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The Forerunner

 

The Magazine for the Parish of

Newington Bagpath with

Kingscote  

August                                                    2003

Calendar for August 2003

 

 

Nailsworth (CC) = service at Christ Church

* = joint service with Christ Church members   

 

The next PCC meeting will be on Monday  15 September at 8.00 pm in the Village Hall.

An exploratory discussion of a Parish House Group was held on 15 July, by kind invitation of Georgina Harford.  It was decided to begin meetings on Tuesday 9 September, once again at Ashcroft House at 7.45 for 8.00 pm.  Although the vicar attended the first meeting in order to share his experience, this is not a specifically C of E activity, and all Christians and those interested in learning or sharing their thoughts about the faith will be most welcome.  The series will start with a study of the gospel of St Mark.

            Diocesan Internet News Site   www.glosdioc.org.uk

            Forerunner Internet Site   www.geocities.com/forerunneruk/

The Vicar’s Letter

 Dear Friends,

 “I know I shouldn’t say this - but I enjoyed that.”   Believe it or not, this is the comment that is sometimes made by visitors to our church services, and one that I love to hear !!  One of the aims of the Gloucester Diocese in its Mission Statement is ‘to encourage in every community lively weekly worship which is accessible and outward looking’ and Bishop David has often said that people should come out of church with the same look on their faces as the crowds who come out of Kingsholm having just witnessed a scintillating display of rugby by the Cherry & Whites.

 Some might say “surely you cannot equate the two” and would be quite right in saying that we must come before God with reverence and respect.  But we worship a God of many facets - like the most brilliant cut diamond you will ever see - who loved us so much that He sent his Son to die for us.  When you know someone loves you that much, it is quite natural to love them passionately in return - with all your heart, soul, mind and strength - and it should follow that our worship can be full of passion.  The Welsh have a special word for this type of passion ‘hoile’ and a good example would be one of their best choirs in full voice !

 Because of the many different facets of God, and also our varied natures, our church services take a number of different forms.  You might decide to go to church and not have any sense of this ‘lively weekly worship’ and there are a number of reasons why this might occur, but when all the ingredients come together and the Holy Spirit gels the whole, it is the best place to be all week !  To be a part of this is very special and you could make the difference.

 A full church does help this celebration style of service - it does not help if there are only a handful in church - and I will begin a benefice Songs of Praise on the fifth Sunday in the month, once the Tetbury Deanery ceases to be, in place of the present Deanery Evensong.

 The PCC is looking at ways in which we can try to ensure that the services we offer are what you prefer.  We are considering ways to carry out a brief survey round the parish to achieve this.  We are also now looking at other aspects of the building and churchyard that could be improved.  The members of the PCC are an enthusiastic bunch and a pleasure to work with, and your encouragement for what they are doing is much appreciated.

The Reverend Stephen Earley

 

Benefice News

Sue White was licensed as a Reader for this benefice during a wonderful service at Tewkesbury Abbey on Saturday 19 July.  We look forward to her ministry among us.

The Reverend Jeff Green has accepted the House for Duty position offered by the Bishop of Gloucester, whereby Jeff will help in this benefice and also in the new benefice of Badminton to which our rural dean will be moving in the Autumn. This is excellent news and Jeff and Liz will live in Horsley Vicarage.

 Mick White, who has been a Reader licensed in Minchinhampton for some time, is shortly to begin his third year of training for non-stipendiary ministry and will begin a placement with us on 21 September for six to eight weeks.  Mick is 51, married to Fanny with two boys in their early 20’s, and has been an antique dealer in Minchinhampton for about 20 years.  He will join in our services around the benefice, keep a journal and write a report about us.

 (  Buses, and  It never rains but it pours,  come to mind !  Brilliant news )

 

 Flower Rota                

Jo Spash

 

Sunday Club

As usual, no Sunday Club in August.

Janet, Jenny and Elin

 Flower and Clean Team

Our next cleaning session will be on Wednesday the 6th August at 2.30 pm.

From the residue of our Altar Guild money we have donated £100 to the Tetbury Hospital Trust, our chosen local charity.

Vida Sutton

Grumbolds Ash Group

The weather could not have been better for our barbecue evening, and good company and lovely food all went to make it a perfect evening enjoyed by all.  Our thanks go to Jane, Gordon and Richard for making us so welcome.

Our next outing will be a visit to the only restored Dutch water-garden in this country, located at Westbury-on-Severn and owned by the National Trust.  We will meet at the Village Hall at 10.00 am on Friday 8th August.  Don’t forget your NT membership card if you are a member as this entitles you to free admission.  The charge for non-members is £3-50.  ‘Nearly forgot to mention, we will be having a pub-lunch.  So what’s new I hear you say !

