What to do in January

Diary dates for January

Sunday 4 Wargames club, Village Hall, 2.30pm to 6pm

Tuesday 6 Coffee and chat, Church Rooms, 10.30am to 12 noon

Wednesday 7 Luncheon Club New Year party, Village Hall, 10am to 2pm

Thursday 8 Breckland Flower and Garden Club, Village Hall, 2pm

Thursday 8 Parish Council, Village Hall, 7.30pm

Thursday 8 Social and Wine Circle, Church Rooms, 7.45pm

Friday 9 Netgamers computer games, Village Hall, 7pm to 9pm

Saturday 10 Senior Citizens Lunch, Village Hall, 1pm for 1.30pm

Monday 12 Whist drive, Church Rooms, 2pm

Thursday 15 Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, Village Hall, 7.30pm

Friday 16 Mobile Police Station by Village Shop, 9am to 10.30am

Friday 16 Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, Village Hall, 7.30pm

Saturday 17 Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, Village Hall, 2.30pm

Saturday 17 Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, Village Hall, 7.30pm

Sunday 18 Wargames club, Village Hall, 2.30pm to 6pm

Wednesday 21 Luncheon Club, Village Hall, 10am to 2pm

Wednesday 21 Request Songs of Praise, Methodist Chapel, 7.30pm

Thursday 22 Women's Institute, Village Hall, 7.30pm

Friday 23 Netgamers computer games, Village Hall, 7pm to 9pm

(note: there is no Monday Mardle or Crib this month)

Christmas at All Saints

Christmas Eve service
There was standing room only at All Saints Church for the Christmas Eve Service of Lessons and Carols. The service was led by Revd Alistair Monkhouse and there were readings given by members of village organisations. Old Buckenham Primary School sang "Walking in the Air" and the choir from the High School sang "In the Bleak Midwinter". The local Scouts, Cubs and Beavers sang "While Shepherds watched their flocks by night" to the tune of "On Ilkley Moor Ba' Tat". Other contributions were made by Howard Marshall who sang a Sussex folk carol and the organist, Tom Hilton, who played Herbert Sumsion's Prelude on the "Holly and the Ivy".

Prayers were led by Alison Hannah and the Christmas message was given by Dr Richard Lindner of the RHCCC. The offertory of £563 was given for the work of the St Martin's Housing Trust (Norwich Night Shelter).

New Year, New Newsletter

The first newsletter of 2009 is now freely available around the village.

A sign of things to come

For a bit more information, look at the post for Tuesday 9 December.

It's that time of the year

Christmas greetings to all our readers

The difference a 100 years makes

Changes at the chapel
There have obviously been some changes to buildings in the village over the last hundred years.

One picture is taken from a postcard that was posted in 1905 so the photograph would have been taken before that. The current owner of the Chapel, which is now converted for domestic use, obtained the postcard recently.

The other photo shows the building as it is now, definitely recognisable but also showing the changes that have taken place.

Your number may come up

December winners
The winners at the December crib in the village hall were Alan Staniforth, Helga Baggs, Alistair Monkhouse, Richard Cockerill, Jean Rush and Tommy Mack.
There will be no crib at the hall in January.
During the tea interval the December Numbers Club was drawn. The special £25 prizes went to John Walker and Tim Edwards, there was £10 each to Carol Brinded and Peter Warren and the £5 winners were Alan Staniforth, Julian Goodey, Joan Jenkins, Tommy Mack, Bob Garwood and Gerald Norton.
Fen Street seems to have hit it lucky for this December draw as Joan, Peter, Bob and Tim all live within a stone's throw of each other.
January sees the start of a new year for the numbers club so please be prepared when your collectors call upon you.
The Village Hall Committee would like to take this opportunity to thank all those who have supported the Numbers Club in the past and hope that you will continue to do so. It does help to swell the coffers and they have a big revamp of the kitchen and bar area as their next project. Every penny helps.

