Don’t forget to check our Events Diary for more information on events in all our villages and surrounding area.

GUILSBOROUGH APPLE CORPS

One of my pet hates is waste and, living in the countryside, one of the biggest wastes each year is rotting fruit.  

It was two or three years ago that I drove past an old orchard in September where none of the apples had been picked and were all rotting on the ground.

Having been on holiday in Spain earlier that year I had seen great big warehouses that were co-operative centres for village wine: everyone pitches in their grapes and this is subsequently fermented into wine and then divided up depending on your contribution of grapes.  My thought was why couldn’t you do something similar with apples and cider. After a few Google searches it became apparent that this was already happening in many villages around the country and I contacted a member of a community cider group over in Oxfordshire to talk through how they do things. Piddington village hold an Apple Day every autumn, followed by a harvest supper, where everyone brings along apples and helps to press them into juice, the ‘Cider Alchemists’ subsequently turn this into ‘liquid gold’ and this is enjoyed at a barbecue event in the summer. There was even talk of ‘Wassailing’ a few trees in the winter. Singing to trees might be taking it a bit far…!

A group was set up on Facebook after a meeting in the pub and ‘The Guilsborough Apple Corps’ was created. Having never pressed apples OR made cider before, it was decided that 2017 would be a ‘dry run’, where we could experiment and make mistakes but learn.

We hired a press and met at the Witch & Sow in September last year.  Everyone brought apples and got to work turning the apples into juice.  With help from various members the brewing process began, with everyone reporting on progress at various points from there. It’s a long process and you need to be patient, but the results have been great and at the Guilsborough Festival I offered tasters of my cider which were well received.  This year we intend to do the same but advertise it more widely.  We haven’t come up with a cooperative approach yet but would welcome anyone who wants to have their apples turned into juice (30kg batches).  We can pass on our knowledge to date and you can have a go at making your own cider or we can turn your juice into cider and we’ll give you 25% back in May/June time.   Gip.

What a super year it has been at Guilsborough C of E Primary School!

A huge thank you to all parents

and members of the community

who provided food, made other

donations and joined us at our

whole school picnic. The pupils

thoroughly enjoyed the afternoon and there were certainly many comments made to me and others about how lovely it was. The maypole dancing was great and I hope you all had chance to have a look around our Peace Garden. Doesn’t it look fantastic! The whole school mural and crucifix donated by St Etheldreda Church certainly finish it off well.

We had a YEEE HAH time at the Guilsborough

Festival and a big YEEE HAH thank you to our PTA,

parent helpers and staff who ran and organised our

hamper stall! Well done to the lucky winners and

thank you to everyone that bought a ticket. You

helped to raise £169 for our school! Community spirit is definitely something we should be very proud of at Guilsborough.

My first year as Headteacher has flown by. We’ve certainly made lots of positive changes at the school. I’m now looking forward to the new academic year and welcoming our new Reception children in September. Also, Good luck to all of our Year 6 pupils who will be moving on to secondary school. I wish you all every success in the future. You have been a super cohort and you will be missed by all.

Please remember to follow us on our website, Facebook page @guilsboroughprimary and on our Twitter profile @guilsboroughpri.  Thank you for all your support.

Guilsborough WI for ladies in Guilsborough and surrounding Villages.

We meet the 3rd Monday of every month at the Witch & Sow, 7.30pm for 8pm start, bar is open, tea and coffee complimentary after the speaker. (Bring your own mugs).

NEW MEMBERS WELCOME, please come along, you are welcome at any meeting. First meeting £5 if not joining on the night. We normally meet in the Restaurant unless an event requires more space and then you will find us in the function room at the back of the pub.

For more information contact Julia 07711 526302 or Caroline  caroline@victordebanke.co.uk

August 20th First Aid Training – The Witch & Sow

MMM

Monday Morning Meet

Guilsborough Village Hall

9 – 11am every Monday (Excluding Bank Holidays)

All welcome baby – OAP’s.

Baby & toddler toys for youngsters.

Meet for a chat, coffee/tea, cake.

Only £2/adult

includes refreshments.

Children free

For more information contact:

Janet 01604 740640

BOTTLE STALL SUCCESSES

The GPFA would like to say a Big Thank You to everyone who donated bottles and helped at the stalls for Guilsborough Festival and Hollowell Steam. Both were a great success and the monies raised will help to fund the GPFA throughout the year. Without your donations they would not have happened, so thank you!

Senior is played on Saturdays at the Field, Ladies cricket is played on a Wednesday and Junior games/practices a /Thursday. The practice nets are frequently used at other times by many senior and junior cricketers from the area.

