Many thanks to those parents and supporters of the group who helped sell programmes and staffed our refreshment tent at the Hadleigh Show. With the monies raised we shall be able to purchase yet more equipment for the boys and be able to organise many more activities in the coming year. Thanks also to the Hadleigh Farmers Agricultural Association for their much-appreciated support.
The Cub pack recently spent a few very wet and windy days at Millennium Camp. However there was a massive range of activities on offer, and these were greatly enjoyed by all those who managed to brave the elements!
On 21st June the Cubs held a sponsored silence in aid of the Children’s Ward at Ipswich Hospital. Those of you who have visited our Cubs on a Tuesday evening, or have seen them around the town on various activities, will know that this took considerable willpower!!
Over the 17th and 18th June our Scouts took part in a lightweight Hike ‘n’ Camp at Boxford. After walking in their patrols, carrying all their equipment for 5 miles, they pitched their tents, lit a fire and made themselves a hot meal. As it became dark the leaders were entertained to what can only be described as an ‘Evening of Light Entertainment’ around the campfire, which involved lots of water, very wet leaders and very happy scouts! Sunday morning, after cooking their own breakfasts, previous training evenings were put to the test when a Monkey Bridge and Aerial Runway were constructed over a ‘ravine’ in the nearby woods using ropes and pulleys.
If your son is interested in joining our group and would like to come along one evening with a parent to see the range of activities we offer, please telephone Pat Pitcher on 01473 824475 for more information.
If you feel you could help us in any way, we are always very pleased to welcome new people to the group. Please telephone Robert Finch on 01473 824144
Kelvin Avis
Cream Teas
We are pleased to welcome back many regular customers who enjoyed our cream teas last year. We have had many compliments on the garden this year. In particular the roses have matured and not only look superb but their perfume is wonderful. Well behaved dogs are welcome.
Signposting
Visitors tell us that they have problems in finding the Guildhall due to lack of signposts. We agree that it is not very satisfactory propping signs up on the obelisk but has anyone any suggestions as to how we can direct people to the building? Many people pass through Hadleigh for years without realising that we have one of the most important groups of Grade I listed building only a stone’s throw from the High Street.
It’s a Small World
Within a few weeks we have had three American descendants of Dr Rowland Taylor visiting Hadleigh. Two of them were quite unaware of each other’s existence, although they lived within ten miles of each other in Texas!
From the Archive
We have in the Archive a photo of the Hadleigh Town Band. While taking a party from Ipswich round the Guildhall in June, one of them, a Mr Wilding who used to live at Whatfield, mentioned that he and his brothers had been members of the band. Col Hitchcock loaned the money to buy the green uniforms and Charlie Betts was the bandmaster. They used to rehearse in what is now the Council Chamber in the Guildhall. Has anyone else memories of the Band?
Farmers’ Market
The first Farmers’ Market to be held in the Guildhall was a great success and many of the stallholders had sold out long before the Market closed. The stallholders sold their own produce including plants, eggs, fruit and vegetables, home-made cakes and savouries, meat and poultry. It was a fine day and refreshments were served in the garden.
It is planned to have a Farmers’ Market on the second Sunday in every month and the next one will be on Sunday 9th July. It will be open from 10am to 1pm. We hope to have more stalls.
Considerable thought was given to having a market on a Sunday and another day would have been preferred. However, the two factors which decided the day were that many of the producers already attended markets on Saturdays, but the most important point is that stallholders are prevented by the restrictions from long stay parking near the Guildhall except on a Sunday.
Buyright/Tesco
There has been little change from the position last month, although we have now had confirmation from the Government’s Planning Inspectorate that there will be a joint inquiry into the Buyright and Tesco applications. There is not yet a firm date for the inquiry; we are told it could be anytime between August and October, but will most likely be during September.
