We missed a name off the list of Bulletin helpers in the Christmas issue, so we’d like to take this opportunity to acknowledge Heather Shewry’s work as a distributor during 2011. Thanks Heather, and apologies!

I would like to express my thanks to Bernard and Pat Mattimore and to Chris Whatmore, Editor of the Bulletin, to the bellringers of St Michael’s and all the many people in Blewbury who helped me celebrate my recent 100th birthday with cards, gifts and in other ways. It was a very happy day and most enjoyable. Thank you again to all of you for making the occasion so memorable.   William Dent Robinson

It is with great sadness that I write to report the passing away of Richard Cain. Many people in Blewbury will know Richard following his brilliant work at Watts’ Barn where, as a chartered building surveyor, he turned a tumble down old barn into a stunning home for Heather and Graham Richards. It seems like only yesterday that he delivered his talk to Blewbury residents, charting the history of the building and the details of the work involved. Richard has been involved in the repair of numerous historic houses, and has exercised great care and a sensitive hand over each one. I have known Richard for just 5 years, and over that time I came to highly respect his knowledge and passion for old buildings. I also realised that Richard had no interest in money, just the pleasure of doing a job well; a refreshing change in this materialistic world. He never wore a suit when he turned up for a meeting because he would invariably end up mixing a pile of daub or scrabbling around in a mucky old roof space collecting fragments of historic thatch. More recently we set up the ‘Old House Consultancy’ and were looking forward to working together on a host of fascinating projects. But it was not to be. Richard died on 19th December 2011, just weeks after being diagnosed with Colon Cancer. He leaves a wife, Eunice, 2 teenage stepsons and a six year old son, Sami. Richard was a kind and generous man who only ever saw the best in people, and was liked by everyone who met him.      Marianne Suhr

The BVS would like to take this opportunity to thank all volunteers who helped make Santa’s Sleigh and the Boxing Day Walk such a resounding success! Due to the fantastic generosity of many individuals within the community, we all enjoy the magic of Christmas.

Santa’s Sleigh & Boxing Day Walk - special thanks to:

• Peter, Rob and Christopher Willison for the fantastic refurbishment of the Sleigh
• Father Christmas & Reindeer team - the Nokes, Tony Loy, Peter Tamard and Pat Snook
• Jo Lakeland for sorting out the lights on the play close for Santa’s sleigh
• Blewbury Playgroup for the use of their facilities for present collecting
• Paul Finnon for the Boxing Day refreshment at Bridus Mead
• All the marshals and everyone else who helped and participated in the Boxing Day Walk

Future Dates for Diary: AGM – planned for late April, date TBC

BVS website: www.blewburyvillagesociety.org

To mark the event of our Sovereign’s Sixty Year reign, St. Michael’s church will be hosting a celebration for Blewbury Village.

June 1st – 4th    Flower Festival in Church   (group and individual entries: information below.)

June 2nd   3-5pm Cream Teas in Church – with music

June 3rd 10.30am Family Service with a Jubilee theme

            12.30-pm  Village Community Lunch with Bar in the Ground of the Church

            3-5pm   Cream Teas in Church – with music

            7pm   Thanksgiving Service for the life of Our Queen

• St. Michael’s audio guide iPhone app will be available.

FLOWER FESTIVAL INFORMATION
The Flower Festival in the Church starts on Saturday 2nd June and we invite displays from individuals or groups who would like to contribute. It would be appropriate to have a Royal theme and a photograph, a book or anything ornamental may be used to enhance your display. There would not be a charge to enter but we hope that entrants will provide their own flowers, etc. We would suggest that exhibits are set up on Friday 1st June and would like the exhibits to stay in Church until Sunday 10th please.

Sustainable Blewbury
Blewbury Village Society Environment Group
Forthcoming Activities and Advice

Transition Together: Please see a separate article about this exciting new project.
Food growing: The Produce Stall will start up again on the Garage Forecourt in May and will, we hope, be well supplied with garden and home produce. Any village growers/producers are cordially invited to join in, either as helpers or contributors. Please contact angela.hoy@sky.com with your details.
Bread evening: We are making provisional arrangements for a bread (and thatch, wheat, flour, etc.) evening on Friday 23rd March with John Letts of Oxford Bread Group as a speaker. Please keep this date free but check the next Bulletin to confirm.
Natural Environment – Millbrook & the Cleve: We have received an award of £1000 from TOE2 to develop our proposals for restoration of the Cleve. A plan will be finalised within the next six months – watch this space.
Energy initiative: We are awaiting the outcome of the Appeal by DECC to the High Court's ruling that DECC's alteration to the reference date for the review of the Feed-in Tariff for solar PV is illegal.
Meanwhile the BEI started further thermal imaging surveys during the cold weather in January. These have revealed significant heat losses for a number of Blewbury houses. It is rumoured that changes to the Green Deal are being considered which may reduce some subsidies for roof and cavity wall insulation. If you have not already done so, you are strongly advised to take advantage of the Cocoon insulation scheme by going online at www.cocoonyourhome.co.uk or tel: 0800 8048 7770.

