Issuu

Issue 31

Paxton Post

July - August 2022

THE MAGAZINE FOR GREAT PAXTON

This is your magazine, and it needs your contributions. All contributions to the next issue of the magazine are gratefully received. We cannot guarantee to include every article, and we reserve the right to carry some over to a later edition.

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

Issue

Months Covered

Deadline Date - 5pm

September - October

21st August 2022

November - December

23rd October 2022

January - February 2023

16th December 2022

March - April 2023

20th February 2023

May - June 2023

21st April 2023

Paxton Post is published by Easiprint Ltd in association with Great Paxton Parish Council and is funded by the Parish Council. 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 Tel: 01480 211048 canonannettereed@gmail.com Churchwardens: Mr Bob Hacking 1 Mint Lane Great Paxton 01480 219846 Mrs Andrea Goodyer 7a Church Lane, Great Paxton. Andrea.goodyer@clinicallyconected.com Tower Captain: Mrs Mary Parnham 01480 394727 maryP2707@hotmail.com Church Treasurer: Mrs Jacqueline Jackson jnmunro@btinternet.com Please do contact Annette with any enquiries about weddings baptisms, and funerals. We can be very flexible with days and times for these special occasions. 4

A note from Annette about MillenniumFest We look forward with keen anticipation to the Great Paxton MilleniumFest on 16th & 17th July taking place in the church and churchyard. The event was due to take place in 2020 and planning for it began well before then, but due to Covid the date was put back twice. So, with great pleasure we can now announce the full programme of activities which you will find in detail on the back page of this edition of Quartet. We thank the talented planning group for all their hard work, perseverance and determination to deliver this festival and hope it brings a lot of pleasure to many people. Look out for the 30 Anglo- Saxons pitching camp for several nights on site! We shall be rounding off our festival with an evening service in church at 6.30pm to which we are delighted to welcome Bishop Stephen, the Bishop of Ely and acting Bishop of Lincoln. We extend a warm welcome to all our friends in our benefice to join us for the service – and indeed at any other time over the weekend. Read all about it in the centre pages…..!

Weddings! We are delighted to be hosting three weddings this summer and wish the happy couples every happiness in their future lives together. On July 2nd we have two weddings and both couples from Church Lane. They are: At 1pm: Christopher Mills and Kristina Wyatt At 3.30pm William Smith and Amy Keast. On August 13th at 3.00pm Michael Absalom and Francesca Sanders will be married at Holy Trinity There will be plenty of bell ringing and as always will offer warm hospitality to all who visit us for these very important occasions.

Services at Great Paxton Church. Our services for July at Holy Trinity Church are as follows. 1st Sunday: Holy Communion at 9.00am 2nd Sunday: All Age Worship at 11.00am 3rd Sunday: All Age Millennium Service at 10.30am Evening Service with Bishop Stephen celebrating our Millennium at 6.30pm 4th Sunday Morning Prayer at 11.00am. From August onwards services will follow the pattern as above, but on August 21st there will be All-Age Worship with baptism. From September 2022, the 3rd Sunday service will be a Holy Communion going forward. Our benefice Facebook Page is updated most days with news and pictures from around our four churches. You will find us @thePaxtonsBenefice.

Graham and Alisdair are getting ready to get back on their bikes! Graham Bevan is planning his third Cambridgeshire Historic Churches Trust (CHCT) Ride and Stride event, this year on 10th September 2022. The initiative encourages local people to raise funds for their own church or chapel and for CHCT Luckily Alasdair Kennedy, who joined Graham last year, has agreed to accompany him again. The two previous rides together raised nearly £5,500, divided equally between Holy Trinity church Great Paxton and Cambridgeshire Historic Churches Trust. Probably the reason for such a respectable sum is Graham is well known as the organiser of the 100 Club, which so many of you generous villagers kindly support. This year they've chosen to visit places of worship in the City of Cambridge and surrounding area. It's a cycle round trip of 40 miles to Cambridge and that's before they attempt to find the 75 6