May Show
We had a very successful day with the many visitors to our stand showing great interest in the displays. The pictures of the archaeological excavations were very popular and we spent a lot of time explaining the details to visitors. We also had pictures of the dump, but many visitors were reluctant to believe that there never were any underground rooms. If anyone worked there, or has details of what was stored there during the war, we would be very interested to hear from you. We had a number of new members join the Society, taking our membership above 200.
Membership
Some readers may think, in view of recent events, that the Society was set up just to fight Tesco. This, of course, is not true. The Hadleigh Society was set up in 1982 as an amenity society and is registered with the Civic Trust who approved our constitution.
Some of the aims of the Society are:
· To stimulate public interest in the town
· To promote high standards of planning and architecture
· To promote research
· To publish papers, reports and other literature
· To secure the preservation, protection, development and improvement of features of historic or public interest.
· To hold meetings, lectures and exhibitions.
We hold 5 meetings a year with invited speakers on a range of topics of historical or local interest. We have a group studying the history of our town, and we also monitor and comment on planning applications. Membership costs £8 a year (with various concessions) and full details can be obtained from our membership secretary Rosemary Schade on 822004
Hadleigh Women’s Institute July 00
Molly Leathers, deputising for the President, welcomed Mr Peter Jackson, CBE, to talk to members about Wimbledon and how it is run. Mr Jackson, wearing a tie in the familiar purple and green, explained that the tournament is now big business after changing in 1968 from amateur to open tennis. This year’s men’s single winner will earn almost half a million pounds. The winner of the women’s tournament will earn £20,000 less. Total prize money will be seven and a half million. Thirty three million will be ploughed back into British tennis, enormous chunks going to assist young players who require many more covered courts for all the year practice. At present the country is desperately short of outstanding women players. A new building is opening this year with 400 rooms equipped for players, medical staff, members and officials. The ball boys and girls come from local schools, start training in February, and get match practice from May onwards.
Two visitors were welcomed and reports given of the Hadleigh Show, the Scrabble afternoon, and the Bury walk. Pat Short, who won the Bursary two years ago, has successfully achieved the City and Guilds Certificates for Art and Design, and Patchwork and Quilting.
Hadleigh Amateur Dramatic Society
Members: Please note the following dates for your diary:
10th July - AGM at the Seminar Suite over the Library, 7.30pm SHARP.
Autumn Play - “Key for Two”, a comedy, which has now been chosen, will run for 3 nights of November 2nd, 3rd and 4th at the Hadleigh Town Hall.
18th February to 4th March 2001 and a further date at the end of 2001 have been booked for future shows. Let us have your ideas and watch this space for more news.
Thank you to all who took part in the various play reading evenings and the auditions. Future publicity and news will be available in this publication on a monthly basis.
We are looking at the possibility of setting up various workshops within the Society and indeed have had offers of help from experienced people from outside. Also we would like to hear how you feel about events for the future. We will ensure that you have the opportunity to speak during the evening of the AGM, but if you want to air your views privately then let Martine or Keith know. How about a “Musical”? If only we could find some young men that are interested, we have the talent and ability to stage one. We are also thinking of a fund-raising sale in the autumn.
All of these ideas can be discussed and expanded upon, and if you have anything to say on any of them please say so. I know I have said it so many times before, but it is your society and your input is vital. It is no use moaning about things behind the scenes - bring them out into the open where they can be discussed and hopefully put right.
To the people of Hadleigh and district:
Thank you once again for your support for the recent Cheese and Wine evenings held in the Guildhall. We hope you enjoyed these evenings as much as we did in performing them.
You will see above that we have our AGM this month, and if you are interested in the work of the Society please feel free to come along and sit in and have a chat and a cup of coffee with us afterwards.
For the future, we have a comedy Play lined up for the early part of November, as mentioned above, and hopefully in the new year (February) we will be putting on another Pantomime, by popular request. More details of that later.
