Village Tribune 128

YOUR FAVOURITE, AWARD-WINNING, VILLAGE PUBLICATION

issue

128

May / June 2021

TRIBLAND ENVIRONMENT

THE AMBLERS IN TRIBLAND WILDLIFE GARDENING SCHEME HELP OUR HEDGEHOGS PLUS

My journey

continues ...

LOCAL HERITAGE

BELOW THE BREADLINE IN OLD TRIBLAND

UNCOVERING PEAKIRK'S PAST NEWS & FEATURES

BARNACK NEIGHBOURHOOD PLAN THE ROYAL BRITISH LEGION 100TH ANNIVERSARY

PHOTOGRAPHY COMPETITION

LEARN MORE ABOUT

WING & A PRAYER FOR RECORD FLIGHT

STREET PHOTOGRAPHY

ENVIRONMENT • NHS • HERITAGE • FARMING DIARY • VILLAGE VIEWS • RECIPE Serving the North Peterborough villages of: Ailsworth, Ashton, Bainton, Barnack, Castor, Deeping Gate, Etton, Glinton, Helpston, Marholm, Maxey, Northborough, Peakirk, Pilsgate, Southorpe and Ufford

WELCOME

Dear Tribune readers,

It has been a pleasure to have been more closely involved with the publication of The Tribune in the last few recent issues, working alongside Tony at deadline, reviewing and editing material. It seems incredible to me to think that Tony has been publishing the magazine now over 20 years. However this is the first time that I’ve actually been trusted with putting pen to paper for this column, he must be feeling brave…..

What I’ve learned is just what a commitment it is, and the amount of time and energy it takes in putting it all together.

We are privileged to receive such a wealth of genuinely

GET IN TOUCH

environmentalist, as usual there is a lovely ‘amble’ around the villages with Anne Lees and there is a good read from a certain Tony Henthorn about his new passion for discovering his heritage…..

fascinating local articles contributed by a wide variety of local groups and individuals, the magazine would be nothing without them, and we are always grateful to receive them….thank you to all who do it, we don’t underestimate the time it takes you to write them too The Tribune is primarily a ‘good news’ magazine and despite everything happening around us in the past year, it is clear that there is still a huge amount of good news to report around our Tribland villages. In this issue I enjoyed reading John Parsonages article where he continues his story about the journey from country lad to

 Social media:  www.facebook.com/VillageTribuneGroup/

2

Tony

 Contributions: T: 07590 750128 E: villagetribuneeditor@me.com

 Website: www.villagetribune.org.uk

tribuneadvertising

As we send the magazine to press the weather has finally started to behave itself and this morning has yet another glorious blue sky with a fine day in prospect. Is it churlish to complain about the relentless morning frosts though…such a pity that the Magnolia trees didn’t last longer due to frostbite on their petals, and having followed Monty Dons advice last week on Gardeners World and pruned my Hydrangea plant…I now worry that the frost may have done its worst…thanks Monty!! Still if that the worst I have to moan about, things can’t be too bad can they?

With the prospect of lock down finally and hopefully coming to an end in June, our next issue will perhaps be celebrating the end of this particularly difficult era…. fingers definitely crossed.

 Advertising: Alison Henthorn T 07702 640361 E: alisonhenthorn@btinternet.com

tribunedeadlines Issue

Date

Deadline

Distributed

Size

Per issue 6 issues

1/6

£39 £187 129 Jul/Aug

18/06/21 03/07/21

1/4

£65 £312 130 Sep/Oct

13/08/21 28/08/21

1/3

£80 £384 131 Nov/Dec

15/10/21 29/10/21

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May / June 2021 REGULARS

2

From the Editor

3

Contacts

2

Advertising / Deadlines

4

Stay Safe

12

NHS Frontline

13-27

Village Views

29

Farm Focus

30-32, 44-52 Write Away 33-43

Environment

46-49

Street Photography

39

Taste Buds

50-53 Deadline for next issue: 18 June 2021

 Editor - Tony Henthorn 35 Maxey Road, Helpston PE6 7DP T: 07590 750128 E: villagetribuneeditor@me.com  Advertising Sales - Alison Henthorn T 07702 640361 E: alisonhenthorn@btinternet.com  Barnack Editor - Ian Burrows T: 01780 749554 E: ianberyl.burrows@btinternet.com  9 Bridges Rector, Rev Mark-Aaron B. Tisdale The Rectory, 11 Lincoln Road, Glinton PE6 7JR T: 01733 252359 E: 9bridgesrector@gmail.com Distribution  AILSWORTH Mohamed Farooq 10 Peterborough Road, Castor, PE5 7AX  ASHTON Hilary Smith Thatched Cottage, Ashton E: hilly.smith@virgin.net  BARNACK Mike Mills 17 Bishops Walk, Barnack PE9 3EE T: 07523 312387 E: mills.mh@gmail.com  CASTOR Mohamed Farooq 10 Peterborough Road, Castor, PE5 7AX  ETTON Anne Curwen The Coach House, Rectory Lane, Etton T: 01733 253357 E: acurwen@hotmail.com  GLINTON Shirley Hodgkinson 30 Websters Close, Glinton T: 01733 252351 E: hodgkinsons@talktalk.net  HELPSTON Clive Marsh Clive Marsh, 34 Maxey Road, Helpston clive.marsh815@btinternet.com M: 07511 011662  MARHOLM Mohamed Farooq 10 Peterborough Road, Castor, PE5 7AX  MAXEY Cllr Peter Hiller E: Peter.Hiller@peterborough.gov.uk  NORTHBOROUGH Polly Beasley 15 Claypole Drive, Northborough T: 01778 380849 E: polly.beasley@btinternet.com  PEAKIRK Trish Roberts 9 St Pegas Road  PILSGATE Sally Hullock 3 Hillside Close, Ufford sally@sallyhullocktraining.co.uk T: 07795 565658  SOUTHORPE Daphne Williams The Old Dairy Barn, Main St. T: 01780 740511  UFFORD Sally Hullock 3 Hillside Close, Ufford sally@sallyhullocktraining.co.uk T: 07795 565658

Heritage

69-72

Church News & Services

74-75

Planning

77-79

Tribune Directory

NEWS & FEATURES

6-7 100th Anniversary of

the Royal British Legion

9 The Good Neighbours -

Rural Peterborough Trust 10 Community Growth

needs Local Consultation

N

E PUBLICATIO

NING, VILLAG

RITE, AWARD-WIN

YOUR FAVOU

Young Tribune

55-67

issue

128

May / June 2021

MENT TRIBLAND ENVIRON

IN TRIBLAND THE AMBLERS ME ENING SCHE WILDLIFE GARD EHOGS HELP OUR HEDG

My journey continues ...

PLUS

E LOCAL HERITAG

BREADLINE BELOW THE AND IN OLD TRIBL PAST G PEAKIRK'S UNCOVERIN

On the cover ...

My Journey Continues ...

by John Parsonage See more on pages 33-36

ES NEWS & FEATUR

D PLAN HBOURHOO BARNACK NEIG N BRITISH LEGIO THE ROYAL TH RY 100 ANNIVERSA R WING & A PRAYE T FLIGH FOR RECORD LEARN MORE

Y PHOTOGRAPH

ABOUT

HY STREET PHOTOGRAP

E VIEWS • RECIPE COMPETITION DIARY • VILLAG GE • FARMING Deeping Gate, NT • NHS • HERITA , Barnack, Castor, ENVIRONME pe and Ufford h, Ashton, Bainton

Cover Kingfisher photo credit: John Parsons

Southor villages of: Ailswort rough, Peakirk, Pilsgate, Peterborough , Maxey, Northbo Serving the North Helpston, Marholm Etton, Glinton,

4,500 copies of the Tribune are distributed free of charge in Ashton, Bainton, Barnack, Castor, Deeping Gate, Etton, Glinton, Helpston, Maxey, Northborough, Peakirk, Pilsgate, Southorpe and Ufford.

PUBLICATION LAYOUTS | IT SUPPORT WEB DEVELOPMENT | BRANDING 01733 772095 | www.dimension6000.com

The views expressed within this magazine do not necessarily reflect those of the Editor. All copy is believed correct at time of print but no responsibility can be taken for errors and/or omissions. No part of this publication and/or website may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form without prior written permission of the Publisher. Permission is only deemed valid if approval is in writing. The Village Tribune own all rights to contributions, text and images, unless previously agreed to in writing.

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STAY SAFE | LETTERBOX FRAUDSTERS

DON’T GET CAUGHT OUT BY THE LETTERBOX FRAUDSTERS

By Eileen Le Voi – Safe Local Trades & Services

Imagine the scene – summer is just around the corner, lockdown continues to ease and you are ready to welcome friends and family for some alfresco dining or a garden gathering ... ...but some of your property’s exterior is looking a little tired, your outdoor space needs some TLC and you have good intentions of getting someone in for the job before welcoming visitors back into your home.

And then, as luck would have it, a leaflet drops through your door with details of that landscaper, driveway professional or guttering replacement company you have been looking for.

However, all may not be as it seems. While many companies who leaflet drop may be genuine, there are many rogue traders who use this method of advertising and their leaflets are getting very sophisticated.

In fact, some are printing leaflets and including details of genuine companies to make themselves look honest and reputable. The leaflet shown here, which was shared by the police, is a genuine company but the phone number was fake and was redirected to a mobile number. The victims 4

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of this particular leaflet were mostly elderly, lured by the ‘special rates’.



If someone posts a leaflet through your door, never hand over any money until you have a written quote and have checked that the tradesperson and company are genuine. It is also advisable to always get three quotes prior to getting work carried out.



Whatever the job – big or small – don’t be tempted to give the work to someone who cold calls you at your home, claiming to be ‘carrying out similar work in the area’, either with or without a leaflet.

Remember: 

Don’t be talked into something on the spur of the moment 

Don’t take their word for it when they tell you urgent work or repairs need doing 

Never hand over any cash as a deposit for work which they say they will return to carry out

Feel free to ask to see their credentials and /or examples of their work Always ask them politely to leave if you feel uncomfortable with their approach If you are in the market for a new driveway or patio or are dreaming of a new lawn or garden for the summer – then always use a reputable tradesperson. The door knocking scams of cowboy landscapers and other outdoor trades are becoming more and more common, and their patter and false leaflets are more sophisticated.

No reputable tradesperson will come knocking on your door ‘touting’ for business.

If you would like to find a reputable and recommended tradesperson in your area visit www.safelocaltrades.com AND if you are suspicious of a leaflet – accept it politely without committing yourself to anything and then do your research or put it in the recycling bin!

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100TH ANNIVERSAR The Royal British Legion, which has been supporting Service men and women, ex-serving personnel and their families since 1921 was formed on 15 May 1921, bringing together four national organisations of ex-Servicemen that had been established after the First World War:  The National Association of Discharged Sailors and Soldiers  The British National Federation of Discharged and Demobilized Sailors and Soldiers The Comrades of The Great War The Officers' Association

The amalgamation of these diverse bodies can be attributed largely to two men: Field Marshal Earl Haig and Tom Lister of The Federation of Discharged and Demobilized Sailors and Soldiers. Lord Haig served as the President of The RBL until his death.

As a result of the war, Britain's economy plummeted and in 1921 there were two million people unemployed.

Over six million men had served in the war. Of those who came back, 1.75 million had suffered some kind of disability and half of these were permanently disabled.

Then there were those who depended on those who had gone to war – the wives and children, widows, and orphans, as well as the parents who had lost sons in the war, on whom they were often financially dependent.

The Royal British Legion was established to care for those who had suffered as a result of service during the First World War. And has been helping the Armed Forces community and their families ever since.

It is the country’s largest Armed Forces charity, with 235,000 members, 110,000 volunteers

100TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE ROYAL BRITISH LEGION | NEWS & FEATURES

RY OF THE ROYAL BRITISH LEGION and a network of partners and charities; helping to give support wherever and whenever it’s needed.

The red poppy is a symbol of both Remembrance and hope for a peaceful future. Poppies are worn as a show of support for the Armed Forces community. The poppy is a well-known and well-established symbol, one that carries a wealth of history and meaning with it. Wearing a poppy is still a very personal choice, reflecting individual experiences and personal memories. It is never compulsory but is greatly appreciated by those who it is intended to support.

But what is the inspiration and history behind the poppy becoming a symbol of Remembrance? During WW1, much of the fighting took place in Western Europe.

The countryside was blasted, bombed and fought over repeatedly. Previously beautiful landscapes turned to mud; bleak and barren scenes where little or nothing could grow. There was a notable and striking exception to the bleakness - the bright red Flanders poppies. These resilient flowers flourished in

the middle of so much chaos and destruction, growing in the thousands upon thousands.

Shortly after losing a friend in Ypres, a Canadian doctor, Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, was moved by the sight of these poppies and that inspiration led him to write the now famous poem 'In Flanders Fields'. The poem then inspired an American academic, Moina Michael, to adopt the poppy in memory of those who had fallen in the war. She campaigned to get it adopted as an official symbol of Remembrance across the United States and worked with others who were trying to do the same in Canada, Australia, and the UK. Also involved with those efforts was a French woman, Anna Guérin, who was in the UK in 1921 where she planned to sell the poppies in London. There she met Earl Haig, the founder, who was persuaded to adopt the poppy as the The Royal British Legion emblem in the UK. The The Royal British Legion then ordered nine million poppies and sold them on 11 November that year.

Those poppies sold out almost immediately. That first 'Poppy Appeal' raised over £106,000 to

help veterans with housing and jobs; a considerable sum at the time. In view of how quickly the poppies had sold and wanting to ensure plenty of poppies for the next appeal, Major George Howson set up the Poppy Factory to employ disabled exservicemen. Today, the factory and the warehouse in Aylesford produces millions of poppies each year and volunteers distribute 40 million poppies.

The demand for poppies in England continued unabated and was so high, in fact, that few poppies actually managed to reach Scotland. To address this and meet growing demand, Earl Haig's wife Dorothy established the 'Lady Haig Poppy Factory' in Edinburgh in 1926 to produce poppies exclusively for Scotland.

Over five million Scottish poppies (which have four petals and no leaf unlike poppies in the rest of the UK) are still made by hand by disabled ex-Servicemen at Lady Haig's Poppy Factory each year and distributed by our sister charity Poppyscotland.

Today, 100 years later, the Poppy remains a symbol of Remembrance and Hope.

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managers@gardenlodgecarehome.co.uk /Gardenlodgecarehomeglinton www.gardenlodgecarehome.co.uk

THE GOOD NEIGHBOURS | NEWS & FEATURES

New Charity supports vulnerable residents in rural areas of Peterborough

THE GOOD NEIGHBOURS – RURAL PETERBOROUGH TRUST The Good Neighbours – Rural Peterborough Trust was set up in 2019 to support vulnerable and/or isolated residents of rural Peterborough where family and friends are unable to do so. The overall aim is to improve people’s general health and well-being, giving the ability to stay at home more safely and for longer in a supportive community.

This involves providing volunteer services such as transport to medical appointments, telephone befriending, prescription delivery and signposting to services. Additional support will once again be available when COVID restrictions are lifted (please see our website for more information).

Many of Peterborough’s rural communities are benefiting from the fantastic response of willing volunteers to support those in the community that are vulnerable and in need of support throughout the

COVID-19 pandemic. This support has been a life line for many people who are unable to leave their home, particularly during these cold winter months.

The Good Neighbours – Rural Peterborough will essentially ensure that this valuable community support remains in place throughout COVID and beyond, thereby also helping to reinforce a strong and resilient community support network via the structures we have in place. Our Volunteers all have an enhanced DBS Check, for their protection as well as that of the clients who ask for support, together with access to training and support.

Our volunteer support is not designed to replace those of professional services or larger Charities but will compliment and add value in ways that we hope is recognised as mutually beneficial for all.

In recognition of this, we are now receiving referrals from

the Countywide COVID Hub and Adult Social Care Services in Peterborough.

“It is so good to know that an organisation like this exists so that we can refer people in need to local support” (Early Help Team Worker Adult Social Care 1/2/21) Thank you so much for…, I was not aware of your service, It’s brilliant!

(NHW co-ordinator 1/2/21) We are a volunteer-led Charity which aims to protect and proactively support all our volunteers, whatever their reasons for joining, recognising that for some this will provide valuable learning and experience for future job opportunities.”

Membership to the Charity is open to all Rural Parish Councils Referrals will be accepted from professionals, individuals or their family and friends (with consent)

TWITTER/GoodRural Facebook-square/groups/3426326527420913/ /goodneighbours.rp/?hl=en Please see our website for how you can volunteer and refer people who would benefit from this support: goodneighboursrp.org.uk Tel: 07735 810139

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NEWS & FEATURES | COMMUNITY GROWTH NEEDS LOCAL CONSULATION

The Government has ambitious house-building targets of 300,000 homes a year, and while these homes are much needed in many areas, I think the fundamental importance of building communities is too often forgotten.

COMMUNITY GROWTH NEEDS LOCAL CONSULTATION Cllr Peter Hiller, Glinton and Castor ward This isn’t a new phenomenon.

From the post-war building boom that saw council estates and whole communities transferred out of city areas to more recent large new estates, for too long, too little thought has gone into creating communities. This awful pandemic has been traumatic.

However, as we come through it, we have a real opportunity to build a better, fairer country led by local communities.

As the city council’s cabinet member for strategic planning for some years I’ve consistently lobbied Government for the powers around the planning and creating of places, and all this entails, to be handed to local areas. Decisions should be made by the people who live there so that they can engage with and invest in their own neighbourhood.

