Issue 26
Paxton Post
September - October 2021
THE MAGAZINE FOR GREAT PAXTON
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This is your magazine, and it needs your contributions. All contributions to the next issue of the magazine are gratefully received. We particularly welcome: • News of village events • Photographs from the village • Private for sale adverts • Recipe ideas • Letters to the Editor • Reviews and Opinions • Anything you feel the village would be interested in. Contributions should be sent to Simon using the details below: Email: simon@easiprintandcopy.co.uk Telephone: 01733 602302 Post: Easiprint Ltd, 39 Benedict Square, Werrington Industry, Peterborough, PE4 6GD
The Paxton Post is delivered to every home in Great Paxton, and advertising is available at competitive rates. Advertising is not only great local exposure for local businesses, but it also helps support this village magazine, which is a real asset to Great Paxton.
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Advertisements should be sent to Simon using the details below: Email: simon@easiprintandcopy.co.uk
Telephone: 01733 602302
Post: Easiprint, 39 Benedict Square, Werrington Industry, Peterborough, PE4 6GD
Paxton Post is published by Easiprint Ltd in association with Great Paxton Parish Council. It is funded by the Parish Council, with help from advertisements. Whilst every effort is made to ensure information in this publication is accurate, neither the Editor nor the Parish Council can be held responsible for any errors. The views expressed in this publication may not necessarily reflect those of the publisher or the Parish Council. 3
Vicar: Canon Annette Reed 01480 211048 canonannettereed@gmail.com Churchwardens: Mt Bob Hacking 1 Mint Lane, Great Paxton 01480 219846
Mrs Sarah Gray, 12 Church Lane, Great Paxton 01480 214015
Tower Captain Mrs Mary Parnham 01480 394727 MaryP2707@hotmail.com Church Treasurer: Mrs Jacqueline Jackson jnmunro@btinternet.com
Our benefice Facebook Page is updated most days with news and pictures from around our four churches. You will find us @thePaxtonsBenefice. Annette continues to produce a Sunday You Tube video service, and the link will be found on the Facebook page and also on the Great Paxton Community Facebook page on Saturday evening. Please do contact Annette with any enquiries about weddings, baptisms, and funerals. These “occasional offices” at the time of writing can take place with the number of people who can be seated socially distanced in any of our buildings.
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Philip Cardell service A short service to commemorate the anniversary of the death of Philip Cardell is being planned in the churchyard in Great Paxton. It will start at 2:00 p.m. on Monday, September 27th. Philip lived at Manor Farm, next to the church where a blue plaque was recently unveiled. He was killed in the Battle of Britain during World War 2 in September 1940. It was hoped that relatives of Pip who live in the United States would be attending but that has not proved possible due to the current travel restrictions. They have arranged for a friend who lives in Eaton Socon to attend on their behalf and he is providing a piper to perform at the service.
Lancaster memorial Progress is still be made on the new churchyard memorial. We are in regular contact with the quarry in Cornwall which is providing the granite which will be very similar to that used for the existing memorial. The quarry happens to lie between the villages of St Neot and Petherwin. You may have seen that latter name on a house on the High Street. This is because the Cardell family which had the house built were originally from the village of that name in Cornwall. Another stonemason company has been sourced that will arrange for the plinth to be safely put in place. The costs of the build have risen, like so many services recently. so a small amount of extra money may have to be raised. If this is required, we will give out further information shortly. An unveiling ceremony will not be able to be held until Spring next year, but we will give plenty of notice of the event. We are hoping that this will be a large and important event for the village and will come just a few weeks before the Millenniumfest Anglo-Saxon weekend.