                            Vida Sutton

Kingscote Jazz Evening

This event, held on Friday 27th June, was very much enjoyed by everyone.  Tony and Lorna Reynolds were most kind in letting us hold this event in their beautiful garden, and the Paragon Jazz Band played wonderful music, continuing right to the end despite the weather turning cold.

About 120 adults and some 50 children came from near and far (one family from Tewkesbury).  The children’s games were excellently organised by the Tattersall family.  The donkey, kindly provided by the Farrell’s, did brisk trade, and the skittles, organised by Ben Bennett, were also highly popular.  Activity in the Wooldridge goalmouth was highly competitive.  Many people said how good the savoury buffet and strawberries were, so a huge thank you to all those who provided such delicious dishes.  And the drinks, particularly the Uley Bitter, went down a treat.

The nett takings were a gratifying £775-71 (which would almost pay the annual church insurance) of which £25 is to be given to the Village Hall Committee for the use of  equipment and £50 for the Village Hall youth club.  But the best thing was that so many people had really enjoyed the evening.

Georgina Harford

Parish Council

At the AGM last week Mr Doug England was elected Chairman of the Parish Council.  Brian Hillam stood down as Chairman and remains as Vice Chairman.

Sharon Hodgkins

Churchyard Working Party

Join us on Saturday 2nd August at 9.30 am to battle with ivy, brambles and overgrown undergrowth.  The more help the merrier !  Please bring clippers, pruning shears, gloves etc. and some plastic sacks to take rubbish away.  The horse-flies seem quite voracious this year, so some insect repellent may be a good investment.

Sue Bradley-Jones

Village Hall Activities

Boundary Walk and BBQ:  A walk around part of the Parish Boundary will take place on Sunday 10th August at 11.00 am.  The walk will last about 11/2 hrs and will be followed by a BBQ and cash bar at the Village Hall, commencing at approximately 1.30 pm.  Please join us for the walk and the BBQ, or for just part of the day.

Maintenance and Painting Day:  The Village Hall needs a lick of paint !  Anyone interested in helping to paint and do minor repairs will be very welcome on Saturday 16th August from 10.00 am.

Greek Evening:  Saturday 20th September at 7.30 pm in the Village Hall.  Food and music will be provided; wine will be on sale.  Full details will be circulated closer to the date.

Alice Cooper

Testing the health of Wotton-under-Edge (No, Silly, not your kidneys)

Wotton-under-Edge has started work on a ‘health-check’ to test the state of the town and diagnose any current or potential problems.  This is your opportunity to have your say on the future of the town.

If you use Wotton-under-Edge for shopping, school, visiting the doctor, dentist or the library, or for any other reason, we need to hear from you.

Healthcheck is a study of a whole range of subjects including environmental, economic, social, community and transport issues.  There are over 200 questions which will be answered over the next 2 months with the help of local people and organisations.

Healthcheck is being sponsored by the town’s Regeneration Partnership and Helen Bojaniwska, a business consultant, has volunteered to act as co-ordinator.

Helen would like to hear from anyone who would like to get involved in the process.  You can either call Helen on (Tel. See paper version of Forerunner) or e-mail

Helen would like to talk to a wide cross-section of the community in the town and in the surrounding villages.  The aim is to involve everyone; young and old, men and women, local groups and organisations, schools and local authorities.

The full set of Healthcheck questionnaires can be seen on the web-site www.markettowns.org  where you can read responses and add your own comments.  Wotton-under-Edge can be found under  South West-Gloucestershire. To add comments you will need to complete a simple registration.

More information about the Healthcheck process can be found on the web-site  www.countryside.gov.uk/market-towns/healthcheck 01.htm

Helen Bojaniwska 

Sponsored Ride or Walk

This annual event aimed at raising funds for church preservation will take place on Saturday 13 September.  Money raised by individuals is split between the Historic Churches Trust and a church of their choice.  Sponsorship forms and further details from Sue Bradley-Jones (Tel. See paper version of Forerunner)

Car Boot Sale

A Car Boot Sale is planned for Sunday 14th September between 9.00 am and 12 noon at Hunters Hall.  Proceeds will go to the churchyard improvement scheme, which seeks to augment the space available for new graves and cremated remains, oversee neglected graves, and to generally enhance the natural beauty of the site and make disabled access easier.

Everyone is invited to sell or donate all those home and garden items which have seemingly lost their usefulness.  It’s easy to ‘recycle’ - you may reserve a table in advance to sell your wares or simply donate items to the Community Stall. Donated items can’t be accepted on the day (it is too difficult to evaluate and price them at the last-minute) but offerings of cakes and produce are very much welcomed on the 14th.

Please ring Brooks or Sandy Childress (Tel. See paper version of Forerunner) who are happy  to reserve tables, answer queries and collect donations to the Community Stall.

