| Dateline:
20 May 2007 |
| Apparently
a village resident is thinking about getting an
inflatable hot tub. Now, the webmaster has heard about
inflatable dolls before (he's not sure where, and isn't
about to tell anyone anyway). However, the resident is
getting nervous about the idea, and is not likely to
see it through. Why? Well, apparently, when you get
into one of these devices, you can't wear any clothes
because traces of detergent in the fabric will react
with the chemicals in the hot tub. So, they would have
to get into the hot tub (with all their friends, of
course) as naked as they were born. They're quite
relaxed about this, if it wasn't for other village
residents. They have visions of their (not too
private) garden being surrounded by villagers with binoculars.
Perish the thought! |
| Dateline:
19 May 2007 |
| Today saw a
fascinating exhibition in the village hall about the
history of the village. There were pictures of
football and cricket teams, school productions, and
photographs of the village going back to the 19th
century. Some of the material will be reproduced on
this site shortly. Watch this space. |
| Dateline:
18 May 2007 |
| Ducks are
invading the village! They have been seen all over the
place. One family, whose garden backs onto the river,
found a duck in their living room recently. Well, it's
on the way to the river, so at least it was going in
the right direction. And there was chaos in the main
street the other evening when a mother duck and 6 tiny
chicks found themselves there. Several residents tried
to get the duck family back to the river, but the
mother duck flew over a hedge, abandoning her young.
So much for maternal care! And to cap it all, the
webmaster opened the inner door to one of the rooms in
his house at 7am on Friday, only to be see an
adolescent duck strutting happily across the room.
ASBOs all round for the village ducks! Someone should
call the police. |
| Dateline:
13 May 2007 |
| The minutes
of the latest Village Hall Management Committee are
now uploaded and available to see. Click
here. |
| Dateline:
13 May 2007 |
| New info on
the village fete has just been released. It's now
called the Village Fete and Dog Show, and there's a
schedule of events on the fete
page on this web site. |
| Dateline:
8 May 2007 |
| An appeal
has gone out to villagers (and anyone else who has any
suitable crockery) to donate items for the plate
smashing stall at the village fete (or should that be
plate?). Anyone who has spare plates, saucers, or
anything breakable should leave them at the pub
without any delay so that they can be part of the fete
plate smashing stall. So don't hang around. We want to
see the pub awash with plates within the next week! |
| Dateline:
4 May 2007 |
| The village
pub is holding a Flower and Vegetable Show 2007 and
Beer Festival on Bank Holiday Monday 26 August, with a
Bouncy Castle and BBQ. There are loads of classes to enter,
so phone the Wheatsheaf on 01488 682391 for more
details and an entry form. |
| Dateline:
3 May 2007 |
| A new
business has been launched in the village - Jackie
Hynes now has a children's bouncy castle for hire.
Anyone interested should contact Jackie on 01488
682779, 07776 094086, or by email to jackie.hynes@farming.co.uk. |
| Dateline:
3 May 2007 |
| Rumour has
it that there is to be a double wedding in the village
on 23 June. Who knows who this will be? The webmaster
has a good idea, but has been sworn to secrecy for the
time being. But he has it on good authority that it is not just a
rumour! |
| Dateline:
2 May 2007 |
| The web
stats for April are now out, and show an all-time low
of 114 visitors a day to the web site. However, it
should be noted that this is artificially lower than
it should be, as there was a period between 17 and 22
April when the web server went down and there were
zero visitors a day for that period. If it wasn't for
that, the average would be 145 visitors a day. |
| Dateline:
1 May 2007 |
| The village
pub, one of the last outposts of thriving,
innovative, modern business practice, has
unilaterally decided to pre-empt the government ban on
smoking in enclosed public places which officially was
to start towards the beginning of July. The
Wheatsheaf is now a non-smoking environment.
For non-smokers, this is great news. For the dying
breed of smokers, probably not. Who knows what this
will do to Guinness and Magners sales in the village
pub? Probably not a
lot, but we shall see how a non-smoking atmosphere
impacts on it. Non-smoking worked well in Eire, as
non-smokers could enjoy a pollution-free environment.