The emerging, submitted and adopted Neighbourhood Plans for our Tribland villages are a welcomed step forward in this regard.

The Covid 19 pandemic will have brought about rapid societal change and 10

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transformed most people’s attitudes, behaviour and aspirations in what they want from their local community.

Perhaps like me you will have appreciated our beautiful rural Tribland more, having spent much more time discovering what is on offer, particularly our rural Rights of Way, villages’ walks and beautiful countryside areas. A fair few of us may recognise the need for more space within the home and nearby, such as places to exercise or for their children to play. For others it will be having people around to support each other, not just those who are vulnerable but also for families needing childcare.

Or it could be being closer to services such as doctors, schools, shops and parks, and not being dependent on public transport or cars.

We also need to think about green infrastructure, making communities sustainable and what is the best mix of housing for that area, rather than which will make the most profit for developers. The aim should be to have healthy

and happy communities that allow residents to flourish – economically, physically and mentally.

I think the changes brought about by the pandemic need to be seen as an opportunity rather than a threat to how we live and go about our daily lives. We now have an opportunity to improve how we approach potential development and place making in our country, while at the same time capitalising on the huge health and environmental benefits that this might offer.

Government policy should recognise this and while there is obviously a role for some strategic thinking on a national scale, we need to devolve planning and delivery of places – alongside all the other key aspects of places, such as education, skills, employment, health, environment, transport and sustainability. Ultimately it is at a local level that great places can be built in both urban and our rural areas, driven by local communities working together with their councils.

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NHS FRONTLINE | THE TIMES, THEY ARE A-CHANGING

NHS Haematology Specialist Saqib Farooq writes from his Castor home.

THE TIMES, THEY ARE A-CHANGING….

We asked our regular Village Tribune contributor, NHS Haematology Specialist and Castor resident Saqib Farooq, about his passion to represent his rural patch on Peterborough City Council. He responded: “..This week we have one of the biggest elections in United Kingdom history. Polls will open this week (6th May) for local council elections across the UK and we here will also vote for our Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority Mayor and our Police and Crime Commissioner. Also this week we say farewell to our long serving Glinton and Castor ward councillor and the Peterborough

City Council leader John Holdich, after his almost 50 years serving our local community. I’m sure most will wish him a peaceful and enjoyable retirement, but safe in the knowledge he will be there to offer advice and counsel if asked.

our two long-standing councillors about how to get the best from PCC for our rural villages and I’ve experienced first-hand how professionally and promptly they resolve our day to day issues and respond expediently to the more serious challenges they face on I’ve had the great pleasure and residents’ behalf. If elected, I will privilege of working with John do my best to follow in John’s and Peter Hiller in the past 18 footsteps and will continue to months on the wide range of work very closely with Peter to community issues faced by our serve our nine villages and help residents across the ward. Issues to keep our Tribland ward a safe, such as fly-tipping (particularly well-maintained and desirable in our green spaces), Antiplace to live, play, educate and Social Behaviour, illegal traveller raise our families. I love where I encampments and parking issues live and want to protect our rural during school times. Alongside communities for us now and for my busy NHS role over the last 12 future generations…” months I have learnt hugely from glintonandcastorward@mail.com

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DEEPING GATE| |ENVIRONMENT VILLAGE VIEWS TRIBLAND AMBLERS

COUNCIL CORNER DEEPING GATE

Deeping Gate Parish Council (DGPC) are actively engaged with the John Clare Nature Recovery Plan Project, which spans most of the parishes in Village Tribune territory.

Clouds over Maxey pits, by Sue Young

Working with the Welland Rivers Trust, DGPC are currently identifying the best site for a purpose-built Otter Holt on the river.

Riverside residents have regularly reported Otters this year, and DGPC hope an additional Holt will encourage even more Otters to move into the parish.

Peterborough Environmental City Trust have helped DGPC identify two areas where, in the autumn, we will plant fifty native trees including Black Poplar, Hazel, Aspen and Alder along with rows of Hawthorn and Blackthorn. The longer term aims for DGPC include enhancing access to the river, improving the natural habitat, and working collaboratively with other Parishes to link access.

Anyone wishing to participate email clerk@deepinggate-pc.gov.uk for more information.

T

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BARNACK NEIGHB VILLAGE VIEWS | BARNACK

What is a neighbourhood plan and why go to the trouble of producing one?

These are the questions that Barnack Parish Council wrestled with in 2018.

What is a neighbourhood plan?

Neighbourhood planning enables a community to influence the form, quantity and location of new development in its own area, but it must not conflict with national planning policy or with the strategic policies set by the local authority. It also brings financial benefits in the form of 25% (instead of 15%) of the Community Infrastructure Levy charged to developers, money that will be spent on projects that benefit the local community.

Why produce a neighbourhood plan?

questionnaire asking residents what they felt should be included in the Plan. Support for 22 objectives was demonstrated.

A poll, following a public meeting The Neighbourhood Area was about neighbourhood planning, indicated that 84% of respondents designated early in 2019. It comprises the whole of Barnack were in favour of producing a Plan Parish excluding Burghley Park and for Barnack. So in July 2018 the Parish Council decided to go ahead Burghley House, which have longand appointed a working group to term management plans in place, agreed with statutory bodies such draft a neighbourhood plan. as Historic England.

Beginning the process The first two tasks were to decide on the scope of Barnack Neighbourhood Plan and the boundaries of Barnack Neighbourhood Area. The working group drew up a

A draft Neighbourhood Plan emerges A year’s hard thinking and writing followed, during which the working group organised the 22 objectives into ten policies grouped under

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BOURHOOD PLAN BARNACK | VILLAGE VIEWS

Theme

Barnack Neighbourhood Plan policy

A. Built Environment

A1. Scale and Location of Housing Development A2. Built Heritage and Design Criteria for Housing Development A3. Renewable Energy Generation A4. Open Green Spaces in the Villages

B. Natural Environment

B1. Wildlife Habitats and Species

C. Community

C1. Village Amenities

B2. Designated Wildlife Sites C2. Sports Facilities C3. Public Rights of Way

D. Local Economy

D1. Employment and Local Businesses

four themes, and drafted the policies. Each month, drafts were presented to the Parish Council for approval. A first version of the whole Neighbourhood Plan was finished by January 2020.

Public consultation In February 2020, Barnack Parish Council launched its required six-week public consultation on the draft Neighbourhood Plan. Unfortunately, this process was overtaken by the COVID-19 emergency and was halted by lock-down. The consultation could not be resumed until September 2020, but this time it lasted for the full six weeks. Small adjustments were made to the Plan and it was presented to Peterborough City Council. Early in 2021, the City Council carried out another six-week public consultation on the draft Neighbourhood Plan.

The final stages The draft Plan has recently been submitted to an independent Examiner, who checked it for legal compliance and made a recommendation that it should go to referendum, subject to certain minor modifications being made. If Peterborough City Council agree that the Plan should proceed to referendum, they will organise one as soon as reasonably practicable.

Everyone living in Barnack Neighbourhood Area and on the electoral role is entitled to vote. If the Barnack Neighbourhood Plan gets a majority ‘yes’ vote it will become part of the statutory development plan and thus a key consideration in the determination of planning applications in Barnack.

To view the neighbourhood plan and associated documents, visit www. peterborough.gov.uk/council/planningand-development/planning-policies/ neighbourhood-plans Margaret Palmer (Chair, Barnack Neighbourhood Plan Working Group), Barnack Neighbourhood Area

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VILLAGE VIEWS | NORTHBOROUGH

Vandalism in Northborough Residents of Northborough were shocked and disgusted to wake up on 31st March to a trail of destruction on the playing field. Litter, broken bottles, substances smeared over the benches and the remains of a fire in a litter bin, finished off with damage to the footbridge and then a footpath sign torn down and dumped in Deeping St James Road.

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But what has shocked people most is that three black-clad youths (yes, you were spotted!) thought it was clever to carry crates of donated books all the way from the bus shelter, simply to dump them in the dyke. As one resident said, “There are simply no words…“ A week later we find a picnic table, lovingly restored by a former councillor with his own time and money, mindlessly

scored with the initials of the bored youngsters who spent time sitting there. Why? Needless to say, all of this damage has been reported to the police, some with CCTV coverage and we hope the perpetrators are caught very soon. The parish council meantime is funding additional cameras for the CCTV system at the Village Hall; a sad but necessary deterrent.

NORTHBOROUGH | VILLAGE VIEWS

COUNCIL CORNER NORTHBOROUGH Sharp-eyed residents may have noticed a mysterious black package that’s appeared at the school gate. The council is really pleased to have installed a defibrillator in Church Street to complement the two already in place at the Village Hall and the shop on East Road. At the time of writing we’re waiting for electrics to be installed and, by the time you read this, the equipment should be up and running ready for emergencies.

Always call 999 first, as the nearest working defib might not be the one you think.

A new bench has been installed on the playing field (known to many locals as Northborough park) - a donation in memory of Kath and George Clarke, who lived in Northborough for many

years. Londoners by birth, both were very involved in village activities, including the WI, Village Hall Committee and Carpet Bowls Club.

Some older residents of the village may remember the family, and we hope everyone will enjoy sitting to enjoy the view from the new seat in their memory. Thanks go to Malcolm Spinks, Council Vice Chair, for his work on the installation.

The council is sad to say goodbye to two of its members, David Aldwinckle and Elaine Mann, both very active in the time they’ve been councillors but needing to

NPC Chair John Dadge joined family of Kath & George Clarke to raise a toast in their memory step down for personal reasons.

This means that there are three vacancies on the council, with plenty of interesting work to be done! If you’re interested please contact the Clerk at clerk@northborough-pc.gov.uk

It is a really good time to become a councillor at Northborough, with lots of activity in the planning stages.

NORTHBOROUGH PARISH COUNCIL

There are councillor vacancies.

Chair John Dadge

T: 01733 254145 / 07802 702908 E: john.dadge@northborough-pc.gov.uk Portfolio: Finance & Governance, Human Resources, Planning (Green Space, Burial Grounds)

Vice Chair Malcolm Spinks

T: 01778 343585 / 07870 343562 E: malcolm.spinks@northborough-pc.gov.uk Portfolio: Human Resources, Burial Grounds, Amenities & Assets, Speedwatch

Councillor Rob Chiva

T: 01733 252823 E: robert.chiva@northborough-pc.gov.uk Portfolio: Planning, Environment, Green Space, Speedwatch

Councillor Brian Spriggs

T: 01778 342502 Portfolio: Burial Grounds, Green Space, Human Resources

Councillor Stewart Curtis

T: 07894 568472 E: stewart.curtis@northborough-pc.gov.uk Portfolio: Amenities & Assets, Community & Volunteering, Environment

Councillor Mark Malcolm

T: 07584 877793

E: mark.malcolm@northborough-pc.gov.uk

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VILLAGE VIEWS | BAINTON & ASHTON

COUNCIL CORNER

BAINTON & ASHTON Chairman Susie Lucas 01780 740159 susie.hall34@gmail.com Responsible for: Parish Council Liaison Group, HR, New Projects Councillors: Anita Phillips 01780 749128 anita@ruizuk. co.uk Responsible for: HR, Planning, Way Warden / Good Neighbour Scheme Cliff Stanton 01780 749123 Cliffstanton@ btinternet.com Responsible for: Police, Neighbourhood Watch, Speedwatch, Village Assets and Maintenance, Parish Council Liaison Group Pete Charlton 07850 657200 petecharlton@ me.com Responsible for: Financial Overview, Data Protection Chris Womack 01780 740925 womackuk@gmail.com Responsible for: New Projects, Data Protection, Barnack Ward Group Clerk and Responsible Financial Officer Jenny Rice bainton.ashton.clerk@live.co.uk

When the rains came, by Jackie Robinson

AndyMan Do you need a second pair of hands for that big DIY project?

No job too small

PAINTING, DECORATING, PRESSURE WASHING, MINOR HOUSE REPAIRS ETC.

07889 755144

e: abflegg@outlook.com

EXPERIENCED LOCAL STONEMASON

Specialising in new builds, restoration and all types of walling & letter cutting

07956 096 419 01733 253 279 helpstonmasonry@yahoo.com 18

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VILLAGE VIEWS | CASTOR & AILSWORTH

COUNCIL CORNER CASTOR & AILSWORTH

Castor Parish Council have been very active during the Springtime supporting the Langdyke Trust Nature Recovery project and as reported in the March/April edition have now installed our bird and bat boxes within a one acre site adjacent to our village Allotments. This is within a fenced area of parish land which we have designated a nature recovery site.

We are working on creating a new wildlife pond in the glade, and a possible 5 metre dry stone wall next to the pond with purpose built tunnels and hidey holes leading into the new mound of soil from the pond for amphibians and invertebrates to over winter.

In Autumn 2019 Langdyke volunteers created a smaller pond within our Community Allotments which has now had its first frogspawn. Plants and wildflowers have now been added to create a natural environment for villagers to enjoy. Councillors are planning open days and organised visits for school children when the project is complete. In the same area we have commissioned a new

AN ACTIVE SPRING Fiona Rowlands, Vice Chair CPC

play area which we have yet to officially open due to the Covid restrictions.

Councillors are looking forward to their twice yearly parish walk this month in order to check fencing, gates, hedgerows etc are all in good condition and also planning on engaging villagers in an organised litter pick when restrictions allow.

Castor Parish Council would like to thank the Woodlands groundsman for his dedication and professionalism while looking after the Sports Fields at the site and wish him well with his future ventures. We look forward to viewing plans of the new Sports Pavilion and at a later stage hope to welcome the village Tennis Club to the site.

The sun is shining, our village pubs and restaurants are now open for outside enjoyment and hopefully readers can now look forward to a summer embracing our beautiful countryside surrounding our villages now restrictions are lifting.

For more information please contact our clerk John Haste clerk@castor-pc.gov.uk or visit castor-pc.gov.uk

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GLINTON | VILLAGE VIEWS

COUNCIL CORNER

GLINTON

Your Parish Council has sent the appropriate condolences, on your behalf, on the occasion of the death of HRH the Duke of Edinburgh, and made a small donation to the Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme, which many villages have benefitted from.

Cllr John F W Holdich OBE

CONTACT

Glinton Parish Council, in addition to its e-mail address clerk@glintonparishcouncil. org.uk, now has a dedicated telephone number 07591 834163.

GLINTON PARISH COUNCIL

clerk@glintonparishcouncil.org.uk

07591 834163

www.glintonparishcouncil.org.uk Cllr JFW Holdich OBE Chairman - 253078 Cllr RW Johnson Vice Chairman - 252743 Cllr DJ Batty - 252749

Cllr CB Bysshe - 253164 Cllr DJ Lane - 252593

Cllr Gerry Kirt - 252839

Cllr RW Randall - 253276 Cllr PD Skinner - 252591

Cllr E Spendelow - 252524 Cllr. Jeff Bell - 252395 Cllr. C J Wilde

Mr J Haste - Clerk - 252833 20

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Thanks go again to Cllr Bysshe for organising another village litter pick, with her band of volunteers.

Since the e-petition hit the streets on 20 February to get our surgery back open, the Deeping Practice have confirmed its’ intention to Grateful thanks go to Paul Carpenter (Sam) for leaving the do so, in the last Tribune, cemetery in a good, clean state, after using it for the virus vaccinations. Thanks to the 79 and we wish him all the very best people who signed online, and in his retirement. the 150 people who signed the We welcome Dave Grierson, paper copy in the Post Office. who will be taking over the I am sure many of you noticed role of maintaining the Lawn the Easter celebrations outside Cemetery. our Church, which I thought was You may have noticed that the a brilliant, and different way of grass area from the roundabout bringing the meaning of easter into the village has been left to our attention . uncut. This is in preparation I have had very few queries of planting, and protection of about the City Fibre rollout. This wildflowers, a project supported gives you fibre to your door, by the Parish Council and the choice of provider and I do not City Council, adding to the know if you found the same, biodiversity of the village. but working as I have been on You may like to take a look at Glinton Parish Council’s posh new Website; it’s easier to use and makes us even more transparent, just google Glinton Parish Council and the link is https://glinton-pc.gov.uk

your behalf, averaging 6 hours a day on Zoom and Teams, and with our young folk learning on line, the current signal has been very unstable at times, and has also dropped out altogether on occasions , so more availability cannot be a bad thing with more and more home use taking place.

Have the eagle-eyed among you noticed that the City Council has restored to its former glory the old Roman road sign just north of Glinton? I think you will agree, it looks glorious.

You may be aware of some vandalism to the windows of our Post Office. Rumours were rife around the village that this was caused by a person from Clare Lodge. This in fact was not the case. The person involved did go to Court and my understanding is that she was given an order not to visit the Post Office again.

VILLAGE VIEWS | GLINTON

Glinton FriendshipClub Here we are well into Spring 2021, more than a year after we all met up for the last time.

The Friendship Club that had been together for almost twenty years suddenly stopped in its tracks, like everything else. By a tiny invisible speck.

Glinton Village Hall, our much loved if not perfect venue closed ... stands deserted, waiting for us to enter its doors, laughing and busy, just as we would have then...

Early-comers there setting up tables and chairs, turning on the lights, and the heating, opening up the curtains.

