Category: Events

The Great British Spring Clean – Saturday 4th April 2020

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The Great British Spring Clean returns to Nether Heyford on Saturday 4th April 2020.

Following 2 successful annual spring clean-ups, the village is again gathering volunteers for a quick tidy up as part of the national Keep Britain Tidy “Great British Spring Clean” campaign which runs from 20th March to 13th April 2020.

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There are over 135,000 volunteers nationwide signed up to help in the 2020 Great British Spring Clean.

Everyone is welcome to volunteer and join the growing numbers of individuals and organisations who are already signed up to help this year, including regular contributors Nether Heyford Pre-School and new for 2020 a class from our Bliss Charity Primary School taking on the playing fields and the school “Eco Team” who taking on the village green.

On average the village spring clean collects between 30-50 bags of rubbish and helps our village look great ahead of the warmer months and the start of our annual village events.

If you would like to join us, please sign up and we can co-ordinate together the streets & areas with volunteers. Simply send us a message with your name and the street/area you would like to volunteer to clean up on Saturday 4th April between 9am and 5pm.

3 options to sign up:

EMAIL: Send an email to Heyford_Prattler@yahoo.co.uk

or

FACEBOOK: Send a message to us via our Facebook community page The Prattler or join the private Facebook group Nether Heyford Tidy Villagers

or

ONLINE: Sign up on the Great British Spring Clean website

 

#GBSpringClean 

 

 

 

 

 

Heyford Singers – February 2020

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It is a cold, damp and rather dreary day in January, one of those days when time seems to be edging oh so slowly towards spring, although to be fair there are minute signs appearing everyday. One of those days when you look forward to the year ahead, whilst the memories of 2019, including the recent Christmas celebrations, still linger. We know that January is named after Janus, the Roman god of ‘beginnings, gates, transitions, time, doorways, passages, and endings. He is usually depicted as having two faces, since he looks to the future and to the past.’

If we look back on 2019 for Heyford Singers it was, as in most families or organisations, a mixture of sadness and good times. In September we gained thirteen new singers in the choir, increasing our membership to over 60! They are very welcome indeed and include young mums from the village as well as older experienced singers who have worked with other choirs. The result is a very positive and vibrant atmosphere at rehearsals, even if space and stage management does become an issue!

At the end of the year, as Christmas approached, Heyford Singers were very actively involved with several, local community ventures. We had a second delightful entertainment from our resident pianist, Graham Kinnersly entitled “A Musical Mystery Tour” in which our knowledge of music and songs from the recent and distant past was tested. It was a lovely afternoon and sent us off in a festive mood, not only because we had collectively raised £460.00 towards the Emmanuel Benevolent Fund, which supports the Weston Favell Centre Food Bank. That same evening some of the choir went to sing at the Bliss Charity School Christmas Fayre.

This was an absolute delight, especially when young children joined us to sing some of the carols.

Our annual Christmas concert, Christmas Is … followed in early December and we performed to sell out audiences, who we hope enjoyed the Christmas music and singing as much as we did! Once again we were really pleased to be able to support charitable organisations, sending £175.00 from raffle ticket sales to both the Air Ambulance and Dementia UK.

Carols on the Green was a new venture for the choir (see Mary Rice’s article), and despite awful weather earlier in the day it was a lovely, memorable evening, which we hope you enjoyed as much as we did! We are looking forward to this becoming an annual Christmas event for Nether Heyford.

Several choir members sang at the church’s Service of Nine Lessons and Carols on Sunday 22nd December, heralding the true beginning of Christmas. I think that those who sing with, and support, Heyford Singers, would say that they have thoroughly enjoying contributing to the “feel good factor’ of our local community, through a variety of music and songs.

We have looked back to 2019 …………… and now to look forward to 2020.

Our Spring concerts are planned for Friday 15th and Saturday 16th May. Rehearsals have begun on Les Miserables, Mama Mia, Fields of Gold, You Raise Me up, and many more – very exciting!

We have also been invited to perform a fund raising concert in Bugbrooke Church in the spring, yet another special contribution towards our village communities.

Then there will be the 2020 Christmas concerts as well, but enough for now as it is time to brave the rain and wind and look around the garden for emerging snowdrops and spring bulbs!

Jill Langrish

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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.

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Heyford Singers – “Lookin’ for Men” February 2020

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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.

