The Village of Wark

Archive for September, 2009

 Wark’s contribution to the Biggest Coffee Morning in the World was a very good £238.  MacMillan Cancer support is a very worthwhile beneficiary of this bit of fundraising and all the money raised goes to improve the lives of people who have been affected by cancer.  Thanks to all those of you who made this event a success.

If you would recognise football manager Neil Warnock, would be able to name The Charmer or the ship that Jacques Cousteau used for his explorations, or even if you would know how many faces you’d find on the Sergeant Pepper album cover, you’d have made a good chance in the Quiz at the Town Hall last Saturday.  5 teams competed and together raised just over £200 for the Hall and a great night as well.  Thanks go to Mike Gibson for being the quiz master, Judith Weir and Mildred Murray for organising the suppers and for the three ladies who provided the soup.

This Saturday, 3 October, there will be another Wark Apple Fair in the Town Hall, the fourth year running.  The organisers hope very much that it will be a great success.  One of the main ‘attractions’ is the presence of Trevor Rogers, the apple identification ‘guru’, now based in Lincolnshire.  Trevor will be able to help put a name to the apples that have been growing in your garden for years.  To have the best chance of success, you should bring three apples of each variety and at least one of them should have a stalk attached.  There will also be opportunities to taste different varieties of apples, information on fruit growing, apple juice making, sales of apples and apple products, felt apple making, games and of course teas, coffees and apple-y cakes.  The Fair runs from 10.30 until 4 and entry is £2.50 or £1.50 for under 12s.

On Monday 5 October, you’ll be able to join St. Michael’s Ladies Guild for its annual soup and pudding night in the Community Room on Westacres.  This follows the Harvest Service at St Michael’s this Sunday. The Harvest Service starts at 6 p.m. while for the soup and pudding you’ll need to be at the Community Centre at 7 p.m.  Admission to the soup and pudding night is £3 which includes home-made soup, a roll, a choice of puddings, tea of coffee and a biscuit. 

Another thing, happening on the same night is a talk to the Local History Group on the development of roads and tracks across Tynedale.  Often we travel along our local roads without giving thought about how these routes came into being and you can be sure that some of them are ancient, while others are perhaps much more recent.  The Local History Group meets in the Town Hall at 7.30 p.m. on Monday 5 October 2009.

Mid Tyne Community Trust hosting the Community Forum

The next meeting of the Mid Tyne Community Trust, hosting the Mid Tyne Community Forum, is to be held on Wednesday 14th April 7.30pm at Wark Town Hall. We will be dicussing the Community Action Plan for the area and invite each Parish to send along a representative. For more information contact Vicky Herod – admin on 01434 230180 or Phil Wanless – chairman on 01434 230629

 

Minutes of the AGM held 28th January, 2010 Wark Town Hall

 

Present:           

Vicky Herod                  Administrator

Alex Kerr                       Chairman

Susi Gonchu                 NCC

Sandra Guthrie            Warden PC

G B Shaw                     Warden PC

Dave Westle                  Wall PC

Mick West                    Wall PC

Harold Foster                  Newbrough PC

Philip Wanless              Wark Sports Club

Anne Hutchinson            Treasurer

Judith Weir                    Wark PC/Wark Town Hall

Janet Somerville            Nth Tyne and Redesdale

Murray Somerville            Nth Tyne and Redesdale

Maud Jupp                    Chollerton

Edward Heslop               NCC/vice Chairman

Margit Stoksted            Wark     PC

Elaine Bristow                Simonburn PC

Simon Gregory               Gt Whittington PC

Colin Earnshaw              NNPA

 

Apologies received from : John Wood – Newbrough, Justin Angus – Whittington

                                                Maureen Ward – Simonburn, Marilyn Framrose

 

1)         Alex Kerr opened the meeting and introductions from the floor were made.

2)         Minutes of the AGM help 25th September 2008 were accepted.

3)            Chairman’s Report:   Alex Kerr reflected that the past year had highs and lows, among the highs were: MTCT becoming host to the Community Forum, the interest in the energy audit and renewables -  see presentation report,  the new Mid Tyne Business Forum which has had it’s first meeting and made plans for Business Breakfasts to enable local businesses to network, there is an on line data base and website, subscription £30 pa.. – see separate report.  The lows have been the lack of support for themed meetings that have focused on the needs of the community re education and transport, the lack of dissemination of information to clubs, societies and organisations within the Parishes and no feedback or articles for his newsletter ‘Gossip’.

Alex gave notice that he will be standing down as Chairman and at the next meeting of the MTCT we need someone to stand for office who will move the Community Forum (MTCT) forward as the representative of the Mid Tyne at NCC.

