TIDDINGTON WITH ALBURY & MILTON COMMON

Celebrating 50 years since the building of the Village Hall will soon be upon us. Look forward to the fun and games on 24 August and find more details of the event on page 7. The Bank Holiday week-end is certainly full of local action with the Great Haseley Horticultural Show on the Saturday, this year being held on The Green at Little Haseley. More details on page 9.

Here’s hoping that everyone returns refreshed from their holidays ready for work, school, etc. The next Newsletter will have details of events planned for the autumn and winter.

Zena Knight

RUBY WEDDING ANNIVERSARY

Mont and Josie would like to thank everyone who joined them to celebrate their Ruby Wedding Anniversary. It was a memorable and happy occasion, which we thoroughly enjoyed and we hope you did too!

Thank you also for all the lovely cards and gifts. A special mention too, for all their hard work, to the bar staff, disco lads and family and friends who helped with the food, clearing up, etc. We couldn’t have done it without you. Can we do it all again in 2013?

Mont and Josie Adams

Royal National Mission to Deep Sea

Fishermen

There will be a Coffee Morning

Saturday, 13 September, 10.30-12.00

19 Fernhill Close, Tiddington

Raffle, Bring and Buy Stall, etc

Parish Council News

Councillors – Mr Roy Boughton has been welcomed on to the Council as a co-opted member.

Planning – as anticipated, since the District Council elections there has been another change to the planning committee structure. There will be only one main planning committee meeting every two weeks. The two areas east and west will remain under planning officers, who will sift the applications into major, minor and other. Major and minor will be referred to committee but others will be decided by officers, subject to formal appeal. The onus will be on the Parish Council to monitor the situation

The Parish Council planning sub-committee will consist of Ken Field, William Tremayne and a third councillor located in the area of any particular planning application. A list of received applications and deadlines for comments will be posted on the Notice Board.

An amendment to the Lantern Service Station outline planning application has removed mention of the style of building but still requests 500sq.m of office space. The Parish Council has objected again.

Community waste service – in a change just announced, a skip lorry for green compostable waste only will be provided to the village at the usual sites on certain dates until October (see separate notice below and Diary Dates.

Tiddington with Albury Parish Council Members

Chairman John Nowell-Smith 339650

Econ.development, businesses

Vice Chairman William Tremayne 279797

Public transport, planning

Councillor Roy Boughton 339497

Councillor Ken Field 339671

Housing

Councillor Alan Stratton 339430

Sport, arts, grants

Councillor Janet Willis 339415

Environment, conservation, recycling

Clerk Zena Knight 339340

24 Albury View, Tiddington

Affordable housing – the survey included with this newsletter will be an important pointer to housing needs of villagers and completion of the questionnaires is requested by 1st September. A ballot box will be placed at Tiddington Garage or the surveys can be posted in the envelope provided.

Highway problems – the Parish Council is trying hard to get the drainage problems in Tiddington village resolved by OCC.

Bus service 275, Milton Common – significant changes were made and implemented on 6 July. Details can be found at the bus stops and on the Notice Board.

Finances – for the year April 2002 – March 2003 the Clerk reported receipts of £12,786.19 and payments of £11,147.85. A balance of £4,441.54 was carried forward to 2003/2004.

The audit of the accounts will take place from 18 August and the accounts may be inspected by residents until 15 August by arrangement with the Clerk.

Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 – a draft map has been received from the Countryside Agency detailing registered common land and open country within the parish, over which the public will have a new right to walk and remain on for the purposes of outdoor recreation. Public consultation runs until 30 September. This parish does not appear to have any such designated land indicated, but comments may be made on any failure to show such land. The Clerk has a copy of the draft map.

Payments – a donation has been made to the Friends of Ormerod School.

From your District Councillor

There is nothing to report over and above those matters already mentioned under Parish Council News, save to say that the Planning Department’s reorganisation has been done with a view to speeding up the application process. If any parishioner wants an application relating to property in the village or by which they will be affected to be referred to the Planning Committee, rather than decided by officers in the Planning Department, he or she should contact me as Ward Member, so that I can take the relevant action. This should be done as soon as possible after details of the application have been published, as there is a tight timetable.

John Nowell-Smith

Tel: 339650

Forthcoming SODC Consultation

SODC will be carrying out two major pieces of consultation with residents during August and September.

We will be recruiting 1500 residents to be part of our first Citizens’ Panel, which will provide us with a “sounding board” to gather the views of residents on a variety of Council services over a period of several years. As part of the recruitment we will be contacting around 8,000-10,000 residents.

We will also be carrying out three customer satisfaction surveys and contacting a large number of residents, including those who have had recent planning or benefit applications. These surveys are required by the Government and we have to get a certain number of responses to them. This means that it is likely that we will have to contact a large number to achieve this.

