After reading me please pass on to a friend or place in your recycling.
MoulshamTimes Delivered to 6500 homes and businesses monthly
Issue Number 11 - November 2013
MT /welcome
Welcome to the November Moulsham Times.
Well what a busy month we have had at magazine headquarters! Chelmsford The City Times is out throughout the whole city. If you have not seen a copy you can view online at chelmsfordthecitytimes.co.uk. Please sign up to receive an email notification when the next edition is available. We have been out and about this month meeting some of our readers and writers, with an interesting visit to the New London Road cemetery where we met the volunteers carrying out their good work clearing overgrown areas and installing bird boxes to help attract wildlife. (See more on pages 28 & 29). We also met with Tom Cole at Writtle College on a rainy Sunday to have a look at the work being done there. We hope you enjoy this edition and remember to look out for the vouchers and deals our advertisers are offering. Nick & Paul
I must thank all of the artists, the venues, Round Tower brewery for our very own brew called Blues in the City and all of you who attended and supported live music in our city.
What a time it has been since the last edition. Firstly we had our Blues in the City festival from the 26th to 29th Sept and what a four days was had by all who attended while raising money for the Helen Rollason Cancer Charity. Day 1 at the New Crawdaddy Blues Club was amazing a packed venue and two great acts who wowed the audience. Day 2 at the Chelmsford Social Club with three acts with the amazing Nimmo Brothers headlining-what a great band they are. Day 3 started in the Star & Garter, then onto the Woolpack, then it was back to the Social Club for another six fantastic acts. Day 4 was all over Chelmsford in various venues with great acts from all over the UK playing. We finished the festival at the Black Bull with a great band, Roadhouse, who played to a packed house, as did most of the acts.
Trinovantes by John Foley
Narrow Defeat in first match Trinovantes finally kicked off their 15-a side season with a game against Old Brentwoods Vets at the beginning of October. This was the very first full 15 game we have ever played and it was really satisfying to see the team come together at last. It’s taken three years to get to this position and whilst that may seem a long time, building a rugby team from scratch is no easy undertaking. We were bolstered by a number of players from Witham RUFC, our partner club (more about that later) and it was evident in the opening exchanges that we had something of a lack of cohesiveness on the pitch. Given that the OBs have been together as a team for nearly 20 years the final score line represented an outstanding achievement. The game started brightly for Trinovantes and whilst cohesiveness may have been lacking it was clear that our pack held a size advantage and used that to good effect in tight play. However, OBs held the advantage in the loose, running the ball wide and opening gaps in defence. This led to the OBs’ first try which was duly converted. As the first half developed, Trinovantes began to gel as a team and began to exert sustained pressure culminating in Tom Howard going over for an unconverted try. A second unconverted try followed 5 minutes later, scored by prop Richard Miller after excellent play from the pack, which saw OBs driven back 35 metres to their line in a rolling maul. Half time saw the teams turn around with Trinovantes holding a 3 point lead. The second half started brightly for both teams with some excellent moves failing, in the main, to unforced handling errors and solid defensive tackling from both sides. The 55 minute mark saw OBs run in a second try which they converted and so the lead changed hands again until Joe Cooke found space following a chip over the OBs defence and ran in unopposed to restore a 1 point advantage to Trinovantes. With 10 minutes remaining OBs conceded a penalty just outside their 22 metre line which would have given us some breathing space but unfortunately the ball hit the upright and the chance went begging. In a frenetic final 5 minutes Trinovantes conceded a penalty in front of the posts and OBs collected the 3 points on offer to retake the lead. Even then
Sadly our Slim Chance and Benny Gallagher gig was cancelled but we are looking to reschedule it for next year. We have a new home for our monthly events, we are back with Jon and Marc from Hooga who are reopening the Bassment and want me to put on a night there. Our first will be Wed Nov 20th with LaVendore Rouge, the support act starts at 8.30pm and tickets are £3. Thursday 17th saw Bruce Foxton From The Jam plus support from the Lunar Pilots and DJ Robin Quartermain at Evoke. The night was fantastic with over 550 people in attendance. Next is the Buzzcocks with support from Mandeville and DJ Dave Arscott on Thursday 28th Nov. You can purchase tickets from James Dace in Moulsham Street, the Ale House and Evoke, or online. Sorry I cannot mention all the other great events and venues this month but please see our sister publication Chelmsford The City Times for events listings. By Nick Garner - www.bluesinthecity.co.uk
the game was not completely over as in the dying minutes a huge forward effort saw Trinovantes camped on the OBs’ line recycling ball after ball as they sought a gap in the OBs’ defence, which was remarkably tight given the late stage in the game. The gap came only for the referee to whistle for an offside movement and that was that. Overall a great result and the closest Trinovantes will ever come to winning without actually accumulating more points than the opposition in my opinion. Even more so when you consider that three conversions and a penalty were missed along with the disallowed try. The general opinion was that, given this was the first 15 a side outing, the performance was excellent and bodes well for the future. Partnership with Witham RUFC Back to the ‘partnership’ I mentioned earlier. When the club was formed we had no aspirations to ever ‘own’ a home ground and accepted that we would be a wandering ‘Barbarian’ style side. However, and this is really great news, we have been developing a relationship with Witham RUFC for a while now and have been very kindly offered the use of Witham’s ground as a home base. Therefore we are no longer wandering and are looking forward to a burgeoning relationship developing. Some of our players will be appearing for Witham in the future, in fact Ben Muir, Matt Brown, Paul Moore and our French winger Stephane Lefevre already have played for them. The flip side of that coin is that Witham players will bolster our side in our games. The relationship includes joint training on Tuesday nights at Witham. Excellent news all round. As ever we are looking for new players and the contacts for the club, should you be interested in coming to play or just train with us, are myself, John Foley (07711 820312) or Ben Muir (07769 294302). Give either of us a call or text one of us. Alternatively you can tweet @TrinovantesRFC, email trinovantesrfc@gmail. com, look us up on Facebook under Trinovantes RFC or log on to pitchero.com/clubs/trinovantesrufc and leave a message.
The Moulsham Times is printed by www.graphic-impressions.co.uk
From the House by Simon Burns MP Universal Primary Education Recently, I attended an assembly of year 7-9 pupils at St John Payne School to discuss with them their involvement in the Send My Friend to School campaign.
The campaign itself was established by 189 United Nations members at the Millennium Summit in 2000, with a goal of achieving universal primary education by the year 2015, along with the other Millennium Development Goals. This means that all children globally will have access to complete a full course of primary schooling or education, as is available in Britain. Thirteen years on since the development goal was launched, we have certainly seen a marked improvement. For example, enrolment rates of children of primary school age increased markedly in sub-Saharan Africa, previously the lowest scoring region, from 58 to 76 per cent between 1999 and 2010. Sadly there are still 61 million primary aged children that still have absolutely no access to education. This is estimated to be somewhere between 11 and 17 percent of the earth’s primary population, and still a huge number of lives that can be improved. The Government by 2015 will certainly be trying to make an impact through its own direct investment. It will support 9 million children in primary education, and another 2 million in lower secondary, whilst ensuring there are the facilities to do this by building at least 60,000 new classrooms. Supporting higher education is vital to encourage pupils to remain in school, improving the number of educated workers coming from Asia and Africa. This can be done by improving the 200 higher education institutions across the two continents, whilst providing 750 to 800 scholarships at UK universities for Commonwealth students. By the year 2015 we hope to meet our commitment to spend 0.7 per cent of Gross National Income on overseas aid, to increase the opportunities of those in less developed countries than our own.
