Chetnole

from September 2021 No.338

Hermitage

CHETNOLE with REP: Liz Tebbatt 873140 tebbatt.towers@gmail.com Hamlet, Melbury Bubb & Stockwood DISTRIBUTOR: Stan Darley

Can’t believe we’re in September but here we go: Congratulations to Mr and Mrs Jonny and Rosie Griffiths whose wedding took place at St. Peter’s Church on 24 July. We all wish you many years of happiness together.

Our thoughts are with Yvonne Cull’s family: Yvonne passed away on 27 July and had previously lived in Chetnole for over 50 years, with her husband Toby.

Well done all to those who helped to produce the Teddy Bears’ Picnic and the Chetnole Flower Show this summer, read all about their fabulous events further on.

Since Sue and Aly cleaned and painted the phone box by the pub, it has become a useful village pick up point for free copies of local magazines. Gordon will deposit a batch of The New Blackmore Vale there every fortnight, as well as a batch of The Sherborne Times at the end of every month. Don’t forget to pick up your copies. 10

Dates for your diary:

8 and 9 September: Wriggle Valley

Players panto script read through and auditions at Leigh Village Hall. It’s

Peter Pan! 9 September: Wriggle Valley Voices resume at Chetnole Village Hall at 7.30pm – come and join us. 11 September: Ride + Stride day 22 September: MacMillan Coffee

Morning Chetnole Village Hall, 9:30am – 12:00noon 26 September: St. Peter’s Thanksgiving

Service, 11:30am And get chucking with The Chetnole Chuckers Weds and Sun afternoons on the playing field at 3.00pm.

Enjoy a little bit of well-earned freedom in the best village in the world. See you all in October.

Liz Tebbatt

The wedding of Mr and Mrs Jonny and Rosie Griffiths on 24 July at St. Peter’s Church, Chetnole

We would just like to say a massive thank you to all aspects of the village who helped in various ways: Reverend George Moody was inspirational and supported by a wonderful team; the beautiful church and prepared grounds thanks to hard work and dedication of the villagers; the use of the village hall facilities and the Hewitt’s field; and the wonderful support of the villagers who turned up to cheer from the wall. We feel privileged and proud to live in Chetnole.

Lucy and Andy Lovell

St. Peter’s Church

Thanksgiving Service 26 September

In the past, St. Peter’s has held a service to thank all those who contribute to St. Peter’s in any way – whether through regular donations, flowers, cleaning, bellringing, mowing etc. We also include some Pimm’s and canapes afterwards.

This year we are holding our Thanksgiving Service on 26 September at 11:30 am and are broadening it to include thanksgiving for everyone who helps, for the Harvest and for living here during the pandemic. While I think few of us will have enjoyed the lockdowns, we have been fortunate to have gone through them while living in Chetnole. Everyone is welcome to join us both for the service and for a drink and nibble afterwards.

Cream teas and teddies

Despite the uncertainty of the weather, the Cream Teas and Teddy Bear parachuting took place on 4 July.

It was lovely to see so many people out and enjoying themselves, despite Covid restrictions still not having been fully lifted. As ever, there were delicious cakes and scones on hand and a wide variety of teddies with ingenious parachutes to support them – or not. The winning teddy took an amazing 13 seconds to descend – congratulations to Caleb.

As ever, the afternoon could not have happened without the huge support 11

from the village – a huge thank you to all of you. The Friends of St. Peter’s raffle proved a great success and raised £228.80; a total of £388.50 was raised for church funds (which have taken a hammering over the last 18 months) and an increase from the 2019 total.

Riding and striding for St. Peter’s

The annual Ride and Stride for Dorset Historic Churches Trust is taking place on Saturday 11 September. So get out your walking shoes, jodhpurs or cycling lycra and visit as many churches in Dorset as you can over the course of the day – and raise money by having friends and family sponsor your effort. Half of the money raised by people in our village goes directly towards repairing the fabric of St. Peter’s, and the other half goes to Dorset Historic Churches Trust to provide grants for the maintenance and preservation of our beautiful churches.

You can plan your own route, visiting as many churches on the list as you like; people of all ages are welcome to take part. Last year Richard Charrington, Gwen Adair and Di and Dan Murphy did, and we raised over £700. Can we beat that this year?

If you’re not able to join them yourself, you can sponsor them, as they have agreed to do it again this year. Every little bit is welcome.

You can easily donate by going to www.justgiving.com/campaign/ dhctrideandstride2021/chetnolestpeters. Please donate to ‘Gwen Adair’ (Friends Secretary) and mention Chetnole St. Peters in your message to ensure the money goes to the right place. Donations can still be given after the event.

If you would like more information, get in touch with Jackie and Tony of The Friends of St. Peter’s on 873742 or boulterjs@yahoo.co.uk

Chetnole in the late 1880s

How very rural we were then. Orchards abound, many farms and perhaps your house not even there?