Also keep an eye out for news of our Open Evening which we hope to put on towards the end of the summer, so that anyone with an interest in Amateur Dramatics, in all its many forms both on stage and back stage, can come along and see what we have been doing since 1920, and what we hope to do in the future. Who knows, you could even be in the next production!
We are always looking for new talent, and we know it abounds in the Hadleigh area. Why not enjoy getting involved yourself and at the same time provide entertainment and pleasure for others.
Forthcoming Meetings
Hadleigh Garden Club has a members-only meeting on 12th July.
Open Gardens
Here are the gardens for this month:
Sun 2nd July
Rosedale, Bures
Lower Dairy House, Nayland
Shelley Hall, Shelley
Sun 9th July
Highfields Farm, Bures
Shelley Hall, Shelley
Lower Dairy House, Nayland
Rosemary, Rectory Hill, East Bergholt
Wed 19th July
Highfields Farm, Bures
Sun 23rd July
Highfields Farm, Bures
Tollemache Hall, Offton
Sun 30th July
Rosedale, Bures
Rainfall records:
The rainfall at Kersey for May totalled 86mm (3.4”). This compares with 18mm (o.7”) last year, and 12mm (o.5”) in 1998. So at Kersey it was a very wet month. Most of the rain came at the end of the month in some dramatic thunderstorms, and I think that Kersey got more than Hadleigh. When I was writing last month’s contribution I thought May was going to be a dry month, which just shows how wrong you can be!
So far this year, to the end of April, we have had just over 10.2”, compared with 7.2” last year and 9.1” in 1998.
In April the highest temperature was 25 Cel (77F), and the lowest -2 Cel (28F), both measured in shade. This was both hotter and colder than last year.
Personal Thoughts
As I write this I am rejoicing that at last I have more or less managed to catch up, and as I suggested last month everything is growing beautifully. I like June in my garden. The colour is provided by a wide range of different aquilegias (Granny’s Bonnets), some oriental poppies, and honeysuckle. These are supplemented by limanthes douglasi (The Fried Egg Plant), and forget-me-nots, which are allowed to self-seed, and provide carpets of yellow and blue respectively. A bit of care is needed to make sure that they do not choke more choice plants, and they look untidy for a week or two while they are dropping their seeds before they get cleared away to the compost heap.
Going back to aquilegias, there are a wide range of beautiful aquilegias to suit all tastes. Thompson and Morgan list 23 varieties, and most are quite easy to raise from seed sown about now. My particular favourites are the pink double “Nora Barlow”, and hybrids raised from it, and “Woodside Variegated” which has variegated foliage.
Hints
By July one should be enjoying relaxing in the sun in your garden rather than working all the time on it. Of course there will be some weeds to pull out, and the grass will need regular cutting. If we get some real summer weather, and the grass starts to get baked, then raise the cutting height on your mower a bit to give the grass a chance.
If you grow plants in pots this tends to be the time of the year when growth is vigorous, and roots start to appear out of the bottom of the pots so that re-potting is necessary. When re-potting I often use the old pot as a “mould” for filling the new pot. I crock the new pot, put some compost in the bottom, stand the old pot on it, and fill in round the sides. Removing the old pot then leaves a neat hole into which to drop the plant.
John Rye
Time passes, too quickly for many, especially for our Poppy Appeal Organiser. The four months yet to pass before the November Appeal are hardly enough to allow proper arrangements. At the moment our Headquarter’s Poppy factory is engaged in the production of many millions of poppies, many thousands of Remembrance Crosses and many thousands of wreaths. It is the latter that gives the greater problem. Every year the number of poppies bought by the public has risen. Statistics given an idea of the number needed for the present year. Not so with wreaths. Associations and Commercial companies have shown a growing interest in laying a wreath on behalf of their staff or members. Will the number increase? We hope so. In Hadleigh several such Organisations join us at the War memorial on Remembrance Sunday. Sadly many do not.