Others arriving to put out the teacups, biscuits on the plates, sugar and milk. Then the cooks with their big pans of food, vegetables and puddings into

the kitchen, aprons on, get the cookers warmed up. Next the cupboards are opened and the games are taken out and put on the tables, Rummicub and Scrabble. The cutlery is wrapped up in serviettes, the microphone checked, the programme for the day up on the notice board. The raffle prizes on their table. The other helpers arriving, exchanging news and gossip... The urn is boiling ready for coffee..

Then the members start to arrive, some by taxi, some giving lifts in their cars to others, some on foot.

All are welcomed, friends greeted and news exchanged over biscuits and coffee. All is noise and bustle, money being paid, raffle tickets being sold.

The day's notices and programme are announced and the morning

activities begin, handbags for sale, a speaker telling us about places they've visited, a quiz...

The kitchen is hot and everything's getting cooked.

Then lunch, plates filled and delivered to hungry members, juice poured, silence reigns for a while! Pudding, cups of tea, while the plates are collected and washed up, dried and put away. Next, Bingo! Tickets and pens sorted and numbers called... Bingo! Prizes given out.

Time to go home, coats on, goodbyes said and the members leave. Helpers put away chairs, turn off lights and heating. Lock the doors. The Hall is silent again. Let's all hope for a future like this so pleasant past. See you all then.

Pam

GLINTON | VILLAGE VIEWS

Glinton Horticultural Annual Show

HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY NEEDS YOUR HELP! Glinton Horticultural Society was originally set up in 1943 with a fete and gala in aid of the wartime Red Cross.

Since that time the society has significantly contributed to the life of the village and the surrounding area. Holding monthly meetings with presentations on a wide variety of subjects. A plant sale in the spring which has always been much appreciated and well attended by local residents. Trips to gardens of interest for which up until a few years ago there was easily enough demand to fill a coach and a social evening held at Christmas with food and entertainment much enjoyed by all. All the profits from these activities have been put towards financing the considerable cost of putting on the Annual Show.

The Show has always been one of the largest in East Anglia and has been held in Glinton at Arthur Mellows Village College for many years, with often in excess of 1000 entries from competitors from a wide surrounding area.

All the activities of the society have been organised by a committee which in the past consisted of 20-30 active members. Over the last 10 years this committee has reduced in number to the current 10 members, the majority of whom including myself are well over retirement age. We are not able to provide the physical support needed to set up the meetings

and the show. Also a number of us are having to seriously consider resigning in the near future. This means that without a considerable influx of younger fitter members the society is no longer viable. In addition to this a significant number of committed physically fit volunteers are required to move tables and boards on the Friday and Saturday evenings before and after the show.

It is proposed that a Special General meeting open to all be held in July to discuss the future of the society. The time and the place of this meeting will be widely advertised and given in the next village tribune.

If you feel that you are able to help in any way please contact me as follows.

E-mail: r372quinn@btinternet.com or telephone: 01733 252 161 22

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VILLAGE VIEWS | ETTON

PRAYERS, PAINTING, POLLINATORS, PLANNING AND POSSIBILITIES Anne Curwen 01733 253357

As I write this the Nation is in a period of national mourning for HRH The Duke of Edinburgh.

Although the church building is currently closed, due to Covid concerns, it was cleaned and opened for private prayer for two hours on Saturday 10 April after the church bell had been tolled 99 times, at noon, as a mark of respect for the life of HRH Prince Philip.

acurwen@hotmail.com

on the church yard wall on Main Road. As promised, the caterpillar has been released into the ‘wilds’ of Etton and now consists of seven caterpillars around the village -can you find them?

As shops and restaurants reopen and we gradually return to a new normal, we have planned to reopen Etton church in June, provided rates of infection remain low. Our first service will be the Family service at 10am on Sunday 6 June. We very much look forward to meeting indoors and having tea/coffee and cake afterwards! Please do come along.

In March, Tarmac finally received planning permission to import many tonnes of inert materials from the Werrington railway tunnelling works to facilitate the restoration of the land north of the village back to agricultural land. The work is due to start in May when Tarmac have satisfied the planning conditions. One of these, is the installation of a wheel washing facility on exit from the Tarmac site. We are hoping to see the erection of signs reminding Tarmac lorry drivers that access to Etton village is prohibited at all times.

There have been some recent sightings of lorries driving through the village. This has been reported to Tarmac.

During lockdown many villagers painted beautiful stones to add to our caterpillar

Highways have also been in contact with the Parish Council to inform us that the necessary

A short service was also held on the village green on Friday 16 April.

process is being followed to get permission to move and upgrade the village signs. The work should be completed during the summer.

On Tuesday 6 March a small group met with Sarah Lambert, an Ecologist and member of the Langdyke trust to survey the village and get ideas to add to our Parish Nature Recovery plan. followed a more detailed survey of the churchyard that had already taken place. We discussed planting more pollinators, a varied mowing regime, and looked for areas that could be used to encourage wildflowers.

While some of the work can be done in the summer, most of it will need to wait until the autumn - volunteers will be welcome.

There has been publicity about pledging some of our gardens to the Langdyke '8th reserve'.

Have you spotted this yet? It’s very simple to get involved, visit www. Langdyke.org.uk to find out more.

A DATE FOR YOUR DIARY. We are hoping to hold our annual village clean up and lunch this summer – likely to be on Sunday 22 August – date to be confirmed.

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VILLAGE VIEWS | MAXEY

PETER AND UNA LAKE MEMORIAL BENCH We have installed (with the help of Mark Asplin and Trevor Purllant) the memorial bench in Maxey Village Field for Peter and Una Lake.

I’ve attached some old newspaper reports we have found from when Peter was manager of a successful Maxey Football Team. (I remember as a youngster Boxing Day football matches on the pitch behind his farm next door to The Blue Bell ... and then drinks in the pub afterwards!)

We also found an old clipping from the Silver Jubilee Easter

Maxey WI 1961

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bonnet competition that Una won.

We’re given to believe there are photos from when Peter and Una took a group from the Youth Club to Snowdon, unfortunately we can’t find them.

Peter of course ran the whist drive right up to lockdown last March.

Alison Mumby

VILLAGE VIEWS | PEAKIRK

WING AND A PRAYER FOR RECORD FLIGHT Peakirk church bells to ring the commencement of a British and World Record electric model aircraft 24-hour duration attempt Why? To establish a new British Record and raise funds for St Pega’s Church who had their lead roof stolen and have had to raise over £120,000 to replace it.

When? Commencing at 10.00 on Monday, 21 June and scheduled to finish on Tuesday afternoon, 22nd June.

(Subject to Covid regulations at the time).

Where? Peakirk Village Green.

How? Brian Lever, who lives in Peakirk, is building seven battery powered control line model aircraft. Using latest technology brushless electric motors and a micro onboard computer controlling propeller revolutions and flight duration, twelve pilots will attempt the exhausting flight schedule throughout

the day and night. Peakirk’s local environment has been considered throughout the record planning process, with green technology and almost silent motors used exclusively for the record attempt.

Support. Any support from the local community will be most welcome to help the team flying and battery charging day and night.

Examples of support could be the provision of food, tea, coffee, soft drinks, champagne ( if we are successful!), first aid, lap counting, stop watch timing, and visiting the Village Green for a while to encourage the pilots flying an estimated 35,000 circular laps.

Donations. If you wish to make a donation to help the Church recover from the huge cost of the new roof we have created a Just Giving site. www.justgiving.com/fundraising/Brian-Lever If you wish to make a cheque donation please make out to:- St Pegas Church and send to:- Sheila Lever, 3 The Park, Peakirk, Peterborough, PE6 7NG. Questions. If you have any further questions please get in touch with Brian at :- blever@btinternet.com

With thanks for your support

PEAKIRK PARISH COUNCIL

For all Peakrik news, minutes and agendas visit: www.peakirkvillage.co.uk

Chair: Henry Clark 253203 cllr.h.clark@eclipso.eu 253483 Vice-Chair: Sally-Ann Jackson sajackson186@gmail.com 252200 Emma Crowson peakirk.cllrcrowson@gmail.com 254227 David Fovargue peakirk.cllrfovargue@gmail.com Contact via the clerk Greg Prior Anne Tuley 254114 peakirk.cllrtuley@gmail.com 253397 Clerk: Angela Hankins clerk@peakirk-pc.gov.uk

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HELPSTON - VILLAGE VIEWS

JO EVERED REMEMBERS MARGARET RUDDY It was May 1987 that we moved into Helpston Stores, a Saturday with the church fete on 'the green' opposite the shop going on. In spite of us moving in the day before, Margaret had indicated that it was expected for the shop to be open, everyone would want ice creams.

She was right, we sold out of ice creams and briefly met nearly every villager at the same time.

From that day on she taught us by example how to be professional shopkeepers in her quiet polite way, she shared her knowledge of her customers wants and needs.

I was introduced to the regulars by their titles...Mr, Mrs, ..Dr etc no familiarity with anyone who was not a personal friend, She was always polite and methodical, would NEVER gossip.

What we saw in the shop stayed in the shop.

She would arrive on her bike each morning promptly for 9am opening, ride home down Glinton Road at 1pm for lunch

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and return on her bike by 2pm for the afternoon session finishing at 5.30 to cycle back home for tea.

Her hours were dictated by Post Office opening hours, Wednesday and Saturday half day. Monday busy with family allowance and Thursday pensions day.

She was always willing to embrace change. I never heard her complain. She was there for 45 years serving her community retiring reluctantly in 2008, There was a lovely article about her in the tribune on her retirement.

Since then she could be seen walking round the village sitting on the bench opposite her beloved shop. Most of her working life the shop window

was uncovered where you could observe village life, both looking in at the shop activities and looking out at life going by farmers, lorries, school children, workers from the paper mill, village hall comings and goings, cows in the field opposite, old folks and visitors resting on the bench. Margaret could be seen in her post office red overall going about her work.

She was a great listener and observer of life. She would have a little chuckle about things that amused her and sometimes even put pen to paper to write a poem. All those who knew her will certainly miss her.

HELPSTON - VILLAGE VIEWS

HELPSTON CLEANS UP ITS ACT!

It has not been easy trying to find safe, socially distanced things to do, to while away the lockdown hours, but the wonderful people of Helpston have once more triumphed.

Between 50 and 60 people – young and old – took time out during the February half term week to litter pick in and around Helpston. Armed with the village litter pickers, gloves and plastic bags the volunteers selected their routes and took to the roads in search of rubbish. And they certainly found it! Apart from the usual array of red bull cans, take away wrappers and sweetie papers our volunteers found a car bumper, two televisions

and £15 in cash! The skip, kept very kindly on Claire & David Spooner’s driveway and thoughtfully supplied by Helpston Parish Council, was soon full of the bulging, black bin bags.

Two of the youngest volunteers, two year old twins Arthur and Percy were joined by their Grandmother Alison Henthorn.

Alison commented “it was such a fun afternoon and the twins loved getting to grips with the

litter pickers. We had two very tired but very happy children at the end.”

So finally, thanks to the organisers Claire Spooner, Eloise Cheales and Tammy Tushingham and to all the marvellous volunteers who have helped Helpston become a “litter free” zone – well, at least for the next few months!

HELPSTON WOMEN'S INSTITUTE Unfortunately, Helpston Women's Institute had to

close last year as we were unable to form a committee. If anyone is interested in restarting the group, they should contact the Huntingdon and Peterborough Federation on 01480 453137. Funding is available.

Arthur and Percy Litter Picking

Obituary – Adrian Challands Adrian Challands, who with his wife Norma, lived at the Old School House, Helpston for 41 years, died on Christmas Day, 2020.

Arthur and Percy Hetherington enthusiastically donned their safety jackets and litter ‘grabbers’ to help clear rubbish near the Maxey Road crossing.

He was the Archaeologist for the Peterborough Development Corporation.

Later, he specialised in geophysics and worked locally, in Orkney and abroad.

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Rosemary’s FARMING Diary

ROSEMARY'S FARMING DIARY | FARM FOCUS

The transformation of the countryside with the gardens, fields and hedgerows bursting into leaf, the daffodils and other Spring flowering bulbs and shrubs are all welcome. With lockdown gradually being lifted I think it’s a time we have all been waiting for. It’s been a very, very long winter.

All crops are now growing well but everything needs rain, particularly seedlings such as sugar beet and Spring sown cereals. The searching winds we have experienced recently have dried out the soil. These last few days cultivators working the fields have created clouds of dust. I think most farmers in this area have completed their Spring sowing with some good seed beds having been made.

New technology along with science over the last decade has made major strides to the way we are able farm, agronomists and farmers have the benefit of using drones to check crops, the weeds and any other problems which may be looming - giving them the advantage of dealing with the problem in its early stages saving on chemical application, which, in turn can help the environment.

I’ve been amazed at the number of bird species we have in the garden, all very interesting to see them feeding and going about their daily tasks. I expect the migrating birds will soon be here. We usually hear the cuckoo in the middle of April, the cuckoo heralds the start

of the warmer weather with everything moving on in the fields; with birds hatching off their young, bringing life back into the countryside, the cattle will soon be turned out to grass, new born lambs skipping in the fields; what a lovely refreshing sight to see all around us. During the covid pandemic, we, in the countryside have seen an influx of visitors, walkers, cyclists and so on which in general has been well received by farmers, the only observation I would like to make is that everyone, visitors included, abide by the countryside code when out in the country. I have witnessed people all over sown fields, dogs not on leads running loose on crops, which we are all going to consume when harvested; there are also the ground nesting birds being disturbed - once this happens it can mean a complete loss of these eggs as the hen bird may forsake this nest. The countryside is a living and working environment where we are all trying to do our share to accommodate both work and enjoy the beautiful countryside at the same time. It is easy to download a copy of The

Countryside Code via the Gov.uk website, so why not do this before you venture out into the country? What could appear to be a safe area to explore, may not be in reality. Farm animals can be very unpredictable – to them you are the intruder in their territory. Whilst not being necessarily vicious, they can be inquisitive, particularly if you have a dog with you and/or are wearing bright clothing. If you run, they will run, which to some people can be quite frightening.

I’ve learnt to respect animals, having been brought up and working with them all my life.

Each animal has its own genetic characteristics and responds differently depending on what circumstances it finds itself in.

With the old weather predicting adage in mind ‘ash before oak causes a soak, oak before ash in for a splash’ I have been watching the ash and oak trees carefully to see which will come first – maybe it’s the weather, the climate or maybe it’s due to the disease the oak was reported to have suffered last summer/ autumn, but I wonder if the oak trees are rather slow this year – only time will tell.

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WRITE AWAY - VILLAGE VIEWS

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Maxey Village Church needs you!

When our Church Warden of 20 years retired last year we also lost our groundsman. Thankfully a few people from our village stepped forward to take over and we are truly grateful for every moment they spent volunteering to keep our churchyard neat and tidy for the many people that attend the graves there.

We have sadly had many funerals this year and the building and churchyard has been ready every time due to our incredible volunteers. So, why do we need you? The team who have been mowing and tidying have decided that they cannot continue again this season and we now needs more volunteers to assist, the more we have, the easier the workload. We will give full training and there will be a rota, obviously when the grass grows it needs to be cut but when it isn't, it doesn't, so we can't say for certain how often you may be needed, only that you are!

other week and they have been doing a fantastic job, coming in extra when we have funerals and weddings and enjoying it when they have been able to, given our 2020 COVID situation.

In 2019 we had three lovely ladies who volunteered to clean inside the building every

Thank you.

Maxey St. Peter's needs village support to stay open, our roof is failing, there are lots of jobs to do and not many people to carry them out. The last thing that we want to happen is that we close the doors; no weddings, funerals or christenings, so please think about time you could volunteer or what you could do to help us maintain our churchyard and building.

Mandy Loveder - Church Warden

Bank Holiday Monday sunset, glad I went for a womble with the camera now, it was darned chilly though. Dave Radcliffe Nice to see this at the north entrance to Glinton has received some TLC Dave Ellis 30

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VILLAGE VIEWS - WRITE AWAY

The novel I’m currently reading is ‘The Poet’s Wife’, a look at John Clare’s period in their Northborough home from the point of view of his wife, Patty.

Footsteps ...

So my walk today took in some of the locations mentioned: the Helpston cottage he was born in (looking forward to it reopening so I can see the interior too); the buttercross; his memorial; Helpston church with its octagonal tower; his grave in the churchyard.

Then, following in his footsteps, a circular walk from Glinton to Northborough to enjoy views similar to those he enjoyed, and to see the cottage where he lived, briefly, with his wife and

children on his return from a mental asylum in Essex. The walk ended with a visit to St Benedict’s churchyard to see Mary Joyce’s grave. She was John’s childhood sweetheart and on his return from Essex, he was convinced he had married her and had a family with her. But she had died, a spinster, while he was in the asylum.

A sad tale indeed, but an interesting read.

Anne Lees

Willow Brook Farm

Wholesome Lunches Homemade Cakes Hearty Breakfasts Afternoon Teas Sunday Lunch Pre-order Takeaways Open for the spring, restrictions permitting, with an additional marquee erected on the front of the Granary Scotsman Lodge, Helpston Heath, Stamford Road, Peterborough PE6 7EL  / The Granary Tearoom Cafe | mandffarms67@gmail.com | 01780 749 483 vil agetribune

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WRITE AWAY - VILLAGE VIEWS

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Maxey Nature Recovery Group We have started!

@

Working with Maxey P.C., Maxey Church Parochial Church Council (PCC) and the Village Field Committee: • High Street: We have just finished filling in the gaps of the hedgerow adjacent to the road out of the village towards the church. The hedging whips are all native species and include hazel, holly, blackthorn, guelder rose and beech • Maxey Churchyard: We have agreed a number of initiatives with the PCC, which include planting a tree in the north-east corner, increasing the spread of spring flowers in the churchyard, and some wildflower seeding.