For smokers, most successful pubs introduced outside,
(covered and heated) areas where smokers could
congregate, 'smirt' (it's a new word in the dictionary
- a combination of smoking and flirting), and generally continue to have a
good (if life-shortening) time. Apparently this is
already happening in the village pub. Watch this
space. |
| Dateline:
1 May 2007 |
| The latest
minutes of the Village Hall Management Committee are
now posted here. Click here
to read them. |
| Dateline:
30 April 2007 |
| Email
received from a villager:
My son is doing a project on WW2. more specifically D-Day and the events leading up to and afterwards.
He could do with interviewing somebody who maybe has any recollections of any of the events.
I realise that someone who would be old enough may not have a pc but surely members of their family may see the web-site and volunteer the person to do an interview.
Click
here to contact Pete W if you can help, or know
someone who can. |
| Dateline:
15 April 2007 |
| Our
intrepid village world explorer, Daz, has just emailed a
couple of links he thinks could be useful to anyone traveling
this summer. There's a currency
converter, and a world
times site. Click on either link to visit them. |
| Dateline:
12 April 2007 |
| The
2007 fete helpers had a meeting last night, at the
instigation of the new Chair, Lizzy Grey. Notes will
follow here, so keep your eyes peeled. |
| Dateline:
12 April 2007 |
| Your
webmaster has found the most amazing web site (at the
suggestion of BBC
Radio Berkshire). You can see in real time by the
second (or something like that) the world's
population, how many people have been born or died
today and this year, the millions
of grams of protein consumed in this year, solar
energy striking Earth this year, and so on. Click
here to visit it. Goodness knows how they get all
that live information together, but apparently it's
real, and it's well worth a visit. Fascinating. |
| Dateline:
11 April 2007 |
| The
Youth Club is not active at the moment because there's
a lack of children of the right age group in the
village. As soon as it's up and running (not likely
until at least 2009), a notice will be posted here
and the relevant people informed. |
| Dateline:
9 April 2007 |
| The village
enjoyed a quiet and peaceful Easter break, and the
only excitement was a bouncy castle in the pub garden,
combined with a children's East Egg hunt. |
| Dateline:
4 April 2007 |
| The latest
web stats are now available. March 2007 shows a new
record, with an average of 141 people every day
visiting our web site. Your webmaster has now idea
where they come from, but they have visitied the site.
The stats don't lie! |
| Dateline:
4 April 2007 |
| An
excellent leaflet
has been produced showing events at the village hall. Click
here to read it. There are lots of interesting
events planned, including a historic view of the
village with Ray Brooks, our local archivist, on
Saturday 19th May from 10am to 4pm. This should be well
worth coming to as there will be a wealth of historical
material to view which is not normally available for
all to see. |
| Dateline:
1 April 2007 |
| The web
stats for March 2007 are now available. This is something
your webmaster gets incredibly excited about, and
everyone wonders what on earth he's going on about.
How how can anyone possibly get this excited about
some boring old numbers? The webmaster has to concede
that this is fair comment, but he does. So (fanfare of
trumpets off stage), the average number of people a
day visiting the village web site during March was
141. That's every day! It's an all time record. Again!
And the highest daily number was 237 on the 21st
March. Staggering! |
| Dateline:
1 April 2007 |
| Welcome to
James and Catherine, and their two daughters, Grace
and Laura, who have now moved into the village. Grace
and Laura are already enjoying being at the village
Primary School, and the webmaster is sure that the
village will join him in wishing them well here. |
| Dateline:
30 March 2007 |
| Today sees
the departure of two households from the village, both
of whom will be missed. Mr M is moving to a nearby village
to live with Debbie, the love of his life. And Lisa
and Ollie, and their son Tristam, are moving into
somewhere with a bit more space. The webmaster is
assured that neither of these moves have anything to
do with anything he has written! |
| Dateline:
26 March 2007 |
| A
beautifully produced leaflet popped through the
webmaster's door today, entitled 'Chilton Foliat Village
Hall.'. Now, if your webmaster had been at the Village
Hall Management Committee meetings he was supposed to
have been at over the last few months, this would have
come as no surprise. But he wasn't, and it did. A very
nice one. Shortly, the contents of the leaflet will be
published here (Liz O or whoever is doing the VHMC
minutes, - please email
the webmaster the leaflet content so that he can post
it here. It does say in the leaflet that people
reading the leaflet need to check on this website (www.ChiltonFoliat.com)
