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This page is updated on an ad
hoc basis with local gossip that does not necessarily make it to
the papers. This won't always be 100% accurate (so please
don't pick holes!), and presents an alternative view of village
life. However, many of the items are based on fact. We hope
you'll be able to spot which is which. Any views expressed are not necessarily endorsed by any
official body whatsoever, but hopefully may provide you with a bit
of amusement, as well as keeping you up to date on what has
happened in the village. If anyone feels a comment is offensive, please be
assured that none is intended to be, and email the webmaster
immediately to have it amended or removed. Likewise, if you have a
story to tell, also email the webmaster.
All gossip welcome! And thanks to those who continue to
contribute. Click on any hyperlink (like this)
to be taken to the relevant page.
| Dateline
28 December 2006 |
| The
Carols round the tree on the 15th went very well. Lots of
villagers turned out, and a lovely evening was had by all.
The pub has been very busy over the Christmas period, with
full houses being recorded very frequently. There has been
remarkably little discontent in the village over this period
traditionally full of domestic incidents. The red kites are
still alive and thriving, as is the bright green parakeet.
The webmaster may or may not be updating this site again in
the future. Time will tell. That's it for now, folks. |
| Dateline
13 December 2006 |
| Our
village pub has been sold! It has been bought by Admiral
Taverns, along with about 150 other Greeney King pubs. Click
here to see their web site. Admiral is a bit of an
unknown quantity in the village, but we all hope they will
look after this important community asset and give Tracy all
the support she deserves. Admiral says on their web site
that one of the prerequisites to run one of their pubs is
"The ability to work with people – from customers, staff and neighbours...".
Now, Tracy will not have any problem with the first two.
It's the third one that is the problem...
Speaking about the pub, there
is much speculation about what the pub is going to do the
smokers post-July 2007. Some say good riddance to the
filthy, dying breed. Others (especially those amongst the
filthy, dying breed) want somewhere to puff their lungs out.
The current favourite seems to be Ben's greenhouse in the
pub garden. Ben does not seem to be too enamoured with this.
Can't imagine why. Smoked vegetable are all the rage! |
| Dateline
13 December 2006 |
| Our
roaming villager, Daz O, has sent in a link to an awful pun
web site. Click
here to see it. |
| Dateline
13 December 2006 |
| It
would seem that the village is being taken over by birds!
First of all we have the fabulous red kites that glide
gracefully above the village. And now a bright green
parakeet has joined in the avian fun. It doesn't glide
gracefully over the village (no surprise there!), but it
does frequent several villagers' gardens every day. Ian
reports that he is on very good terms with it, and it has
even been seen in the pub garden. And then there is the
influx created by one of the village's newest residents,
Lizzie. Now, L is not the quietest little thing your
webmaster has ever met. In fact, she can even out-decibel
Jackie H. That's quite a feat. When they're both in the pub
at the same time, there's a very real risk of someone
calling the Environmental Protection people because of the
noise level generated (click
here). So, L likes her animals. A lot. Not content with
bringing to the village with her two huge Rhodesian
Ridgeback dogs, together with several chickens, she decided
to buy 4 running ducks a few months ago. Your webmaster had
never heard of running ducks before (and he's been around
quite a bit), but, yes, they exist. L proved it. They were a
little difficult to keep in to start with, and apparently
they invaded both her neighbours' gardens in the first few
days. Then she penned them in (the ducks, not the
neighbours). Now they live on an island in the river,
crossing every day to be fed. L must get very wet going over
to collect the eggs. And to add to the bird mayhem, L
brought one of her chickens into the pub the other day to be
inspected by our local chicken guru, John K. Much to L's
disappointment, John pronounced the chicken to be a load of
rubbish. L thought she'd got the chicken that laid the
golden egg, and so was very disappointed. But it will make
some good Coq au Vin. |
| Dateline
12 December 2006 |
| Brendan
Lynch's funeral took place in St Mary's Church on Tuesday
5th December. Literally hundreds of friends and family
attended the packed service, including many of Brendan's
friends from school. There was standing room only. Brendan's
favourite music was played, and addresses were made both by
one of his teachers from St John's, and villager Frazer
Bingham, who is the same age as Brendan. Brendan's mother,
Yasmin, step-father Jeremy, and father Jerry, were all there
to pay their last respects. R.I.P. Brendan. Your family and
friends will miss you. |
| Dateline
11 December 2006 |
| Sunday
3rd December saw many young children from the village coming
to the Wheatsheaf pub to put up the Christmas decorations.
