LEWKNOR PARISH FETE & HORTICULTURAL SHOW 2008

The Horticultural Show will take place at Knapp Farm on Sunday September 14th 2008. There are a few things we need help with. Tombola prizes, potted plants for the plant stall or old crockery that will be smashed on the day.

If you can help with any of these things, the tombola prizes can be left in school for the pre-school rep to collect, the plants can be brought on the day and crockery can be delivered to Emma Hodge (01844 355942). Any cakes for the tea stall can be brought on the day. There will be another meeting at Lewknor School at 7.30pm on Thursday September 4th.

Please do come along!

This is a well established event that is supported by the whole Parish. This year the proceeds will be shared between The Jubilee Hall and Recreation Ground, Lewknor School and Krakatoa Pre-School.

We want to make this year’s show a great success so please enter as many classes as possible. The classes are for all standards of gardeners so come along and have a go. There will be stalls and games available, as well as a barbeque. As usual, we will have the traditional auction of items at the end of the show.

If you have any items to donate for the tombola, or crockery for the plate smashing stall, or would like to lend a hand on the day, please contact Christine Smith on 01844 353283.

We hope you enjoy the day.

RULES

Lewknor School Auction of Promises

FOLS would like to extend their sincerest thanks to all those who helped to make the recent ‘Auction of Promises’ such an outstanding success.  The event was well supported by parents, friends and also the local community with very generous pledges and donations for auction, combined with equally generous (and often very competitive!) bids. 

This resulted in an exceptional evening raising £6,718, which once again exceeding previous years. 

 As well as raising an incredible amount of money, it was a really enjoyable evening, which was expertly planned and managed by all the FOLS committee and volunteers. 

FOLS fundraising benefits every child at school.  It makes a considerable contribution to the re-sourcing of our school. Purchases of the last few years have included the climbing frame, tyre-park and all-weather surfacing; a digital piano and our new staging.  Additionally, FOLS often pay for the cost of coaches to educational visits and contribute to the cost of visitors who lead various workshops and activities each term. So, we do thank all of you at school and in the local community for your ongoing support to our efforts.  We hope to see you all at the Art Fete on 5th July in the school and St Margaret's church - where we will be getting ‘arty’ and enjoying the new mural and delicious BBQ.

The Bookclub at Lewknor

“Day” by A L. Kennedy, the Costa Book of the Year 2007, continued our reading about events of the Second World War but this time from the prospective of a young air gunner who survives 28 bombing missions over Germany culminating in that of Hamburg. Kennedy is a woman writer but manages to brilliantly capture the camaraderie that existed between aircrews who faced death every time their planes took off and the book would have received our universal acclaim if the story had been told from this perspective. However, the author chooses the device of setting the novel post- war, with the main character, Alf, taking part in a film about life in a POW camp, inserting past and present events in a confused and often illogical way. Once more we felt we were suffering from the curse of the book prize recommendations with the reviews on the web of “Day” being without exception enthusiastic. Perhaps our judgements lack the sophistication of the literary giants who judge these prizes although Lily Allen quite sensibly resigned from the judging panel of the recently awarded Orange Prize citing lack of time. We can only guess at her real reasons for doing so. Maybe she thought the books selected were awful but lacked the courage to say so.

Our book for next month, however, should break the mould. It is “Perfume” by Patrick Susskind. This book first came to my notice as I waited outside the local butchers in the queue for my Christmas turkey and noticed my fellow queuer had his head buried in a paperback. “Got to finish this” he muttered “it’s the wife’s Christmas present!” Must be a good read I thought. After that we have our light summer reading “The Undomestic Goddess” by Sophie Kinsella.

Elan Preston-Whyte

Friends of Watlington Library

At their AGM on 9th May, Oliver Knowles, the founding Chairman of the Trustees of the ‘Friends of Watlington Library’ handed over the reins to his successor Philip Pinney.

On behalf of these Trustees, the new Chairman thanked Oliver for his outstanding leadership, tenacity and hard work for the Watlington and district people over the last decade. Oliver established the ‘Friend of Watlington Library’ with a group of Trustees and, after defeating some early threats to close the Library, guided us towards the dream of building an extension to the Library. Despite endless problems over planning approval, he never gave up and took a leading role in raising nearly £47,000 – an amazing achievement in itself! Now, even through the final hurdle of Charity Commissioners’ approval has still has to be crossed, we have high hopes that a new extension may soon be built.

