Honeycomb-On Line

Honeycomb September 2010

Rector's Remarks

On October 31st the clocks went (or go) back an hour. Hopefully you remembered to adjust your clocks and were not up any earlier than necessary. With this adjustment of our clocks we are plunged into darker evenings at a time of naturally diminishing hours of daylight. Quite regularly there is discussion about changing our time zone to GMT+1 so that we have “double summer time” in summer and “summer time” in winter. As we enter the long season of darkness I am rather tempted to agree although our Scottish neighbours would not appreciate it. Nonetheless, my agreement rather withers when I learn that we might do it to fall into line with mainland Europe – I am something of a Euro-sceptic.

The main reason for changing our time zone seems to be an avoidance of darkness. On GMT +1 our winter evenings would be lighter and for most people, particularly in the south, the later sunrise would not be a problem. I can well remember when I was a long haul commuter and during the winter months would not see my house in daylight during the working week. Possibly GMT +1 would also be a potential safety measure particularly for those who walk as part or all of their evening journeys home.

Although seeing some possible practical benefit in a new time zone, I wonder about this avoidance of the dark. A balance of light and dark is inherent in the working of our solar system and seems to be essential to growth and well being in the vast majority living organisms on this planet including ourselves. I am not a biologist or a physiologist but I suspect that we cannot survive physically without darkness.

In trying to avoid physical darkness it is possible that we are also trying to avoid spiritual and emotional darkness. The night is a time when we are less in control of our environment. It is harder to see and so to know what is going on around us. Even in lit streets there are shadows and dark corners were danger might lurk. We fear crime more in the hours of darkness even if that is not statistically proven. So it seems that we have an in built fear of darkness even if for most of us those fears are unfounded. Darkness is also a time when we are less in control of ourselves. It is a time of sleep when, as well as being renewed physically, we are generally unaware of what is going on around us and in us. In a sense sleep is a mini death.

Death is possibly the main reason why we try to avoid darkness. Anecdotal evidence and my personal experience indicate that death is more likely to occur in the hours of darkness and in the dark winter months. Death is one of our last remaining taboos that few people want to consider much less talk about. Darkness reminds us, possibly subconsciously, of the inevitability of death for ourselves and for our loved ones.

Despite wanting to avoid thinking about death, November is a month when our thoughts do turn to it. November 11th is the day when we recall the sacrifices made by men and women who have taken up arms to defend this country and have died for us. I am sure that the armistice that ended the 1st World War was not deliberately timed to occur in November, the month when winter darkness really sets in, but the possibility remains that subconsciously the approaching darkness did have an effect on our leaders at the time. November is also the month when the church commemorates “All Souls” when we recall all those who we love who, for a time, we cannot see and offer thanks for their lives and all that they mean to us.

Although such occasions are painful, they are part of life. Whether we participate in such acts of remembrance publicly or simply in our own hearts, we cannot avoid them and nor should we. Just as physical darkness is a time of physical renewal whilst we sleep, so there can be growth and eventual renewal in times of emotional and spiritual darkness. It is very painful at the time but most people who go such times do finally come through as more fully human people. I hope and pray that if you are in such a time of darkness now, that it will prove to be a time of unseen renewal that one day will bear fruit in your life.

Jan Brookshaw

Remembrance

As the green leaves of summer turn bronze and flaming red, when there hangs in the air that jabbing bite of approaching frost, and the ground hardens in the grip of winter, our thoughts turn to the dead of two World Wars and many since. On the eleventh day of the eleventh month in 1918, the guns fell silent in the war to end all wars. We gather together to pay tribute to the millions who gave of their ‘todays’ that we might have a brighter ‘tomorrow’. This is the season of Remembrance. Our Remembrance service will start at 10.30am on Sunday November 14th at Melchbourne Church.

“Not yet will those measureless fields be green again
Where only yesterday the wild sweet blood of wonderful youth was shed;
There is a grave whose earth must hold too long, too deep a stain,
Though for ever over it we may speak as proudly as we may tread.
But here, where the watchers by lonely hearths
from the thrust of an
inward sword have more slowly bled,
We shall build the Cenotaph: Victory, winged, with Peace,
winged too, at the column’s head.
And over the stairway, at the foot –
oh! here, leave desolate, passionate hands to spread
Violets, roses, and laurel, with the small, sweet, tinkling country things
Speaking so wistfully of other Springs,
From the little gardens of little places where son or sweetheart was born and bred.
In splendid sleep, with a thousand brothers
To lovers - to mothers
Here, too, lies he: Under the purple, the green, the red, It is all young life: it must break some women’s hearts to see
Such a brave, gay coverlet to such a bed!
Only, when all is done and said,
God is not mocked and neither are the dead
For this will stand in our Market-place -
Who’ll sell, who’ll buy? (Will you or I
Lie each to each with the better grace?)
While looking into every busy whore’s and huckster’s face
As they drive their bargains, is the Face
Of God: and some young, piteous, murdered face.”

