Category: Events

Village Fete – Facebook Page

The Fete is on its way: Saturday 8th June 2019 2pm – 5pm.

Nether Heyford Village Fete now has a Facebook community page providing updates of what to expect at this years Fete on the village green.

” Welcome to the Facebook Page for this years village fete which will be held on the green on Saturday 8th June 2019 2-5 pm. Watch this space over the coming weeks for news of this years attractions, events and big prize draw “

https://www.facebook.com/Nether-Heyford-Village-Fete-2019-649062938887012/

All proceeds raised from the Fete go towards the ongoing upkeep and management of Nether Heyford Village Hall, one of the villages most valuable assets.

For more information on volunteering or assisting on the day, read the article in the March edition of The Prattler

Heyford Gardening Club – Events 2019

Heyford-Gardening-Cluband-allotments

Heyford Gardening Club & Allotments 

Programme of Events for 2019:

March 11th: Liz Taylor from Woodland Trust; Mini Show – Daffodils

April 8th: Patsy Raynor – Plants in Literature: Origins & Anecdotes; Mini Show – Tulips

May 13th: Branch Out MK –Helping People to Grow Through Gardening; Seed Swap; Mini Show – Spring Flowers

June 8th: Village Fete

June 10th: Steve Brown, Bonsai Trees or Graham Pavey, Vertical Gardens; Mini Show – Roses

July: Summer Party

August: No Meeting

September 9th: Autumn Show

October 14th: Malcolm Dickson Hooksgreen Herbs

November 11th: Caroline Tait – Fellow of Longwood Gardens, Philadelphia, A Year at Longwood

December 9th: Christmas Tree Festival; Snowdrops

Mark Newstead 

www.heyfordgardenclub.com

For more information visit the Heyford Gardening Club & Allotments page

Heyford-Gardening-Cluband-allotments

Heyford Cricket Club – March 2019

The 2019 season is fast approaching. Winter nets at the County Ground are underway (every Thursday, 9-10pm all newcomers welcome!) and Darren Bastin and his team have already started pre-season work on the square.

This season the 1st XI will be competing in NCL Division 3. Captain Jimmy Edwards will have high hopes of mounting a promotion challenge after a strong finish to the 2018 season, and Rob Pardon will be cautiously optimistic about the 2nd XI’s chances in Division 8 after a memorable first season as captain.

We will also be entering the T20 Cup competition again, and re-entering the National Village Knock Out competition after a 9-year absence.

Junior Cricket:
This summer Heyford Cricket Club will be running junior cricket for children aged
5-11.

  • Every Friday from 6pm
  • Official ECB ‘All Stars Cricket’ for 5­-8 year olds (starting 17th May)
  • Fully qualified coaches for 9­-11 year olds (starting 10th May)
  • Boys and girls of all abilities welcome
  • All equipment provided

Please get in touch if you would like some more information or to register your
interest!

Youth Cricket Coordinators:

Bonus Ball:
A full list of Bonus Ball winners can be found on the ‘News’ pages of our website.

The January winners were as follows:
Saturday 5th January (6) – Matt Baker
Saturday 12th January (26) – Rob Pardon
Saturday 19th January (45) – No winner
Saturday 26th January (45) – No winner

Thank you to everyone who plays. If you would like to support the Club for £1 per
week, but also stand the chance of winning £25 each week then please get in touch
for more information.

Forthcoming Events and Home Fixtures:

Friday 26th April – pre-season quiz, keep an eye on the website for more details!
Saturday 27th April – 2nd XI v Horton House

More details about Heyford Cricket Club can be found on our website: www.heyfordcricket.co.uk or via social media where we can be found on both Facebook and Twitter.

If you would like to get in touch you can also email us at: heyfordcricket@hotmail.co.uk

Revitalising the Allotments – March 2019

Community Orchard
We are planning an official opening of Heyford Community Orchard on Saturday 6th April, at 11.30.am – for a 12 noon start. We will of course be inviting our wonderful band of sponsors and supporters but we would also like you, the good folk of Nether and Upper Heyford, to feel free to come and join us. Everyone is welcome. All that we would ask is that if you’d like to join in our picnic, you bring a nibble to eat and something to drink.