MT / Therapy by Jenny Hartill
One of the most popular issues in the modern world today is stress. Many people don’t know the signs and symptoms of stress, they assume they should just be able to “deal with life” – some are told to “just get on with it” or “pull your socks up”. This kind of emotional invalidation can cause a person to feel under even more pressure and in time lead to further issues for example anxiety, low self esteem and low confidence. This article aims to inform about the nature of stress, the most common responses to stress and how to cope when your stress levels feel too much. Firstly, what is “stress”? When you feel like things are getting a little too much and you’re struggling to cope – you’re stressed. Recognising and acknowledging your stress is important because if you ignore it and “shove it under the carpet”, the stress is likely to build up (whether you’re aware of it or not) and then come out in other more severe emotional, behavioural and physical symptoms. When your body reacts to stress physically you’ll experience what we call “fight or flight”. This term refers to the fact your body has perceived the stressor and is getting ready either to fight it or to run away. Years ago when we had to kill our own dinner as opposed to get it from the supermarket, our ancestors had to know what they could handle in certain situations, our fight or flight response developed to keep us alive. Do you kill the animal for dinner or does it look angry enough to rip your head off? If it does look angry, can you take it on and win or do you run for your life and find the nearest cave in which to hide until said angry animal has gone away? These days rather than the angry animal we have work, relationships and other stressors to deal with, but our bodies haven’t caught up with our brains so we still physically react the same way. Sometimes this can be a scary experience, for example if you start having palpitations at your desk seemingly for no apparent reason, but say, your boss just had a massive go at you. Your boss is the proverbial angry animal, your boss is scary, you either want to punch them or hide under your desk (cave). Obviously, neither of these reactions are acceptable in the modern world (unless you want to be sacked/sectioned) so generally we stew over it until it all gets too much. The three most common responses to stress are: Extroverted response: anger, agitated, heated, overly emotional, can’t sit still. Introverted response: withdrawn, depressed, shut down, spaced out, little energy or emotion. A mixture of both: tense, freeze under pressure, can’t do anything, look paralysed but very agitated underneath. Believe it or not, there is such a thing as positive stress. Positive stress is called eustress, it’s the kind of stress experienced for example if someone surprised you with a birthday party or when a sales person gets in a big deal. It’s amazing, fantastic, exciting, and the same physical response happens in your body as if you were suffering with negative stress. The only difference is mindset. Your body cannot differentiate between positive and negative stress, it just sees it as the same thing. You would feel as exhausted after an exciting night out partying to celebrate that big deal as you would sat at your desk wondering how on God’s green earth you’re going to hit that target and your boss is going to kill you.
So, how do we deal with stress? The most important thing is to learn how to relax. Many people don’t even know what being relaxed is, they assume it’s plonking yourself in front of the telly and watching a comedy. Although this may make you feel better emotionally and take your mind off things, if you’re still getting excited at something you’re watching, your body doesn’t physically know the difference. The best thing to do is to allow your mind to clear and your body to physically relax. For example, a nice warming bubble bath with candles and some soft soothing music. Meditating or using some visualisation techniques (imagine you’re on a beach relaxing) before you go to bed. Relaxation is an art that is individual to everyone, some people find it easy some don’t. I’m one of those people who doesn’t, worrying about things may as well have been a hobby as I was always stressing about something, and if I wasn’t stressing about something I was stressing about the fact I wasn’t stressing about anything!! The trick is to ground yourself – ask yourself if you really, honestly need to worry about whatever it is. I find that priority boxes are a big help as it helps put things into perspective. Here’s how I think of them (using a mildly amusing metaphor at the same time to get my point across): Get an A4 piece of paper, split into 4 boxes. The first box is priority 1 (these things absolutely must be done asap, they’re more important than defending the earth from alien attack). The next box is priority 2 (really need to do these things pretty soon but the world won’t end if I don’t, the aliens don’t look that mean anyway). The next box is priority 3 (this stuff can wait a while, the aliens just stopped by for a pint on their way past) and the last box is priority 4 (really don’t need to even bother looking at this stuff for ages, the aliens didn’t even drop by they just had a peek at a mildly interesting looking planet before speeding off into the galaxy). Once you put things into perspective, the stress doesn’t seem so bad because it seems more manageable rather than being one big scary lump of stress!! If you do find yourself thinking about things a lot and stressing over them, or maybe obsessing over the same problem over and over, talk about it. Have a good old fashioned rant, it may be that you just need a different perspective and more information in order to solve the issue. If you’ve already told everyone that will listen to the point you reckon they may be having murderous thoughts whenever you bring the issue up again, write it down. Seeing things in black and white really does help. This is especially the case when stressing over something constantly as when you see just how much you think about it, this may be the catalyst you need to solve the issue. I hope this article has been of use, if anyone has any further questions please feel free to email me. Next time I’ll talk about another big issue that people suffer from in modern society – anxiety. Jenny - info@cloud9-counselling.co.uk www. cloud9-counselling.co.uk
6 www.moulshamtimes.com letters@moulshamtimes.com
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The Vicar of the Moulshams “Remember, remember, the 5th of November .....” I wonder what memories this conjures up for you?
For me, it’s a mixture of things. There was the ritual of gathering wood for the bonfire then making a straw man to put on it. Which when I think about it, once dressed, looked more like my dad than an image of Guy Fawkes, because my brothers and I would always dress it in dad’s old gardening clothes! (mum obviously thought that was a good idea but we weren’t always sure if dad did!) Then there were the fireworks. The biggest and brightest were never my favourites. I always preferred sparklers because I could ‘draw’ my own patterns with those. And there were the sausages cooked over the fire, and the baked potatoes, and the staying up late. But even above all that, my favourite part of ‘bonfire night’ was the being together as a family and inviting a few friends round. So all in all, my memories have rather more to do with the social aspect of the celebration, than the reason for it, i.e. remembering the failed attempt of Guy Fawkes and his gang to blow up the Houses of Parliament in 1605! I guess that is human nature. This month also brings us Remembrance Day, which this year falls on a Monday. The Royal British Legion reports that approximately 70% of the population still respect the two minutes’ silence to commemorate the end of the 1st World War on November the 11th, 1918. It is a fundamental characteristic of human nature to remember and commemorate the war dead, not merely for the sake of our own peace of mind, but for the benefit of future generations that our children may recognise the price of freedom. Of course what we choose to remember defines us both individually and collectively. Remembrance functions on a number of levels, some deeply personal. Remembrance will mean different things to those who have fought for their country. It will mean different things to successive generations and different things again to those of us today who choose to pay tribute to those who lost their lives in wartime. I am increasingly conscious that as the generations that fought our two World Wars become fewer, their stories which connect us to these events begin to fade and the duty of remembrance is handed down to those of us who thankfully have not known war. When I was training for the ministry, I remember my college principal saying, “You need to remember: history is always written by the winners”. There is a lot of truth in that. There are people whose stories will never be heard, because they found themselves on the losing side. When we look back through history we may wonder if war has taught the human race anything, because there has only been one year since 1945 when no one was killed on active service and that was 1968. So I believe it is absolutely essential that we continue to remember all those who were ready to die to win the freedom we now enjoy. We go on remembering that our freedom cost others their lives. Remembering enables us to value our lives. When on November the 11th we say together, “we will remember them”, we make a pledge to go on remembering them.
