Village Shop Newsletter for January 2019
January 6th, 2019HAPPY NEW YEAR FOR 2019
January 1st, 2019I would like to add my thanks to all those who helped with the village website throughout the year, not least those who made possible the wonderfully imaginative and colourful Advent Calendar Windows – brilliant photographic opportunities on 24 successive nights in December.
Easy access to each of the website items featuring the windows and other events during the year will be available in a front page feature “Archive 2018” in the near future.
HAPPY NEW YEAR TO EVERYONE
Colin Wootton
December on the farm (2018)
December 27th, 2018
Loading milk churns from a stand to a lorry
Richard Fonge writes:
December is the quietest month of the year on the land, with hedge cutting the only real activity going on. The one Farm enterprise that is very intensive this time of year is dairying, with all the cows inside . Have you ever wondered on your walks or travels around the area that a dairy cow is not to be seen. There are very few dairy herds left now in Northants, with the nearest to us at Stuchbury Manor Farm, my old home until the mid- seventies.
Up until the sixties most villages had two or three small herds of milking cows, and there is remaining evidence of them in Sulgrave. The old broken down cowshed at Rectory Farm. The concrete raised block opposite Fleet farm in Little street where the ten gallon milk churns would have been placed for collection. The remains of an old sliding door in Stockwell Lane opposite the Shop, which would have been the entrance to the dairy there. But the largest dairy herd was at Wemyss Farm off Park lane owned and run by the Cave family.
By the sixties it was no longer viable to milk a few cows along with other enterprises on a farm, and so we saw specialisation taking place in all forms of agriculture, encouraged by a Government white paper of 1971 which predicted a shortage of food by 1996. Larger dairy herds of at least eighty became the norm, and by the turn of the century this number had doubled and milk production was centred predominately in the western part of the country where the climate with its better grass growth in particular,made it more economical in what were very hard financial times.
With my very best wishes for the New Year.
Richard Fonge.
Village Advent Celebrations 2018. Christmas Eve. Church Cottage, Church Street.
December 25th, 2018We reach the magical moment. 6.30 pm on Christmas Eve and the final window is unveiled. An evening of stillness, frost and a little mistiness – the world in waiting for the big day!
Final evening’s photographs on the next page. (Click on “Read the rest of this entry”)
Village Advent Celebrations 2018. December 23rd. Carol Service at the Church.
December 23rd, 20183.00 pm on a wet Sunday afternoon but it’s nearly Christmas, there is a warm welcome within and there are many carols to be sung! The church is packed and some latecomers have to stand.
Photographs on the next page. (Click on “Read the rest of this entry”)
Village Advent Celebrations 2018. December 22nd. Bell Cottage (formerly The Six Bells Inn).
December 22nd, 2018A very fine and dry night. The narrow lane outside Bell Cottage is filled with people. Fortunately only one car runs the gauntlet during the party!
Pictures on the next page. (Click on “Read the rest of this entry”)
Village Advent Celebrations 2018. December 21st. Wisteria Cottage, Helmdon Road.
December 22nd, 2018The winter solstice and a full moon could be seen (until it rained again!)
Photographs on the next page. (Click on “Read the rest of this entry”)
Village Advent Celebrations 2018. December 20th. Northston, School Street.
December 20th, 2018An arctic scene indeed but the temperature in the village has rocketed to 10c with more rain in the air.
Photographs on the next page (Click on “Read the rest of this entry”)
Village Advent Celebrations 2018. December 19th. 14 Spinners Cottages.
December 20th, 2018Not an umbrella to be seen for the first time in days (but wellington boots continue to be the best option!)
Photographs on the next page (Click on “Read the rest of this entry”)
Don’t miss! Carol Service in the Church at 3.00 pm on Sunday 23rd December, with a special guest.
December 19th, 2018Don’t miss this year’s Carol Service to be held in the Church at 3pm on Sunday 23rd December.
We are very lucky to have living in our midst a professional soprano – director of the international vocal group Synergy Vocals, and a former member of the BBC Singers and The Swingle Singers – Micaela Haslam.
She will be singing The Virgin’s Cradle-Hymn by Herbert Fryer (early 20th century – in Latin) and an aria from Handel’s Messiah. Most importantly, she’d love you all to know that her name rhymes with “Delilah” – not “inhaler”