for information and photos
of events just gone. Now, your webmaster promises he'll
try to live up to this claim. But always remember
that, contrary to popular belief, the webmaster is
only human! |
| Dateline:
26 March 2007 |
| Received
from a villager:
Concern was expressed
concerning the parking of cars in the road outside of
Mill Cottage just on the bend to the right from the
village to the Kennet river bridge. This is a blind
bend for large vehicles which often swing out wide to
negotiate the bend particularly from the bridge end of
the village. Vehicles coming the other way may need to
take evasive action but with cars parked in the road
on the bend there would not be much room for manoeuvre
potentially resulting in serious accidents. |
| Dateline:
24 March 2007 |
| There's a
disco on Saturday 31 March at 8 pm. You can get
tickets on 01488 681334 and they are only £7 per
person. As the poster says, Come
Along and Strut Your Stuff, (If You Can Remember
How!!). So come on and try to do it! |
| Dateline:
22 March 2007 |
| After a
long and protracted period of hibernation, the
webmaster has finally woken up and there are several
entries for today. If you have anything that you would
like to appear here, please email
the webmaster. Read on. And enjoy! |
| Dateline:
22 March 2007 |
| Email
received from a villager. Actual names have been
removed to maintain the (apparent) integrity of
upstanding villagers:
"Apparently T has a new cock and
L has been extolling its virtues especially (apparently) the noise it
makes! Mr C has also been wondering if he ought to be a bit more cocksure of himself as well – but the rumour is that on his retirement (this summer)
Y is going to make a bare breast of it and demand her own chickens (+ Cock) as a means of entertaining herself in a long and well
earned retirement
All the latest in Chilton's chicken saga in the ‘Daily Rooster’
PS Don’t forget SCATS of Newbury doing good deals on layers pellets at the moment and orders being taken for Hen Hotels (courtesy J H). Built to 5 star standards and a real alternative to spending another hen pecked evening at home – some good local broilers known if contacts required! Deep litter system currently used but central heating can be added at extra cost – low carbon footprint (size 9) and attractive looking chickens can be sourced from local super chick selectors – all tastes catered for
Don’t be shy just ask – we are all the same underneath you know." |
| Dateline:
22 March 2007 |
| The minutes
of the latest Village Hall Management Committee are
now up. Click here to
read them. |
| Dateline:
22 March 2007 |
| Email
received from a villager:
Webmaster, I feel that
the Russian Graves pale into insignificance compared
to the mining we have had to undertake to satisfy
the planning requirements for our extension.
We can easily, accommodate unruly children,
annoying relatives, unruly Parish Councillors, an
number of politicians or indeed anyone considered
generally undesirable
Yours, the Chilton
Foliat Mining Company
|
| Dateline:
22 March 2007 |
| The latest
Parish Council minutes are on the web site. Click
here to read them. They actually make
interesting reading so do read them. For instance, did
you know that villagers are asked to contact the PC if
they think the village should be entered into the Best
Kept Village Competition. In the minutes it is said
that this will be posted on the village web site.
Unfortunately, the webmaster did not bother to attend
the PC meeting, and nobody from the meeting bothered
to inform the webmaster of this request. So it never
appeared on the web site. This probably explains why
the village is unlikely to be entered into this worthy
competition. However, as they say, never too late....
if you have a view on this, please email the PC
chairman with your views. Click
here to do it.
One of the parish
councillors has discovered a new role in life, as he
reports in the minutes
that he has experienced difficulties with wheel chair and baby buggies attempting to negotiate around a parked car straddling the pavement at the east end of the village.
As far as anyone is aware, the councillor in question
has very little experience of either! But good on him
for pointing it out for the rest of us.
And the PC has asked
all helpers for the fete to contact Lizzy if they can
help with the fete. Click
here to volunteer! |
| Dateline:
22 March 2007 |
| It snowed
again this morning. Click
here for pictures. |
| Dateline:
20 March 2007 |
| It snowed
on Monday. The village woke up to a thin covering of
the white stuff which looked very pretty. And since
then it has been sub-zero, certainly overnight. The
chicken saga goes on, and the village is becoming
chicken mad.
Quiz night at the pub
continues to be popular, and two of the teams (made up
of locals) have named themselves The Clangers (that's
the local campanologists), and The Nipple-Tweakers
(we'll leave that one to your imagination!).
Lizzy is gearing up for
the village fete, and it promises to be a great day.
