BROAD TOWN NEWS – OCTOBER 2023
Keeping everyone in touch with what is going on in and around our parish.
HARVEST SUPPER
Saturday 14th October 7pm In the village Hall, 3 course supper, bar, entertainment and raffle.
Proceeds to Christ Church Broad Town, helping to keep the church open.
Tickets £12 each Family tickets (2 adults, 2 children) £30
For further details, Tickets and dietary requirements call Margaret or Ray 731564.
FOOTPATH GROUP
The footpath group was active again in late August continuing work from the previous session. On this occasion the team continued clearing footpath BTOW30, beyond Littleton Farm in the direction of Binknoll. This forms part of the White Horse Trail and is popular with walkers. Forthcoming sessions will see the installation of several kissing gates with the intention of creating a circular walk of slightly over 2 km within Broad Town which can be completed without the need to climb any stiles. Workdays take place from 10-12am approximately monthly and are open to everyone; no particular skills or tools are required. Future dates are: Saturday 30th September Saturday 14th Oct If anyone is interested in joining in with this worthwhile activity, would they please contact: malcolmholland567@gmail.com
THOMAS SPACKMAN EDUCATIONAL TRUST GRANT
Are you, or do you know, a young person living in the Clyffe Pypard or Broad Town area who would benefit from a grant from The Thomas Spackman Educational Trust? The Charity’s main focus is education or work-related training and apprenticeships, but The Charity may also be able to help a promising individual develop a particular talent; perhaps help fund tuition in a musical instrument or develop a sporting skill. Applying is very easy. If you wish to find out more about the application process, please email spackmancharity@gmail.com or contact Karen Hawkins 07788 210960. All formal applications need to be in by 30th September 2023. The next opportunity to apply will be March 2024.
BISHOP’S LETTER
October is one of those months when the leaves begin to change and fall, and somewhat comical excuses come into conversations about why things don’t work. Leaves on the line may well be a technical problem for the railways, but we all know it also means, somewhat ironically, why is it somethings just don’t work as they should. There are often leaves on the line in the life of the church. Why is sometimes things just don’t work, especially when we rely upon the grace of God and seek his will? One reason is because we can spend too much time doing, and making mistakes, and not enough time praying. This is not the rather immature prayer of simply asking for this or that the way we want them, but the deeper prayer of spending time with God and being led by his still, small voice. So please do pray in October. We also suffer from our confusions and distractions because we place the leaves on the line with our judgements and preconceptions, our rulemaking and our creating in our own image. Our track must always lead to Jesus and our mission to make him known. October 4th is the day the worldwide church remembers St Francis. In his day, the church wasn’t working, and in prayer, his vision came to “Rebuild my Church”. This was to be achieved by simplicity of life, by generosity to others and total commitment to prayer. His focus was Jesus Christ. Recently, I was inspired by this vision again with a visit to Hilfield Friary in Dorset, and the licensing of a new Guardian. Hilfield welcomes all; do visit there (although you can’t get there by train). When our frustrations slow us down, we would do well to follow the example of Francis. Lord God, You made your church rich Through the poverty of blessed Francis: Help us like him not to trust in earthly things But to seek your heavenly gifts; Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Stephen Sarum
BROAD TOWN HISTORY
Thank you to Andrew Law and Carolyn Crocker for capturing 2 of the ½ a million UK benchmarks. These delightful chiseled horizontal marks can be viewed on the Broad Town History website. The website also has some spectacular photographs of farming in Broad Town BEFORE the combine harvester!
CHURCH SERVICES
Come and join us for our Village Harvest Festival. This will be a short Family Service for all ages (children’s area available) followed by tea, coffee, squash and biscuits. We will be singing traditional Harvest Hymns along with
B. T .School’s “Appreciation Song”. A group of children from the Village will be presenting “HARVEST”
Evening Worship - Sunday 22nd - 6pm
Church Carol Service – Wednesday 13th December – 7pm. Followed by Mulled Wine and Mince Pies.
FOODBANK
Our Harvest Foodbank Collection will be on Saturday 7th October 9.30 – 12.30 at the Church and Sunday 8th at the Harvest Service. The School will also be collecting at their Harvest Service on 13th October. Please note change of collection point for this month only.
CHURCHYARD WORK MORNING
Thank you to everyone for their support in September. The next (last for the year) work morning will be on 7th October.
CHURCH COFFEE MORNING
Bacon Butties Coffee Morning – This was a huge success and raised over £400. Thank you to everyone who came along and particular thanks to Judy and Annie for the delicious bacon butties. Thank you also to everyone who donated bottles for the sell-out Bottle Stall.