This is, of course, just an excuse by the pub landlady to
employ free child labour to do a job that would taken her
hours. But maybe free is not quite true, since she laid on
masses of excellent food for all the children and their
families to enjoy. As a result of all the efforts, the pub
is now festooned with vast quantities of decorations. It may
be a bit over the top for some, but the kids had a fantastic
time. Especially since Father Christmas came and gave them
all presents. |
| Dateline
24 November 2006 |
| Very
sad news to report. Brendan Lynch, of Ramsbury, was killed
last night in an accident whilst on his moped. Brendan, aged
17, was a popular member of the village Youth Club here, and
sincere condolences are extended to his mother, Yasmin, and
her partner, Jeremy. |
| Dateline
23 November 2006 |
| The
village is shedding Nicks like nobody's business. First of
all, Nick from the pub departed for his home in Wales in the
summer. Now another Nick, a notable and upstanding member of
the community, known and loved by all, is off. He will be
missed by the village, as he has raised significant sums of
money for community amenities, and put a massive amount of
work in as treasurer of the fete for 2 years, as well as
many other contributions. Nick is noted for his love of
detail in all things, no matter how unimportant they might
seem to others. His charming wife, Valentina, will also be
missed. You can see the property on www.russell-marshall.co.uk,
and you'll notice the lawn seems to have been been trimmed
immaculately with nail scissors. You can also see Nick's
dressing gown in one of the pictures one the Marshall site. (Surely
this is not relevant? - Ed.). It says on Mr Marshall's
web site that the garden enjoys a South Easterly aspect. It
also looks over our famous Recreation Ground, which has been
lovingly protected by Nick over the years. So if
anyone wants to buy an immaculately kept, recently-built
property in the village, here's your chance. |
| Dateline
22 November 2006 |
| If
anyone is looking for a charming, thatched 17th Century
cottage bang in the middle of the village they should also
look at the www.russell-marshall.co.uk
web site. Lisa and Ollie (and Tristan), some our newest
arrivals in the village are sadly leaving too. Apparently
it's nothing to do with them having rather odd neighbours,
but rather that they need somewhere larger now that Tristan
has arrived on the planet. Even though their stay has been
short, they have been a welcome addition to the
village. |
| Dateline
22 November 2006 |
| The
minutes of the latest Village Hall Management Committee
meeting and AGM are now up. Click
here to read them. |
| Dateline
21 November 2006 |
| Villager,
Daz Outridge, has sent in some very bad taste jokes from his
travels in South America. Click
here to see them on the Jokes page. |
| Dateline
20 November 2006 |
| This
page has been getting so bulky, that your webmaster has
moved the older entries back to the beginning of August to
another page. Click here to see
them. This is primarily so that if you're reading this page
at work, it's quicker to download and you have less chance
of being caught in the act carrying out personal taks in
work time. |
| Dateline
16 November 2006 |
| Last
night's Village Hall Management Committee AGM was well
attended. The only point to note here (the minutes will be
published when available) is that the carols on 15 December
will now take place round the tree outside the church, and
will be followed by a candle/torchlit procession from the
Church to the Hall, where refreshments will be served. |
| Dateline
16 November 2006 |
Received
from our neighbouring village primary school at Ramsbury...