Maxey Village Field: We are hoping to add to the diversity in the field by increasing the number of wildflower sites, encouraging more insects and butterflies. We have started preparing the new areas by mowing the grass much shorter and removing invasive perennial weeds. In the autumn we’ll be starting on the regeneration of the hedging by infilling gaps in the hedgerow with native species. We will be installing an insect tower in a discreet and undisturbed area of the field.

If you’d like to know more or would like to join us, just contact me via FB. Keren Thomson

Helpston Community Activity Team - HelCats

Wow, what a brilliant way to end the Easter Weekend in Helpston! It was truly magical to watch the children’s reactions when they saw the Easter Bunny arrive in a tuk tuk and skip up to their front door. Some of the adults looked pretty thrilled too!

Our local Little Owl doing his grumpy look until he clapped eyes on me then it was the hard stare before hopping off into cover. Dave Radcliffe 32

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A huge thank you to everyone who took part in decorating their Easter themed windows.

The overall winner was the beautiful window at 9 Woodgate. Well done to all the children who took part in the colouring in. The local artist who judged the competition was very impressed with all of the entries.

Thank you to Prem for being the Easter Bunny’s chauffeur. Also, thank you to Dianne for judging the colouring in competition.

FROM TRIB COUNTRY LAD TO KEEN AMATEUR ENVIRONMENTALIST | ENVIRONMENT

My journey continues ...

By John Parsonage

So, from the freedom of my youth and my love of the countryside, it’s wildlife, pastimes, seasons and industry and on into my landscaping work where did my journey take me next? Let’s not forget at this time I still wasn’t aware of a lot of environmental ideas, processes, concepts etc (and I still have much to learn) although I was starting to realise I didn’t see the amount of wildlife I did as a child (remember those obliging Thrushes who would happily hop round the lawn after a June shower, but are now far less common?). However, I was aware I wanted / needed to do something to revert some of the clearance I had undertaken in our own garden so I duly set about planting trees / shrubs / hedges. At the time I thought this the most logical course of action. The idea being, you’ve cleared it, you have to put it back. With hindsight if only it were that simple! >>

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ENVIRONMENT | FROM TRIB COUNTRY LAD TO KEEN AMATEUR ENVIRONMENTALIST

>> This idea remained until 3-4 years ago when my business partner encouraged me to purchase a camera with a view to doing some wildlife photography. His words to me were ‘with all the people you know, all the places you go and the land you have access to, you should really get yourself a camera’. Instead of picking up a gun, fishing rod or shovel I was allowing myself to be open to new ideas and observe the countryside and wildlife in a different way. One which still required knowledge, perseverance, stealth, etc but also one which taught me to observe ever more intently the world around me. Initially I took photos of the things which were common knowledge to me and I put them on my FB page to generate interest / discussion and awareness amongst my friends. I loved then as I still do now, getting up at silly o’clock on a spring/summer morning

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before the early morning dog walkers or joggers, before my phone rings and the days demands start. This allows me to get in a desired position to capture (or try to!) my desired subject and find peace and solitude. This to me is my time, my hour or so of true heaven with the dew on the ground, the light breaking in the east, the song of the birds and the sound of a waking world.

I said then and the same is true today, I understand the wildlife but not the camera or technology….but I understand this is valuable time to recharge my battery….

This love, perseverance and desire to get results meant I started to watch my subjects ever more intently. I started to realise that a lot of encounters with wildlife (contrary to popular belief) are not chance encounters. Wildlife is there, in a particular location, at a particular time of year or in

certain weather conditions for a reason. I could give numerous examples but more importantly than this I started to realise how much wildlife is affected by our actions and how finely the success or failure of many of these species is balanced.

From this I started to question how I could change both my actions and the environment I was familiar with for the better. The most important change and probably the most difficult I have made is to my mindset, to allow for new concepts, ideas and standards to be accepted. I wanted this change not for the benefit of myself (although successes provide great satisfaction) not only for the benefit of wildlife or the environment but also for the future generations of our children / grandchildren so they have the opportunity of a better, cleaner and environmentally richer world and a chance to safeguard

FROM TRIB COUNTRY LAD TO KEEN AMATEUR ENVIRONMENTALIST | ENVIRONMENT

their children’s future. I read a quote somewhere which went along the lines ‘we don’t inherit this world from our parents / grandparents, we borrow it from our children / grandchildren’ and it hit a chord with me.

From there on in the ball / new thought process started to roll.

I looked at the garden and what I had planted, I looked at the environment immediately external to the garden and further afield. I considered the species which were present, the ones which were not and the ones which had disappeared and I started to plan in more detail. It wasn’t just about trees or hedges, it was about grass, it was about brambles, Ivy, weeds, water / ponds. It wasn’t just about the diversity of the habitat but equally importantly how it was managed. When things were cut, how much was cut, what was left, how it was cut, what was disposed of and what could stay on site.

How one habitat area could be linked to another and how these connected with the wider environment? All of these things tumbling through my mind in one never-ending cascade of positivity. I also considered what other things I could do to improve the situation for wildlife. I have long fed the birds (it is morning routine to walk around and feed a variety of foods in a variety of locations) to encourage the greatest diversity of birds (plus lots of fresh water) but there had to be more?

The next logical step was to build and erect a number of bird boxes. These were constructed from left over / off cuts of deck boards from various landscaping projects. The next steps I took were to stop using any form of weedkiller around the garden (and I have never used slug pellets or poisons) although I acknowledge they play an important and essential role within agriculture as part of an

integrated pest management regime. Controversial, I know, but to me if something has to be removed better it be trapped or shot than poisoned.

Following on from this I let some areas revert back to Nettles, rough grass, and just generally less manicured. Plus our ride on lawnmower gave up the ghost which resulted in me using a 60cm wide push mower (not self propelled).

From these actions I started to see results, grasshoppers and crickets reappeared, voles/ mice were more evident as were beetles, meadow ant nests and stripey snails (I don’t know their taxonomical name). As my interest / observation grew so did my determination. The unmown areas increased in size and number but were included within the garden in such a way that they linked other areas of habitat. Log and stone piles were created so insects etc had somewhere to retreat to in the >>

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ENVIRONMENT | FROM TRIB COUNTRY LAD TO KEEN AMATEUR ENVIRONMENTALIST

autumn as I cleared some of the vegetation in order to allow spring bulb growth.

These areas also catered as hibernation sites for butterflies and bees. Two – three years back, the rough grass was alive with meadow brown butterflies.

I believe by not using the ride on I also stopped crushing / mowing all the snails, young frogs and the Bees on the clover etc. By leaving areas rough underneath the old fruit trees the resident mole or two also had somewhere easy to forage.

I also attempted a dead hedge to help mice / voles traverse from one hedgerow to the other. This also helps stop a lot of leaves blowing out of the woodland shelter belt across the lawn in the autumn, this in turn helps create habitat for beetles, centipedes, worms etc which in turn provide the hedgehog/s with a rich food source.

The power of observation has allowed my thought process and approach to things to gardening / wildlife to change.

Coupled with some effort and determination I have undoubtedly observed a greater diversity of wildlife within the garden. Probably the largest change has come from not mowing every square inch. This has resulted in invertebrate numbers increasing which in turn leads to vole numbers increasing as they have more food.

The meadow ants can establish large nests (without having the tops of them flattened by the mower) which in turn attract the green woodpeckers. The voles are predated by foxes (you can see where they have dug them out in the winter) and by owls (we had a breeding pair of tawnies and a visiting barn owl last year). The voles leave vacant burrows which are colonised by bees (we have had

four bumblebee nests for two years running). Muntjac deer each evening visit the Pheasant feeders (which in turn feed a lot of other birds) and we are lucky enough to have a flock of 20+ Yellowhammers visit the feed areas each Jan-March (starting from one visiting pair 4-5 years back). Wrens search out spiders from the rough grass and established Ivy whilst a pair of jays raid the peanut feeder most days during the winter.

Blackbirds and fieldfares gorge on the fallen apples from the trees my grandfather planted 40 yrs earlier. Later they will strip the rowan, hawthorn and cotoneaster berries whilst the robin/s follows me around the garden like a well trained dog.

The one habitat which has been lacking is a pond but that has now been rectified but more about owls and ponds in future articles….

I appreciate we don’t all have the same amount of space / time or inclination when it comes to creating space for wildlife in our lives but if this has raised an interest and if the C19 situation has emphasised the importance of a connectivity to the real world and fresh air, then let 2021 be the year you make a positive mental change and take that step to creating a better world for wildlife and humanity…

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THE AMBLERS IN TRIBLAND | ENVIRONMENT

The Amblers

in Tribland

After all the changeable weather that kept us on our toes during the last couple of months, things are looking brighter for May and June!

Nature is ‘sticking to the plan’ and preparing for sunnier days ahead and, having recently passed the spring equinox, we are once more able to enjoy the extended daylight in the evenings and the new life appearing all around.

The stunning celandines and daffodils, and the creamy yellow primroses and cowslips, have

been a cheerful reminder of the joys to come. The birds we have seen, busily gathering materials for their nests, will soon become parents.

Bluebell woods are a fabulous sight just now, and Horse Chestnut blooms look magnificent, like flames on a giant candelabra. But the smaller, less showy wild plants (with

the beautiful names) are just as attractive: tufted vetch, ribwort plantain, bladder campion, perforate St John’s-wort, bird’sfoot trefoil, yarrow, forget-menots, clover and knapweed, all make a colourful backdrop to early summer strolls. Plus, of course, we have recently started to see butterflies, which always make us smile. >>

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ENVIRONMENT | THE AMBLERS IN TRIBLAND

The natural world is abuzz. In the words of John Clare: ‘Now summer is in flower and nature’s hum Is never silent round her sultry bloom, Insects as small as dust have never done With glittering dance and reeling in the sun, And green wood fly and blossom-haunting bee Are never weary of their melody.’

On the theme of melody: final, welcome easing of International Dawn Chorus coronavirus restrictions that Day will fall on Sunday, May will allow us to meet and 2nd this year and I shall be walk in a group again. Our setting my alarm to be up second anniversary in March early to hear their joyful was a shadow of the first, announcement of another as I retraced our 2020 route new day. (It was my first, in Maxey with a friend, and last year, so I recorded it on reminisced. It was a moody my phone - in video setting day, with some stunning skies - to show the sunrise too. as the sun came and went, Unfortunately, in my halfhighlighting storm clouds in asleep state, I accidentally the distance. But the lakes selected ‘slo-mo’ and ended were mirror-flat, perfectly up with a really long recording reflecting the bare winter of whale song!) trees, and the sounds of the The Amblers have been waterfowl carried in the still eagerly awaiting the air. We saw a heron atop

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a tree on the opposite shore and wondered if it might create a heronry there and, later, spotted a wellcamouflaged, large flock of small, red-breasted birds feeding in a field – linnets! Every walk has a highlight.

When our ambles resume, there will be a feast for the eyes. In preparing this article, I have been reminded of all the discoveries I have made in the last year, and of all the wonderful sights that we can expect in the next couple of months. There may be some amazing fungi to be seen, in a variety of shapes and sizes – it pays to look closely at tree stumps and fallen branches – the meadows, riverbanks, hedgerows and verges will be awash with colourful blooms, clouds of cow parsley, and busy insects (like the jewel bright, thicklegged flower beetle). It is all waiting to be rediscovered, right here, on our doorstep, and we are going to enjoy it!

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CHEZ PIERRE | TASTE BUDS

from the kitchen of

No mes amis, this is not a racing potatoes or even a dish which ever lasts for 24hrs but I suppose one might consider it a fast food, non?

Pomme de Terre Le Mans

I was told many years ago by my grand-père that the original Hotel de France in La Chartre sur le Loir, owned for generations by the Pasteau family, used to serve this as a side to most of the Le Mans racing teams, who used the hotel as a headquarters during the races. He told me it was a particular favourite of Scottish driver Ron Flockhart, twice-winning Jaguar team

driver of the Le Mans 24hr in the 1950’s, and that he would apparently devour a plateful before his racing sessions to keep him going throughout the arduous hours ahead!

Ron and his business partner Hugh Langrishe had a motor garage in Ascot and would regularly eat at my grand-père’s then nearby restaurant. The recipe soon became a favourite amongst the customers, listening enrapt as the two men dined out on dramatic tales of racing derring-do.

Similarly, the dish has been a worthy and popular addition to our Chez Pierre menu card for a long time and is easily prepped for the following day’s servings. An interesting variation on standard mashed potatoes it makes a very tasty side to both a formal dinner with guests at home or an everyday family supper. I am a big fan of our varied potato offerings here but I have to say this is one of my favourites, which we serve with pork chops, steaks, casseroles and other hearty mains.

TO CREATE

INGREDIENTS For 6 (adjust for more or less) 5 lbs maris piper or russet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes; 8 ounces full-fat cream cheese, at room temperature; 1 tbsp unsalted butter; ¾ cup sour cream; ½ tsp garlic powder; pinch of grated nutmeg; salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Bon chance, Pierre x askchezpierre@gmail.com

 Place the potatoes in a large pot and cover with cool water.

Make sure they’re covered by at least 1 inch and bring the water to a boil over high heat. Lower the heat to medium and simmer the potatoes until a fork pierces them easily, 20 to 25 minutes.

pot and then use a potato masher to mash the potatoes until smooth. Try to avoid overmixing, which can make the potatoes gluey, but don’t be afraid to mash them until they’re nice and fluffy.

 Drain the potatoes in a colander and return them to the pot. Stir a few times to steam the potatoes in the hot pot to remove excess moisture before adding the cream cheese, butter and sour cream to the

 Season the potatoes with the garlic powder, nutmeg, salt and pepper. Mix to combine before serving either individually or, as we do at CP, in an entrée on the table to suit the number of diners, who can help themselves.

For us here at CP an advantage is that these mashed potatoes can be refrigerated for up to two days and then reheated in a 350°F oven, covered in foil, for 45 minutes, or in the microwave in 1-minute increments, stirring between heatings. They can also be

frozen in single servings.

Scoop 1 cup portions onto a parchment-lined baking sheet and freeze. Once frozen, remove the potatoes from the parchment and store in freezer bags for up to six months.

Thaw in the fridge and then reheat as directed above.

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ENVIRONMENT | WILDLIFE GARDEN SCHEME

© Sarah Lambert

© Sarah Lambert

WILDLIFE GARDE The Village Tribune is pleased to be backing a great new wildlife gardening scheme … which you can get involved with from the comfort of your own garden

The Langdyke Countryside Trust - which already owns and manages seven nature reserves in the area - is launching a unique campaign to create a community nature reserve.

The Langdyke Community Nature Reserve - the Trust’s eighth - will be made up from a whole range of established and newly created wildlife gardening plots … including yours!

to give nature a helping hand across the area.

“No matter how big or small your offer of help is it will be a boost to wildlife.”

The aim of the project is to bring people together across the local community - and particularly across Tribland to promote wildlife friendly gardening and to give nature a chance to recover.

The Tribune is backing the scheme and encouraging readers to get involved.

Organisers aim to share good practice and celebrate successes and make it easy for anyone to get involved.

Langdyke chair Richard Astle said: “We are delighted the Tribune is backing our scheme.

This is a very important project

The scheme already has a number of supporters and early pledges mean organisers can claim to have an area the size

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of the Peterborough United football pitch. But there is still a long way to go if the project is to reach its goal of matching the size of the footprint of the Queensgate shopping centre.

So please get involved.

Taking part isn’t difficult and you don’t even need a garden.

You could just install a window box or put up a bird table.

Every little thing you do will help nature.

It could be as simple as letting the grass grow in one area, putting up a bird box, planting some nature friendly plants or leaving a pile of wood for hedgehogs and other wildlife to live in.

WILDLIFE GARDEN SCHEME | ENVIRONMENT

© Sarah Lambert

© Sarah Lambert

Langdyke, which is a charity run entirely by volunteers, is always on the lookout for families who want to become members and offers a variety of events (mostly online at the moment because of Covid restrictions).

It is hoped to re-start nature walks and family days on the reserves in the near future.

The Trust is also interested in hearing from anyone who wants to get involved in na-ture by volunteering to help with either admin roles or work on one of its reserves. You can find out more by visiting the website langdyke.org.uk

ENING SCHEME nature TIPS help

HERE ARE SOME SIMPLE

By David Rowell

The gardening scheme is part of Langdyke’s overall project to create a vision for nature across the area it calls John Clare Countryside - particularly the villages between Peterborough and Stamford. The peasant poet John Clare - who lived in Helpston - trudged the countryside and wrote about it in many of his poems.

All you have to do is measure an area that you can call wildlife friendly - it may be there already or you have plans to create it.

No matter how large or small your garden you can get involved in creating the community nature reserve by pledging an area of your plot which is turned over to nature.

You can find out how to measure your plot and how to get involved by visiting the Trust website’s eighth reserve page at https://langdyke.org. uk/the-eighth-reserve/

If you already have a wildlife friendly area that’s brilliant. If not, why not consider what you could do to create one.

You can also view a video there explaining more about the scheme as well as pledge your support.

Then visit the Langdyke website and pledge it as a little piece of the eighth reserve. There is no cost and your garden will still be your own.

