The Village of Wark

Word has reached me that a petition is underway in Wark and surrounding villages to try and get the powers that be to take notice of the tragic state of the bridge over the Tyne.  Last Friday night both our County Councillor Edward Heslop and the Conservative Parliamentary candidate Guy Opperman attended a meeting in the Grey Bull initiated by George Tait. You can find copies of the petition in various locations round the village, so please add your signature it.  We’ve got to keep trying to get the bridge repaired or replaced.

Some 50 people came together in the Town Hall last week to celebrate the 90^th anniversary of the Wark branch of the Women’s Institute.  There was an evening of entertainment by Eddie Milligan, Mike Tickell and one or two others.  Mike used an old WI cookbook as the inspiration for one of this pieces which was a very nice touch.  There was a wide range of old programmes of WI events on show, including one of the very first year of the Wark branch, 1920. The birthday cake was cut by the oldest serving members present, Stella Robson and Norma Coulson.  Both started their WI careers in other branches in the area but are now members at Wark.  There is one older current member, but unfortunately Mrs. Babs Pattison can no longer attend the meetings although she remains a member.

Preparations are now well underway for the next big event organized by the Wark Local History Group.  You’ll remember the tremendous success of the Yesteryears event in June last year and this year the group will be holding VE Day Celebrations on Saturday the 8^th of May.  You’ll have had a flyer through the door a few weeks back encouraging you to contact the organizers with any war time stories, any artifacts you might be willing to show and anything else relation to World War II which you think might be of interest.  The group is particularly keen to find out if anyone has pictures of the original 1945 celebrations on the Green.  There are a couple of pictures in the collection that the history group scanned a few years ago, but there might well be more.  You can contact Fransje Samsom, Philip Wanless, Ged Short or any other members of the Local History Group

Monica Munzinger of the Building Research Establishment (BRE) visited the Sports Club recently to have a look at how they have managed their renewable energy installations and how it is all working.  I understand from Philip Wanless that she is likely to use the club as a case study showing best practice in this type of work, which would be a very nice bit of recognition.

I mentioned the official opening of the new Community Hall in Stonehaugh a few weeks ago, well, that opening is now fairly imminent. The date set for this event is Friday 26^th March 2010 starting at about 1.30 p.m.  The official ribbon cutting will be done by Kathryn Tickell at 2 p.m. and the Community Hall will be open all afternoon for anyone to come and have a look at.  The celebrations will continue with an evening of music with Landermason.

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