Our new Poppy Appeal organiser, Mr Stan Swaine, is busy calculating the number of poppies that we need in Hadleigh, based on intelligent guesswork. For the wreaths he needs to know exactly, and the names to be printed within the wreath. He asked that all the local business houses and Organisation give early thought and call him on 823870 and let their share of this act of remembrance be made concrete.
We are proud of the strength of support we receive from the people of Hadleigh, but we still dare to ask for more.
Incidentally, we mention our new Appeal Organiser Stain Swaine of 1 Churchill Avenue,. He replaces Mrs Betty Seager who, for a great many years, has organised and seen, and caused, it to grow each year. Regrettably ill-health has decided her to give up the work, and she wishes to thank everyone for the wonderful support she has received and expresses a wish that the same be given to her successor. We in the Branch thank her most sincerely for all she has done and wish her well.
On the question of growth, we continue to add to our numbers and welcome 10 newcomers to our ranks. Welcome all.
We are in the middle of the Conference and Rally period. The National Conference recently concluded. Details of decisions yet to be known. We are aware that some debate must have taken place regarding a possible increase in the Affiliation Fee We will report on this next month. The Women’s Section enjoyed a successful Conference with over 2500 delegates present, this year graced by the presence of the Duchess of Gloucester.
On the 2nd of this month our County Rally takes place at the Stowmarket Football Ground. Starting at 11am with a wreath-laying ceremony, and concluding in the late evening with a firework display. A good family outing.
On the 9th at Bury St Edmunds, the last DVA/Burma Star Parade will take place. Age is telling and numbers are now so low as to make future parades no longer viable.
For the moment our Situations Vacant lit remains unchanged. Parade Marshall, help for our Steward. Our first event calling for marshalling will be our involvement with the Battle of Britain parade in September. Two months, therefore, to find a candidate for the post.
Thanks to this magazine, interest in the U3A has grown and grown. Groups have started but you are still welcome to come and join.
The next general meeting will be on Monday 3rd July at East House at 2pm.
It is certainly true to say the U3A creates activities and learning of subjects you never had time for before retirement. There is no time left to be bored. We no longer have to drive miles to join a U3A - it is here in Hadleigh.
For further information please phone 824832.
Mrs Joan Pitcher
As I write this report the Rotary Year is rapidly coming to an end, and by the time this article is published a new President will have been installed. It is appropriate, therefore, to thank our outgoing President, Derek Bird, for all the time and effort he has given in guiding the club through another successful year. The President’s role is no sinecure as he is expected to attend almost every weekly meeting, preside over monthly meetings of the Club Council, represent the Club at District meetings and elsewhere as well as being present at most of our social and charitable functions. Derek has completed a busy year.
The final two events of the year have taken place recently. The good weather brought the usual crowds to the May Show, and many people visited the Rotary stand to try their luck at the bottle stall and golf game. The result was a profit of £335, which has been placed in the Club Benevolent Fund to meet donations and grants to local organisations as they arise.
Also, a small party of 6 local schoolchildren accompanied by two teachers and three Rotarians visited Colchester Zoo as part of the country-wide annual Rotary ‘Kids Out’ programme. The visit was arranged and financed by the Club and an enjoyable day was had by all.
On the sporting scene the Bowls ‘B’ team was victorious in a home fixture against Diss Rotary Club and must now visit Felixstowe in the next round of the District competition. The ‘A’ team were lucky to receive a bye in the first round and still await news of their first opponents.
Three speakers entertained the Club during this period. Lesley Southgate from the Ipswich Family History Centre explained briefly its work in gathering together various historical details relating to parish records, census returns and many other items useful to people who are interested in tracing their family history. The Centre is open to the public who may search records and obtain copies of items for a small fee.
Continuing the historical theme, Sue Andrews, a local historian and archivist, gave a fascinating talk about the Hadleigh Archives which are being researched and documented at the moment.