In thanking Oliver, the new Chairman said he was expressing the thanks of the Library Staff, the Trustees and local people for Oliver’s sterling and successful efforts to re-establish Watlington Library as a thriving facility in the heart of our Community. Since the Meeting, the Library Staff and Trustees held a successful raffle during the Watlington Festival and, despite the very wet weather, raised over £260 for the Library.

The Trustees will be meeting at 7.00pm on Monday 23rd June to plan the way ahead and to look, hopefully, towards the type of activity that will be needed to ensure the success of the Library in the period after the new extension is built.

China Sichuan Earthquake Appeal

We would like to say a big THANK YOU to all the residents in Postcombe who contributed to our appeal. We raised £175.08 in total through door-to- door collection on behalf of the Oxford Chinese School.

The donations will be passed on to the Red Cross Society of China for the earthquake relief fund.

Thank you once again for everyone's generosity.
Kwai & Helen

ALLOTMENTS IN LEWKNOR

 Have you thought about having your own allotment to grow your own fruit and vegetables?

An allotment is not only great fun and very rewarding, but can save you a lot of money.

The allotments near the watercress beds have always been very popular and in great demand. There is now a chance that more allotment space could be found in or around our village if there is enough demand for it.

If you would be interested in taking on the lease of an allotment, please contact the Parish Council. If there are enough people interested, there would be a follow up meeting with the members of the council to try and find a way to solve the issue.

Parish Council Contact: Mr Jeff Jefford (Tel 01844 281449),

Top

‘Goodnight Mrs Scott!’

The children were fascinated to learn, first hand, about the school’s contribution to the war effort, when they were visited by one of its former pupils last month.

Rev Michael Loughton from Seaford in East Sussex was delighted to find the school (which was built in 1836) still much the same as when he was last there in 1942. Rev Loughton was one of quite a considerable number of children evacuated to Lewknor during the Second World War.

Now 73, Rev Loughton was one of the youngest evacuees, when he arrived at the school in September 1939 aged only 4. Rural South Oxfordshire must have seemed worlds apart from the London he had just left behind. He recalls living in the school house for the first 3 months, with Mrs Scott the Headmistress, before being moved to a family further along the High Street and later to a farm some 2 or 3 miles out of the village.

Rev Loughton enjoyed a short tour of the school and remembered lessons in the Middle Classroom which was, he recalled, split into two small rooms by a wooden partition. The entry in the school logbook for 11 September 1939 reads ‘One LCC [London County Council] teacher is in charge of her four children plus 16 infants in the smallest room…Sufficient equipment has been found for the visitors’ needs.’

Rev Loughton stayed at the school for 3 years before returning to Paddington in London. He went on to become a school teacher and later an Anglican vicar. He is married and has 6 children, one of whom is Tim Loughton Conservative Shadow Minister for Children.

If you have any memories or photographs of the by-gone days of Lewknor School, we would love to hear them and may even put them on the history page of our website http://www.lewknor.oxon.sch.uk/our_history.htm. Do please contact the school.

LEWKNOR C of E PRIMARY SCHOOL
01844 351542 www.lewknor.oxon.sch.uk

News From Krakatoa

In these last months before summer the children at Krakatoa are learning about road-safety through the Oxfordshire County Council “Footsteps” Traffic Awareness Program. The children are enjoying learning through many fun activities that will teach them invaluable skills to help them stay safe.

Our combined AGM and parents evening will be held on 9 July at 7:30 at Jubilee Hall and we will hold a mini-sports day and picnic for children on Thursday, 17th July at ll:30am.

Please feel free to come along to either!

As with previous years, the preschool will be coordinating the Tombola for the Horticultural Show that will take place on Sunday, 14 September. We will start collecting donations in July so please have a think about anything you might be able to offer. Boxes will be placed at the preschool and Lewknor School or can be dropped off to Shannon Heiberg (Icknield House, 12 High Street).

We hope everyone has a fantastic summer and we are looking forward to welcoming many new children in the Autumn.

Top

ECO SCHOOLS SILVER AWARD: In the school garden the children have worked hard to plant the numerous young seedlings that they have grown and are very excited by the results. It is planned to hold a mini-market after school on Fridays to sell some of the herbs. The children have learnt about ways to save energy and have taken a keen interest in the weekly energy readings. They have been delighted to find that their efforts have been rewarded by consistently reduced readings. The school also organised an Eco-Week from June 3rd – 6th. The children visited an organic farm and also learnt how to make paper. We are about to apply for the Eco Schools Silver Award and should receive the award by mid July. An assembly celebrating this is planned for 18th July.

