The Village of Wark

Archive for August, 2009

It’s hard to imagine that the summer holidays are over for another year, but if you had any doubt you’d only need to look at the clubs and groups starting up again to know that autumn is just round the corner. If you’re really quick you might just manage to get one of the spare tickets for a Local History Group visit to Catcleugh reservoir on Saturday 5 September. The bus sets off at 9 a.m. sharp, so you’re asked to be at the Grey at 8.45. The group will have lunch at the First and Last in Redesdale. Bus is £5.70 each and people are asked to have the right money ready. I understand everyone pays for their own lunch. At the time of writing (Sunday) there are still 4 places on the bus remaining. If you’re interested you can ring Philip of Margit on (01434) 230629. The History Group itself starts back again next week.

The same is true for the Yoga on Thursday nights; they will be having the first of their 5 sessions on Thursday the 10^th.

^{This is a very gentle and relaxing form of yoga suitable for beginners as well as people who’ve done some before. It’s taught by Karen Merkin-Air and classes run between 7 and 8.30 p.m. in the Town Hall. If you’re interested, just turn up on the night. Bring a mat to sit on and wear loose fitting clothing. The 5 sessions cost £30.}

The bookcase that’s been on the stage in the Town Hall finally made it into the library room upstairs last Friday with the help of some young men of this parish. Despite the fact that it splits into two parts the bookcase is a heavy piece of furniture and the stairs are not the easiest to negotiate, so the help was much appreciated. The new bookcase fits just between two windows in the library room, giving much needed extra space to the book collection. Having made a good start on re-cataloguing them at the start of July, that work now needs to be picked up and completed so that the collection will become more accessible once again.

Finally, it’s only 2 weeks until the annual Wark Leek Show. The summer has played havoc again with people’s leeks and you’ll hear plenty of stories of woe. I have no doubt though, that some fantastic leeks will suddenly appear again on the day, together with a whole range of other vegetables and flowers. Although we have our healthy competition, it’s all very good natured and a great atmosphere on the day. If you’ve always wondered what these Leeks Shows are about and secretly (or perhaps not so secretly) wanted to have a go, why not come along on the afternoon of 19 September. It’s worth going to have a look and new members are always welcome.

Recently I had my first opportunity to see for myself the work that the volunteer party of men has carried out on the riverside path to the sawmill. Unfortunately I wandered out in the rain on Sunday, which meant that it was all very wet, but the work is impressive all the same.  It starts with the little bridge, repaired and repainted in a fetching green and timber railings either side of the Dene Burn.  Then just around the corner the vegetation has been cut well back. Very handy in wet weather; at least I didn’t get soaked through because of wet bushes!  The path itself is nicely levelled and more branches cut back so that you can get past unhindered.  Some steps just before the sewage works help with access to the river. I also noted that they’ve been at work on the Battlesteads Green, tidying and clearing.  All in all a very nice job.

I understand that the work at the Sports Club is slowly progressing.  I understand that the plumbing and electrics for the ground source heatpump are in place and that it is due to be commissioned in the coming few weeks.  The start of the re-cladding of the outside of the building is imminent and the new windows are due to arrive in the next fortnight.  The scare that the club had a few weeks back about the potential need for a heavier electricity cable having to be brought from Warkshaugh, fortunately turned out to be a false alarm, at least for now.  So the club committee still expects the work to be completed in the not too distant future.

Those of you who attended the two meetings about a Wark proposal for the Village SOS initiative will be relieved to hear that an application was indeed made in time for the deadline last Friday.  Village SOS is a joint initiative between the BIG Lottery Fund and the BBC and aims to encourage rural communities to put ideas together to stimulate the retention of local services and indeed of creating new ones where they’ve been lost.

As I understand it, six villages across the country will eventually be shortlisted to develop their plans further and eventually one of them will be the winner.  The price is a decent amount of money to make their idea a reality.  The involvement of the BBC obviously means that there will be a television programme attached: the six projects will be filmed at various stages of development and the whole thing will become a ‘fly-on-the-wall’ type programme.

The Wark proposal revolves round the Grey Bull and incorporates a cafe, an initiative reduce our collective carbon footprint and an increase in the take-up of renewable energy, and of course the continuation of the pub, but under community management.  Importantly the application also includes the training of a number of young people and the expectation that another 20 small businesses will be set up. That the application was made was largely due to the hard work of Philip Wanless, who wrote the application to a very short timetable.

Competition for this initiative is likely to be enormous; you might have read about Allendale’s proposal in last week’s Courant and I understand that Bellingham and Fourstones have also made applications.  However, the easiest way of not to get it, is not to try and I suppose we have as good a chance of getting is as any other.  Fingers crossed!

Although I haven’t seen it yet myself, I have been told that the new carpet tiles in the Library/ Pool Room, upstairs in the Town Hall has arrived and indeed makes the whole thing look very tidy again.  That means that the bookcase that the Town Hall Committee bought some time ago can now be moved from the stage in the main hall to the space between the windows.  That will provide a substantial amount of extra room for our Victorian collection of books and should make it possible to show them off much better.  The creation of an up to date database of the books has slowed down a bit over the past few weeks, but will start again shortly.  It’s expected that the Library will be formally re-opened sometime this autumn.