Published January, May and September
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South Hinksey News
Published January, May and
September
You can also
view and save this document in PDF format. Click here for more
information & download
About The
Echo--click here
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(jump directly to highlighted stories here) |
| Farm Shop | FoSH AGM | Health Centre | ||
| Nature | News & Reports | Odds & Ends | Parish Council | St Laurence Church |
| Village Hall |
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FOSH AGM 28 October This will be a very important meeting, and we do need your support.
Fosh was reconstituted in 2003 in order to draw up and implement a
Parish Plan for South Hinksey. As this has largely been achieved, or
else handed over to the Parish Council, there is no real need for Fosh
at the moment, and the present committee intend to retire now. A
decision about the future can only be made at a General meeting. There
are three options: 3. Wind up the society. A link to extracts from the Constitution of the Friends of South Hinksey can be found here. The second part of the meeting will consist of a talk by Dr Geoffrey Tyack, who lives locally, Churches in the Oxford Area. This should be of interest to all of us, as it is Dr Tyack who has updated the history of St Laurence church in South Hinksey. 
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Fund-raising for the Church Fabric Fund Over the last ten years, much work has been done with great care and craftsmanship to restore many of the original features of our Parish Church, but much still requires attention. Several fund-raising events are being planned over the coming months to raise money for the fabric of this very ancient building. The first is an evening of light entertainment, with supper and congenial chat, on Saturday, 25 October at 7.30 pm at a cost of £10 per person. Please purchase tickets in advance as numbers will be required for catering purposes. Tel. contacts: (01865) 730850, 739917 or 735851. The Parochial Church Council (P.C.C.) and Congregation wish to thank all who have helped with this project. Special thanks go to Philip Saugman who re-decorated the Chancel. Please do visit - Services are held every Sunday at 9.15 am – or
come along on one of our "Open Days" and enjoy tea/coffee and
home baking. We hope to see you in the near future. |
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A Letter from Fr James This year we are keeping the 28th September as our celebration of Harvest in the Parish. In many cases the corn in the fields will have been cut some weeks ago, but this is the time when we see the summer turn to autumn. Harvest festival as we have it today was begun by the Reverend Stephen Hawker who was Vicar of Morwenstow on the wild Cornish coast. He held a service in 1843 to which everyone was invited to bring their produce as a way of saying thank you to God. And thereafter he urged his parishioners each year to come to church for harvest thanksgiving. And so the idea caught on. Along with the service, the traditional lessons, hymns and fruity decorations, went a harvest supper with an abundant supply of cider and the Vicar singing silly songs to round off the proceedings. People would come from far and wide and there were many harvest-festival enthusiasts who would do the rounds of country churches during the harvest season. Whilst it is interesting to remember the origins of this festival, it is essential that we remember the providence of God in the abundant gifts he gives us. You may wish to use this prayer: Eternal God, you crown the year with your goodness and you give us the fruits of the earth in their season: grant that we may use them to your glory, for the relief of those in need and for our own well being; though Jesus Christ our lord. Amen. Sunday 28 September 9.15am: Harvest Eucharist, 6.00pm: Harvest Evensong. Fr James Wilkinson |
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| History- and a Question | ||
The seven graves are beautifully kept by the War Graves Commission, and can
be easily recognised by their very white stone. Does anyone know any more about
these men, and their links with South Hinksey? |
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Oxford Flood Alliance
(OFA) met again with the Environment Agency
(EA) on 20 August and we will be meeting them again in October. At this meeting OFA presented its West Oxford Flood Plan to the EA, for mainly small scale, short term works to reduce flood risk in the west of the City. We are now arranging meetings with Oxford City, County, landowners, and possibly Thames Water, to pursue these suggestions. We were told that the long term Oxford Flood Risk Management Strategy plan (the ‘Grand Plan’, intended to give Oxford (and SH!) 1 in 100 year protection from flooding) has been delayed but will still be published next year. A proposal will now go to the National Review Group of the EA in April/May (it was originally to have been this December) and to the EA Board a 'few months later’. After that it goes to DEFRA for (possible) funding. Extensive channel clearance has been carried out at Redbridge this summer. The three pinch points identified by OFA remain but work should be starting on two of these in October. What will happen at the third, most downstream, point is still not clear; some work will be done this year, but the exact extent is still the subject of continuing studies. We are continuing to pursue this with the EA. Public Meeting I hope that people from South Hinksey will want to come. Maggie and I could take two or three people and perhaps others could share car(s). There is parking at the Democrats’ Club. I will contact people who may be interested nearer the time, but please put it in your diary. If anyone who has not been flooded is interested in coming please let me know (tel. 735288). Locally, the Parish Council
has been active - identifying those responsible for maintaining local drains and
ditches and trying to get them cleared where necessary. This includes the
culverts under Manor Road and John Piers Lane ditch. Cllr. Sarah Strawbridge has
been dealing with Thames Water re the poor functioning of the drains at the far
end of Manor Road and action by Thames Water is now promised. These initiatives
are very welcome. They will be extended to include the field ditch which runs
from behind the pub to Redbridge and is an important local watercourse. When the
downstream blockages at Redbridge are relieved this ditch will be able to carry
water away from the village more readily so it is important it is well
maintained.