(yes,75!) designated places marked on Graham's street map; not forgetting to record the time of the visit on all 75 locations. It's no surprise the ride will now commence from Milton, 4 miles from the city. It's doubtful one day is enough to finish their journey, even two days may not be enough. Last year the total mileage covered was 43. It could be a few more this time. Whatever happens, our duo of septuagenarians deserve a pat on the back for attempting such a mammoth challenge. Graham's contact number is 01480 212637 if you want to support him. Although he may be making a friendly visit before September 10th encouraging villagers to sponsor him! CHCT has generously contributed towards the funding of several building projects at Great Paxton Church in recent years. • Graham and Alisdair will be launching the start of Ride and Stride in Cambridgeshire at 9.30am on September 10th from Great Paxton Church. Do come along and wave them off! Thanks to Sarah! Our ongoing thanks to Sarah Gray for the many hours she puts into looking after the churchyard. She has particularly worked hard on the area of grass in the southwest corner of the churchyard which will be where many of the Millennium Fest activities will take place. There is just one recurrent problem: dog fouling in the churchyard. Grass cutter Penda reports that he finds unwanted deposits when he mows which is most unpleasant and Sarah also has to pick up mess when she is working in the churchyard. The last thing we want to do is ban dogs and their walkers in the area so a plea once again to make sure any dog mess it picked up and taken away. We especially don’t need this problem as we welcome many people onto the site for the Fest weekend. Thank you.

LANCASTER MEMORIAL REPORT Around 300 people attended the unveiling of a monument in the churchyard of Holy Trinity Minster Church in Great Paxton on Saturday 7th May. The granite column was installed to honour the sacrifice of seven young men who crashed in a Lancaster bomber shortly after takeoff from RAF Graveley on December 24th 1944. Whilst there are commemorations to servicemen who lost their lives whilst based there, there has not been one to this particular crew. Relatives of the crew came from all over the country including some from as far as Kent and South Wales. They mingled with villagers and other interested parties including representatives of the St Neots branches of the Royal British Legion and Royal Air Force Association. The ceremony began with the St Neots Air Cadets marching down Church Lane into the churchyard. During the service, which was partially lead by Great Paxton’s former vicar Father Peter, three school children read poems about the crash which had formed part of a local history school project last year. One of the crew who perished in the crash on the edge of the village had written a poem about his life in World War 2. His much younger brother attended the service and brought along a small notebook in which the poem had been written and he movingly read it out. The service finished with a low flypast by one of the RAF’s Spitfires. Alongside the unveiling, an exhibition was held in the church which included much information about the crew and the crash as well as parts of the plane and items of clothing worn by crew members of other Lancasters.

May and June meetings 2022 Website https://greatpaxtonhistory.weebly.com/ email greatpaxtonhs@yahoo.com Facebook Great Paxton Remembers Old photographs particularly welcome. Also Great Paxton 1000 https://greatpaxton1000.co.uk Lancaster memorial Dedication service in churchyard with exhibition in church May 7 - a magnificent event. Thanks to Chris and Graham. Full double page spread (plus adverts) in Hunts Post. Black Cat Radio interviewed Graham and Chris. And Radio Cambridge having missed the ceremony because of Covid, have returned and interviewed Graham. If we find out if it is being broadcast we will let you know. th

The military button was found in the garden of Barry King’s old house in London Lane, the one that the plane clipped the roof, and his initials are amongst the graffiti in the middle chamber of the church bell tower. MILLENNIUMFEST - 16th and 17th July 2022 See more information in this edition Family and village history •

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Asked for ideas for the future of the History Society. Those attending seemed happy to carry on for a while with short reports of activities and ‘show and tell’ to stimulate conversation. Occasionally wider history could be covered, not just village, as was done initially. Rachel is happy to open The Bell on the Monday especially for us. Possibly meet in the church occasionally in high summer and bring our own refreshments. Will arrange for Buckden History Society to talk to us about the Saxon settlement discovered between the A1 and Loves Lane. It had the longest hall building discovered so far in Britain. [A permanent exhibition of display boards is in the Village Hall,] The Huntingdonshire Local History Society would like to visit our church, possibly next summer, and would like us to show them around, and to provide teas. A suggestion to ask St Neots Museum to visit one evening and talk to us, possibly show some artefacts found in the village. 9

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New project ideas were discussed and need to be planned. Graham read some extracts from the WW1 diary of William Collins when he was in Eqypt as well as France.

Show and Tell As is usual at the moment, various fascinating items were brought along and prompted much discussion for the rest of the evening. •

Old pictures of Surrey.