• When buying plants from a garden centre try and purchase wildlife friendly ones • Save the leaves in the autumn and pile them up in sheltered areas to create habitats • Let the grass grow • Feed the birds • Install a bird table or bird box • Don’t cut back hedges or trees in the bird nesting season • Keep a lookout for hedgehogs and make sure they can get in and out of your garden • Create a wildlife pond There is more information and videos on the website.

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Writing this, on a cold, grey day in March, I am looking forward to warmer days, bluer skies and spending time in our garden.

I also hope that we see at least as many hedgehogs in our garden this year as last.

Memories of sitting quietly outside, listening to a very noisy hedgehog munching its way through a saucer of food, or of watching in delight four hedgehogs trying to eat from the same bowl, still make me smile today.

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HELP Sadly, there is another memory which will stay with me. In October, we saw a hedgehog out in the middle of the day.

This is usually a sign that something is wrong, so we went out for a closer look. We were devastated to find that the hedgehog was dead, with all the signs pointing to a very painful death, almost certainly from poisoning.

With both happy and sad memories in mind, I’d like to share some information and appeal to fellow readers to do as much as possible to protect our local hedgehog population.

In July 2020, hedgehogs were included in the Red List for British mammals, classed as vulnerable to extinction. This is so sad for these beautiful creatures, but it is not too late to act to save them.

HELP OUR HEDGEHOGS | ENVIRONMENT

Angela Trotter

OUR HEDGEHOGS The hedgehog is known as the gardener’s friend. They eat slugs, beetles, caterpillars, etc and cause no harm to gardens.

If you have hedgehogs in your garden, why not encourage them? You can do this by putting out a saucer of food, such as meat-based cat or dog food, dried kitten food, or specialist hedgehog food.

It’s a good idea to put out a bowl of water, particularly in dry spells. If you are worried about other animals eating the food, it is easy to create a hedgehog feeding station: simply cut a 13cm square opening in the end of an upturned plastic storage box, and put the food and water inside.

You might think of the garden visitor as ‘your’ hedgehog, but it is worth remembering that hedgehogs roam and forage over a wide area – up

to a mile and a half. ‘Your’ hedgehog family will almost certainly be your neighbours’ hedgehog family too. Creating a hedgehog highway between gardens is helpful: a 13cm square hole in a fence or wall is big enough for a hedgehog, but small enough to prevent most pets getting through.

You can ensure that your garden is wildlife friendly. Log piles, wild areas and compost heaps all offer shelter and encourage natural food supplies, for hedgehogs and other wildlife.

Whilst a garden should be a safe place for hedgehogs, it can also hold many hazards.

A pond is an asset in a wildlife garden, but can be a death trap for small mammals. Ensure that there are several gently sloping slipways around the edge of the water to enable animals to escape if they fall in. Or hang

a piece of chicken wire over the edge, to allow hedgehogs to scramble to safety. Please check areas before mowing or strimming. And before using your compost, don’t forget to check it gently for sleeping wildlife.

If you are interested in learning more about helping hedgehogs, The British Hedgehog Preservation Society has lots of information and online resources. They also organise Hedgehog Awareness Week each year, which aims to highlight the problems hedgehogs face and how we can help them. In 2021 it runs from 2-8 May. Finally, please, please don’t use slug pellets, pesticides and poisons in your garden. Let’s try to create only happy hedgehog memories this year.

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WRITE AWAY - VILLAGE VIEWS

y a w A

e t i r W

@

Opinion: ‘The future is bright as I bow out’

Council leader John Holdich will not be standing in the May elections.

Peterborough City Council leader John Holdich gives his view on the council and news and issues affecting you in his final column for the Peterborough Telegraph before retiring from politics...

With the local elections just around the corner - and restrictions on media reporting between now and then - I’m sad to write that this is my final column.

I announced last January, just before the pandemic hit, that I wouldn’t be standing for re-election and instead retiring and drawing to a close a career in politics spanning 44 years. Of course, the elections were postponed last year, but my decision remains.

I owe it to my wife Barbara and the rest of my family, who have steadfastly supported me over the years, to give them more of my time I know that I will leave the council with mixed emotions – sadness for the people and responsibility that I will miss, pleasure for the extra time I will have to spend with family and friends, and a huge sense of pride for the successes I have achieved over the years.

In fact, one of the proudest moments of my career in politics has been the way the council has worked tirelessly – supported by so many individuals and groups – to ensure that everyone who has needed support during the pandemic has received it.

That has included assisting the hundreds of people who have been shielding, or are more vulnerable to the effects of the virus, through the city’s support hub and the hundreds of people we have helped to self-isolate – handing 44

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out £500 grants to those that qualify, totalling £648,000 to date.

We have worked with councils across Cambridgeshire to provide a countywide contact tracing service to contact people who have tested positive for Covid-19 - those the national team could not trace - and we have provided financial support to 3,800 businesses, delivering more than £46.6 million in business grants and £42 million in business rate relief. Many of those businesses may not have survived without that support.

Our refuse collectors who have gone out during the highs and lows to collect our waste, our social care staff who have continued to care for our most vulnerable – I could go on.

Another highlight and a great source of pride is the development of a dedicated university for Peterborough, something we have needed for many years to prevent our talented young people leaving the city and to offer our employers a good crop of people to apply for jobs.

The first teaching centre opens in September 2022, along with the research and development centre to create a net zero technologies cluster in the city. In the next few years there will be a second teaching site to grow capacity to 5,000 enrolments per annum and there is the potential for a second phase of the research and

WRITE AWAY - VILLAGE VIEWS

development centre and, much further down the line, a third teaching site.

This project will have a huge impact, not only on what the city will look like in 20 years’ time, but on the opportunities available to our residents, the success of our businesses and on informing external perceptions of Peterborough.

I am also very proud of the work that has taken place over the past decade to redevelop our city centre. Cathedral Square, St John’s Square, Bridge Street and many other parts have had new life breathed into them.

I think what I will miss the most about being a councillor is having the ability to help people. It is a gift and a privilege that I have never taken for granted. That said, I plan to keep in contact with some fantastic council officers, many of whom work tirelessly across our communities, so that I can still help people where I can. I am also sad that it will be the first time in 142 years that there has not been a Holdich on one council in the city or another!

I believe that Peterborough’s future is incredibly bright and that the time is now for us to take the city to the next level. I will be keeping an eye on things, that’s for sure.

At Fletton Quays, construction is underway for the new Hilton hotel and on the adjacent site a new Government hub, anchored by the Passport Office, complementing the apartments and office space that has already been built.

Looking ahead, our City Centre Local Development Framework identifies and plans key areas to be developed in the coming years, such as the station quarter, North Westgate, Northminster and Rivergate.

Looking a little further back, I was proud to be responsible for the creation of the city’s housing association, Cross Keys Homes, which allowed us to spend over £100 million modernising properties. There is no way we could have spent that money on new bathrooms and kitchens if we had not set up the housing association, owing to the percentage of rental income the council, as the homeowner, was required to pay back to the government. So many residents benefitted from that decision and still do.

I have so many other decisions I am proud of – the millions we spent upgrading or rebuilding every school in the city, my backing of the council becoming a unitary authority, giving us more decision making power locally, or my support for the creation of the combined authority, which has seen at least £100 million coming to our city which we may not otherwise have had – I will have to keep details of those and the many more projects and people I would love to mention for my book, if ever I write one!

Helpston Street Party 2021 We're keeping our fingers crossed that everything will go to plan and we can all be celebrating this summer so we've earmarked Saturday 10th July for a Village Street Party. Please put the date in your diary! More details soon ...

Mindless Behaviour Northborough field and stream - what mindless behaviour to empty all the books that have kindly been donated to the community into the stream.

Only to be followed by setting the bin on fire and smashing glass bottles on the grass for young children and dogs to step in. There are no words Kaz Jane

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STREET PHOTOGRAPHY | DAVE RADCLIFFE

© Dave Radcliffe

STREET PHOTOGRAPHY © Dave Radcliffe

© Dave Radcliffe 46

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DAVE RADCLIFFE | STREET PHOTOGRAPHY

© Dave Radcliffe

© Dave Radcliffe

By Dave Radcliffe

© Dave Radcliffe

This is a change from what I have written about before in previous issues, but it is of our time, so why not write about this subject I thought.

Some of you may even think that this isn’t relevant to the magazine, but we have many local and village events which provide ample chance and subject manner for great imagery. >>

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STREET PHOTOGRAPHY | DAVE RADCLIFFE >>

The definition of Street Photography is this: 'a genre of photography that records everyday life in public places', the very ‘publicness' of the setting enables the photographer to take candid photographs of strangers as well as those known to the photographer.

Street photographers do not necessarily have a social purpose in mind, they prefer to capture moments which may have otherwise gone unnoticed or unheeded, they are documenting the world around them as they see it.

Street Photography has been a popular genre since the birth of photography back in the 19th century; nowadays it is even more so, with so many of us having smart phones. Still images and video footage swamp social media as well as the mainstream media platforms we see every single day often to the detriment of others or the “moment”.

We could go back thousands of years to the cave paintings of neanderthal man, this might even be described as the origins of street photography

and the bad in the world even the abject apathy, these images can set us on a pathway of inner thought , the classic phrase a picture paints a thousand words is never so true, Photographers are observers of these images are of the moment everything about them, whether whether we like it or not, they can they choose to document what tell a story it is up to you whether you want to see or not. they see is up to them, many people are possibly nervous Now that lockdown is lifting it is a about this and then the moment great chance to get out and about is gone in the blink of an eye. and get some great images, the world has changed and probably I suppose this was really what we used to call photojournalism will never go back to how things were. in a way, then the preserve of such professionals as Sir Don McCullin and of local Peterborough Street Artist (and recently retired NHS Ambulance Driver) Chris Porz. See more from Chris on the opposite page.

But now with digital cameras and smartphones it is with us constantly, it is down to the morality and the choice of the operator as to whether they shoot or not….

This genre can show the good

Great subjects are buskers, street performers,couples young and old, also Black and White imagery seems to work the best too, it gives a depth and punch to the pictures that colour doesn’t seem to have, the subject in colour can be lost in the back ground which loses the impactfulness.

On a different note, dear readers please do not forget about the VT Photography competition, we want to see your images..!

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TRIBLAND PHOTO COMPETITION We are calling upon Triblanders to submit photographs that represent our villages to be in with a chance of making it into our 2022 calendar.

Entries are now open until the end of September 2021. All photographs must be taken in our villages and represent the Tribland area. A selection of the best photographs, chosen by our Village Tribune panel and a reader vote, will be featured in the calendar which will go on sale in November – an ideal stocking filler for Christmas 2021!

Each entry must include the photographer’s name, phone number and the location the image was taken.

To enter, please submit your entries via email to; thebaintonsnapper@mail.com 48 48 vilvialgetribune agetribune

CHRIS PORSZ | STREET PHOTOGRAPHY

REUNIONS

by Chris Porsz

SOLD OUT

© Chris Porsz

Chris Porsz’s celebrated second book Reunions is currently out of stock until the sequel Reunions 2 is published in the autumn

More than 40 years in the making, Reunions is Chris Porsz's most ambitious project to date. Chris has spent the last few years tracking down many of the amazing characters who appeared in his early work and photographing them again, often in the same location. This unique collection is a result of tenacious detective work, meticulous planning and, often, unbelievable coincidences.

Chris's amazing second book is a fascinating collection of life stories and a valuable social record of a constantly changing city. It makes a wonderful gift and only a limited number of the first edition will be printed, so make sure you order your copy now. www.chrisporsz.com/

© Chris Porsz

© Chris Porsz

© Chris Porsz

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YOUNG TRIBUNE | MUSTARD SEED

MUSTARD SEED PROJECT IT REALLY IS FINISHED! We now have railings around the school and very happy children, staff and parents, although this has been a difficult time as all come to terms with covid restrictions within the school. We are desperate to get out to see it but I suspect that that may be next year.

Luckily there has been very little covid in Mombasa so our children will be returning to school after the holiday despite lockdown in other cities. And wonderful news announced recently was that all teachers and other workers within the school are to be vaccinated. Clearly, we do not want the children to become ill but as there is no such thing as a supply teacher in Kenya it would be disastrous if the teachers became sick for any length of time.

Sadly, as I suspected, our KCPE results were not as good as the two previous years. The children missed two term’s work and then had to make up for that in one term. Teachers 50 50 vilvialgetribune agetribune

obviously worked very hard to bridge that gap but it was too difficult. The results were down by 1/3 of a grade from the previous two years with a mean score of C+ rather than B-. Still above average, but disappointing especially for one gifted boy. He ended up with a B+ rather than an A/Awhich would have attracted sponsorship from a bank allowing him to go to a top school.

Our next project is to find some land for a playground. This had not been desperately important before because there is a plot next to the school where the children had played. Now it appears that the owner has decided to build on it. Land

prices have doubled since we bought ours so raising funds for this could take some time.

Having said that, our greatest concern each year is raising the funds to feed our children.

At just £6 per child, per month it sounds so cheap but we have 300 children.

We have managed to raise £12,500 so far towards the feeding programme but we need another £5,500. Should you wish to make a donation towards this or would like to regularly feed a child/children please go to our website www. mustardseed.co.uk. Thank you all so much for your support. It is very much appreciated and you can see what a difference this has made.

MUSTARD SEED | YOUNG TRIBUNE

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WRITE AWAY - VILLAGE VIEWS

y a w A

e t i r W

Our Superman doing some sweeping in the garden this evening.

@

Garden Lodge Care Home, Glinton

How beautiful is this Moth.

Brenda Ellis

Another enjoyable morning in St Pega's churchyard tidying graves, creating wildlife habitats including a rock and cuttings piles and the 'Peakirk Hilton Bug-Hotel'.

Avril Lumley Prior

Lawn Bowls

Would you like to try Lawn Bowls?

Deepings Bowling Association -Bowls Open Day Spalding Road Deeping St James PE6 8SA Saturday 22 May. Come and try your hand - No cost, Equipment provided, no commitment For covid secure reasons attendance by appointment only - please call Neil on 01778 560103 to book or e-mail deeping.bowls.ass@outlook.com 52

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MUSTARD SEED | YOUNG TRIBUNE

Helpston Playhouse

Abbi Smith, Secretary to the Playhouse Committee

In the last issue of the Tribune we were very excited to announce that we're extending our provision to two year olds after Easter. Our wonderful, dedicated staff have been getting ready to welcome some new little members to our setting after the holidays and we can’t wait for them to start.

We do feel a little sad that because we have to remain COVID safe as they won’t get the full Playhouse experience (our soft furnishings and cuddly toys have been put away for now) but we’re sure all the sterilisable fun stuff and our fabulous outdoor space will keep them entertained and send them home exhausted but happy each day.

tools and the children listened very carefully. They watched and listened to the birds singing around us and sang their own bird songs to them.

In Out of School Club our older children made colourful Easter baskets, rabbit faces from egg cartons and delicious chocolate and cornflake nests. The KS2 children were challenged to make a moon lander and used chocolate eggs as test astronauts!

that every child that entered thoroughly deserved their Easter egg. An extra special thank you has to go to those members of the community who so generously donated eggs as prizes and everybody who supported our Easter trail.

All proceeds will go towards something ‘egg-citing’ for the children who attend the Playhouse.

Our children have had a fabulous time in Forest School in the runIn the weeks ahead our little up to Easter. We’ve talked about children will be exploring life birds and how they lay eggs and cycles and in Out of School Club We’d like to thank all the families the children have built their own we’ll have an explorers theme, nests using sticks and leaves from that took part in and supported as well as our usual crafts and our Spring-time Fun competition. games. And our Toddler Group the garden. The nests looked so It was so difficult to choose cosy. The children also helped to will restart their regular meetings build a wooden bird house, using winners in the colouring, egg in the Village Hall very soon as decorating and photography hammers and nails. We talked well, with all necessary provision about safety and how to use the competitions and we know made for COVID safe fun for all.

To find out more about the Playhouse do visit our website or email playhouse@helpstonplayhouse.com

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AS COLD AS CHARITY | HERITAGE

George Cruikshank, ‘The Bottle’, Plate 5 (1847)

A

s Cold as Charity Below the breadline in old Tribland

by Dr Avril Lumley Prior

Care of the vulnerable is tenet of most religions - and for many people who embrace no faith too. This recently has been demonstrated by the generous donations to food banks and the sterling efforts of volunteers who provide nutritious meals for those struggling during Lockdown and run shelters for the abused and homeless. We are familiar with Jesus’ parable of the gentleman from Samaria who tended a Jewish mugging victim whilst his fellow countrymen scuttled by on the other side of the road. Thank goodness, we still have so many ‘Good Samaritans’ left in the world. >>

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HERITAGE | AS COLD AS CHARITY

>>

Care of the vulnerable is tenet of most religions - and for many people who embrace no faith too. This recently has been demonstrated by the generous donations to food banks and the sterling efforts of volunteers who provide nutritious meals for those struggling during Lockdown and run shelters for the abused and homeless. We are familiar with Jesus’ parable of the gentleman from Samaria who tended a Jewish mugging victim whilst his fellow countrymen scuttled by on the other side of the road. Thank goodness, we still have so many ‘Good Samaritans’ left in the world.

Creature Comforts?

Sutton: Good Samaritan (1867)

Barnack: Feeding the hungry (1869) 56

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The New Testament is peppered with acts of Christian charity with converts disposing of their wealth to help the poor. Three centuries later, Sulpicius Severus wrote about St Martin of Tours (317-71), a Roman soldier who gave half his cloak to a mendicant.