Been to the windmill yet?

Visit our mill in 2009

The proposed opening dates for the village windmill are in 2009 are:
Sunday 12 April
Sunday 10 May (National Mills Weekend)
Sunday 14 June
Sunday 12 July
Sunday 9 August
And Sunday 13 September.
These are all the second Sunday of the month with the usual 2pm to 5pm opening times.

Parish Council deliberations

Parish Council in December
These notes of the parish council meetings are prepared by the editor of the newsletter from the draft minutes and so may contain information that is corrected later at the next month's meeting.
All parish councillors were present except Trevor Crook who had sent his apologies.
Matters arising. The Clerk had received a reply to his letter to Mike Jackson (NCC Planning and Transportation) concerning possible cutbacks. He has circulated copies to all councillors.
In addition to the scheduled highways inspection the Clerk has forwarded photos of the lay-by near the village shop to Jonathan Pearson (NCC Highways) pointing out the deplorable state of the surface of the lay-by.
Village Hall. The Clerk is still awaiting written confirmation from HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) on reclaiming VAT. However, pending receiving that information, definitive guidance has been received from the HMRC website which does confirm the Clerk’s opinion that VAT is reclaimable on this project. A grant application has been submitted to the Lottery in the name of Old Buckenham Parish Council.
Children’s Play Area. Kerry Talbot reported that a grant of £10,000 has been received from WREN. The cheque was presented in mid-November. Together with local support, a total (including £5,000 from the Parish Council) of £17,500 has been raised since June 2008. Adventure Playgrounds have completed the work requested some three months ago.
Settlement Boundary Review. Adrian Joel said that an information booklet will be published for the Parish Council to make sure that all aspects have been covered. This will be available on the website. There will also be a ‘sites specific’ release for the Parish Council to discuss at their next meeting.
Recreation area behind the Village Hall. An inspection report on both this and the playground is in hand and the Clerk was instructed to purchase an accident book. The Clerk is awaiting notification from solicitors that the agreement to lease has been executed. Then the planning application will be submitted.
The Green. A meeting will be arranged with the Green Rights Proprietors prior to Christmas (Saturday 20 December was suggested) to discuss the dissatisfaction that had been expressed over the state of Green.
Planning applications. Cotman Housing Association. Land adjacent to St Andrews Close. Erection of 12 dwellings. No objections from parish council.
A Nicholls, Cart Lodge, Cake Street. Erection of new stable and tractor store. Hedging on roadside and roof. No objections from parish council.
M Frazer, Peacehaven, 29 Fen Street. Proposed rear conservatory. No objections from parish council.
Planning decisions by Breckland. Mr and Mrs A Medley, Ottomer Cottage, The Green. Proposed single storey dwelling (resubmission). Refused by Breckland.
Mr and Mrs Mason, Willow House, Mill Road. Erection of domestic swimming pool building over existing pool. Approved at Breckland.
J A Becker, The Old Dairy Barns, Fen Street. Conversion of former workshop to dwelling with new garage. Approved at Breckland.
Account balances. The current account balance is £6123.90, the Instant Access Saver is £740, the Alliance & Leicester main account balance is £18954.23and the Bucks Just Play account contains £1136.09.
Setting of precept for 2009/10. The Clerk had previously circulated details of how the precept impacts on local householders as far as their contribution to Breckland Council is concerned. The sum of £15,000 was proposed by Tim Ing and seconded Adrian Joel. This was carried on a majority vote.
District Councillor’s report. Adrian Joel spoke about the local development framework. He said that a great deal may change in the next few years and the question of growth restriction of the parish will be revisited every three years.
Councillors’ reports. The question of fly tipping in village hall bins is being looked at by the Village Hall Management Committee.
The Clerk will be writing to the schools about the problem of children on bikes riding without lights.
Support for older people requiring help from the Eleemosynary fund was suggested. This subject will be discussed at the January meeting but this part of the meeting will not be open to the public.
Highways. There is a new Highways inspector at Norfolk County Council and the Clerk had arranged to meet with him and Adrian Sewell on Friday 5 December. The recent flooding in Cake Street is currently being investigated by the appropriate authorities. Other problems have been notified in writing and will be inspected at this December meeting.
Correspondence. A new scheme of providing information comes into force at the beginning of January 2009. Details are available on http://www.ico.gov.uk/ and the Clerk recommended that all councillors visit this site and consider any action on freedom of information that the Parish Council needs to take to comply with the new scheme.
The Clerk has received a letter from Sue Daniels (Electoral Services Manager) about the vacancy for a parish councillor He confirmed that no requests for an election have been received so the Clerk will advertise for a new member for co-option.
The Clerk has also received paperwork from Terry Cracknell on a number of issues including the provision of a Parish Council budget in the future and a survey on the public usage of the safer route to school.
Any other business. A letter of thanks will be sent by the Clerk to Jackie Stiff (lollipop lady in the village for many years) on behalf of the Parish Council.
The next parish council meeting will be at 7.30pm on Thursday 8 January as the first Thursday in January is New Year’s Day.