COULD YOU OR YOUR CHILD KNIT SQUARES FOR A BLANKET FOR CONGO? Our blanket mentioned in previous Grapevines has grown to over 35 squares. We hope to finish a blanket to send out to Congo when Revd. Brignall makes a visit there in the autumn. Squares should be made 30 stitches wide by approx 60 rows, using double knitting wool and No. 10 (3.25mm) needles. Dimensions of squares: approx 4in x 4 in. Any squares, by children or adults will be gratefully received. Please drop them off at the church. We will stitch the blanket together at some point in the Autumn (date tbc) when all will be welcome. We will have a slide show from the Congo and a glass of wine as we work.

UPCOMING EVENTS & NEWS We look forward to the following forthcoming events.

July 5th Arts Weekend at St. Margaret’s Lewknor: On Saturday July 5th, as part of Lewknor C of E Primary School’s Art Fair, children will be invited to work with a group of artists from A Rocha to create a mural. This will be an exciting project with an environmental theme and will be displayed along the full length of the nave.

It is a combined project with children from Blair Peach Primary School, a multi-ethnic school in Southall and will depict environmental scenes from Southall through to Lewknor. There will be an informal celebration in the church at the end of the afternoon on the 5th.

Saturday July 19th: A Rocha 25th Silver Anniversary, to be held at St. Margaret’s: Advance notice that St. Margaret’s has been asked to host the Silver anniversary celebrations of A Rocha, and was happy to agree with support of the Parochial Parish Council. This is a wonderful opportunity to use St. Margaret’s to host around 250 people in celebrations with talks by the founders of A Rocha, Peter and Miranda Harris. We will conclude with a short service on the Nature Reserve. If you would like to come, Please contact A Rocha directly on 0208 574 5935

RECENT EVENTS

April 25th: Viewing of ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ : Al Gore’s film demonstrated very effectively his battle to raise awareness about the issues of climate change. It generated a stimulating discussion, lead by Dr. Martin Hudson from Oxford Brookes University, on the challenges facing humankind. There was also the opportunity to view Dr. Hudson’s recent publication, ‘Cherishing the Earth’.

April 27th: Bluebell Walk; The weather was glorious for The Bluebell Walks at Aston Rowant Nature Reserve and the event was very well attended. Around 40 people met for tea and cakes at St. Margaret’s Church afterwards and attended a beautiful, contemplative service of music and poetry reading prepared by Jo Whitfield.

Environment Sunday at St. Margaret’s Lewknor: On June 8th a service for all the Family with the theme ‘Planet Earth – Our Home’ was held by Rev. Simon Brignall. Children (and adults if they wished!) were invited to bring their teddy bears who were taught how to look after the woods. In so doing they helped their owners to learn how to look after their home Planet Earth. The afternoon concluded with a picnic and games.

Climate Summit: The Bishop of Oxford, John Pritchard, recently hosted a meeting about climate change in Oxford, for those involved particularly in Christian networks, in raising awareness and taking practical action on this issue. Simon Brignall and Jane Pendlenton went along to represent the Gateway project. There is a lot of enthusiasm to use the church networks to raise further awareness and provide information for community groups. Having a local contact point for up to date, local information about energy saving, and, for example, the difference between a micro generation and a solar hot water system is generally thought to be a good idea! We also need to connect people with experience of taking action, fitting insulation etc, to share stories and advice. Further steps to be taken by the Diocese will be reported here.

Visit of Ordinands from Rippon College Cuddesden; St. Margaret’s hosted a small group of men and women training to become vicars at Ripon College, Cuddesdon, on the 6th May. The group were warmly welcomed and given a presentation about the Gateway project and could talk about rural ministry. Church warden Ian Orr-Ewing and PCC member Terry Calcutt were on hand to give their perspective, added to by Mr. Walker Head teacher of Lewknor C of E Primary School.

Drama Group; The ‘Creation Theatre Company’ from Oxford continues to work with a weekly drama club at Lewknor C of E School. They are preparing to present a short production at the 25th Anniversary A Rocha Celebrations of on Saturday 19 July.