Closer to home, Bede the ‘Father of English History’ told how King Oswald of Northumbria (634-42), after resolutely fasting throughout Lent, surrendered his Easter Sunday feast complete with silver salver to beggars at his gate. ‘Corporal Works of Mercy’ (feeding the hungry, giving water to the thirsty, clothing the naked, offering shelter to travellers, visiting the sick and imprisoned and burying the dead) became popular themes for medieval wall-paintings and Victorian stained-glass windows.

Nowadays, Social Services are theoretically the ‘safety-net’ for the impoverished and at-risk, crucially assisted by registered charities. However, in medieval Europe, these duties were performed mainly by religious houses. A monastery official called an almoner was tasked with doling out alms in the form of food and in extenuating circumstances clothing and small amounts of money to the penniless. At Peterborough Abbey, his department [the almonry], was funded by rents from various houses and shops in town, profits from woodland at Eastwood and Westwood and the manors of Sutton, Gunthorpe, Paston and part of Maxey. The almonry hall was situated near the precinct’s East Gate (now opening onto Bishops’ Road Gardens), strategically placed so that beggars queued at the monastery’s back door instead of lowering the tone of its market-place entrance.

Aged and poverty-stricken men of good character found shelter in ‘hospitals’ (often called bedehouses) established by religious orders, craftsmen’s guilds or individuals like woolmerchants, William and Margaret Browne, who financed Browne’s Hospital in Stamford, in 1475.

There, twelve male inmates slept in cubicles in a communal hall, with two resident widows of equally-impeccable reputation at their beck and call, preparing meals, washing their garments and nursing them when they fell ill. In return, the bedesmen offered daily prays for the souls of their benefactors in the adjoining chapel.

AS COLD AS CHARITY | HERITAGE

Barnack: Clothing the naked (1869)

The Call to Alms In the countryside, ‘works of mercy’ were carried out at parish level with the priest ostensibly donating a third of his tithes [land taxes] for congregants in dire straits.

After the Dissolution of the Monasteries by Henry VIII in 1539 and the abolition of Guilds by his son, Edward VI, in 1547, the welfare system completely collapsed. The plight of the poor became so critical that clergymen were instructed to collect alms from their parishioners, some of whom were living on the breadline themselves.

Marholm Almshouses

Peterborough: The Almonry at the East Gate In 1572, during Elizabeth I’s reign, every parish had both an appointed Alms Collector and a Supervisor of the Labour of Rogues and Vagabonds, whose job-description was to assess and extract ‘poor-rates’ from those who could afford to pay, move on vagrants whether seeking work or not and force home-grown layabouts to find gainful employment. The two offices combined in 1597 under the title of Overseer of Poor, a dubious honour bestowed upon Church Wardens by the Poor Law Act of 1601.

Bedehouses were reinvented as almshouses and run along

similar lines. Attendance at chapel was still compulsory, though prayers now were said for Queen and Country as well as for benefactors. In 1597, Elizabeth’s chief advisor and High Treasurer, William Cecil of Burghley rebuilt the Hospital of St John and St Thomas in Stamford St Martin as Burghley Almshouses. At Marholm, William Fitzwilliam removed the priest and re-instated his father and namesake’s bedehouse as almshouses [now Alms Cottages] for ‘four poor secular men’. Meanwhile, in Millstone Lane, Barnack, the fifteenthcentury chapel and hall of the Guild of Corpus Christi also

Barnack: Former almshouses, Millstone Lane >>

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HERITAGE | AS COLD AS CHARITY

>>

Ufford: Walnut Barn were remodelled as almshouses [now Ffeoffes’ Cottages]. In fact, during Tudor times it became de rigour for the wealthy to help those who had fallen upon hard times.

‘Charity begins at Home’ Wills, Church Wardens’ Accounts, blatant manifestations and, after 1894, Parish Council Minutes Books reveal numerous charities set up to care for the sick and financially distressed in the community. In 1724, the executors of widow, Ruth Edges’, estate placed a tablet on the gable of Ufford’s Walnut [Tree] Farm barn declaring that rents from the property went to aid ‘six Decayed Gentle Women For ever’. In 1734, Mr Robert

Wright boasted on a board in St Kyneburgha’s church that he had given lands yielding 52s a year for ‘twelve penny loaves every Sunday for Twelve poor people of Castor & Ailsworth that shall be at Church’.

Other patrons were more modest but their benevolence sometimes had strings attached.

Henry Walton, ‘gentleman’ of Borough Fen (c.1749-1800), who tragically lost his nine children in infancy, bestowed the interest on an annuity of £100 for the upkeep of his tomb and a row of family gravestones in Peakirk churchyard. The remainder, henceforth named ‘The Walton Charity’, went to poor folk who were not already

Castor: ‘Penny loaves’ 58

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'To six Decayed Gentle Women’ receiving relief. Mary Barnard, widow of incumbent Reverend Benjamin Barnard (1801-15) had the same intention, when she left £109 for fuel for the poor on condition that her husband’s tomb was maintained. The two Peakirk charities combined and were managed by trustees until the 1894 Charitable Trusts Act transferred their role and that of Peakirk Provident Society (formed in 1853 ‘to relieve the sick and destitute of the village’) to the Parish Council. In 1898, Reverend Edward James (1865-1912) set up a further charity in memory of his wife, Emily, again to benefit the poor.

Groceries and fuel continued to be distributed until the winter

Bainton’s old sch

AS COLD AS CHARITY | HERITAGE

The foundation of schools appealed to benefactors as education was seen as a route out of poverty.

Peakirk: Henry Walton’s Tomb of 1964/65 when 39 hundredweights of coal were given to 15 households.

Most villages had similar schemes in place. Widows were remembered at Ufford, in 1702,

by George Quarles, Reverend John Browne and a Mrs Hangar.

In 1662, the Brownes of Walcot Hall purchased land to benefit the poor of Barnack. In 1723 Elizabeth, Dower Duchess of Exeter invested in reclaimed land at Newborough and Borough Fen to aid the needy at Maxey and Deeping Gate. In 1638, William Budd left money in trust to the vicar and church wardens of Marholm for coal for the poor as did Ann Scott for Glinton, in 1870, and Elizabeth Bellars for Maxey, in

hool (opened 1820)

1875. Flannel cloth was added to the rations by Charles Mossop and Daniel Webster, in 1858, for Helpston and Etton and by Mary Ann Northey at Castor, in 1900.

For anonymous cash donations, there was the church poor-box.

The foundation of schools appealed to benefactors as education was seen as a route out of poverty. In c.1686, Reverend Richard Haw of Bainton left annual rents of £51 from parish land for the provision of education (presumably in St Mary’s church) until 1819, when lord-of-the-manor, Sir John Trollope, donated a further £271 and adjacent land for a purposebuilt school. Spinster Ann Ireland (1635-1712) left £100 for a

Charity School so that ten ‘free scholars’ from Glinton and five from Peakirk could learn to read in the north aisle of St Benedict’s.

A broader curriculum evolved to include writing and arithmetic together with sewing for girls and gardening for boys, in preparation for a life ‘in service’. Too much learning was deemed a dangerous thing and could give brighter pupils ideas ‘above their station’. It was exceedingly-rare for a poor boy to gain a place at a Grammar School and rarer still for his parents to afford to send him.

Castor: Poor-box >>

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HERITAGE | AS COLD AS CHARITY

>>

Even in church, the poor were required to know their place in the days when betteroff worshippers rented their pews.

Begging for money to buy ‘The Bottle’, Plate 4 (Cruikshank, 1847)

‘On the Parish’ or in the Workhouse Distinction was made between the ‘deserving’ poor (the elderly, widows, orphans, severely-disabled etc) and the ‘undeserving poor’, whose plight was perceived to be caused by the triple evils of fecklessness, idleness and drunkenness. Indeed, the terrible consequences of yielding to the demon drink were portrayed in George Cruikshank’s series of mid nineteenth-century satirical drawings, ‘The Bottle’. Yet, when life was grim and water not fit for consumption, alcohol was a solace.

Wherever possible ‘outdoor relief’ was dispensed locally with recipients described as being ‘on the parish’. However, in 1723, an Act was passed encouraging clusters of villages to procure land or property for workhouses to provide ‘indoor relief’ in return for 60

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unpaid labour. By 1782, such an institution was operating in Church Street, Werrington, with beds for 14 paupers overseen by the ‘Workhouse Master’.

In 1834, all English parishes were organised into 585 ‘Unions’, each with a workhouse controlled by a Board of Guardians of the Poor, who initially were elected by ratepayers and, after 1894, by Parish Councillors.

The Werrington institution was converted into a school when Peterborough Union Workhouse opened in Thorpe Road in 1836, with a capacity for 200 souls.

The 1881 Census Returns divulge that they came from as far away as Ireland and Somerset but there were Triblanders too, including Stanley Coaten (aged 67), an agricultural labourer from Helpston, orphans Emma (8) and Isabella (11) Goude of Peakirk and Frances Townshend (76) from Castor.

Entering the Workhouse was the worst possible scenario for both the unfortunate and his/ her family and for the homeparish, since it was obliged to pay a nominal sum [the Poor Rate] for their ‘indoor relief’ and for burials if they ‘failed to thrive’. Besides having a stigma attached, married couples were separated to prevent workhouses becoming breeding grounds for more dependents for hard-pressed rate-payers to keep. Therefore, only the absolutely-desperate sought admittance.

Although usually efficiently-run and the paupers fairly well-fed, workhouses were not Butlins and the Devil finds work for idle hands! Activities for able-bodied men included rock-breaking and bone-grinding (for fertiliser), whilst women toiled in the laundry or kitchens or picked oakum [teasing rope for caulking timber ships], all menial tasks lest they should undercut labourers on the outside. Old ladies were

AS COLD AS CHARITY | HERITAGE

Werrington Workhouse now a private residence employed knitting; children were taught to spin and were sent to a nearby school (where they became a target for bullies) or were sold into apprenticeships and often exploitation.

‘As poor as church mice’ Before the meagre Old Age Pension of five shillings [25p] per week was introduced for 70-year-olds of ‘good character’ in 1909, people literally worked until they dropped and died ‘in harness’. My four times greatgrandfather, ancient mariner Robert Wilson (1754-1841), was still putting to sea as a pilot aged 86, presumably rather than go ‘on the parish’ - or worse!

Conversely, a large percentage of the working-classes sought ‘indoor’ or ‘outdoor’ relief at some stage in their lives.

And, naturally, recipients were expected to show profound gratitude and deference towards their benefactors.

Even in church, the poor were required to know their place in the days when better-off worshippers rented their pews.

Peakirk’s North Chapel was reserved for the owners of St Pega’s Hermitage, who until 2001, were responsible for its upkeep. In contrast, from their ‘free sittings’ at the draughty ‘low-end’, the less-fortunate were brainwashed from the cradle into believing – and accepting - that their situation was divine ordination. Hence, the dreadful, woefully-‘unwoke’ and now-jettisoned verse of ‘All Things Bright and Beautiful’, published in 1848 as one of Mrs Cecil Alexander’s Hymns for Little Children: ‘The rich man in his castle, The poor man at his gate, God made them, high and lowly, And ordered their estate.’

Inevitably, this hierarchical system deflected many

Anglicans to Methodism, a more egalitarian, grass-roots form of Christian worship.

‘The poor will always be with us’ Nonetheless, poverty was regarded by many as a necessary evil in the order of things because it drove people to work, a sentiment ironically endorsed by the ‘idle rich’! Comfortably-off middle-class benefactors, such as ‘yeoman’ farmers, merchants and industrialists could be seen to ‘doing good’ and bask in the glory of their munificence; an attitude contrary to Christ’s teaching that charity should be delivered discretely and without self-aggrandisement (which, to be fair, some philanthropists did). And, of course, the destitute were a cheap source of labour. They performed jobs that those >>

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HERITAGE | AS COLD AS CHARITY

>>

By 1932, the Boat Inn on Peakirk’s Thorney Road was in such an advanced state of disrepair that daylight showed through the thatch and holes in the wall were stuffed with newspapers.

Peakirk: Boat Inn (1912) who were slightly higher up the social pecking-order baulked at (such as coal-mining, cleaning out cess-pits and standing thigh-deep in urine at the tannery) and, thereby, gave them someone to look down upon.

Churchwarden’s Accounts, newspaper reports and Parish Council Minute Books tell us that deprivation, sub-standard living conditions and low regard for the welfare of the poor were still prevalent in the twentieth century. After a visit from the Housing Inspector, in 1912, it was recorded that there were nine rented properties in Peakirk ‘that were in such a deplorable condition that something must be done’ since some were in danger of collapse. Despite the 1919 Housing Act to address the national shortage of adequate accommodation after World War I, as late as 1928 a family of four were living in a stone

outbuilding with only a single door and without a yard, water or sanitation for which they were paying 6 shillings [30p] a week rent.

By 1932, the Boat Inn on Peakirk’s Thorney Road was in such an advanced state of disrepair that daylight showed through the thatch and holes in the wall were stuffed with newspapers. Even so, the licensees, William and Sarah Jones, both approaching 70, were reluctant to leave as they had no other source of income and nowhere else to go. The pub duly was closed and its owners, a Spalding brewery, were awarded £450 compensation for their loss of revenue, from which the Jones received £63 and were reduced to renting a single room in the building which they now shared with other tenants. And Peakirk was not unique. It’s merely a case-study since my husband, Greg, has spent the

last half century living in and researching the village’s history!

‘For richer for poorer’ During medieval times, primogeniture (inheritance by the eldest son) meant that siblings could descend from the manor house to a peasant’s hovel within a couple of generations, unless they found rich spouses. Moreover, like today, impecuniousness was not necessarily caused by indolence and alcoholism, but by low wages, economic recessions, unemployment, ill-health, the loss of the main wage-earner, many mouths to feed or simply misfortune.

Covid-19 also has been a cruel and indiscriminate leveller.

The hitherto hard-grafting, comfortably-off have seen their businesses ruined, their lives upturned and been forced to rely on charity to make ends meet. As for the rest of us, it is simply a case of there but for fortune . . .

PS. Workhouses were formally abolished in 1930 though many endured as Public Assistance Institutions with paupers renamed ‘residents’. Peterborough’s former Union Workhouse was demolished 1971 to make way for retirement homes.

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HERITAGE | ALL SO RELATIVE

Annie Taylor

James Hetherington

Mornons' History

All so relative

by Tony Henthorn

I have never really taken much notice of my own family history but remember being confused as a child as to why I had a Grandad and Grandma Ormerod and a Grandad Taylor – but no Grandad or Grandma Henthorn.

In my later years I discovered that my dad’s father (James Hetherington) was killed in action in Iraq in 1920 before he could marry his betrothed, Alice Henthorn. So, my dad made his entrance into the world six months before dad James was killed and he was given Alice’s Henthorn surname. Five year later, Alice met and married James Ormerod, they didn’t have any children together.

I was also fascinated to be told (I cannot remember by whom), that one of my ancestors was Annie Taylor who found fame (but not fortune) by being the first woman to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel – and survive.

When we went into the last lockdown, I wanted to find something to help keep me occupied and sane and decided to treat myself to an early Christmas present – a subscription to Ancestry.com and I started plotting my family journey through the generations. Over five months later and I am truly ‘hooked’!

I have discovered (to my horror!) that I am not of pure 64

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Lancashire stock, my DNA is shared across a number of north west counties, including (dare I say it?) … Yorkshire! The first hundred years, (approx 4 generations) is mainly filled with working-class folk earning their livelihoods in the cotton mills and coal mines, but it’s when I delved a little further back that the discoveries started to become more interesting.

It turns out that Ann Henthorn (2nd cousin 6 x removed) ventured to America in 1854 – converted to the beliefs of the Church of the Latter Day Saints (Mormons) through her marriage to James Fielding And then there’s General Ralph Assheton 1605-1650, my 11th Great Grandfather He refused a knighthood that went with his estate in 1632, probably through a rebellion against the Stuart Monarchy. In 1640 he was returned as one of the Knights of the Shire. In the civil war, he took a leading role on the Parliamentary side.

Throw in a handful of convicts, war heroes, The Black Knight of Ashton, publicans, train

drivers, farmers and politicians and you start to build a picture of who you are and where you have come from – plus, I have learned more about history than I did in all my school years!

I am currently working on a new tree for Arthur and Percy – this one tracks their direct (blood) descendants as far back as the 1450s – some 20+ generations.

For each entry, I am looking to illustrate it with either a photograph, portrait, depiction of job, map of area etc.

It has turned out to be a huge undertaking, but the result (thanks to on-line technology) will be a hard-copy book with details of almost 2,000 direct descendants. I’m sure that when they receive it at Christmas, they will be far more interested in the Paw Patrol toys and books but will hopefully appreciate it in the years to come.

As for Annie Taylor? Well, to date I cannot find any evidence of a family link – but I do think I’m on the cusp of discovering an ancestor who was beheaded at the Tower!

