K i n g s w o o d    G r a p e v i n e

Issue No. 135                                                                                                                             MAY 2009     

Editors: Diane White (843783) & Gill Hemming (842734)

 

D a t e s   F o r   Y o u r   D i a r y

 

Sat         2nd      May                  St. Mary’s Spring Produce Stall              Chipping                                  10.30am-12 noon

Fri          8th          “                    Mobile Police Station                             Chipping                                    3.00pm-4.30pm

Sat       16th          “                    KSA Pram Races and Spring Fayre         Playing Field                                        11.00am

JUNE  ISSUE  DEADLINE:                     FRIDAY  MAY 15th

Thurs    28th       May                  Mobile Police Station                             Chipping                                 10.15am-11.45am

Sat         6th       June                 St Mary’s Church Fête                           Amercombe, High Street                        2.00pm

Sat       20th           “                   Boules Tournament                                Dinneywicks

Sat         5th       Sept                 Showday 2009                                       Village Playing Field

 
FRIENDS OF ST. MARY’S

Friends of St Mary’s Spring Produce Stall: Saturday May 2nd. Cakes, Bottles, Flower and vegetable plants etc on the Green at the Chipping 10-30am to midday

 

KINGSWOOD VILLAGE ASSOCIATION

Village Association (contact Sheila 843398) - spurred by another successful year in 2008, the Association is pleased to announce that the popular Boules Tournament at The Dinneywicks will take place again on Saturday 20th June.  (Team lists to be entered at the pub).  

Showday 2009 will be held on Saturday 5th September and village organisations will be contacted soon to take up a stall and help swell their own funds.  If you haven't heard from us by beginning of July and want to run a stall, please get in touch.  As a departure from the previous arrangements, we will make only one drop of the Showday Schedule to each household and this will take place in June.  In the meantime, copies will be available from the Spar Shop for anyone needing advance notice of the various classes. 

If you are running a village event attracting up to 250 persons and need public liability insurance, the Association may be able to assist you at a very reasonable cost.  It also has a tent that can be hired out for such occasions.  All the profits made by the Village Association are used to finance village events, such as New Year's Eve luncheon for the Seniors and the Tea Party for the children, or donated to good causes locally.  Last year's beneficiaries were the Primary School (School Trip), Kingswood Grapevine, Karate Club, Village Hall, Chapel Restoration, Cotswold Care Hospice, Haig Poppy Fund and the Chipping Memorial - totalling nearly £1,600.  We also hold £800 for the Bridger's Project, which hopes to get under way soon.

Finally, we are grateful to Jude, the new landlady at The Dinneywicks, for offering to give any profits made by the pub's special Easter weekend activities to the Village Association, to ensure that the village gets the benefit.

 

ST. MARY`S PROMISES AUCTION:

With nearly all the promises complete, St. Mary’s would like to thank all the donors and bidders. Many of the donors gave professional services free of charge. We would like to thank them and hope that villagers are aware of their services. They are: Claire Adams (personal training), Liz Ali (therapy) Archfield Nurseries, Gee Bee Travel, Rachael Box (cleaning), Lynn Cole (childcare), Trudi Crumpton/Peels Leisure Club, Dinneywicks, Val Jones (flower arranging) Jean Dove (public speaking and English coaching), Sarah (paintings) and Alastair (woodwork) Farwell, Fleece, Greenfields Farm (poultry), Harvest Store, Wellbeing Centre, Alastair King (screen-printing), Kingswood Car Clinic, Kingswood Post Office, Fran McCubbin (jewellery), Barry (gardening) and Kevin (Boilers) Morgan, Royal Oak, Henry Smith (gardening), Tony O’Callaghan (paintings), Tortworth Estate and Farm Shop, Dave Werrett (decorating), Westward Travel and Wickwar Brewery.

 

KINGSWOOD CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH.

We look forward to inviting back some old friends to take our services during May.

  3rd May     10.30am   Alec Boyne 

10th May     10.30am   Adrian Wyatt                                           6pm. Dotun Olowo

17th May     10.30am   Munir Din                                                6pm. Adrian Wyatt

24th May     10.30am   Colin Halstead                                         6pm. Jeff Broderick

31st May     10.30am   Dorothy Frampton - Family Service.           6pm  Rory Jones          

Communion is held during the morning Service on the 3rd May, and evening Service on the 17th May.

We have no evening service on the 3rd May, as this is our annual visit to Rhiwderin.

Why not come and join us in fellowship, we would love to see new faces at our services.

We also have many children's events during the week, why not visit our website and see what other things we have to offer.

