Wendover News December 2023 by Wendover News

December 2023

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This year, Wendover Parish Council has moved its Christmas Celebration to the first Saturday in December, instead of a weekday, so that those who work outside the parish have a better chance of being able to join in the fun. The Manor Waste’s Christmas Tree will be lit up for the first time during the event, sponsored by J Brown Funeral Services, Harry Fisk’s Christmas Trees and Ivan Cammack Opticians. Santa will be there too, so make sure anyone wanting to visit has the small fee of £2 handy.

Shed is a fully functioning organisation with a website, www.wendovershed.org.uk. Wendover Shed members have been busy making small wooden items such as bird boxes, trugs and planters to sell for their funds. Wendover Parish Council are selling Christmas Tree decorations made for them by Wendover Wood to raise funds for the planned skatepark in Wendover. Talking of Christmas Trees, pupils from local pre-schools and schools have participated in the Christmas Tree Decoration competition once again. Take a look and see who you think made the best one. The winners will be announced during the event.

If you have never attended before, this will be a good opportunity to explore the shops that stay open until 7pm. Have you taken the time to look at the lovely Christmas shop windows decorated by There will be a small stage where Wendover’s retailers? The winner local schools and choirs will of that competition will also be announced at perform, including from John Colet School. the Celebration. Last year Wendover Children’s Choir made its debut at the equivalent event and they are back There is also a small Christmas market with by popular demand. The Community Choir will stalls selling Christmas Gifts, some run by local also sing. This should set us up for the rest of organisations. Last year Wendover Shed was just December! getting going so its stall was a tombola. Now the Jane Larkham, Editor

RAF Flypast

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To celebrate the completion of training at RAF Halton, a flypast will take place, weather permitting. Wednesday 6 & 20 December 2023

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Events

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Contents

Local Walks and Cycle Rides

Simply Walk – Weekly walks on Tuesdays from Wendover Clock Tower, leaving 10am, please arrive at least 15 minutes early to register with the walk leader. After the walk, you can socialise at the weekly all-ages drop-in at Wendover Christian Centre. Aylesbury Cycling UK: Easy Pace rides are still every first and third week of the month, about 30 miles long. The Newcomers are each second and fourth week and about 20 miles long. Email: aylesburycuk@gmail.com.

Winter Warmer Soup Lunch

Tues, 12.30-1.30, Wendover Christian Centre Events................................................................2 Churches together in Wendover are again Big drive for volunteer drivers...........................6 offering soup lunches this winter each Tuesday Local News.........................................................8 until Easter. See p8. Extreme runners in Wendover........................13 Welcome to Wendover High Street.................14 Rotary Santa Ecosleigh....................................16 Give the gift of time.........................................17 Club Corner.....................................................18 Wendover Dementia Support.........................20 Campus energy project...................................21 Secret Wendover ............................................22 How can I see a Doctor?..................................24 EKFB.................................................................25 HS2 up close....................................................26 Wendover Parish Council................................28

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“I Grew Up 80s” Discover Bucks Museum, Aylesbury

Tues – Sat, 10am – 4pm (until 16 March 2024) Don’t miss the nostalgia-filled exhibition with over 200 objects from BMX to Betamax, Dirty Dancing to Donkey Kong, Thompson Twins to Transformers. If you were a child, teenager or adult and experienced the 80s get ready to exclaim “I remember that!” Visit www. discoverbucksmuseum.org

featuring young musicians from the Aylesbury Music Centre. Tickets £10 per person from the Rennie Grove shop, Wendover, or www. renniegrovepeace.org/jazznight

Cholesbury-cum-St Leonard’s Local History Group

Fri 1, 7.30pm, St. Leonards Parish Hall, HP23 6NW Adam Smith – lecturer on architectural history and English country houses and estates. localhistorygroup@cholesbury.com.

Christmas Celebration with Tree Light Switch-on

Sat 2, 4-7pm Manor Waste, Wendover Christmas Tree light switch on at 5.30pm. Bring along £2 and get a present from Santa. Free parking at Chiltern Railways car park from 4pm. More details on back page.

Wendover Choral Society

Sat 2, 7.30pm, St Mary’s Wendover Featuring Te Deum, Jubilate, Mendelssohn – Christus, incidental music from A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Music Director, Peter Bassano. Tickets from Just, 11 High Street, HP22 6DU.

Cracklewick Morris

Tuesdays 8.15-10.15pm Halton Village Hall. An all-inclusive mixed morris side who meet most Tuesdays for dance practice. Poetry Please No experience is necessary to dance and Fri 1, 10.30am, Wendover Christian Centre musicians who are less experienced will be The theme will be ‘Christmas.’ Bring a suitable given lots of support. The first four sessions are poem to read or go along and see what others free. Contact Squire Darryl: 07946 150380, or have found. Everyone welcome! email cracklewickmorris@gmail.com. See p18.

Wendover Rennie Grove Fundraising

Fri 1, 7 for 7.30pm, Wendover Memorial Hall An evening of live music organised by the Wendover Rennie Grove Peace Fundraising Group. It is a concert and jazz band fundraiser

a little bird told me gallery The best Christmas ever! Stocking Filler Gifts Enter our Free Prize Draw!

Kimble & Ellesborough Horticultural Society Tues 5, 8pm , Stewart Hall, Little Kimble The Changing Wildlife of the Chilterns. John Tyler, a local naturalist, returns for the

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Christmas meeting. From warm seas, through ice ages, tundra and forests, to the farmland and beechwoods of today, we travel through a hundred million years to follow the story of the Chiltern landscape and its wildlife. If you are not a member but would be interested in more information, please see the website: www.e-voice.org.uk/kehs

Compassionate Café Wigginton

Wed 6, 1.30-3pm, The Sports Ground, HP23 6HH A space for local people affected by bereavement to meet others in the Wiggington community café and shop, on the first Wednesday of every month.

Cake Party Christmas Wreath with Tracey and Debbie

Wed 6, 6:30pm – 9:00 pm, Chinor Rugby Club, Thame Decorate a festive cupcake wreath, have fun and take home your creation! For tickets and location visit: www.cornelli.co.uk/cake-party. See Cornelli ad p6.

Chiltern Miniaturists Club

Wed. 6, 7.30pm, Halton Village Hall The club is taking a break from making projects in December to hold a Christmas celebration, a fish and chip supper, followed by a demonstration from one of its members. If you are interested in miniature models and would like to know more, call Diane on 07899 090399, or arcadia96@btinternet.com. See p19.

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Chilterns Light Network

Wednesdays 7.30pm, Wendover Memorial Hall 6 Germ theory vs Terrain theory. What is true? 13 Earthing and grounding. Why it’s important. Products available. 20 tba. Fun and friendly group. All welcome. £5 non-members. E-mail clnwendover@ protonmail.com or see www.chilternslightnetwork.org

Wendover Horticultural Society

Thurs 7, 1pm, St Anne’s Hall, Wendover Please note earlier start time as it is a members’ social, with no speaker. Members wishing to attend please let the committee know.

Carry on Laughing!

Thurs 7 Dec, 6-8pm, Discover Bucks Museum, Aylesbury Carry On Laughing! Book signing and talk with authors Gemma & Robert Ross.For tickets visit www.discoverbucksmuseum.org/ whats-on/carry-on-laughing/ See p10.