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Once again the English summer has failed to
arrive and here we are in autumn desperately hoping for an Indian summer. The
butterflies which had a bad time last year have once again been devastated in
numbers. Even the once common small tortoiseshell have been hard to find this
year and are reported by BBOWT to have declined by 80% since 1990 in South East
England. In August I made a trip to Warburg Reserve in South Oxon to see the
silver washed fritillary and although our guide confirmed two specimens flew
swiftly past I remained unconvinced and disappointed. It was therefore with
pleasure, on checking out the internet site of the Butterfly Conservation
Society under Oxon, I saw that that this species had been seen locally at the
Westwood Hotel just at the top of Hinksey Hill. I duly visited and got some
excellent photos of the fritillary on the familiar buddleia butterfly bush. We have been continuing with the pond surveys throughout the summer and have now compiled details of fifteen ponds both in the Parish and the Boars Hill environs. If you know of a pond and would like it surveyed either in your garden or elsewhere within the Parish please let me know so we can include it in our surveys. Surveys include assessments of size, location and presence of various flora and fauna and we also measure water conductivity for quality and pH. The purpose is to assess the overall health and biodiversity of the pond and to detect any problems so that future management can help conserve them. New ponds are encouraged due to high losses throughout the country in the past. Just creating a pond in your garden can make a major contribution to increasing biodiversity as well as improving landscape. We intend to complete all pond surveys by December 2008. Do join in if interested. The annual fungi season has arrived and recording species in your nearby woods, meadow, wasteland or even your garden could be worth including in our parish inventory. If you are not sure on identification simply take a photo and email it to us and we will arrange for an expert to give it a name. Talking of photos, there is a competition Oxfordshire Wildlife Exposed being organised by the Natural History Museum. Details can be found on the website photo@scienceoxford.com Entries should be submitted by the end of September. If you wish to supply good photos of flora or fauna to our website at southhinksey.org do send them to me and I will arrange to add them to the nature section. Clive Briffett Tel 01865 327161 e mail c.briffett@btopenworld.com
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The Council started the new season with a September meeting which
covered a wide range of issues facing the parish. A map depicting all
streams and culverts throughout the village is being prepared for
ownership identification and government authorities have been requested to
deal with overflowing sewers and flooding problems at the bottom and top
of Manor Road respectively as well as the threat of future flooding from
the meadows. The community woodland site at Chilswell is progressing well
with virtually all new trees thriving and a work party was organised to
clear ragwort. Noise, pollution and litter problems from the A34 and the
growth of weeds in pavements and gutters are matters referred to the
Highways Agency and the Oxon county council. It has also been proposed to
remove all existing speed limit signs in the village and replace with new
20mph signs at the entrance to Parker Road. A proposed new bridleway from
Redbridge was discussed and efforts to establish a cycleway from
Kennington to North Hinksey through our parish are being looked into.
Details of all meeting minutes are placed on the website. If you have any
comments on any of these issues please contact any of our councillors
listed on the website or on the Village and Hinksey hilltop notice boards
which have been recently revamped. We now have a new Clerk, Rev. Marcus
Stewart contact Tel 07948218521. Our next meeting is at 7.30pm on Monday 6th
October and parishioners are welcome to attend and express views at the
start of the meeting. Look forward to seeing you there. |
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Have you visited the Farm Shop yet? It is situated next to the entrance
to Wyevale Garden Centre, so is convenient for the Village and also the
Hill. It is run by sisters Leanne and Audrey Cartwright and most of their
goods are locally made or produced. There is a good selection of fruit and
veg which comes from Banbury, free range eggs from Wallingford, honey from
Islip and a good range of preserves from Newbury. In addition (with
Christmas in mind) you can choose from a variety of gifts, some of which
are made by local craftspeople, and a range of birthday cards.
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For the months of September –December 2008 our extra opening hours will be: SEPTEMBER
OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
Yvonne Milward, Practice Manager, Kennington Health Centre. (01865
730911) |
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Cancelled picnic! The
Parish Website: Change of domain name |
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| 15.10.08 New Parish Clerk Needed We were sad to hear that the Rev Marcus Stewart has resigned after a short time as Parish Clerk. The Council are actrively looking for a new Clerk. See the notice on the Parish Council page. |
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29/10/08 |
