The Village of Wark

Last week we expressed the hope for a dry and sunny Saturday for last weekend’s Summer fete and despite the fact that we’ve had occasional showers right through the week, it did indeed keep dry for the Fete.  As usual there was a very genial atmosphere, with lots of folk expressing the hope of winning the garden bench in the raffle, people having a good nose round the bric-a-brac or bagging a bargain from the plant stall.  It was a good day to have an ice cream stall and the stall selling traditional sweets seemed to be doing a good trade.  I for one found myself some interesting books on the second hand book stall and had a look at one or two things on the clothes rail.  One of the thing I really enjoy on our Summer fete is just to have the opportunity to have a sit down, watch the world go by and have a chat with various villagers doing exactly the same.  And what better way to round off a good day with a gorgeous tea in the Hall.   I did hear a report on the national radio that traditional English village fetes are under threat, but by this year’s effort ours looks in reasonable shape.  I understand that about £1600 was raised which is pretty good.

This coming weekend members of the Town Hall Committee hope to make a start on the cleaning of the books in the library.  As I have reported on and off over the past few months, the library – or the snooker room as some of you will know it- has been done up with work to the plaster, a complete re-painting job and now the impending arrival of new carpets.  To bring the library back to life the committee will clean and re-catalogue the books.  Comparison with an old inventory will identify and books that have gone missing over the years.  I’m sure some of these are still being kept safe by people in the village and the Committee hopes that some of those missing books might make their way back to the Town Hall in due course.  If you want to help with the cleaning or cataloguing, you can contact Judith Weir on (01434) 230250 or Peter Samsom on 230605 for further details.

I’ve been asked to give a mention to Birtley’s Village barbeque which will take place on Sunday 26 July 2009 on the playing field in the village.  There will be live music from local; band Landermason, face painting, games, tombola and a raffle.  Tickets are £3 to include salads and entertainment, but under 12s go free.  Expect to pay a bit more for the barbeque meats.  You can book tickets by contacting Ann on (01434) 230464, Liz on 230612 or Bob on 230728.