Sarah Routley Bsc (Hons)

Max Rogers ANAEA

Crib Fest 2023

Fri 8, 3-6pm & Sat 9, 10am-4pm, St Anne’s Church & Christian Centre Come and see! Wendover Free Church invites you to enjoy a display of home-made and treasured crib scenes – and vote for your favourites. There will be prizes for individuals and groups! Refreshments (and soup lunch from 12 noon) are available in the Christian Centre, with crafts, books and cakes for sale. Hear the Christmas story and sing

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Wendover News December 2023

THE JOHN COLET SCHOOL

Events

We are looking for several new members of staﬀ to join our friendly John Colet School team Vacancies include: Cover Supervisor Casual Invigilators Learning Support Assistants Teacher of Science, full or part-time Teacher of Maths Teacher of PE For further information and how to apply, please refer to the Vacancies page on our school website.

www.johncolet.co.uk

carols at 11.30am or 2.30pm in St Anne’s grow from your food waste? See how you Church. In aid of ‘Embrace the Middle East.’ can make your celery bottoms, carrot tops, pumpkin seed, lemongrass, potato peelings Chiltern Alpine and Rock Garden Group thrive. Also looking at sustainable choices, Fri 8, 7.30pm, Village Hall , Great Kingshill, harvesting produce for a winter soup that HP15 6DW will be made and shared in the session. www. Christmas Social. Call 01296 613577 or visit roadfarmcountryways.com chilternalpinegroup.org for details.

Wendover Art Club

Aylesbury Vale Stitchers

Thurs 14, 7.30pm, St Anne’s Hall, HP22 6GJ Sat 9, 2.30pm, Wendover Memorial Hall Members’ Christmas get-together. A chance Show and tell, tea and mince pies. E-mail for to relax and enjoy a few nibbles and a drink details: aylesburyvalestitchers@gmail.com whilst indulging in some party games loosely associated with art.

farm shop butchery kitchen

Order your turkey & home reared Christmas Meats while stocks last! Chequers Estate | HP17 0UT Tuesday - Sunday 10am-4pm www.buckmoorendfarm.co.uk

LEGACY FAIRS

Antiques & Collectors Market

Thursday 21 December 9am-2pm (Trade 8am)

Entrance by donation to Charity Wendover Memorial Hall

Tel: 07503 465532 email: peterphillips39@yahoo.com

To Wendover’s creative kids Happy Christmas and good luck with your ﬁrst published book

Great Missenden Choral Society – Christmas Concert Book Club Sat 9, 7.30pm, St Peter & St Paul, Great Missenden HP16 0BA Features Handel Messiah Part 1 and Mozart Coronation Mass with full orchestra and Royal College of Music soloists. Tickets from www. gmcsonline.co.uk or on the door.

Sat 16, 10.30, Wendover Christian Centre No set book. Just come and enjoy hearing what others have read and, if you choose, talk about something you’ve been reading. There will be coffee and festive nibbles to start with.

Wendover Evening WI

Sat 16, 7.30pm St Peter & St Paul Church, Tring, HP23 5AE Bach Magnificat, Charpentier Messe de Minuit, Vivaldi Dixit Dominus. Tickets £17.50, under-18s free. www.tringchoral.org.uk/ tickets

Tues 12, 7.30pm, St Anne’s Hall, HP22 6GJ The WI will be welcoming Steve Wilkinson, a magician and mentalist, for lots of festive fun. If you are interested in finding out more about this busy, friendly group, please contact Sheila on 07743 133963.

Board Game Café

Tring Choral Society and Orchestra

BBOWT

Tue 19, 7pm, Gt Missenden Memorial Centre HP16 9AE Chilterns Group welcomes back John Tyler to celebrate the 50th anniversary of The Ridgeway Path becoming a National Trail, by telling us about the wildlife to be seen along the way from Ivinghoe to Avebury. Admission £5 Countryways CIC Project at Road Farm including refreshments, free parking on-site. Thurs 14, 5-6.30pm, Great Missenden, HP16 9LS All welcome. More info on all Wildlife Trust Growing from waste, sustainability and activities is on www.bbowt.org.uk/events super-food soup. Did you know you can See p19. Thurs 14, 2-4pm, Wendover Christian Centre A monthly get-together for lovers of board games! Enjoy a variety of games old and new or take your own to play with others. Open and free of charge for all.

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Wendover News December 2023

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Free Christmas Crafts and Carols

Thurs 21, St Anne’s Church/Wendover Christian Centre Help us decorate the church! … Drop in any time from 2pm, carols around the newly decorated Christmas tree at 4.30pm. It’s a labour of love and a great social occasion. See p15.

Carols Around the Tree

Fri 22, 6.30-7.30pm, Manor Waste, Wendover A lovely way to start the Christmas weekend is Carols around the tree. Song sheets are provided, although a torch is recomended. Wrap up warm and sing your heart out with Chinnor Silver Band. See back page.

Jazz Upfront

Thurs 28, 7.30pm, St Mary’s Aylesbury, HP20 2JJ Mark Kavuma is a key player in the British Jazz explosion, with over a decade of experience playing the trumpet and keys in London’s rapidly expanding jazz scene. Mark’s main outfit, The Banger Factory, is a collective that is dedicated to bringing the people a good time. Tickets: Aylesbury Music Shop and www.ents24.com/ aylesbury-events/st-marys-church/mark-kavuma/6901496

Craft Group

There will be no Craft Group at the Christian Centre in December. The next meeting will be on Wednesday 3 January at 10am.

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Wendover News December 2023

Big drive for more volunteer drivers

All three organisations are driven (pun intended) by care and a willingness to serve the community, so they attract friendly, caring people as their volunteers. Demand for their services has increased over the past three years and all are very keen to find new drivers and admin volunteers.

Three local charities are all seeking new volunteer drivers

So what is it like to be a volunteer driver? Richard, a volunteer driver of the Wendover Community Car, said “I have been What must it be like to be stuck at home all the time – especially driving the car for over six years now and have met any number over Christmas and the cold months of the British winter? Luckily of wonderful people and built friendly relationships with people there are several organisations that help I would not otherwise have met. Friends people who can’t easily use public transport sometimes tell me it is kind of me to give up to socialise, go on shopping trips, visit the my time to help, but I can honestly say I get health centre or visit somewhere special. much more out of it than I put in.” All are looking for additional volunteer drivers to help them sustain their invaluable Bob Duggan, who drives for Wendover services. Dementia support, recalled a recent rewarding incident: “The wife of one of our The Wendover Community car provides lovely visitors told me that her husband had door-to-door service, to take residents had a very difficult morning and was very in Wendover to the shops locally and in anxious about leaving home. Aylesbury, as well as to facilities such as Garden Centres, like Dobbies or Tring “She said that the moment he saw my Garden Centre. They also assist with longer familiar face coming up the path he relaxed distance journeys, for example family and when he opened the door he had a big visits, day trips out or even for small group smile on his face that said ‘Hello Bob! I’m all holidays. This year alone the community car ready to go!’” has travelled nearly 7,000 miles carrying 1,500 passengers on 900 journeys. They If you would like to find out more about charge a modest flat fee per mile. being a volunteer driver with one (or more) of these great community teams, here are The Friends of Wendover Health Centre is the contacts: a small charity which runs a transport service for the patients of the health centre providing transport to healthcare appointments Friends of Wendover Health Centre: call the desk across the county. This runs flexibly and the volunteers use their between 1-3pm Monday-Friday on 01296 622565 or Email own cars – but get paid expenses. friendsofwendoverhealthcentre@outlook.com. In our last edition, we had a feature on Wendover Dementia Support’s drivers who pick up dementia patients and their carers to take them to their Monday club socials. The service provides a positive social experience for people with dementia, and just the right kind of mental stimulation.

Sugarcraft Specialist Cake decorating supplies Cake decorating courses 01296 696860 1 Town Court High St Wendover HP22 6EA www.cornellisugarcraft.co.uk

Wendover News December 2023

Wendover Community Car: 01296 317769 or via the website: wendovercommunitycar.org, Wendover Dementia Support: Email info@wendoverds.org.uk or call 07732 342409 and leave a message.

Tai Chi and Qigong for health and wellbeing Local classes, Zoom & one to one Contact Ruth 07354 686606 qigong@resms.co.uk

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Still family owned and managed All meals freshly produced daily by qualified chefs using local suppliers Beautiful and accessible tranquil gardens Twice weekly chauffeur service to Chesham/ Amersham town

Rayners Rayners was established in June 1990, being the first purpose built care home for the elderly in South Buckinghamshire. Set in the Chiltern village of Hyde Heath, Amersham, with our local pub, village shop, infant school and village green, Rayners and our residents remain an important part of the local and vibrant village community.