A desperate plea from a very worried Headteacher
In spite of all our best efforts we are still often woefully
short of the amount of adult supervision that we require to
ensure that the children are properly fed and safely looked
after during the lunchtime break.
We have tried numerous newsletter appeals and we also
advertised in all the local shops and the Parish News but so
far to no avail.
We have been trying to overcome some of our difficulties by
enlisting parent help on a voluntary basis. This has been
very useful and I would like to sincerely thank those who
have so far been involved but it is very much a hit and miss
process and on most days we simply do not have adequate
levels of supervision to ensure the safety of the children.
I am very worried about this issue. It is frankly a major
cause of concern, and I am at my wit’s end and can see no
resolution to the problem. What causes me even more concern
is that our existing lunchtime staff are under huge pressure
and it is not difficult to see that we may have an even
greater staffing shortage as a direct result of the
intolerable stress that the situation is causing those
lunchtime staff directly involved.
I once again appeal to you for help in this matter. You may
know of someone who might be able to help, or you yourself
may be able to commit to one hour a day for one or two days
a week. If we had a regular commitment from, say, just ten
people then our problem would be resolved.
I would be failing in my duty if I did not bring this matter
to your attention. If you have any ideas at all how this
problem may be resolved then do please let me know, we
really are desperate.
If you are interested (yes,
they will pay you!) please contact Richard Colley on 01672
520244 or email him at head@ramsbury.wilts.sch.uk.
|
| Dateline
16 November 2006 |
| There
are now some useful notes from the last Neighbourhood Watch
Coordinators' meeting at Marlborough Police Station. Please
do read them. You'll find them on the Neighbourhood
Watch page on this web site. |
| Dateline
16 November 2006 |
| The
minutes of the latest Parish Council meeting are now
published. Click here to
read them. |
| Dateline
15 November 2006 |
|
After a period
of relative inactivity (on the web site, at least), the
webmaster has got round to putting lots of new gossip up.
Have a read below of all the items dated today. |
| Dateline
15 November 2006 |
| The
Sunday before last nearly witnessed the slaughter of
villagers and visitors enjoying a quiet Sunday drink outside
the pub. A motorbike coming from the Hungerford direction
collided with a vehicle turning into the pub car park. The
rider came off, and the bike continued on its own, unmanned,
nearly knocking pub customers off their tables outside.
Nobody was hurt, apart from the motorbike rider who, it
later turned out, suffered a fractured should blade. A close
miss. It could have cut the village population in half! |
| Dateline
15 November 2006 |
 |
Don't forget
to come to the Christmas Carols outside the Church followed
by mulled wine in the Village Hall at 7pm on December
15th. The venue was hotly debated at the last Village
Hall Management Committee meeting, and blows were
nearly exchanged between Committee members. What is
the village coming to? On a more serious note, if you
come, please bring torches and keep a close eye on the
younger kids. The road is a dangerous place at night
and, although nobody anticipates anyone standing in
the middle of it in the dark, there's always the risk
that kids can stray if unsupervised. |
|
| Dateline
15 November 2006 |
|
In Chilton Foliat Village Hall on the Saturday 13th January
2007 at 2pm. Box office is courtesy of Marilyn & John
Summers. Posters, flyers and tickets are due soon. If demand
exceeds one performance, another will be held at 6pm. Click
here to read all about it. For tickets, call Marilyn or
John on 01488 681274 or email at
summersm45@hotmail.com. |
| Dateline
15 November 2006 |
| There's
new stuff on the Neighbourhood Watch
page. Click here to check it out. You'll learn
something! |
| Dateline
15 November 2006 |
| The
Halloween pictures are now on the web, with lots of
villagers making a complete spectacle of themselves. Click
here to see them. |
| Dateline
15 November 2006 |
Received
from a villager. Don't fall for it yourself!
