Keeping everyone in touch with what is going on in and around our parish.
BROAD TOWN CHRIST CHURCH
On 1st December, Rev Rachma announced her resignation as Rector of the Woodhill Benefice which includes Christ Church. All are invited to her last service at 11am on Sunday, 2nd February at Hilmarton Church followed by a bring and share lunch at the Community Room, Poynder Place {SN11 8SQ}. Our best wishes to Rachma and Steven in their new home in Derbyshire.
There is some concern in the village about whether Christ Church is closing permanently and we would like to assure you that this is not the case. Should the church ever be in such a position the whole village would be consulted before any decision was made. Currently the church building can in fact be used, but because we are unable to use the heating it is very cold, so we have opted to use warmer spaces. Permission is needed to install a new system and the PCC is looking at options available; this process has been very time consuming and the solutions expensive. A decision on the replacement system has not yet been made. We have funds to cover part of the cost but once permission is granted, we can apply for grants and begin some fundraising.
Message from The Reverend Canon Rachma Abbott ‘I'd like to thank the people of Broad Town and its school. It has been a joy to serve here since April 2015, and while I am excited about moving home there is some sadness in all farewells. Rachma’
Broad Town 100 Club Lottery Are your New Year’s resolutions now a thing of the past. Why not make a new one this month? Why not resolve to join the Broad Town 100 Club Lottery. It only costs £1 a week (£4 per month or £48 per year, payable by standing order or cheque). Half the money raised is given out in prizes and over the past year nearly £1,400 has been won by lucky lottery members. The other half of the money is used to help keep your church open icluding paying towards essential repairs. If you would like to join, please contact Fiona Holness on fholness@btinternet.com or on 07833 683444. I look forward to hearing from you.
PARISH COUNCIL
Budget & Precept for 2025/26 Unfortunately due to increases across the board in our expenses, and whereas we managed to absorb last year’s increases from our reserves, this year the Parish Council has been forced to increase the precept by 5.34% in order to cover costs. This means that the annual budget will be set at £10,787 and the annual amount requested from a household in tax band D in the village will increase to £38.84 from last year’s £36.87. The Parish Council precept forms a small part of the overall annual Council tax requirement which will be communicated by Wiltshire Council direct to householders.
Grants available for Community Groups Remember that grants are available for Community Groups to help with any funding needs – each application is assessed by an independent advisory board prior to being submitted to the Parish Council who administers the funding from the Bluefield solar farm (previously Good Energy). Details are available on the website www.broadtownparishcouncil.org.uk
Meet the Local Policing Team Come and meet the local Policing Team at the Village Hall on Wednesday 26th Feb 10.00 - 11.45am (alongside the community coffee morning).
Next PC Meeting - Monday 10th February The next Parish Council meeting will be at 6.30pm in the village hall on 10th February. All are welcome and the agenda will be posted on our website and on the notice boards in due course.
WHAT OUR S.I.D. SAW LAST MONTH
The SID has been located at the School monitoring Southbound traffic (heading to Broad Hinton) The SID counted 23,716 vehicles passing which equates to approx. 678 a day. 14% of vehicles were speeding. Note the SID captures traffic travelling in one direction. Metrocount results indicate average daily totals of 1,989 using the C415.
SOCIAL CLUB
Food for Thought Evenings Food for Thought will be selling their delicious Fish and Chips (and burgers, sausages, scampi etc) outside the Village Hall from 5 – 8pm on the last Friday in the month: 31st January, 28th February,
28th March, 25th April,30th May. The Social Club opens at 5pm through to 11pm for you to enjoy your takeaway in the Village Hall with a drink or two. Feel free to bring your own cutlery and crockery if you wish but please take it home with you afterwards to wash up! Menu on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/FoodForThoughtSwindon. For vegan, GF and other dietary requirements please contact them directly to discuss. They have limited space to carry stock but will gladly try to meet all requests. If you would like to pre-order or have any queries, they can be contacted via text, WhatsApp or Messenger on 07515 288414.
Membership Renewal Last few days remaining to take advantage of the discount when renewing your Social Club annual membership – a bargain at just £2 per person during January (£3 any other time). New members are always welcome. Find us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/FourWaysBroadTown
COMEANDMEET YOURLOCALPOLICINGTEAM
What matters most in your community? Tell us your views! Where: Broad Town Village Hall On: Wed 26th February 2025 at: 10 – 11.45am Information from your Neighbourhood Policing Team
‘MADE IN BROAD TOWN’
Crafts & Hobbies Group Christmas Fundraising
Our stall at the Village Christmas Coffee Morning on November 30th proved once again to be extremely successful. Sales of Christmas cards, crafts, gifts, preserves, home baked goods and decorations raised the amazing total of £423 which we have donated to Alzheimer’s Support. Thank you to everyone who came along to support us, and to all our crafty people, we all enjoyed making products to sell!
We were also able to contribute another £81 raised at the Wednesday Community Christmas Coffee Morning on December 11th which was also given to Alzheimer’s Support, and we had a stall at the Broad Town School Christmas Fair on December 5th. Here we raised a total of £128 which has been donated directly to the school.