Extra Care In addition to the high level of care provided we are able to offer ‘extra care’, in the event of a resident becoming more dependent. This degree of care is not usually available in care homes and gives the resident and their relatives alike confidence and peace of mind in their choice of care home provider. Rayners also has the ability to accommodate respite or short stay residents, subject to suite availability.

Maple Tree House Assisted Living Apartments These spacious apartments are marketed at couples or persons who require the reassurance, security and backup of a residential care home without having to enter a communal living setting. The all inclusive monthly fee covers all utility bills, council tax and all maintenance, daily fresh meals served in your apartment, all domestic cleaning and laundry. The apartments are connected to Rayners via a 24 hour, 365 days of the year emergency call speech facility.

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Wendover News December 2023

Local News Remembrance

Thanks once again to all those who knitted and crocheted yarn poppies to adorn the War Memorial at this most solemn season of Remembrance. This year Armistice Day, 11 November, fell on a Saturday with Remembrance following on Sunday 12 November. As always, a few people gathered on the 11th at the War Memorial on the Manor Waste in Wendover for the Armistice.

Winter Warmer Soup Lunch

Churches together in Wendover are again offering soup lunches this winter. Each Tuesday until Easter there will be soup and a roll, with good company on offer, free of charge, at the Christian Centre on Aylesbury Road (behind St. Anne’s Church and opposite the Health Centre). Times are from 12.30 to 1.30. This means that the Centre will be open from 10am to 3pm each Tuesday, with hot and cold drinks with biscuits in the morning and with cake in the afternoon (as part of the Communi-tea Friends event. Call in any time for free refreshments in a warm and welcoming environment, for a chat and a chance to connect with others in the community. All are welcome on an ad hoc or regular basis.

Flooding in Wendover

Late October brought serious flooding to parts of Southern England courtesy of Storm Ciarán. We were fortunate in Wendover that although many heard howling winds and lashing rain on the night of Thursday 19 to Friday 20 October the drains worked, by and large. Unfortunately, however, one part of Wendover and one business in particular, did suffer flooding: Pace Automotive on the A413 London Road, at the junction with Rocky Lane. © UK MOD Crown Copyright 2023

The poppy sellers moved down from the entrance to Budgens. To start the two minutes’ silence, Belinda Horn read one verse from For the Fallen by Laurence Binyon, published in September 1914:

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old: Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning We will remember them.

Photo: Pace Automotive

The gathered people repeated the last line as is customary.

The area was covered in muddy water which poured off the fields and into a ditch between businesses on the small industrial estate, Jane Larkham, editor, Wendover News and into another ditch between the industrial estate and the A413.

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Wendover News December 2023

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The forecourt of Pace Automotive should have drained into the ditch by the A413 but it was already full. Local traders have photographs which they claim shows that the water was run-off from the fields behind, now occupied by HS2. EKFB challenged this and said that it did everything it could to help.

We then went on to a blind tasting and trivia quiz. We tasted eight wines, four of which were Ukrainian, kindly donated by Kingsland Drinks Ltd, which has begun importing Ukrainian wine.

We raised £1000 for BATUHN thanks in large part to the very generous donations of wine At the time EKFB, on behalf of HS2 organised by: Dayla Drinks Ltd; Kingsland Drinks Ltd; traffic lights to allow the A413 to be used by Majestic Wine; The Buck Pub. traffic and brought in pumps and bowsers to take away the excess water. By then Pace’s This money will help BATUHN continue their cars had already been flooded. wonderful work in supporting our Ukrainian guests in this area. I would also like to thank The business is recovering after the damage. our club members for their generosity in Investigations are proceeding to establish supporting this cause.” where the flood water came from. Fortunately, when a water main burst in Rocky Lane a few Be alert! days later, the water did not come into the We were told to be alert during lockdown industrial estate again. and a vigilant attitude is still appropriate. On the whole, Wendover is a safe place to live, The Aston Wine Club with few crime problems. That doesn’t mean Frances Luget writes: “A fundraising event that we are completely free of crime. Late in was held on Friday 20 October to support October, the Post Office was forced to close, the excellent work of The Berkhamsted & briefly, while police investigated an attempt Tring Ukrainian Hosting Network (BATUHN). to raid the cashpoint built into the front of This charity was set up in 2022 in response the shop. Remember that other ATMs can to Ukrainians (mainly women and children) be found at Tesco in Tring Road and the BP fleeing the invasion of their country by Russia. Garage in Aylesbury Road. The emphasis of the evening was to have a great deal of fun and raise funds for BATUHN. We certainly had fun – we started the evening with a game of heads and tails – silly but fun!

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THAI FOOD Takeaway & Dine In Deals

Alongside our full menu we have a number of Takeaway and Dine in offers available:

Family Takeaway Deal 2 Starters + 2 Main Courses from the Stir Fry or Curry menu + 1 Rice + Pad Mee Noodles = £35.00 4 Starters + 4 Main Courses from the Stir Fry or Curry menu + 2 Rice + Pad Mee Noodles = £70.00

Takeaway Meal Deal 1 Stir Fry or Thai Curry + Rice or Noodles = £7.50 1 Stir Fry or Thai Curry + Rice or Noodles + Bottle of Singha Beer = £10.00

Early Bird Dine in Deal

(Available Friday and Saturday 17:30 to 19:00)

1 Starter + Stir Fry or Thai Curry + Rice or Noodles + 1 Drink = £15.00

Telephone Location Website App

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Wendover News December 2023

to whisk them away. Other businesses have reported an increase in shoplifting by people Garden maintenance, fencing, patios who apparently visit Wendover from outside Building maintenance, decorating and more the area. Taking police wadvice, traders on Quality services Competitive prices References available the High Street are working together to put security systems in place to stop shoplifting. Call: 07969 750 201 Email: legendgarden20@gmail.com In conversation, Police Sergeant Clare Farrow,

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from the Aylesbury Neighbourhood Team of Thames Valley Police, said “Wendover and Villages have a dedicated PC, Natasha Blake, and three PCSOs. The team always look forward to Lights Switch On and will be there again this year. They also conduct regular patrols in Wendover. I would encourage members of the community to approach them with any concerns they may have. Suspicious activity can also be reported via Crimestoppers or via 101. Non-emergency crimes can be reported online or via 101. In the case of an emergency please call 999. You can also contact your local Neighbourhood team via email should you have a community event you would like them to attend: WendoverNHPT@thamesvalley. police.uk.”

Carry On Laughing! Book signing at Discover Bucks Museum

Enjoy an hilarious evening on 7 December with authors Gemma and Robert Ross as they share stories from their new book, Carry On Girls and rare footage from behind the scenes of the hugely popular Carry On film franchise. In this lavish celebration of a pioneering generation of comedy actresses who continue to radiate charm and contemporary relevance, a few home-truths are revealed, some myths are debunked, but above all some of the bestloved icons of British entertainment are given fitting affection and respect. Released to coincide with the 50th anniversary of Carry on Girls, Gemma and Robert’s new book – the ultimate tribute to a fun-filled era when British crumpet was at its spiciest – is full of intimate tales from the sound stages of Pinewood Studios, snapshots of a lost industry and oodles of laughs.