BT SHOW AND BIG GIG EQUIPMENT
Thanks to Raymond and Maybell Bourton for kindly storing the equipment from the BT Show and Big Gig in their lock up for decades. As mentioned in the June newsletter the responsibility for the equipment needs to be handed over. The holding committee for the BT Show and the Big Gig along with the Parish Council will soon be deciding responsibility for the equipment and any remaining funds. Please contact BTPCCLERK@OUTLOOK.COM if you have any comment for consideration.
MADE IN BROAD TOWN (Crafts & Hobbies Group)
This month we will be officially changing our name to ‘Made in Broad Town’ to represent everyone who produces craft items in the village and the products they produce to be sold to raise money for charity, as well as continuing to include the hobbyists who also come along. We are also proud to introduce our new logo (left) kindly created for us by Merlin Bastin. In October we are able to return to our usual pattern of meeting on the 1st and 3rd Wednesdays – the 4th and 18th so please come along and join us. Sessions run from 10 – 12noon in the village hall, and we ask for a £2 contribution please, which goes towards hall hire, coffee, tea, and biscuits. If you don't have a craft or hobby to bring along, you are welcome just to come and chat, you could help with the Christmas decorations that we are starting to make, or we have colouring sheets and pens and pencils available for you to use. Children are also very welcome! Church Christmas Coffee Morning on Saturday December 2nd from 10–12noon, please keep the date free! We will be selling handmade Christmas crafts, gifts and decorations. We are already starting to create items to sell at the above event. Any donations of craft materials such as wool, ribbon, felt, lace, buttons, card, fabric remnants and other haberdashery items would be greatly received. We would also love to have your unwanted craft kits and if there is anyone out there who has any plywood or similar (not MDF please), that we could use to make nest boxes, or bug hotels, please bring it along, or if you email us, we can come and collect it from you. If you are keen to make items at home but can’t come along on a Wednesday morning, please also let us know. We look forward to seeing you at our next sessions on Wednesdays October 4th and 18th at 10-12noon new faces always welcome! Please contact us if you have any questions. Helen & Linda, Email: hjgreer1@gmail.com; lindaboyden12@gmail.com
BROAD TOWN PRESCHOOL NEEDS YOUR HELP!
We are currently fundraising for a new building to replace the old Pratten style building as it has reached the end of its lifespan. We are looking for help with Fundraising, Removal and replacement of the building an any other knowledge of organisations or individuals that might be able to help in any way! Please feel free to email for more information, either Judith on treasurer@broadtownpreschool.co.uk or zoedyer84@gmail.com (current chair).
WHAT OUR S.I.D. SAW LAST MONTH
The SID has been located at Chapel Lane monitoring Northbound traffic (heading to RWB) The SID counted 32,019 vehicles passing which equates to approx. 915 a day1 . 14% of vehicles were speeding in the following Mph ranges :
35-40 40-45 45-50 50-55 55-60
2993 722 161 33 4
Actions arising from our SID are: 1. A Police enforcement check took place 10th August. The Parish Council are also in discussion with the Police and Crime Commissioner initiative to use SID intel to resource enforcement checks. 2. If you want to improve the safety and quality of life for everyone in Broad Town please give Chris Woodhouse a call on 07790815616. If we get enough volunteers, we’ll set up Community Speedwatch to work alongside the various enforcement initiatives.
COMMUNITY COFFEE MORNINGS
It was great to see so many people at our first coffee morning after the summer break. Everyone seemed to enjoy catching up with friends old and new. Our first coffee morning in October will be on Wednesday 11th , and on the 25th we will be having a fundraising coffee morning in aid of the Wiltshire Air Ambulance. Most of us will have seen the distinctive yellow and green helicopter flying overhead, making its way to and from the Great Western Hospital but did you know that the running costs of keeping the service going are £11,000 a day? Therefore, we are keen to raise as much money as we can on this morning to donate to the charity. We are hoping that one of the air ambulance mascots will be here to meet our younger visitors, there will be a raffle, and a sales table where Wiltshire Air Ambulance Christmas cards and other small items will be available for purchase. As it’s the half-term holiday this week there will be Air Ambulance kids colouring sheets to complete so, please do come along! If you are reading this before our coffee morning on September 27th, please come along and donate to Macmillan as it’s in the same week as the annual Macmillan Coffee Morning. All proceeds from refreshments will be donated to this very worthy cause. We look forward to seeing you on September 27th, October 11th and 25th for our usual tasty offerings of delicious homemade cakes, sausage rolls, tea, coffee and hot chocolate, we are a very welcoming group!