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News From The Bell I am finally pleased to announce that our new chef has started here! I want to welcome Sarah Claxton to our team. Sarah has a wealth of experience in the kitchen and is doing very well so far, the feedback has been amazing and people are re-booking. Please do come and try her food, I can promise she does not disappoint. There will be some changes to the menu in September as well as introducing a Pizza menu. Our menus and food times are available via our website. You are able to book by telephone, via the website or our Facebook page. Booking always remains advisable. The Bell is still able to cater for any events, weddings, christenings, wakes and birthdays! We have a range of Buffett options that we can share with you and will always be flexible in order to cater for individual needs. We are looking forward to welcoming back our darts and crib teams in the coming weeks as well as the football club, all of them have been missed! Petanque will not be back till next year, however they have been practising on a Tuesday evening in order to improve their ball skills!!! It appears we are getting back to some kind of normal and its great to have the pub buzzing and busy! Please keep supporting us, we need you. Raqi Manager www.mybellpub.com thebellgreatpaxton@yahoo.com 01480 700107/07701038433
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NEWS FROM YOUR DISTRICT COUNCILLOR THE RED TELEPHONE KIOSK One of the most enduring and ubiquitous symbols of Britain is the red telephone kiosk. At one time there were over 70,000 throughout the British Isles, now with the rapid take up of the mobile phone their numbers have dropped to some 8,000. Those left still have a significant impact on our urban spaces and rural landscapes despite having no modern purpose, in fact you are more likely to see a defibrillator or collection of books. To enable the public to use telephones when they came into general use at the end of the Victorian era, telephone kiosks were built in many shapes and sizes. There were also many telephone companies each with their kiosk design, by 1913 the GPO had taken over all these companies and decided to standardise the kiosk design. GPO decided to hold a competition for the design the winner was Giles Gilbert Scott who based his design on a tomb in St Pancras Churchyard after some alterations the kiosk as we know today was born in 1936. Previously it was also decided that the kiosks should be painted red matching the GPO’s red liveried pillar boxes. Although telephone kiosks are vanishing from the streets of Britain, abroad they are considered the epitome of Britishness. An American collector of British Motorcycles installed a telephone kiosk in his showroom to emphasise the British-ness of his business. They are also to be found in Gibraltar and Bermuda and in shopping malls in Florida and Australia. They were called kiosks is due to the Victorians who borrowed the word from the Ottomans for the ornate but functional covered stalls found nationwide by the middle of Queen Victoria’s reign it was then adopted by the telephone industry to describe the housing for public telephones. RICHARD WEST DISTRICT COUNCILLOR GREAT PAXTON WARD Covering Abbotsley Great Paxton, Great Gransden, Toseland, Waresley cum Tetworth Yelling TELEPHONE 01480 811467 OR 07841 866630 EMAIL richard.west@huntingdonshire.gov.uk or richard.west@buckdencambs.co.uk
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Parish Council News: August 2021 Please can you keep on top of your front gardens. Whilst it lovely to see the village looking so attractive, the Parish Council would like your help to maintain its good appearance by asking you to regularly trim those shrubs and bushes which have suddenly grown twice the size over the summer. This is especially important where they overhang walkways and pavements (sometimes roads!) as pedestrians, prams and wheelchairs need to be able to pass by without stepping into the road. Thank you. After several months, the Parish Council was pleased to be able to meet ‘face to face’ in July. Despite a further meeting with the County Council, during which all options for traffic calming features on the High Street were discussed and challenged rigorously again, Councillors reluctantly concluded that the County’s proposed scheme is still not acceptable. Our new County Councillor has offered to pursue the issue on behalf of the Parish and hopefully a meeting with Senior Engineers can be arranged before the September meeting. Some good news – the project for the introduction of a 40 mph ‘buffer zone’ from the Harley Industrial Estate, down Paxton Hill to the High Street has been approved by the County Council and as this scheme is less controversial, the Parish Council are hopeful that it will get underway more quickly. The Parish Council has donated £50 to the St Neots Museum. Please remember that the Museum has lots to offer in terms of local interest and that entry is free to residents of Great Paxton. Lastly, a few words on Saxon Green Play Space – the surface matting is due to be repaired in September. Disappointingly, the entry gate was vandalised in early August but promptly repaired and reinstated by one of our kind and skilled residents albeit at extra and unfortunate cost to the Parish Council! The Parish Council is struggling to find a solution to the drainage problem which occurs most winters within the play space but is trying hard to find a suitable contractor or resident who might be able to help! Until this problem is overcome, Councillors are a little reluctant to move forward with the new gym and play equipment. 14
All being well, the Parish Council is looking forward to returning to the school hall for its next meeting on September 20th at 8pm. There are now two vacancies on the Council. If anyone is interested in joining us, please contact me for further information and an application form at clerk@greatpaxton-pc.gov.uk See you there! ……………………………………………….
