens’s Institute, 20 September 2017 Val Ringham, Vice-President, welcomed ten members and introduced our speaker, Mrs. Win Quinney, who was accompanied by her husband, son and daughter-in-law. The title of her talk was Caring for Bats, and she began by pointing out that bats are the only flying mammals in the world. Mrs. Quinney has been trained as a bat-rescuer and has a licence to keep up to 21 bats, though she currently has only two. She then introduced us to one of these, Harriet, a common pipistrelle, measuring just a few centimetres long and weighing only 5 grammes. Harriet was carried round so that we could all have a good look at her; despite some initial misgivings from a few of us, she made no move to get away from her carer’s gloved hands, and it was fascinating to view such a rarely-seen creature close up. Mrs. Quinney also used a sound-enhancing device which enabled us to hear Harriet’s echo-location clicks. Mrs. Quinney then showed a variety of slides about bats, their preferred food and their habitats, etc. She concluded her talk by quizzing us on what we had learned from it. Val S-J gave the Vote of Thanks. Refreshments were then served by Ronnie, and the raffle was won by Linda. Business. Members were told that Carol, our Treasurer, had had a fall while on holiday in Canada, breaking her hip. She was due home that day, and Val S-J had taken round a get-well card. There was a great deal of correspondence, most of it relating to various events in November and December, and details of next year’s AGM in Cardiff, at which our delegate would be from Bradford-on-Avon. There were also information packs following this year’s Resolutions on plastic soup and alleviating loneliness, and a suggestion as to how we should tackle supermarkets about food waste. There was a change of speaker for the Annual Council Meet-ing, as the Revd. Richard Coles had had to withdraw; Mandy Hickson, a former RAF jet pilot, would take his place. Betty reported that she had now received the 2018 calendars and diaries, but Carol had the list of those who had ordered them. In Carol’s absence, Val R. said the only finance item was that subscriptions for next year would rise to £41, payable in January. Monthly Challenges. There were four animal photographs, and the potato-growing challenge was won by Georgina, who produced 6 lbs., far more than anyone else. The next meeting will be on Wednesday 18 October, when Dawn Toms will lead a workshop on beading or paper Christmas or-naments. She will provide the necessary kits, at a cost of £10 each.

Bellcote Update September 2017

At the September PCC meeting for St Nicholas, Biddestone, Catherine Armstrong gave a comprehensive and en-couraging report on the progress of the Bellcote restoration and bell rehanging. We have applied for a Faculty which has progressed to the next stage. The architect, Toby Faulkner, is working hard on our behalf and a stone mason has been appointed. The building work will have to be liaised with the bell hanger and restorer. The PCC thank Catherine Armstrong for all her efforts in moving this important project forward.

Neighbourhood Plan

Following on from the public meeting held in the village hall on 13th September, we will be holding a follow up meeting on 31st October at 7 pm in the Oak House, Church Road Biddestone.

The purpose of the meeting is to decide whether as a community, we would like to move forward

with a Neighbourhood Plan or pursue other options, and if so, appoint a steering committee to take the process forward.

As a reminder, here is the link to the webpage that outlines what the plan entails:

http://locality.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/Quick-Guide.pdf

Anyone from the community is welcome to attend but we would be grateful if you would

let us know so we ensure we have enough seats.

BIDDESTONE GIFTS

Apron £8 Canvas Bag £4

Mugs £4.50/per or 2 for £8 or 4 for £15

T-Towels £3.50/per or 2 for £6

Pack of Cards £2

All available at Home Farm, Harts Lane, Biddestone.