UNCOVERING PEAKIRK'S PAST | HERITAGE

A veritable wilderness

Past Uncovering Peakirk's

Archaeology above the Ground

By Greg Prior

Undoubtedly, some of the most picturesque sights in our landscape are our ancient stone churches set in leafy graveyards with their table-tombs, tilting headstones and venerable old yews. As we know well in Peakirk, both church and churchyard can be a haven for wildlife, a magnet for historians and people searching for their ancestors - and a nightmare to maintain. >>

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HERITAGE | UNCOVERING PEAKIRK'S PAST

>>

Barry uncovers a lost grave-slab

Lost in the wilderness

Peakirk’s Lost ‘Tombs’ Inspired by St Pega’s Church Wardens’ and their spouses’ heroic efforts in clearing the eastern wall of the churchyard of creeper and suffering withdrawal symptoms from the lack of test-pitting, PAST (Peakirk Archaeological Survey Team) joined forces with Pauline and Barry Cooke to tackle the western section of ‘God’s Acre’, which was an unsightly and perilous wasteland of brambles, ivy and elders.

Newly- recovered grave-slabs 66

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Our objectives were to: 1. Clear the undergrowth and remove overhanging branches so that the memorials can be safely accessed.

2. Improve the aspect of the area.

3. Reveal a previously-hidden part of Peakirk's heritage.

4. Photograph and record the monuments uncovered and, ultimately, compile brief biographies of their owners.

Two generat

Peakirk Pedigrees

Whilst Avril was beavering away on Robert (1784-1846) and Charlotte (1802-66) Parr’s curious cast-iron ‘tomb’, Barry was rescuing the find of the morning. It was a carved medieval-style grave-slab commemorating Robert’s and Charlotte’s son, Robert jnr, and his wife, Anne, who died at Market Deeping. Further along the row, Pauline unveiled a memorial to Robert’s and Charlotte’s grandsons, yet another Robert and James, the offspring of their daughter, Elizabeth (1814-74) and her Initially, we set a target of revealing a grave-marker each. husband, Thomas Vergette (1804-87) who farmed on But many hands - and Gregg Duggan’s trusty hedge-cutter - Borough Fen. Meanwhile, made light work. By lunchtime, Gregg and I tackled the we had liberated over a dozen jumble of creepers enveloping headstones belonging to five ‘lost’ memorials ranging from farmers’ and graziers’ to a Parish more of Thomas and Elizabeth’s eleven children, Charlotte, Mary Clerk’s.

Anne, Francis & Emily Vergette’s monuments

UNCOVERING PEAKIRK'S PAST | HERITAGE

tions of Parr memorials

Unusual cast-iron tomb

Sophia, Anne Elizabeth, Francis and Emily. Although several of them had died elsewhere, they all returned to Peakirk to be buried, together in death as they had been in life.

Avril and I returned at the weekend, to strip Thomas and Elizabeth Vergette’s impressive slab of its ivy shroud. Then, beyond their family plot, we turned our attention on the headstones erected for Joseph Eatherley (1807-72), draper and Parish Clerk, his wife, Hannah (1813-76), their sons, Nathan, Daniel, John and Joseph jnr and daughter-in-law, Jane. Next, we progressed to the those of the Kettle family, Joseph (1835-1919), an agricultural labourer, his wife Annie (1842-1922) and their daughter, Sarah Perkins. Annie and Joseph, did not have far to travel for their funerals since their cottage in Chestnut Close backed

Joseph, Annie & Sarah Kettle’s headstones

Thomas and Elizabeth Vergette’s grave-slab

onto the churchyard.

The following Wednesday, Pauline, Avril, Gregg and I met with Sheila Lever and David Hankins. Our agenda was to trim dangerously-low branches, eliminate trip-hazards like ivy runners and dispose of the cuttings from previous sessions to leave the site tidy. In the process, Sheila unearthed a broken headstone dedicated to Bartholomew and Emma Guymer’s baby son, Charles Christian, who died in 1893.

And tucked away forgotten in the corner, lies an assemblage of diminutive headstones with the tantalising inscriptions, ‘J. E. 1867’, ‘D. E. 1871’, ‘J. E. 1871’ and ‘J. E. 1872’. More infant burials? Perhaps not. For Avril surmises that they were temporary grave-markers for Joseph Eatherley jnr (1837-67), his brother, Daniel (1853-71),

sister-in-law, Jane (1844-71), and father, Joseph snr (died 1872), until they could be replaced with more-elaborate memorials.

Afterwards, they were re-used as 'footstones' (and trip hazards).

To Whose Benefit?

We will be leaving enough undergrowth along the western boundary with The Old Rectory to satisfy the even most ardent of eco-warriors. We also plan to create several habitat piles, though the only evidence of fauna that we detected during our activities was the distinct and pungent aroma of a patrolling tom-cat. And, of course, unlike our previous exploits in archaeology, we are able to leave the fruits of our labours uncovered for all to see. There will be no need for explanatory labels for each monument tells its own story.

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19TH CENTURY RESTORATION FOR NORTHBOROUGH CHURCH | CHURCH NEWS

19th Century Restoration for Northborough Church

By Gail Richardson

The Reverend Samuel G. Short became rector of Northborough in January 1891. To his dismay he found the church in a neglected state and in desperate need of repair. Green mould covered the walls, floor timbers were rotten, and damp and decay was evident everywhere. The Reverend Short made it his mission to restore the historic church and raise the money needed, estimated at £1,400 (today’s equivalent of £183,160). >>

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CHURCH NEWS | 19TH CENTURY RESTORATION FOR NORTHBOROUGH CHURCH

>>

Reverend Short began by requesting donations from affluent members of society, holding bazaars and sales of work. He also organised a successful grand garden party at the Bishops Palace Peterborough, on which a newspaper report was printed in the Peterborough Standard, 29 July 1893. In total, he managed to raise £400 (today’s equivalent of £52,300), enough to start the first stage of the restoration process. It was hoped that work would commence in the autumn of 1893.

Plans were made by the Diocesan Architect, Henry M. Townsend of Cross Street Peterborough, and the work was carried out by the firm of John Thompson, the renowned ecclesiastical builder and restorer, of Wood Street Peterborough. Archives for the firm are held by the Peterborough Archives Service in the Central Library, the collection reference is PAS/JTA and consists of photographs, plans and manuscripts. The Specification Book (PAS/ 70

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JTA/3/3) contains details of the work carried out at Northborough.

Work on the church exterior included a new buttress to be built on the NW corner of the north aisle to prevent the wall falling down [see photograph 1] and the existing drain altered.

Work on the church interior was extensive. The stone paving in the central aisle, north aisle and south aisle was replaced with York stone. New floor supports, sleepers and joists were installed. New wood block flooring in the nave and new pews and seats were made from Red Deal (Scots pine).

Plaster was cut away from all aisle walls and re-rendered, and any whitewash in the nave and aisles was removed and repainted. A six inch high cement skirting was created around the internal walls of the nave and aisles.

Most of the detailed work was carried out on the Claypole Chapel. Internal and external work on the building fabric consisted of replacing broken mullions (a vertical post dividing a window), tracery (ornamental

intersection stone work in the upper part of a window) and any other stone mouldings.

Walls, tracery joints and sills were re-pointed. Broken window lead and glass was replaced using cathedral glass. A new surface drain was constructed around the exterior of the chapel walls using black Staffordshire bricks [see photograph 2], draining into the adjoining garden.

On the west side of the chapel, a door had, in the past, been inserted under the window to allow access to the chapel itself. This was now weakening the window above and it was showing signs of collapsing.

The doorway and wooden lintel was removed, the void filled with dressed Weldon stone and the window restored [see photograph 3]. Early photographs show this door in-situ.

On the roof and battlements, the disturbed lead was replaced, the flashings fixed and all stone joints re-pointed.

Internally, whitewash and all green mould was removed from the floor, walls and stonework.

19TH CENTURY RESTORATION FOR NORTHBOROUGH CHURCH | CHURCH NEWS

So cleverly had this been covered over, the architects did not detect it, but a mason sounding the wall found it hollow, and on breaking the slab revealed the piscina.

The slab under the recessed arch was repaired and set in cement. Two new oak doors were fitted to the stair access and the window opening in the chantry room was glazed.

It was made clear in the specification that the Claypole monument and the wall canopies were to be protected by wooden casings and not disturbed in any way.

basin set in a niche near and south of the altar for washing the Communion vessels with a drain). This had been partly broken into when the Claypole chapel was built, about 1350.

So cleverly had this been covered over, the architects did not detect it, but a mason sounding the wall found it hollow, and on breaking the slab revealed the piscina.

Three interesting discoveries were made during the restoration work. In the west wall, two small chambers, one each side of the bell turret and measuring 9” (23cm) square by 2’6” (76cm) deep, were discovered. It was assumed at the time that these were to accommodate the ties for a bell tower that was never built.

The defective roof of the church body could not be repaired due to the lack of money, also work was needed in the chancel, but it was hoped that further fundraising would raise enough to complete the restoration.

In the north aisle wall, the sedilia (stone seats for the clergy) and an aumbry (a recess used to store sacred vessels) were found, the former backed with portions of the top slabs of old stone coffins.

In the south aisle wall, eastward of the sedilia and behind a slab of hewn and bevelled stone, were found the remains of a very beautiful specimen of an Early English piscina (a stone

Following this initial restoration work there was a re-opening ceremony led by the Bishop of Peterborough with many local clergy in attendance and a large congregation. A report on the ceremony was printed in the Peterborough Standard newspaper, 31 March 1894.

In his address, the Bishop spoke of this church and its association with the past. He commented on how he hoped the congregation’s passion and devotion in restoring the church of their fore fathers was but an outward sign of their inward spiritual zeal.

St. Andrew’s, Northborough PCC is most grateful to Gail Richardson for her continued research and longstanding interest in the history of St. Andrew’s.

We were amused to hear that over a century ago, the vicar was battling with the same problems faced by our Church today (plus ça change!) which as you may have heard, has been placed on the “At Risk Register” on account of many of the same issues.

One hundred and twenty years later, we are embarking on the mammoth task of fundraising to restore our Church to keep it functioning as a hub in the community, hopefully for a further century. Sadly, our plans for an extension have had to be postponed because of the need for urgent roof repairs.

Should you be interested in assisting our efforts in any way, please get in touch with St. Andrew’s treasurer – Carole Spinks – 01778 343585 or make a donation using the QR code below.

Use your mobile to read the QR code below to visit our Give A Little campaign page at https://bit.ly/3d1RTQd For other ways of helping, visit: https://bit.ly/3davrVn

Sources: The Journal of the British Archaeological Association, Volume 5, 1899.

Peterborough Standard newspaper, Peterborough Archive Service, Peterborough Central Library John Thompson Archive (reference PAS/JTA), Peterborough Archive Service, Peterborough Central Library. 

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TRIBUNE CHURCH | NEWS & SERVICES

Services

Tribland Church JUNE/JULY

Sun 6 June

Sun 13 June

Sun 20 June

Sun 27 June

Sun 4 July

St Stephen Etton

10.00am Parish Praise Mark Hotchkin

No Service

8am Holy Communion Rev'd Mark-Aaron

No Service

10am Parish Praise Mark Hotchkin

St Peter Maxey

No Service

9am All Age Holy Communion Rev'd Mark-Aaron

10am Family Service Village Hall Mark Hotchkin and Freda Skillman

9am Holy Communion BCP Rev'd MarkAaron

No Service

St Benedict Glinton

10.30am Holy Communion Rev'd Mark-Aaron

10.30am Parish Praise Mark Hotchkin

10.30am Holy Communion Rev'd Mark-Aaron

10.30am Joint Parish Worship with St. Pega's Derek Harris

10.30am Holy Communion Rev'd Mark-Aaron

St Andrew Northboro'

9am Holy Communion Rev'd Mark-Aaron

10.30am All Age Praise Freda Skillman

9am Holy Communion Rev'd Mark-Aaron

10.30am Family Communion Praise Rev'd Mark-Aaron and Freda Skillman

9am Holy Communion Rev'd Mark-Aaron

St Pega Peakirk

6pm Evensong Rev'd Mark-Aaron

10.30am Holy Communion Rev'd Mark-Aaron

11am Morning Prayer Derek Harris

Joint Parish Worship in St. Benedict's, Glinton

6pm Evensong Rev'd Mark-Aaron

CHURCH ADDRESSES:

St John the Baptist Church Main Street, Barnack PE9 3DN St Mary’s Church Church Lane, Bainton PE9 3AF St Botolph’s Church Church Street, Helpston PE6 7DT All Saints Church Church Road, Wittering PE8 6AF St Andrew’s Church Main Street, Ufford PE9 3BH St Stephen, Main Rd., Etton PE6 7DA St Peter Main St. Maxey PE6 9HF St Pega Chestnut Close, Peakirk PE6 7NH | Glinton St Benedict High St., Glinton PE6 7JN St Andrew Church St., Northborough PE6 9BN

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The 9Bridges Benefice

St. Andrew’s - Northborough, St. Benedict’s - Glinton, St. Pega’s - Peakirk, St. Peter’s - Maxey & St Stephen’s - Etton

Sunday services in the Benefice during May While the churches remain closed the following Sunday services will be accessible on line.

Holy Communion 10.30am - Rev Mark-Aaron leads a live-streamed service of Holy Communion on the Benefice Facebook page and afterwards uploaded to YouTube. (Search Benefice rector and click on the Nine Bridges icon/logo).

Compline 9pm - Compline is also live-streamed on the Benefice Facebook page and will also be uploaded to YouTube.

Sunday 23rd May (Pentecost) – Benefice Holy Communion 10.30am This will be held on Peakirk Village Green.

The following churches will also be open for private prayer and reflection: St Peter’s Maxey : each Saturday afternoon from 2pm to 4pm

St Benedict’s Glinton : each Sunday afternoon from 2pm to 4pm

St Pega’s, Peakirk : each Wednesday morning from 10.30am to 12.30pm.

Details of all services and other activities in the Benefice are published on line and can be emailed to you as a Monthly Newsletter. To sign up to receive emails of the Newsletter and weekly updates of the upcoming services please contact Jane Harris on 01733 574311 or email your request to 9bridgescommunications@gmail.com

Family run business with 34 years’ experience of offering clients unique and practical designs to complement your lifestyle Helpston based

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PLANNING APPLICATIONS

 AILSWORTH

Garage conversion for habitable use at 8 Maffit Road Ailsworth Peterborough PE5 7AG: Awaiting decision Two storey rear extension at 24 Helpston Road Ailsworth Peterborough PE5 7AE: Awaiting decision

 BAINTON

The erection of two field shelters on concrete bases and installation of a permeable stone vehicle access and parking at Land To The South Of Barnack Road Bainton Stamford: Awaiting decision Erection of summer house at Maple House Tallington Road Bainton Stamford: Awaiting decision

 BARNACK

Replace all windows and re-instate lime plaster on walls of kitchen at Corner Cottage Main Street Barnack Stamford: Awaiting decision Part-retrospective demolition of existing sunroom and replacement with single storey extension at The Hollows Millstone Lane Barnack Stamford: Awaiting decision Single storey rear extension at The Hollows Millstone Lane Barnack Stamford: Withdrawn by applicant Agricultural welfare unit at The Vineyard Plant Nursery Land To The West Of Uffington Road Barnack: Awaiting decision Change of use of domestic land to additional public house curtilage with associated removal of existing trees, boundary treatment, retaining walls, landscaping and widening of vehicular ramp to car park at The Millstone Inn Millstone Lane Barnack Stamford: Awaiting decision Conversion of existing stone outbuildings (stores) to living accommodation (1no. bedroom, 1no. office, 1no. study & 2.no bathrooms) at Cedar House Main Street Barnack Stamford: Awaiting decision Ground floor front extension, two storey side and single storey rear extension at 4 Whitman Close Barnack Stamford PE9 3EL: Awaiting decision Garage conversion with roof lantern at 2 Bishops Walk Barnack Stamford PE9 3EE: Permitted Single storey side extension to west elevation to provide Dining Room at Mill House Wittering Ford Road Barnack Stamford: Permitted Proposed dropped kerb at 33 Uffington Road Barnack Stamford PE9 3DU: Withdrawn by applicant

 CASTOR

Proposed Orangery rear extension, front open canopy and carport extension at Ferry Hill House Peterborough Road Castor Peterborough: Awaiting decision Change of use from mixed office and residential use to a singlefamily dwellinghouse, involving proposed reinstatement, refurbishment, extensions, alterations and landscaping following internal strip out and demolition 74

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of previous extensions, including reinstatement of external waterwheel, timber lucum, external steps and dormer positions; single-storey swimming pool extension and glazed link; two-storey side extension; alterations to fenestration, including new dormer windows and conservation rooflights; side walkway; railings; alternations to existing barn including ancillary staff accommodation; and, garden room outbuilding at Old Mill Mill Lane Castor Peterborough: Permitted Proposed first floor extension at side and new roof to conservatory at 3 The Limes Castor Peterborough PE5 7BH: Permitted Non-material amendment (move ground floor wall on south elevation and move first floor window) pursuant to Planning Permission 20/01236/HHFUL at 33 Peterborough Road Castor Peterborough PE5 7AX: Determined

 DEEPING GATE

Pitched roof extension to front elevation to form covered eating area and extension of front porch at 29 Suttons Lane Deeping Gate Peterborough PE6 9AA: Permitted Demolition of existing conservatory and erection of single storey side/rear extension at 1 Peakirk Road Deeping Gate Peterborough PE6 9AD: Permitted

 ETTON

Proposed ground floor rear extension attached by link and new purpose made windows at 10 Main Road Etton Peterborough PE6 7DA: Permitted

 GLINTON

Proposed single storey and two storey extensions, alterations and detached garage at 5 The Green Glinton Peterborough PE6 7JN: Awaiting decision Single storey and two storey rear extension at 66 Helpston Road Glinton Peterborough PE6 7JT: Awaiting decision Single storey rear extension Maximum extent from original rear wall: 4.050m Maximum height: 3.075m (to eaves: 3.075m) at 2 Farthingstones Glinton Peterborough PE6 7NU: Awaiting decision Construction of 34 no. entry level affordable homes with associated infrastructure including access, sustainable drainage features, public open space with children's play equipment and landscaping at Land To The West Of St Benedicts Close Glinton Peterborough: Refused Single storey extensions to front and rear at 30A Lincoln Road Glinton Peterborough PE6 7JS: Permitted Change of use from existing office and residential spaces to residential use only, comprising 2no. existing flats and 6no. proposed new flats; including demolition of outbuilding, proposed rear dormer, external alterations to building, iron railings to the front, bin and cycle store; vehicular parking alterations and landscaping alterations at 9A High Street Glinton Peterborough PE6 7JP: Permitted

PLANNING APPLICATIONS

Two storey front extension, replacement windows and new render at 20 Welmore Road Glinton Peterborough PE6 7LU: Permitted

 HELPSTON

Demolition of existing single storey side extension.