BROAD TOWN SOCIAL CLUB & EVENTS
Once again, we had another fun filled night of friendly competition at our Games Night on 15th September. Many thanks to James Harvey-Samuel for organising and refereeing the evening and thanks to all who attended for making it such a great evening, overall winner was Ben Davis. Notable dates for the rest of the year are: Food for Thought: ❖ Friday 29th September ❖ Friday 27th October ❖ Friday 24th November (Beetle Drive, Charity Fundraiser, courtesy Rosie and Andrew Law.) Great family night out. More details to follow. ❖ Friday 22nd December (Community Carols and Mulled Wine, courtesy Paul & Anne Granger) ❖ Go to https://www.facebook.com/FoodForThoughtSwindon for details of the full menu and how to beat the queues through pre-order. Takeaways 5pm – 8pm; Bar 5pm – 11pm. If you want to bring your takeaway into the Club, you are very welcome to do so. For the more discerning diners you are also welcome to bring your own plates, cutlery, and bread & butter (but please take your washing up home with you!). New Years Eve Party ❖ Sunday 31st December Bring in the New Year with friends and neighbours (you can bring the family too!). Live music from the Dog House Band (remember them from the Coronation weekend?). Lots of dancing, singing, Big Ben and fireworks on the big screen. Tickets £10 Adults, £5 U16’s, includes a free drink on entry, bring your own nibbles, more ticket info coming soon. Standard Friday Nights ❖ Bar open 8pm – 11pm ❖ Great range of reasonably priced drinks and snacks ❖ Free darts and pool (snooker, not swimming!) ❖ Banter at the bar ❖ Why not drop in? Everyone welcome: the more the merrier.
PARISH COUNCIL UPDATE
The Parish Council welcomed James Rawlins as a new Councillor at our September meeting, bringing the Council up to full strength.
Community Policing Visit – Village Hall car park 29 September The Neighbourhood Policing team will be visiting Broad Town between 4.30-6.00pm coinciding with Food for Thought fish and chip van so do feel free to combine a chat with the policing team with your fish supper!
Wiltshire Local Plan Consultation The current proposal is to build 1,300 new houses in Royal Wootton Bassett – details can be found on the Parish Council website at https://www.broadtownparishcouncil.org.uk/news/wiltshirecouncil-local-plan-consultation-for-rwb/. A drop-in event has been arranged 3pm-7pm on 11 October at RWB library.
Road Closure – 26 October The C415 by Goldborough will be closed for a period of up to 4 days from 26 October. The diversion is via Bushton/Clyffe Pypard and Highden Lane to Broad Hinton (and vice-versa). Further details are available at https://www.wiltshire.gov.uk/highways-road-closures
The next Parish Council meeting will be at 6.30pm in the village hall on Monday 9th October. All are welcome to attend these meetings and the agenda will be posted on our website and on the notice boards in due course.
BEETLE DRIVE
Friday 24th November 7.30pm in the Village Hall.
Lots of family fun. Compete to complete your beetle quicker than your neighbour with a prize for each of the eight rounds. Tickets £5 per adult; £2 per child (8 plus). All profits to Christ Church Broad Town.
Social Club Bar open from 5pm. Food for Thought on site from 5pm offering their delicious Fish and Chips.
Payment on the night in cash. Seats can be reserved by contacting Rosemary Law at rosiehlaw@gmail.com
Simple rules, beginners welcome.
DATES FOR YOUR DIARY
Wednesday 27th September 10-12noon Community Coffee Morning
Friday 29th September 4:30-6pm Meet the Community Police team in Village Hall
Friday 29th September 5-8pm Food For Thought on site from 5pm
Saturday 30th September Cut-off date for Spackman Trust grant application
Saturday 30th September 10am Footpath Group
Wednesday 4th October 10-12noon Made in Broad Town (Craft & Hobbies Group)
Saturday 7th October Work morning
Saturday 7th October 9:30-12:30 Foodbank
Sunday 8th October 10:30am Family Harvest Festival Service
Sunday 8th October Foodbank
Monday 9th October 6:30pm Parish Council Meeting (Village Hall)
Wednesday 11th October 10-12noon Community Coffee Morning
Saturday 14th October 10am Footpath Group
Saturday 14th October 7pm Harvest Supper (Village Hall)
Wednesday 18th October 10-12noon Made in Broad Town (Craft & Hobbies Group)
Sunday 22nd October 6pm Evening Worship
Wednesday 25th October 10-12am Community Coffee Morning
Thursday 26th October 4 days C415 by Goldborough CLOSED
Friday 27th October 5-8pm Food For Thought
Friday 24th November 7:30pm Beetle Drive
Saturday 2nd December 10-12noon Christmas Craft Coffee Morning.
Wednesday 13th December 7pm Church Carol Service Followed by Mulled Wine and Mince Pies
Friday 22nd December Community Carols and Mulled Wine (Village Hall)
Sunday 31st December New Years Eve Party
THE DEADLINE FOR ITEMS FOR THE NEWSLETTER IS THE 22ND OF EVERY MONTH.
Send items to: Email- BroadTownNews@gmail.com
or for any queries contact:- Ray Manley- 01793 731564