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Oil bicycle lamp from the 1920’s.

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Glove stretchers, narrow for each finger. Bone?

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A golly keyring

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A sandlewood and bone or ivory sewing box from India, early 19 century(?) – these two items sparked a lot of conversation but we remain friends.

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A bronze bar patent no 13113 and either – XON or NOX, dated 1910. Unknown use. If anyone has any ideas please let us know. About 12 inches long.

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Fossils, including a fine Gryphaea Arcuata or "Devil's Toenail" from the lower Jurassic period. This asymmetrical oyster-like bivalve lived in the mud on the sea-floor.

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Glass bottles retrieved from building work along the high street. In particular a Jordan & Addington bottle with the top broken (to remove the marble?) and a scent bottle.

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1936 birth registration document, along with a notebook with a handy grocery list printed on the back cover. Telephone number 85.

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Carving knife and fork set in a double ended holder, possibly Indian early 20 century

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A mouth organ

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Deeds on parchment 1827, and an indenture 1820s

Dates of Great Paxton History Society meetings–Every month. 7.30 to 9.30pm at The Bell, on a Monday. Please email either greatpaxtonhs@yahoo.com or Jacqueline.wieczorek@gmail.com (01480 477035 ) to be notified. We will continue with a monthly email ‘newsletter’. NEXT MEETING in The Bell 7.30pm Monday 11 July –Please bring an interesting item for ‘show and tell’ or to identify; it (and you) will be very welcome. th

William Collins War Diary – April 1917 to May 1918 William Collins was born in 1892 in London Lane, had nine siblings and worked as a farm labourer. His great-niece, Val Freeman, recently brought along a diary that Bill had written after he joined the Suffolk Regiment (Infantry) in April 1917. Here are some highlights. He was sent to Felixstowe for training with guns, marching, vaccinations, more marching and a closely cropped haircut. He did get a week’s leave but after arriving back six hours late, he was confined to barracks for five days. In July 1917 he set sail to Cherbourg in Northern France in a crowded boat. Then various trains took them down to the south of France. There he marvelled at the wonderful, mountainous scenery but his wonderment soon faded when his new camp was full of ants and lizards and heat. There he heard of a possible peace treaty being agreed by all parties except Britain and saw a headline on a local newspaper declaring ‘Britain’s Greed’. A four day voyage then took him over to Alexandria in Egypt to a new camp just outside the city. There he undertook more training drills which he curiously said involved wearing knickers and big hats. At one point he had a four hour pass in order to go into Alexandria. He described it as being similar to London! I suppose putting this into context, he probably would rarely have been further than Huntingdon. He did not reach the front battlelines until enduring more ’cattle truck’ style train journeys through the desert. This was seven weeks after leaving Britain and his first task there was to spend five hours digging trenches. Then more marching to the next camp where he found poor food and more peace rumours. On October 18 he saw some action when he watched planes battling overhead. The food was getting more scarcer though with five people sharing a tin of bully beef. His first piece of action followed and he noted that there were shrapnel and casualties everywhere. Progress was being made but that meant more marching but in hot weather and with little water. In midNovember he was fumigated and given a week’s rest. Back in the trenches he developed ‘alarming sores on his hands and legs’ bad enough that he went to hospital for a few days. After more time on the front line, he developed tonsilitis and was sent to a hospital in Cairo, on Christmas Eve. He heard there about the fall of Jerusalem. (Incidentally, there is a Great Paxton connection here in that the troops taking Jerusalem were led by Sir General Allenby who was a cousin of Lionel Cane who is on our war memorial as he was the son of the village’s Reverend Cane.) th

This Christmas in hospital though turned out surprisingly well. He had a hot bath, a turkey dinner then plum pudding and oranges, finishing with cigarettes and a very unlikely half a pint of claret and ginger beer! Later there was a big tea with cake and sweets followed by a whist drive with mince pies and, for some, singing and dancing. The next day though he caught diphtheria and was confined to hospital for another three weeks. His convalescence was well spent and included a boat trip down the Nile and a trip into central Cairo. There he saw two huge mosques, one of which had 2,500 electric lights on it. Remember this was being experienced by an agricultural labourer from a quiet village in Huntingdonshire. He eventually returned to action until May 1918 when he returned to France but then his diary stopped. We do now that he survived and returned to the village where he lived until his death in 1970.