CONTACT:
Please contact us with any queries or comments.
Phone: 01844 281 827/ 07974 018 482
Email: jane.pendlenton@googlemail.com , simon.brignall@arocha.org
Address: Jane is now based at St. Margaret’s and Lewknor C of E School on a full time basis. Postal contact can be made to Revd. Brignall at the Vicarage, 46, High St., Tetsworth, OX9 7AS

Top

COUNCIL CONTACT DETAILS

District Council hands out £13,800 to 36 talented young people: South Oxfordshire District Council has awarded 36 talented young people from the district with bursary awards totalling over £13,800 to recognise their sporting and artistic achievements. Bursary awards of up to £500 are available for residents in South Oxfordshire under the age of 25 who have demonstrated a talent in the field of sport or the arts. They are also available for those taking part in official expeditions. For sports bursaries the applicant should have reached at least county level in their sport and for arts bursaries the applicant must be able to demonstrate a high level of commitment and skill in their chosen art form.  Arts include music, dance, drama, creative writing, painting, sculpture, photography, video production, multi-media and crafts.

Residents help enforce vehicle weight limits Vehicles breaking weight restrictions are a persistent problem in many villages. The Neighbourhood Weight Watch initiative enables residents who witness suspected breaches of weight restriction orders to report directly to Trading Standards officers. By filling out special forms giving information about suspect vehicles including registration, model and company name, residents can assist Trading Standards officers in bringing further prosecutions. The scheme recently secured its first successful prosecution of a man who breached the 7.5 tonne restriction on the B4009 in Watlington by driving an 18-tonne box van through the town.

Partnership crackdown on rogue traders: Oxfordshire County Council's Trading Standards Service and Thames Valley Police have been turning up the heat on rogue traders. Patrols have been operating throughout Oxfordshire in order to ensure home improvement work is being carried out legitimately. Police and Trading Standards have been approaching builders, roofers and gardeners seeking to identify and deal with rogue traders. Most traders are genuine but if you are concerned about a trader working for you contact Oxfordshire County Council Trading Standards on Tel: 0845 051 0845 or email trading.standards@oxfordshire.gov.uk

£7.7million windfall for early years provision in Oxfordshire: Oxfordshire County Council has secured £7.7million funding from the Department for Children, Schools and Families to make improvements in early year’s provision over the next three years. Some of the money will be used to make sure that there are enough early year’s places for all three and four-year-olds in the county. It will also help nurseries and pre-schools across the county improve the quality of their indoor and outdoor learning environments, and ensure that all children, including disabled children, can access both indoor and outdoor resources. Money will be targeted at replacing or refurbishing about five per cent of the county's early years buildings that are particularly unsuitable or in bad condition.

Homechoice – starts 23rd July We’ve reported before about this new system called Homechoice. It will enable home seekers to see the properties that are available either online or via a newsletter. It will come into effect on 23rd July. For further details see the SODC website.

Park-and-ride handover The County Council is to take on responsibility for the three park-and-ride facilities in Oxford that are currently run by Oxford City Council. Redbridge, Seacourt and Pear Tree park-and-rides will join Water Eaton and Thornhill in being run by the county council and in being free of charge for parking. Bus fares into the centre will continue to be payable to the bus companies.

Councils launch campaign to tackle air pollution in Henley: People living and working in Henley are being urged to play their part in tackling increasing levels of air pollution in the town centre – caused mainly by the growth of traffic. Three councils have joined together to launch a campaign for clean air in Henley. Oxfordshire County Council, South Oxfordshire District Council and Henley Town Council are hoping to combat the effect of a probable 25 per cent increase in road traffic in Henley over the next twenty years. A new web site has been launched (www.henleyairquality.com) and a campaign

Working together to deliver better care - person-held records: A new way of sharing information between Oxfordshire County Council’s social and community services and Oxon NHS was launched on 4th June. It is set to benefit people receiving care and in particular older people and adults who have long-term needs. A person-held record will be available to get patients and service users more involved in their treatment. A person-held record is a folder containing the relevant information that people need which they can then take to social care, hospital or doctor’s appointments. It will ensure that relevant information is shared with the appropriate people who are involved in meeting that person’s needs. The folder can also be used out of hours to provide important information to emergency services such as the ambulance service or out of hours GP services.

IS YOUR CAR INSURANCE REGISTERED ON THE MID?