Charlotte Mew, 1919

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Mothers Union.

On Wednesday 17th November at 2.30p.m. a meeting will be held in Pertenhall Village Hall. Jane Kneeshaw from Lt Staughton will give a talk about the “Mothers Union: as it was, as it is now and as it will be?”. Also we will be singing hymns that people choose, possibly their favourites. As usual we will finish with refreshments. Anyone is welcome to come, even should you only want to once and never again!!!

A committee meeting was held recently to discuss the future since numbers are low and so meeting costs in a village hall and also the travelling expenses of speakers. It was decided we could afford this for the coming year and then we will think again. At the moment the refreshment donations are £1 a member although some people put in more. People at our meetings come from Lt Staughton, Kimbolton, Melchbourne, Dean and Pertenhall.

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Bible based discussion group.

A group meets on Tuesday mornings at 10.30a.m. for about 1 ½ hours. At the moment we are looking at Psalms 20 to 29 and discussing how they relate to today. Some days we leave that and discuss something that has cropped up in the week and “troubling” someone who has come. We are Christian and Bible based. Contact Gillian Aylott (708470) or Joy McBratney (708938) or Sue Edmunds (01480 861198) to find out more. We meet in each others houses or Lesley Salters so it varies each week. You would be welcome to join us.

Advent Carols Advent starts at the end of November. To celebrate this there will a service of Advent Carols on December 5th at Dean at 6pm. A group of the best of our singers in Stodden are getting together under the guidance of Martin Rhodes to provide us with some truly lovely renditions of our traditional Advent carols and anthems. Do join us to what will be a really lovely celebration of Advent.

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New Years Day Walk

If I sound like a man desperately seeking guidance and support its because I am.

As those of you who regularly support this walk will know it has become a compulsive way of clearing the post celebratory heads of those who participate , unfortunately when I accepted the P.P.P. role I had to make it clear to my colleagues that as I have for many years spent the New Year in my native Yorkshire I would be unable to arrange and lead this important annual event. My fellow councillors advised me that I should not worry as the walk more or less organised itself, from personal experience I know that nothing runs by itself and I would be deeply saddened if due to my lack of involvement the event, ( however unlikely ) came to an end. Could those of you who really do make the New Years Walk happen get in touch and let me know how I can help to support your activities.

Contact me

Please get in touch phone, e-mail or just knock on my door, and let me have your views on my role as your Parish Paths Representative, the word Representative is important as I can only represent your views if I know what they are.

Colin Alder
Church Cottage,
Church Lane,
Upper Dean, 01234 709767

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East of England Ambulance Service NHS

More Helpful Hints from Your Community First Responder Group

We hope you found the August and September ‘Helpful Hints’ useful should you ever be faced with an NHS emergency situation.

As the Autumn and Winter approach,

This is how you can help us

1.   Make sure your HOUSE NAME, or NUMBER is clearly visible from the roadside

2.   Put on as many LIGHTS IN THE HOUSE as you can

3.   If someone can safely put on car, HAZARD LIGHTS, the Responders and Ambulance Crew will find you more easily.

4.   Perhaps a Friend or Neighbour can be WAITING OUTSIDE to signal to the CFRs or Ambulance, USING A TORCH AT NIGHT if available, this will help us find the property more easily and therefore attend to the patient more quickly.

To maintain our 24 hour cover, we really need more volunteers.

Please can you help, by becoming a fully trained CFR ?

If you wish to find out more, please contact:

CFR Co–ordinator: Elizabeth Goakes. Tel.01234 708481

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Kimbolton Flower Club

’JUST CHRISTMAS’ is the title of our November meeting with National Demonstrator, Mrs Janet James. We anticipate a festive event with wine and mince pies, charity parcels, and raffle.

Visitors welcome: Admission £7.50 at the Mandeville Hall, Kimbolton, Tuesday November 16th at 7.30pm.

