Hey, Rev Bassman

The Voller Quartet with the Rev Charles Roberts guesting on bass

Chew Magna Rector, the Rev Charles Roberts, who was formerly a full-time professional bass player, will join members of the Voller Quartet in a concert at St Andrew's Chew Magna on Saturday November 4. The programme will comprise popular chamber music classics including Schubert's Trout Quintet and pieces by Haydn and Mozart - a real feast for the ears.

The concert starts at 7.30pm and tickets will probably be available at the door. However, advance booking is recommended and tickets (£6, concessions £5) may be obtained from church members or from Chew Magna Post Office from October 9 onwards. This concert is one of Chew Magna's autumn concert series which starts on October 7th with a concert by the St Andrew's Festival Choir and Wind Group, and continues with the visit of Chew Valley Choral Society in December.

Bright and beautiful festival

Felicity Walsh and all colours of the rainbow at Bishop Sutton Flower Festival

Holy Trinity Church in Bishop Sutton was the setting for a wonderful flower festival in aid of the 'Raise the Roof Appeal'. The balance required after grants and donations received is only £21,480.00 and the 'All things Bright and Beautiful' flower festival presented by Chew Valley Flower Decoration Society. Diane Clark and Pauline Heron have spent the most of the summer designing and planning the festival.

The theme was reflected in the arrangements with the use of flowers using all shades of the rainbow. At the rear of the church the Bishop Sutton Pre-School made a splendid rainbow collage and Felicity Walsh of Clutton created a marvellous pedestal arrangement to reflect it. Words and photo by Rosie Sage

Folly Farm work finally starts

Avon Wildlife Trust says it now has confirmation that it has finally overcome the legal delays and obstacles, which have dogged the Folly Farm project for the last two years. The Trust has awarded the contract for the main construction works to Ken Biggs Contractors Limited.

Work on the buildings was now due to start around 25 September, and be finished by Christmas 2007. There will then be further contracts to complete the fitting out of the buildings, ready for an opening around May 2008. During the works, the buildings will be closed off from public access. However the nature reserve on the rest of Folly Farm will remain fully accessible - apart from some small temporary closures while restoration works are undertaken on some of the historic landscape features.

The dream to build a multi-million-pound centre to study wildlife is finally coming true. The £4.5 million regional environmental study centre for schoolchildren and other visitors will create ten new full-time jobs at the centre near Bishop Sutton. The Avon Wildlife Trust, which owns Folly Farm, the 250-acre nature reserve near Bishop Sutton where the new centre will be created, expressed delight that planners have given finally the go-ahead.

WRVS no longer involved with Meals on Wheels
The WRVS will no longer be involved in delivering Meals on Wheels from the end of September, and instead 'Community Meals' will be provided by Bath and North East Somerset Council via one paid driver from October 2.

The people who receive the meals, and the WRVS volunteers, were informed of the change by letters dated September 6. Although B&NES's press release about the change described "a better deal for community meals", this was largely about its 'state-of-the-art' new chefmobile which will be used for deliveries, but apparently this will not be used in the Chew Valley area.

The Chew Valley was served by three teams of two WRVS (Womens Royal Voluntary Service) volunteers covering three rounds (one of which was 31 miles) every day. There is concern that a single driver will not have the time to be able to provide the same care that the WRVS were able to give, including occasional help with cutting up food. Recipients of the service have been told they will continue to receive their meals between 11:45am and 1:45pm, and that the price of meals will remain at £2.75 for this financial year.

Ongoing reductions in the number of people receiving meals from B&NES have followed from the tightening up of eligibility criteria, including a widely publicised recent case where a 91 year-old was told she could cook her own meals. Over the past two years, the number of meals issued per year in B&NEs has fallen from 40,000 to 20,000, and the number of recipients was reported as having fallen to 50 in Bath and 12 in the Chew Valley. In a letter to volunteers, the WRVS organiser for Avon, Gloucester and Somerset, Steph Taylor, said that although the WRVS had been working with B&NES to make the service more cost-effective, they were unable to bring costs down to a low enough level.

High standard at ploughing match

Ploughmen

The season for ploughing matches is here and local ploughmen were competing and winning at the 164th North Somerset Ploughing Match at Brockley. The competitors found the conditions difficult, as the ground was still dry, however it was the same for everyone. The conditions did not prevent locals from winning prizes.

A ploughing match is a very interesting day out with ploughing by modern, vintage and horses. It is also a chance to see hedge laying and crops of root crops, hay, silage, potatoes, silage and grain samples. In the ploughing Matthew Curtis from Stanton Wick was placed second in the three or more furrow, reversible plough. He also won the special prize for a competitor who has not previously won a ploughman's prize and for the best commercial ploughing done by a Kverneland plough, this prize being sponsored by Uphill & Son of Chewton Mendip.

Words and photo by Rosie Sage

East Harptree plans a community shop
Responding to public concern about the closure of East Harptree village shop last month, East Harptree Parish Council has formed a sub-committee, with three parish councillors and 18 co-opted members. If you'd like to participate in this project, there will be a meeting 'The Future of a Village Shop in East Harptree' on Monday October 9, 1 pm Downstairs in the Village Club, East Harptree, or 8 pm Upstairs in The Theatre, East Harptree.

The sub-committee has a clear remit to explore the feasibility of a community-owned and run shop in East Harptree and to set up, if possible, an interim shopping provision suitable for those people in the village who had relied on the previous stores. Working groups within the sub-committee have been meeting regularly to research different areas: possible premises, sources of funding, publicity and communication, research and community involvement, business planning and the interim shopping plan.

For a project such as this to work in such a small community it needs to serve everyone and to be inclusive. Contact sheets have been placed in the Post Office to identify people who want regular updates on the project and those who would like to volunteer. The whole project has been underpinned by close liaison with ViRSA, a charitable organisation which offers help and support in setting up community owned village shops. The interim shopping group, following research with the elderly in the village, is now finalising plans for a regular Friday Shopping Club. It is hoped that this will begin on September 29, with a regular minibus run into Chew Magna. For more info about the project either visit the village website www.eastharptree.org or put your name on the contact list in East Harptree Post Office.