We are developing an exciting new project based on the prize-winning Transition Together Project. The scheme originated in Totnes, and a survey of the households who took part in this project showed that they saved on average £570 a year on their energy bills, shopping, travel etc, as well as saving carbon and helping the environment. We will start very soon with 2 pilot groups, and after that we will be recruiting more Blewbury households to take advantage of this project.

How does it work?

The programme is very flexible. Each group arranges a number of sessions when they will make their way through a workbook. A member of Sustainable Blewbury will come to the first session to explain the programme and start them on their way.

• The ideal size for a group is 5 - 8 households, meeting about every 2-3 weeks for 7 sessions.

• Group members generally take turns to host a meeting at their homes, but other places can be used.

• Each household makes their own action plan.

• At each session they catch up with their group, share trials and tribulations, exchange ideas and drink a lot of tea, coffee, wine…………..!

The workbook

Each household gets their own practical workbook which helps them explore practical ways to cut their bills in 5 key areas: Energy; Water; Food; Waste; Transport. The workbook provides a great range of ideas and actions, each supported by lots of local information, hints and tips. To find out more, or to register interest in starting or joining a group call Jo on 07466 708030 or email Transition Together-Blewbury at ttog@sustainable-blewbury.org.uk. We will soon have our own website, but for now check www.sustainable-blewbury.org.uk for further information.

Jo Lakeland (project co-ordinator)

Past pupils and parents of existing pupils of Blewbury School are aware that Class 6 pupils have their classroom in the terrapin building and that this is coming to the end of its life as well as having the disadvantage of being detached from the school. As reported in the November Bulletin (p.18), the County Council has agreed that the terrapin should now be replaced. County policy is that it will provide funding to the sum of the cost of replacing the existing terrapin. After several exploratory discussions, it has been decided that rather than simply replacing the terrapin, a preferred course of action would be to move class 6 into the main building by extending the existing ICT room by a few metres and include a cloakroom and access to toilet facilities plus important storage space. This will be a huge advantage for the class 6 children and will mean that the whole school is contained within the main building for the first time in more than 20 years. The desktop computers in the ICT room will be superseded by modern laptops with wireless facility to be used throughout the school.

If the county back this alternative scheme, the additional cost to the school will be in the region of £20,000 which means some very serious fundraising. The school has an excellent and very hardworking PTA and the Governors, staff and the BVS will all work together this summer to ensure that there are lots of things to enjoy whilst generating revenue and it is hoped that the building work can begin later this year. There are already plans for several events in the next few months and all ideas for fundraising are very welcome. If you feel you could organise an event and give the profits to school, that would be greatly appreciated.

When this has been achieved, the next stage of the project will be to raise money to put an eco-friendly building on the site of the existing terrapin. It is envisaged that this would be used as a performing arts centre and rehearsal room; as an art room or for music tuition (which at present takes place in the Village Hall). It would also provide additional valuable communal space for many teaching activities or for projects which take a few days to complete as they could be left in situ undisturbed. This will be a very challenging project as we will need to raise about £70,000 and we will be looking for sponsorship, one off or regular donations and support from businesses. We will also need to explore the possibility of applying for any appropriate grants.

If you would like details of how to make a donation, please contact the School Bursar, Liz Rendell, in the school office on 01235 850411 or by email to bursar.3248@blewbury.oxon.sch.uk. Alternatively you can go to the web site link http://www.blewbury.oxon.sch.uk/Fund+Raising More details will be in the next Bulletin and we hope you will support and enjoy our fundraising events and we look forward to hearing from you with your ideas or offers of help. Many thanks. Pat Mattimore

Congratulations to Alan Prior and Nigel Carter who as winners of the Blewbury heat came 60th out of over 2,000 in the Thursday heat of the Children in Need Simultaneous Pairs on 17th November. Blewbury Club raised £210 on the evening and the whole event, spread over several evenings that week, raised nearly £70,000 nationally. Over the past 10 years bridge players have raised £533,000 for Children in Need during these events.
Congratulations are also due to Andrew Hewson and Pres Wells who were top in Blewbury in the BGB Simultaneous Pairs on Tuesday 10th. January, and 72nd out of 1900 nationally on that night. This is one of the events which helps to raise funding for our national teams.
Blewbury Wessex League team has won one and lost two of their three matches so far this winter. So it would appear that we are again in a struggle to pick up sufficient 'Victory Points' by the end of the season to stay in Division 3. Wishing them the best of luck for the remaining matches.

Blewbury Brass Band is offering free Life Membership to all serving members of the British Armed Forces in recognition of the debt owed to them by the nation. Band Chairman, Jag Cook, says: “The aim of this initiative is not to turn Blewbury Brass Band into a military band. In fact, we don’t march anyway. Rather, it reflects a desire to say thank you to our many local soldiers, sailors and airmen. Each one is a hero.”

Servicemen and women who join Blewbury Brass Band will find a warm welcome, and an enjoyable and relaxing environment. Band Treasurer, Martin Holliss, says: “It is a huge pleasure to make this offer to all local servicemen and women. While we recognise it is a small gesture, we wanted to be part of the growing number of people and organisations who wish to recognise the work of our Armed Forces.”