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Operation Christmas Child

It's that time of year againwhen we invite our people to decorate showboxes with simple gifts which are transported in the poorest part of Africa, Asi aand Eastern Europe.

Over the past 3 years it has been a privilege for a few of us to work with Belinda Kenny from Swineshead who is the district coordinator for the North Bedfors area. This is a massive job but extremely rewarding as Belinda's team has sent oif 14,000 boxes to children in Kiev, Serbia and Belarus who would otherwise have received nothing at Christmas. This year we go to Romania where Operation Christmas Child was started 20 years ago and where there is still a huge need for some of the world's most deprived children.

People from our own villages have been extremely generous in the past and this year we ask you to dig deep again this year. This is a message of of love and hope to these children and to them it is a miracle that someone thousands of miles away is thinking of them at this time.

The following village coordinators would love to hear from you and it would be great to have as many as possible in time for our November Family Service. This is at 10.30 in Pertenhall on Sunday 7th November which we are calling Shoebox Sunday.

Don't worry if you haven't had time to finish your box by then as the campaign still has a couple of weeks to run.

Dean John & Maggie Reynolds 01234 708675
Melchbourne Malcolm & Joy McBratney 01234708398
Shelton Sarah Morgan 01933 461256
Yelden Mike & Lesley Pond 01933 316661

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Swineshead on the Stodden Website

Have you visited www.stodden.org yet? In addition to hosting Honeycomb on-line, this exciting new website is being developed by John Braga of Dean, with lots to offer anyone in Stodden who is interested in their village history. You can already view old photographs, and special pages are being set up with details of Stodden residents past and present. There are miscellaneous pictures of Swineshead; perhaps you can help identify the children in the photo of a Sunday School outing in the 1950s? John would be very pleased to receive any copies of old photographs, documents, or information you may have about Swineshead to add to the website. You can contact him at: JohnB@crownsys.co.uk.

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SWINESHEAD

Correspondent - Jenny Leishman

01234 709241 JenLeishman@aol.co.uk

Swineshead Road Closure

The High Street will be closed to through traffic on Monday 8 November while repairs are carried out on the culvert opposite Brook Farm, and to the road where it is subsiding beyond Oak Tree Cottage. Residents will have access to the High Street.

St Nicholas Church Cleaning Flowers 14 November Emma, Jan, Anne L Julie 5 December Edna, Margaret, James Pauline (greenery only) 24 December Pat, Jean, Jenni All arrangers please (Christmas Carol Service)

Swineshead 2010 Runs

We had 5 competitors for the First Villager home trophy: Lottie & Nigel Burgess, David Holme, Martin Newsom and Iain Slater. Congratulations to the winner, David Holme (Close Cottage) who took part for the first time this year. Other Swineshead and Stodden Villagers took part in the 5 mile race. Well done all!

The weather was once again very kind to us and all went very smoothly thanks to excellent organisation by the Committee and all the helpers. It is remarkable that such a small village can organise a successful, very popular and friendly Run that people come back to year after year.

If anybody else is willing to take on a role in helping to organise next year’s Run, please contact Martin Newsom or any other committee member: Lesley or Terry Salter, Stuart Long or Fran Nicholson.

We had many more Runners this year than last, so profits will be up too, which is good news for the village charities. Provisional results estimate a total profit of £2632.62 plus or minus £100. This is well up on last year, but part of the increase is due to very generous sponsorship by Bird Brothers. More details of Run finances will be published later in the year.

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PERTENHALL

Correspondent - Chloe Reid 01480 861525

Pertenhall and Swinshead Quality Parish Council Meeting

A meeting was held in Pertenhall Village Hall, on Wednesday, 29th Sept, at 7.30. It was attended by six Parish Councillors, Ian Clifton the Borough Councillor and two members of the public. Michael Whitlock was in the chair.

The following discussions took place and decisions were made:

Councillor Clifton has obtained £1000 for Swineshead Village Hall and hopes to give more. A similar sum will be made available to Pertenhall Village Hall.

A new web site has made set up and can be viewed as shown above. Suggestions for improvements are welcomed.

Two councillors will attend a meeting with Alistair Burt MP.

Two councillors went to the Planning Meeting held in Borough Hall. Their notes are available for anyone who contacts the clerk.

The JAG meeting was also attended and again notes are available for perusal.