“Built for a better toBORROW”

The plans for Wendover Community Library are now in their final stages and the refurbishment will go ahead in the new year. Watch the Library notices and this space for Wendover News will continue to work with more details as soon as they are available. Wendover Thames Valley Police and local organisations to ensure the safety and security Meanwhile, Wendover Community Library of our community. does need local financial support to add to the considerable investment given through

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Buckinghamshire Council. If you would like to support the fund you can donate online or at the library, buy a Wendover mug (£10) or tea towel (£12) or consider leaving a permanent legacy by buying a limited-edition metal leaf (from £70 including inscription) that will go to form part of a striking display by the entrance.

website, which will be linked online with that produced by Wendover News. Our website is at www.whs2.org and the news page for for Wendover News can be found from its home page. Murray Cooke THE

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RUMOUR MILL

To find out more and donate online go to Do you ever hear things and wonder if they www.buckinghamshire.gov.uk/campaign/ are true? Wendover News is a regulated media library-transformation-fund company and goes out of its way to look at rumours and find out what truth there is Wendover Calendars (£7.50) have been on behind them. sale since October and there are not many left now, so hurry down to Wendover Library Rumour: The ticket office at the railway station to secure your copy now, or give one to a is going to be closed. friend for Christmas. Truth: Not any more. On 31 October Transport Secretary Mark Harper said the government had asked UK train operators to withdraw their proposals to close railway ticket offices.

Wendover News went to press before the public engagement event was held on 24 November. By the time you read this, we intend to have put an initial report on our

In July the Rail Delivery Group (RDG) responsible for ticket offices and machines nationwide announced that it wanted to close about 1,000 ticket offices throughout the country, including Wendover. This was because it claimed that only 12% of tickets are bought over the counters, with the rest being bought through automatic ticket machines, or online.

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LANDCARE GARDEN SERVICES Family run since 1985

Is your garden looking tired and uninspired? Well now! Is the time to seek help With over fifty years of gardening experience, our family has been transforming gardens. We are happy to come and talk and offer advice on what your garden might need from simple tidying repairs to fencing, replanting to a complete garden redesign.

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Passengers’ groups, railway workers’ trade unions and representatives of disabled and elderly people claimed that this discriminated against some disabled people, or those who for whatever reason could not order online, while the ticket machines were sometimes hard to read or understand, despite the claim that railway staff would be on hand to help.

Rumour: Wendover News is going to stop printing the magazine and go totally online. Truth: Wendover News will soon be owned by a new company which will be operated entirely on behalf of the community. There is strong support for continuing with the printed version and the new producers are committed to its development and growth. The rumour may have come from leaked ideas to enhance the online version, and to make it work together with the printed magazine as part of a multi-media community hub. So no, there no plans to stop producing the print version. Richard Byford Wendover News does not encourage the spread of rumours, but if you hear one and you think it should be investigated, email getinvolved@ wendovernews.org with ‘Rumour?’ in the subject line. We can’t make any promises, but we will do our best to find out the truth.

If you value truth and would like to volunteer as a community journalist, or think you might like to have a career in journalism, then email Photo: Simon Eccles getinvolved@wendovernews.org with ‘Potential journalist’ in the The RDG announced a public consultation, with the public asked to subject line – even if you are still at school. send their thoughts on closures to a series of sometimes hard to find email and postal addresses, with no forms or web pages available to fill in. The initial cutoff date for responses was 26 July, only three weeks after the announcement, though this was later extended to 1 September. London Travelwatch, which handled the consultation for areas including Chiltern Railways network, says 232,795 responses were received via all channels, of which 99% opposed the closures. The government bowed to the pressure and told the RDG to scrap the closures. It seems that Wendover Station ticket office and its Deliverer of the Year 2023 dedicated staff will be with us for a while longer. Pat Camfield has been delivering Wendover News in the Tring Road Simon Eccles area of Wendover for over 20 years. At one time, she was delivering through 300 letterboxes every month, but has had to decrease the Rumour: Budgens is making everything self-service. number recently because of a couple of injuries. Three hundred Truth: Regulars will have already seen the new till arrangements at copies of Wendover News magazines weigh in at between 27 and Budgens and realise that this was just a rumour. The new machines 38 kilos! At the age of 82, we at Wendover News are thankful that have speeded up the customer experience at the till, but not excluded she is still willing and able to deliver! people who want to be served by a human. So how does it work? Pat first came to Wendover with • You can still take a full trolley to a belt till and pay with either her parents when her father was card or cash. in the RAF, in the late 1950s. After • To buy certain items eg tobacco, strong alcohol or lotto tickets studying at Aylesbury Grammar it is still necessary to go to the kiosk by the exit. School (it was boys and girls at • If you only have a basket and cash you can go to the kiosk till. that time), she went on to have a • If you have a few items only and a card, there are express selfcareer as a lab assistant. She later service tills near the kiosk. moved to Aston Clinton where • If you have items of loose greengrocery there is a scale near the she married and turned her skills shelves and also weighing tills near the exit. with test tubes to good use filling • The tills are attended by a “host” to help if there are any problems. glasses of a different kind. She and Jane Larkham, Editor her husband ran three different Photo: Simon Eccles

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pubs in the area, the last one being the Partridge before she retired If you are already a volunteer deliverer, please watch for an email in 2000. In her spare time, Pat enjoys bungee jumping, ice climbing or a paper invite depending on how you requested to be contacted. and snowboarding. See you soon! Social meet-up for deliverers Thank you to the 19 people who were able to attend our first delivery volunteer meetup which took place in late October at 10am in the morning. We all had some good chats and got to know one another a little better. We promised that these meetups would be regular and would vary by day and hour so the next one will be late afternoon.

Who do you know who might enjoy joining the delivery team? We are urgently looking for street deliverers for several areas. We also need to recruit a small team of ‘standby’ deliverers, co-ordinators and distributors who can flexibly cover holidays, illnesses and other emergencies among the regular delivery team.

Extreme runners seen in Wendover High Street In most towns and villages in the UK, 135 people clad in running gear and a visible coating of mud, running up the High Street would have been a bit unusual. On Friday 10 November, that was exactly what happened. The Druid’s Challenge is a 136km (about 85 mile) ultra run along the Ridgeway. It involves 2,203 metres of ascent and is completed in three days – so it is roughly equivalent to averaging more distance than a marathon every day for three days. We spoke to Rowland Gadsden who was a marshal near the gate to St Photo: Robin Boult Mary’s church in Wendover. Twice in the past he had been a participant in the run, but this time, decided that being a Most of the 135 starters completed the course and provisional volunteer was more sensible for somebody nearing 70! results showing that Nathan Montague finished in 11:16:07. Rebecca Perrett finished in 14:16:57. “Many of the early runners went straight through, so I didn’t get much time to talk to them. I had a good chat with a lot of them though The Druid’s Challenge run is one of several organised and managed – they were all very friendly folk. I moved onto other checkpoints by Extreme Energy Ltd, a company based in Wendover. on Saturday and Sunday. I was touched by the fact some of them stayed at the checkpoint until their spouses came through to check that they were OK. They were all very inspiring.”

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Wendover News December 2023

Welcome to Wendover High Street How well do you know your High Street?

were going to get, with no effort, no care, no creativity. In Wendover, there are shops where you can enjoy the hunt for a unique present, and demonstrate the care and creativity to buy something your love ones didn’t even know they wanted. Teenagers may race for a drink from Costa after school but other people may be delighted by the individuality offered by all the independents which offer something different. By visiting all the little courtyards off the High Street you can find amazing things which you might not have known existed! Some of these businesses are in tiny premises and yet offer a wide selection of specialist craft or pre-loved goods. The Antiques Centre has many experts who have sourced collectors’ items and with years of expertise in their chosen field. Our two High Street gift shops have a great range of exquisite products to tempt you.