This
has been confirmed by the Royal Mail. The Trading
Standards Office are making people aware of the following
scam:
A
card is posted through your door from a company called PDS
(Parcel Delivery Service) suggesting that they were unable
to deliver a parcel and that you need to contact them on
0906 6611911 (a premium rate number). DO NOT
call this number, as this is a mail scam originating from
Belize
. If you call the number and you start to hear a
recorded message you will already have been billed £15
for the phone call. If you do receive a card with
these details, then please contact ICSTIS (the premium
rate service regulator ) at
www.icstis.org.uk.
|
| Dateline
15 November 2006 |
A rip-roaring family Christmas treat based on the thrilling
tales of Jack
London. Suitable for ages 6 to adult (running time 80
minutes max). Tickets
£6 from Newbury Building Society (Hungerford) or tel 01488
684038. |
| Dateline
15 November 2006 |
| The village
fete Treasurer has now finalised the fete accounts. It's
not his fault they are so late appearing here. They were
sent to the webmaster nearly a month ago, and the latter has
only just put them up here.
The total raised by the village
fete was £4,836.65, and over 500 visitors came along
for a great day out. A fantastic effort by all the
volunteers who took part and helped! The majority of this
was donated to the Church
and the Village Hall, and
£100 was donated to each of the Youth
Club and Chilton Chicks
(Toddlers' Group). £496.65 was left in the fete bank
account to enable the next fete Committee to have funds to
get the fete going. Speaking of which, there are openings
for the fete chairman and treasurer, who have run the fete
for the last two years, and have stepped down to let younger
blood come in. If you are interested in either post, please email
the webmaster, who will pass your message on to the relevant
person. |
| Dateline
10 November 2006 |
| Your
webmaster has been pulled up by a local for not updating the
gossip column for so long. Humble apologies!
Email
received from a villager:
Do you have a spare room available on the 25/26/27/28 of December? We have overextended ourselves this Christmas and need a place for two adults (my mother and brother) to stay for 4 nights (night time only). We will be happy to pay for the room/bed.
Needless to say, if you are away and kind enough to offer a space, you will find the place as you left it.
If you have a spare room please call Hatty or Phil on 682655
(2 Kennet Place).
In advance, many thanks!
|
| Dateline
17 October 2006 |
| Email
received from a villager (and the response follows):
Hello Brian (Twigger)
With regard to the Wheatsheaf card etc of course they have their own commercial collection this request is nothing to do with that.
The Landlady has kindly offered to loose two parking spaces to accommodate the
collection of card and plastic for the residents of Chilton as this is the main waste problem within the village. As you have said we do have other facilities at the school but the collection of card and plastic is the main gripe of residents.
The areas already with collection points you mentioned are fine if you don't work, have your own transport and are able bodied that however is a very small number of people here.
The full timers are not around during the day to go to Ramsbury at the allotted time, the non - drivers have no way of transporting their waste and the elderly who would like to re-cycle are simply not able to. If we were to have a regular collection from the Wheatsheaf it would suit all residents, we could organise help for the less able and of course make the fortnightly collection work much better.
I really hope we can do this as I feel very strongly about re-cycling and am trying to prove to others it can work but we do need the facilities on site so residents can reduce their black bin contents.
Perhaps you can answer a question for me, I have noticed one or two places have a second black wheelie bin, do you have to pay for a second one or are they available in certain circumstances ? I have to say I find it ridiculous that anyone should need more than one but would be interested to know the answer.
Look forward to hearing from you
Liz Outridge
And the response came
back:
Subject: Fw: Re cycling
Chilton Foliat
Thank you for your email dated
the 10th October 2006, regarding recycling.
I would first like to thank the landlady of the Wheatsheaf
for her kind
offer to place plastic and cardboard recycling containers in
her car park.
