Archive for 2021

Sulgrave Village Advent Calendar Windows – No. 4 – The Chestnuts, Little Street

Friday, December 10th, 2021

The window and the Christmas tree are decorated with examples of the sorts of daily groceries needed by all households. There is a message to the effect that “there are 2000 food banks in the UK….and together we can end the need for these”. A serious message that it is scandalous that in a country as wealthy as ours, so many people need the support of food banks simply in order to survive.

More photographs on the next page (Click on “Read the rest of this entry”)

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December on the farm. (2021)

Tuesday, December 7th, 2021

Traditional hedge laying with modern equipment

Richard Fonge writes:

December is a month where the countryside is quiet, with only hedge trimming being done. An annual trim keeps them manageable, so they don’t shade the crops too much, whilst still retaining a field boundary that is environmentally friendly. The enclosure acts of the late eighteenth century brought us the hedge boundary.

The drovers road, called the Welsh lane, has small fields at intervals where stock was rested for the night, and one of those fields can be seen at the Magpie junction. The fields were always triangular, to make it easier to catch stock if need be. The drovers were paid with a promise note, so they didn’t spend their earnings before they got home to the Welsh borders or wherever. This system led to the cheque and the start of banks.

The oldest hedges were the Saxon double hedges, which marked out a Parish boundary. One I have mentioned before is the Stuchbury boundary hedge. Stuchbury is a parish in its own right, joined with Helmdon and Greatworth for administrative purposes. It is so sad that those responsible for HS2 seem to rip out hedges at will, including some of the Saxon hedges. Stuchbury was an Anglo Saxon settlement until it was destroyed by the Danes in the 11th century and became one of the many lost villages of Northamptonshire. Two of the farms, Stuchbury Hall and Stuchbury Lodge are off the Helmdon Rd. Stuchbury Manor has its entrance from the Welsh Lane, by Greatworth Park, whilst the Hall and Lodge are privately owned, Stuchbury Manor is part of the Marston St Lawrence estate, owned prior to 1968 by Balliol College Oxford. Oxford and Cambridge colleges own a lot of land still, with the land from the Moreton road across to Weston being an example.

Finally to return to hedges, that are a boundary, a wildlife habitat and corridor, a source of food and shelter and an obstacle to be jumped by horses, as can be seen on team chase day and hunting.

Richard Fonge.

Sulgrave Village Advent Calendar Windows 2021 – No. 3 – The Paddocks on Castle Green

Monday, December 6th, 2021

The garden of the Paddocks, which directly adjoins Castle Green and the ancient monument of Castle Hill is transformed into a Fairy Land of coloured lights.

More pictures on next page (Click on “Read the rest of this entry”0

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Sulgrave Village Advent Calendar Windows 2021 – No 2 -Sulgrave House, Little Street.

Thursday, December 2nd, 2021

A room brilliantly decorated for the festive season with a fabulous Christmas tree, brightly lit animals, Santa with a sack especially for delivery to Sulgrave from the North Pole and above all a blazing fire besides which stands a table bearing a bottle of Cockburn’s best port……

See photographs of these wonders on the next page (Click on “Read the rest of this entry”)

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Sulgrave Village Advent Calendar Windows 2021 – No. 1 – The Bus Shelter

Thursday, December 2nd, 2021

The first day of Advent and we are hopefully, fingers crossed, heading for all the happy Christmas celebrations associated with Sulgrave. Once more, 24 volunteers have come forward to decorate their windows with a Christmas theme, to be successively unveiled in the early evening of each of the 24 days of advent. As has become the custom the first “window” is, in fact, the bus shelter, easily found as the village has only one of them (and these days, of course, no buses!) The humble interior has been transformed into an Aladdin’s cave, wherein visitors are invited to “sit and think” for a while before writing a wish on a label and fixing it to the Christmas tree.

More pictures on the next page (Click on “Read the rest of this entry”)

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November on the farm (2021)

Saturday, November 20th, 2021

Oak leaves in Autumn

Richard Fonge writes;

We are experiencing a very mild November, with the Autumn sown crops looking well along with the wonderful colours of the trees. The oak especially this year has a wonderful leaf colour, with no better example than those in Manor Rd.

Farmers have always tried new ideas of production providing it is based on sound husbandry and economic criteria. Today the challenge is to reduce carbon footprint, and around our area there are three examples in land cultivation to note. The ploughing of land has for centuries been the way to bury the the residue of the previous crop, but today minimum tillage and direct drilling are superseding the plough. Min till is practised up the concrete road, where the soil is moved by spring tine cultivators, whereas on Barrow hill and up the Helmdon Rd direct drilling is carried out. Ploughing and the subsequent cultivations use more machinery hours and fuel than the other two, with a reduction in yield in direct drilling often. Income may be less but if costs are down the profit margin may be better, with the added bonus of a reduced carbon footprint.

Beef in this country is mostly reared by the grazing of grass and the feeding of it in winter in the form of silage. The Emission figures quoted for beef are based on the feedlots of  the U.S.A. A British grass based system is half of that, so locally produced meat with a short journey from field to plate, is environmentally sound and keeps our pastures as they have been for many years a feature of our countryside.

With the mutilation of our countryside by HS2 works to the west of Sulgrave, it makes one more appreciative of the lovely walks still to be had on the other sides of the village. Whilst a railway was built through that land at the end of the nineteenth century, the landscape remains very much the same, created and cared for by those that farmed it, along with the country sports of hunting and shooting.

