The Village of Wark

Occasionally the Town Hall is filled to capacity, but to get the Hall filled to that level twice in just 3 days is very rare indeed.  It started with the fashion show last Thursday which attracted about 80 paying customers.  Held in aid of St Michael’s Ladies Guild it brought to the village high quality clothing from Get Smart II, a company run by Lady Caroline Renwick.  A number of ladies from the village has been roped in to help with the modeling and I understand that many of them, and the audience for that matter, were rather taken by what they were given to show off.

Then on Saturday night the Hall was filled again, this time for the Music Night in aid of the Town Hall itself.  People were treated to an amazing variety of types and styles of music ranging from the Celtic harp to a jazzy saxophone quartet.  The whole evening seemed nicely balanced and the audience was treated again to an amazing array of talent. As I have said before, raising money is only one element of these evenings, giving people a good night out and an opportunity to have a bit crack with friends and neighbours at least as important.  Having said that, £470 was raised for the Town Hall, which is a pretty good result.  Thanks go to all the musicians who gave their time freely, to a wonderful audience and especially to Stephen Fry for doing most of the organizing.

The fishing season came to a bit of an abrupt end last weekend.  The heavy train on Friday evening meant that the water level was rather high on Saturday and that the water colour was very brown, making fishing on the last day a bit of a no-no. As an onlooker I find it difficult to gauge how people have done this year, but the impression is that it’s been a bit mixed, with some very good days interspersed with long periods of little activity.  Anyway, end of one activity and we move immediately on to the next: the Tyne tour, the big canoeing weekend will be with us this weekend, which bring a completely different type of life to the North Tyne.

I don’t often put mention anniversaries or birthdays in this column, but I’ll make an exception this week form Mrs Babs Pattinson, who celebrated her birthday this week.  Although she is now well looked after in Hexham, I know she keeps in touch with life in Wark through both friends and through these notes.  We hope she had a happy birthday.

I mentioned the Wark First School Christmas Fayre last week, so you’ll remember its being held on Thursday 19 November between 3.30 and 7.30 p.m.  A complete list of  businesses with stalls is now of the Wark website (www.wark.org.uk) so you can check out in advance just what an amazing variety of things there will be to see.

Finally a mention to the activities organized by Tynedale Women’s Access, which have started again on Mondays.  For the next 5 weeks they’ll be doing Christmas activities, including cards and fondant icing.  Also started again is the Thursday evening yoga sessions, which also go on for 5 weeks.