We can now confirm She Stoops to Conquer, by Oliver Goldsmith, as the summer production, a brilliant and very well-known play with a splendid cast of characters, to be directed by Lydia Milman Schmidt, introduced to us by Laura Baggaley, our Director Emeritus, who directed The Winter's Tale for us in 2007 and Twelfth Night in 2009.
Auditions will be on 25th & 26th February. Please contact Peter Saunders on 850245 to arrange an audition. Small and big parts for adults of all ages and we anticipate some parts for children of about 12 or older. We also welcome local people who would like to be involved with other non-acting roles such as wardrobe, scenery, construction, etc.....
A new adaptation of Great Expectations by the well-known children's author Julia Golding (better known to us as Julia Saunders) has been postponed till next year, the 201st anniversary of Dickens's birth rather than the 200th!
Workshops, rehearsals and lots of fun & hard work are underway for the youth production of Under Milk Wood directed by Jo Laugharne. This will be performed on 30th & 31st March in Blewbury Village Hall. Box Office opens at the Post Office on 3rd March. This production is going to be very special as it involves children from school years 5 -12 working together. Youngsters are taking on roles in stage management, lighting, front of house and finances with adult mentors.
Visit our website at www.blewburyplayers.co.uk

February kicks off quite literally, with Lyn and a walk to Didcot via West Hagbourne on Wednesday 1st, meet at the village hall at 10am, with stout shoes/boots, a bus pass if you are lucky enough to have one, and a few pennies for coffee and/or the bus home from one of the Hagbournes. (She didn’t say which one) but anyone welcome to join us!

We have various outings this month, to see “The King & I” in Oxford, a tour of the Bodleian library, a science lecture with the Science Museum team, a talk on Norman Rockwell, an outing to see Snowdrops at Welford Park, a day of dance and our usual scrabble & Mah Jong evenings or afternoons. Our main meeting is on Wednesday 22nd in the Vale room, 7.30pm, for “The 40 Years of Catching Smugglers”, with Malcolm Nelson, Brenda Hopkins & Kathy Edmunds are our hostess’s for the evening. All visitors welcome. We also meet for our customary coffee at Style Acre Tea rooms on Tuesday 14th at 10.30 am. We send our best wishes to Joyce & Marie for a speedy recovery. For more details, or to join the Mah Jong or Scrabble group, or if you wish to join us, please ring Judy on 01235 850381.

Karen Brooks

After the several days of rather terrifying high winds in early January, I went to the allotment for some leeks and celeriac and was met by a scene of devastation. The lid of the bin I’d placed over my rhubarb for forcing had blown off, but several shoots were already sprouting.

Then I noticed that the rigid plastic cloche, which was protecting the parsnips, had completely disappeared and was eventually found anchored with a brick by a thoughtful neighbour several plots away but fortunately undamaged. The mini greenhouse was not so lucky; having had its retaining cord snapped by the gale, it must have tumbled across my allotment, encountering posts and wire fences along the way, ending up skewered onto the handle of next door’s wheelbarrow. Hopefully I shall be able to repair it with some heavy duty adhesive tape before I need to use it as a staging post before planting out in the Spring – or is it Spring already? I have seen snowdrops, primroses and even a daisy or two alongside the hellebores – what happened to Winter?

This unseasonably mild weather has got us all in a fever of anticipation for the planting season and this year we are collaborating in a bulk buy of seeds and also seed swopping, with the aim of both keeping costs down and using tried and tested varieties which work well in our area.

There’s lots to be done on the allotment in anticipation of Spring, such as digging in green manure crops so they will rot down and add nutrients to the soil, digging a trench for the runner beans and filling it with vegetable peelings and manure if you have it; also, although (tempting fate) it hardly seems necessary this year, putting down mulches (either black plastic or compost/manure/leaves to help warm the soil in advance of planting, thus stealing a march on nature.

Our numbers are growing! The next meeting will be on Wednesday 1st February, 7.30 at the Red Lion, when our theme will be ‘love’ (last month it was ‘alcohol’).

For information contact Sheila Paine, 01235 850301.

I work in a low paid job and with the price of energy going up I am really struggling to pay my fuel bills. What can I do?

There are different tariffs and payment methods available so the first thing to do is speak to your energy supplier to check you are on the best deal for you and whether there is a cheaper way to pay your bill.

It’s also really important that you check you are receiving all of the benefits and tax credits you are entitled to. It’s easy to think that because you go out to work and earn a wage you wouldn’t get any financial help from the Government – that’s not true. £20 billion of benefits goes unclaimed every year – and some of these are ‘in work benefits’ for those who don’t earn a lot. So you could be missing out on money that could help you cope with rising costs – like energy bills. Your local CAB can help you figure out whether you are entitled to any benefits. If you think that you are not going to be able to pay your bill – which will leave you in debt to your energy company – then you need to tell your energy supplier as soon as possible. They have a duty to help you and make sure that you are repaying what you can afford.

Further information available from Didcot CAB at Dales, 9-15 High Street, Didcot OX11 8EQ or 08444 111 444.