GOLDFINCH (Carduelis carduelis)

The goldfinch is one of the most colourful and attractive of our native birds. With its red, white and black head, black tail and black wings with a brilliant yellow band, it is easily distinguished. The two sexes are identical in appearance, but young goldfinches lack the head colours. It frequents orchards, gardens and areas of rough grassland, where it feeds mainly on seeds and especially on thistles. In recent years the ready availability from bird-food suppliers of nyjer seeds has made it very easy to attract goldfinches to one’s garden.

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Sulgrave Produce Show will be held in Sulgrave Church Hall on Saturday 4th September 2010 from 2.00 pm to 4.00 pm.

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It has been suggested that many people who use the village community shop would find it useful to have a quick online reference to special offers available at the shop on a daily basis. To this end a new page is being added to the website entitled “TODAY AT THE SHOP”. This can be seen on the right hand side of the home page and clicking on to it will access a link to a facsimile of the shop’s advertising board showing special offers available on that day. Other information will be added as appropriate. An empty board will mean that the website editor is away (rare), that there are no special items (very rare), that the shop is shut (even more rare)!

Photograph from about 1914 taken in Church Street, showing the former Blacksmith’s forge and what seems to be a charabanc outing.

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Click here for a printer friendly version of the Parish Council Annual Report 2010. This may take a few minutes to download.

HOUSE SPARROW (Passer domesticus)

The name, both in English and Latin, emphasises this bird’s long association with human habitation. We think of it most often as a denizen of towns and cities; the London sparrow is generally attributed with “Cockney cheekiness”. Despite this, it is a nervous bird compared, say, with the robin. It is a country dweller, too. In former times vast numbers of sparrows, being mainly seed-eaters, caused devastation to farmers’ crops. In 1800 the poet Bloomfield wrote:

While thousands in a flock, for ever gay,
Loud chirping sparrows welcome on the day.

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Sulgrave Parish Council have obtained information following the recent exercise to illustrate the height of the proposed Wind Turbines at Spring Hill Rise.

As shown in the above picture, the turbines would dwarf the previously highest local man-made landmark, the viaduct on the former Great Central Railway.

The blimp was well seen from many places in Sulgrave and its height verifies a calculation which suggests that the view of the turbines from Castle Hill Scheduled Ancient monument would probably be as shown below.

The blimp also demonstrated that the turbines would be intermittently seen from various roads, footpaths and public areas in the village such as Castle Green. Houses in Church Street and Little Street with windows facing southwards would almost certainly have their views dominated by the five turbines. It should be noted that these turbines would be approximately 2.5 kilometres from the village whereas the nearest turbines in the Enertrag scheme would be as close as 850 metres and so would appear to be three times higher in the landscape to the east of the village.

This information was provided by SWWAG, Sulgrave Parish Council have agreed to publish the information without prejudice as it is regarded to be in the public interest.

On Saturday 17th April, families busily working on the Allotment Gardens clean-up were treated to a beautiful, warm spring day. A lot of effort is being put into the refurbishment of the allotments, with a view to their being open to the public with other village gardens in 2011 as part of the National Gardens Scheme.

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BUTTERBUR (Petasites hybridus)

This low-growing patch-forming perennial is almost always found on stream-sides or other damp, often shady, places. The spikes or unscented pale pink flowers appear before the leaves, sometimes as early as February, the growth at first looking like button mushrooms. Mabey describes the spikes as resembling dwarf pink conifers.

The large leaves, heart-shaped and toothed, grow to as much as a metre across. They account for butterbur’s other popular name, wild rhubarb, but their stems are hollow and presumably not worth eating! The name butterbur, however, reflects the use to which the leaves were put in earlier days, to wrap butter, before the days of refrigeration. They are soft and pliable, and the grey down on the underside is cool to the touch. They can also serve a useful purpose as emergency headgear (‘petasites’ comes from a Greek word describing a kind of wide-brimmed cap), to protect from the sun or even the rain.

In Sulgrave parish, butterbur may be found in the Pocket Park, in Stockwell Lane and elsewhere.

Text: George Metcalfe.  Photograph: Colin Wootton.

In weather more reminiscent of summer than early spring, six plastic bags of litter were removed from the streets, leaving the village spick and span ready for the imminent burst of colour from garden blossoms. The event was registered as part of the national Big Tidy Up campaign and the village contribution will be included in the overall target for South Northamptonshire. Parish Council Chairman Graham Roberts sends his thanks to all who took part.

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