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Matthew Lane Sanderson

Designer of the New Road Cemetery Gates www.sanderson-sculpture.com Matthew is a designer, metalsmith and sculptor currently engaged upon a number of public art projects across the U.K. His company, based in Cambridgeshire began making ‘Focal Points’ for permanent display and temporary exhibition in 1994 and has become well-known for producing highly crafted, unique and ingenious works in original settings.

Although he is a designer it is perhaps his root’s in sculpture that maintains his very selective project choices. He maintains that the quality of design and craft take precedence above all and couples this with an enormous amount of energy and what he calls “playing furiously” in the early stages of research and “physical pressure” in realising the final pieces. Although the works always involve a great deal of labour intensive activity, he somehow maintains the spontaneity and grace of the original concept. Perhaps it is his training in silversmithing and jewellery making that helps maintain the delicacy and beauty in his use of industrial materials and varied choice of scale. He alone designs and builds the sculptures, as they often require the design and manufacture of unique equipment to realise the designs. He is in love with making. His pencils are steel wires and his dreams come with instructions. Although some of his projects have stretched more than seven years, Matt is incredibly prolific, with over 50 permanent works installed, and many smaller private pieces obtained through his bi-annual shows.

Matthew believes that ‘Public Art’ is more successful when people can discern that skill and honest hard work have been employed coupled with originality such as the ‘Corpus Clock’ created with Dr John Taylor. His favourite studies describe either ‘kinetic or potential energy’. This choice of scientific wording, an indicator of why he is so often employed to work upon SCI-ART projects.

His current projects include an enormous ‘Copper Veil’ structure resembling a clipped box hedge over two storeys tall whose organic structure supports the viewer literally by hand rail as they climb the stairs around it. The foliage comprises 2000 glass rondels dappling the stairwell and entrance foyer of the new Pegasus Youth Theatre in Oxford.

Matt working on the Corpus Clock. Inset: The clock outside Corpus Inset: The clock outside Corpus Christi College Cambridge, created with Dr John Taylor

❝I love making sculptural pieces through which people can travel. I have an early memory, from perhaps a school textbook, of a car driving through a giant redwood tree. I dislike the idea that anyone could cut into such a tree, but loved the scale of the feat. I design natural forms, but also, I am not wholly concerned with copying, I enjoy the natural symmetry and balance nature creates and use this to influence my designs. Gates can be such a simple concept, but require much engineering and proportional balance. I use these structural factors as the basis of my designs, rather than being limited by them. In 2009 I was engaged by Melbourn Parish Council for a rare commission, the design and construction of the cemetery gates. I sort the professional advice of Dr Anne Taylor, representative of Cambridge University Museum of Archaeology. Our aim was to work as a team, historians, residents and artist to realise a unique, sensitive and robust wrought iron structure that will mark the entrance and purpose of the new cemetery at New Road. Anglo Saxon remains and historically valuable artefacts are due to be re-interred in the site, and it is these and many other period features that I used as an inspiration for the metal work. The new gates – 8 metres wide and 3.5 metres high – will allow a horse drawn hearse to enter. The gates are hot forged, riveted and hot dip galvanised for long life, excuse the pun! ❞ 8 www.melbourncambridge.co.uk

St Faiths’ School gates, Trumpington, Cambridge

in Australia. The quilt was then sent to Germany where Verena, one of the quilting group, quilted and finished off the quilt. This double size quilt is the first prize in the raffle with a lap quilt made by Barbara as the 2nd prize and 2 cushions, also made by Barbara, as the 3rd prize.

If you would like to purchase a raffle ticket – or to help by selling raffle tickets to family and friends, then do call us at the office on 01763 262262, email admin@hsrsc. co.uk or call into our office at Unit 6, Valley Farm, Station Road, Meldreth.

Medals All Round

Home-Start Royston & South Cambridgeshire, www.hsrsc.co.uk. Sponsored Walk took place on Saturday 21 May and saw 44 walkers step out into the Balsham countryside to help raise vital funds for the charity. The sun shone down as people made their way across the fields and along Fleam Dyke. Personal challenges were set for many, including small children taking part in the 9 mile walk and 2 brave ladies in particular, who strode forth on the 19 mile walk via Great Wilbraham and Six Mile Bottom to arrive back at 5.30pm after a whole day’s walking. Everyone was a winner for the Charity and all medals were very well deserved.

Melissa Santiago-Val, a trustee and former Home-Start family, decided to do the 3 mile walk with her family, saying ‘this event was to support families so it made sense for us all to do the walk, and it was a great family day out too. HomeStart gave us so much support when we needed it most, this is just a way of giving something back. We’ve raised enough to fund training for a volunteer, so a huge thank you to our friends and family!’

