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

PRIMARY SCHOOL NEWS…

From the Headteacher…

So far, our Primary School Spring

Term has been filled with lots of

exciting activities and learning.

We were very proud of our children

who took part in all of our sporting

events and tournaments this term

…. we added even more to our

trophy cabinet!! Thank you Niall at

Pacesetters Sport for supporting

these events and also for the super PE sessions

that have taken place throughout the

Spring Term.

Our visit before the half term break to St Etheldreda Church put a smile on lots of children’s faces for our end of half term service. The children sang beautifully and listened so well to Revd. Cecily during the service. It was joy to be part of.

Year 5 completed their trip to the Rock UK Frontier Centre for an exciting PDET Maths adventure day. They took part in many challenges and all came back to school bursting with problem solving strategies. It was a super day enjoyed by all.

Our Safer Internet Day was full of information and all classes shared their learning of how to stay safe online with support from our Digital Leaders.

We would like to say a huge thank you for our Valentine non-uniform and cake sale money donations. The children all had a fun day and thank you to our wonderful staff for making lots of delicious cakes and cookies (which were all either sold or eaten by 3:30 that day).

Over the next few months we have a number of other events coming up, including World Book Day, Seasonal Walk, Parents evening, Science day and Year R/1 Easter Parade. Information on these event will be communicated in the near future.

We really are looking forwards to a super Spring term now and please remember, if you need any information about what’s happening at Guilsborough Primary we have lots of information on our website – www.guilsboroughprimary.co.uk or you can keep up to speed via our Facebook account – Guilsborough C of E Primary School (a closed group for parents, guardians or carers) or through our Twitter profile – @guilsboroughpri/x and our Instagram account - Instagram.com/guilsboroughprimaryschool.

MMM

Monday Morning Meet

Guilsborough Village Hall

9 – 11am every Monday (excluding Bank Holidays)  

All welcome, baby – OAPs.

£2.50 per Adult, Children Free

Meet for a chat, knit, hot drink & cake.

Good Friday April 18th MMM with

Children’s crafts and Hot Cross Buns

(No MMM on Easter Monday)

For more information contact
Janet 01604 740640

GUILSBOROUGH PARISH COUNCIL NEWS

Compass Energy Donation

We have received £913.30p from Compass Energy which will be spent for the benefit of the village. This donation is generated by Guilsborough residents purchasing their heating oil from Compass Energy and saying they’re part of the Guilsborough oil buying group.

Local Elections

At the time of writing this, we do not know if there will be a Parish Council election on Thursday 1st May or not. It will depend on how many candidates stand for election and as we currently have two vacancies it may well be that we don’t have an election. If you have an interest in standing though please contact any councillors for more information. There will definitely be elections for WNC though, so do check that you’re registered to vote.

Road Safety

Speeding traffic is still an issue, unfortunately. All areas of our village suffer with congestion several times a day which would lead you to think traffic speeds would be reduced but it seems some drivers presume if they’re going fast enough they will be given way to whether they have right of way or not, which could be defined as dangerous driving. If you witness any speeding or dangerous driving, please make a note of registration, make of vehicle and time of day and let us know so we can put together a case for enforcement. This applies to HGV’s using our village as a short cut as well.

Parish Meeting

Our Parish meeting will be held on Monday 12th May, time to be confirmed via The Guilsborough Hub and Parish Council website (www.Guilsborough-pc.gov.uk) and notice board

Guilsborough Friends

are a local friendly group for ladies and gentlemen, usually meeting at 7.30pm,

 at Guilsborough Village Hall, the second Thursday of the month.

 During the summer months we arrange outside events. Weather permitting.

Social activities include:

 Guest speakers

 Garden visits

 Meals out

 Visits to local places of interest

 and much more

£3 per meeting, unless otherwise stated, which is used to cover refreshments, costs and make charitable donations.

We look forward to welcoming new members.

Our Programme for the next 3 months

Thursday 10th April - Talk by Northamptonshire Domestic Abuse Department about the work which they do and to receive a cheque for the money raised at the Charity Supper.

May Meeting - To be arranged

Thursday 12h June - Visit to 3 local gardens, which, are opening for the first time for the National Garden Scheme

For further information contact:  

Janet Minney              T 01604 740640   

Elizabeth Southgate     T 01604 740064

Welcomes new and existing members from ALL VILLAGES for the 2025 season! A friendly club, playing social tennis.

Club play is on Tuesday nights at 6pm (when evenings are light enough), and Sundays at 10am.

Subscriptions are due on 1st April 2025. For more information contact Graham on 07894 424328

£14,000 Uplift for the Guilsborough Village Hall Stage

The Guilsborough Village Hall stage lighting rigging and other structures had not been updated for at least 50 years, were ‘past their sell-by date’, and didn’t meet modern safety standards. In stepped Tom Harper, a Guilsborough resident who happens to run a local company ‘Unusual Rigging’ and has been involved in the local drama group ‘GMADS’ in the past. Tom arranged for his expert team to install new rigging structures above the stage and in the main hall, worth £8,000, for free! Unusual Rigging, based at Bugbrooke, are the UK's most experienced provider of rigging and stage engineering solutions, for example serving most of the London Theatres, and several Olympic.