She even had an offer the other day from the Police
parachute team to come. Who knows if they'll turn up
or not. We'll see! |
| Dateline:
4 March 2007 |
| Chilton
Foliat is about to be re-named Chicken Foliat. We
think. John K has been a regular at the pub for a
while now, and he is well-known nationally for his
prize-winning chickens. Lizzy (see below) has had chickens
since she moved into the village last year. And now
Jim H, not to be outdone, has built (from scratch) his
own high-rise chicken coop. All it needs is a
couple of watch towers and some searchlights. Jim's
children, Katie and Tom, were thrilled when on the
first day of the chickens' arrival, 3 eggs were
produced. This may not last for long, though, as Jim
has also imported a very large cockerel. Now, apart
from creating even more noise in the centre of the
village, we all know what cockerels do to hens. We
don't think Jim's 7 hens will be immune, so there
could be an absence of edible eggs before long. We
shall see. |
| Dateline:
2 March 2007 |
| Ignore the
puerile comments in the entry below and welcome Lizzy,
who is running the village fete this year. Click
here to read her first message to the village. The
webmaster asks everyone to help Lizzy make 2007 the best
fete yet. |
| Dateline:
1 March 2007 |
| The village
fete has a fantastic new Chair. Or at least that's
what the PC members of the community call it. PC, by
the way, does not stand for the ubiquitous Personal
Computer, or Parish Council, but Politically Correct. Not an accusation
that can be leveled at your webmaster. The new person
who will be chairing, guiding, enabling the fete will
be Lizzie Grey, a newcomer to the village. And a very
welcome breath of fresh air. In fact, the Noise
Pollution Officers had no idea how loud fresh air was
until they met Lizzy! |
| Dateline:
1 March 2007 |
| So the
webmaster's getting lazy. Or pre-occupied. Or both.
There have been very few entries here in the gossip
column over the last month. Sorry! But there have been
136 people a day visiting the website during February,
and that's an all time record. Goodness know what you
have all been reading, but thanks for coming along and
making it a real community web site. |
| Dateline:
18 February 2007 |
| Spring has
sprung in the village. The first flowering cherry tree
is in full flower. The birds are going mad. Especially
the woodpecker, which wakes the webmaster up every
morning at dawn. And yesterday saw brilliant
sunshine. |
| Dateline:
17 February 2007 |
| A couple of
villagers have decided to prepare the village for a
major catastrophe by digging mass graves. The
webmaster thinks there is a Russian link here. Click here to see the
evidence. |
| Dateline:
15 February 2007 |
| Valentine's
Day has been and gone. There were no new betrothals
that the webmaster is aware of in the village, but if
anyone knows of any, please let the webmaster know! |
| Dateline:
10 February 2007 |
| Wiltshire County Council Warns
Householders To Beware Of Rogue Driveway Firms.
Click here to read all
about it. It could hit you, so take care.
|
| Dateline:
8 February 2007 |
| The village
woke up to a white morning today, after a heavy
snowfall overnight. Most local schools are closed, and
the village looks fabulous. Click here
or here
to see the
pictures. |
| Dateline:
7 February 2007 |
| The village
is about to be subjected to yet more noise. No, not
ghetto-blasters, a much more rural phenomenon, cockerels.
Lizzie is threatening to get one, after a trip to
Coventry on Sunday to witness John K's chickens win
multiple prizes. And rumour has it that a Stag Hill
resident is intending to add to the noise by acquiring
at least one of the birds. At this rate, Chilton
Foliat will have a noisy awakening every morning. |
| Dateline:
6 February 2007 |
| Chris and
Caroline have asked the webmaster to put an official
notice of sincere thanks here on the web site to all
the very many people who have sent in offers of help
in one way or another since their house burnt down on
25th January. People have been very kind and generous,
and Chris and Caroline very much appreciate all the
offer they have had. |
| Dateline:
5 February 2007 |
| The web
stats are out for January 2007. Well, in fact they
were on 1st February, but your webmaster didn't get round
to putting them up here until now. 134 people every
day visited the site, which is an all time record. The
most was 213 people on 26 January. That's getting
close to the entire population of the village! |
| Dateline:
4 February 2007 |
| Someone has
nicked the plants from outside the pub, pots and all.