You are in full flow in the middle of a sewing project that you must finish, because it’s needed for Christmas. You have almost done it and you suddenly run out of the right colour cotton, a particular type of wool, or the gizmo you were relying on suddenly breaks. Panic sets in and you wonder if you have time to drive all the way to MK or High Wycombe? We are incredibly lucky to have a supermarket in Wendover, Budgens, which offers not only the regular brands you might expect but also Will John Lewis haberdashery have it? Will they even be open? The offers ethical information about them and specialist products from big ‘A’ might have it and they might deliver it tomorrow. Or not. Did local suppliers. It has recently invested in self-service checkouts as you know there is a supplier of that sort of thing in Wendover? It’s well as serviced tills. This means that overall there are more payment tucked away down the side of Crumbs and The Grill, near The Secret options which should reduce queues considerably. Barber. There are lots of secrets in Wendover... Another major feature of the Manor Waste is Wendover Pharmacy If you haven’t really explored it yet, December is definitely the month which means we can pick up our prescriptions reliably without to have a mooch around because there are so many hidden gems. To having to go elsewhere and meanwhile peruse the shelves for other help you to explore from the comfort of your home, Wendover Parish appropriate products. Council has invested in a new website: www.welcometowendover. co.uk. How many modern High Streets can boast a butcher offering only grass-fed high welfare meat and that rarity, a Bookshop? What’s It’s very tempting to do all your Christmas shopping online. Go to more, they are neighbours who cooperate so that lovely hot food is your loved one’s ‘Wish List’, click on an item and sit back while it’s available on Saturday mornings when exciting things are happening delivered. That means they will get exactly what they thought they with words. Head and stomach properly satisfied!

at the Shoulder of Mutton 20, Pound Street HP22 6EJ

We would like to take this opportunity to thank all of our customers, regular and new, for their continued support and would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas The last date for ordering Christmas Fayre is 16th December 01296 622014 / 620262 kingsfarmshop@btconnect.com www.kingsfarmshop.co.uk

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Christmas Crafts and Carols, Wendover Christian Centre

December is such an expensive month, and it’s always difficult to know what to do with the children once school has broken up. Why not make a visit on Thursday 21 December for an afternoon of free Christmas crafts and church decorating, not forgetting the mince pies!

as tm s i r Ch wish t lis

Real Magic Books offers every service you would expect from a bookshop, including local authors. You may have noticed recently offerings from poet Will Burns and a novel from Geoff Price. Don’t forget the No2 wine/delicatessen/cheese/coffee shop on the corner of Dobbins Lane and Pound Street. Further afield from the High Street there are also two farm shops which offer a range of products so there’s no shortage of healthy options. In central Wendover there are two dedicated florists offering different approaches and both very popular with their clients. The Flower Gallery in the High Street offers an anniversary service so that if you are unable to leave flowers at a local graveside for a birthday • Try a range of different crafts and activities or other anniversary, it can be done for you. • Help us decorate the church to be ready for Christmas • Festive retirements Most of these traders will be taking part in the annual Best Dressed • Carols around the newly decorated Christmas tree at 4.30pm Window Competition so well done to them for making the effort to • Share a moment of peace among all the busy-ness enhance our shopping environment. Why not pop down and take a look? Then go into a café/pub or restaurant for refreshments after Suitable for families and all ages. Drop in any time from 2pm. Please a serious shopping session. note - no unsupervised children! Most of these shops will be involved in Small Business Saturday, 2 We are opposite the medical centre/roundabout/Wharf Road. December, by staying open late. The Christmas Lights Switch on will Plenty of parking. happen as dusk falls and theshops will have special events to entice St Anne’s Church / Wendover Christian Centre you into the Christmas Spirit.

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Wendover News December 2023

Christmas just isn’t the same without a Christmas tree, lights and Rotary Santa ecoSleigh decorations. Then add mince pies, mulled wine, christmas films on As usual, the Rotary Santa ecoSleigh will be visiting as many roads as TV, and presents! So who is it that brings us all the presents? Well possible in Wendover and Weston Turville on December evenings. Santa, of course! Santa has been working away at the North Pole, Santa's Wendover Rotary EeoSleigh Routes during December with all his elves, to make every Christmas better than the last one. Day Date Every year, he kicks off his own celebrations, by making a personal Fri 1 Perry Street, Dobbins Lane, Chiltern Road, Victory Close visit to us. We don’t know how he fits it all in... Sat 2 Sun

Mon

Wood Ln to Babington Rd, Trenchard, Longcroft, Scarlett Ave +

Tue

Cruickshank Dr, Whittingham Ave, McIndoe Dr + roads off

Wed

Warneford Ave, Badgers Mdow, Wendover Hts, Haddington Cl

Thu

Honeydene

Fri

Beechwood Ave, Tedder Road, Halton Wood Road

Sat

Sun

Mon

Main St, The Hyde, Bates Ln + roads off, Church Ln to School Ln

Tue

Brook End + roads off incl Wheelwrights, Plough Orchard, etc

Wed

West End, Worlds End Lane, School Lane + roads off

Thu

Middlefield, Walton Place, New Road, Fitkin Meadow

Fri

Manor Road, Wharf Road + roads off

Sat

Sun

Mon

Bryants Acre, Haglis Dr, Watermeadow Way + roads off

Tue

Lionel Ave + roads off + Thornton Crescent

Wed

Castle Park Road, Grenville Ave + roads off

Thu

Moor Park, Halton Lane, Ayles Road to Ashbrook

Fri

Catch up in case of bad weather

Sat

Sun

A big thank you to all the volunteers who help with this joyous task and have already put their names down for specific dates in 2023. Please contact cheryl@monkeypuzzlehighwycombe.co.uk to join the merry throng. Please note that some routes, this year on Wednesday 6, Thursday 7, and Friday 8 December, are particularly hilly so hopefully the fittest of volunteers will consider especially those dates. Most of the other routes are on the flat or have only mild inclines. Most householders visited are very happy to see Santa going by, whatever their age. On some of the weekends there are static collections so if you don’t want to walk far, please mention that. Once again Rotary is collecting for local charities: Wendover Dementia Support, www.wendoverds.org.uk and Chiltern Foodbank, www.chiltern.foodbank.org.uk and other Rotary supported charities. Check on the day for confirmation of route at www.facebook. com/RotaryinWendoverandDistrict. All routes subject to weather conditions and enough volunteers. Jane Larkham, Communications Elf 16

Wendover News December 2023

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Give the Gift of Time this Christmas Florence Nightingale Hospice Charity is launching a Christmas Appeal called ‘Give the Gift of Time this Christmas’ to ensure that local people with life-limiting illnesses, and their families, get the help and support they need this Christmas and beyond.

and its borders – delivering dedicated, specialist hospice care when they need it most, every day of the year. You’ll be joining a friendly, supportive team of volunteers and with 13 shops in Buckinghamshire and surrounding towns, there are roles to suit everyone.

A key message from the appeal is to explain that just £25 will pay for an hour of a nurse’s time to provide care and reassurance to a patient and their loved ones at Christmas time. The Charity is asking readers of Wendover News to consider making a one-off donation or becoming a regular monthly giver by visiting https://fnhospice. org.uk/christmasappeal

Vicky Harman, Volunteer Engagement Manager says “Christmas time is an incredibly busy and joyous time in our retail shops, it is also a time of goodwill. Volunteering your time and skills at Christmas time would be a wonderful gift to all at Florence Nightingale Hospice Charity and help us to raise as much as possible for our Hospice.” Volunteering offers an opportunity to gain new skills, experience something different, whilst giving back to your local community. Becoming a volunteer also allows you to develop valuable job skills, build your confidence and connect with other people. One of our Aylesbury High Street volunteers says “I love meeting people, whether that’s customers, volunteers, or staff. I really enjoy getting out of the house and having a purpose to my day, being here just puts a smile on my face.”

Florence Nightingale Hospice Charity would like to thank all its supporters for any help they can give during this season of goodwill. A relative of a patient recently said, “When we, as a family, heard To find out more about temporary volunteering opportunities with the word ‘Hospice,’ it scared us. We thought that’s it then, this is the Florence Nightingale Hospice Charity visit fnhospice.org.uk/volunteer/ end, what a sad, depressing place it will be. But we couldn’t have shops or email volunteering@fnhospice.org.uk. been more wrong. From the moment we stepped through those doors, a beautiful and calm sense of relief enveloped us. The kind, friendly, reassuring, happy, smiling nurses and doctors just put us at ease straight away.”