 

 

DAWN CHORUS

The Dawn Chorus at Lower Woods Nature Reserve, near Wickwar Sunday May 3rd 4:30-6:30am. £3 for Danish pastry breakfast. Early risers will be rewarded with a superb recital by nature's choir! A 2 mile walk, some of it in the dark leaving at 4:40am sharp. Suitable for adults and older children. Part of International Dawn chorus Day.
Directions on booking - 01452 383333

KINGSWOOD NEIGHBOURHOOD WATCH                    

The Police Information Point is available in the Post Office should you wish to report any problem to be followed up.

 

ST MARY'S PARISH CHURCH  

A couple of weeks ago, on Easter Day, St Mary's was full of sunshine, lovely music and the scent and beauty of flowers, as we celebrated the Risen Christ and his triumph over death.  The previous six weeks we had been observing the solemn period of Lent in various ways. One of these was by holding simple “Lent Lunches”, each Thursday, in St Mary's Room.  People were offered a simple meal of soup, bread, cheese, fruit and tea or coffee.  In return they were asked to make a donation that went to the two African charities we were seeking to support. 

It was a tremendous success and each week we had to set an extra table to cope with the increasing numbers of people coming along. As a result of all those donations we have sent off just over £840, equally divided between Water Aid in Mali and the Vryground Township project in South Africa.

There were two modest but important revelations during the course of these lunches: first - how tasty and nourishing good homemade soup can be; second – the fun and fellowship of sharing a simple meal together. 

Those missing either of these need have no fear, for the regular “St Mary's Light Lunches” return on the last Thursday of each month, i.e. 30th April, if this gets to you in time, or 28th May, if not.

 
MUSIC AT ST MARY'S

We are now entering our twelfth season and continuing with our recent policy of engaging top quality musicians of national, or even international quality.  Dates for your diary.  Passacaglia, one of the country's best-loved Baroque chamber ensembles will be performing on Saturday 19th September.  There is a special Kingswood interest in this booking because their harpsichord player, Robin Bigwood, is one of Kingswood School's more distinguished former pupils!  Then, on Friday 29th January 2010, Alison Farr, one of Britain's finest young pianists, will be giving a solo piano recital.  This concert will be a first for us in the sense that we are committing not just to engaging a top class soloist but also to the significant cost of hiring a recital-quality grand piano. The ability to engage such splendid musicians has come in no small part from generous support from Kingswood Village Association, for which we are most grateful.

In addition to these major concerts, on Saturday 19th July 2009, we are also welcoming the Bath-based Jerrome Recorder Consort.  More details soon.

 

Bookstall at St. Mary’s Church Fête, Saturday 6th June, 2 pm, at Amercombe in the High Street

Thank you to everyone who has donated books to sell on the bookstall, especially Mrs. Organ, who gives us wonderful fiction and non-fiction items every year. This time we have the usual eclectic selection for children and adults, including a fine collection of needlework and patchwork books and patterns. Further donations of books in good, clean, re-saleable condition are welcome up to 30th May. After the Fête we begin collecting again for the following year. Please telephone 845204 to arrange delivery, or collection, within the Kingswood area.

 

KINGSWOOD VILLAGE HALL 

At the Annual General Meeting a new committee made up from Representative and Elected Members was elected; The Representative Members being those from Organisations within the village who are put forward by their organisations to manage the day-to-day affairs of the Hall. There remain a couple of gaps where organisations no longer wish to take part.

Two new members have joined the committee, David Scott has replaced Pat Harty for the Cricket Club and Sarah Cocker joins us for Brownies. Pat has relinquished his position as Chairman of the committee, a position he has held since 1993.

The committee wish to thank him for all the very hard work he has put in during those 16 years. There have been a lot of repairs during that time and many pints pulled behind the bar!! Thank you.

At the committee meeting following the AGM a new chairman, Ian Beswick was elected.

At the same meeting it was also decided that Hire Charges would have to be increased. They have remained static since November 2005, but unfortunately because of rising costs, repairs to the fabric caused both accidentally and otherwise and a lack of fundraising this action had to be taken in an attempt to make the hall viable. The new charges come into effect on May 1st and may need to be increased again if the situation does not improve.

We also hope to complete the repairs necessary, due to the last break-in, very soon and replace the missing guttering, once again. If you see vandalism at the hall, or anywhere else, please note it at the ‘PIP’ in the Post Office.

 
KSA Pram Races & Spring Fayre

Saturday 16th May. Pram races for children & adults. 11am on village playing field. Children’s races: 1 child pushing "pram" with no live cargo!    Adult race: 2 adults; one pushing & one relaxing in "pram”. Dress/decorate prams in any style or design you like. Followed by Spring Fayre; fun stalls, BBQ & other "light entertainment".

 

The Village Diary can be viewed on the Grapevine website. For an entry please email Grapevine or telephone Gill on 842734.