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MILLENNIUMFEST Programme Day 1 - Saturday 16th July from 10:20 – 17:00

Saxon Village… from 10:20 onwards ��Living history encampment by Ousekjarr showcasing Anglo Saxon crafts, life and music 1020 onwards ��Mask Making stall – come and colour ready cut mask ��Lots of colouring pages and crayons for children ��Moot court and Stocks – don’t misbehave or you may be tried by the village elder at the moot court and end up in the stocks! ��Vegetarian and meat BBQ by Graeme Anness. Bacon rolls from 10:30 and BBQ from 11:00- 15:30 or whilst stocks last! ��Open Bar supplied by The Bell ��Soft drinks and snacks by our Community Shop ��Tony Hagger – Local detectorist: see some Anglo Saxon finds he has found and try your own hand at detecting. ��Time Capsule table –give our team some ideas of what you think would be interesting for people to read in, say, AD 2100. ��Come in Anglo-Saxton costume and get a small gift from Village HQ ��Have a go Archery by Ousekjarr (safety arrowheads used - £1 for 3 arrows) ��Medicinal herb display in church porch – see how we did things before modern medicine ��History exhibition ��Bagatelle

Timed activities A.M 1. 1030-1100 Saxon Warrior weapon display by Ousekjarr living history Group 2.

1100-1130

Kiddie Vikes (activity for children)

1130-1200 Storyteller’s chair occupied today by Sarah Hogben (former headmistress of Great Paxton School)

1200-1230 Archaeological dig of Saxon grave - see grave goods through the centuries and then reveal virtual skeleton!

Timed activities P.M 1. 1300-1400 Music of the time by choir both outside and inside the church – Choir provided by Peppercorns Academy 2.

1400-1430

Saxon Warrior weapon display by Ousekjarr

1430-1500

Kiddie Vikes (activity for children)

1500-1530 Storyteller’s chair occupied today by Sarah Hogben former headmistress of Great Paxton School

1530-1600 Archaeological dig of Saxon grave - see grave goods through the centuries and then reveal virtual skeleton!

Marketplace ��MILLENNIUMFEST merchandise. Jams, chutneys, lavender bags, branded bookmarks, cotton branded tote bags, church history booklet and Great Paxton Remembers booklet ��Paul Ward’s wooden and slate goods, 1000 tree registration point, commemorative tiles ��St Neots Natural Soaps from Kata Magee ��Ciaran the wood whittler... lovely eating spoons and forks ��Saxon demo of tablet weaving by Drakos Dottir with woven goods for sale ��Fatbobcrafts – engraved leather good *Please note: due to lack of wi-fi in the churchyard we will be operating on a cash sales basis. Also, for this event we are only able to welcome assistance dogs due to health and safety issues around crowds and low firepits operated by the living history society. 14

MILLENNIUMFEST Programme Day 2 - Sunday 17th July 10:20-15:30 10:20 - Bell Ringing & Procession by Guiding Groups and the SAXONS In Church 10:30 -12:30 Celebratory Service – Welcome in old English by Janet Perritt followed by Canon Annette Read in modern English ��MP, Jonathan Djanogly - Mayor of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, Nik Johnson County Cllr, Stephen Ferguson - District Cllr, Richard West - Liz Davies, Head Curator, St Neots Museum ��Mr Butler's poem about Great Paxton read by a relative ��Prize giving for the 500-word story competition ��Peppercorns Academy Time warp musical - written especially for Great Paxton ��Cutting of the 1000 Cake with refreshments Saxon Village 12:30 – 15:30 ��Living history encampment by Ousekjarr displaying Anglo Saxon crafts, life and music ��Mask Making stall – come and colour ready cut mask ��Lots of colouring pages and crayons for children ��Moot court and Stocks – don’t misbehave or you may be tried at moot court and end up in the stocks! ��Tea, coffee, soft drinks and cake available in the Minster until 15:30 and/or BYO picnic ��Tony Hagger - Detectorist: see some Anglo Saxon finds he has made and try your hand at detecting. ��Time Capsule table – give our team some ideas of what you think would be interesting for people to read in AD 2100. ��Come in Anglo-Saxton costume and get a small gift from village HQ ��Have a go Archery by Ousekjarr (safety arrowheads) ��History exhibition ��Medicinal herb display in church porch –15see how we did things before modern medicine