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Wendover News December 2023

Club Corner Wendover Youth Centre

Amber Hawes writes: “As we approach the festive season, we want to express our gratitude to our volunteers and staff for their unwavering support this term, which has enabled us to deliver weekly activities for the young people of Wendover. We also extend our appreciation to our wonderful young people who have actively participated in our new youth board. Our search for another youth worker continues, and we are also seeking more volunteers to support our work at the centre. This could be a great opportunity for DofE volunteering. Please don’t hesitate to get in touch if you are interested. We are excited and grateful to be the beneficiary of this year’s Christmas Celebration. Additionally, we will be running a tombola, and some of our young people will be volunteering in the Christmas Grotto. At the time of writing, we would like to thank the following companies for their generous donations to our tombola: Just, BML, Block and Butcher, Wisteria Wellbeing, No. 2, Tres Corazones, Scruples, Agora, Red Lion, King and Queen, J Brown Funeral Services, Jo Shakespeare Fitness, Kings Farm, and Craftyard. Please join us on 2 December to support what will undoubtedly be an excellent event! We wish everyone a Merry Christmas!”

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Cracklewick Morris

Could you be a morris dancer or musician (or both) with Cracklewick Morris and be part of the sun-up/sun down events plus many other festivals, events and dance-outs next year? Cracklewick Morris meets most Tuesdays for dance practice. No experience is necessary to dance and musicians who are less experienced will be given lots of support. First four sessions are free! Find the group on Facebook or for more information contact the morris leader Squire Darryl: telephone 07946150380.

Wendover Bowls Club

Don Knight writes: “Thank goodness we are playing indoors at the moment, considering the weather we are having. If we were outside I would be concerned for the well-being of some of our more porous elderly members. Our inter-club matches are continuing but our own internal matches are yet to get started. I wrote recently about Wendover’s other bowls club called the Orcadians and that I had been given two bowls that had been won by Frank Wood in 1916. They were lovely old fashioned Lignum Vitae wooden bowls with silver mounts. One has now been mounted as a trophy and will be awarded to a member who the committee decide has gone

WENDOVER MEMORIAL HALL Great for Children’s Parties Ideal for Weddings & Functions Excellent kitchen facilities Enquiries : 07804 671445 angelawmh@aol.co.uk

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Wendover News December 2023

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the extra mile for the club without formal recognition. So many people do so much good work throughout the year. It’s heartening that our bowling history will continue too. I find it hard to believe that another year has whistled past. They don’t make years as long as they were when I was young. Meanwhile, from all of us at the club, Happy Christmas and a less moist New Year.”

BBOWT

College Lake Reserve and Visitor Centre (HP23 5QG) opens at 10 and closes at 4 every day except Mondays, so you can enjoy a hot drink or light meal or pick up some presents, after a brisk walk round. The Christmas closure this year is from 24 to 29 December inclusive.

Chiltern Miniaturists Club

In December the club will have a fish and chip supper, followed by a demonstration from one of the members on how to construct a miniature village scene. Every year, at her house she constructs an amazing Christmas village, taking up a quarter of the room, with snow, illuminated houses and outdoor scenes, so members are looking forward to hearing how they can do something similar - on a much smaller scale! Diane

On Sunday 10 December from 10 till 3 you can try binoculars or a scope out with Rob of Opticron in one of the hides – a perfect way to get precisely the Xmas gift you always wanted! Richard Birch

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Wendover Carpets & Flooring Local family business with 30 years experience Carpets and vinyls professionally supplied and ﬁtted at competitive prices Samples brought to your home Call Mark for a friendly service

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Peter Bird Garden Design RHS Medal Winning Designer offering an individual and creative design, construction and planting service

call Peter on 01296 622790 www.peterbirddesign.co.uk A person with dementia (PWD) often struggles with family gatherings Here are a few tips for families to consider that can help a person which can seem overwhelming. Unable to tell you what they need, a with dementia to relax and enjoy themselves. PWD can demonstrate their distress by withdrawing, demanding to be taken home, or becoming anxious and agitated. At a time when • Make sure that the person with dementia is talking to one person everybody cherishes their time with the family, this can spoil the at a time. They are often unable to follow a general conversation occasion for everybody concerned. and subsequently can feel marginalised and stressed even when part of a group as small as three. Families often make this work by having some sort of family rota so that everyone gets their 1:1 time with the individual. If there is a need to move into another room, the person talking to the person with dementia can provide security by going with them, saying “We are going next door together now. Let’s go together.” It’s best if they do not move away until someone else is there to take over the role. •

Consider providing a quiet separate room for the PWD to retire to if they seem bewildered or anxious. Maybe provide activities like TV, music or games that usually help them to relax.

•

Try and keep to normal routines, avoiding stressful things like staying somewhere unfamiliar or lengthy travel itineraries. Thoughtful planning makes Christmas enjoyable for everyone.

Happy Christmas to you all! For more information go to www.wendoverds.org.uk

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I would like to wish all the readers of Wendover News a healthy festive season and all the very best for 2024

I offer FREE 1/2 hour consultations to discuss Wills, Powers of Attorney, Probate, Estate & Later Life Planning from the comfort of your own home, or via video calls. To find out more, or to arrange a consultation, please call me on 01296 415700 or email me at iain@wanstallconsulting.co.uk

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Campus energy project progresses Kirsty Shanahan, from Climate Action Wendover reports: “Thanks to a small grant from Buckinghamshire Council, the Wharf Road Campus Solar PV Project has finally been able to move forward again, with great strides made in the past five months.” An initial Decarbonisation Feasibility Study in 2021-2022 found that installing a ground source heat pump network to supply heat to all the organisations on the site was not the most cost-effective solution. It was then decided to put solar panels on as many building roofs as possible, to reduce energy bills and carbon emissions. After other funding for development wo r k wa s re m ove d Wendover Schools campus by the Government, Buckinghamshire Council agreed to provide a grant to Buckinghamshire Community Energy (BCE) to progress the project in terms of financial modelling, technical feasibility of the solar paneland discussion of leases.

it needs new roofs, but BCE says it is working with the hall to see if it’s possible to combine the new roofs and solar PV into an investable project as well. Next steps will be to agree the legal terms with each organisation and BCE hopes to get solar panels on the roofs sometime next summer – three years after discussions began with Buckinghamshire Council. Delays due to both lack of funding and resources have demonstrated how hard community energy groups in Buckinghamshire have to work to help publicly-owned buildings reduce carbon emissions, but it definitely feels as

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View of the school buildings, from the south

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though there has been a breakthrough this summer. All parties are feeling optimistic for This will put approximately 300kWp (kilowatt- a successful installation next year – if enough peak) on the three Wendover Schools, investment can be raised from the people of Wendover Youth Centre and Wendover Buckinghamshire. Swimming Pool, with returns for investors at around 5%. Wendover Memorial Hall cannot Sign up for updates on the project at www. be included in the initial share offer because buckscommunityenergy.org

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If you go along the A4010 Risborough Road from Terrick towards Stoke Mandeville, past the filling station and the retirement home, it’s on the left just before the big new HS2 works bridge.

Garden Care & Maintenance

There are places, things, events and history in and around Wendover, that hardly anybody Dead leaves, brown plants, seems to know about. Once these stop being unruly shrubs? talked about, they may seem to disappear Have your garden tidied for winter forever. This occasional series brings Call Simon Shirley things back to life which might otherwise 625053 / 07836 665512 be forgotten. They may be places, objects, A friendly and reliable service customs, views or even old wives’ tales… Nick Taylor Landscape Gardener Decking, Walls, Drives, Lawns, Ponds, Patios, Paths and all General Landscaping Wendover (01296) 696840

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Photo: jane Larkham

This first one to feature is a place which was known by most people in Wendover until just a few years ago. But now people might be wondering “Whatever happened to that fascinating Goat Farm place, with the little shops and small businesses round the side?”

You might be forgiven for thinking the road has been closed off forever. The layby road (aka Old Risborough Road) used to be open at both ends. Then the entrance at the Stoke Mandeville end was permanently cut off and a ‘No through road’ sign was put up in the surviving entrance.

Wendover News has been available on the counters of several of the establishments around there for many years – and we are happy to report that it is still there.

