BROAD TOWN NEWS MAY 2026
Keeping everyone in touch with what is going on in and around our parish.
CHRIST CHURCH
The plant stall is nearly here! If you have any plants we can sell to raise funds for the church please contact Judy 01793 731341 or Carolyn 07768 543963.
It was lovely to welcome Broad Town School for their end of term service and listen to their excellent singing and confident telling of the Easter story.
Thank you to all the flower arrangers who made the church look beautiful for Easter.
At the shortlisting meeting for our new rector, we learnt that the candidate has had to withdraw their application for personal reasons, The advert will stay live on Diocesan website and we will be told the new dates for advertising more widely in due course. Please continue to pray for a suitable candidate. It is not easy to keep the church running smoothly without a vicar.
Thank you to everyone in the village and beyond for your support especially in maintaining the church, taking the services, including funerals and weddings, maintaining the churchyard and grass verges and helping with fundraising. The dates for services at Christ Church are:
10th May 10.30 Morning Prayer
24th May 10.30 Communion
31st May 10.30 Communion
BISHOP’S MESSAGE
The elusive hare. One of the many blessings of the spring is the reappearance of that most mysterious of countryside creatures, the hare. Part of their appeal lies, I think, in elusiveness and movement: barrelling along a lane at night, ahead of us as we drive, or veering across the hillside. We were walking this weekend through an ocean of woodland bluebells, when Effie, our dog, startled a hare (almost the size of a muntjac) mere yards away and off it tore, confounding all attempts at pursuit. Always on the move, they are an Easter marvel. I was reminded of the hare’s dynamism when reading St Mark’s account of the resurrection, which that evangelist conveys not as a fact to be proved, or puzzle to be solved, but as a mysterious kind of movement. “He has been raised; he is not here” declares the angel to the women at the tomb. “He is going ahead of you to Galilee”. At which their first response, not unreasonably, is terrified flight, before doing as the angel bade them and relating this to the apostles. Faith, in this light, is our pursuit of the Christ who goes before us. Rejoicing whenever we encounter him, walking his way and hoping earnestly to see him again. +Andrew Ramsbury.
COMMUNITY COFFEE MORNINGS
Our May coffee mornings will be on Wednesdays May 13th and 27th.
Community Coffee Mornings take place in the village hall on the second and fourth Wednesdays of each month. We would like to extend a warm welcome to everyone in the village, and especially to those who haven’t been to a coffee morning before, to join us from 10 - 12 noon. On May 27th we will be joined by Kelly Hillier, our local Police Community Support Officer, who will be happy to answer any questions or listen to comments you may have about local issues. Make new friends, have a chat and enjoy a range of delicious homemade cakes, sausage rolls, and hot drinks. We operate on a donation basis, there is no fixed price for anything, please just donate as much as you feel able to. Any profits are regularly donated to local charities. We look forward to seeing you in the village hall.
BROAD TOWN WHITE HORSE LIMING
Weather permitting, White Horse liming place will take place on the morning of Sunday 10th May. It should be assumed that we will start at around 10am and conclude before lunchtime. Protective equipment will be available at the site in the form of eye protection and face masks. All participants are requested to wear appropriate footwear and work gloves. If possible, they should also bring a tool that can be used for removing weeds or for spreading the lime. The event will be open to all those who wish to be involved with the only stipulation being that participants should be physically fit and in good health. Would anyone who wishes to be involved please contact Andrew Law on 07841 381301 or andrewlaw456@gmail.com . Fuller details will be provided to all volunteers. Individuals who have already declared their availability to the organizer need not do so again. Andrew Law
SOCIAL CLUB
The social club is open every Friday from 8pm and members and their guests are all welcome. If you are not a member you can join for just £3 for the year - just ask Trevor behind the bar. Draught beers and lagers are for sale at just £3.50 a pint and there is a free pool table, so why not pop in and check us out. Find us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/FourWaysBroadTown
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:
24th April This Friday!
29th May
26th June
The Village Hall bar will be open from 5pm on these Fridays so why not pop in and enjoy a drink while you are waiting for your supper !
‘MADE IN BROAD TOWN’ CRAFTS & HOBBIES GROUP
During April we had some great sessions making floral decorations, and fabric bowls. Some of us also had a go at flower pressing which was very relaxing. During our final April session on the 29th, we will be learning origami.