 

Edward Heslop asked the meeting to look on the bright side, so much has been achieved since the MTCT was thought of in 1998.   He asked that the surge of interest we are now experiencing should keep the MTCT going as the foundation to the Community Forum.

Edward gave a vote of thanks on behalf of the meeting to Alex and thanked him for all the hard work he has done which is greatly appreciated.   He reminded us we will need a chairman, he is unable to stand for chair as it may prove in conflict with his NCC position.

 

4)  The accounts for 2008 were presented and accepted by the meeting.

5) Development Fund:   We have two applications – Humshaugh Village Hall for disabled toilets and Simonburn Village Hall for disabled access – agreed in principle, some amendments needed to forms plus a second quotation for works.

The meeting was reminded that there is funding available for capital works – please ask if you have a need within your Parish.

 

6) Reports:  

Mid Tyne Community Forum:  Susi Gonchu told the meeting that there are 7 Community Forums and the MTCT was a good base for the Mid Tyne Community Forum as the forums are made up of a cluster of Parishes.   As Sustainable Communities the Parish plans can form the basis of an action plan for the area, identifying local issues ie affordable housing, energy and renewables.   Susi administers the Community Chest funding stream and projects could be put forward through the Community Forums.

 

Mid Tyne Business Forum : see separate report – appendix 1.

 

7) Presentation on Renewable and Sustainable Technologies:

Colin Earnshaw reported on the systems supported by the Northumberland National Park Sustainable Development Fund identifying the types of renewable energy technologies: Heat Producing – Biomass boilers, solar water heating, heat pumps both ground and air sourced.

Electricity Generation – Wind turbines, photovoltaics, micro-hydro turbines.

Colin gave details of each scheme, where they had been used in the area and the funding streams available.

Philip Wanless posed the questions – how much energy do we as householders use day to day, how could this be reduced – could the area become carbon neutral?   Could each Parish take up the challenge, could we afford not to?

Monitors are available to calculate how much an appliance uses, consider an audit of a sample of homes and collate the findings.

 

Alex Kerr closed the meeting by inviting Parishes to look at energy saving, also to give MTCT (Vicky Herod) a data base of community contacts so that more people/communities can become involved in the Community Forum – encourage others to join, spread the word.

 

This meeting has been held in Wark but we invite other community rooms to be our host.

 

The date of the next Mid Tyne Community Trust/Community Forum is 25th March 2010, 7.30 at Stonehaugh Village Hall.

 

The meeting closed at 9.30pm.

 

Appendix 1) Report for Mid Tyne Community Trust

 

  There has been a great deal of progress made with the Mid Tyne Business Forum since the initial meetings with the Community Trust last year. The inaugural meeting was held at Newbrough Town Hall in October 2009, where there were over 30 attendees, this meeting established how the forum would work going forward and was followed up with a meeting of the proposed committee members at Wark Sports Club in November. The committee was established at Chairman – Gary Killmister, Treasurer – Philip Wanless, Membership Secretary – Sam Burnish and PR and Marketing – Julian Christopher. During the early stages administrative support will still be provided by CI Accountancy Limited.

 

Website

 

The MTBF website was created with the support of Peter Rodger of TalkingHat Associates. There is a comprehensive business directory detailing the business name and contact details for over 180 entries, we envisage that this will continue to grow and develop over the coming months. The website is updated on a regular basis with latest news flashes and event details. www.mtbf.org.uk. As contacts become full members of the forum, they can log in to see details not available to the general public such as minutes of meetings and take part in the forum online, whereby they can post questions to other members or advertise services. The website also has a “featured members” section on the home page, which we envisage will be organised on a rotational basis, possibly every week changed to show different details.

Once we have the bank account opened, we will have a ‘paypal’ account linked to the website to enable people to pay their membership fee online.

 

Membership

 

It was agreed that there would be an annual membership fee, which would cover the cost of refreshments and venue hire. The membership fee has been set at £30.00, which is comparable with other forums in the area, this would give members access to all forum events and a discounted entry to the proposed networking groups. Full members would also be able to have a fuller business description within the website directory and the option to link it to their own website. We currently have 10 full members, however this is increasing all the time, we do not think this is a bad start as some of the larger forums in Hexham only have 70 members.

 

Forum Events

 

It was envisaged that the forum events would be held quarterly at different venues around the Mid Tyne region, they would give members the opportunity to listen to the guest speakers and meet other business owners.

 

The first Forum event was held at Wark Sports Club on 20th January with two guest speakers, Paul Blakey of Nat West and Colin Earnshaw from NNPA. There was an attendance fee of £5.00 for all non members; however this was refunded for any who became members on the night. There was a good turnout with over 20 attendees, most of whom did say that they would encourage friends and colleagues to join up as members too.