Because of the rules governing these consultations, it will be difficult to avoid some residents being contacted more than once. Please bear with us if this happens, and please do return the surveys, as they will provide important feedback to us on your views.

If you have any questions about these consultations, please contact Sally Truman at the District Council on 01491 823046.

Refuse skips

For green compostable waste only

Thur 28 ~Aug 8.00-9.50 Station App

Thur 25 Sep 8.00-9.50 Station App

Thur 30 Oct 8.00-9.50 Station App

Skips are available every Saturday at:

Wheatley Primary School, Littleworth Rd

8.00 – 12.00

1^st & 3^rd Saturday for garden waste

2^nd & 4^th Saturday for non-recyclables

Thame Cattlemarket

8.00 – 12.00

Separate container for garden waste April-October

Church News

Sadly the only applicant for the post of House for Duty Priest withdrew his application before the interview date and we have no prospects of getting a new Vicar before the New Year. The post will be re-advertised once the new Team Rector has taken up his appointment in September. For the time being services will continue on an ad hoc basis in accordance with the schedule overleaf.

Please note that Harvest Festival will be at 6.00pm on Sunday, 28 September and taken by David Wood Robinson.

We still expect to hold our usual Christmas Service at 6.00pm on Christmas Eve, but we do not yet know who will conduct it.

As advertised elsewhere in the Newsletter, there will be a Gardeners’ Question Time in aid of the Church in the Village Hall on Saturday, 4 October at 7.30pm.

John Nowell-Smith

Tiddington Village Hall

The Village Hall celebrates its 50^th Birthday.

As mentioned in the last Newsletter we are extending this year’s Fete to include celebrations for the 50^th birthday of our Village Hall. On Sunday, 24 August we’ll be having the annual fete with all the usual fun and games. In the evening we plan to celebrate the 50^th birthday with a pig roast and party. It will be a very informal affair with music and games for all the family. We won’t be selling tickets in advance, so just turn up from 7.00pm.

During the day we’ve got “sports day” style games for the young ones, beat the keeper for the kids (and adults) as well as the now classic egg throwing contest, darts, Aunt Sally, target golf, etc. There are also some new games including “ball in the bog” and one which involves a plank of wood, stopwatch, 5 screws and a cordless drill! Refreshments will also be available throughout the afternoon, so bring along your family, friends and wallets!

This year we’ve decided not to have a white elephant stall and instead we’ll have a Books, CD’s, Puzzles and Games stall. The WI will be selling cakes and produce and UNIT running the Tombola. We would welcome any donations of “stock” for all these stalls and the raffle.

If you have anything you would like to donate, please contact a Village Hall Committee member or call me on 339430. We will also try and do a house-to-house visit during the week beginning 18 August. If you’d like to help in any way either on the day or making cakes, etc, then please let us know.

We would be grateful for the loan of any photographs of Village Hall events of the last 50 years, the older the better. The photographs would be scanned and the results displayed at the party in the evening. No original photographs would be used in the display. Please contact me and I will collect.

In the meantime, we’re also giving the Hall a facelift. Over the coming weeks we plan to repaint the ceiling and walls, varnish the floor and eventually build new toilets with disabled access. If you’d like to help, please let me know.

Looking forward to seeing you on the 24^th.

Alan Stratton

Chairman, Village Hall Committee

Tiddington Cricket Club

As we now approach the finish to another league season, our first team is currently on top of the division, with high hopes of promotion.

In stark contrast our second team, who is only one division below the first’s, is struggling to maintain its status and is a likely candidate for relegation. However, this team is much younger than in previous years and will only improve with experience.

The third XI, who have struggled with availability to date, will, when it is better, win more matches. Most encouraging again is the introduction to league cricket for more talented youngsters.

It has been another successful year for our junior teams, with the under 11's reaching the last eight in the County. The under 13’s, whose unbeaten run over the last three years came to an end, still managed to reach the County semi-finals.

The under 15’s only lost one match in their programme – to Oxford who field a team consisting almost entirely of County players!

To date our under 17’s, with the majority of their players still under 15, have lost both of their opening matches to strong opposition.

Our Wednesday Aunt Sally team is challenging for honours in a tight division, whilst both teams on Friday are doing well.

We have been recently honoured by being asked to host a two-day match between Oxfordshire and Hertfordshire at under 23 level. Many compliments were received and credit goes to those whose efforts in providing facilities, lunches and teas did not go unnoticed!

Sincere thanks too, to all who contributed or purchased at the promises auction, which raised nearly £1,500.00! All proceeds go direct to the pavilion fund.

The next major event in the social calendar is the match between the members and the players, due on Sunday, 24 August. A challenge has been issued by the Ladies Team to the men. These teams will have already played each other in the pub 6-a-side tournament, but this will have only been an appetizer for a full match!