Then lots more signs appeared. The entrance to a big HS2 compound and the St Mary’s archaeological site needed more safety and directional signs.

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Trees were cut down, a temporary road was built, more signs put up and a big hole appeared and filled up with water. Then it disappeared again. Then the big temporary overbridge for spoil-carrying megatrucks appeared. The small brown tourist sign for the Goat Farm is still there, as is the one for the Art Exhibition. Another tourist sign for the ‘Buckinghamshire Craft Guild Gallery’ can be seen.

Photo: jane Larkham

Layby farm was once a working farm and the building that now houses the Goat Farm attraction, and several galleries, was used for poultry.

All that changed in 1980 when the goats moved in, the chickens moved out and the site became a retail area and tourist attraction.

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As well as the Goat Farm, the site contains a number of small businesses and retailers such as Obsidian Art, shown above. Despite being a ‘No Through Road,’ it still leads to the Goat Farm a few tens of metres in, where lots of fun is still available (for kids and their grown-ups). Plus arts and crafts, as well as one of the best sports shops for miles to buy a cricket bat or a hockey stick. But maybe not for long, unless it stops being a secret and we all know about it. Once again. Richard Byford Do you have a secret that you could write about – and get your own name in print? Wendover News is keen to recruit ‘Community Authors’, either for a single story or to help us report on matters of interest or that are important to the people of Wendover and the surrounding villages. Email: getinvolved@wendovernews.org with ‘I have a secret’ in the subject line, or phone 07340 993802.

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Wendover News December 2023

Health and wellbeing How can I get to see a doctor?

and formerly known as ‘Ask NHS’ – is available free from Google Play and Apple’s App Store. It can also be used in a web browser from www.sensely.com/ askfirst. Regardless of how you access AskFirst, you must first register for an account, which securely links to your local surgery.

“Could you rephrase the question?”, said Dr Alex Bates, managing partner at Westongrove Partnership, very politely. “In Wendover and Aston Clinton, you should be asking how you can access medical attention.”

Wendover News is very aware of problems people are experiencing when trying to make an appointment to see a doctor. We arranged to interview two senior staff from Westongrove Partnership, who manage the surgeries in Wendover, Aston Clinton and Bedgrove. “The emphasis has gone from seeing a doctor, to us trying to get everybody the medical care they need, as soon as possible – without necessarily seeing a doctor,” Dr Alex continued. “The number of available GPs nationally has declined since the Covid-19 pandemic and it may be a long time before the number of doctors available in GP surgeries reaches the levels that people once expected. Wendover Health Centre, like most other primary care providers, is moving towards a much more efficient system, to make better use of the GPs’ time. Instead of going directly to a GP, people wanting medical attention are now put in touch with the person best qualified to help them.”

The symptom checker asks you questions in a human-like voice, to which you can respond by voice or type in answers. Each answer guides the next question until the system decides if you The AskFirst app - designed to need to speak to a real be the first choice for people doctor, and if so it will wanting non-emergency book a phone call for you. medical attention. If urgent, this will usually be the same day.

Ask First is a huge leap in ease of access to medical attention but should be set up well before you have the need to use it. If you haven’t done so How does it work? already, now’s a good time. Check that The first point of contact if you need medical advice or attention you have it installed on your phone is a smartphone app called ‘Ask First.’ This will manage your and that you will be able to type in the correct problem and can be the fastest route to resolution – without waiting password, even if you are unwell. Practise starting up the application on a telephone or standing in a queue at the surgery. It’s designed and familiarising yourself with the menus from time to time. for non-emergencies. If you have a medical emergency call 999 immediately. Sarah Walker, Westongrove’s operations and development manager, was keen to point out that Ask First goes a long way to getting people Ask First – usually labelled AskFirst (without the space in the middle) the assistance they need. She said “We use the resources it frees up to deliver primary care better and more efficiently. If you don’t have a medical emergency and can’t – or prefer not to use – Ask Medical emergencies First, then you can still phone Westongrove’s surgeries between Phone 999 or 112* immediately, If you have signs of a heart attack 08:00 and 13:00, then 14:00 and 18:30. Be prepared to work with (crushing chest pain and tightness), symptoms of a stroke (balance or the telephone handler to decide who in the practice can best help sight problems combined with face dropping on one side, can’t hold you. You may be added to the urgent care service triage list for arms up, difficulty speaking) call 999 or 112. further assessment. You could then be contacted by a member of Also call 999 or 112 if you have difficulty breathing, heavy bleeding that the clinical team, including a first contact physio, paramedic or nurse won’t stop, severe injuries (including deep cuts), poisoning, seizure, practicioner, for a telephone or face to face appointment.” rapid swelling (eyes / lips / mouth / throat or tongue).

999 or 112 is also the number to call if you feel suicidal, or wanting to harm yourself or others. *112 and 999 are interchangeable – both are routed to the same set of operators.

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Wendover News December 2023

The way primary care is being provided in the Wendover area is changing very rapidly – and hopefully usually for the better. If the technology seems too confusing, the old ways do still work, though the phone queues can be frustrating. Watch out for ‘Health and Wellbeing’ updates in future editions of Wendover News.

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In our final update on the year, we are coming closer to opening the new temporary realignments of both the A413 London Road and Ellesborough Road. Unfortunately this means there will be road impacts in the scheduled for the area.

•

Monday 18 December – Thursday 21 December: A413 London Road – Full overnight road closure from 8.30pm to 5.30am for the Phase 1 temporary realignment of the road.

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Abnormal loads – Throughout December we will commence the delivery of steel beams for a bridge being constructed at part of the Stoke Mandeville Relief Road, this is a bypass road connecting the A4010, Risborough Road to Lower Road in Stoke Mandeville. These loads will travel from Junction 1 of the M40, through Amersham to our Wendover Green Tunnel and Nash Lee sites, from where they will continue on our internal access roads. The loads will be moved overnight to reduce disruption and will be slow-moving. There will also be temporary traffic lights at roundabouts to enable their safe navigation. The lights will be green until the vehicle arrives and will turn red for traffic while the load passed through before turning green again.

Wherever possible these works will be undertaken overnight, or during off-peak periods to reduce the impact of road traffic. This is not always possible, on Ellesborough Road for example the road is too narrow to work under lane closures so we can only really work on full closures. However we are able to maintain pedestrian access at all times. The current planned road works are as follows, but please note these dates can be subject to change:

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Monday 27 November – Saturday 2 December: A413 London Road Overnight lane closures from 8.30pm – 5.30am for the Phase 1 temporary realignment of the road. These lane closures will not be in operation during the weekends. All the dates above should be treated as indicative and subjective to change. Monday 4 – Saturday 9 December: Ellesborough Road – Full road closure To stay informed of our works and to keep up to divert underground utility services in both the areas where the temporary to date with any impacts to local roads, don’t and original roads meet, as well as to forget to register for email updates on the HS2 website, which gives you a choice of how you install crash barriers. would like to receive information from us. To Monday 11 December – Saturday 16 find out more, visit your community website December: A413 London Road – Full at www.hs2.org.uk/in-your-area. overnight road closure from 8.30pm to 5.30am for the Phase 1 temporary If you have a question about HS2 or our works, realignment of the road. The road will please contact our HS2 Helpdesk team on 08081 434 434 or email hs2enquiries@hs2. not be closed over the weekend. org.uk

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The inside story: Seeing HS2 up close

Each of these piles is over 1m in diameter and pins the foundations for the columns to the hillside, ensuring that the viaduct won’t move in any direction. Once the sleeves are in place, concrete is poured over and through the steel reinforcement. The resulting column is capped by a complex structure which holds the beams for the deck along which the trains will eventually run.