The PCC

Help is at Hand

For - Dressmaking Alterations and Repairs

Call - Gill James at Calcot on  (Tel. See paper version of Forerunner)

 Gloucestershire’s Roads

 Did you know that you can report potholes on our major roads to Gloucestershire County Council by telephoning their Helpline on 01452 425 500 or on their website www.gloucestershire.gov.uk/roads

 The Council inspects all primary roads and pavements in the county every 3 months and carries out a detailed assessment of the condition of our roads once a year. Between April 2002 and March 2003, 207 miles of Gloucestershire’s roads and 66 miles of footways were resurfaced.

 You can find out what road works are happening each week either by telephoning the GLCC Helpline or looking at the website.

Mark Dauncy, Highway Maintenance Manager

 Harvest Supper

Please note in your diaries that the Harvest Supper is planned for Saturday 18 October to be followed by the Harvest Festival Service on Sunday 19 October.

 Mobile Police Station

The Mobile Police Station will visit Kingscote between 1.30 and 2.00 pm on Monday 4th  and Wednesday 20th August.  Please give them your support.

 Post Office

The Post Office is open on every normal working Tuesday and Thursday :

           from  9.00 am to 1.00 pm  and  from  2.30 pm to 5.30 pm.

 Mobile Library                                                                          

The mobile library will be by The Walled Garden from 9.40 am to 9.55 am on Thursdays 7th and 21st August.

Waste Recycling

The boxes will be emptied as follows:

                   Newington and Bagpath  -  Mon. 4th and 18th August.

                   Kingscote  -  Tues. 5th and 19th August.

Magazine

Any material which may be of interest for the next issue of the Forerunner should be sent by 20th August to H. Tubbs,  3 The Walled Garden,  Tel. 860 194, e-mail:  

General Interest

( We have some space to spare this month so the editor has added the material below for your interest)

Extracts from:                           The Diary of a Cotswold Parson - Reverend F E Witts

                           1783 - 1854, Edited by David Verey, Sutton Publishing, Stroud.

The Rev. Witts was Rector of Upper Slaughter and a magistrate in Gloucester.  His diaries give a fascinating insight into life in Gloucestershire at that time.

January 9th 1838

A hard frost, easterly wind and cold day; light snow falling so as to cover ground but not deep.  Walked to Eyford; administered the Sacrament to A Watts, an estimable old parishioner, now become very feeble and perhaps approaching her end.  Mrs Dolphin very kindly interested about her, met me there, and partook of the Communion with the old villager.

April 23rd 1838

In Cheltenham found time to make a circuit round the new part of the town beyond  Montpellier, Lansdown Place, Crescent, Villas, etc. which I had never before gone through so thoroughly.  The town is increasing wonderfully in that direction with some very spacious and handsome residences, rows of large houses suitable for people of considerable affluence and other ranges of smaller houses for families of smaller size and means.  The Bayshill estate is also to be laid out as building ground on a like extensive and ornamental scale.  The new hotel, the Queen’s Hotel, now in progress of erection at the upper end of Sherborne Walk is a very fine building on an immense scale.

 

For your notes:

May 19th 1838

Received a letter from the Postmaster at Moreton-in-Marsh announcing a change in the Post Office arrangements there which will prove inconvenient to us, as far as relates to the letters from Gloucester, Cheltenham, Tewkesbury and parts of the North - which, I am afraid, will practically now reach us only on the second day after they are dispatched.

 June 28th 1838

A very fine day.  Auspicious weather for the Queen’s Coronation, which was celebrated with great spirit and zeal.  Great preparations at Stow for doing the due honour of the day, and an exhibition of loyalty by distribution of the good things of life to the poor, and provide a dinner for 400 in the market place; beef, mutton, beer, etc. I returned home to dinner, and shortly afterwards Margaret and I distributed cake and cheese, and beer to about 40 children of our Free School and Sunday School, and a party of 15 or 16 sat down in my servants’ hall to a substantial Coronation supper, the partakers being our servants, haymakers, labourers, and the masters and mistress of the parish schools.  The farmers gave treats to the rest of the villages.

 January 2nd 1839

Attended the annual meeting for the Archdeaconry of Gloucester of the Diocesan Society for the building and endowing of churches.  Two churches, at Leckhampton  and Horsley, to which the society have allotted £1200, are in progress.  (Lord) Bathurst has given £950 towards the endowment of a church at Cinderford in the Forest of Dean, where a populous hamlet has sprung up of late years in consequence of the large collieries and ironworks in that quarter.  The proposed church is to be aided by a grant from the funds of the Diocesan Association, and Dr Warneford has promised £500 towards the erection of a parsonage.

Dr Warneford has further devoted £2500 towards the endowment five churches.  He is indeed a magnificent donor.  God has blessed him with very extensive means, and his taste leads him to indulge in public charities and so after careful consideration of each case, he disposes of thousands in a twelvemonth, not to mention assistance given by loans to struggling tradesmen and others.  ……..

 (NB The Warneford Trust contributed to our recent restoration programme.)

 

 

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