The walk is likely to raise in excess of £3500 and the donation lines are still open at Just Giving if readers would like to add their support. Tracy Aggett. 01763 262262 email: admin@hsrsc.co.uk

Donations to Home-Start Royston & South Cambridgeshire can be made at www.justgiving.com/home-startroyston Thank you for Your Support

MSV HS walk group MSV HS walk group

Village Fete & Music on the Moor

Saturday 25th June 2011 This year’s fete was one of the most challenging and time consuming events the fete committee have ever attempted to organise, but as the rain fell on Friday night when our team were setting things up we/I thought the worst ‘could this be the year the weather spoils all the fun’. I needn’t have worried because as in previous years all our hard work over the year was rewarded again with lovely weather.

As always, we were amazed at the number of request for stalls to either sell their wares or, more encouraging for the committee, the local clubs and societies requesting stalls to fund-raise and boost their numbers, all in all we had over 70

Free Storytime for under 5s!

Thursday 10–10.45 am

Melbourn Library The Moor, Melbourn

(next to Melbourn Village College)

Contact: Eleanor 01763 260924 or library 01763 269956

stalls with a huge variety of items for sale. All the initial feedback the committee received was that the Melbourn based clubs and societies had a very good day, the 3000 plus people that came had a huge variety of items to choose from the 70 plus stalls that attended.

One area the Fete committee thought we needed to work on this year was the daytime entertainment, so with that in mind we booked some acts that hopefully would appeal to the whole family. Throughout the afternoon we had some fantastic shows from the eagerly awaited awarded winning Danny Butler mountain bike display team that stole the show with their unbelievable balance and skill on two wheels, but they were nearly up staged by our six woolly friends in the first ever running of the Melbourn SHEEP race. All the sheep were sponsored and the proud winner was sponsored by Norburys, but thank you to all our sponsors without whom we would not be able to do what we did. The human hamster balls also went down ‘or round’ very well all day and late into the evening. The lawn mower racing was a great success again with one of the biggest fields yet, I think some people put some serious man hours in to make those mowers look and go fantastic. We also must have had our largest display of classic cars we have ever seen at the fete, many who came quite a distance, thanks to all that turned up.

The central arena was also fully booked up all afternoon with the Electrolytes dance group and the award winning Competition dance squad and Primary Alliance Dance Company (PADCO) from MVC. The unexpected stars of the arena were all the owners and their dogs that took part in the various competitions from the musical dog sit, to the most ‘look like their owner’ and congratulations to all the many entrants.

As for the music we had a spectacular line up all day and into the evening with ‘Double Take’ the barber shop quartet and the ‘Memphis’ jazz band sound echoing around the field all afternoon. The highlight of the day for me was listening to some very talented teenage bands who plucked up the courage to play to their biggest audience yet. With the 59ers backing up Lipstick Torpedo, that brought Melbourn Village Fete & the Music on the Moor 2011 to a spectacular close.

Once again, without the huge support from local businesses, whether it is refreshments in the Pavilion served by the parents from Melbourn Playgroup or raffle prizes donated by so many others, or hard earned cash sponsorship, this year’s event would not have been possible, so thank you to everyone. As usual any profits will be used to support worthwhile causes within the village. If you feel your club or association would benefit from funds please e-mail me at melbournfete@aol.com or contact the Parish Office who will pass your details on.

Lastly, and most importantly, the Fete Committee would like to thank all the many volunteers who gave up their time to help on the day to make this year’s fete the best to date. I would also like to personally thank all the Fete Committee for their time and commitment over the last year because without them there wouldn’t have been a Fete. On that note, if anyone has some spare time and would like to give something back to the village and get involved, please contact me on melbournfete@aol.com as next year’s fete is already being planned! And the date is already booked – Saturday 23rd June 2012.

If this year’s event is anything to go by we will need all the help we can get so please get involved, even if it’s only an hour it all helps to spread the work-load. Brian Collingbourne, Chairman

Melbourn History Group

Occasionally a ‘find’ comes our way in the shape of a piece of Melbourn history and this makes all the research work worthwhile.

Tucked away in amongst some old files we found some rather tattered copies of a publication called ‘The Parish Magazine for the Rural Deanery of Shingay’. That needs some explanation but these magazines cover the period from August 1919 to December 1922 and gives news from the parishes of Abington Pigotts, Bassingbourne with Kneesworth, Croydon-cum-Clopton, Guilden Morden, Litlington, Melbourn, Steeple Morden, Wendy-cum-Shingay and Whaddon. In each case the Editor responsible for the news in each parish was the Vicar or Rector.

This brings up an interesting comparison with today’s organisation of the same Deanery. Most of the parishes now are ‘joint benefices’ where the Vicar dashes from one parish to another taking services or in some cases deputing the worship to a Reader or Authorised Lay Minister as they are now called. It is also strange to

New to the village …

If you’re new to the village and have not received your FREE copy of the Melbourn Village History Book & DVD, contact Colin Limming on 01763 260072 for more information

see that our friends in Meldreth are not included and must have been in another Deanery at the time, also that Bassingbourn had an ‘e’ tacked on their name in those days.