 

It was decided that the next forum event would be held in March at Wall village hall, the final details are yet to be decided and will follow on the website.

 

We are currently advertising events via email to everyone on our contact list, publications on the MTBF website and press releases in local newspapers, parish magazines etc.

 

The format for the forum events will generally be that there are one or two guest speakers discussing a range of subjects, which will hopefully be selected by the MTBF committee and members to ensure that they are relevant to the audience.

 

Networking Group

 

It is hoped that there will be a more frequent networking group, held every fortnight, again in different venues around the area, most probably cafés and tearooms as a breakfast club. This will not only help support local businesses in the region but will give networking members the opportunity to meet up on a regular basis and gain referrals and advice from others. Networking events are proved to be successful; many of the MTBF committee members are involved in other networking groups. By the same people meeting on a regular basis in a more informal environment, it is hoped that they will build a close working relationship lending itself to the opportunity to refer business and gain knowledge and advice from within the group. We are aiming for the first networking event to be held in mid February. Steps have been taken to build a core group of attendees who it is hoped will encourage others to come along and the group should then expand quite rapidly.

 

 

 

Next steps…

 

We aim to have both regular networking and forum events, these will encourage like minded business owners to meet up and share knowledge and experiences. Holding these events in various venues around the area will also contribute to supporting local communities and businesses. We would hope to grow and gain members on an ongoing basis making the most of the wide variety of businesses in the Mid Tyne region.

 

 

 

  

 

 

Some pictures of the worthy winners and produce at this year’s show.

The Wark Leek Show had a very worthy winner last weekend.  Roy Bell swept the board, winning the stand of leeks, winning the best three onions and on top of that, winning the ‘Best Leek in Show’.  This best leek was unusual in that it turned out to be one of those very long blanched trench leeks, something that hasn’t happened in the Wark Leek Show before, so I’m told.  All in all it was a very decent show with a good variety of vegetables, some lovely flowers and some great baking.  The school children had excelled again by producing a series of art displays, which brightened up one side of the Hall.  As you’re aware, all produce is sold on the evening and Robert Baty did his usual fantastic job in tempting people into buying a whole variety of vegetables, flowers and cakes.  Robert did have to work hard this time to get the bidding going and to keep it rolling along. Perhaps it was a result of us all being a bit more careful with our money, or perhaps there were just fewer people there, but all in all the amount raised in the sale was only just under what was raised last year.  Together with an excellent raffle and the takings on the door, the total amount banked was roughly the same as last year.  The Leek Show wouldn’t happen without the tremendous work of the whole committee, setting up, taking in the exhibits on the Saturday morning, working with the judge during the day, then running the exhibit towards the end of the afternoon, doing the sale and finally tidying it all up again.  They deserve a huge vote of thanks for making the Leek Show another success.  If you want to have a look at some pictures, check out the Wark website on www.wark.org.uk .

The refurbishment of the Sports Club is moving forward very swiftly.  The windows have been replaced and it looks like all the new cladding has also gone on.  Volunteers at the Club have been busy painting the new woodwork and it looks an absolute picture.  This refurb should help make the Sports Club building last for a good few years more.

Saturday 3 October will see another Wark Apple Fair in the Town Hall.  It will be the fourth consecutive year that‘s been held and it is turning out to be a very popular event, drawing people to the village from far and wide.  One thing that pulls in the visitors is the apple identification, by Trevor Rogers.  He will be coming up from Lincolnshire to help put a name to the apples that have been growing in your garden for years.  To have the best chance of success, you should bring three apples of each variety and at least one of them should have a stalk attached.  There will also be opportunities to taste different varieties of apples, information on fruit growing, apple juice making, sales of apples and apple products, felt apple making, games and of course teas, coffees and apple-y cakes.  The Fair runs from 10.30 until 4 and entry is £2.50 or £1.50 for under 12s.

On Monday 5 October, St. Michael’s Ladies Guild is having its annual soup and pudding night in the Community Room on Westacres.  This follows hard on the heels of the Harvest Service on Sunday the 4^th of October.  Admission to the soup and pudding night is £3, which includes homemade soup, a roll, a choice of puddings, tea of coffee and a biscuit.  Good value in anyone’s book!  Of course, everyone is welcome to join in.

Finally a last minute plug for the Town Hall Quiz Night in on Saturday 26^th September.  You might still be able to put a team together (max. 6 people) and join the six that had already signed up by last weekend.  Tickets are £5 and for that you don’t just have an evening of fun but soup and a roll too.  Ring Judith Weir on (01434) 230250 to put your team in.

