November 2021

Spectacular and special September, came and went, we celebrated Harvest with tremendous flower arrangements, a plethora of marrows on display, and enjoyed a “thank you” service for our Rector Chris Pettet, which was well attended by members of the village. Chris has retired and has moved to Winchester Close, so you may still see him around.

St Leonard’s is now placed in “Vacancy”. We are pleased to have Rev. James Pitkin from Lockerley, Thorngate Benefice and our Area Dean taking a monthly Holy Communion Service on the first Sunday of each month. We are meeting with the Bishop and Archdeacon in November to see how St Leonard’s and St Margaret’s, Wellow can join the existing Thorngate Benefice of 4 churches. In the meantime the churchwardens, Clare and I, are undertaking Diocesan Worship Leadership training and we are now allowed to take services regularly. The training is a typical Diocese affair – apparently wearing red is a no go when leading worship, too loud and distracting, so last Sunday I wore a red jumper! The comment was that I did merge in with our lovely red carpet a bit, but I shall not weaken!

On Saturday 13th November 10.30am – 12 noon you can join us for a fundraising coffee as you gaze at the woollen World War II displays – even Sir Winston Churchill will be in woollen attendance. Such talented knitters in the village, and not just knattering it seems! Our Remembrance Service will be taken by Rev. Nick Grew and held at 10.45am on Sunday 14th November, and I hope that Martin and the bell ringers will muffle the bells to create quite the atmosphere. The Sherfield English poppy wreath and all of the forces and civilian representatives wreaths, will be placed during the service and crosses from any member of the congregation can be laid in memory of their family or friends – as it reads on The Kohima Epitaph “When you go home, tell them of us and say, for your tomorrow, we gave our today”. We missed out on this service last year due to lockdown so please do come and be part of this moving service.

On 27th November we have our traditional Christmas Fair with refreshment on offer as well as produce, knitted items, craft and a Christmas hamper raffle. There is also time to knatter! On Advent Sunday, 28th November, we will celebrate Christingle and enjoy using the orange, red ribbon, dolly mixtures and sultanas and a candle to represent the world, the blood of Christ, the seasons and Christ as The light of the world. In St Leonard’s it is a slightly messy and chaotic affair and some creations are dolly mixtureless by the end of the service but a good fun start to the Christian year.

Which brings us on to the Christmas season at St Leonard’s – we hold our Carol Service at 6pm on 12th December when the church will be decked out in the colours of Christmas. We are delighted that we have been invited to sing carols outside The Hatchet on Monday 13th December at 7.30pm, so do come and join us, why not book a table for some food to add to the fun, and enjoy the chance to sing. We pray for fine, and crisp and even weather – but not too crisp maybe! On Christmas Eve we hold our Midnight Communion at 8pm, so much more sensible to be at that time we say, and James will be leading this special service as we think about what a year we have all had, and celebrate over this Christmas season by being kind to those around us.

Julia Noble St Leonard’s Churchwarden

Final Report 2021

It’s the end of an era. For almost 12 years, the Sherfield English Children’s

Garden has been providing a friendly, multigenerational setting for local children, their parents and volunteer helpers to meet, learn and share a passion for all things gardening. Whether growing vegetables from seeds, harvesting fruit from the fruit bushes and trees, weeding and watering plots

or learning about the insects that play an important role in our ecosystem; Saturday mornings from March to October would see hardy gardeners of all ages congregating in the plot next to the car park at Gilbert’s Nursery -

whatever the weather!

Sadly following the uncertainty over the past couple of years the Children’s Garden at Gilbert’s Nursery will be closing down. We are very grateful for all the support and refreshments given over the years by Gilbert’s Nursery

to this community group, and also for the very dedicated volunteers who gave up their Saturday mornings to share their knowledge and skills with

the children. Many thanks to you all. We are hoping to be able to continue a community gardening group in another form if we can work out what and where, so hopefully more to follow. Neil, volunteer at the Sherfield English Children’s Garden

St

WW5 FTTP Update from David

Unfortunately progress is very slow. Openreach sent details of 130 properties

served by Wellow 5. However, further analysis showed that 33 of those addresses contributing to the minimum of 80 required to raise the £230,000

were actually empty. These were lock-ups, storage units, an automated

chicken farm, sewage works at Eastwood(!) etc. in Wellow, Shorts Farm, Plaitford and Sherfield English and also included St. Leonard’s Church!!

Openreach have just advised that they are willing to look again at the properties, but have now changed their policy to bidding for FTTP for whole cabinets only and smaller group bids (as were successful in Newtown) are a

thing of the past. Also, if 80 addresses agree to sign up for the voucher scheme, they must sign up for a minimum 12 month contract to a

broadband supplier of their choice. Will everyone wish to do that? Update next month if Openreach reply to my email by then!!