There will be May sessions on Wednesdays May 6th & 20th. On the 6th we will be preparing for our plant sale and the 20th will be a relaxing ‘bring along your own craft or hobby’ session. Charity Plant Sale - Saturday May 9th Please come and support Prospect Hospice and our village church at the plant sale, homemade refreshments available.
Broad Town 100 Project – free seeds!! Inspired by Sir David Attenborough’s 100th birthday on May 8th, Made in Broad Town have launched a summer project aimed to get Broad Town growing! With the aim of involving the whole community to increase biodiversity by encouraging nature into your gardens and open spaces around our village, we are giving away free seeds to anyone in the village who requests them. Please see further information in this newsletter. Made in Broad Town sessions run from 10am – 12 noon in the village hall, new people always welcome. If you have any questions, please email us: Helen or Linda, email: madeinbroadtown@gmail.com
GOLDBOROUGH RESTING STONE
What is a resting stone? It is a seat comprised of a dressed rectangular rock with a base which was put along roads in past times when the majority of travellers walked long distances between towns and villages. The Goldborough resting stone was placed between Broad Town and Wootton Bassett along the Marlborough Road. Its existence was forgotten as the stone has lain in the ditch out of sight for some decades. A chance discovery when reading through old Parish Council records of the 1960s (as part of the research for the Broad Town white horse project) indicated that there was once a resting stone at Goldborough and that councillors had considered it worth mentioning as a historical landmark on a par with the oldest buildings in Broad Town. Discussion at a Coffee Morning in the village hall revealed that some residents remembered it from many years ago and a short foray along the verge soon revealed that the resting stone and its base were still there. On Sunday 19th April a small group of enthusiasts were able to rescue the stone and its base from the ditch, place the base on a levelled portion of the wide grassy verge and manoeuvre the resting stone back into place on its base. It may not get as much use nowadays as it did when Broad Town residents walked into Wootton Bassett, but it works and can now be easily seen from passing vehicles. So next time you go to Goldborough don’t forget to give the resting stone a try.
Thanks to Adrian, Andrew, Charlie, Derek, John and Kevin.
ANNUAL PARISH MEETING
The Annual Parish Meeting is scheduled to take place on Tuesday 26th May at 6.30pm (please note the change of day). You are most welcome to attend and the Parish Council would be delighted to see you there. (This is not the annual meeting of the PC itself, which is on 11th May.) If you represent a community group and would like to update the community about your activities over the last year, or future plans, please let me know by e-mailing BTPCCLERK@outlook.com so I can include it on the agenda. Refreshments will be served. I hope to see you there. With best wishes. Caroline White Broad Town Parish Clerk
PARISH COUNCIL
Keep up to date at https://www.broadtownparishcouncil.org.uk
Exercise caution when walking near footpaths We have received a report of a dog which hurt its leg on barbed wire hidden in the undergrowth and would ask both dogwalkers to exercise caution and also landowners to regularly check their fences and to remove or replace and collapsed fencing to avoid a similar incident.
Consultation on proposed Changes to Pay and Display Parking in Wiltshire Have your say before 6th May at https://www.wiltshire.gov.uk/article/17245/TRO
Parish Council Election Vacancies Following a resignation there are now 3 vacancies and the Parish Council is in need of new members. If anyone would like to join us in serving the parish and helping to make Broad Town a pleasant place to live then please make contact with the Clerk (BTPCClerk@outlook.com)
The next Parish Council meeting will be at 6.30pm in the village hall on 11th May. All are welcome and the agenda will be posted on our website and on the notice boards in due course.
Annual Parish Meeting Tuesday 26th May 6.30pm Village Hall We look forward to welcoming you at the Annual Parish Meeting. This is not a council meeting but is an opportunity for all village groups and associations to share with the village the activities they have undertaken in the past year and their plans for the future year. Residents are invited to contribute to the agenda and/or celebrate local activities and debate current issues in the community. Residents are also invited to raise any issues they want to bring to the attention of the Parish Council for future consideration by the Parish Council. Refreshments will be provided.
INTRODUCING THE BROAD TOWN 100 PROJECT
Request your free seeds now!! Made in Broad Town have just launched a village project which was initially inspired by the fact that it is David Attenborough’s 100th birthday on May 8th, the day before our charity plant sale. We thought it would be a good idea to do what we can to get Broad Town growing to improve our local environment, to encourage nature and increase biodiversity during the summer in the following ways: Our aim is for our village to create 100 small scale wildlife and plant based projects and/or involve 100 people. These projects can be as small as simply planting a tub of wildlife friendly flower seeds. Other possibilities that we encourage people to try including:
- growing a row of sunflowers, or planting a shrub or tree etc. It would be great if everyone could grow sunflowers in their front gardens for others to enjoy too!