A quick read of some of the issues reveals a very different set-up to today’s Parish Magazines such as Melbourn and Meldreth’s ‘The Melde’. An appeal for bell ringers states unequivocally that men are wanted and no mention of women although today many of our bands are graced by the ladies! Many of the pages are taken up by stories that would not look out of place in a Women’s magazine where fair maidens are faced with romantic dilemmas.

But there is a serious side to many of the pages. The issues cover the period after ‘the war to end all wars’ and speak optimistically of lasting peace. Appeals for money to aid ex-servicemen frequently appear, as do mentions of men lately returned from the Forces. A butcher A.W. Bacon of Melbourn heads his advertisement ‘I have served the King – now I can serve you’ that emphasises his recent time in the Army.

There are probably few readers still living that remember some of the businesses and shops that advertised. Apart from A.W. Bacon there is mention of Gurney G. Groves who dealt in clothing and whose shop was to be found ‘opposite the Mill’: J.E. Hagger & Son who was a saddler and harness maker; A.R. Coningsby & Son who was a coal and coke merchant, and H. Cranfield who ran the Melbourn Post Office. Some of these names are to be found in the Melbourn history book and will be familiar to some of our more senior citizens.

The magazines have now been bound into a hard cover and will find a place in the village’s archives.

That reminds me. If you are reading this magazine for the first time having just moved into Melbourn may we remind you that you are eligible for a free History Book. I was reminded of this when I ventured for the first time into Chalkhill Barrow and realised just how many new houses there are in this new development. I have delivered one book up there – are you reading this and wondering where you can obtain a copy? Please ring me and a book will be on its way to you! Colin Limming, 01763 260072.

Meldreth History Group

One of the most popular features on the Meldreth History website is Memories of the 108 bus. This Eastern Counties bus used to travel between Royston and Cambridge with stops at Melbourn, Meldreth, Shepreth, Barrington, Foxton Station, Harston and Hauxton Gap.

Dennis Watson from Meldreth was one of the drivers and Ida Rosendale was a well-known conductor from 1940 to the late sixties. Please take a look at www. meldrethhistory.org.uk to read the comments already posted about the 108. Once on the website click on the Peoples page, then Memories of Meldreth to bring up the bus. They may jog your memory to add some of your own experiences of travelling on the bus. Once on the website click on the Topics page to bring up the 108.

The History Group have produced some new designs for this year’s Christmas cards. Some wonderful wintry scenes of Meldreth are shown which will give much pleasure to buyers and receivers of these cards.

A display of these cards can be seen in the window of South Cambs Motors from October onwards. The price for a pack of eight cards is £5 and can be obtained by calling Tim Gane on 01763 260129 Terry Dash info@meldrethhistory.org.uk

Royston and District Local History Society

Meetings are held at Royston Town Hall starting at 8pm. Annual Membership £5. Visitors £2 per meeting.

David Allard 01763 242677 or go to www.roystonlocalhistory.org.uk

Thursday 6th October – The Olympics in London 2012, this once in a lifetime opportunity, illustrated – John Fuller

Thursday 3rd November – James I and Hertfordshire, illustrated Dr Alan Thomson

RNLI

RNLI is delighted to announce that in 2013 our next all-weather lifeboat class will be on station. Lifeboats are traditionally named after rivers or stretches of water (as well as benefactors), but in 45 years this is the first time the name of an Irish river has been used – Shannon. (Quite appropriate in a year when our Patron H.M. The Queen, has been visiting the Republic of Ireland – the first monarch to do so since independeence).

The Shannon is the longest river in Ireland, and at 240 miles is longer than any river in the U.K. It is home to two lifeboat stations – Kilrush, at the mouth of the Estuary, and Lough Derg on one of the river’s lakes.

The new lifeboat will be powered by water jets instead of propellers, which will make it more manoeuvrable and safer to operate in shallow waters. This will reduce the risk of damage to the boat during launch and recovery.

RNLI branches all over the country raise money to give our crews the very latest in equipment, and Shannon is the latest reward for their efforts.

Royston Branch is working to replace our lost revenues at Duxford – our collection box has now been banished as well as our souvenir selling – and we have been extending our activities around the area. Perhaps you saw us in Royston in July when we held our Flag Day – or came to our stall at the Kite Festival? If so, thank you for your support.

We now go on to Steeple Morden Country Fair on 17th September, Bury Lane Farm Shop on 22nd October, and Country Homes and Gardens Centre on 19th November.

Our committee is small and these activities place a great strain on all members, so if there is anyone out there who can spare an hour on any of these dates, or who could help us in the future, do please phone me. Any time you can give will be appreciated – no payment of course-but isn’t a boat like the Shannon well worth the effort? Jean Emes (Sec) 01763 245958