The Council recognises that there is a call for more and
more recycling
services. The Council has continually delivered more
and more services to
meet this demand. But recycling services do have a
financial cost and the
Council must ensure that the services it provides offer the
best value for
its Council Tax Payers’ money. The current recycling
services for
cardboard and plastics are funded from a grant which allows
the Council to
provide this service for a minimal cost. Providing a
district wide
collection of plastic and cardboard does have considerable
cost implication
to this Council. How and what services should be
provided needs careful
consideration. The Council is about to commence an
investigation into
future recycling services for its new Recycling and Waste
Minimisation
Strategy which will run from 2007 to 2010. This
strategy review will
consider many services including plastic and cardboard
collections.
For your information the Council collects recyclables and
delivers them to
Wiltshire County Council. This Council has to deliver
all the recyclables
it collects to Wiltshire County Council as they are the
disposal authority.
The County dictate what materials can be collected and how
it must be
delivered to them. Kennet District Council is
currently in negotiations
with Wiltshire County Council on methods of collecting
plastics and
cardboard, as well as other materials. These
negotiations will then be
used by the Council when considering the new strategy.
I apologise that the Council is not in a position, at this
moment in time,
to accept the kind offer of placing plastic and cardboard
recycling
containers at the Wheatsheaf. However, I can assure
you the offer will be
recorded and if bring sites for cardboard and plastics are
provided in the
near future the landlady will be one of the first sites to
be contacted.
With regard to your enquiry about the additional bins.
The Council does
provide assistance to residents who struggle to cope with
their bins. If a
resident is recycling all they can and still have
difficulties the Council
does provide an additional bin. As an example of the
types of problems
experienced, incontinence pads take up a large amount of
space and can not
be avoided. In such cases an additional bin would be
provided.
I trust this is acceptable.
Adrian Hampton
Works Manager
Adrian.Hampton@kennet.gov.uk
And another villager (NF)
added the following comment:
How did Adrian know that we
all needed the second bin for incontinence
pads? Who split on us? (This web site gossip column is
incontinent most of the time. So it follows.... Ed). |
| Dateline
16 October 2006 |
| More
on waste recycling. The landlady of The Wheatsheaf pub had
kindly offered to donate no less than 2 spaces (out of a
grand total of about 10) in her car park to recycling
facilities for plastic and other materials not collected by
the council. She was turned down by Kennet Council because,
apparently, they could not afford it. (What?.. Ed).
The entire letter from the council will be posted here
shortly. Watch this space.
And speaking of recycling,
another barman from the Wheatsheaf (the ever-enthusiastic
Ben) bought a particularly naff string of Halloween lights
from B&Q today. He only paid a couple of quid for them,
but it's going to cost hom a lot more than that when the
break (judging by experience in these things, very soon
indeed). B&Q have been socially responsible in including
wording about recycling in the instruction leaflet that
accompanied the lights. Although whether they are socially
responsible in selling them in the first place is anyone's
guess. Probably not. But it says: "Waste electrical
products should not be disposed of with household waste.
Please recycle where facilities exist. ". The light
string is made of plastic and metal. Now, as anyone who has
been on this web site, or indeed has taken part in the many
debates in the village, will know, we don't have anywhere to
recycle plastic unless we take a 40-minute (each way) drive
to Devizes or Eversleigh. How environmentally sound is that?
(Not very - Ed.). Your webmaster must go now to watch
a program on the Beeb about fly-tipping. This is very
topical, because unless the council sorts out its plastic
and cardboard disposal process, it's going to be a real
problem in the area very soon. |
| Dateline
16 October 2006 |
| Sunday
saw a flurry of activity in the village. Well, everything's
relative. One of the newer villagers decided that there must
be an inglenook fireplace behind the rather nasty one
someone had installed in her house sometime in the last 30
years. But layer after layer of bricks was ripped out until
it was debatable if the house would remain standing.
Luckily, the resident's enthusiasm was curbed in time by the
person doing the demolition, who told her that enough was
enough. That's if she didn't want the house to collapse.
Everyone was getting ready to loan tents to the family as it
looked as though the house was going to collapse.
