Village News

In the news Library News RNLI Melbourn and Meldreth Self Help Group Children of Chernobyl visit Melbourn Melbourn and Meldreth Women’s Group Cruise on the Ouse! Melbourn History Group Melbourn Radiate Brooch 5 6 6 6 7 7 9 9

All Saints’ Community Hall The Melbourn Village Plan Melbourn Business Association (MBA) In praise of David Piggott Melbourn & Meldreth Branch Royal British Legion Women’s Section 10 10 11 11

11 The Old Police Site – Community Hub 12 Royston and District Family History Society 14 Royston & District Local History Society 14 Re-ablement 14 Cambridgeshire Mencap 14 Cambridge Sofa becomes Cambridge Re-Use 15 Motor Neurone Disease Association (MNDA) 15 Melbourn and Meldreth Self Help Group cook book 15 Melbourn Fete 2011 16

COFFEE STOP

Every Saturday 10.30am to 12noon

Rombouts coffee & biscuits for 80p at All Saints’ Community Hall

Library News

As you will know the Village HUB project will begin in the New Year, following the Parish Council consultation and results of the Village Plan. The village will see a new Hub building on the site of the old police station, which will contain the Library, the Parish Office, and a meeting place.

The Library will be a major contributor to the Hub, which we hope will become a village meeting place. The Library is particularly important as it is an existing facility and will be able to supply its expertise and stock to the Hub. It will have to change to meet the changing world we live in, as a result of the digital revolution. But it is certain that people will always need access to information in an interactive friendly environment. The Hub will be a meeting place for innovation.

The Parish Council is supporting the library team during the interim period to help it achieve both the transfer and the planning of the new facility. Our team is well used to running a library facility, but has no experience of the problems and management of a new library. We will need to decide what new equipment is needed to raise the profile. We will need to work out how the Library is to be arranged to generate interest in it. We need some new team members to supply both the expertise and the new drive, which will determine our ultimate success. So if you feel you have a contribution to make, then please visit us and tell us what you have to offer. There is no need to feel beholden to the existing team as we are looking for new skills. It will be an exciting and rewarding time.

In the meantime, the Library is still doing well. We have re-started our Story Time and numbers have risen dramatically recently. We need another volunteer to strengthen the Story Tellers Team. This person would help perhaps twice a month to ease the load on our team. Please contact Eleanor Fitzgerald after Story Time at the Library. The Library phone number is 01763 269956 or ring Mike Stapleton on 01763 261241.

We have relatively little space left for new books so can only accept a small number and they have to be in good condition to enable us to maintain our standards. Books need to be reasonably new, say post 2000. We cannot use technical or reference books as we do not have categories for these items and the demand is very low. We reserve the right to dispose of any donations we do not need. Library opening times are: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday 2.30 to 4.30 pm. Thursday 5.00 to 7.00 pm Saturday 10.00 to 12.00 noon Story Time – Thursday 10.00 to 10.45 am.

In the Royston Branch report this time we record with sadness the death of one of our longest serving members. Nellie (Nef) Peacock died peacefully on October 2nd aged 86, after a lifetime of working for R.N.L.I. She will be greatly missed by all her family and friends, and especially by those who have worked beside her, raising thousands of pounds for Lifeboats.

With her sister and her late husband she was instrumental in the installation of the Lifeboat ‘Jessie Lumb’ at Duxford Museum – those of you who have visited Duxford will no doubt have seen it in Hangar 3.

When WWII broke out ‘Jessie Lumb’ had already been decommissioned, but R.N.L.I. was approached by the War Office to put her back to sea with a cannon fitted.

This request was refused on the grounds that R.N.L.I. is a life-saving service, akin to ambulances, and could not be armed. Eventually this was agreed to, and ‘Jessie Lumb’ took to the waves again, rescuing many airmen and seamen both British and German, some of whom return to visit her. Amusingly, it was insisted that she carry ammunition for self defence, and to this day 3 cartridges are under a small brass plate in the bulkhead! The brass plate reads ‘Presented by the ladies of Wells next the Sea’. Presumably there would also have been something on board with which to fire the cartridges.