The Development of the

Guilsborough Playing Field

As indicated by the recent Neighborhood Plan the Playing Field is viewed as a valuable asset by some residents, however the Association are keen to make the facility as relevant and beneficial to as wide a proportion of the village population as possible, whilst staying true to our founding ethos of encouraging exercise and outdoor activity in a local setting.With this in mind we are in the very early stages of evaluating options for the long term development of the Playing Field, and are seeking from village via a brief survey. If you wish to provide input please contact jimhoughton@reddeltaconsulting.co.uk or on 07748920176 to receive a copy.

are also collating feedback from local schools and sport clubs, to establish there is widespread support for investment in the facilities. Assuming that there is support from the village and local clubs/schools we will enter into the next stage of discussion with the Parish and District Councils to develop options and undertake further consultation if required.

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FESTIVAL SUCCESS Our Friday night ‘Hoedown’ had villagers dressed in ‘style’ dancing to the excellent band from the start, (Rev Chris !) . Outside was a popular spot with the wonderful evening weather.

Saturday had us relaxing after all that exertion, with a Western film night.

Sunday all the cowboys took to the street with stalls, games and entertainment from the Ukelele lady to Mia with her horses. She gave us a lesson in lassoing and Rodeo Bull riding!we will be donating approx £7,000 to our main Village Charities..  A big thank you to so many who worked hard to make the weekend a success,  Chris and Committee.

Just a couple of pictures from the festival. There’s a wonderful album, courtesy of Lucy Grattan, viewable by clicking here.

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Courtesy of graham Fowler

PHOTOGRAPHY

I have an interest in photography and would like to know if anyone out there might be interested in meeting up as a group to share knowledge, expertise, experience and swap ideas to take better photographs.  I have taught the basics of using the various settings on a digital camera but would like to improve and share the knowledge with others.  If anyone is interested, please contact Graham Fowler on 740497 or on graham_fowler@hotmail.com and we'll take it from there.

ACADEMY NEWS IN BRIEF

Over the next year the school is being decorated in readiness for its’ 60th year and the old caretaker’s house has been converted into a training centre which will be lead by Miss Nunley who has been promoted to Assistant Principal .

Mr Ditchburn has celebrated 35 years at Guilsborough and has had a very positive impact on so many students and staff over that time.

We are also supporting our own students with career opportunities working for the academy. Our latest recruit for September is a current 6th former taking a year out to be a curriculum support member of staff working within the maths and science departments. If you know of anyone who is looking for an interesting and rewarding career, why not suggest they come and visit us to see if teaching is something they may want to consider? They have nothing to lose apart from a couple of hours of their time and they may find they have a talent and passion for helping others to learn. info@guilsborough.northants.sch.uk.     (Extracted from the school newsletter)

VILLAGE HALL NEWS

The summer holiday period during August is usually a less active period for our regular users. We therefore plan to use this time to perform some maintenance activities. This year we will be decorating the Kitchen and potentially doing some structural work in the main hall. This may mean some disruption and possibly occasions when the hall cannot be used. Regular users will receive updates, but do please ask if you have any questions or concerns.

The ongoing feedback we get from our users is that our Village Hall is a well equipped and attractive events venue. If YOU would like to use it we will be delighted to show you around. Please contact Sue Needham on 07342 382 706 or info@guilsboroughvh.uk

PARISH COUNCIL NEWS  

Vacancy for a Parish Councillor.

The Parish Council has a vacancy for a councillor. Anyone interested in this position is invited to nominate themselves by providing their full contact details and a brief resume (preferably by email) as to why they are interested in becoming a Councillor to the Parish Clerk by 31 August 2018. If you would like further information as to what is involved in becoming a Parish Councillor, please contact the Parish Clerk (Carol Holifield 01788 834425 / guilsborough.pc@gmail.com) in the first instance. Please note that prospective candidates must permanently live or work within a 3 mile radius of Guilsborough and have done so for the preceding 12 month period.

No.60 Bus Service

Daventry District Council have confirmed that they will provide funding to maintain our No.60 bus service until March 2019 which gives all affected parishes time to consider and consult on how to maintain this service going forward. Whilst this is very good news we are a long way off a permanent solution.

New Swings

The new infant swings have been installed and hopefully will provide years of enjoyment for many young ones. Without wanting to give slightly older children any ideas, I have already had to speak with some children using it as a climbing frame! Please do deter any children from using it in this manner.

HGV Traffic

Instances of vehicles clearly exceeding 7.5 tons using our village as a short cut are on the increase, with two names cropping up very frequently. Palletways and PC Howard have both been contacted with information also being passed on to the Police and the Traffic Commissioners. Obviously, some of these lorries are legally travelling into the village to drop off and pick up goods. There’s frequent deliveries to the shop and grain lorries will soon be collecting from farms amongst others.