To write for us please send us an email at editorial@moulshamtimes.com 8
Let me leave you with a Chinese prayer which reminds us where peace begins:
If there is to be peace in the world there must be peace among nations. If there is to be peace among nations there must be peace in the cities. If there is to be peace in the cities there must be peace between neighbours. If there is to be peace between neighbours there must be peace in the home If there is to be peace in the home there must be peace in the heart. Chinese Philosopher Lao-Tse (600BC) Remembrance Sunday this year is on 10th November, when services will be held at 9.45 am at Moulsham St Luke’s and 10.00 am at Moulsham St John’s. (There will also be an Act of Remembrance at 11.00 am on Monday 11th November in the atrium by the Library in County Hall.) And finally, this month ..... Moulsham St John’s is delighted to again be contributing to the Moulsham Street Christmas Festival on Saturday November 23rd by holding a Lighting Up Bazaar from 2.00 pm with Carols at 4.30 pm in church. (I believe that the switching on of the Christmas lights is due to happen at 5.30 pm but don’t take my word for it! Look out for the ads elsewhere). www.stjohnsmoulsham.org.uk and www.stlukemoulsham.co.uk
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MT /gardening
After a disastrous rainy Saturday the other week and a poor turnout at our National Garden Scheme Open Garden Day (13th October), let’s hope for better times ahead for our next garden event on 9th February 2014. What we need is a lovely, crisp bright day to show off the first flush of spring bulbs: dainty white heads of snowdrops and vibrant yellow winter aconites. I don’t think I can ask much more than that! The college has been a member of the National Garden Scheme for a good number of years (since 1997), throwing its doors open at least three times a year to capture the best, and the worst, of our British weather. Visitors can view the many gardens which have been designed and built by students over a number of years. The grounds and gardens cover an area of 15 acres and consist of; informal lawns with naturalised bulbs in spring and wild flowers in summer, a large mature tree collection, mixed shrub and herbaceous borders, heathers and alpines. Landscape theme gardens include a ‘Centenary’ garden and a sub-tropical ‘Hot ‘n’ Spicy’ garden. The main purpose of the grounds at Writtle is to serve the educational and research needs of our students from basic practical provision through to degree level studies. The gardens at Writtle function as an ‘outdoor classroom’ demonstrating many different features, styles and landscape materials. An extensive, well managed and labelled plant collection of over 10,000 plants and 70,000 bulbs ensures stunning displays throughout the seasons. Other features include: 130 landscaped borders, ponds/water features and woodland planting. Keeping these areas can be difficult at times but we have a small, but perfectly formed grounds staff plus a myriad of students. This year student groups, led by their tutors, look after designated areas as part of their studies, as this helps them to appreciate the seasons and their effect on plant growth. This month we are concentrating on last minute pruning opportunities; renovating Spiraea x vanhouttei– cutting out flowered stems to the ground or to where there is a well-spaced outward facing vegetative shoot, after which the remaining limbs are reduced by ¼- ½. We finally finish off beds by lightly forking over and applying (if not too cold) a hefty mulch of well-rotted organic matter to at least 10cm (4”) deep. In other areas the summer bedding is removed and composted, unless it is a tender perennial such as Fuchsia, Pelargonium and Heliotrope, where it will be popped under glass for the winter period. Empty beds don’t remain so for too long… shortly after clearing, the spring bedding goes in giving us colour all year round… as long as the rabbit doesn’t get there first! In some cases where areas are renovated they’ll also be under planted by bulbs. This year we have been fortunate to have been donated from John Fowler, local agriculturist, a sack of Narcissus.
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John kindly sent us a burgeoning sack of Narcissus ‘Sentinel’; where the trumpet turns to a salmon pink. They were developed by his son Jonathan in Lincolnshire for commercial sales. These will be added to the left of the college main drive. This is an unusual strain of daffodil and so we’re all waiting with baited breath to see what they look like. Isn’t gardening such fun! Finally, for those of you in more exposed areas consider pruning bush roses by a ¼- ½ to reduce wind rock and potential stem rubbing which may lead to entry points for diseases. And don’t forget to tie in loose whippy stems of climbers or wall shrubs. Good luck and happy gardening! For any gardening tips why not contact: Tom Cole, Head of Faculty for Land & Environment, Writtle College, Chelmsford, CM1 3RR by post (including a SAE) or email at tom.cole@writtle.ac.uk
FROM COUNTY HALL
by Cllr. Dick Madden Sorry I have not been about for a few weeks but I have just returned from a holiday with my wife in Cape Verde, a group of islands off the coast of west Africa. My wife, Kathryn and I were celebrating our 38 years of marriage and we reflected that we had now lived in Old Moulsham for over 33 years. By our own admission we believe our City centre, Old Moulsham and Moulsham Lodge are good places to live and we recognise many residents have lived in our areas even longer than we have and many individuals and families, once they are established, remain in the area. Over the past in excess of two years now that I have represented you on the City and County Councils, I recognise pockets of residents, be it even a complete street, supporting each other, this is positive. I hope, from my own encouragement, you continue to contact me in my role as a councillor so I can assist you. I can confirm many of you have-and generally with a few exceptions matters can be and are resolved. However I want to endorse and publically support two community groups who have over the past few years been developing and growing in our communities, their joint objective to voluntarily represent residents in all manner of local matters and importantly lobbying Chelmsford City Council and Essex County Council on matters that impact on us all. The first group is Moulsham First, who you would have seen advertising themselves in the last edition of the Moulsham Times, they in effect representing Old Moulsham and the City Centre. Please consider either making contact with them or as a minimum keep their details save as they will want to hear from you and offer support and help if it is within their power to do so. The other community group is the Moulsham Lodge Community Trust who are based on Moulsham Lodge and are growing by facilitating activities and developing a working relationship with Moulsham First. Below is the latest press release from the Moulsham Lodge Community Trust that will appear in the Essex Chronicle during the next few weeks. Having now returned from a wonderful holiday , my only regret, which was pointed out by my wife, Kathryn, was that we forgot to take a copy of the Moulsham Times with us. I wonder what sort of prize the Moulsham Times would have provided us with for a photo of the magazine in Cape Verde!!!!!!!! Oh yes, three weeks away all that sun, sea and yes, eating, I went for my weigh in at Slimming World and I had lost 1 pound, UNBELIEVABLE! BE SAFE - Dick Madden Moulsham Lodge Community Trust (MLCT) Moulsham Lodge Community Trust is a community led organisation. The Trust is a Company Limited by Guarantee and is registered at Companies House. Our vision is to improve the life of residents in Old Moulsham, by engaging with the Moulsham First Community Group, Moulsham Lodge and Tile Kiln. We would like to help local residents make a positive change to their lifestyle by offering opportunities for educational, social and recreational activities for people of all ages and ethnic backgrounds. MLCT aims to help local people realise their potential together with improved health and well-being across all ages,
community access for the disabled and housebound ethnic and cultural backgrounds. We are pleased to announce that we have appointed John Puczkowski as our Community Development Consultant to put together a range of activities for the benefit of local community. In partnership with the Spring Health Leisure facility, Moulsham Lodge, John has arranged for the following activities to start this month: The Weston School of Dancing, Jiggly Tots for mums with children aged from 0 to 5 will be on Thursday mornings so contact Lauren@ jigglytots.co.uk for further information. Heather’s Crafts will be meeting on Thursday afternoons too so if you like to knit, crochet or cross stich (beginners will be very welcome) join our club. We are also delighted to announce that the renowned choirmaster John Trent Wallis has agreed to start a Community Choir on a Thursday evening. The only entry qualification will be the love singing as there will be no auditions. We have also booked Spring Health as avenue for a quiz night on Friday December 6th 2013. To register your interest for any of these activities please contact enquiries@mlct.org.uk for further information. Following discussions between the Trust and Essex County Council, the Youth Service has allocated £7,500 to Chelmsford YMCA to set up a project for the young people of the area. Moulsham High School is also interested in working with the Trust to facilitate activities on their premises, one of which could be a multicultural festival called Diver City in the Restored, upcycled furniture, summer of 2014.