By the time the war ended ‘Jessie Lumb’ was the longest ever serving lifeboat, and because of her history it was requested that she be retired to Duxford, but over £1,000 worth of staging was needed to house her. Nef and friends managed to raise this money and ‘Jessie Lumb’ is there to this day as a memorial to the work of R.N.L.I. and the men she saved – though without her collecting box, which we have recently been instructed to remove.

Without the work of people such as Nef, and the generosity of the public, R.N.L.I. would be unable to continue the work.

Fortunately this generosity continues, despite times being lean at the moment, and we were delighted to raise over £800 in our Tesco collection in September – many thanks to everyone who contributed.

A very peaceful, happy and safe festive season from R.N.L.I. Jean Emes (Sec) 01763 245958

Melbourn and Meldreth Self Help Group

Thursday Lunch Club

In a previous issue, I mentioned that there would be some fundraising, taking place to raise enough money to put on another cream tea. Earlier on in the year I did have a Pampered Chef cookery party in Vicarage Close community rooms and approximately 25 people came to this. Together with a raffle and commission from sales on the night, £200 was raised. (Thank you to all who donated raffle prizes). In addition to this, The Dolphin pub, donated another £50, totalling £250. This was way in excess of what was needed for a cream tea, and I was very grateful to all who helped. However, this is not the end of the tale. A few weeks later, Sue Tobin, from the British Queen pub in Meldreth called, to offer to host a cream tea for all lunch club members, which meant the money raised could then be put towards another occasion. So a very big thank you to Sue and her team at the British Queen, who gave us a truly fabulous afternoon on the 8th August. The homemade sandwiches and cakes were delicious.

The money raised will now be going towards our Christmas Party. If however, there are any companies out there who would also like to help towards the cost of this, please contact me. I would be very pleased to hear from you. Christmas lunch is always provided free of charge by Lunch Club, but as you are all aware, the cost of living has gone up.

I am also asking if there are any folks out there who could help with driving. Unusually, there have been some members of our group, who have lived in Vicarage Close, and for various reasons have moved away to other accommodation. This now leaves me with vacancies, but no means of transport to get people to Vicarage Close community rooms on a Thursday. If it were possible for four people to offer their services, collecting at approx. 11.15am and taking them home just after 1pm, I could get a rota system together whereby only one Thursday a month would be required from each individual. Again, if you are able to offer any help, please contact me. If you wish to go on the waiting list, to join the lunch each Thursday, also let me know. Jayne White 220250 m. 07765563208 email: jayne.white1@ntlworld.com

Children of Chernobyl visit Melbourn

The Friends of Chernobyl Children is an association which aims to provide, over five years, and for one month every year, respite care for children from Belarus who, twenty-five years on, still suffer from the fallout of the nuclear plant disaster. The Cambridgeshire branch of FOCC, now in its sixth year of existence, has just waved goodbye to the second group of children, who are now aged seven. The group hopes to be able to fund a visit every year for the next four years. The Baptist Church in Melbourn kindly provides the facility for the children’s activity base. Two teachers from their country were with them and they had lessons every morning. In the afternoon they went on many visits and trips, with kind invitations by places such as Linton Zoo, the Shepreth Wildlife Park, Hatfield Forest and Wells by the Sea. Over the course of their stay the children were given free optical care by Howes Opticians in Royston and dental care by Shenton’s clinic in Buntingford.

The association is also very grateful for all the help provided by a great number of companies, particularly Tesco’s in Royston and John Lewis in Cambridge, who have welcomed the children and provide them every year with essential items such as clothing and shoes as well as some toys. Johnson Matthey, the Cancer Care Centre and the West Wratting Ladies have also been most generous in helping and supporting the Association to make the children’s stay as pleasant and interesting as possible.