Unfortunately we can’t provide refreshments for all as we have no idea how many people are likely to attend. How embarrassing to have a hundred guests and only a packet or two of sandwiches. Conversely, a handful of people and hundreds of items of food and drink left over! If you are planning to stay for a while you may also want to consider bringing a chair.

We have ordered good weather and we are hoping Mother Nature will have been kind to the trees. They should be in leaf and some may even have blossom on them. I think we’ll have to wait a year or two for boughs laden with fruit.

If you haven’t seen what has been achieved so far this a great opportunity to have a first look at the orchard. It will also be an opportunity for you to ask those involved how it is going to be managed and how you can take advantage of the fruit we will eventually have on offer. Remember, this is a community orchard.

We look forward to seeing you – whether it is for just a fleeting visit or for an afternoon of bucolic relaxation.

Jam Patch
The next stage in our plan to revitalise the allotment site is to create a Jam Patch. This, like the orchard, will be a community area so available to all. As we have cleared old allotments we have rescued any fruit bushes that are in good condition. These will be planted up on a plot next to the orchard and be available for residents to pick from and hopefully make jam – or any other tasty treats.

Like the orchard, this area will be clearly signposted so that villagers are quite clear about what is a community space and which plots are exclusively reserved for individual allotmenteers.

Watch this space for an update on developments.

Tester Plots
Just like ‘tester (paint) pots’ when you are planning to decorate, we thought it
would be a good idea to create some tester plots. These would be small strips of ground (measuring about 3m x 7m) that local residents could rent for a very minimal fee, to see if they’d like to take on an allotment – or maybe just continue to cultivate because that is quite enough for them.

Clearing and preparing these areas will be the subject of our ‘working parties’ who plan to meet at 10.00.am every Saturday in March for a couple of hours work. Looking at what has been achieved so far, it is amazing just how much can be done in a short period when willing hands are put to work. If you are able to assist (even at another time) then do contact either Lynda or Sue on the numbers listed below.

Renting an Allotment
I am sure that readers of the Prattler won’t have missed our many messages about the good reasons to rent an allotment. Now is the perfect time to adopt a plot. The weather should, by the time you read this article, have started to warm up and the days will certainly be getting longer. Why not give allotmenteering a go and grow your own, tasty fruit and veg. Plots of all sizes are available for rent, from the tiniest of spaces to full sized allotments. In almost all cases they are now in a good state to begin cultivating. What better way to get some exercise and work off the pounds you put on over the festive period?

If you are interested, come and have a look at what is on offer and then contact either Sue Corner on 01327 342124 or Lynda Eales on 01327 341707.

Seats
From time to time people have old garden benches or picnic tables that they no longer require. We’d love to have some seating in the community areas we have created alongside the orchard. If you have just such an item (preferably made of wood/metal) and it needs a new home, do get in touch on either 01327 341390 or langrish_heyford@hotmail.com All donations would be most warmly welcome.

Free Compost Days
Last year South Northants Council organized some free compost days at their Towcester depot. In a bid to encourage people to recycle more green waste they invited local residents to drive along to Towcester with empty sacks and fill them with the compost that is produced from the waste in your green bins. Normally this has to be paid for; you may have noticed the ‘for sale’ notices at the recycling centre. On this occasion it was all free!

The initiative was not well publicized and on the day that Jill and I helped out, I don’t think we saw one Heyford resident. No advance notice of the event has yet been published, but I have enquired about whether the event is being repeated. As soon as I hear, we will publish details on the Prattler website and if possible, get it mentioned in the Prattler itself.

Mike Langrish

 

Flower Society – March 2019

Bugbrooke and District Flower Society

We invite you to join us at our monthly meetings to relax and watch demonstrations by a fully qualified NAFAS Area or National Demonstrator. This is followed by refreshments and the opportunity to win one of the arrangements in our raffle. Learn how to arrange and enjoy flowers.

Meetings are held on the fourth Monday of the month at 7.45pm in Nether Heyford village hall.

Our next meeting is on Monday 25th March when we look forward to welcoming Lynne Sharp and her demonstration entitled “Car Boot Collection”. There will also be a competition for an arrangement depicting “Spring has Sprung”.

