11 minute read
Community News
Milton Abbot church bell restoration project
At the time of writing in early December we had raised 80% of our £97,000+ project to replace the rotten oak bell frame and the floors in the tower, as well as restore and rehang our special listed bells cast by Pennington’s of Stoke Climsland in 1769. This has been a wonderful achievement during a pandemic, and we thank the local community, and grant bodies for getting behind us and making it possible. The work is being carried out by world renowned Taylor`s of Loughborough. The first phase of the work in the tower has been completed and our hope and aim will be to raise the remaining money to complete the project this year. To make it extra special we would love to have the bells ringing again to celebrate the Queen`s Platinum Jubilee in June.
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Two of the fundraising initiatives we have set up are our online shop and South Tamar Mission cookbook. The book also includes especially commissioned drawings, by Buckland Monachorum artist David Cox, of our six benefice churches: Coryton, Dunterton, Milton Abbot, Marystowe, Lamerton and Sydenham Damerel. The drawings are also available as prints from the shop. The eye-catching cover has been drawn by artist, Sally O`Neill from Coryton. Priced at only £5 it makes a super gift. There will also soon be lots of new items ideal for Mothering Sunday and Easter gifts. Orders can be posted, or collected from Tavistock or Milton Abbot.
You can visit our shop at milton-abbotchurch-pcc.sumup.link If you wish to donate, please visit: justgiving.com/campaign/mabells For information on sponsoring, donating or buying anything please do not hesitate to contact Pat Lovell, the treasurer at matreasurer@ southtamar.church
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Tavistock prepares for spring
We had a superb Christmas Together in Tavistock, which was much needed after the challenges of the year. The Christmas Light Switch-On event was magical with the appearance of the Living Snow Globe and, despite the mizzle, the return of Dickensian was a special community affair. The next few months will be dedicated to our marketing strategy for the year, and we are already working on developing the town’s Visit Tavistock branding to appeal to a wider audience. We believe Tavistock is a very special town that has a lot to offer visitors, and with the opening of the Guildhall Gateway Centre, it is the ideal time to sell ourselves as the perfect countryside getaway. Work will also be done on the town’s signage to include the new businesses that have recently opened. Despite the challenges of the pandemic, there is confidence that Tavistock is a good place to do business which gives us great optimism for the months ahead. Plans are coming together for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee year. The theme of our annual ‘Paint the Town’ event will reflect her 70-year reign and we look forward to seeing the windows of the town being brought to life with some colourful creations. Over the Easter holidays you can expect another egg-citing town trail, running from Saturday 9th to Saturday 23rd April. See Visit Tavistock on Facebook for more details. Other events are in the pipeline as well so please check the website for more details on all the upcoming events at www. visit-tavistock.co.uk/whats-on
Photo by Michael Leek, courtesy of Tavistock Heritage Trust
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New funding for West Devon
Miller Town and Country partners with The Trussell Trust
A new grant funding package focused on West Devon businesses, community groups, and those in retail, the hospitality and tourism sectors has been launched, with grants of between £2,500 and £25,000. The Devon Elevation Fund provides grants of between £2,500 and £25,000 for projects that help businesses and community organisations to: • Respond to the different trading environment resulting from COVID-19 • Plan for future growth and development • Develop new products and services • Improve infrastructure • Assess the feasibility of future initiatives The funding is mostly revenue, to buy in help, advice and expertise to achieve these objectives, and there may be an opportunity to include small items of equipment in support of this. (This funding cannot be used to pay your own staff or for your running costs.) Grants up to £5,000 are offered without the need to contribute. There will be a small percentage contribution towards project costs for for grants above this threshold. Projects might include helping with costs towards such things as website design/ advice, legal advice, architectural design work, marketing planning or all kinds of feasibility studies to support new product or project development. The initial application stage is now open. Please visit www.devon.gov.uk ‘Devon Elevation Fund’ to express your interest - timing is short for this fund so be quick! If you would like assistance, guidance or further advice please get in touch with the experts at The DR Company to guide you through the process: www.drcompany.co.uk; 01837 658 643.
Miller Town and Country is proud to have partnered with The Trussell Trust, a charity supporting a nationwide network of food banks. The Tavistock branch of Miller Town and Country is now a dropoff point for any items you may wish to donate to the trust, whilst shopping locally in our wonderful town. This can be anything from food to shampoo, dog food, and household items etc. The team at the branch will be providing a regular list of items, that the trust needs, in their office window at 2 Drake Road, Tavistock, PL19 0AU as well as posting regularly on social media pages. The office opening hours are 9-5:30 Monday to Friday, and 9-4 Saturday. So next time you are shopping, please pop by and have a look at what is needed, and add a little extra to your shopping list. The Trussell Trust is a charity that provides emergency food and support to people locked in poverty, whilst campaigning for change to end the need for food banks in the UK. The Trussell Trust has a local food bank in Tavistock which supports the area with a range of services that can help people reaching crisis point, making sure they can afford the essentials whilst providing tailored and dignified support to each individual experience.