- putting up a bird box, bat box or insect hotel, or to create hedgehog highways in fencing and hedges etc (please ask your neighbour’s permission before doing this!)
- building a garden pond
Introducing a bird box, bat box and insect hotel to public locations is also an aim of our project, please contact us if you know of any suitable village locations where you would like to see these put up.
Broad Town School – we will help to help improve the wildlife friendliness of the school grounds by:
Mini-project 1: planting a mountain rowan tree (one of the best wildlife friendly trees) and bee friendly bulbs in the autumn;
Mini-project 2: building and populating some planters on the uncovered tarmac area at the school. We have already made these planters which will be installed on the school playground this week.
Free seeds: To push our “Broad Town 100” project forward we aim to provide wildlife friendly or impactful flower and plant seeds to as many people or locations as we can throughout the village – please email us at madeinbroadtown@gmail.com with your name and address if you would like us to post a free starter pack of wildlife friendly seeds through your letterbox . Seed packs can also be collected from the village hall during the following events:
May 5th – Broad Town White Horse Talk 7.30pm
May 9th – Charity Plant Sale 2 – 4pm
Any Wednesday morning: 10 – 12 noon during either community coffee mornings or Made in Broad Town sessions.
Photographic Record and Coffee Morning: We will be collecting photographs of everybody’s mini projects, including ‘before and after’ photos – perhaps you could transform a small piece of garden into a wildflower area, or show us your newly installed birdbox for example, or a row of sunflowers in a tub or border. It would be even better if your photos manage to capture any wildlife visiting your mini project such as bees, butterflies or other insects or mammals! All the photos will be displayed at a community coffee morning on Saturday September 12th, and later will be transformed into a photobook as a permanent record of our project. If your photo(s) of your own mini project include people, only email us these if they are happy for their images to be included in our coffee morning photo display, and photobook, thank you. Please email your photos to: madeinbroadtown@gmail.com We aim to collect at least 100 photos as well as improving the biodiversity and colourfulness in our village. The project is open to everyone in our village/parish including children and we hope that as many people as possible will enjoy taking part. If you have any questions, please email us at madeinbroadtown.com, we look forward to hearing from you. Good luck with your project(s)! Helen, Linda, Corinne, Diana & Heather, and the Made in Group Town group Made in Broad Town are grateful to the Bluefield Solar Income Fund for their support
DISCOVERING BROAD TOWN WHITE HORSE
Tuesday 5th May 2026 Doors open 7pm for 7.30pm Free admission. –refreshments available -Broad Town Village Hall.
Join us as we hear the latest research on Wiltshire’s white horses and the exciting feedback from the 2025 Broad Town white horse project. The talk will start with Brian Edwards, a published expert on chalk hill figures, giving an overview of the origins, meaning and modern treatment of Wiltshire’s white horses. We will then hear the results of the surveys at Broad Town’s white horse and investigations into the horse’s past incarnations carried by experts and archaeologists in conjunction with volunteers from the local community.
Finally, we will unveil the website which has been designed to thoughtfully showcase the results of our project.
DATES FOR YOUR DIARY
- Village Tidy Up Saturday 25th April 10am Village Hall
- Made In Broad Town Wednesday 29th April 10am Village Hall
- White Horse Project Presentation Tuesday 5th May 7:30pm Village Hall
- Made In Broad Town Wednesday 6th May 10am Village Hall
- Plant Sale Saturday 9th May 2pm – 4pm Village Hall
- White Horse Liming Sunday 10th May 10am
- Morning Prayer Sunday 10th May 10:30am Christ Church
- Parish Council Meeting Monday 11th May 6:30 pm Village Hall
- Community Coffee Morning Wednesday 13th May 10am Village Hall
- Made In Broad Town Wednesday 20th May 10am Village Hall
- Communion Sunday 24th May 10:30am Christ Church
- Annual Parish Meeting Tuesday 26th May 6:30pm Village Hall
- Community Coffee Morning Wednesday 27th May 10am Village Hall
- Come and meet your local Policing team Wednesday 27th May 10am Village Hall
- Communion Sunday 31st May 10:30am Christ Church
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. Any queries should also be sent to this address.