RAMBLINGS - BEACONSFIELD & LOUDWATER - HP 9/10 - NOVEMBER 2008
Remember, remember
the 5th November,
Gunpowder, treason
and plot
I see no reason
why gunpowder treason
Should ever be
forgot!
Our thoughts
are currently on bonfire night and which best firework display to visit. There’s plenty around to choose from.
Guy Fawkes and
all that. I decided to do some research
on Guy Fawkes – just to give our celebration of his activities some historical
substance.
The historians,
and more educated amongst us will probably know this, but for those who don’t
it’s an interesting piece of our history.
Guy Fawkes was just one member of the group planning to blow up parliament
on November 5, 1605. He was found
under the Houses of Parliament with the gunpowder trail at his feet (no denying
his guilt! – he’d been given the job of lighting the fuse.)
He was spared, from what I understand, because he ‘dobbed’ his friends
in with the police. The plot was
foiled so it seems a relatively insignificant event in history, given that it
was a thwarted event, but here we are, several hundred years on, still celebrating
it – any excuse for a party!
Here we are careering
towards Christmas at a rate of knots. Where
did the year go? Suddenly it’s dark
again in the evening and it’s cold all the time.
The shops are full of trinkets and delightful gifts that are placed tantalisingly
onto the shelves for this time of year to entice us into buying gifts and ‘useful
storage items’ and ‘Christmas branded domestic items’ that we don’t really need,
but as they’re there we may as well…
There are lots
of Christmas fairs in this issue. As
you know, we’re keen to keep it local and Christmas fairs fit the bill! We’ll start with them as Christmas shopping
will be the key focus of most people’s attention for the next six weeks or so.
Burnham Grammar,
Hogfair Lane, Burnham is hosting an Art and Craft Fair on 8 & 9 November,
10am – 4pm. Over 200 local artists
and 40 craft stalls, with crafts and gifts made from all manner of materials
ranging from leather to stones, silk and wool to name a few.
Sounds like you could buy most of your Christmas presents there!
The Oakridge
Baptist Church Christmas Fair (they spell it Fayre but I’m not allowed, one
of my colleague’s bug bears!) is being held on 15 November, 2pm at the church. It’s in High Wycombe for anyone unfamiliar
with its location.
Schools seem
to be a popular place to hold craft fairs and exhibitions.
The Beaconsfield School, Wattleton Road is holding a renowned sale of
creative works ranging from paintings, mosaics, sculptures, jewellery and much
more on 22 November, 11am – 4pm.
Another school
shopping event, Sir William Ramsay School, Rose Avenue, Hazlemere is holding
a shopping evening – saves all that dashing around on a Saturday!
Friday 21 November, 7.30pm to 10pm.
All the usual commodities for sale!
For those willing
to travel further afield and to a very beautiful location, Blenheim Palace is
holding the ‘Living Crafts for Christmas’ fair from 21 – 23 November.
This is a massive event, which will attract around 12,000 visitors and
will be opened by Sarah Raven, celebrity gardener and chef.
Not quite your church hall bring and buy!
However, not
to decry those sales held in halls of some description, after all they are promoting
the local craftsman and this is where we should all be purchasing – avoid mass
produced, I say!
Take a deep breath
– there’s more. Help the Aged is
launching a range of exclusively designed Christmas cards and gifts with proceeds
going to the charity, which helps older people, stave off poverty, isolation
and neglect. There are 360 Help
the Aged shops around the UK or, for a more stress free shopping experience,
you can shop on line www.helptheaged.org.uk Best get shopping to secure the future. Apparently, over 50% of the UK population
will be over 50 by the year 2020. That
is a huge number of older people in our society!
There you have
it, the definitive guide to buying your Chrismas presents and decorations locally. If you don’t find something at one event,
you should find it at another!
Don’t forget,
if you want to keep shopping local on a weekly basis, Beaconsfield Market, Old
Town, Windsor End is open every Tuesday 8am – 3.30pm.
Driving Instructors
in Buckinghamshire have joined forces with a company called a2om (Alpha to Omega
Motoring) in order to improve safety on Buckinghamshire’s roads.
The scheme offers young drivers a unique BTEC qualification in Driving
Science. There were thirty-two deaths
from road crashes in Buckinghamshire last year, which makes the benefit from
a2om’s initiative two-fold as the course provides safer drivers for life as
well as the vocational qualification. Further
details www.a2om.com/btec
One of our society’s
latest obsessions is healthy eating; in particular the not so healthy eating
habits of children. There are a
number of reasons for why certain children won’t eat certain foods but a growing
(excuse the pun!) campaign by the Royal Horticultural Society to encourage gardening
in schools called the Campaign for School Gardening, is aiming to help with
this. There are now 20 schools across
the UK celebrating the campaign’s first birthday.
The children involved have learnt about gardening, have eaten what they
grow, because it makes sense to them and the garden has been used in some schools
to teach core subjects such as mathematics (don’t know how – counting cabbages,
maybe?). If you know of a school
that you think would benefit from such a scheme, further details can be found
www.rhs.org.uk/schoolgardening
Not quite eating
what you’ve grown, but the next best thing is the Amersham Country Market. All produce sold is hand made, home
grown or baked within 10 miles of Amersham.
The market is held every Friday morning, 8.30am to 11.30am at the Amersham
Free Church Hall, Sycamore Corner, Woodside Road.
Christmas orders are now being taken for you food requirements.
Let some one else make the cake and mince pies this year.
You can concentrate on the mulled wine!