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WE SELL, SERVICE AND INSTALL RAYBURN
Road safety funding award for Milton Abbot
In 2020 Milton Abbot launched a new campaign to slow down traffic passing through the village. The speed safety group has been very active since then, setting up a series of initiatives to encourage traffic to reduce its speed and make roads safer for all users. Towards the end of last year, the group even hosted a visit by Alison Hernandez, the Devon and Cornwall Police and Crimes Commissioner, after Isabelle, a pupil at Milton Abbot Primary School, decided that she would write to Alison Hernandez, highlighting the road safety issues. The letter touched Alison, who wanted to visit personally, meet Isabelle, find out about the road safety issues in the village and learn how she and Councillor Stuart Hughes, vice chairman of Vision Zero South West and Devon County Council’s cabinet member for highway management, might help address the problems. The police and crime commissioner attended a short presentation on Milton Abbot’s work so far, including the walking school bus, fundraising and grant applications, and the new QR code for reporting incidents. Following the visit, Milton Abbot has been awarded funding from Vision Zero South West’s ‘Call for Ideas’ initiative, set up to fund road safety projects in communities across Devon and Cornwall, where relatively small amounts of money can significantly increase road safety, preventing death and serious injury. In total the Call for Ideas project has allocated £153,000 to fund 34 projects across the two counties, including vehicle activated speed signs (subject to agreement with the local highway authorities), new road signs and markings, high visibility neck bands for cattle and ponies and glow in the dark stickers for school children. In addition, a further four projects will provide advanced driver courses for drivers under the age of 25 and engagement events for older drivers, cyclists and young drivers.
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e Old Bedford Foundry Lakeside Tavistock PL19 0AZ www.morrisbros.co.uk
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From the Lions’ Den
The Christmas period was very busy and financially successful for Tavistock Lions Club with just under £15,000 raised for local charities. The principal fundraiser was Trees of Light on Tavistock Town Hall, the centrepiece of the town’s wonderful Christmas lights. Started by the club in 1999, the lights are sponsored in celebration or remembrance of a loved one or event. Charities benefitting this year will be Derriford Children’s Cancer Services, St Luke’s Hospice and Children’s Hospice South West. The sponsorship money was supplemented by gift aid from HMRC and the sale of the club’s Christmas cards. Last year, with assistance from Tavistock Guides, the club reintroduced the Christmas postal delivery service for the Tavistock and Whitchurch areas which the guides ran for many years. With 10 collecting boxes around the town, around 3,000 cards were posted bearing the Lions’ stamp which club members delivered in a couple of tranches in the two weeks leading up to Christmas. The club was grateful to all of the outlets for hosting the boxes - around a third were posted at Whitchurch Post Office. In 2018, Santa asked Tavistock Lions to accompany him on his sleigh as he toured local primary and junior schools distributing presents which he cheekily asked the club to provide! The club readily agreed and it proved so successful the tour was repeated the next year. Unfortunately, due to the pandemic, the old man was in isolation and unable to visit in 2020, but 2021 was somewhat safer, and taking the necessary precautions of meeting outside, the Santa tour was resurrected much to everyone’s delight. The Lions had an allocation of £1,000 to spend on presents for the seven schools in Gulworthy, Horrabridge, Lamerton, Tavistock and Whitchurch. The choice of presents was left to the schools and included a wide variety of items including colouring books, pens, games, planters, bulbs, magazine subscriptions and a fish tank and fish which Santa had great difficulty in keeping safe in his sack!
Club members were also busy supporting Santa with a number of bucket collections in Bedford Square with the money collected going to various children’s charities, the principal recipient being the Mary Budding Trust, a charity that supports local children with special needs, aged eleven or under. More details about the club can be found at www.tavistocklions.org.uk, on Facebook or by calling 0345 8334807.
Winner of ‘Dinner for Two’
We would like to thank the many readers who replied to the Links 2021 reader survey which appeared in Tavy Links and Moor Links in the October/November 2021 issue. We received some wonderful comments and your feedback will be extremely useful to us as we plan future issues. We would also like to announce that the winner of ‘Dinner for Two’ at The Bedford Hotel, Tavistock in the reader survey prize draw, is Mr Paul Hooper.
Whoever you are, wherever you are on your journey, you are welcome here!