Coming to the Rectory

New Rector for·the Quidenham Group
An announcement was made in all the local parish churches on Sunday 16 November saying that that the Bishop has appointed the Revd David Hill, currently curate in Dereham, to be Rector of the Quidenham Group of Parishes (which includes Old Buckenham). He will be instituted on Tuesday 5 May 2009.
David will be continuing his ministry in the Dereham group of parishes until after Easter Sunday after which time he will move to take up residence in the Banham Rectory.

Help wanted for allotments

Land wanted for dig
Old Buckenham Parish Council is often asked about the provision of allotments for the keen gardener and this is a service that the council would like to provide. If there is any landowner in the immediate vicinity of the village who would like to consider making some land available, the Chairman of the Parish Council, Norman Cawston, would welcome enquiries.
In the first instance please contact the Parish Clerk, Mike Read, on 01953 860920 who will arrange a meeting.

Next month is panto time

Ali Baba is coming
Old Buckenham Players will be presenting Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves by David Swan on Thursday 15, Friday 16 and Saturday 17 January 2009 at 7.30pm in the Village Hall – with a special matinee at 2.30pm on Saturday 17January
Sunny Baghdad is the place to be this January – well Old Buckenham Village Hall to be more precise with David Swan’s cleverly written pantomime promising a stream of one-liners and eastern fun. You will be able to experience hot and cold running sand in the Hotel Bedouins, bargains galore in the old bazaar and Fatima’s snake pie.
Join the lovely Polyanna and her absent-minded father, Professor Jones, on the trail of the Temple of Doom - watch out for the evil El Scorpio though.
Come along to shout, laugh, sing and heckle – a show to warm up January!
There will be a licensed bar, a cheeky camel(?) and, of course, audience participation.
Tickets costing £6 (and £4 for the under 14s) are available from Old Buckenham Post Office or by calling 01362 697260.

Squares mean prizes

The Big Square Draw
Over the last month, visitors to the village shop in Old Buckenham have been able to ‘buy squares’ to take part in a big pre-Christmas Draw. Masterminded by Janet Moore, it was more successful than even she had hoped and 1075 squares had been taken by the time the draw took place.
All the money collected (£1075) was spent on prizes and these were supplied through the village shop. The aim was to provide a community event and not to make a financial profit of any kind.
Over fifty people gathered in the Church Rooms to see the ‘Big Square Draw’ take place.
Father Christmas was on hand to draw the first three prizes of hampers to the value of £100, £70 and £45 that were won by Eric Sopp, Jeffery Jones and Stan Burton respectively. There were another 86 prizes that were then drawn by the other villagers that had attended, items such as cases of wine, boxes of chocolates, bottles of spirits, tins of biscuits, even a cuddly toy or two.
All the children present were able to collect a small gift from Father Christmas before he had to leave for commitments elsewhere.