Timed activities outside.... 1. 1230-1300 Saxon Warrior weapon display by Ousekjarr Living History Group 2. 1300-1330

Kiddie Vikes (activity for children)

3. 1330-1400 Archaeological dig of Saxon grave - see grave goods through the centuries and then reveal virtual skeleton! 4. 1400-1430 Gruesome Saxon facts from the Storyteller Chair – read today by Wendy Harkin (sister of Graham James) 5. 1430-1500

Maypole and Country dancing by Great Paxton Schoolchildren

6. 1515 -END The arrival of William the Conqueror to claim the Great Paxton and Holy Trinity Minster as his own. Come to see who the King puts in the stocks! Market Stalls ��MILLENNIUMFEST merchandise. Jams, chutneys, lavender bags, branded bookmarks, cotton branded tote bags, church history booklet and Great Paxton Paxton booklet ��Paul Ward’s wooden and slate goods, 1000 tree registration point, commemorative tiles ��St Neots Natural Soaps from Kata Magee ��Ciaran the wood whittler... lovely eating spoons and forks ��Saxon demo of tablet weaving by Drakos Dottir with woven goods for sale 1830 –1930 Bishop Stephen Conway, Bishop of Ely and acting Bishop of Lincoln will take Evensong. Everyone is welcome to come back later to join in this service. There will be a choir and we hope there will be a dedication of the beautiful pew cushions that have been crafted and completed so far by village craft group, The Crafty Belles. *Please note: due to lack of wi-fi in the churchyard we will be operating on a cash sales basis. Also, for this event we are only able to welcome assistance dogs due to health and safety issues around crowds and low firepits operated by the living history society.

ROUND 2! Saturday 10th to Sunday 18th September Although September still seems a long way off, it is crazy to think that this may (dependent on delivery dates of the next issue) be the last Paxton Post you receive before the second Great Paxton Scarecrow Festival takes place!!! Last year was a HUGE success and went so much better than I could ever have imagined! It was so fantastic to see the community pull together and join in the fun after such a difficult couple of years. The atmosphere in the village was amazing all week, and people travelled quite a distance to come and see our efforts!! Last year we had 59 official entries on the map – I would love to get to at least 75 this year! Without your scarecrows, it won’t be a success - so please get your thinking caps on! This year’s festival will take place from Saturday 10th to Sunday 18th September. Thanks to the wonderful generosity of Jon and Zoe Masterton, Hire or Buy Group are sponsoring the event once more, which means we have a fantastic first prize of £75! Yet again Raqi has kindly donated second prize - £50 voucher for The Bell, and this year third prize will be a voucher for Arthur Ibbett Ltd. If you are not sure how last year worked, a village map and full list of scarecrow entries were available all week from the community shop

and the pub. On this document was a voting slip where people could vote for their favourite 3 entries. These slips could be handed in all week at the pub and shop, and on the last Sunday of the festival the votes were counted and the winners announced. Last year we had over 550 votes to count! Looking at the voting slips (which asked for the voter’s postcode) we had people come from St Neots, The Offords, Little Paxton, Godmanchester, Huntingdon, and as far as Bedford, Peterborough, Rushden, and Harlow! It was wonderful to see so many new faces walking around our village. So, this is the plan for the festival week: SCARECROWS Scarecrows will need to be on display from 10am on Saturday 10th until end of day on Sunday 18th and will be required to withstand the wonderful unpredictable British weather! There is no theme, and it is free to enter. A completed entry form (included within this newsletter) is required in order to be eligible to win the prizes, and this form must be returned by 4th September. You will then be given an official entry number that needs to be displayed near your scarecrow for the week, so that people can vote for your creation. You do not need to use straw, but if you would like to then I am hoping the lovely residents of College Farm may be able to donate some again. ARTS & CRAFTS MARKET – SATURDAY 10TH SEPTEMBER FROM 12PM CHURCH GROUNDS

This year I am aiming to have more stall holders, and so the Arts & Crafts market will be held in the church grounds on Saturday 10th September from 12pm. I still have a couple of spaces so if you do know anyone that would like a stall (including any local charities which of course there will be no charge for) then please do make contact. Teas, coffees and cakes will hopefully be served in the church.