For more information please call 01249 714475

http://locality.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/Quick-Guide.pdf

FRIENDS OF ST NICHOLAS Safari Supper and Auction

We will be holding a Safari Supper and an Auction of Gifts, Time and Promises on Saturday 25th November. All funds raised will go to the Friends of St Nicholas. The evening will start at 7pm at the Oak House with drinks where people can view and bid for the auction lots and collect the location for their main course and pudding! The main course will be served at 8pm and at 9pm, people move on to their pudding location. All then gather back at the Oak House at 10.00 for coffee and port where the auction will be held to draw the final bids on each lot. Anyone with mobility problems can stay at the Oak House for their meal. We will be displaying the bid sheets in St Nicholas during the week before the supper and people will be able to see what is available and place written bids. We have already received some very generous pledges, including: · Quintessentially English, two places on a one day soap making course in Lacock · A Lawnmower service · A cake or dessert a month for 6 months · A Lift for two people to and from Heathrow airport · Supper for four · Breakfast for four · A Cake a month for a year · A Christmas cake · A painting by a local artist · Six gluten free cakes over the next year · A lift to and from Bristol Airport for up to 4 people If you would like to pledge time, a promise or a gift to be auctioned, please let us know what you would like to offer. Pledges could be for anything really but for instance babysitting, baking, gardening, shopping, hospitality, music or computer lessons. Gifts could be art or craft items, whatever you like!

A Date For Your Diaries*

The Christmas Concert of both light and classical music, which is given annually by Caroline Dale and Friends, will be held as usual in The Biddestone Arms on Friday 22nd of December.

Complementary glass of mulled wine offered by Basil and Sybil! Look out for further details in the November issue of the Broadsheet after which tickets will be available.

J.O.

Swedes by Edward Thomas (1878 - 1917) They have taken the gable from the roof of clay On the long swede pile. They have let in the sun To the white and gold and purple of curled fronds Unsunned. It is a sight more tender-gorgeous At the wood-corner where Winter moans and drips Than when, in the Valley of the Tombs of Kings, A boy crawls down into a Pharaoh's tomb And, first of Christian men, beholds the mummy, God and monkey, chariot and throne and vase, Blue pottery, alabaster, and gold. But dreamless long-dead Amen-hotep lies. This is a dream of Winter, sweet as Spring.

Nutting by William Wordsworth (1770 - 1850) It seems a day (I speak of one from many singled out) One of those heavenly days that cannot die; When, in the eagerness of boyish hope, I left our cottage-threshold, sallying forth With a huge wallet o'er my shoulders slung, A nutting-crook in hand; and turned my steps Tow'rd some far-distant wood, a Figure quaint, Tricked out in proud disguise of cast-off weeds Which for that service had been husbanded, By exhortation of my frugal Dame— Motley accoutrement, of power to smile At thorns, and brakes, and brambles,—and, in truth, More ragged than need was! O'er pathless rocks, Through beds of matted fern, and tangled thickets, Forcing my way, I came to one dear nook Unvisited, where not a broken bough Drooped with its withered leaves, ungracious sign Of devastation; but the hazels rose Tall and erect, with tempting clusters hung, A virgin scene!—A little while I stood, Breathing with such suppression of the heart As joy delights in; and, with wise restraint Voluptuous, fearless of a rival, eyed The banquet;—or beneath the trees I sate Among the flowers, and with the flowers I played; A temper known to those, who, after long And weary expectation, have been blest With sudden happiness beyond all hope. Perhaps it was a bower beneath whose leaves The violets of five seasons re-appear And fade, unseen by any human eye; Where fairy water-breaks do murmur on For ever; and I saw the sparkling foam, And—with my cheek on one of those green stones That, fleeced with moss, under the shady trees, Lay round me, scattered like a flock of sheep— I heard the murmur, and the murmuring sound, In that sweet mood when pleasure loves to pay Tribute to ease; and, of its joy secure, The heart luxuriates with indifferent things, Wasting its kindliness on stocks and stones, And on the vacant air. Then up I rose, And dragged to earth both branch and bough, with crash And merciless ravage: and the shady nook Of hazels, and the green and mossy bower, Deformed and sullied, patiently gave up Their quiet being: and, unless I now Confound my present feelings with the past; Ere from the mutilated bower I turned Exulting, rich beyond the wealth of kings, I felt a sense of pain when I beheld The silent trees, and saw the intruding sky.— Then, dearest Maiden, move along these shades In gentleness of heart; with gentle hand Touch—for there is a spirit in the woods. Thank you to Hilary Noyes for this months poetry selection

