Village ten year olds Anya and Charlie prepare to cut the cake
A large number of volunteers, together with the present and past managers, gathered outside the shop on Saturday 20th September 2014 to celebrate ten successful years of a remarkable community venture.
More photographs on the next page.
Beautiful early autumn weather graced the wedding of Rupert and Phoenix Mason at the Church of St James the Less, Sulgrave, on Saturday 27th September 2014. Rupert is the grandson of Janet and the late Kenneth Tattersall and son of Susie Mason.
More pictures on the next page
Irene Lomas’s Morris Minor 1933
Ingram Lloyd says: “We were delighted with the turnout of “wheels” and the number of visitors, approx. 215 excluding exhibitors. After some minimal expenses we raised £820 for the village church of St James the Less. Many commented on the wide and interesting line up. In all there were just over 50 exhibits.”
More details and photographs on the next page.
The ever popular Sulgrave Produce Show took place at the Church Hall on 31st August in beautiful late summer weather. See here for details of the winning entries.
Photographs on next page.
SULGRAVE MATTERS
Back to School or College Funding – September 2014
How the turbines would appear from the Barrow Hill footpath
It will be recalled that the second public inquiry into the proposed Spring Farm Ridge Windfarm took place in October 2013. The purpose of the inquiry was to consider the appeal by the developers, Broadview Energy Limited, against South Northants Council’s decision to refuse planning permission for the scheme. After hearing all the evidence and carrying out site visits, an Inspector at a planning appeal normally takes a few months to consider the matter, write a report and issue a decision either to allow the appeal and grant planning permission or dismiss the appeal and refuse planning permission.
In this case, it was expected that the Inspector would publish his decision before Christmas 2013. However, during the course of the inquiry, the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Eric Pickles, announced that he would be making the decision for himself. The Inspector was therefore required to consider the evidence and present a report to the Secretary of State together with a recommendation. It probable that this report was completed by the end of 2013.
Early in 2014, the Secretary of State requested the views of the main parties to the appeal in respect of certain new evidence and revised government planning policy before making his decision. These parties are South Northants Council, Broadview Energy Limited and the Helmdon Stuchbury and Greatworth Windfarm Action Group (HSGWAG). The Secretary of State announced that this would delay the announcement of the decision until July 9th. HSGWAG duly commissioned barrister Richard Honey and his expert witnesses to prepare and submit appropriate representations on its behalf.
July 9th duly came and went with no announcement of any kind. After repeated requests, a government spokesman agreed that the deadline had been missed but could not give a new date for the decision.
On 15th July, the three main parties to the appeal received a letter from the Secretary of State stating that he would not be in a position to make his decision until he had received their views on the legal implications of the Appeal Court judgement in respect of Barnwell Manor v East Northants DC. Essentially, the Court of Appeal overturned an Inspector’s decision to allow an appeal against the refusal of planning permission for a windfarm on the basis that the impact of the turbines on local heritage assets had not been properly considered.
Once again, HSGWAG’s barrister Richard Honey, was commissioned to prepare representations on this matter before the deadline of 12th August, which he duly did, and then to submit comments on the representations made by Broadview Energy Limited, which he also did.
The final date for the submission of representations on this matter by the main parties is 22nd August. It is assumed that once these have been considered, the Secretary of State will finally be in a position to make and publish his decision. It is not possible to put a date on this, since the final sentence of the government’s letter requesting comments on the Barnwell case simply said “We aim to issue the decision as soon as reasonably possible after any responses have been considered.”
What is meant by “as soon as reasonably possible” remains to be seen!
In common with others all over the country, many people in Sulgrave extinguished their lights and left only a single candle burning in a window between the hours of 10 and 11 pm on Monday 4th August, to mark the exact moment of the hundredth anniversary of the start of the First World War, often known simply as “The Great War”. A group of villagers also spent the hour in reflection in the darkened Church of St James. During this simple but very moving ceremony, poems were read, reminisces shared and prayers were offered. The picture above features an upstairs window in Dippers Cottage, Little Street, Sulgrave. On the left is my “great-aunt” Lilian Taylor, a member of the Women’s Royal Air Force who was serving in France and died of influenza a few days before the war ended on 11th November 1918. She is commemorated by a War Graves Commission headstone in the village churchyard. On the right is my Uncle Harold, who was killed right at the start of the war in the First Battle of Ypres, has no known grave and is commemorated on the Menin Gate and in the chancel of the village church as well as on the war memorial. See here for more details of Lilian and Harold together with others from the village who lost their lives.
Colin Wootton
Lilian Taylor of Sulgrave, Women’s Royal Air Force, died 6th November 1918, aged 29
Late in the afternoon of 3rd August 1914, the British Foreign Secretary, Sir Edward Grey, stood at the window of his office in Whitehall and was overwhelmed by a sense of foreboding tragedy. As he looked out he saw that the street lights were being lit down below. He turned to a visiting friend and observed ‘the lamps are going out all over Europe and we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime’.
Everyone in the UK is invited to take part in “LIGHTS OUT” by turning off their lights from 10 pm to 11 pm on 4th August, leaving on a single light or candle for a shared moment of reflection.
In particular, villagers are asked to remember those from Sulgrave who died in the conflict. See here for full details of the 18 young men and women who went to war and did not return.