Can't they just come in and order a beer and pay for
it? It would be much simpler. |
| Dateline:
27 January 2007 |
| Chris and
Caroline have had lots of offers of help from villagers
since losing their house. it's good to see that people
in the community are prepared to help others in
difficulty. If anyone has any spare furniture that
they could loan Chris and Caroline for the new house
they will be renting, it would be very
welcome. If you are someone who is prepared to help,
please email
the webmaster your contact details and he will pass it
on. |
| Dateline:
26 January 2007 |
| The village
woke up to dreadful news this morning. Chris and
Caroline Kaneen's lovely cottage on the Littlecote
corner burnt down last night. Luckily Chris, Caroline
and their daughter Onnee are all safe and sound, but
they will need help from willing villagers over the
coming weeks and month not just to rebuild their house
but also to rebuild their lives. |
| Dateline:
25 January 2007 |
| The first
snow of the winter has appeared in the village. This
morning, Chilton Foliat woke up to see white roofs and
pavements. It wasn't a huge amount, but was still
enough to get some children excited thinking school
would be off. No such luck. All the local schools
opened as normal. But the village does look very
pretty! |
| Dateline:
22 January 2007 |
| Yet more
web stats are available. If it carries on like
this, this web site will beat all records. December
was a record breaker in itself, with an average of 115
people a day visiting the web site. In January so far,
116 a day have visited here, eclipsing December! This
may be totally boring for readers of this column, but
for the webmaster it is great. It means that quite a
lot of people actually take some interest in reading
what's written here! |
| Dateline:
21 January 2007 |
| Great news!
Moving to Chilton Foliat is apparently a potentially
fertile exercise. There is a new engagement in the
village. Andy and Charlie (as in Charlotte - it's a
red-bloodedly heterosexual union) have just announced
their engagement. Although the webmaster has not seen
it yet, he has it on impeccable authority that Charlie
is sporting the proceeds of a substantial
diamond mine on her finger. So, the Chilton Foliat
nipple-tweaker and her other half are now engaged.
Many congratulations!
Andy and Charlie, we wish you the very best for the
future! |
| Dateline:
18 January 2007 |
| Shock,
horror!. The webmaster injured his head last weekend.
Quite badly. Amazingly, it was self-inflicted (not
deliberately), and not caused by one of the readers of
this web site or a villager. Wow! Now that bit is
surprising. So the webmaster has been a resident of
the Great Western Hospital for the last few days. And
very well looked after too by the excellent staff
there. The most surprising thing to come out of this
is to discover from the scan that the webmaster
actually has a brain. The scan showed it up, and you
can click here to see it.
This not only will come as a surprise to readers of
this web site, but also comes as a pleasant surprise
to the webmaster too. |
| Dateline:
11 January 2007 |
| The Chilton
Chicks (that's the village toddlers) Christmas Party 2006 pics are now up on the web.
Click here
to see them. |
| Dateline:
1 January 2007 |
| Now that
December is over, the web stats are available. An
average of 115 people a day visited the web site
during December, the highest since the web site
started two and a half years ago, even exceeding
June's 114 a day. The highest day was the 16th, with
188 visits, and the lowest (not surprising really
because everybody had better things to do than look at
the web site) were Christmas Eve and Christmas Day,
with 66 visits a day each.. |
| Dateline:
1 January 2007 |
| Last night
was, of course, New Year's Eve, and there were two
public parties in the village. The pub held a Wild West theme
night, and several parents, led by Jackie H, organised
a great kids' evening in the Hall. Everybody had a
great time, and there were some very good costumes. Click
here to see the pictures. |
| Dateline:
1 January 2007 |
| Yasmin and
Jeremy contacted the webmaster today, asking for a
message to be posted here to sincerely thank everyone
who sent cards, letters and messages expressing their
condolences for Brendan's sad death late last year. |
| Dateline:
1 January 2007 |
| The
pictures of the Christmas decoration party at the pub
on December 15th are now up on the web site. A bit
late, but better late than never. They are much better
quality than the webmasters normal pictures, since
they were taken by local ace professional
photographer, Phil Tull. there are some great pictures
of village kids. Click
here to see them. |
| Dateline:
31 December 2006 |
| With
2007 imminent, your webmaster has been through all the
gossip column entries for the year, and offers you a
summary of life in the village from his (admittedly
heavily distorted) perspective. Click
here to read all about it. |
| Dateline:
31 December 2006 |
| Brian and
Ann McMath had a new son, Brodie, on 14th December.
Click on the New Year's Eve 2006 pictures to see a
picture of the most recent newcomer to the village. |