FACEBOOK ~ WWW.FACEBOOK.COM/PEACOCKARTSTRAIL TWITTER ~ HTTPS://TWITTER.COM/PEACOCKTRAIL ENQUIRIES ~ [email protected]

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This crossword was first published in ‘The Honey-comb’ OCTOBER 2013 Diane Ross-Smith

ACROSS 1. Bob for this – it’s Adam’s fruit! (5) 4. Clack bats about, Spooner, to scare companions of 22 down? (5, 4) 9. While this moves quickly and sounds like it brightens the sky. (9) 10. Derogatory term for one displaying OS aft. (5) 11. Yearly book or flower? (6) 12. Rev. P. made changes and produced new and improved version. (8) 14. Clothing worn on retirement by 22 down in black! (10) 16. Capital invested in Hugo’s loss. (4) 19. Nips back for a quick turn behind the wheel? (4) 20. It rocks mob transport for 22 down! (10) 22. Drinks heartily to propulsion method preceding steam? (8) 23. Mushroom used as writing fluid- top that! (3, 3) 26. Subject found in the meaning of life? (5) 27. At the sound of this, all bar Mel scatter! (5, 4) 28. Destroyed hell – no awe felt on this October day? (9) 29. A kiss messed up for you deer (sic) as it sounds! (5) DOWN 1. The day after 28 across named for Littleton Drew’s church? (3, 6) 2. One who celebrates 28 across – perhaps father on old horse back-wards! (5) 3. Removes or selects former pamphlets. (8) 4. Black edge of hat. (4) 5. Spilt gore is snag which foments hostility. (10) 6. Back of knee missed when spreading fake tan? Find loose gar-ment! (6) 7. Take pains at it – mixed hors d’oeuvres! (9) 8. Weapon used in war of words. (5) 13. Early version shown before let loose? (3-7) 15. Former Labour statesman on the radio can walk with expertise. (9) 17. Trees round one across give reactions to gall wasps. (3, 6) 18. ‘It’s Una, Miss, swallowing huge waves!’ (8) 21. Stare at box cut for summer house. (6) 22. Ability to outwit charms included her… (5) 24… Magic Jonathan finds in narrow waterway. (5) 25. Baby for 29 across is light brown. (4)

DATES FOR YOUR DIARY- AUTUMN & WINTER 2017/18 Scrub clearance days at West Yatton Down SSSI will be held on the second Friday of each autumn and winter month, to con-serve the environment on this beautiful site supporting nine species of orchid and more than thirty species of butterfly. Volun-teers should wrap up warm; bring a picnic lunch or flask of tea if you would like to do a further hour or so in the afternoon. We have purchased some fabulous tools called Tree Poppers, they remove the roots too, and you’ll love them. Location: Park along the roadside at the Long Dean Y fork on the side of the road from West Yatton to Castle Combe SU851 759 (OS Map 173) Leaders: Maurice Avent & Alan Needham (01249-713218) Friday 13th October 2017 -11.00am Friday 10th November 2017 - 11.00am Friday 8th December 2017 - 11.00am Friday 12th January 2018 - 11.00am Friday 9th February 2018 – 11.00am Friday 9th March 2018 - 11.00am (Individuals with a Chainsaw qualification will be welcome)

BIDDESTONE BOOK CLUB

‘The Improbability of Love’ by Hannah Rothschild which looks at the world of paintings and fine art proved more of a page turner than we expected. Thank you to Lorena for hosting our meeting. We will be at Debbie’s house on October 9th at 7.15 p.m. to talk about ‘The Place Called Winter’ by Patrick Gale.

In November we shall be reading Angela Carter’s ‘Wise Children’ If you have any questions please phone Diane on 712105.

