The Village of Wark

Archive for January, 2012

The Senior Citizens Meal on the 18^th went very well and people seemed to have had a very enjoyable evening. John Cooper has asked me to let you know just how great it was to have so much help with the planning and preparation and especially with the work on the day. He told me he had an excellent team of young people helping serve the meal.  Financial support for the meal came from the Giles Heron Trsut, Wark Parish Council and both the Angling Club and the Leek Club.  Staff at the Battlesteads helped with the preparation and cooking of most of the meal and thanks go to all of you who helped in one way or other.  It’s great to see this village tradition revived and I’m pleased to be able to report that this year’s organisers intend to meet shortly to start planning the next one for December of this year or for January 2013.

While we’re on the subject of meals, I’ve been asked to let you know that the second sitting for the Wark Charity Lunch on Wednesday May the 9th is already sold out but that tickets are still available for the first one which starts at 11.30.  Tickets are £14 and this year’s proceeds will go to The Northern Brainwave Appeal which raises funds for the Regional Neurosciences Centre’s High Dependency Unit which cares for patients who are severally ill through head injury including following stroke and neurosurgery. The Unit cares for patients from all over the North of England.  You can get tickets by contacting Judith Weir on (01434) 230250.

The next meeting of the Wark Local History Group is on Monday 13 February in the Town Hall and the speaker will be Dr Ian Roberts who will talk about the Iron Works in the North Tyne.  This date is a week later than usual.  The talk will start at 7.30pm.

 Finally a reminder of the event taking place at Wark Town Hall on Monday 6 February between 6 and 9 pm.   to start developing a neighbourhood plan (www.northtyneplan.org.uk) for the area covered by Wark, Bellingham and Tarset with Greystead Parish. The event provides an opportunity for people to come along to say what they think is good about their area and what they think can be improved.  People can just drop in for as long or as little as they want, it’s informal and refreshments will be provided.    

If you live in Wark or Birtley Parish you should be receiving a survey from a group of parents with children in the school asking for your thoughts on the play facilities in Wark. The idea is to initially gauge opinions and if appropriate, develop a project to renovate the existing facilities or develop new ones.? The survey form will go out in the next few days. And vollection points for the surveys will be at the school and post office.?

The Friends of Wark First School will be holding a jumble sale on Saturday 4 ^{February. Jumble can be sent in to school at any time and will be gratefully received. The group will need lots of volunteers to help on the Friday afternoon (3 February)and to man stalls on the Saturday. Please let the school know if you are able to help.}

You might have spotted that this week sees some changes to the opening times of the butcher’s. Starting on Monday 9 January the shop will be open all day on both Thursday and Saturday, but will be closed all day Mondays. Late night opening remains on Wednesday evening when the butcher’s closes at 6.30 p.m.

Finally some advance warning of an event taking place at Wark Town hall on Monday 6 February between 6 and 9 p.m. Wark, Bellingham and Tarset with Greystead Parish Councils have come together to develop a neighbourhood plan www.northtyneplan.org.uk  for the areas and the event provides an opportunity for people to come along to say what they think is good about their area and what they think can be improved. It is the starting point to developing planning policies to help address the issues.  People can just drop in for as long or as little as they want, it’s informal and refreshments will be provided.  In the next few days you should receive a flyer giving you a bit more information about the background to the event. There will also be events in Lanehead and Bellingham around the same time and covering the same issues.

About 100 people filled the Town Hall on New Year’s Eve to see in the New Year en masse.  It’s very easy to get stuck with a poor evening of TV on a night like New Year’s Eve looking at other people having a good time even if it was pre-recorded, so Mike Tickell and Les Telfer deserve credit for having organized this different way of doing things.  There were different tables with their own whipper-in and people provided festive food to share on their table. The band, Hillbillies Deluxe from Glasgow filled the hall with a mix of rocky and country music and the sound man, Red, filled a slot with more traditional country music, even his banjo made an appearance!  Eddie Millican did one of his turns and had the audience in stitches with his traditional series of jokes.  Thanks to the generous support from the [participants there was an enormous raffle and Wark charities will benefit from the proceeds. There was a bit of singing, a bit of story and a bit of dancing and I reckon a good time was had by all. 

The carol singing on Christmas Eve turned out to be a bit of a challenge last year with it blowing a bit of a hooly.  It’s just as well that there are a few people who can belt out a carol or two otherwise people might not have heard anything.  Fortunately Santa arrived a bit early; no snow and ice this year, so the singing was a little shorter than usual.  I have been asked to let you know that the organizers have lost about 20 of the carol sheets and would like to have get them back.  If you have found one of them hiding in your coat pocket, you can hand it in at the Post Office and they’ll find their way home from there.

I’ve also been told that the organizers of the meal on 18th January 2012 have now invited all they believe, in Wark Parish, to be eligible. However should a reader believe they should have been included and not received an invite, they can contact John on 01434 230367.