An item of minority
interest has been brought to our attention this month and by minority I mean
ladies, so please, all men look away – we don’t want you cringing, although
I’m cringing myself as I write this. Apparently,
1 in 4 women experience bladder weakness and 1 in 5 are unaware of the location
of their pelvic floor muscles. I
think anyone who’s had a baby does not fall into the latter category!
However, should any of you ladies out there relate to any of this, help
is at hand in the form of ‘Kari’s Pelvicore Technique’ which is available free
by joining CoreWellness at www.corewellness.co.uk
or tel 0845 3006466. Over to you! Just one final piece of advice from
a leading specialist, apparently all us women need to be ‘squeezing regularly’. I’m saying no more on the matter!
We in Britain
are renowned throughout the world for our interest in the weather.
It’s a constant source of conversation to us and, let’s face it, there’s
enough to say on the subject in this country of hourly changing weather patterns. In the summer we need a raincoat and
sunglasses and in the winter wellies, a fleece and a waterproof coat should
cover off all unpredictable weather conditions, oh and sunglasses as we do get
the odd sunny wintry day.
There is no doubt
that the weather is becoming more extreme and the Vale of White Horse District
Council is responding to this by engaging the services of amateur meteorologists
and those with a general interest in the weather – just about most of the population
- should get a good response! They
would like to hear from anyone who’s monitored the weather and would like to
share their data and for anecdotal information from residents.
They are putting together a profile of the weather over a five-year period
in order to understand climate change so that appropriate measures can be put
into place to respond to extreme weather threats.
Further details and to be involved email mark.kowal@whitehorsedc.gov.uk
Should we have
some nice days, we do all feel the need to ‘get out and enjoy the weather’ and
what better way to do this than to take a ‘walk back in time.’
The Chilterns Conservation Board has teamed up with a number of local
historical and archaeological organisations to bring the past alive with twenty-five
guided walks and events now in place in the local areas.
An interesting way to discover more about the local area’s past with
stories linking to infamous characters and historic events.
Leaflets will be available in libraries and tourist information centres
or copies can be ordered tel 01844 355504.
If you’ve had
enough of shopping, the weather and the great outdoors, how about a change of
scene with some music and theatrical events ranging from the sit-back-and-enjoy
to full on participation.
Starting with
Beaconsfield’s second celebrity recital this season will be held on 29 November
and features the international pianist, Freddy Kempf.
Beaconsfield High School is the venue at 7.45pm.
Tickets available 01494 678595.
The Bourne End
Amateur Operatic Society will be performing ‘South Pacific’ from 12 to 15 November,
8pm at the Bourne End Community Centre.
The Holmer Green
Players will be presenting their version of ‘The Boyfriend’ set in the 1920’s
on 14, 15, 20, 21 and 22 November at Holmer Green Village Centre at 7.45pm. Chicken and chips supper included in
the price. Further details 07778
175616.
Taking us into
December and full on Christmas spirit is the Cranford Choral Society’s performance
of Handel’s Messiah at Dorchester Abbey on 6 December at 7.30pm with some wonderful
soloists. Tickets tel 01865 305305
or www.ticketsoxford.com
Music and history
sit together comfortably, so moving on to history, we have the Bucks Family
History Society talking about ‘The workhouse and Poorhouse’, which sounds very
interesting even to a non historian such as myself.
Dr Colin Chapman is giving the talk on 11 November at the Community Centre,
Wakeman Road, Bourne End. 7.30pm
for 7.45pm start.
The REME museum
of technology, Newton Road, Arborfield, Berks is holding a ‘Blitz Day’ on 23
November offering the opportunity for the whole family to experience what life
was really like during World War 2. The
re-enactors will be dressed in 1940’s attire.
Sounds like a good trip if any of your children are studying WW2. Further details 0118 976 3375 or www.rememuseum.org.uk
One final piece
of history is a talk at High Wycombe library on 19 November starting at 7.30pm
entitled ‘Memories of the 20th Century’.
It is a lighthearted talk organised by the Friends of High Wycombe library
and covers the beginning of the century to Edwardian times, WW2 and life in
the 1950’s. Further details 01628
525207.
There has been
a lot of mention in the media recently celebrating the importance of the older
generation, with some schools inviting pupils’ grandparents into the school
to talk to classes of children about their experiences as young people, or during
the war or any other event, which brings their history alive to the younger
generation. Maybe something Help
the Aged could offer support to? As
Christmas is coming and grandchildren will be spending time with their grandparents,
now would be the perfect time to talk to them about their lives as young people
and to support this, there is a website – www.findtree.co.uk
which allows children to go on line and gain direction on how to create their
own family tree. It involves questioning
family members about their lives- a perfect icebreaker to include granny in
the conversation over Christmas!
Whilst on the
subject of history, it’s Remembrance Sunday this month, a celebration, as we
are all aware, of those who died in the two world wars of the last century. We will all being asked to dig into
our pockets to purchase a poppy, the flower known as the remembrance flower. This is something our children / grandchildren
will know little about and it will be down to the older generation to educate
them about this important event in Britain’s History.
Swapping history
for the future, Parents and Children Together is an adoption and fostering agency
that is holding an open evening in Oxford on 16 December at 7.30pm where prospective
parents can learn about the process of fostering and adoption.
Further details on venue and to book tel 0118 938 7600 or www.pactcharity.org
Something of
fundraising interest. The Pauline
Quirke Academies of Performing Arts (PQA) in Beaconsfield and Penn will be doing
their bit for Children in Need on 8 November.
They’ll be taking part in ‘Pudsey’s Quirkey Challenge’.
A theme will be taken from a hat in the morning and everyone will work
on it to create a performance in the afternoon for the parents.
That’s all for
this month, hopefully there’s something for everyone and remember, keep that
shopping local!