shabby chic and vintage
So if you are a inspired home-wares and gifts.. community group hand-made with love. looking for a venue please call John Puczkowski on 07842 069950 for OPEN EVERY DAY 9AM-5.30PM more information www.loveshabbychic.net or come and meet him at suzie@loveshabbychic.net Spring Health WRITTLE ROAD NURSERY, Leisure facility CHELMSFORD CM1 3BL. on Monday and Tuesday morning between 10am and 12.30pm.
01245 249383
MT /cookery Carbonade flamande is a traditional Belgium sweet-sour beef and onion stew made with beer, seasoned with thyme, bay leaf, and mustard, also spiced bread can be used as a topping. Best results come when using a dark beer with a somewhat bitter-sour flavour. The term carbonade may also refer to a dish of beef stew cooked in red wine such as beef bourguignon in the south of France, but it is more commonly associated with the Belgium dish. Serves 6 3 tbsp rape seed oil 3 medium onions (sliced) 3 tbsp plain (all purpose) flour 1 ½ tsp mustard powder 2 ¼ lb stewing steak (shin, shank, chuck), cut into bites size pieces 2-3 garlic cloves (finely chopped) ½ pint of dark ale ¼ pint water 1 tsp dark brown sugar 1 fresh sprig of thyme 1 stick of celery 1 fresh bay leaf salt and pepper For the topping Blob of butter 1 garlic clove crushed 1 tbsp of Dijon mustard 3 tbsp fresh parsley 6-12 slices of French baguette.
Method 1/ Set the oven to 160C/325F/Gas 3. In a non stick frying pan, heat half of the oil and cook the onions over a low heat until softened but not coloured. Remove and set aside. 2/ Meanwhile mix together the flour, mustard and seasoning, toss the beef into the flour mixture. Add the remaining oil to the non-stick frying pan and heat over a high gas. Brown the beef all over. Return the onions to the pan with the garlic and cook briefly, then add the ale, water, & sugar. Tie the thyme and bay leaf together or use a spice bag, also add celery stick and combine. Transfer to a pre-heated clay pot or tagine, then place in the oven and cook for 2 hours. Check the beef occasionally to make sure it does not dry out, if so just add water. When cooked, discard herbs and celery stick. 3/ To make the topping, beat together butter and crushed garlic, Dijon mustard and chopped parsley. Spread the flavoured butter thickly over the bread. Increase the oven temp to 190C/375F/ Gas 5. Test stew for seasoning, then arrange the bread slices, buttered side up on top. Bake for a further 20 minutes or until the bread is browned and crisp. Sprinkle with chopped parsley. The dish works well with cauliflower & potato mash and a cold Belgian beer, there are plenty out there to try and you can have fun finding the right one for you. If you are not able to get Belgium beers there are plenty of fantastic porter’s and stout’s from the UK. Dark Star Imperial Stout, Dark Star Espresso Stout and Whitstable Oyster Stout are firm favourites. By Andy Starling
Cake you bake yourself happy? By Bronya Smolen There is nothing more satisfying than taking a freshly baked cake out of the oven, slicing it up and sharing it with friends. Maybe this is why some people are turning to baking to help them tackle their mental health problems.
1 in 4 people will suffer from a mental illness at some point in their lives, but I recently met hoards of people who have been helped in their recovery through baking, by creating something tangible and purposeful when they are unable to leave the house. The Depressed Cake Shop is a project that encourages people to bake. It wants people to get together and set up a pop-up cake shop to raise awareness about mental health. The cakes in the pop up cake shop are startling and thought provoking. They are grey on the outside to represent depression, but colourful on the inside to represent hope. These delicious visual representations of how the bakers interpret their mental illness gets people talking about the sometimes tough topic of mental health. Miss Cakehead, who set up the project said, ‘shockingly, mental health issues are still considered a taboo subject by many and this must change. By doing a completely unique awareness
campaign I hope that depressed cake shops will create an experience and environment within which it will be possible to engage with the issues at hand, and the wider impact of these.’ These pop-up shops have literally popped up all over the world from Bristol to Los Angeles to Malaysia. There has even been a pop-up shop in Chelmsford! The grey cakes may seem gloomy, but they are the perfect conversation piece to challenge the stigma around mental illnesses. The science behind why baking is becoming such an effective way to tackle depression is something I look forward to investigating, but it is true that there’s something about homecooking that makes people feel loved. To make some grey cream cheese cake topping, simply combine: 6 tablespoons cream cheese 75g butter, softened 200g icing sugar 1 tablespoon double cream 1 drop of black food dye Start with a tiny amount of black, and add it gradually to get the grey colour that you want. You can also try adding a tiny bit of blue to get a range of greys. Then decorate! Some of the depressed cakes feature ‘feline low’ cats, the black dog and sad looking clouds. Photo: The Dainty Bakehouse
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Chelmsford Theatre Workshop by Sally Ransom I am a member of a local theatre company, Chelmsford Theatre Workshop, we are based at the Old Court Theatre (opposite Chelmsford Prison). Chelmsford Theatre Workshop, or CTW as it has become known, was founded in 1969 by a group of drama enthusiasts who wanted to form a new amateur theatre company to produce, develop and explore different aspects of theatre and performing arts Today, the company produces between 6 and 10 productions per season (September - July) and has a reputation for excellence in all areas and artistic integrity, often tackling difficult plays or challenging concepts that other companies may not approach. The CTW season is renowned for variety, often including popular or well known pieces amongst lesser-known or lesser performed pieces as well as original work. CTW has previously taken productions to festivals across the UK including Woking, Brighton and the world-renowned Edinburgh Festival Fringe. The company won six awards in recent years and was proud to be given the Outstanding Contribution award at the 2012 Panic! Awards: In the 1970s, CTW took control of the old Springfield Parish Hall on Springfield Road, Chelmsford and the Old Court Theatre, home of CTW, was born. Today the venue is Chelmsford’s third theatre, and is a well equipped venue which offers a flexible performance area allowing the company to perform in the round or experiment with different staging. CTW is a registered charity and is self-financing, using income from the the Old Court Theatre facilities, ticket sales and
membership subscriptions to fund the company’s productions and the running costs of the venue. CTW is entirely run by volunteers, and the company are always eager to welcome new members.The latest production coming up is Hamlet, one of Shakespeare’s most famous tragedies. Hamlet 6 - 9 & 13 - 16 November 2013 (7.45pm). Booking Info: For enquiries regarding ticket availability and booking tickets for the Old Court Theatre, contact the Civic Theatre on 01245 606505. By Phone: Civic Theatre Box Office 01245 606505. Online: Civic Theatre Box Office. In Person: in advance at the Civic Theatre Box Office or at the Old Court Theatre on the performance night only. (Please note that the Civic Theatre Box Office will charge a £1 transaction fee for all transactions using a debit or credit card). The majority of events at the Old Court Theatre are Chelmsford Theatre Workshop productions. Full price tickets for CTW performances are currently £8* with concessions costing £7. * There are strictly no concessions available on Friday and Saturday performances.