It’s fantastic to have been able to support so many good causes again this year. We started the new year with our New Year nibbles event during which we had a go at recycling old Christmas and birthday cards to create mini gift boxes. We will be holding an extra January session on the 29th, so please join us for more gift box making or bring along your own craft or hobby.
The meetings in February will be on Wednesdays February 5th & 19th, please join us from 10-12 noon in the village hall. Patchwork Cushion Making Session on February 19th Diana will be showing us how to make patchwork cushion covers. Fabric will be supplied, but if you would like to bring along your own, you will only need small pieces for the patchwork shapes. Please also bring scissors, pins, and some thread if you have them, and please could those with a sewing machine bring it along too.
Everyone is welcome to come along for refreshments and a chat, you don’t need to have any crafting skills. We’re a very friendly bunch, and if you do feel creative there are always activities available for you to try. We ask for a £2 donation please, to help cover hall hire and refreshment costs. If you have any questions, please email us, we would love to hear from you. Email: Linda Boyden lindaboyden12@gmail.com; Helen Greer hjgreer1@gmail.com
COMMUNITY COFFEE MORNINGS
Thank you to everyone who came along to the last Wednesday coffee morning of 2024 on December 11th. The £71 raised was donated to Alzheimer’s Support and contributed to the village’s grand total. The free raffle was also very popular and thank you to everyone who donated prizes for this. Our February coffee mornings will be on Wednesdays February 12th and 26th. Police visit to Coffee Morning On the 26th February, Kelly Hillier, our local police community support officer, will be in attendance once again to answer your questions and address your concerns about any aspect of village life so please come along and have a chat.
The community coffee mornings are always on the 2nd and 4th Wednesdays of the month, so please join us from 10 – 12 noon in the village hall to enjoy delicious homemade cakes, sausage rolls, coffee, tea and hot chocolate.
Saturday Coffee Morning - please save the date: Pancake Coffee Morning Saturday March 15th, 10 - 12 noon Village Hall All welcome! Full details to follow in the March newsletter
BROAD TOWN BUMPS AND BEYOND
We were very lucky and grateful to receive a donation form the Coffee Morning for our Christmas Party. I wanted to pass on our massive thanks for this. We used the donation to purchase gifts for all 17 children to attended our party and provide Christmas snacks for them. In the three weeks leading up to our party we had Christmas Crafts including, card making, tree decorations making and hand and foot print art. If you are able to pass this information on the those who contributed to the donations and arranged for us to be a beneficiary I would be most grateful.
If anyone would.like to join us we are in the village all every Tuesday morning from 9:30- 11:30, £3 per family and 50p per extra child. We offer free play with a variety of toys, snack, craft activities and finish with songs and games. We love to see new families. Claire Maclean-Martin
ALZHEIMER’S SUPPORT
Village Christmas Appeal - £1500.15 raised! A huge thank you to everyone in the village for so generously supporting all the coffee mornings, craft sales and carol singing events which took place before Christmas. It was lovely to see so many villagers coming along to the coffee morning and craft sale on Saturday November 30th. During this morning £1,052.75 was raised from the edible produce stall, the crafts and gifts stall, the raffle, tombola and book stall and refreshment donations, as well as donations from other stall holders, which has all been donated to Alzheimer's Support Wiltshire. A lady from the charity who is one of their ambassadors, came along on that morning to support us, and we know that she and the charity were extremely happy with the amount raised so thank you for all your hard work and your generous donations! Later in December the Wednesday coffee morning and the Friday carol singing events raised a further £447.40, making an amazing grand total of £1,500.15 which has been donated to Alzheimer’s Support Wiltshire. A letter of thanks and a fundraising certificate have been received which are on display in the village hall. Thank you also to our willing band of helpers who made everything run so smoothly!
BROAD TOWN WHITE HORSE
I’m sure everyone in the Village has noticed the landslip below the White Horse dating back to last September. There are worries that more heavy rain might cause further deterioration; however, fingers crossed and touching wood, there appears to have been no further slippage yet. Concerns within the White Horse Restoration Group led to the feeling that the problem should be recognized and addressed, resulting in the development of the following project: Our iconic White Horse is important to the community. The horse is threatened by recent and possible future landslips so we want to record, safeguard and create a historical record for future generations. Subject to funding, it is planned that the task of recording the shape and condition of the Horse should be done professionally. We already have a dedicated set of volunteers who lime the Horse annually who can take on the task of maintaining and thereby safeguarding the Horse. It is in the last task of creating a historical record for future generations that assistance is now needed. This could include carrying out research and investigation into the history of the Horse using sources such as Aerial Photographs, Post Cards, Council Records, Newspapers and oral reminiscences. No formal knowledge is needed, just the enthusiasm to delve into history and uncover previously unknown facts. Volunteers would work within a team and their output would be developed into a report style and format suitable for archiving and future reference. If anyone is interested in their involvement in this important project, would they please contact Andrew Law on andrewlaw456@gmail.com.