 With the water in the river near perfect and a slightly overcast day, hopes were high for a good fishing competition last Sunday.  Many of you will remember the competition a few years ago having to be run again as no one managed to land a fish.  Fortunately that wasn’t the case this year although to total catch was only three fish.  Quite a few fish had been caught locally in the preceding week, but I suppose you can never count on it happening again.  I hope that the fishermen still had an enjoyable day.  The competitions was eventually won by John Henderson from Chipchase . Congratulations.

Children went back to school last week and I understand that both pupils and staff have settled in well after the summer break.  As you will be aware, Wark School has a new Head, Mrs Henry and a new teacher, Ms Coulthard. Mrs Henry has invited parents, family members and members of the local community to come an meet her for a cup of coffee on Wednesday 23^rd September anytime between 9 and 10 a.m. or 2 and 3.15 p.m.  She’s also asked me to let you know that she’d welcome anyone was is interested in helping in the school on the regular basis.  This could involve reading with the children, preparing resources or sharing skills, like sewing or gardening.  She be happy to discuss it with you.  The final note relating to school this week is that the AGM for the Friends of Wark First School will be held after school on Thursday 17^th September.  There will be an election for the committee for the coming year. If anyone is interested in being on the committee please come along and support the Friends.

I hardly need to remind you of the Leek Show this Saturday, 19 September, one of those important village events that mark the year, this one for me being one of the symbols of harvest time.  The growing and preparing done, it’s now time to have a look to see how everything compares, to make an assessment of the whole growing season.  Whether you’ve got something in the show or not, do come and  have a look..  Doors open to the public at 4.15 p.m. and the sale of all the produce starts at 6.30. And of course, if you fancy having a go yourself next year, you’d be more than welcome to join the club.

Finally a plug for a couple of things in the Hall in the coming week.  On Monday 21 September, you’ll have an opportunity to see the pictures of the ‘Yesteryears’ event last June on a large screen.  The Local History Group will be showing a good collection of them, starting at 7.30p.m.  Entry is free and cheese and wine are £1.50.  Then on Saturday 26^th September there will be a Quiznight in aid of Town Hall Funds.  It’s not too late to put a team (max. 6 people) together and join the fun.  Tickets are £5 and for that you don’t just have an evening of competition but soup and a roll too.  Ring Judith Weir on (01434) 230250 to put your team in.

About a dozen members of the Local History Group joined the trip to Catcleugh reservoir in Redesdale.  The history of the reservoir is fascinating with hundreds of people working to construct the dam at the end of the 19^th century and the beginning of the 20^th.  More than 50 people died in its construction, a fact commemorated with a stained glass window in Byrness Church that the group also visited.  The restored wooden cabin shows the living and working conditions of the navvies who lived there.  It only survived because it was used as an office for year after the work had finished.  Some people living in the village have family members who either worked on the building of the dam itself, or who were involved in cleaning the pipe that runs across Northumberland from there.  All in all I understand the group had an excellent day out.

The Town Hall Committee last week discussed upcoming events and the need to do the publicity for those.  First in line are the Leek Show mentioned below, then you can join the biggest coffee morning in the world (in aid of MacMillan Cancer Support) on the 25^th of September followed by a Quiz Night in aid of the Town Hall on the 26^th.  The intention is to produce a flier to put on your notice board in the next few days, so keep your eyes open for that.  It’s also worth mentioning again that members of the Committee are working on and off to catalogue the enormous book collection.  The Library Room is now one to be proud of and with a new computerised catalogue access to the books there will be much easier.

Finally, last week I mentioned the Leek Show taking place next weekend, on Saturday 19 September.  Those of you in the Leek Club may have noticed that your leeks have now been ‘stamped’.  For those of you to whom leek growing is a bit of a mystery, stamping the leeks means putting a unique number in one of the leaves (or flags) of each and every leek in the trench.  By having that unique number you can’t pass off anyone else’s leeks as your own and I can assure you that the numbers are carefully checked before you can put your leeks into the show.  The schedules have now also been distributed and should be available in the shop.  There is a whole range of open classes, which you’re allowed to enter without being a Leek Club member.  As I said last week, Wark Leek Show is a very friendly affair, so why not have a go yourself. It may be too late to make Rhubarb and Ginger Jam, one of the ‘open baking classes’, unless you’ve got some rhubarb in the freezer, but you could still have a go at rock buns or a plate baked apple pie or you might just have a go at putting in a ‘vase of flowers 6” max diameter’.  Whether you put something in the show or not, coming to have a look is always good fun.  Doors open to the public at 4.15 p.m. and the sale of all the produce starts at 6.30.