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Flower Society – February 2020

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.

At our next meeting on the 24th February we welcome Lucy Allan with her demonstration “Between the Covers”. 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 Picturedrome – Sometimes Always Never – Thursday 20th February 2020

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The next film will be Sometimes, Always, Never – a 2018 British comedy-drama to be shown at the Village Hall on Thursday 20th February 2020. The film stars Bill Nighy, Sam Riley and Jenny Agutter and is about an old man who is searching tirelessly for his son who has been missing for years. When a body is found, the whole family’s life is turned upside down and they must all learn how to reconnect with each other. It is an off-beat comedy with lots of dry ‘Brit’ humour.

Doors open at 7pm for a start to the film at 7.45pm.

Admission remains at £4.00 per person and there is no joining fee.

There is free tea or coffee and a biscuit on arrival and there will be a licensed bar for the purchase of wine and soft drinks both before the film and during the interval.

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Tony Clewett – Phone: 01327 341533

Heyford Picturedrome – January 2020

The January film, Yesterday is a story about Jack Malik who is a struggling singer songwriter in an English seaside town whose dreams of fame are rapidly fading, despite the fierce devotion and support of his childhood best friend, Ellie. After a freak bus accident during a mysterious global blackout, Jack wakes up to discover that The Beatles have never existed. Performing songs by the greatest band in history to a world that has never heard them, Jack becomes an overnight sensation with a little help from his agent. directed by Danny Boyle and written by Richard Curtis, based on a story by Jack Barth and Curtis.

The film is to be shown in the Village Hall on Thursday 16th January 2020.

Usual arrangements: doors open at 7.00pm for free tea or coffee with a film start at 7.45pm.

There will also be a bar for the purchase of wine and soft drinks.

Tony Clewett – Phone: 01327 341533

Heyford Singers – December 2019

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In recent days vast swathes of the country have been engulfed by incessant rain, followed by flooding, and creating eerie, watery landscapes. Venice likewise has experienced unprecedented rain and high tides, a sad and beautiful, submerged city resembling a scene from a disaster movie. Across the world, to the east and west, firefighters are battling with bush fires that move and burn with an intensity that is almost too hard to comprehend. Global warming is evident in so many guises! Record high temperatures this past summer and record low temperatures during the winter of 2018.

It was the later that inspired Graham Kinnersly (Heyford singers’ resident pianist and composer) to write the song quoted above, and which will premiere at the forthcoming Christmas concert, ‘Christmas Is……’. Marooned at home for a few days as the “Beast from the East” struck, Graham’s creative talents took over, melody, words, humour, even a dash of politics, all centered around the notion of global warming. The choir loves this song, the Russian tune, the wintry feel and the sense of menace!

The first half of our concert is devoted to Night of Wonder, Night of Joy, a set of beautiful songs and readings that relate the story of the first Christmas. The nativity continues into the second half of the concert with the choir singing One Small Lamb, O Holy Night and then Pacem, which will be accompanied by a young solo violinist (a family member). This is always a very moving piece to sing and listen to, made even more so by the haunting tune played out on the violin.

Then the mood changes and we celebrate Christmas in words and music with songs of sheer joy and exuberance ……Sleigh Bells (with the ladies “jing-a-ling-alinging!), White Christmas, Graham’s Snow From Siberia and Christmas Is, from which we take our concert title.

Christmas Is ……..what to you?

One of the most moving features of our Christmas concert is that of choir and audience, joining together to sing Christmas carols. That is always very special to us, and we hope to you too.

I do hope that you are able to get a ticket and share what promises to be a wonderful evening with us.

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Carols on the Green

On Friday 20th December at 6.30pm, as the working week and school term ends, as families and friends begin to celebrate the Christmas holidays, we have a new initiative in Nether Heyford, an idea originally muted by Mary Rice. It is to come together on our unique village green, to sing some lovely Christmas carols, to celebrate our close community, and to enjoy all this with friends, families and neighbours. We do hope that you can join us, and that the weather is not too cold, too wet or too windy, and if it is then we shall just adjourn and raise the roof of the village hall with our singing!

Nether Heyford Carols on the Green Heyford Singers

Everyone in Heyford Singers wishes you, your families and your friends, a very Happy Christmas and a happy, healthy 2020.

Jill Langrish

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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.

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