Refreshments were freely available to all those at the draw and donations towards the cost of these resulted in £40 being raised to go to the East Anglian Children's Hospice (EACH).

Next Sunday's Christingle event

Christingle afternoon
On Sunday 14 December there will be an afternoon of sharing, creating and fun as the annual Christingle event takes place in the Old Buckenham Church Rooms.
There will be an hour of activities starting at 3pm for children of all ages including toddlers and pre- schoolers (accompanied please) followed by a short candlelit celebration in the Church at 4pm where the participants can be joined by the children’s mums, dads, grandparents and carers.
Tea and cake will be served after the service in the Church Rooms with a chance to look at and collect the children’s creations.
As well as having festive fun together the event is also hoping to raise some money for the Children’s Society this year and will be asking for a voluntary donation of £1 per child for those attending the workshop.
If you have any queries or would like further details please do not hesitate to contact 01953 861360 or 01953 861353.

Latest parish council news

Next year's precept
Old Buckenham Parish Council has agreed on a 25% increase in the precept requirement for 2009/10. A larger increase was contemplated so that more could be done to accommodate the village's wishes regarding capital projects in the next year or two. But the Council, having due regard to the current national financial situation, was minded to moderate any increase at this point in time. So the precept requirement for 2009/10 will be £15,000. The Council asks that householders bear in mind that the increase adds only £6.17 per annum to the council tax of a Band D house.

Read all about it

Look at the entry for Wednesday 23 November.

It's WI time again

November WI Meeting
November can be a gloomy month but Old Buckenham WI had its annual pilgrimage to the Thursford Carol Concert to lift the spirits. The fabulous show was a real hit and everyone voted to continue to book seats for the next concert in 2009. Continuing with a theatrical theme, members were reminded of the trip to see West Side Story at the Theatre Royal in January.
Even during the festive season our village WI continues to campaign on important issues facing rural communities. The meeting was read a letter by the President outlining objections to the Government’s white paper proposing changes to the dispensing of medicines at the GP’s surgery. The letter was approved at the meeting and will be sent to the local MP.
Also in members’ thoughts at this time of year are those who need the support of St Martin’s Housing Trust, based in Norwich, and the work it does in helping the homeless. Once again members were asked for their support collecting for this charity in local supermarkets. Many local organisations help St Martin’s worthwhile work by fund raising at Christmas time.
The formal business of the annual general meeting followed. Essential reporting was kept to a minimum as usual. It is always interesting to hear a review of the year and realise just how active the WI is, not just locally but visiting other areas and taking part in conferences and courses too. Next the new committee was approved by the meeting and finally the President, Susan Hunter, was re-elected for 2009.
This was followed by two short reports by members. The first report was given by Nancy Hunt. Nancy had attended the 'Posh Frocks and Posh Food' event at Little Ellingham. An elegant afternoon was spent with a delightful meal and followed by a glamorous fashion show with frocks from the 1920s to present times.
The next report was by Margaret Bevis who, with other members, had attended one of the popular mini-Council meetings in October. The new WI banners had been on display along with a polished metal heron, donated to the WI, as their emblem. The speaker took every one back to the Middle Ages with tales of mediaeval life.
It was also explained at this meeting that 2009 is the 90th anniversary of the Norfolk Federation of Women’s Institutes. Many events are planned for the coming twelve months including a service in Norwich Cathedral and the wearing of hats at the AGM in the spring.
After refreshments, and to lighten the mood, members engaged themselves in a Beetle Drive. Competition was strong and the winner was presented with her prize.
No meeting will be held in December but members will be enjoying a Christmas dinner at a local restaurant instead. At the meeting on Thursday 22 January there will be a talk entitled ‘My life breeding peacocks’ given by Quinton Spratt. The competition is for a feather or an item made from feathers.

Now available around the village