An estimated one in every twenty cars on the road is being driven without insurance. This results in every honest motorist in the UK having up to £30 added to their insurance premium to compensate the innocent victims of these cheats, and the problem is growing at a dramatic rate.

The Motor Insurance Database (MID) was set up by the insurance industry to help combat this crime, and the police use it to make over 3.8 million enquiries per month and, thus far, they have removed about 150,000 uninsured vehicles from the road. If your car is not on the database, there are no excuses – the police will seize it. If you are insured, the problem will be cleared up in a day or two but, in the meantime, you will have had to live with the inconvenience. It is easy to confirm that you are on the database. Go to this website Error! Hyperlink reference not valid. and enter your number plate. If you are not there – phone your insurance company – it’s their job to ensure that their clients are registered.

RECENT LOCAL PLANNING APPLICATIONS

Entries in the LPC (Lewknor Parish Council) Comment column will normally be confined to one of four options: ‘Current’ (ie recommendation still pending), ‘Approve’, ‘Object’ or ‘NSV’ (No Strong Views); the latter is the most usual and is often amplified by specific observations and/or reservations. Entries in the SODC Status column will be ‘Current’, ‘Appeal’, ‘Withdrawn’, ‘Granted’ or ‘Refused’; all of which are self-explanatory. Further details of individual Planning Applications are available on-line, as follows. Open SODC’s Home Page at www.southoxon.gov.uk. In the box on the right, click on ‘Planning’. Then click on ‘view applications via the Planning Application Register’ and follow the instructions to find the specific application that you seek.

Top

A Cayman Islands Garden

Where are the Cayman Islands? We were frequently asked this question whilst exhibiting at this year’s Chelsea Flower Show. Well, they’re situated 180 miles south of Cuba and 195 miles north-west of Jamaica. And the highest point on the island is a grand 30 feet! So gardening here is a challenge as plants and gardens have to contend with the hurricane season from May to October and a dry, sunny period from November to April. But the islanders have created beautiful gardens, overcoming the vagaries of a demanding climate and the typical garden seen today is the Sand Garden.

The gardens are called Sand Gardens because of their use of white sand that is used to act as mulch. The sand is usually swept once a week, removing any debris that has fallen from plants, using brooms made from the Small Leaf Rosemary Bush. So that the islanders can enjoy a ‘White Christmas’, a fresh layer of white sand is applied just before Christmas Day! The pathway to the front door is made from dead bits of coral that have been collected from the beach and which acts as a ‘doorbell’ – visitors footsteps on the coral create a scrunching sound as they walk towards to the front door. The pathway is typically lined with conch (pronounced ‘conk’) shells, large and beautiful pastel-pink shells.

The focal point of the Sand Garden is the traditional Caymanian cottage, a wooden structure with a tin roof, modest in size and painted in traditional pastel colours. The garden itself is typically bordered between road and garden by a dry stone wall made from the island’s limestone. White picket fences are used to mark the boundary between neighbour’s properties. Usually, a wooden arch is positioned at the entrance to the garden and a climbing Rose or a Jasmine can usually be found twining its way up through the woodwork. Cayman Island terrain consists mainly of limestone with thin layers of extremely well-drained alkaline soil dotted here and there . This is another challenge! As a result, the plants used in Sand Gardens are those that have to cope with what is above and below ground. There is usually a mix of ornamental and crop plants and the ornamental plants used are those that require very little water. Crop plants take priority and these include Coconut Trees, Bananas, the Silver Thatch Palm (endemic to Grand Cayman and used for making rope, baskets, hats and shoes), Mango, Papaya, Plum, Cherry, Breadfruit, Tamarind and Cassava as well as smaller but equally important foodstuffs such as Sweet Potatoes, Yams, Okra, Corn, Plantains and Pumpkins. The large palms and fruit trees provide shade for the small plants underneath. The ornamental plants include Hibiscus, Croton, Jasmine and Bromeliads (for example, the Air Plant), and some of these are placed near to windows and doors so the fragrance and colour produced by the flowers can be enjoyed. Orchids are also to be found in the gardens and around the house and the two endemic species are the Wild Banana Orchid and the Ghost Orchid.

Despite the varying climate, Caymanian gardens are filled with wonderful plants and lush vegetation that is both edible and ornamental. A bit like UK gardens really!

Newington Nurseries, Newington, Nr Stadhampton, Oxon, OX10 7AW TeI 01865 400533
www.newington-nurseries.co.uk