St John’s NCT playgroup
If you’ve got young children and are looking for a friendly playgroup in Moulsham, come along to the NCT playgroup on Friday mornings at St John’s Church on Moulsham Street. Held in the church rooms from 10am to 11.45am, there are plenty of toys as well as puzzles and colouring to keep your little ones busy. It’s a great place to meet other local mums and relax with a cup of tea and a chat. There are always nursery rhymes and songs to finish and stickers for all the eager toddlers! There’s a voluntary contribution of £2 per family and the playgroup runs all year round apart from on bank holidays (including school holidays). For more information, contact Laura Robertson at laurajrobertson@hotmail.com.
Arts and Crafts at Christ Church
Men can do knitting. I bet that caught your eye, but there’s a group of ladies who meet at 1.30pm every Wednesday at Christ Church on New London Road where you bring your arts and crafts, sit and chat and create whatever it is you like to make. Knitting, crochet, card making, bead work, patchwork, tapestry, cross stitch or, (as long as it’s not anything messy like throwing pots) anything else really. We don’t have a teacher because we all like to do different things. As I always say “if you drop a stitch, there’s usually someone there who’ll pick it up for you”. There’s a small fee each week so come and join us. We’re a friendly bunch. Beginners and experts all welcome, and men too (if you like). Tel Bridget Metcalfe: 01245 269291.
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MT /history
by John Power Carolyn Cassady, in Memorium.
In last month’s Moulsham Times, in the interest of promoting awareness of local artists and writers, I mentioned the Ingatestone author Chris Challis and his road trip across America, suggested by publishers Faber to convert his PhD dissertation about the writers of the Beat Generation into a less academic study, which was published as ‘Quest for Kerouac’ in 1984. The long term effects of Chris and Heather’s road trip in pursuit of Beat survivors was that some of Chris’ heroes became personal friends. He had already established contact with them for academic purposes before the trip, so many of the stops had been pre-arranged. Allen Ginsberg didn’t like hotels so when on tour in Europe Chris’ house was one place where he felt at home. But the most lasting contact turned out to be with Carolyn Cassady. After her first visit to England she realised that she had greater literary celebrity in the U.K. than the sidelined status of the Beats had given her in the U.S. She first moved to Hampstead in North London, then later to Berkshire, on this side of her transatlantic lifestyle. Chris proved a useful and willing chauffeur in exploring this country, supplying a running historical commentary, from his encyclopaedic memory. They made several trips to Ingatestone [Essex] to see Chris’ mum and one of their excursions was to my doorstep, but I was out! Chris made sure that we met up again as he knew that Carolyn and I had several common interests, and we set about comparing notes on them in lengthy letters. Sadly Carolyn died on 20th September 2013 in Bracknell, Berks, and by way of a memoir I would like to summarise our correspondence and discussions for readers, as few authors of international import do have strong connections with our town. At first, she admitted that I was the only person she knew who was a serious astrologer like herself (Kerouac’s birth chart at the end of Ann Charters’ biography of him is by Carolyn) and also acquainted with the work of ‘Sleeping Prophet’, Edgar Cayce. He earned the title at the beginning of the 20th century, latterly in Virginia Beach, Virginia U.S.A. because of his ability to go into trance and produce information from the collective unconscious known as the Akashic field where records of past events, and allegedly projections into the future abide. He initially used this talent to prescribe cures for medical patients with remarkable accuracy. But as information from the Akashic Records continued to mount up and be recorded by interested parties, it became obvious that there was a great deal of knowledge to be gained from his spiritual sources. Biblical history that could be checked pleased Bible study groups, but information on reincarnation, astrology and lost continents was less palatable to such groups, and soon the Society for Research and Enlightenment grew up around him to record the full scope of the information received. If you read ‘Off the Road’ it is clear that Neal and Carolyn were studying Cayce from an early age but felt the later books assembled from the readings were a lot easier to follow than the original spirit sources. Cayce’s son was careful to cross reference with scientific archaeology, anthropology and astronomy. Carolyn also put me right about her own writing: ‘Off the Road’ is an edited version of the longer ‘Heartbeat’, which was made into a film with Nick Nolte as Neal, and Sissy Spacek as Carolyn, part of the all-round bad casting in usual Hollywood fashion. Her next letter moved on to Eastern religions, which she said Neal and herself had also studied from an early time, and tried to get translations as near as possible to the originals. She believed
that Neal and her had had previous lives in India and the East. She regarded Jesus and Buddha as Masters but had little time for churches: “With Jack, Catholicism got in the way.” She had read how the Catholic church had exterminated the Cathars of the South of France after the Middle Eastern crusades, accusing them of heresy, but really as a land grab. She had great sympathy for Gnostics. She didn’t actually like Beat Literature: the writers were just her friends. After Heather, Chris’ next partner was Rose Kay and she and Carolyn had become firm friends. I was honoured that she asked me to do her horoscope to compare notes on her version. The following missive covered much ground, comparing Tropical to Sidereal Astrology and her remarks on my version of her natal horoscope, which put the ascendant on the cusp of Cancer and Leo. Cancer is maternal and she is not a lover of children, beyond her own, who were grown by then. She saw herself as more intellectual, so Leo, with her mass of blonde hair, better described her persona. Leo is theatrical and that is what she studied at university and also what had attracted her to England with London stage performances. She thought that Neptune in the rising sign made her ‘an instrument’. She was sexually abused by both her brothers when aged ten (embryonic Neal and Jack?]) which overshadowed her until the liberation of the ‘60s, although oddly, she didn’t like the era otherwise. She said Neal had perfect manners, was polite and ‘intellectual.’ Her dad and elder brother had been Masons, and sister in their Sorority. She spoke of a ‘Metaphysical Biblical Dictionary’ which had been ‘channelled’, like the Cayce Readings, and so bypassed the standard editing and mistranslations. She had had a trusted psychic in the States and wondered if I knew of a good one in this country. I told her I only knew one I trusted not to be deluded or a fraud named Mitzi Brandt, who lived with her husband Tony, a painter, in Brecon in South Wales. I put them in touch. She reflected on the Jack Kerouac she had known: a shy clown or a drunken pain. She never liked many of his books, then not all that much. Ken Kesey hadn’t spoken to her for 17 years by 2001, but she didn’t know why. Her son John had been a prankster alongside his dad and watched Kesey use his dad’s status to film him on the bus while offering no royalties. John was a peacemaker and never questioned this. She had no time for drugs personally. She didn’t think Chris would be able to write a bio’ of her, as ‘Quest’ was only a personal ego trip, and she felt he had humiliated her at public events by patronising pronouncements about her! In the following letter she said she felt Neal’s infidelity had been her fate [possibly a notion about karma] and gave me his birth data to do a natal chart for him. She reprised her Leo rising ideas, and the Kesey/John issue, and said she would send John’s birth details for me to do his natal chart. I remarked on having recently visited Nepal and found her book in a bookshop there. She said she didn’t think it made her an international celebrity. She had had a very lengthy conversation with Mitzi on the phone. The next letter contained a magazine article about Tony, Mitzi’s husband, and his paintings were compared by a critic to
18 www.moulshamtimes.com letters@moulshamtimes.com
Michaelangelo’s work, in technique. It was somewhat different in content however as his were highly erotic, with figures floating in space in their conjunctions. Mitzi was the model for all of them. Carolyn didn’t think Mitzi was on the same wavelength as her U.S. psychic, and wished she would write stuff down. In my experience it was the person who was consulting her that had to do the writing.