Construction of 1.5 storey side and rear extension with dormer windows and rear balcony. Cladding and render to all walls. Replacement windows and tiles. Installation of PV cells to rear and side of property and erection of timber framed free standing garage with associated storage and associated landscaping at 36 West Street Helpston Peterborough PE6 7DX: Awaiting decision Single storey rear extension Distance from original rear wall: 5.31m Maximum height: 2.54m (to eaves: 2.44m) at 27 Arborfield Close Helpston Peterborough PE6 7DL: Awaiting decision Installation of a summer cabin, constructed of prefabricated modular units, clad in timber and with a pitch roof covered in cedar shingles at The Grainstore Glinton Road Helpston Peterborough: Awaiting decision Erection of a two storey 4 bed detached dwelling with associated parking at Land Adjacent To 121 West Street Helpston Peterborough PE6 7DU: Awaiting decision First floor extension to existing bedroom above existing kitchen- retrospective at 91B Glinton Road Helpston Peterborough PE6 7DG: Awaiting decision Extension of existing garage/office outbuilding to create a four-bed dwelling and separation of existing plot at 24 Maxey Road Helpston Peterborough PE6 7DP: Awaiting decision Removal of existing low level fencing and replacement with new 1.8m security fencing at West Street Garage West Street Helpston Peterborough: Awaiting decision Single storey rear extension Distance from original rear wall: 5.062m Maximum height: 3m (to eaves: 3m) at 18 Arborfield Close Helpston Peterborough PE6 7DL: Not required Proposed side extension and loft conversion at 48 Broad Wheel Road Helpston Peterborough PE6 7EE: Permitted

 MAXEY

To build an inglenook fireplace on the outside wall and add 50cm to existing chimney for draw at 16 Castle End Road Maxey Peterborough PE6 9EP: Awaiting decision Outline application for the retention of the existing house, 2no. proposed dwellings, with matters of appearance and landscaping reserved at 21 High Street Maxey Peterborough PE6 9EB: Permitted Importation and deposition of inert materials over a one year period to facilitate restoration of Phase 1, using the existing site access, internal haul roads and crossings over drainage assets and Woodgate Lane at Land At Maxey Quarry High Street Maxey Peterborough: Permitted

 NORTHBOROUGH

Change window sizes of two front windows on first floor, render first floor elevation, installation of a window and a door to existing openings in the porch on the ground floor at 72 Castle Drive Northborough Peterborough PE6 9DL: Awaiting decision Proposed new feather edged solid 1.8m high timber fence to be installed 3.2m from the existing rail timber fence inside the existing earth mound to the east of the property at 3 Church Farm Mews Northborough Peterborough PE6 9BF: Awaiting decision Installation of non-opening flush roof light to flat roof of kitchen extension at 1 Church Street Northborough Peterborough PE6 9BN: Awaiting decision Loft Conversion exceeding permitted development limits and single storey rear extension at 53 Church View Northborough Peterborough PE6 9DQ: Awaiting decision Proposed Rear extension, New external freestanding car port, Canopy over front entrance door and alterations to provide disabled access at 2 Church Farm Mews Northborough Peterborough PE6 9BF: Permitted Oil-fired boiler flue to exit through existing airbrick on front elevation, housed in decorative grating at 52 Church Street Northborough Peterborough PE6 9BN: Permitted Installation of flue to rear Barn woodburner at 46 Church Street Northborough Peterborough PE6 9BN: Permitted

 PEAKIRK

Demolition of existing garage and erection of single storey Garage at 1 Bull Lane Peakirk Peterborough PE6 7NQ: Awaiting decision Replacement of front 2 windows- Retrospective at 8 St Pegas Road Peakirk Peterborough PE6 7NF Awaiting decision

 PILSGATE

Demolish the side extension and rebuild same dimensions, using the same materials - this due to severe foundation failure (partretrospective) at Pilsgate Grange Stamford Road Pilsgate Stamford: Permitted

 UFFORD

Non-material amendment (alterations to elevations including rooflight to South elevation and personnel door to East elevation) of planning permission 18/00502/ HHFUL at Highlands Marholm Road Ufford Stamford: Awaiting decision Construction of a single dwelling house, formation of pond and re-wilding of land at Newport Farm Newport Way Ufford Stamford: Awaiting decision Construction of outbuilding to include storage area, garden room and greenhouse at Highlands Marholm Road Ufford Stamford: Awaiting decision

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DELFIELD MOTORS MOT Testing Station Courtesy car available Class IV (cars & light vans) Class V & Class VII (vans up to 3500kg) For all mechanical, MOT preparations, accident & insurance body repairs

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01733 252 599

Peakirk, Peterborough PE6 7NT

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Established since 1972

TRIBUNE DIRECTORY

 Ailsworth Parish Council

 Benefice Administrators/ Lay Readers

Megan Ellershaw .................................... 07133 381242 Richard Moon .......................................... 07952198959 Anne Perkins ........................................... 07133 380541 Joan Pickett (Chairman) .......................... 01733 380457 Jon Phillips .............................................. 07734218500 Michael Samways ................................... 07753835758

Dick Talbot .............................................. 01778 342581 Licensed Readers, Derek Harris............. 01733 574311 Freda Skillman ........................................ 01778 380903 Mark Hotchkin......................................... 01778 347847 Mike Mills................................................. 01780 740285

 Bainton Church Michael Perkins ....................................... 01780 740720 John Wreford, Church Warden............... 01780 740362 Mary Gowers, Lay Pastoral Minister ...... 01780 740097 Elizabeth Snowball, Organist ................ 07821 460505

 Bainton & Ashton Parish Council Chairman: Susie Lucas ........................... 01780 740159 Councillor: Cliff Stanton.......................... 01780 749123 Councillor: Pete Charlton ...................... 07850 657200 Councillor: Chris Womack ..................... 01780 740925 Clerk Jenny Rice........bainton.ashton.clerk@live.co.uk

 Barnack Church (St John the Baptist) Gary Alderston, Rector........................... 07503975588 Mary Gowers, Lay Pastoral Minister...... 01780 740097 Reader: Su Fletcher 01780 740034 Reader: Mike Mills 01780 740285 John Ward, Churchwarden ................... 01780 740016 David Laycock, Churchwarden ............. 01780 740267

 Barnack / Bainton Church Organist

 Bowls Clubs Barnack Bowls Club Phil Collins ............................................... 01780 740124 Glinton Bowls Roy Pettitt................................................. 01733 252049 Helpston Carpet Bowls Les Cunnington ....................................... 01733 253832

 Botolph’s Barn

Kate Hinchliff ........................................... 07745 116621

 British Legion

Max Sawyer ............................................. 01780 765507

 Bus & Train Services Delaine Bus Services .............................. 01778 422866 Stagecoach .............................................. 01733 207860 Train Services ........................................... 0845 7484950

 Castor Parish Council John Haste, Clerk.......................clerk@castor-pc.gov.uk ................................................................. 01733 252833

 Citizens Advice

Elizabeth Snowball.................................. 07821 460505

Citizens Advice ........................................ 0870 1264024

 Barnack Coffee Stop

 Cubs, Brownies, Guides, Scouts & Rainbows

Carol Pickering ........................................ 01780 740438

Julie Stanton .......................................... 01780 749123

Helpston Explorer Scouts Nick Drewett.................01778 348107 / 07900 585072 Helpston Scouts Mark Crookes........................................... 07808 633018 Helpston Cub Scouts Paula Metharam....................................... 07896 163598 Helpston Rainbow Guides Julia Mason.............................................. 07780 688542 Glinton District Commissioner Morag Sweeney....................................... 07801 357701 Helpston Guides, Nicola Kerr................. 07739 098113 Helpston Beaver Scouts, Alison Cook.... 07437 909735 Glinton Brownies, Sally Nash.................. 01733 254174 1st Glinton Rainbow Leader, Sally Nash.01733 254174 Northborough Guides, Jane Knott, ..... 01778 345101

Barnack Parish Council ..........clerk@barnack-pc.gov.uk Chairman, Harry Brassey ....................... 01780 740115 Vice Chair, Margaret Palmer ................. 01780 740988 Phil Broughton ....................................... 01780 740379 David Laycock ........................................ 01780 740267 Martin Bloom ......................................... 01780 740966 Councillor, Susie Caney ......................... 07747 033990 Clerk, Debbie Lines ............................... 07595 377236

Jane Hill, (Chair) ..................................... 01778 343066 Phil Thompson, Vice Chairman............. 01778 346619 Geoff Purllant.......................................... 01778 344288 Janet Lill................................................... 01778 342647 Nicola Kerr............................................... 07739 098113 Sandra Hudspeth.................................... 01778 343735 Diane Templeton, Clerk..clerk@deepinggate-pc.gov.uk ................................................................. 07879 043785

 Barnack Community Association Sally Hullock............................................. 07795 565658

 Barnack Cricket Club

William Armitage, Chairman................... 01780 740749

 Barnack Home from Home Club

Niamh Holman.......................... hfhbarnack@gmail.com

 Barnack Men’s Breakfast Mike Mills.................................................. 01780 740285 David Laycock ......................................... 01780 740267

 Barnack Messy Church  Barnack Parish Council

 Deeping Gate Parish Council

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TRIBUNE DIRECTORY

 Doctors Deeping Practice (Main line) ................. 01778 579000 Deeping Practice (Appointments)......... 01778 579001 Glinton Surgery ...................................... 01733 252246

 Etton Church (St Stephen’s) Rector: Mark-Aaron Tisdale.................... 01733 252359 Anne Curwen, Churchwarden ............... 01733 253357

 Etton Parish Council

Fred Morton, Chair ................................ 01733 252912 Emma Tajar, Clerk .................................. 01733 234542

 Glinton Friendship Club

Pam Kounougakis................................... 01733 252018

 Friends of Chernobyl Children (FOCC)

Cecilia Hammond .................................. 07779 264591

 Glinton Church (St Benedict’s) Rev Mark-Aaron B. Tisdale, Rector ....... 01733 252359 Veronica Smith, Churchwarden.............. 01733 252019 Simon Richards, PCC Treasurer............. 01778 341686 Mike Goodall, Bell Ringers..................... 01733 253469

 Glinton Parish Council

Chair, John Holdich OBE, .................... 01733 253078 Clerk, Mr John Haste, ............................ 01733 252833

 Helpston Church (St Botolph’s) Rector: Gary Alderson..............................07503975588 Clive Pearce, Church Treasurer................01733 253494 David Bearman, Churchwarden...............01780 757246 Gary Ward, Church Warden ....................01733 254197

 Helpston Helcats

E: Helpstoncommunityactivityteam@gmail.com Facebook: @Helpstoncommunity Phil Roberts...............................................07925 720195 Emma Long...............................................07827 297053

 Helpston Parish Council

Joe Dobson (Chair) ..................................01733 252192 Sydney Smith Clerk .................................01733 252903 Rosemary Morton Vice ............................01733 252243

 Horticultural Societies John Best - Glinton...................................01778 342115 Debbie Martin - Barnack Show................01780 740048 Kirsty Scott - Peakirk ................................01733 253952

 Hospital Peterborough City Hospital ....................01733 678000

 Langdyke Countryside Trust Richard Astle ............................................01733 252376

 Maxey Church (St Peter’s) Rev Mark-Aaron B. Tisdale, Rector..........01733 252 359 Mandy Loveder, Bell Tower Captain ......01778 343100 Mandy Loveder, Churchwarden .............01778 343100 Tina Lapinskis, Maxey Sunday School ....01778 347280 78

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 Maxey Parish Council Lynne Yarham, Chair ................................01778 343077 Angela Hankins, Clerk .............................01733 253397

 Neighbourhood Watch Maxey Neighbourhood Watch Dick Wilkins................................................01778 348368 Bainton & Ashton Neighbourhood Watch Cliff Stanton................................................01780 749123

 Northborough Church (St Andrew’s)

Rector: Mark- Aaron Tisdale.....................01733 252359 Polly Beasley, Churchwarden ...................01778 380849 Jane Knott, Churchwarden ......................01778 345101 Freda Skillman, Licensed Reader .............01778 380903 Carole Spinks, PCC Treasurer...................01778 343585

 Northborough Parish Council John Dadge, Chair ...................................01733 254145 Catherine Franks, Clerk...clerk@northboroughpc.co.uk ....................................................................07748 637555

 Peakirk Church (St Pegas) Rector: Mark- Aaron Tisdale.....................01733 252359 Pauline Cooke, Church Warden...............01733253116 Sheila Lever, Churchwarden .....................01733 252416 Christine Dearman, Secretary ..................01733 252404 David Hankins ...........................................01733 253397

 Peakirk Parish Council Angela Hankins, Clerk .............................01733 253397 Henry Clark, Chair ....................................01733 253203

 Peterborough City Council John Holdich OBE Peterborough ..........01733 253078 Peterborough City Council .....................01733 747474

 Physiotherapy Piper Physiotherapy..................................01778 380191

 Police and Emergencies Police - emergency calls ............................................999 Less urgent crimes .....................................................101 Power Failure ............................................0800 7838838 Samaritans ...................................FREEPHONE 116 123

 Pre-School & After-School Clubs Helpston Playhouse pre-school Lucy Garwood...........................................01733 253243 Helpston Before & After School Club Roz Sowinski..............................................01733 253243 Peakirk Tots Toddler Group Jennifer Rice..............................................07515 364909 Little Lambs Toddler Group, Barnack Julie Stanton..............................................01780 749123 Sunflower Seed Pre-School, Northborough Kirsty Wislawski, Manager .......................01733 253685

The Owls’ Nest, Mrs Ringham........... 01733 252361

TRIBUNE DIRECTORY

 Rotary Club Al Good.....................................................01733 252064

 Schools & Education Arthur Mellows Village College Mike Sandeman, Head ............................01733 252235 John Clare Primary Mrs S Nicolson, Head...............................01733 252332 Barnack C of E Primary Neil Fowkes...............................................01780 740265 Peakirk-cum-Glinton Primary School Craig Kendall, Head ................................01733 252361 Northborough Primary Mr S Mallott, Head ..................................01733 252204 Peterborough Adult Learning Maureen Meade.......................................01733 761361

 Tennis Clubs Helpston Tennis Club Stephen Abell Helpstonltc@gmail.com..07714 780573

 Ward Councillors Barnack David Over .............................. 07920 160053 Glinton & Castor Peter Hiller & John Holdich .................. 07920 160487

 Women’s Institute (WI) Helpston WI Janel Pike, President............................... 01733 253834 Conney Varley (Helpston WI Secretary) 01733 260558 Glinton WI Margaret Stafford.................................... 01733 701268 Jenny Dunk (Glinton WI Secetary) ........ 01775 630163 Sarah Thurlow (Glinton WI President)... 01780 740342

 Youth Clubs Barnack Youth Club Kerrie Garner........................................... 01780 740118 Maxey Youth Club Tina Lapinskis.......................................... 01778 347280

 Ufford Church Enquiries Peter and Sally Hudson ...........................01780 740475

 Ufford Parish Council Keith Lievesley (Chairman) ......................01780 740679 ..........................................keith.lievesley@btinternet.com David Chadwick........................................01780 740893 ..................................................david@chadsonline.co.uk Frieda Gosling...........................................01780 740343 ...............................................friedagosling@yahoo.co.uk Paul Wilde.................................................07960 018148 .....................................................paul@worldofskills.com Margaret Sargent .....................................01780 749482 ..........................................................m55arg@gmail.com Susie Caney (Clerk)...................................07747 033990 ......................................................clerk@ufford-pc.gov.uk

 Village Halls Barnack Village Hall Bookings Sally Hullock..............................................07795 565658 .....................................bookings.barnackca@gmail.com Glinton Village Hall Sue Lane (Bookings).................................07923 475966 Glinton Whist, Joyce Heathcote..............01733 253790 Helpston Village Hall,Caryn Thompson .01733 252232 Maxey Village Hall, Jacqui Barnard, .......07710 150587 Northborough Village Hall, Karen Cooper, 01778 347464 Peakirk Village Hall (Bookings) ................07938 386226 Ufford Village Hall Fiona Spire (Bookings)..............................07795 111319

 Village Tribune Editor, Tony Henthorn .............................07590 750128 Design Team, Dimension 6000................01733 772095

NO JOB TOO SMALL (cont.)

24 HR EMERGENCY PLUMBING

MATTHEW MILLS 01778 347308 07545 270482

www.rjmillsandsons.com vil agetribune

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