 Characters of the villages are fewer these days, but I remember Ernie Bayliss, who farmed with three brothers. His tweed cap was worn backwards to milk the cows, and then swivelled round with the peak forward for market days and best.

Richard Fonge.

Sulgrave Remembers. Armistice Day 2021.

Monday, November 15th, 2021

It will be recalled that last November the rules about indoor social gatherings prevented the holding of the annual Remembrance Sunday Service in the church. Led by the Parish Council, on Armistice Day, November 11th 2020, villagers gathered on Castle Green for an open air ceremony. This was well attended and many people expressed their gratitude to be able to pay their respects to the fallen as a community, albeit dispersed about the Green as the rules required.

It became apparent to the Parish Councillors that there was a groundswell of opinion in the village that this simple open air ceremony should be repeated on Armistice Day this year so that those who wished could stand together in silent remembrance at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month as tradition demands.

During my seventy years of attending such ceremonies all over the district it has always surprised me that Sulgrave never had an open air war memorial in a prominent village location. So it was that last Thursday morning our Great War “Tommy” silhouette was for the second time established on the Green as a focus of attention for the ceremony. It seems to me that we have rather belatedly established a precedent for holding an outdoor ceremony on every Armistice Day, with the traditional readings and the sounding of the last post, as most other villages have done for over a hundred years.

Fortunately, the pandemic regulations allowed the holding of the traditional Remembrance Sunday service in the church on Sunday 14th November to coincide with the national ceremony in Whitehall, when the names of the fallen on the memorial were read out.

 

The Sulgrave War Memorial plaque in the church.

See next page for more information and some photographs of the ceremony (Click on “Read the rest of this entry”)

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Remembrance at Sulgrave, November 2021

Wednesday, November 10th, 2021

Donald Taylor on VE Day 2020

Sadly this year will see the end of the long established tradition of  ex service man Donald Taylor selling British Legion poppies around the village. As most people will know, Donald is now a permanent resident in a Care Home in Brackley. His friendly face will be much missed but please remember that you can buy your poppies at the village shop.

For those who wish to participate there is to be a short ceremony on Castle Green on Armistice Day, Thursday 11th November commencing shortly before 11.00 am. The Act of Remembrance is brief and non-religious and will follow the guidelines set out by the British Legion. The ceremony provides an opportunity to pay respects to those who serve on our behalf and have lost their lives or have life changing injuries as a consequence of conflicts.

Last Post will be sounded at 11.00 am prompt.

As a result of the pandemic last November it was not possible to hold the usual Remembrance Sunday Service in the church. Along with the rest of the country, this year a service will be held in the Church on Sunday November 14th at 10.30 am when wreathes will be laid and there will be a two minutes silence remembering those in Sulgrave who sacrificed their lives during two world wars.

Click here to access information posted on this website in November 2018 including the remarkable story of Donald Taylor and his Aunt Lilian who was an early member of the Women’s Royal Air Force in France in 1918 and who died as a result of the dreadful influenza epidemic at the end of the First World War. Her Commonwealth War Graves headstone is in Sulgrave Churchyard.

Those who have not seen it may also like to click here to read the stories of two “local heroes” and also those of all 18 of the men and women of the village who lost their lives in two world wars.

 

Sulgrave Village Shop Newsletter for November 2021

Friday, November 5th, 2021

October on the farm (2021)

Thursday, October 21st, 2021

 

Texel Ram

Richard Fonge writes:

The wonderful Autumn weather of the last few weeks has not only been good for us all to enjoy, but has allowed the Autumn sowing of crops to be completed in good time. With the soil moisture and temperature as they are, it has seen quick germination and establishment of the crops. A prime example being the barley sown on Barrow Hill and on the Moreton Rd, whilst nearer the village the oil seed rape sown in August is nearly too far forward. All seasons have their special aspects, but to me a misty autumnal morning takes some beating. 

The Texel Rams on the Stuchbury footpath have nearly completed their line of duty and lambs will be due in late February onwards.

A crop not grown a lot in this country is Lucerne or alfalfa as it is more commonly called across the world. It is a high protein crop, that like white clover makes its own nitrogen, through nodules on the roots. Multiple cuts can be taken through the growing season of either silage or hay. It is the main winter feed for cattle in the U.S.A after maize. In America maize is called corn, whereas here corn is wheat, barley etc. Can be confusing when with the Americans! I note this because a field of Lucerne has been planted on the right hand side up the Helmdon Road.

One of my first monthly notes nearly four years ago concerned ridge and furrow and I will return to the subject. The Saxons who were here for some six centuries until King Harold didn’t see eye to eye with William the Conqueror in 1066, were good farmers and cleared the land of forest, to grow their crops. A ridge and furrow are 220 yards long and it was thought the length one man could clear in a year. The width was a perch which was 5.5 yards. So the width of four ridges was 22 yards, therefore 220 x 22 = 4840 sq yards or an acre. 220 yards is a furlong, with eight of them making a mile. All horse races are measured in furlongs. 22 yards is a chain and the length of a cricket pitch. We may be officially metric, but land is still advertised and sold in acres. So from the Saxons came a lot of our measurements. The reason for the ridge and furrow was a ridge to grow the crop on and a dry area for the stock to lie on, with the shallow furrow to take the water.

Having just completed four years of these notes, I would like to thank all the landowners for keeping their footpaths in good order, as my regular walks along them give me the basic material for these notes.

Richard Fonge

More information on medieval land measurements can be found in an extract from the 1086 Domesday Book for Sulgrave posted on this website.