One last piece of info that Carolyn said in conversation that will interest all the Dharma bums out there: “Jack never liked that book: he only did it for the publishers, as a follow up.” !!!
By the next exchange Carolyn had made headway with Mitzi on the issue of reincarnation cases, and also spoke of Neal’s ‘First Third’ book, which she said brought her more royalties than anything else, and the lost Joan Anderson letter that had blown overboard from Gerd Stern’s boat in Sausalito, part of which does appear at the end of ‘The First Third’. She also said she had been swamped by emails as the original scroll version of ‘On the Road’ was at the time, about to go on display. Astrology was the subject of her next letter, as she had received Neal’s horoscope that I had done. She said that Dane Rudyar, one of her sources for learning astrology, also recommended using the birth chart as a mandala for meditation to unify the various elements of the native’s personality, as the man who had taught me astrology had suggested. She added that she was now getting on common ground with Mitzi. The whole Royal Family of Nepal had been gunned down by the Crown Prince, because he could not marry the girl of his choice, and then shot himself, the week after my partner and I had left Nepal. Carolyn said it as all too horrible to contemplate. That was not the only international horror of the time. After that last letter 9/11, as it became known, occurred and Carolyn sped back to her family in the States and we lost contact. Rumours later were that she was back in England, but the years had taken their toll and Carolyn kept her correspondence to minimum. She was 90 in 2013, and died on 20th Sept. in Bracknell, Berks. I last saw her at Chris Challis’ funeral in early 1997, when we discussed the astrological influences prevalent at the time of Chris’s nocturnal downstairs fall.
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New Craft and gift room now open upstairs at Gallery 43. Individual pieces including ceramics, glass, needlework and paintings by British Craft designers 43 Moulsham Streeet, Chelmsford
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Rotary Conference Certainly Cuts the Mustard In recent issues of Moulsham Times I have written about some of the work that Rotarians carry out both locally and globally but the essential part of belonging to any organisation is that you must enjoy it. The district conference at the end of September at the lovely Dunton Hall, Norwich saw around 250 club members gather together for a weekend of inspiration, entertainment and letting your hair down. The weekend started with golf and crazy golf competitions and modesty won’t prevent me from telling you I collected the prize for lowest score in the crazy golf. If only I could play the real thing. In the evening there was a barbecue and entertainment from the Eastern Roses belly dancers. Saturday covered a range of fascinating topics including Mary’s Meals – a project to provide one good daily school meal in some of the world’s poorest communities; a scheme to send old manually operated sewing machines to Uganda; a thoroughly entertaining talk from Grand National winner Bob Champion; plus some inspirational Rotary speakers. The day ended with dinner and dancing the night away to the Melvyn Beddows Big Band with prizes for the best 1940s fancy dress.
All who attended District Conference will be in no doubt that Colman’s have been making fine quality mustards in Norfolk for nearly 200 years and Nick Cook, Retail Business Manager at Colman’s Mustard Shop & Museum, told us about one of Norwich city’s most popular and cherished heritage attractions, and gave all the delegates a jar of Colman’s mustard as a memento. So the whole weekend was one to remember and once again highlighted not only a few of the amazing projects with which Rotary is involved but served as a reminder that you can enjoy yourself whilst putting something back into the community. Anyone interested in finding out how to join a local Rotary club visit www. chelmsfordrotary1240.org or www.ribi.org for national events. Alternatively give me a ring for any information. Stan Keller - 01245 260349 (office)
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Sunday too was a packed programme with a moving and thought provoking presentation from a peace scholar whose experience in war-torn Liberia led him on the road to peace and conflict resolution and other talks took up the peace theme. Ralph Henderson MBE, Education Adviser at Appetitio spoke of their work inspiring young people through sport, brilliantly demonstrated by Colin Nell, professional football freestyler. And what can one say about Christine Walkden “horticulturist since the age of ten” who entertained us with her career to date culminating in her appearances on The One Show.
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A cheque for £18,500 for Rotary’s End Polio campaign was presented to District Governor Peter Dowse following Colchester Forum’s ride from Anglesey to Colchester in May - and the Funky Voices choir provided a resounding finale.
If you would like to write for either of our publications please email us paul@itsyourmeida.co.uk
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Wine Corner
This month we start in South Africa where there are around 800 wineries, so there is plenty of choice. Some of the more recognisable grapes are grown there, including Chardonnay and Sauvignon. The reds include a Bordeaux-style, Shiraz (Syrah in France) and Pinot Noir. They also produce Pinotage, which is a grape developed in South Africa. It is a Cinsaut and Pinot Noir cross.
Bin end chuckles.
South Africa was the world’s ninth largest producer of wine by volume in 2011, which sounds impressive but their production is less than 20% of that of France.
I went into a pub the other day and ate a ploughman’s lunch. He was really annoyed.
Wine making started in the sixteen hundreds, when the Dutch East India company (wot, no monks!) planted vineyards to supply sailors on the spice route. Later, under British rule, wine found it’s way to the UK, when sales were boosted because of reduced tariffs on the wines. However, come the 20th century, South African wines did not get too much attention, and suffered further with the boycotts placed on South African products in protest against Apartheid. In the 1980s and 1990s, the situation changed and their wines started to appear on the worldwide market.
Keep calm and carry on drinking, in moderation.
Whilst printing a document the other day, I could hear music coming from the printer. I think the paper was jammin’ again.
A Voice for Old Moulsham z
There is a good range of South African wines available, be careful though, in my experience even some of the white wines have high alcohol by volume, so can be a bit strong. They are generally sold at a good price, and as usual, it is worth looking out for the promotions to get the best deals. Find a wine you like and then remember to keep a check on the prices. Most will come on offer at some point. By the way, I am starting to feel sorry for the teacher of my granddaughter’s class. When I collected my granddaughter from school the other day, I asked her how she had got on. She explained that her teacher had asked her to give her a sentence beginning with I. She started to reply, “I is”, and the teacher said, “no, I am”, so she said, “alright, I am the ninth letter of the alphabet”. To make things worse, there are twin boys in the class, and the teacher said to one of them, “Simon, your essay, “my dog”, is exactly the same as your brother’s, did you copy his?” “no miss”, says Simon, “it’s the same dog”. New Zealand has become a favorite producer of wine in recent years, although it is still a very small player in the wine world at number twenty by volume. It is a relative newcomer in the world of wine production, with the first vineyards appearing in the mid 1800s (this time by Roman Catholic missionaries, I presume there were no monks there at time). The famous Sauvignon Blanc, thought by some as the best in the world, has been developed and grown in Marlborough, which is north-east of South Island. This area includes Wairau Valley so look out for that on the label. Although famed for the Sauvignon Blanc, the country produces a wide range of other wines, from Cabernet Sauvignon through Merlot and even some Malbec. It also produces a very well renowned Pinot Noir. Whites include Pinot Gris and Chardonnay. They tend to command a high price and you can easily pay over £25 for a good bottle of Sauvignon Blanc, so perhaps this is more suitable for the special occasion. Try some and sample the special flavours of New Zealand wine. Just one last thing, I have found a very nice Romanian Pinot Grigio in the local supermarket. It is a nice easy to drink wine, so look out for it on the shelves.