Unusual’s generous donation allowed the Village Hall/GMADS to secure a further £4,200 grant for a new sound system, wiring and curtains; so another big “thank you” goes to the Northamptonshire Community Foundation’s Compton Fund. GMADS, Guilsborough Parish Council and Village Hall together put in another £1,000 cash.

There is now a fantastic theatre stage with a superb PA and sound system, perhaps the best in the Uplands Area, all ready for the next 50 years. The award-winning drama group GMADS performed three nights of the comedy “Vice Versa” in the hall to about 200 theatre-goers at the end of this March. stage and Bluetooth speakers are now available to anyone who wishes to book the hall – providing a much better experience for everyone.

Want to hire the hall? quizzes, parties and other events and classes contact Guilsborough Village Hall:

info@guilsboroughvh.uk  07342 382706

Want to join GMADS? Contact Amanda Miller amanda.mummy.miller@googlemail.com (07508 058998) or

David O’Neil (07801 700909).

Facebook: search ‘GMADSAmateurDrama’.

Results of the Village meeting on 29TH January 2025 at the Village Hall.

We had a good turnout of around forty villagers. A full discussion was had over an hour and a half with many contributions.

Just to recap:

• The field is located past the school on the West Haddon Road and currently run by only six volunteers.
• It’s got a quality cricket wicket and several football pitches in seven acres.
• It’s used by over 2,000 juniors and adults to play football and cricket.
• Villagers walk their dogs, knock a football around, use the nets and the exercise equipment and just enjoy the fresh air.
• The Association is a charity and under its charter any radical change means we have the duty to consult the whole village, so we are inviting you to get involved and find out more.

Over the last few years, it has proved harder and harder to raise the essential £12,000 needed (maintenance, insurance etc.) so we are looking to the Guilsborough community to help, or help us explore what this land should be used for.

Several of the current committee are also due to step down soon after many years of service, so more volunteers are required to help us in the future…whatever the future maybe!

We have had several approaches from individuals and organisations interested in helping.

However, we need more volunteers to specifically help with fund raising.  

Here are some of the ideas with which we need help:

Hollowell Steam Rally – Bottle Stall, Bar in the Village Hall, Race Night, Summer Games Bar & BBQ, Village Lottery, Burns Night.  

Come Along and Support our Pop up Pub, any other fund raising ideas welcome!

Contact Freddie@delisle.co.uk

The future of  Guilsborough Playing Field

Pop Up Pub

Guilsborough Village Hall

Friday April 11th from 7pm

Beer, Wine, Soft Drinks and Light Bites

Come along and enjoy

The Local Pub Experience in your Village Hall

Raising funds for GPFA

Days gone by, a  snippet of Guilsborough’s history

In the distant past we had various plagues, smallpox

and other killer diseases. These included a cholera

outbreak caused by contaminated water in

Northampton in 1638, where 665 people died.

Recently I was researching Medical Officer Annual

Reports for the Brixworth Area (including our local

villages), going back over 100 years and some

surprising revelations resulted.

In 1898, in the days before antibiotics, there was a major outbreak of scarlet fever in Guilsborough and surrounding villages. This disease can be fatal.

Also in 1898, there was an epidemic ofdiphtheria in Guilsborough spreading to Coton, Creaton and Holdenby. It was fatal 5% to 10% of the time. Other scarlet fever epidemics hit again in 1904 and 1926. In 1904 there were 1,127 cases in the County, and 7 in Guilsborough where the then Grammar School was closed for weeks.

In 1933 there was a drought leading to a severe water shortage in Guilsborough, which had no piped water for the then 127 houses. There was only one public well with a hand pump down Nortoft, and 50 private wells (where are they all now? – I know of about 10). By 1954 only 144 houses of the then 169 houses had piped water. In 1948 Guilsborough Grammar School’s well was contaminated with faeces, and needed chlorination.

In 1938, nine cottages in Neaton Lane, Nortoft were demolished as unfit to live in, as they had just two shared outside wells, no electricity, and only outside toilets.

In 1946, just after the war, 43 houses in Guilsborough had minor defects, 15 needed structural repair, and nine houses were unfit for human habitation and had to pulled down.

Also in 1938 Hollowell reservoir was opened,

providing clean water and allowed piped

water to start to be put into homes. In

recent years water companies have failed

to stop sewage going into streams, however

in 2023 Anglian Water finished a new £4m storm water storage system and nutrient removal facility at its water recycling centre at Creaton Road in Hollowell.

We still have some issues, but health is certainly better now than it was in the past!

David O’Neil is the Chair of Guilsborough History Society, which can be found on Facebook.

Guilsborough resident Julia Hart’s great grandmother Alice Dunkley (nee Bounds), who lived in Neaton Lane, returning from the public well in Nortoft.