In mid-November Wendover News was invited by EKFB – HS2’s main contractor on the part of the project going past Wendover – to view progress on the new viaducts. Wendover News volunteer Richard Byford went along. Here is his report on the three-hour tour. “The first impression, driving into the site from the A413, is the scale and sophistication of the temporary facilities. It’s like entering a different world, far removed from the genteel, picturesque villages so close by. Immediately, the road system seems to be better built than most of the public roadways that I drove along to get there, and a lot wider. There were traffic lights every couple of hundred metres, proper road junctions and road signs. Walkways beside the roads were carefully fenced off to segregate pedestrians from the vehicles. There was even a footbridge to get workers from one side of the site to the other. The single entrance from the main road between Wendover and Wendover Dean provides a shared point of access to a number of separate compounds – each serving one of the several construction projects along the route. As well as the very conspicuous site for the Wendover Dean viaduct that will span the main road and railway just outside the village, there is another longer and taller one (Small Dean) about a mile further out, which spans a dip on the side of the hill. Three others serve the bridges which will take the railway over the existing roads leading to Ballinger and the area around The Lee. Huge effort has gone into ensuring that the works are safe. Equal effort has gone into protecting the environment as much as possible, giving that after all it is ripping out a huge scar through the landscape. Paradoxically, this has often needed additional infrastructure. Roads are bowed out to avoid areas when wildlife can’t be moved. Large plastic pipes, gullies and lined ponds abound, to process surface groundwater and catch spillage. Water from large ponds goes through a two-stage filtering process before being released back into the environment. A large truck-wash station sits near the exit onto the public road to ensure that as little mud as possible leaves the site on the tyres of vehicles.

Photo: Richard Byford

A below-ground level look at a typical foundation slab. These are made of poured concrete on top of an array of piles which often go down tens of metres. All this is a gross simplification of a construction, design and process which requires extraordinary precision, craftsmanship and care. It’s designed to last for at least 120 years of pounding by trains at the original design speed of 400km/hour (250mph). To most eyes they will look as beautiful as any man-made engineering structure could look, in the middle of an area of outstanding natural beauty.

EKFB took the group of invited journalists, including me, to see the Photo: Richard Byford 450 metre long Small Dean viaduct being constructed. The nine upright columns are constructed off-site, as sleeve-like components Closer to home, just as you leave Wendover on the A413, this is in sections about 2m tall. These are lifted over a complex framework the view from the ‘other side’ of the railway. The two pieces of of reinforcing steel protruding from the foundation slabs. These equipment sticking up in the middle of the shot show the route that the completed viaduct will take. slabs in turn are formed of thick steel-reinforced concrete, several metres deep, poured over the top of four or more piles. These piles are initially bored up to 40m into the chalk of the hill, and themselves Similar structures are being built alongside the London Road as are filled with steel-reinforced concrete. it leaves Wendover. Here, the challenge is not the hills, but the congested arrangement of a busy main road, a railway and a tangle of underground cables and pipes. EKFB is acutely aware that the people of Wendover don’t want their road or rail closed, their utilities cut off, or their vehicles covered in construction muck as they drive through. The only way it can do all this is to create temporary ‘wriggle’ in the main road so that it can install each column over a piled foundation. This will need to be done twice to get the two columns closest to the road in place. By about middle of 2025, EKFB hopes this will be Photo: Richard Byford finished and the final permanent roadway and a new “greenway” An on-site view of the Small Dean viaduct supports. At the moment, cycle path from Wendover to Great Missenden can be put in. If you they are hardly visible, when completed, they will just be visible would like to view an animation of this, use a smartphone to access from the London Road. a video via the QR code at the top of the next column. 26

Wendover News December 2023

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Use this QR code to acceess an animation of the road realignments (wriggles), planned for the London Road just outside Wendover travelling towards Great MIssenden. The really spectacular part will be when they pull the 6m wide, 2.6m deep box-section main beam of the railway over the road and rail, using complex sliding mechanisms on each column head. Like the Small Dean viaduct, the 350m structure is being built in one piece and will be pulled across the top of the seven columns in a single operation. If that wasn’t impressive enough: It’s being built to go round a slight curve.

How will they construct something that large, make it strong enough to do its job and be capable of being transported as a single structure? While we have been sleeping, EKFB has been sneaking heavy loads of steel and pre-cast concrete into the site without most of us noticing. Vehicles up to 40m long carrying the pre-fabricated steel beams have been transported from France, around the M25 and up the M40 to Beaconsfield and along the A413, between 22:00 and 02:00, without incident. Once offloaded into the assembly area, they are welded together to eventually make up the viaduct main beam. I used the term ‘sneaking’, but EKFB is rather proud of what is being achieved. There just isn’t get much of an audience at that time of night.

“All this new construction technology is really impressive, it’s like Brunel for our times. I just wish it wasn’t here” – A Wendover resident If I was reading this, I would be thinking “The person who wrote it is in the pay of HS2” or “I bet they wined and dined him well beforehand.” Well, yes, they plied me with a cup of tea and a double pack of ginger biscuits (I took another pack for lunch when they weren’t looking). I turned down the extravagant Danish pastries. They lent me some splendid bright orange waterproof clothing, helmet, gloves and protective glasses. I got to see an impressive technical slideshow in a lavish office about the size of a portacabin and fitted out with comfortable, if functional, plastic seats.

I was surprised to discover that not all the people I met were unreservedly in favour of the whole HS2 project, including some Photo: Richard Byford who work for EKFB. But all were quick to point out that they had The brown steel part (main beam), will eventually be 350m long for an important job to do, were excited, and want to do the very best they can, with as little damage to the environment and landscape the viaduct nearest Wendover. as possible.”

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Wendover News December 2023

Wendover Parish Council View from the Clock Tower It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas… Fisk Christmas Trees and Ivan R Cammack Our Christmas events are all ready to roll Opticians. and we are looking forward to welcoming people to them. The Christmas Local Produce Market is our next event on 16 December, from 10am to The decorations for the High Street are in 2pm we will also have Ellesborough Silver preparation and the Clock Tower has had band playing Christmas tunes and creating a its lights refreshed and installed for a few festive atmosphere. The stalls will have little weeks now – bet you hadn’t noticed! gift bags for any young children to help wait those nine extra sleeps before Santa comes. Our main event is the light switch on Saturday 2 December between 4 and 7pm. Finally we have an evening of traditional There will be stalls, food, entertainment and Christmas Carols, Carols Around The Tree Santa. Bucks Radio and the Bucks Bear will with the Chinnor Silver Band on Friday be guiding you through the evening. Chiltern 22 December. Come between 6.30pm Railways has generously agreed that its car and 7.30pm to sing along (words will be park will be free from 4pm for the event provided, so no excuses!). and all of the local shops will be open, with many putting on their own attractions. As with previous years Budgens is open, along with the customer car park. Our stewards will be helping cars in and out, but if you are parked there just keep an eye on the time as it may take a bit longer to exit. The layout should make it easier to move around this year, but it is a busy event with a lot of noise we ask that you consider if that is suitable for your dog. A big thanks to our sponsors J Brown Funerals, Harry

If you want to take part then you still have a couple of days as the windows need to be ready on 24 November and judging takes place from 27 November. You can register for free by emailing estates@wendover-pc. gov.uk.

Let’s hear from you

As a Parish Council we are always keen to hear more from the parish about what we can do to make Wendover a better place. The Councillors are setting up surgeries in the Wendover Community Library for people to drop in and discuss any ideas, issues or thoughts. This will happen between 10am and 12 noon every third Thursday of the month. The first surgery will be on Thursday 23 November in the library. We will move to the Clock Tower when the library undergoes its transformation. Andy Smith, Clerk and RFO

Parish Council Meeting Tuesday 5 December, 7:30pm St Anne's Hall Aylesbury Road HP22 6JG Information about upcoming meetings:

Wendover Local Produce Market Saturday 16 December, 10am to 2pm Manor Waste We're looking for new traders! Contact estates@wendover-pc.gov.uk www.facebook.com/wendoverparish/

This year we are awarding a prize of three months’ free advertising on Bucks Radio to the best dressed business/shop window for the festive season. There are a lot of shops and businesses in Wendover so if you see something really special then please let us know on admin@wendover-pc.gov.uk.

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Wendover News December 2023

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