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We've had a jam packed last few weeks of the summer term with lots of fun and laughter during our outdoor meetings. Rainbows have been getting creative with pendulum paintings and experimenting to find out which materials are slippery and fast and which are sticky and slow. They've been playing lots of their favourite games and campfire songs too. Brownies and Guides used the occasional sunny evenings as an excuse for water activities... •
The girls in yellow had water run relays to explore the concept of fairness (there was lot of shouting!), and then check in on their knowledge of compass points by creating and using their own elephant super soakers.
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The Guides became treasure hunters designing and creating devices to capture water. There was also time to test their team work skills to see if they were on par with the suffragettes.
Brownies completed their canal and river badge with a series of challenges on a riverside walk in St Neots. The Guides were also out and about in St Neots on a Chip Hike where two of the Guides and one of our leaders made their promises on the Willow Bridge. All three units have put forward their ideas for the Great Paxton Scarecrow Festival and we look forward to bringing these to life in September. We had lots of fun at our final meetings of the term; •
Rainbows were in the mood for a party - there were party games, biscuit decorating, and dancing, A special farewell to one Rainbow moving onto Brownies, two Rainbows also made their promise and lots of badges handed out.
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The Brownies had a festival themed meeting; smores and campfire songs, fidget making, photo props, limbo, dancing to their very own festival playlist and water games. One Brownie made her promise, we awarded 58 skills builder, anniversary, theme and interest badges and our first Brownie Gold Award was presented by our Division Commissioner.
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Guides finished their term off by laying and lighting a fire, making campfire pot noodles and pizzas, eating smore tunnocks teacakes and creating their ideal campfire song book (complete with socially distanced jungle song).
We're now fundraising for equipment and storage space so that we can have more outdoor adventures and residentials for our Rainbows, Brownies and Guides! If you can help us by sharing our crowd funding page, making a donation or match funding we'd be really grateful. https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/girlguidinggreatpaxtonadventures
As always, we welcome new volunteers to join our team or offer new skills for the girls to learn or activities to try - we'd love to hear from you!
1st Great Paxton Rainbows: 1st Great Paxton Brownies: 1st Great Paxton Guides: Church Bell Ringers Holy Trinity Church
1stgreatpaxtonrainbows@gmail.com 1stgreatpaxtonbrownies@gmail.com greatpaxtonguides@gmail.com Mary Parnham 01480 394727 Canon Annette Reed 01480 211048 canonannettereed@gmail.com Churchwardens Bob Hacking 01480 219846 Sarah Gray 01480 214015 Community Room Julie Edwards 01480 472132 Crafty Belles Craft Group Diane James Diane.james42@outlook.com 07522 449535 Crib Team Simon Black 01480 700107 Football Club Tom 07576 600523 Friendship Club Marion Reeves marionreeves@btinternet.com Gt. Paxton Community Shop 01480 218 624 Gt. Paxton Cubs Andy Ottley 07704 857636 Great Paxton Allotments and Community Garden Gillian Smith 01480 477847 gilliansmith462@btinternet.com Ladies Group Melanie Dingemans melanie.dingemans1@gmail.com OBAS Howard Fieldhouse 07824 569111 Parish Clerk Christine Brandon clerk@greatpaxton-pc.gov.uk Petanque Brian Wright 01480 473697 Recreation Ground Michael Fairs Michael.fairs@gmail.com School Headteacher Lee Frost 01480 472132 Great Paxton Preschool Julie Edwards 01480 472132 St. Neots Police 101 Village Website www.greatpaxton-pc.gov.uk Woodsooners Golf Society Trevor Smith 07473 213556 email: trevorsmith1009@outlook.com Walkers Group Linda Richardson 01480 213768 Any corrections please notify the editor or email jillatgp@gmail.com
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