Wedding at Hartham A very special day for the Jones family at Hartham, the wedding party walked up from the chapel to the reception at Church Farm. Vicky Jones and Tim Whitney were married at Hartham Chapel on 2nd September The Chapel was built by the Hartham Park Estate in 1862, for estate owners and staff to attend regular services It was used by them for baptisms, weddings and funerals until 1960 when the estate was sold and broken up. The Chapel was de-licensed and since then has only been used on a handful of occasions for Christmas Carols and only two weddings. Each wedding ceremony now has to be approved and granted a special license by the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Not Farming Notes…. The Swifts and Flycatchers are long gone, the last of the swallows gather on the wires, the corn harvest is in, and the days are shortening quickly. One hundred years ago American troops were entering a European war, Russia was heading towards revolution, the French army had mutinied, the British army was involved in a death struggle to break out of the Ypres Salient. And of the 78 men from Biddestone and Slaughterford six were already dead and upwards of twenty injured. The horrors of the Somme in 1916 had destroyed any illusions about a quick end to the war, the new Prime Minister, Lloyd George, was against any new large scale offensive, much better to wait for the Americans. The generals had other ideas, they still had army’s and meant to use them, the French attacked first and were slaughtered, their troops had finally had enough and refused any more attacks, the Russian army was collapsing to the east leaving the British army as the only force capable of giving battle, in the general’s eyes it was imperative that it should do so, and the place to do it was Flanders. The army had been bogged down at Ypres surrounded by high ground since early 1915 and taking 1000 casualties a week. Before a break out attack could be launched the western flank had to be secured by taking the Messines ridge to this end 19 tunnels had already been dug beneath the German lines and packed with tonnes of explosive. On the 7 th June in the greatest man made explosion before the atomic bomb, the mines were triggered, or at least 17 of them, two did not go off. One eventually did during a thunder storm in 1950 and one is still there somewhere, no doubt making for some very nervous Belgian farmers. Five thousand German troops were obliterated, two thousand British guns opened up and the ridge was taken. It was just about the only tactical British success of the war up to that time and was heralded as a great victory won cheaply, only “25,000 casualties” Lloyd George was now under great pressure to allow the great offensive to go ahead men and guns poured into the salient and Haig was granted his wish on the condition that the attack would be called off if all did not go according to plan (we have heard this many times, Afghanistan anyone? ) the attack was not a disaster progress was made but unbeknown to any one the Germans had not been idle, forsaking trenches they had built a network of concrete pill boxes all across the slopes leading out from the salient turning it into a killing ground into which the British had ad-vanced and then it began to rain. Flanders soil is loam over clay with a drainage gradient of only inches per mile, the shelling destroyed the water courses and the battle field became a quagmire. It went on until 10th November when Passchendaele village was finally taken, 300,000 men were lost on the approaches to it. Haig had been warned that the new weapon, the tank, could not work in soft ground and all this time the tank men had been looking for dry ground to prove themselves, they found it at Cambria to the south where on 20 th November 300 tanks smashed clear through the German lines, but it was to no avail, the men who could have exploited this suc-cess were dead in the mud at Flanders. No men from Biddestone died at Passchendaele it would be December before another local man died on the Western front, for 3 years the French and British had hurled their men against machine guns and barb wire, in 1918 it would be Germany’s turn.

Ian Smith

Open Gardens Photos 2017

A slideshow of photos will be posted on the Biddestone Village Website to view online

Church Services for October 2017

ST. NICHOLAS, BIDDESTONE

1 Holy Communion with commissioning of PCC followed by sherry 11.00 a.m. 8 Evensong 6.00 p.m. 15 Harvest Service

donations for Food Bank gratefully received 9.30 a.m.

29 Eastern Cluster Service Holy Communion 9.30 a.m.

Every Wednesday morning there is a service at 9.15 a.m. This is either Holy Communion or Morning Prayer and includes prayers for the suffering.

ST NICHOLAS, SLAUGHTERFORD 8 Harvest Service 3.00 p.m. 29 Middle Cluster Service 11.00 a.m. BENEFICE SERVICE 22 TEAM HOLY COMMUNION SERVICE AT CASTLE COMBE 10.00 a.m.

Full colour issue online: www.biddestonevillage.org.uk

* STOP PRESS* Missed the BBS deadline? have something urgent to tell the village? Lost dog, cat ,phone! An event to publicise? Then put it on the Village Facebook page, contact Anita or Linda at [email protected]

october 2017 no 445 - biddestone village€¦ · julie walton the old rectory 701784 chris draper...

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