If you see what is obviously an HGV over 7.5tons and they appear to be using our village as a short cut please do report it to us by emailing Guilsborough.pc@gmail.com including time and date and preferably photos showing the vehicle and registration plate.

Future Northants

Hopefully many of you will have seen on the Parish Council’s website, Guilsborough Hub on Facebook or publicity material from DDC that there has been a consultation on the future local government structure. The current 8 District and Borough Councils are going to be replaced by far fewer Unitary Bodies, probably 2 or 3. The current debt of £14 billion will be carried over and have to be repaid so although there will be savings from economy of scale and reduction of senior officers it’s almost a certainty that Council Tax will increase considerably.

Creative Ideas required—Get your thinking caps on!

The Parish Council intends to co-ordinate the refurbishment of our iconic K6 telephone box situated next to the bus shelter in Guilsborough. We will be repairing and repainting the exterior but would like some suggestions regarding its change of use/location or even colour!

The more elaborate and imaginative ideas you have the better, but remember that we only have a very limited budget so the more ideas we get the more we will be looking for local skills and assistance to contribute towards re-purposing of this British icon.

A basic condition refurbishment will cost around £250 and include paint and pane replacement in situ. However, imagination and ideas will count towards the final development use, so please send your thoughts to guilsborough.pc@gmail.com with pictures if possible and whether you have artist skills to contribute.

Deadline for suggestions and ideas is 30th August 2018

SCT COFFEE MORNING THANK YOU

A Huge Thank You to all who attended and supported our Coffee Morning in May. We raised the amazing sum of £575 for the specific project part of our charity Inspirational Gems. This is the re-opening of the BMT (Bone Marrow Transplant) Flat at Rainbow House, London where families can stay together while children are receiving treatment at Gt. Ormond St Hospital. The flat has just recently re-opened and work has started on refurbishing Rainbow House. We stayed there as a family many years ago and we have been invited to come and see all the work that has been done. The Team at The Sick Children’s Trust wish to pass on their appreciation too. Thanks also to the Village Clean-Up team who, after a morning’s hard work, came and supported us at the end and enjoyed coffee and cake.

Paul and Pauline Jacobs

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THANK YOU to everyone who donated during Christian Aid week and those who so kindly helped with the door to door collection. We raised £675 door to door and a further £140 was raised at brunch on Sunday.

MAKE A POPPY

To commemorate 100 years

since the end of the 1st World

War, we are hoping to produce a

‘made’ poppy display for church.

Poppies can be knitted, crochet, sewn, felted, papercraft or however you can make!!

Patterns/information available from: Janet 01604 740640 or Sue 01604 740916

WW1 MEMORIES WANTED

I am putting together a short pamphlet on WW1 in Guilsborough.

Please send any stories, local pictures of ‘our boys’ (and girls!), or other info to me. Thanks!

David O’Neil, History Soc., Nortoft Cottage. david@nortoft.co.uk. T: 01604 740864

ROYAL BRITISH LEGION

WW1 PARTY

The Royal British Legion is holding a “party in the pub” to Commemorate the end of the 100th year of the end of the 1st world war.

It will be held on
Saturday September 8th at 7.30pm.
£10 a ticket which includes a BBQ and there is always a generous raffle with all proceeds donated go towards the local branch of the RBL. Join us for this prestigious event.

To obtain your tickets please contact either Bill Hain on 07823 774274 or Merrick Bowles 01604 740138

Pillowcase Dresses

&

Shorts for Africa

In collaboration with MU, we are making these to send to children in Uganda.

We are sending 10+ dresses and 8+ pairs of shorts.

If you would like to have a go at making either – I can give you a pattern and instructions.

Alternatively, if you have any suitable cotton fabric we could use to make up more dresses and shorts – please donate at MMM.

Sue 01604 740916 / 07771926519

Other recent fund raising events include a golf day at Cold Ashby golf club. The GPFA field has also recently been used for the Primary School sports day, the pre-school sports day and a Pilates class.

WEST HADDON FESTIVAL

24TH TO 26TH AUGUST

This event raises funds for West Haddon and Guilsborough Cricket Club amongst other charities so why not come along, attractions and entertainment for all ages.

Friday 6.30-11pm Beer, Live music, children’s activities and dancing

Saturday 12noon –11pm 1st X1 cricket, more beer, live music and dancing plus pentaque open day.

Sunday CARNIVAL DAY 12noon—11pm. Softball cricket tournament, more live music and dancing, Ladies and youth cricket,

All weekend BBQ, Food, Prosecco, Gin Bar, Beer and lots more family fun!

COME ALONG AND HAVE SOME FUN!