Linda Carroll

Parish Council Meeting 28 August 2021 – notes

This was our first meeting back in the village hall; we can thankfully abandon Zoom and meet face to face.

Despite previous efforts to curtail their activities, we are still having a problem with rabbits causing damage to the playing field, particularly to the cricket square; they have also damaged the football goal netting. We will be considering what other methods of control are available to us later in the year.

The playing field is a magnet for dog walkers and the Parish Council is, and has always been, reluctant to impose a ban. It will be available if dogs are under the control of the owners. Unaccompanied dogs, however, are not welcome, and we ask local owners not to let their dogs loose in the playing field on their own.

The flood management project is moving ahead with details sent to the farmers in the valley. We will be arranging for a representative from FWAG to meet the relevant farmers later in September/ October to discuss the suggested projects.

We have recently renewed the defibrillator pads in the village hall porch and will shortly replace the broken defibrillator cabinet. It would be good to have a pool of villagers trained in the use of the machine and we have located a training company who will provide training in the village hall for up to 12 people per session. If you are interested, please contact Sue Woodford.

The Friends of Chetnole Halt have arranged for a station sign to be located on the fingerpost at the junction of the Batcombe and Stockwood Roads to make it easier for strangers to the village to find the station.

The safety matting surface under the children’s play equipment has been in a poor state of repair for some time and we are now arranging for a new surface to be laid.

The Garden Club have suggested that the village becomes involved in The Queen’s Commonwealth Canopy project, and the members of the Parish Council are keen to support the project. Information concerning the project can be found at: www.queenscommonwealthcanopy.org.

Now that meetings are returned to the village hall, we would like to encourage as many villagers as possible to attend, as we welcome input on issues of interest to the community.

Lavender Keepers Cafe, Farm shop & Butchery

We are farmers, growers and butchers that have now opened our cafe, shop, garden and our lavender field. We are open Thursdays to Sunday 10am - 4 pm. For Hog roast or other enquiries, please contact us on; 07802443905 www.thestorypig.co.uk

Lavender Keepers, Sandford Orcas, DT9 4FG Owen Pope

Chetnole and Stockwood Parish Council

The outlook looked decidedly soggy for this year’s Chetnole Flower Show, but the rain eventually passed and we were delighted to see some fantastic show entries and people having fun.

There were over 350 entries to the Flower & Produce show across a range of classes, with the children excelling themselves particularly with 10 tie-dye items and 16 handprint pictures.

The Gentleman’s Carrot Cake challenge provided stiff competition with nine entries; Ian Fawcett took the glory here. There were plenty of homemade alcoholic drinks and we may yet see a Chetnole Distillery or Brewery emerge. In the handicrafts section we all marvelled at a beautifully intricate cross stitch entry of a leopard from Maryanne Charrington.

The Gordon Heaven Trophy for family with the most points went to the Murphy Family and Gwen Adair won the VPA Cup for most individual points. The Sybil Howard Award for contribution to village life went to the well deserving Gordon Ratcliffe. Thank you to all our stewards and judges for ensuring the judging ran smoothly and objectively. It’s not always easy choosing between some of the entries.

This year we brought back the muchmissed fete stalls and the bell rang

out several times for winners on the human fruit machine and the Fish the Fizz stall ran out of bottles due to popularity.

The Dog Show proved a great success with record entries for Handsomest Hound, Veterans and Waggiest Tail. They say never work with animals or children. Well, Clive Fowler managed the dog show and its young handlers brilliantly.

The white elephant and book stalls did brisk business with lots of bargains to be had thanks to donors and the efforts of Gwen Adair and her trusty helpers. Prices were accessible enough for some children who left brimming with pride as they walked off clutching their bargains.

Music was provided by the Yeovil Ukulele Club. Val and her band of 24 members played and sang their hearts out through the rain, and we’re looking forward to donating to their nominated charity, Mind.

Thank you to all those who bought tickets for the Prize Draw and donated prizes. There were some very happy winners leaving with enormous hampers, children’s activity kits, tennis lessons and pampering sessions. Jane Read has been delivering prizes to those lucky winners who couldn’t attend the show and it feels like a gift which keeps on giving.

We are enormously grateful to all of you who supported us either by coming, entering the show or donating to it. Particular thanks go to our sponsors; Stockwood Lettings; Ashfield Property & Management Services; Dockside Personnel and CS Gardening. Their financial support goes a long way to ensuring the show happens.

A well-deserved thank you goes to the unsung heroes of the day without whom there would undoubtedly have been chaos. Alex who prepares the field and all those who helped put up the gazebos, set out the stalls (in the pouring rain) and take it all down again. You know who you are!

The Committee will be meeting in September to organise donations. If you have a local charity you’d like to include, please email us by 12September chetnoleflowershow@gmail.com

Next year will be our 75th Anniversary and Jubilee year, so we’re already planning for a momentous event. We hope to see you there.