FOODBANK
Thanks to everyone for the bumper Christmas collection and throughout 2024. Our 2025 collections will begin on 8th & 9th February at the Village hall from 9.30 to 4.00pm.
SHELTER
Thank you to everyone who helped or contributed to our Christmas and ‘Kindness’ themes. Special thanks to the children from Broad Town School for their contributions.
CHURCHYARD WORK MORNINGS 2025
dates for your diary: 8 March, 12 April, 10 May, 7 June, 5 July, 9 August, 6 Sept., 4 October. The Churchyard looks so good and many people who visit - both local and from further away- tell us how grateful they are for the work that is carried out by a few volunteers. We do however desperately need more volunteers, so if you would like to help, please come along and join us at any time. There are a variety of tasks to be carried out and a great opportunity to meet up with other villagers over a cup of coffee. Come along any time between 10am and midday on any or all of the above dates. If you need any further information, please contact Ray Manley Tel: 01793 731564.
FOOD BANK COLLECTION
VILLAGE HALL Sat. 8th & Sun. 9th February 9.30 am - 4 pm Tins of Meat & Fish -Small bags of sugar, Cartons Milk & Juice, Small jars of coffee, Biscuits, Tinned potatoes, Tinned Meat, Toiletries & Household Cleaning Products.
BISHOPS LETTER FOR FEBRUARY 2025
At the west end of your cathedral, on the south wall nearest the main entrance, is a large slate stone which records all the names of the Bishops of Salisbury. Mine is the most recent to have been inscribed. I am number 79. Someone else will follow. It serves to make one feel small rather than important. The first name is that of Herman, whose day falls this month on 20th February. A native of Lorraine (in north-eastern France), Herman was made Bishop of Ramsbury in 1045. He resigned in 1055 when King Edward the Confessor refused to allow the transfer of the see to Malmesbury. He became a monk at Saint-Omer (in northern France), returning to England in 1058 to become Bishop of Sherborne while at the same time being restored to the bishopric of Ramsbury. By 1071, Herman was old and infirm and wished to resign but Archbishop Lanfranc urged him to stay on. There was a plan. Approval of the transfer of the see was given at the Council of London in 1075, thus creating the new diocese of Salisbury, to which you belong. Herman oversaw the initial construction of the Cathedral at Old Sarum but died before its completion, on 20th February in 1078. Herman would have known where you live and known and cared for your patch of the diocese. A diocese is only the sum total of its parts, and whilst it is the Anglican model of apostolic local leadership, the real strength of mission and ministry is to be found in the local, just as Jesus’ ministry was locally based and exercised. We all follow in the footsteps of those who have carried the flame of faith before us in each place. It is that faithfulness, mirroring the fact that God is faithful, that has sustained our communities down the ages, however much the times and the names change. And God will continue to do so, because He is faithful. Stephen, Bishop of Salisbury
WHAT ‘COST OF LIVING CRISIS’?
Economist Robert Heolbroner describes the luxuries a typical western family would have to surrender if they lived among the 1 billion hungry people in the ‘two thirds world’. “We begin by invading the house of our imaginary family to strip it of its furniture. Everything goes; beds, chairs, tables, television sets, lamps. We will leave the family with a few old blankets, a kitchen table, a wooden chair. Along with the dressers go the clothes. Each member of the family may keep in his wardrobe his oldest suit or dress, a shirt or blouse. We will permit a pair of shoes for the head of the family but none for the wife or children. We move to the kitchen. The appliances have already been taken out, so we turn to the cupboards. The box of matches may stay, a small bag of flour, some sugar and salt. A few mouldy potatoes already in the garbage must be rescued, for they will provide much of tonight’s meal. We will leave a handful of onions and a dish of dried beans. All the rest we take away; the meat, the fresh vegetables, the canned food, the biscuits, the sweets. Now we have stripped the house; the bathroom has been dismantled, the running water shut off, the electricity disconnected. Next we take away the house, the family can move to the tool shed…Communications must go next. No more news papers, magazines, books – not that they are missed since we must take away our family’s literacy as well. Instead, in our shanty town we will allow one radio. Now, government services must go next. No more postmen, no firemen, There is a school but it is three miles away and consists of two classrooms. There are of course no hospitals or doctors. The nearest clinic is ten miles away and is tended by a midwife. It can be reached by bicycle provided the family has a bicycle which is unlikely. Finally, money. We will allow our family a cash hoard of about £4. This will prevent our breadwinner from experiencing the tragedy of an Iranian peasant who went blind because he could not raise the £3.16 which he mistakenly thought he needed to gain admission to a hospital where he could have been cured. ‘Cost of Living Crisis’ - Does this mean we cannot afford the things we need or just the things we want? I wish you all a happy and healthy 2025 Mark Boyden
PLEASE NOTE that all copy to be included in the next edition should be emailed to: BroadTownNews@gmail.com by the 22nd of EVERY month. Except December
For any queries, please contact Ray Manley 01793 731564