There will be road closures in Swineshead in November. Notices will be posted to make the residents aware of possible inconvenience.

The bulky waste collection date is Sunday 31st October, from 12.00 till 3.00 in both villages. Incorrect information was given to the clerk for the last collection, leading to many problems. It is hoped that the above dates are correct.

Full minutes of this meeting are on the above web site and posted in the village notice boards. Agendas are emailed to those who have let the clerk have their email addresses. Please inform her if you would like to be added to this list. (gtelling@gefh.ndo.co.uk)

The next meeting will be in Swineshead Village Hall at 7.30 on Wednesday 17th November, 2010. This is an open meeting and everyone is welcome to attend.

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DEAN

CorrespondentCorrespondent - Annette Brooks
01234 709505 pegasustrans@btinternet.com

Chapel Services: Sundays at 2.30p.m. 7th and 21st November And 5th December.

7 Chapel members went to the Group Service and fellowship at Gt Doddington on 28th September and enjoyed their time there. The music to lead the singing was by a youth group of instruments and several of the group Chapels gave a short resume of their activities of the past year.

Chapel members wish to thank all those from the village who came to make the Harvest Service on 10th October such a good service. There was quite a scrum at the end as people came forward to clear the wonderful display of God’s good bounty to us in flowers and vegetables etc. It really gave heart and encouragement to us all.

King James Bible Celebrations of the 400th Anniversary

The Book of Isaiah was translated from the Hebrew by a resident of Dean and this village intends to hold special celebrations, possibly in May. If you want to lend a hand in any way, research or practical, please contact Gillian Aylott or Joan May.

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YELDEN

Correspondent - Sue Taylor 01933 355380
taylor.topobtinternet.com

Yelden Methodist Chapel

Sunday November 7th at 11am   Service led by Valerie Anslow

Carols and Chestnuts

On Sunday evening, 19th December, please join others under the holly tree by St Mary’s gate for some sizzling sausages and some seasonal hymns. More details in December, just put this date in you diary.

Another Carol singing date will be on Tuesday 21st of December when you may like to join in the annual ‘carolling’ round the village or stay indoors and just listen. Again more details in December Honeycomb. Flower and Cleaning Plan November 7th Jenny/Lorna – 6pm “ 21st Lesley / Jane – 9am “ 28th Theresa / Stephanie – 10.30

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SHELTON

Correspondent — Sarah Morgan 01933 461256

Dean and Shelton Parish Council

Parish Paths Partnership.

Your Footpaths and Bridleways

My name is Colin Alder, and as a relatively newly co-opted Parish Councillor, and committed walker and lover of the great outdoors, I have accepted a role as representative for the Parish, on the Parish Paths Partnership. The P.P.P. seems to reflect different attitudes in Parishes through out the country, from total inactivity to highly active and motivated large groups, but the balance I suspect falls closer to the former than the latter, and this might just reflect the way people want it.

Hopefully a more optimistic environment exists here in Dean & Shelton, and I would value input and thoughts from interested folks, who have positive views about their Footpaths and Bridleways, and what can be done to improve their use and role in allowing greater access to the brilliant countryside that comprises our beautiful Parish.

It would also be great to hear from the more longstanding residents of the Parish who could provide an insight into what happened within it, when as I am told a very active P.P.P. group existed.

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MELCHBOURNE

Correspondent- Philip Pahl
melchcomb@aol.com
Village web site – http://mmmatmelchbourne.yolasite.com/

Harvest Festival Auction

The auction of produce held after the Harvest Festival service raised £139 for charity. Thank you to everyone who donated produce and helped to decorate the church.

Church Cleaning and Flowers Rota

There is a regular church cleaning rota and volunteers are always welcome. Anyone wishing to be included on the rota should contact Audrey on 01234 708728.

Service 14th Nov Cleaning Ruth & Jill/Flowers Ruth  Service 28th Nov Cleaning Pam & Sarah (no flowers)

Village dates for your diary:

Saturday 20th November 11:00am Christmas Bazaar Melchbourne Village Hall

Saturday 11th December 7:30pm Quiz Night Melchbourne Village Hall

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Forthcoming Attractions

5th November	Hallowe'en Celebration	Swinehead Village Hall
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6th November	Fireworks Extravaganza	Eileen Wade School
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13th November	Race Night	Yelden Village Hall
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14th November	Remebrance	Melchbourne Church
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20th November	Christmas Bazzar	Melchbourne Village Hall
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