We now look forward to a successful conclusion to the season and hope that our bid for new facilities will be progressed as soon as possible.

Ray Manning

Weather statistics

Just like 1976?

Many people think that our present summer is very much like that of 1976. My recollections are: of a woman in Thame saying that she did not wish to cross the road because it was too hot; the Government appointing a Minister for rain; penalties for using excessive water, with helicopters being used to spy on people. If you can stand the heat it was super. It all ended on 1 September with heavy rain for the whole of the month.

Our present records so far are as follows:-

May

The month ended up with a warm spell of weather. The highest temperature recorded in Tiddington was on the 30^th at 80degF 27degC

There were 17 wet days.

June

10 wet days, with an inch of rain recorded on the 23^rd.

There were two days with temperatures over 80degF 27degC

July up to 21st

There were 4 wet days.

The number of days with temperatures over 80degF was four.

The highest temperature was recorded on the 16^th when it reached 94degF 34degC

On that day it was the same as Dallas and Taipei.

Glen Evans

United Neighbours In Tiddington

At our May meeting we enjoyed a fascinating talk on the Red Kites, how they were introduced back into the Chilterns, their history and future. The speaker passed on his enthusiasm and made us realise how lucky we are to be able to see these magnificent birds in our own back gardens.

The Coffee Morning held by kind permission of Gerry and Kim Morrish at their home was a pleasant way to spend a Saturday morning. The sun shone for us so we were able to enjoy the lovely garden and a profit of £274.32 was made towards our charities this year. Thanks to all who helped and supported us, including the welcome new faces this year.

The June meeting was held at Peter and Lynn Farrell’s home and again the weather was kind to us, so we spent most of the relaxed evening out in their lovely garden (and not a tea cup was seen!)

In August we are having a Bar-B-Q for members and their partners and see Diary Dates for our September meeting.

A trip to the dogs in October, a Race Night in November and the Dinner Dance in December are still to be finalised.

Please come along to any meeting (see the Diary for dates) as our guest, if you would like to see what we are all about, or for any more information about our club, please contact Josie Adams, Julie Smith or any committee member.

Pat Wise

Waterstock & Tiddington W.I.

Mr David Derrick’s talk at the June meeting gave us a fascinating insight into the world of the honey bee and he amused us with anecdotes of his experiences in keeping bees at his home near Wantage. He also demonstrated how to make candles using honeycomb wax sheets.

In July, Mr Runnalls Davis illustrated his journey down the River Severn in his narrowboat, the Katherine Louise, with beautiful slides and highlighted some historical facts about interesting sites along the way, including Gloucester docks.

Members take a break from a monthly meeting in August but have other events to participate in, organised by the County Federation. Towards the end of July there was a trip on a Mississippi Steamboat on the River Thames from Henley and a guided tour of Harcourt Arboretum. Later on there will be the opportunity to hear Jennie Bond, Court Correspondent for the BBC, at an evening meeting in Oxford Town Hall, visit the Harold Hillier Gardens in Hampshire and enjoy various walks and rambles followed by afternoon tea around the County.

On 11 September, our monthly meetings resume with a talk on Food Additives given by a representative from John Russell Associates.

On 9 October, David Lovegrove from the RSPB will explore the reintroduction of the Red Kites to the Chilterns – of great local interest as they fly regularly over the village.

The competition is for umbrellas in September and the October one will be for the Group Meeting and is yet to be decided.

The meeting of the Icknield Group will be held at Sydenham on 30 October.

The Icknield Craft Show in Tiddington Village Hall is on 11 October. Schedules for this are available from Sue Cox on 339657.

We hold our monthly meetings in Tiddington Village Hall on the second Thursday in the month at 7.30pm. Visitors are always very welcome.

Zena Knight

News from Newington Nurseries

Something unusual – a taste of Morocco.

If you have a small garden and want a design which is easy to look after but still different, why not consider a Moroccan style? It’s an unusual look, which can be achieved by incorporating a few key design elements and typical features.

Moroccan gardens are distinctly formal in layout. In fact, in Morocco the formality and neatness of your garden is often a sign of your status. So, go for straight lines and straight planting. The classic shape is rectangular, with a narrow border framing a central tiled patio. Large leaved plants keep this patio shaded from the heat of the Moroccan sun. Bananas, heliconias and palms all give the right impression. Hardy bananas (Musa basjoo) can stay out all year long as can some palms such as the Chusan palm (Trachycarpus fortunei). For colour, plant Bougainvillea, Oleander and Hibiscus, and for fragrance, plant Citrus. Remember, though, to bring these plants in for the winter.