22 www.moulshamtimes.com letters@moulshamtimes.com
Kids & Koffee by Laura Watson
Five years ago, just after having my daughter Ella, I realised there was something missing locally in chelmsford, not just for Ella to enjoy but also to keep myself and friends in similar positions sane! I’ve always worked in property alongside my dad but knew it was never going to be a long term thing for me as my passion has always been with children. It was then I first had the idea for Kids and Koffee. It’s taken a lot of planning because over the years I have had very clear ideas of what I have and haven’t wanted. Being very family orientated, I’ve always known I wanted Kids and Koffee to have a homely, warm and friendly atmosphere which I think myself and team portray. We are all typical, hard working mums who always love a chat, and a moan!
We offer two soft play areas, daily newspapers, magazines, colouring activities, Sky television and an outside play area. Apart from our speciality teas and filter coffees we provide freshly made sandwiches, panini, jacket potatoes and other light snacks. All food options are available in small portions for little tummies if needed. Kids and Koffee try to keep up with popular social activities and have ‘Jo Jingles’ and ‘Streetlife’ join us a couple of times a week at no extra charge to you. As a business we pride ourselves on being part of and supporting the local community and have already worked with a couple of charities including The J’s Hospice and Beeches Pre-School. We look forward to welcoming you to Kids and Koffee soon. Watch out for myself, the team and special guests supporting the Moulsham Street Christmas lights switch on and getting into the festive spirit. And who said you should never work with children...........???!!!
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MT /business
The Dragon Effect!
So, the other day, and not for the first time, I was asked if, “...doing all that Twitter and stuff makes a difference?”. At the time, if I’m honest, I didn’t have a satisfactory positive response from the experience I’d had. Okay, we’d had the odd enquiry and various interactions with existing and potential clients, but I couldn’t honestly say we’d turned a profit from our efforts directly. Now, I understand that social media from a business perspective is about more than just gaining new clients and making more sales, I understand it’s about pulling people towards you, education, discussion and information rather than just pushing your wares onto them. I’ve read articles and books explaining the “Facebook Effect” etc but to be frank, I was starting to get a little disillusioned. That was on Monday of this week. As of today, Wednesday, my feeling could not be more different. Our Facebook viewing and interactions this week are up by an amazing 360.60%. Our website has seen a significant spike and our Twitter account is on fire!!!!!! So what’s changed? Mr Theo Paphitis is what’s changed. This week @willyoungrenovo was selected as a winner for his Small Business Sunday Award. A simple retweet of our details and Rymans Stationers announcing us as the winners, and the things have all gone a little potty!!! How much of a benefit this will show in the long run is yet to be seen, but you can be sure we’ll squeeze every last drop of brand association PR out of this. Ask me again in 3 months, but for now, I love social media, I love Theo, I love Rymans, and I love
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the fact that the costs associated with this kind of exposure would have cost us a damn site more that that which we have invested!!!!!!!! Renovo Undrrfloor Heating is a Chelmsford based company supplying high quality products, design and technical support to the construction industry across the UK. We are also currently looking to recruit internal sales support personnel. Contact us for more information at info@renovoenergy.co.uk
Diary of a young local performer by Ami aged 11 My agent didn’t renew my contract so I was really worried I wouldn’t get another one. But I have been accepted by another London agent and I am attending a 3-hour workshop with them in two weeks to set up my profile. It includes drama tuition and assessment, camera technique, a catwalk session, audition preparation and a photographic sitting. I’m really excited as I love being in front of the camera. I think I might have missed out on being cast in the Christmas TV commercials as they are already being filmed but hopefully I will get some other jobs instead.
I acted as a school kid in a film written and produced by comedian Spencer Brown called ‘The Boy with a Camera for a Face’ in 2012 which has finally finished being produced. It is making its world premiere on 2nd November at Razor Reel in Bruges. Its American premiere is at the Oscar qualifying St Louis International Film Festival in November too. I’m not sure when it is going to be shown in England but I hope to see it soon. The picture shows a playground scene we filmed in a school in Hackney and you can see a camera that moves on tracks. At the same time, Spencer
is viewing it on a monitor. Movies are not filmed in the order they will finally be shown, so you never really know how it’s going to turn out. I had great fun filming and made friends with a girl on set who I then also appeared in a music video with for singer Helen Austin at the Juno Awards. That’s another thing I like about acting – I get to meet lots of new people and sometimes even get to work with them again.
A vegan place to eat out “acanteen” by India Green I am carrying on the vegan trend in my articles by now writing about vegan places to eat out. The one and only restaurant that really impresses me is acanteen. acanteen is a highly stylish cutting edge cafe catering for raw, dairy free, vegan and vegetarian. acanteen even has it’s sister shop lifestyle and home ware apparel called astore (sited opposite the cafe ).
acanteen has a wide variety of different raw and cooked food, my favorite part is the salad bar, it has everything from cous cous to falafels. I was talking to friendly chef Charlie and he says that this year there has been many vegan families asking for vegan options on the menu. Charlie explained that he can adapt the menu to all dietary needs which is very convenient.
Raw food recommendations include the wide range of smoothies and juices, lets talk nutritional science; ideally it is best to use organic fruit and vegetables as they will be chemical free. The main reason juice and smoothies help your body are because the juicer has done all the hard work of breaking down the pulp and skin of whatever you are juicing, thus leaving your body less tired from having to digest the equivalent of a tree trunk, which is what we expect our bodies to do on a daily basis. This can stop the aging process as it puts less of a strain on your body and optimal nutritional intake as an immediate nutrition hit/boost. Do not mix eating raw foods and drinking juices as dieting you should listen to your body as to how much it needs and go from there. Really it’s quite easy,
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Instead of weighing down our energy with too much cooked food it is far better to maintain vitality as part of how you live, eating as fresh and as alive as possible. A lot of people have traded in their coffee intake for a smoothie/juice, as it has proven to be far more beneficial for those with a busy schedule, Russel Brand is one of them.
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New London Road Cemetery by Robert Jones It is something not widely known but Old Moulsham has a wildlife jewel, thanks to a group of non-conformists in 1846 and a wonderful team of volunteers in 2013. Back in the 19th century the group of non-conformists, led by the well-known Chelmsford architect, James Fenton (1805-1875), purchased an acre plot of land in New London Road for the burial of people who were not in communion with the established Church. That plot is now known as the New London Road Closed Cemetery, taken over by the local authority and now in the care of Chelmsford City Council, the Council’s Bereavement Services.
to fix them to suitable trees. Entering the cemetery itself (don’t be put off by the gates, it is a public space), we found the volunteers already hard at work, hacking away at dense ivy and self-seeded bushes to reveal several graves that had become lost beneath the years of overgrowth. The team was led by Andrew Mackay, the Volunteer Team Leader, who explained how the team was made up of men and women of all ages and from many backgrounds, with the common interest of making a difference to the environment.
