The new term for the baby & toddler group begins on Monday 8 September in the Methodist church hall, Chapel Lane from 9am to 11.30am.

There will be a visit from the Health Visitor.

For further information contact Rachel Hopking 01206 242342.

Women’s Institute – July 2008 Report

Members

Two visitors were welcomed and information packs were given to new members. A minute’s silence was held in memory of Vina Cooper and Heidi Yusoff who had died.

Activities & Events

The outing to Wrabness in July was a success. 20 members enjoyed a ploughman’s lunch followed by a visit to a Mistley garden centre.

Speaker Gordon Bailey whose talk was entitled “Treasure Beneath Your Feet” brought items of interesting jewellery made of gold, silver, bronze and base metals which he had found with his metal detector in Essex fields. Members enjoyed the history relating back in some cases thousands of years.

There will be a Summer Tea Party on Thursday 21 August from 2pm to 4pm in the Methodist Church Hall. No charge but items for a bring and buy stall would be appreciated. Members may bring a friend.

Fundraising

£28 has been sent to ACWW who continues to bring clean mains water supplies to all parts of the world. The money was raised through pennies for friendship as every meeting members donated their spare change.

Calendars £3.20 and diaries £3.25 for 2009 can now be ordered from the secretary. Subscriptions for 2009 will increase to £29. The preserves and cake stall at the village fete raised £148.60p part of which was donated to the school.

There will be a coffee morning on Wednesday 13 August in the Methodist Church Hall, Chapel Lane, from 10am to 11.30am.

Gifts for cake and general stalls would be appreciated.

Greetings cards will also be on sale. Everyone can be assured of a warm welcome

Well not quite plundering and it was by prior appointment. Having won the Best Kept Village award (reported here on 10th July) some of our parish councillors travelled to Theydon Bois to collect the sign West Bergholt is now entitled to display. When they arrived the sign was firmly embedded in the village green and resulted in our delegation calling on local colleagues from the Theydon Bois planning committee to help.

Pictured is Harry Stone manfully trying to wrest the sign from the ground.

Courtesy of help from Norhurst Landscapes the sign can now be seen next to our own village sign on the corner of Colchester Road and Chapel Road.

The full story will feature in the next edition of the Village Bulletin.

The organiser of the Lifeboat collection in the village would like to thank everyone who helped to raise £896. Colchester District total was £8,484.54.

(Pictured is Clacton-on-Sea Lifeboat in action)

It is the 25th anniversary show this Saturday and Sunday taking place in the fields off Nayland Road in the village beginning at 10am both days. Free Country and Western Concert Saturday evening starting at 7.30pm with refreshments and bar available. Car parking free. Further information 01206 271253.

The Bergholt Youth Group is getting into action for the benefit of all young West Bergholt citizens. They have recently issued a questionnaire to all young people to find out what they wanted and have now analysed the results and are ready to discuss them with other youngsters. Doing this in style they have arranged for the Essex Youth Bus to visit the Orpen Hall on Friday 18th July at 5:30pm where they will be pleased to discuss the results. The bus will also be offering free hot dogs and drinks.

To find out more you can contact BYG by email at [email protected]

The village’s Community First Responders (CFRs) met last night at their monthly meeting to discuss the months past events and to plan their new PR and recruitment campaign. Although not much interest from adults was gained from the stall at the recent Village Fayre, the quiz was enjoyable and there was a generous donation which the CFRs gratefully received. However the main concern is that, with unfilled gaps in the rota, the group could be missing life-saving calls; therefore one of their aims for the second half of the year is to double their numbers by Christmas and to get the rota fully covered.

Could You Do It?
Many people in the Village think they don’t have time to be a CFR but what they don’t realise is that they can be ‘on call’ whilst still going about their business in the Village. In fact the rota for the coming month is nearly 70% full in the overnight shift as many of the volunteers have the phone on whilst they are asleep and are willing to jump in the car and attend a call should there be ‘a shout.’ The group want to promote the flexibility and the ease of being a CFR and will be asking the village to liken being a volunteer to being in the RNLI, i.e. you are willing to be called but you don’t have to sit in by the phone you can get on with your life! More information will be coming out in and around the village in the coming months, but should anyone want more information they can contact Annie Neish the village co-ordinator on 240469 or come along to a meeting. The meetings are held on the 2nd Wednesday of the month at 50 New Church Road.

Vying against 60 contenders West Bergholt were anxious to find the outcome of the Annual Best Kept Village competition at a ceremony in Little Waltham on Wednesday 9th July. Winning the Class 2 competition (population 2500-5000) the village was clearly in contention and whilst not taking the main award was delighted to win a ‘podium place’ with 3rd overall to add to its class win.

Nick Shuttleworth, executive director of the Rural Community Council of Essex, said villages are fighting back in challenging times.

“Our judges were enormously impressed by the standard of entries this year and by the range of activities going on in these communities,” he said. “Behind the attractive façades there are a lot of pressures on our rural communities, such as the closure of rural post offices. There is so much in our villages which has to be done by volunteers and people of all ages appear to be getting involved. We are seeing that our rural communities are a very resilient and enterprising lot.”

Rural Community Council of Essex is a registered charity which promotes community projects throughout rural Essex and acts as a voice for rural people on key issues. Further information from Nick Shuttleworth on 0844 4773938 or e-mail; [email protected]