A DATE NOT TO BE MISSED – 29TH APRIL, when we will welcome Lorena Dyer with her demonstration “Lipstick, Powder and Paint”. A National demonstrator, hugely talented and entertaining this is guaranteed to be a wonderful evening.

A warm welcome awaits both new members and visitors and those new to flower arranging are especially welcome.

For more information please follow us on Facebook or contact Dianne on 01604 830063 or Simone on 01327 342167.

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The Bugbrooke and District Flower Society meet every fourth Monday in the month in the Village Hall. Our meetings start at 7.45pm and usually take the form of a Demonstration when a qualified demonstrator will create several floral designs which are raffled at the end of the evening and lucky members take home the beautiful flowers.

Flower Society affiliated to the National Association of Flower Arrangement Societies (NAFAS) promoting Floral Art. www.nafas.org.uk

Heyford Singers – March 2019

Netherr_Heyford_Heyford_Singers_March_2019
Let’s begin with a question this month.
When you read the words above, or think of the song Amazing Grace what springs to mind?

Memorial services or funerals? Gospel choirs? Joan Baez?
Barack Obama reciting then singing these words?
American civil rights meetings? Aretha Franklin?

Rewind nearly two hundred and fifty years to the early 1770s and a man called John Newton. He grew up with no particular religious convictions but his life was to take a series of twists and turns that impacted on his beliefs and attitudes to life. He was conscripted into service for several years into the Royal Navy and after leaving this he became involved in the Atlantic slave trade.

A violent storm in 1748, during which he came close to death, caused him to
undergo a spiritual conversion. His slave trading employment continued until 1754 when he left seafaring to study Christian theology, was ordained into the Church of England and became curate of Olney in Buckinghamshire. In co-operation with the poet William Cowper he began to write hymns. Amazing Grace was written to illustrate a sermon on New Years Day 1773, and was then published in 1779. For many years it was sung either unaccompanied or to a wide variety of melodies.

Amazing Grace isn’t a song of theology – it was John Newton’s own heartfelt expression of gratitude to God, who he believed had helped him turn from his former wicked life to fight against the ills he had practiced. Later in life, Newton became a supporter and inspiration to William Wilberforce who lead the fight to pass the British Slave Trade Act in 1807.

For many years the song settled into relative obscurity in England, but in the early 19th century a large religious movement swept the US (known as the Second Great Awakening) marked by the growing popularity of churches and large gatherings of people. In 1835 it was finally linked to the tune “New Britain” to which it is usually sung today.

In the 20th century the song became a regular for gospel and folk artists, but with the popularity of recorded music and radio, “Amazing Grace” crossed over from being essentially a gospel song to secular audiences, thus allowing artists to perform it in thousands of different forms.

Folk singer Judy Collins recorded it in the late 1960s, and the song took on a
political tone, often included in marches and protests against the Vietnam War. Joan Baez claimed that it was the most requested of all her songs, acknowledging that she hadn’t realised that it had started as a hymn, for Amazing Grace had “developed a life of its own”.

Amazing Grace has understandably been sung at some very noteworthy and prestigious venues over the years, as well as numerous protest marches and political gatherings. It has become a song that inspires hope in the wake of tragedy, a “spiritual national anthem”.

It was performed at the famous Woodstock Festival in 1969. In 2015 President Barack Obama famously recited, then sang the hymn at the memorial service for Clementa Pinckney, one of the victims of the Charleston shooting. Opera singer Jessye Norman, performed it at the end of a huge outdoor concert to celebrate Nelson Mandela’s 70th birthday. She stated, “I don’t know whether it’s the text – I don’t know whether we’re talking about the lyrics when we say that it touches so many people – or whether it’s that tune that everybody knows.”

The choir of Heyford Singers will, in their small way add to the history of this unique song, by including it in their forthcoming spring concert, Friday 10th and Saturday 11th May.

We do hope that you can join us then.

____________________________________________________________________________________

If you would like to find out more, visit the Heyford Singers page or our website:

www.heyfordsingers.org

 alternatively come along to one of our rehearsals in Nether Heyford Village Hall.