For the authority, “care” of this and other closed cemeteries means preserving and developing them as environmental and historic amenities for the City’s residents. Their main problem is the lack of resources in these cash-strapped times for a daunting responsibility. The New London Road site is just one of many closed cemeteries, all needing attention to prevent them from becoming just difficult wildernesses. That is where the team of present day volunteers comes in and why Moulsham Times is taking this opportunity to publicise what Chelmsford City Council are striving to achieve. With very limited resources, but a lot of staff enthusiasm, the City Council is aiming to find local volunteers who will help to care for the New London Road site, take a pride in a precious local amenity and, ultimately, become a ‘Friends Group’. Meanwhile it has provided the money to employ a wonderful charitable group known as, The Conservation Volunteers (TCV), to do occasional essential work to prevent the cemetery becoming overgrown and inaccessible to the public. So far this year TCV have undertaken three volunteer events at the site, including the very successful day tied in with the annual Farleigh Hospice Open Gardens in Moulsham on 23 June, where hundreds of people expressed interest in the flora, fauna and local history of the cemetery. Overgrown areas have been cut back, litter cleared and birdboxes installed. The City Coucil’s Parks Department cuts the grass on the main walkways, maintains the hedges and clears vegetation and staff from Bereavement Services have been able to involve other partners; such as, Essex Wildlife Trust and the Essex Field Club. More volunteers are still needed. You can find out how to help and when the next volunteer days are planned by visiting www.chelmsford.gov.uk/cemeteryfriendsgroups.
As said at the beginning, this closed cemetery is a little-known wildlife haven but it also has scientific and local history interest. For the natural scientist there are several rare plant species including Ivy Broomrape (pictured below) thriving among the quiet of the graves plus a fine selection of native birds. For example, this year has seen a pair of kestrels successfully raising a family of at least two. However, a downside is that some Moulsham residents, with gardens adjoining the cemetery, had to suffer this feisty family of raptors making inroads into the usual population of small garden birds, assisted noisily by jays, rooks, magpies and grey squirrels! On the other hand, some compensation for the “nature red in tooth and claw” aspect of this nature reserve is that there are also such treats as green woodpeckers and lesser spotted woodpeckers in residence among the graves.
The latest volunteer day was on Friday 11th. October and I went along to see just what was going on. As I approached the front gates I was met by a smartly dressed man with a wheelbarrow!
It was Daren Lucking of the funeral directors M. Lucking and Sons, arriving with a barrow-load of bird-boxes, generously donated by his company and eagerly awaited by TCV, who were
The many gravestones themselves offer plenty of local history interest. There is the 1875 headstone of ‘Joseph’. He had escaped from slavery on New Orleans, found refuge in Chelmsford, was employed in the local brickworks, married and his widow lived out her life in the Mildmay Almshouses in Moulsham Street. Perhaps one of the saddest stories told by the gravestones is that the first person buried in the cemetery was the young 14 year old son of the Founder Trustee, James Fenton. There are also war graves and the graves of many important local families.
The New London Road Closed Cemetery is certainly a precious resource for Moulsham residents and needs the care and attention of many volunteers, now and into the future, to ensure that it remains a peaceful and accessible place for recreation and for development as a resource for nature and local history. The Conservation Volunteers are setting a fine example for all of us to follow. It was so encouraging to see them at work, and in foul, rainy conditions, and to be able to thank the local firm of M. Lucking and Sons, setting an example for other businesses that Moulsham Times is finding are so keen to support the local community.
Chelmsford City Council is responsible for a number of closed cemeteries which include: • • • • • • • •
St Mary’s Churchyard, Widford St John’s Churchyard, Moulsham St New London Road Cemetery St Mary’s Churchyard, Great Baddow Rectory Lane Churchyard The Cathedral Church of St Mary, St Peter and St Cedd Holy Trinity, Springfield All Saints, Springfield
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Look out for Chelmsford The City Times around the city! 29
MT /Moulsham Street
It’s Almost Here! 23rd November
Life Church (Hall Street) will be welcoming people from 12 noon with homemade cakes, refreshments and bouncy castles, as well as stalls and the sports results on the huge screen as they come in!
Saturday November 23rd promises to be a great day of family fun on Moulsham Street. Our Moulsham Street Christmas Festival will start at 12 noon, and continue until 6pm.
St John’s Church will be holding a bazaar from 2pm to 4:30pm, and then a carol concert from 4:30 to 5pm, both in the church itself. Our Traders are pulling out all the stops to welcome you not only to their stalls, but also to their premises. Come and bag a bargain for Christmas, and enjoy the day with us.
The day includes: • Trader stalls, charity stalls and craft stalls • A packed musical programme – our main stage has 12 different acts scheduled from 12:15 to 5:30pm, concluding with a great show choir doing the final show-stopping medley of west end musical hits! • Carol singers • Dancers • 15 food caterers at our International Food Court outside St John’s Church, including paella, Indian, hog roast, crepes, asian, German sausages, wraps, mulled wine, and fresh bread and cakes • All cafes, pubs and takeaways inviting you to stop and rest awhile • All traders ready to welcome you to the incredible range of shops we have on Moulsham Street • A fantastic Santa’s grotto (in Orchard Street) involving free gifts and inviting children to write letters to Santa, to post it in his post-box! • 2 Punch and Judy shows • Free face painting • Children’s rides and inflatables • A snow globe, with uploadable photographs included in the ticket price • Stilt walkers • The lighting-up ceremony at 5:30pm • The firework finale The running order for events on the main stage is as follows: 12:15 Caliente Salsa Band 13:05 Keeleigh (local singer/guitarist) 13:30 Jakob (local singer/guitarist) 13:55 Hilary (local singer/guitarist) 14:20 Paul (local singer/pianist) 14:45 Paulo (local singer/guitarist) 15:15 Steve Murray (International mime artist) & Kate Snowden (ballerina) 15:30 Panto time! (From Life Church’s panto) 15;55 Footworks – dancers 16:15 Jesters Youth Theatre and Broadway Babes 16:35 Joanna Lee (West End performer – “Les Miserables”) 17:00 Jesters Show Choir – West End musicals medley We will also be having a number of guests from this year’s Chelmsford and Southend Pantomimes to join in the fun.
MT Letters Dear Sir As a regular reader of the magazine I have been interested to read the letters regarding Moulsham Street traders. I have listed below some more businesses I recall from the late 1940’s onwards. Barrells Grocers, Burrells Sweet Shop, Warninger Book Shop Frears Hardware, Downs Sweet Shop, Shipps Sweet Shop, Pryors Fish and Chip Shop, Myhills Fish and Chip Shop (Both pre Robinsons), Greens Grocers, Angels Clothing and Workwear, Parishes Greengrocers, Dennisons Cycle Shop, Barbers Sweet Shop,Jacques Vinal Hardware and Tools, Rippons Newsagents, Cramphorns Corn And Seeds, Woodraft Tailors, Coombes Fishmonger and Greengrocer, Temples Hairdresser (Gents), Roebucks Fishmonger, Moores Furniture, G.D. Last Motor Dealers, *J. Glew Pawnbroker, *Masons Bookshop, *Flexmans Radios, *Ralph Catt Grocer, Churchill Johnson Builders Merchants Those businesses marked with an asterisk were lost under Parkway. The other business is now occupied by AGE UK and Curtain Talk. Hope these names bring back some memories. PS Beyond the Cricketers Public House there were two other businesses I recall: Chelmsford Radio Services, Shores Hairdressers (Gents). I hope these help fill in some gaps. A good magazine - well done! Michael Smith
MT /Classifieds www.rhythmtots.co.uk
Music and activities for babies and toddlers Venue: Christ Church (URC) Room 1 New London Road, Chelmsford, CM2 0AW Tuesdays 9.30-10.15am Call us on 07773 155958 rhythmtots@hotmail.co.uk
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