She used an overhead projector to show film of many items including the most valuable, perhaps - the Royal Market Charter for Hadleigh dated 1432 and containing the seal of King Henry VI. The archives were first uncovered by Cyril cook and W A B Jones in 1955, but apart from cataloguing and storing them very little research was carried out for over 30 years. They were not readily available to the public although it was possible to gain access by appointment. However in 1995 the Archive Panel was formed and this group has checked and re-catalogued all 16000 documents. Most items are now in protective covers and stored in fireproof safes whilst a computer base is being established. Many documents are in Latin, and a small group is busy translating these. The Archives include records of the Guildhall, the Market Feoffment, marks and fairs, town charities looking after almshouses etc over the past 500 years. The earliest document held is the title deed for a parcel of land at Whatfield dated 1234. The members of the Panel will welcome anyone who would like to help with this valuable work.
Finally, it was the turn of Club Member Cliff Moreland to speak to the Club about his life and work. In a very humorous talk he traced his history from his birth in Easington, County Durham to his arrival in Hadleigh upon his retirement. He moved from the north at a relatively early age and spent most of his life in and around London, working first in local government, then moving into industry, eventually becoming a sales manager for Plessey during the early development of computers.
At the age of 31 he joined Barclays Bank and worked in a number of branches in London and the South of England, eventually retiring as Manager of Forest Gate branch in London. He now enjoys retirement in Hadleigh, concentrating on bridge, bowls and Rotary.
There is life after retirement and many members of this Club can vouch for this. Professional and Businessmen who would have qualified for Rotary membership whilst working, but were too busy to become involved, are welcome to join Rotary upon retirement.
If anyone is in this category and is interested in belonging to an organisation providing excellent fellowship through a combination of social functions and charitable work they may learn more by contacting Derek Cranston on Hadleigh 823130.
Hadleigh & District Twinning Association
The French visit from the 19th to the 22nd May was over so quickly, but it was a great success.
Old friendships were renewed and new ones forged with people who were visiting us for the first time. Sad goodbyes were said on the Monday morning, with promises to meet in Rousies in 2001 and back in Hadleigh in 2002.
Special thanks are due to Councillor Brian Lazenby (who was then Mayor) for funding the welcoming reception on the Friday evening, to Hadleigh Farmers Agricultural Association for tickets to the Hadleigh Show, and to Mr and Mrs A V Hilton for the use of their beautiful ballroom at Priory Farm for a party on Saturday. Folk dancing on the Sunday evening was a source of great hilarity, with the caller trying to give instructions in French and English!
We receive such tremendous hospitality when we visit Rousies, it is impossible to reciprocate on the same scale, but we try to offer a taste of the English way of life. We must now start to replenish our funds in anticipation of the next exchange visit. Several events are in the pipeline - more information on these in the next issue of the Hadleigh Community News - and new members are always welcome.
If interested please contact Joan Lopes on 01473 823487
Hadleigh & District Community Club
East House, George Street, Hadleigh - Thursdays 1.30pm-4pm
The Club had a sponsored walk on Thursday 11th May which raised £130 for the Club funds - many thanks to all the walkers and to the people who sponsored us.
We held a Table Sale on Thursday 25th May which raised £63 - again thanks go out to all helpers and people who supported this event.
Our programme for July and August is as follows:
6th July A visit from Asda - Hadleigh & District Community Club East House,
George Street, Hadleigh - Thursdays 1.30pm-4pm
13th July Meeting/darts/Scrabble
20th July Ten-pin bowling (Solar Bowl)
27th July Exercise/line dance/relax
3rd August Bar-b-cue and raffle
10th August Carpet Bowls
17th August Outing
24th August Crafts/darts/pool/board games
31st August Bingo and meeting
Starting in July - Therapies in Mind - which will include: Aromatherapy, reflexology, Indian head massage. Great ways to relax with these popular therapies. Our qualified therapist will be at East House every Thursday
from 1.30pm.
Interested? Contact Angela or Doreen on 01473 230609 or 01473 827434 for more information or to book an appointment.