STREET FOOD FESTIVAL – SATURDAY 10TH SEPTEMBER FROM 12PM THE BELL CAR PARK

The Bell carpark will host the Street Food area this year, and I am delighted to say we have some amazing vendors booked already! Plus The Bell team will be selling a Mexican feast! GARAGE SALES – SATURDAY 10TH & SUNDAY 11TH SEPTEMBER – VILLAGE WIDE

Last year lots of residents used the occasion to have garage sales on the first weekend and made the most of the hundreds of people walking around our village. If you would like to be added to the list of sales on the map, just let me know. Saturday, Sunday or both days, it is up to you! It’s a great opportunity to declutter and make some cash! VOTING / WINNERS Voting by the public will take place all week using the voting slips available on the map / scarecrow entry list. Voters will be asked to list their 3 favourite entries (in no particular order). These votes will be counted on the afternoon of Sunday 18th September and the winner announced at The Bell pub and via a Facebook live feed. So, come on Great Paxton, let’s make this year’s event even bigger and better!!! Jo Clark, 27 Towgood Way GPscarecrow.festival@yahoo.com

We're really excited to hear that we our application to the Tesco Community Grants Scheme has been successful. So if you're in one of the local Tesco stores (Eaton Socon, Loves Farm or St Neots Extra) between the first week of July 2022 and 30th September 2022, we'd really appreciate you voting for us. We're continue to fundraise for storage space and equipment for outdoor adventures and residential trips for Great Paxton Rainbows, Brownies & Guides. We've been really happy to be outside so much this term already... • We had some fabulous celebrations for the Platinum Jubilee just before half term; Treasure hunts, bouncy castle, 'horse" racing, cake decorating, pop up card making, marigold planting, jewellery making... And for the Guides a "fit for the queen" bake off competition and some nail painting too! The cards they've made are in the post for Her Majesty The Queen. • We were really excited to hear that one of our Guides was a join winner for the Girlguiding Cambridgeshire West & Woodgreen Pets Charity badge design competition and can't wait to get stuck into the Den Challenge Badge. • The Brownies attended the Girlguiding Cambridgeshire West sleepover (with over 150 other Brownies) at the National Space Centre in Leicester. What an experience to have the centre to ourselves - to explore, take part in activities and experiments, have planetarium shows and then sleep under the solar system. • Rainbows have got their STEM on with some science experiments, have been discovering how good their concentration is with the art of distraction, finding out more about their friends with an active game of mastermind and practised their Tennis skills too. • Brownies have had a water themed evening making their own giant bubbles, playing water games and finishing off with a giant water fight. We're not sure who was wetter - girls or owls. One of our Brownies led most of the meeting for her Brownie Gold Award creating rockets some of which flew really high. Lots of hilarity and vinegar smelling leaders! They've also been working on their Reflect Skills Builder - games to explore emotions, curiosity experiments and designing their own flag so far. 22

• Guides have discovered some new games, had an acts of kindness relay and explored the positives and pitfalls of the world of social media. They have had a science inspired evening creating chemical reactions, pretending to be a hadron collider and creating their own dip dab sherbert as food scientists. They've also been playing lots of water games, taking on their 'Explore' skills builder with GPS mapping. • Some of our Rainbows, Brownies and Guides were able to join other members of the community at the very moving Lancaster Memorial Service in May. • The Guides were pleased to receive a reply from our local MP after they wrote to him about the environment as part of World Thinking Day. We're now looking forward to lots more adventure in the run up to the summer break; Rainbows are completing their camp skills builder badge, Guides are off for a chip hike, Brownies and Guides are having an archery taster session with the St Neots Bowman. Finally, 24 girls are off to Hautbois (Girlguiding Anglia's Activity Centre) in July for a weekend of fun and adventure. We can't wait! If you'd like to be part of our volunteer team, we'd love to hear from you. We're looking for adult volunteers to help us with some of the behind the scenes things (admin, finance, equipment) as well as helping support the weekly meetings and residentials/ trips. If you'd like to know more, we'd love to hear from you. >> Keep up to date with what we've been up to on our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/GirlguidingGtPaxton 23