Colour is a key feature and shouldn’t be confined to the planting. Terracotta is everywhere – particularly on the floors. Walls are colourful too, often painted dusky pink, earthy red or dull gold to reflect the hot colours of the country. Bright mosaics are another important element. Moroccans use as much recycled material as possible and mosaic is a prime example. Choose tables with mosaic tops for a truly authentic feel.

Look for rustic iron lanterns as well. These too are typically made out of recycled materials with small panes of coloured glass to catch the light.

Another important element is water, a revered commodity in a dry climate. Here again, water features are normally formal yet straightforward in design. They can often consist of a simple fountain trickling into a pool or narrow rill, usually tiled blue to echo the cool blue sky above. For something less structured but still typical, you could use a large, terracotta Ali Baba pot for your water feature. No Moroccan garden should be without one of these. Choose the biggest you can, stand it upright, or lay it on its side and you have an immediate taste of Morocco.

§ Newington Nurseries is on the A329 just outside Stadhampton

§ Tel: 01865 400533

Great Haseley & District

Horticultural Society

Annual Show

Tombola and Raffle

The Annual Show is being held on The Green in Little Haseley this year, on the August Bank Holiday Saturday, 23 August. If anyone has anything that they would like to contribute to either the Tombola or the Raffle we would be very grateful. Contributions can be delivered to

Eric Fincham, 10 Albury View

Date for your diary 2003

§ Tuesday, 16 September at 6.00pm – Blewbury Manor, Blewbury, near Didcot

This is a large garden of about 10 acres and is being beautifully created by the owner, Alice Coptcoat, who is also a garden designer. It has a sunken gravel garden, herbaceous borders, a decorative herb and vegetable garden, a lake and a stream running through woodland planting. Mrs Coptcoat has agreed to show us round herself and it will be very interesting to see the planting in early September – and get some ideas!

If anyone has difficulty getting to this garden, please ring me and I will be happy to organise a lift.

£4.00 members £6.00 non members (includes a glass of wine)

If you would like to come on this visit please contact Mary Isaac on 01844 279606 to reserve a place.

IS YOUR ELECTRIC BLANKET

SAFE?

We are offering free safey checks

THAME

Thursday, 11 September

To book your appointment phone now

Tel: 01865 815400

News from Adult and Community Learning

We have just taken delivery of our brochure for the next academic year -–September 2003 – July 2004. For the past few years we have made sure that we offer a balanced curriculum across the area of Chinnor, Thame and Wheatley. The new brochure will include Chalgrove as well.

Please do get in touch, if you are aware of any gaps in our provision, if you know of a learning need that we are not meeting, or if you have an idea for a course that we have not offered before. You may wish to teach for us; in which case, please let us know. (We offer training, if you do not have a teaching qualification.)

The brochure for September includes details of courses and activities across the area, in the 4 centres of Chalgrove, Chinnor, Thame and Wheatley. If you would like a copy, they are available at the Garage and the Village Hall in Tiddington and at libraries, supermarkets and other shops in the area – or contact me at Thame or Wheatley and I will post you a copy. They can also be collected from the Community Education Centres, but telephone first to make sure the office is staffed, especially in the school holidays, to avoid a wasted journey.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Mary Stiles

Area Head of Adult & Community Learning

Thame Community Education Centre

Towersey Road, Thame OX9 3NW

Tel: 01844 213400

Fax: 01844 213114

Email: thame.cec@oxfordshire.gov.uk

Wheatley Community Education Centre

The Lodge, Wheatley Park School

Holton OX33 1QH

Tel: 01865 872664

Fax: 01865 876213

Email: wheatley.cec@oxfordshire.gov.uk

Macmillan Cancer Relief

World’s Biggest Coffee Morning

Friday, 26 September 2003

If you can make a cup of coffee you can help people living with cancer

As many people as possible are asked to take part or hold their own coffee morning

To register call 0845 602 1246

or log on to the website

www.macmillan.org.uk/coffee and quote LA3

THAME AREA FORUM

Monday 8 September, 7.00pm

Little Milton Village Hall

Subjects for discussion to be announced

Representatives from SODC, OCC, Aylesbury Vale Primary Care Trust and other local organisations will attend

British Food for thought

British Food Fortnight

20 September – 4 October

British Food Fortnight is back on the nation’s menu this autumn and it promises to be bigger than ever.

The fortnight throws the spotlight on local produce and producers in a celebration of the food and drink that makes Britain great. Timed to coincide with the Harvest Festival, the two weeks get underway on 20 September, with events planned across the country.

To find out how you can take part and get a free information pack, log on to www.britishfoodfortnight.co.uk or email info@britishfoodfortnight.co.uk. Alternatively you can call the Event Office on 020 7840 9292

NEWSLETTER

AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2003

Just like 1976?

May

June

Date for your diary 2003