____________________________________________________________________________________

Jill Langrish

Heyford Gardening Club – March 2019

Heyford-Gardening-Cluband-allotments

At our February meeting Christine Lewis explained the intricacies of using plant material to dye fabrics. This provided some surprises; who would have thought that avocado skins would produce a delicate pink, or that green was so difficult to obtain?

The evening also featured our annual art and craft show which again revealed the wealth of talent amongst our members. The photographic section was won by Jill Langrish with a study of snowdrops, Kim Woodbridge-Dodd and yours truly shared second place and Mike Langrish came third.

The visual art section was won by an embroidered seascape by Mary Newstead, Chris West came second and Linda Hall, Ann Haynes and myself tied for third place.

The craft section was won by Lynn Ashby with an amazingly intricate quilt, Mary Newstead was second and Chris West came third.

Next month we welcome the return of Patsy Rayner who will tell us about plants and literature.

The evening will also feature the Annual Daffodil Competition.

The classes are:

1. Single coloured daffodil
2. Bi-colour daffodil
3. Small flowered daffodil or narcissus

each exhibit will require only one bloom.

Spring
At the time of writing, in mid February, the snowdrops have been blooming for weeks and there are daffodils, crocuses primroses and violets all basking in the sunshine and yesterday the mahonia was full of bees. It would be easy to be seduced by these mild spells in early spring and to start sowing seeds but the nights are still long and cold and the soil hasn’t yet warmed up so it’s better to wait a bit longer. No doubt by the time you read this normal service will have been resumed.

Some Things to do in March
1. plant early potatoes, onion sets, garlic, shallots and summer bulbs
2. top dress containers and pots with fresh compost
3. last chance to plant bare rooted shrubs and trees

Mark Newstead

www.heyfordgardenclub.com

For more information visit the Heyford Gardening Club & Allotments page

Heyford-Gardening-Cluband-allotments

Nether Heyford W.I. – March 2019

WI-Logo

Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot, in their various guises, came to life in an interesting evening with Steve Dimmer at our February meeting. We saw clips of Margaret Rutherford catching sight of a murder through a train carriage window and later in the film Joan Hickson, a future Miss Marple, pushing a bicycle round a village. Then we were shown the many actors who had portrayed the wonderful Hercule Poirot – it was amazing how many famous faces want to act in an Agatha Christie film. At the same time we learnt some lesser known facts about Agatha Christie, her family and her temporary disappearance. A great evening with Steve Dimmer who is fast becoming a favourite speaker with Nether Heyford WI!

In March, Graham Jones will be making his first visit to our WI to tell us how he became an author. Having spent his working life in Education he was wondering how to fill his retirement years. At his wife’s suggestion he started writing and during the evening he will tell us of some of the hurdles and unexpected reactions encountered in his new career. The meeting will be in the Village Hall at 7.30 on Thursday March 7th and the charge, which includes refreshments, will be £5 for non-members.

In April we hope some of the younger and fitter ladies in the village may like to join us for an evening of Line Dancing with Renee Watt. I missed the last one but was reliably informed that it was great fun so I’ll look out my dancing shoes!!

Mary Rice – Heyford Lodge – 01327 340101

Village Hall – March 2019

The Fete is on its way: Saturday 8th June 2019 2 – 5pm.

Following our ‘Ideas Session’ at the end of January, our enthusiastic and active Fete Group members are now working hard, exploring a range of attractions and events which, in due course, will be announced in The Prattler.

Letters are also going out to local groups, organisations and crafters inviting them to take part again and, if necessary, book their pitches. As tables are in short supply it will be ‘first come first served’ as usual. We’re also inviting raffle prizes for our grand draw, so if you’d like to make a donation, please get in touch with me.

Following Ray and Rosemary Haddon, who organised the Fetes over the past 6 years and therefore were absolute experts, is a personal challenge. I should greatly appreciate your support in any way that you feel appropriate. For instance, as this is my first experience of co-ordinating the planning of the Fete, I may make a few mistakes. If so, I should be grateful if you could point them out to me (nicely, if possible, please) so that I can correct them.

Meanwhile, there’s always room for one or two more Fete Group members so if you’d like to join our team, please contact me.

Alwyne Wilson, Nether Heyford Village Hall Management Committee

01327 340803 | alwyne76@gmail.com