At the recent local elections, Wayne Bond, Chris Hall, Mrs Jacqueline Jackson, Mrs Jill Peters and Roger Widdowson were re-elected unopposed to serve on the Parish Council for a further four-year term. Gordon Addison and Paul Goodyer were also co-opted to the Council at the Annual Meeting. Wayne and Paul were subsequently re-elected as Chairman and Vice-Chairman. With all the formalities out of the way, the new Council were able to move on to the important stuff! This included a very welcomed update from the local PCSO Richard Braddick. Once again Richard encouraged residents to contact either St Neots Neighbourhood Team, to call 101 or 999 or to use the Police website (and not Facebook) to report any unusual or suspicious activity in the village or to discuss any concerns they might have about crime in Great Paxton. Although resources are stretched, Richard undertook to ensure that there was a regular police presence in the village. He also confirmed that there would be speed monitoring operations locally over the summer months. Some good and some bad news – a design for the 40mph Buffer Zone on Paxton Hill has been approved and hopefully the County Council will begin work on this scheme soon. Disappointedly, the Parish Council’s request for funding towards footway improvements on the High Street (for 70 metres towards the Manor Farm entrance) was rejected by the County Council. Councillors have discussed ways to move the latter project forward themselves by reducing the width of the hedge still further to the original field edge, by re-establishing the existing path where it has become covered by mud and grass over time and by reinstating the plastic bollards. A decision as to how to take this forward will be made at the next meeting. The Parish Council was pleased to present an engraved coin to all children attending Great Paxton Primary School in commemoration of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Celebrations. Several are available to purchase at £5 should anyone be interested with all proceeds going towards the planting of a new tree on land at Mount Pleasant in the Autumn. Our next meeting takes place on Monday 18th July at 8pm in the Community Room at Great Paxton School. A representative from County Broadband will be giving a presentation to the meeting on ‘Bringing Full Fibre to Great Paxton’. It would be great to see you there. And to close, whilst membership of your Parish Council is healthy, there are still two vacancies to fill. So, if you would like to become a parish councillor or to find out what’s involved, please contact the Parish Clerk on clerk@greatpaxton-pc.gov.uk or come to see for yourself what it’s all about at the next meeting in July! 25

The Spring Meeting of the Great Paxton Woodsooners Golf Society was held at Cambridge Meridian Golf Club on Friday 6 May 2022. The course was in good order, the sun was shining and we all had a great day. We had 18 players, some from Great Paxton, some from other local areas and some from much further afield; it was great to see new members as well as ‘old hands’; all are welcome. 20 is a good number for our events so it would be great if we could maintain somewhere around this number of players for future events. Dinner, Presentations and much banter were had at The Bell in Great Paxton where we were hosted very well by Rachel and her team. Prizes were awarded as follows: Nearest the Pin Trevor Smith Longest Drive Martin Bazley High Handicap Runner-up (27 points) Nick Helme High Handicap WINNER (28 points) Steve Bullock Pairs Runners-up (37.3 points) Nick Helme & Jim McIlwaine Pairs WINNERS (37.3 points, on countback) Rob Worrall & Gary Price Singles Runner-up (35 points) Jim McIlwaine Singles WINNER (35 points, on countback) Martin Bazley Wooden Spoon Winner (14 points) Gary Freeman th

Particular congratulations to Steve Bullock who went from Wooden Spoon Winner at the Autumn Meeting to High Handicap Winner at this meeting – well done Steve. Well done to all our winners and runners-up and indeed to everyone who took part for making this another great day out. Our Society is extremely friendly so if you would like to attend future meetings, or if you know of anyone that may be interested, just let me know on either of the contacts below or you can contact Scott on: 07900 216300 or scott@tikitour.net – you will be made most welcome. We meet twice a year (Spring and Autumn) and play 9 holes Pairs in the morning and 18 holes Singles in the afternoon with Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner and Prizes all included in the price (generally around £75). Note for your Diaries – the Autumn Woodsooners Meeting will take place on Friday 30 September 2022. We will let you know details (including the Venue) nearer the time. Finally for now, Scott has set up a Woodsooners Facebook Page. To join, search on Facebook and “like”. Then please feel free to add photos from Woodsooners Golf Days – the funnier the better. Trevor Smith Scott Boswell 07473 213556 07900 216300 trevorsmith1009@outlook.com scott@tikitour.net th