That was a fairly quiet
moment, with only that family involved. But then, at the
same time that this was going on, there was simultaneously a
baptism in the Church, the Harvest Festival also in the
Church, and a visit by the Hash House Harriers. The whole
village was inundated with parked cars.
Bow, the Hash House Harriers
were an entity unknown to the webmaster until their arrival
in the village. And he wishes he had known about it before.
On visiting their web site, www.hhh.org.uk,
it turns out that their slogan is 'The Drinking Club with a
Running Problem'. They run to build up a thirst to quench.
What a great ambition! |
| Dateline
14 October 2006 |
| Another
one bites the dust... Dave (well-known as one of the barmen
at The Wheatsheaf) and Kelly spliced the knot in Hungerford.
We all wish them every success in their new life. One thing
they won't be short of is flower arrangements. |
| Dateline
7 October 2006 |
| The
bi-annual Art Exhibition (named, possible slightly unfortunately,
Artex) took place at the village hall last night and today.
The organisers (Peter Camfield and several villagers who
helped out) deserve to be congratulated. The quality of art
on display was very impressive indeed and loads of
effort went into organising the event. The webmaster
attempted to document it for posterity, and his efforts can
be seen if you click
here. The webmaster is not a very good photographer, as
you will know if you've been on this web site before. In
fact, he does not know how to work the camera, and every
photograph is the result of pure luck. Compared to Phil Tull,
a villager and a very talented professional photographer
(whose works include the amazing butterfly pictures), the
webmaster's efforts are rubbish. But the pictures will
give you an idea of how good the exhibition was, with or
without the camera flash reflections. Apologies for the lack
of the usual facetious captions. The artists' work included
watercolour, oil and gouache paintings, Phil's huge and
detailed photographs, exquisite jewellery, hand knitting,
lovely home-fired pottery and some wonderful turned wood.
All in all, an impressive display of talent. |
| Dateline
7 October 2006 |
| The
webmaster has been very remiss (again) in not announcing the
births of two new babies in the village. He didn't even know
about one of them! Gemma (whose mother Sou was one of the
artists exhibiting at the village hall (see above)) brought
her new son Tristam to the Art Exhibition (see above).
Mother and baby are both looking stunning 9 weeks after
giving birth. Tristam is obviously enjoying his new life.
And the webmaster met Sia, the 4-week old baby of Gesa and
Ross, who live on Stag Hill. Gesa is of German origin, and
is a horticulturist. Apparently she has a fabulous
garden. |
| Dateline
7 October 2006 |
| Overheard
in the pub... Why do women wear white dresses for their
weddings? So that they match the colour of their kitchen
appliances. The webmaster was suitably shocked to hear this! |
| Dateline
5 October 2006 |
| Click
here to go to www.ukgraves.info.
This has some excellent pictures of the graves at St Mary's.
Thanks for sending in the link, Ronna. |
| Dateline
5 October 2006 |
| As
many of you will know, one of our community, Darren
Outridge, is traveling round the world right now. He has set
up a web site to show everyone his photos, and it also
contains a travel blog. Click
here to go to the site. |
| Dateline
5 October 2006 |
| The
minutes of the Village Hall Social sub-committee are up. Click
here to read them. |
| Dateline
4 October 2006 |
| It's
amazing what some villagers come up with. Your webmaster has
just been sent a link to the Stick Insects official web site. Click
here to go to it. |
| Dateline:
3 October 2006 |
| Email
received from a villager today. Admirable sentiments, with
which the webmaster agrees entirely.
Could
I, through your pages, just say a huge thank you to David
Hickford and all his helpers for a super evening? What
an achievement …. to fill the hall with village people and
their guests, serve a five course supper (with liquid
refreshments) and provide entertainment. It was
so well done that it is difficult to appreciate all the hard
work that had obviously gone in to the arrangements.
Thank you one and all. |
|
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