Category: Village Hall

2020 Village Award Scheme – Update – February 2020

2020 Village Award Scheme
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Northamptonshire Action for Communities in Rural England

Nether Heyford’s Application

Following my mention of this in the October Prattler, in preparation for our application, I have been researching all that Nether Heyford has to offer to its community.

The results are staggering – in a village of 1750 people we have some 50 groups, organisations, activities and facilities all offering direct benefits, not only to our own people but to those of neighbouring villages.

But a list is not enough – I now need specific details of how all these benefits are offered and received. To this end, I am about to ask each group to help me by completing a brief questionnaire. As it’s going to take me some time to get around everyone, you may not hear from me immediately. When you do, I hope you will provide a picture of the all good work that you are doing.

The application deadline is tight – the end of February. In April or May the judges will visit our village to talk to groups and view the facilities. I do hope that, if invited, you will be willing to join a small group of Heyford people to meet the judges and help convince them what a marvelous community we have in our village. Awards will be announced in July.

In advance of your support, thank you.

Alwyne Wilson 01327 340803
(Village Awards Co-ordinator: self-volunteered)

 

Village Hall Events – The 60th Anniversary

2020 – The 60th Anniversary of Nether Heyford Village Hall

2020 Events:

Village Garage Sale – Sunday 19th April – Postponed to Sunday 20th September

Village Hall Fete – Saturday 20th June – Cancelled

Art Exhibition – Saturday 26th September

Anniversary Dance – Saturday 10th October

Yuletide Festival – TBC

Pantomime Cinderella – TBC – Late December (usually between
Boxing and Hogmanay.)

Alwyne Wilson – 01327 340803

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Village Hall – News – February 2020

First, a sad note
Chris Phillips, who has represented the Crafty Club on our Management Committee for some time, has decided to stand down. We want to record our warmest thanks to Chris for her enthusiastic and positive contributions to our meetings, and also her willing and active support at our various special events. We are going to miss her.

Pantomime : ‘Dick Whittington’
Another huge thank-you to the many volunteers who helped to make our latest traditional pantomime another great success. Once again we had a packed house, making all the generous contributions of time, effort and raffle prizes well worthwhile. The children and young people enthusiastically shared in the audience participation, although the adults certainly enjoyed themselves too. Our next pantomime by The Looking Glass Theatre will be ‘Cinderella’ at the end of the year. More information nearer the time.

Carols on the Green
A report on this appears elsewhere but it was interesting to note that, as with our Village Hall Fete in June, the weather before and on the day was awful. During our setting up it was pouring and we were all soaked – again. However, as with the Fete, amazingly the rain stopped in time, giving us a clear and relatively mild evening for the event.

The Heyford Singers, lead by their Director Mary Rice whose idea this was, are to be warmly congratulated on a successful first event. It looks as though Nether Heyford now has another traditional annual event on the Village Green.

Main Hall Floor
This has now been fully cleaned and restored and looks like a brand new floor, attracting many compliments from our users. Our thanks are due to Peter Squire for researching and arranging for this work to be done over the Christmas break.

Heating
The boiler which heats the kitchen side of the hall and rooms behind the stage has now been repaired and is working well. So no more complaints about being cold. However, we did receive a complaint during the pantomime that it was actually too hot – can’t win – but we continue to do our best.

Future plans
Several are in the pipeline and will be reported as and when appropriate. We want our village hall to be in prime condition for its 60th anniversary celebrations.

Alwyne Wilson – 01327 340803

Nether_Heyford_Village_Hall_Book_2019

Carols on the Green (December 2019) – Update – February 2020

Carols on the Green – December 2019

When I first envisaged ‘Carols on the Green’ I had a picture of villagers singing as in a Christmas card, with the weather ‘Deep and crisp and even’. At 2 o’clock in the afternoon, standing on the green, it was more like ‘Wind and rain and boggy’. The team who came to set up were incredible, completely ignored the weather and got drenched in the process. However, NEVER doubt the power of prayer as by 6.30 it had actually stopped raining and the wind was not as bad – I can’t claim that the green was perfectly dry but we can’t have everything! I would like to say a heartfelt, personal thank you to everyone who turned out to raise their voices to Christmas.

You raised £256.56p towards replacing our Church roof which, considering the conditions, was wonderful. I would also like to thank you all for leaving virtually no litter for me to pick up the next morning.

On behalf of Heyford Singers there are, as always, people who must be acknowledged for their help in the organisation of an evening such as this and I hope you will forgive me if I have missed anyone out!

The Parish Council for permission to use the green and help with insurance arrangements.
Unusual (Rigging) Ltd. for the use of power cables.
PPL PRS for a Charity Music Licence.
The Village Hall Committee for use of the Hall in the case of bad weather.
Alwyne Wilson for her co-ordinating skills.
Tony Clewett for the use of the sound equipment and being so sure it would stop
raining!
Geoff Allen for being an incomparable compere.
Peter Squire and Jeremy Rice for fixing the power cables in the rain without
electrocuting themselves (or anyone else)!
Keith Rands Allen, Jill & Mike Langrish + grandsons, Alwyne W and Tony C for
erecting the gazebo despite the wind and rain.
The Rev. Stephen Burrow for his closing prayer.
And Richard Musson for providing the collecting buckets.

I have been told that carol singing on the green used to happen in the past and I would love to hear from anyone who can tell me when this was. It would be lovely to start a new ‘ Village Tradition’ but equally exciting to carry on an old one – especially as Northampton seems to be creeping ever nearer along the A45.

Thank you all for your support; hope to see you again in December.

Mary Rice

Heyford Lodge 01327 340101

W.I. & Crafty Club – Christmas Fayre Update – February 2020

Crafty Club / W.I. Christmas Fayre – Saturday 7th December 10:00 TO 14:00

The Village Hall looked absolutely amazing with all the stall holders making their tables look very inviting. W.I. commenced “frying” their wonderfully, delicious bacon butties, and apparently were sold out before the 2 o’clock deadline. All the trees were decorated and ready by the start of the Fayre and a banner was placed outside on poles.

The Christmas Trees and Mystery Boxes in the Chapel Rooms had a steady flow of people through the four hours, with many comments about how people felt the idea of the trees all being the same, giving the various groups the same opportunity to win, was a “good idea”!

At 2 o’clock votes for the best dressed tree were counted, the results were as follows:

Flower Society – 8 votes
ReStore – 5 votes
Crafty Club – 16 votes
Singers – 23 votes
Messy Church – 16 votes
Foresters – 6 votes
Garden Club – 5 votes
Quilters – 2 votes

So, the overall winner was the Singers with Crafty Club & Messy Church tying for second place. The Singers were awarded a box of chocolates and as there were two joint seconds Crafty Club gave Messy Church the box of biscuits.

Thanks to the Baptist Church for the use of their room.

The Mystery Box went well – two numbers were picked by an independent person at 2 o’clock and the winning numbers were

126 – Jude Massingham
11 – Lorraine Streeter.

I would like to thank all the people for their hard work helping with the organisation of the Fayre and for all the people who came along that made the whole event worthwhile.

Finally I would like to wish everyone a very Happy New Year.

Chris Phillips

 

 

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

HeyfordSingersLookingFormen2020

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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