The Village of Wark

Archive for the ‘Wark Notes’ Category

With hay and silage making being a bit late and harvest starting slightly early this year, farmers and contractors in the area were out in force last weekend.  Let’s hope that the weather holds and that they’ll be able to get on with it and complete the job for this year without too many mishaps.  After all with inputs like fertilizer and diesel being as expensive as they are, it’s really important that the harvest pays for those costs.

I hope you’ve all remembered that there will be a coffee morning in aid of the Wark MURC church, in the Westacres Community Room this Saturday,  6 August .  In addition to coffee, cakes and biscuits you’ll find a range of stalls.  Like with all these village get-togethers, you’ll  be made very welcome.  The coffee morning starts at 10 a.m.

Next weekend, Saturday 13 August, there will be a jumble sale in the Town Hall.  It’s not too late to give your attic or garage a bit of a clear out and most of us have at least some clothes we’re never going to wear again.  You can contact Judith Weir on (01434) 230250 to arrange to drop it off at the Hall.  The jumble sale itself starts at 1 p.m. and if previous years are anything to go by, there will be people queuing to get in.

I’ve been asked to let you know about a coffee morning in aid of the Wark MURC church, which will take place at the Westacres Community Room n Saturday 6 August .  In addition to coffee, cakes and biscuits you’ll find a range of stalls.  You’ll all be welcome to come in for a cuppa and a bit crack.  The coffee morning starts at 10 a.m.

On the following weekend, Saturday 13 August, Wark Town Hall will be holding its annual summer jumble sale.  This jumble sale has ended up being rather a draw for people from far and wide, so if you are looking for a new home for stuff that you no longer have space for, or don’t fit any longer, you can contact Judith Weir on (01434) 230250 to arrange to drop it off at the Hall.  The jumble sale itself starts at 1 p.m. and if previous years are anything to go by, there will be people queuing to get in.

The work on the bridge continues to be a source of wonder, if nothing else.  I’ve been amazed to see the amount of work done over recent days on the new ‘bridge heads’. Last week the sides of the bridge at the village end were taken off, leaving old sections stuck in the middle. I understand that these sides will be replaced like-for-like, so it will be interesting to see how good a copy they manage to produce.

It’s perhaps still a bit early to think about to autumn season, but I have now heard what Highlights events will be coming to the Hall between September and December.  We’re lucky enough to get two of the gigs, one with the New Budapest Café Orchestra and a second with the Hut People.  Both involve music but from very different traditions, as you might expect.  Whatever the tradition, you can be sure to have a good night, so keep and eye out for the dates later in the year.

The lift of the bridge girders seems to have gone ok last week and the whole structure looks most peculiar at the moment. It’s vaguely disconcerting to walk over the footbridge at the Birtley end without there being a bridge structure to be attached to. In the mean time a considerable amount of work has been done on the abutment of the Wark end, where a substantial amount of concrete has been poured to strengthen the structure.

The weather was good for growing trees last Sunday, but the wet was perhaps not so welcome for the Open Air Service on the Green. Fortunately a canopy had been erected and the people who attended more or less fitted under it. One of the sections in the children’s drama read: “The little seedlings pop up from the earth. Everything is growing again. As the mighty tree has added to its girth, the seedlings grow for all their worth.” Donations from this ecumenical event went to ‘Tree Aid’, a charity which helps people in Africa plants, protect and use trees sustainably. Tree Aid hopes to plant a million trees in Africa during 2011, which is the UN’s International Year of Forests.

It promised to be (and hopefully will have been, by the time you read this) a momentous week for the bridge. On Tuesday both the walkway and the road on the other side will be closed completely as the crane which will lift out the girders on the Birtley end will first travel to the site and then lift out those girders for repair. The whole operation depends on there being favourable weather conditions and if the wind is too strong the crane will stay in the compound until conditions improve. The third issue of the bridge newsletter reports that it will be possible to see the lift from the passing place of the bridge and I’m sure a good number of you will have made use of that opportunity.

Those of you who keep an eye on what’s happening at the bridge will have noticed that the footbridge at the Birtley side has been switched to the north side of the bridge. I understand that this is to allow a crane to operate from the south side and get the new deck into place. If you’re still a bit nervous about using the footbridge, you might be interested to know that the new one was inspected last week. When I spoke to bridge safety inspector last week, who mentioned that he reckons that new section would hold up to 5 tons, which is rather more that the bridge itself was meant to hold, so we should be fine for the time being.

About 1500 cyclists came through the village last Saturday on their 104 mile Cyclone Challenge of Northumberland. The Town Hall had been chosen to be a time check point and ‘re-fueling station’ with bananas, water, energy drinks and bars. This longest of three challenge rides was described as “a serious challenge for the more experienced cyclists or those who are very fit.” The route was (and is) very hilly with 2374m (7789ft)?of climbing with the highest point being Troughend Common. By the time the cyclists reached Wark they’d done about 80 miles and it was clear that some of them found it rather harder than they imagined. It was interesting to hear that people had traveled from all over the country to be here: one of the last teams to come through was a group from London, who’d only traveled up on Saturday morning and set off on their ride at 11.30 in the morning!

The saga of the bridge continues. Many of you will have read the latest update or heard stuff on the grapevine, but it now looks like cars won’t be able to cross the bridge until October. The newsletter seems to suggest that further delays might follow if things don’t go according to plan. I find it difficult to picture from the newsletter quite what they intend to do with the deck plates that have now been removed and with the metal girders underneath. With the deck removed, you can now see that they not in a good state and I’m curious to see what they look like once they’ve been done up. The newsletter also warns about days that the bridge will be closed completely but don’t yet give dates. I suppose we’d been warned about those occurrences, so they won’t come as a surprise.

This weekend there will be two interesting events in the parish. Tonight there’s the Acoustic Music Night at Stonehaugh Vilage Hall. The event is being organised by Miss Coulthard of Wark School, and is to raise money to support a school in Tanzania. The night will feature a range of artists from the North East and starts at 7.30 p.m. There will be home-made curry and a licensed bar. Then, tomorrow, Saturday 21 May Wark Town Hall is holding a Quiz Nights to raise funds, also starting at 7.30 p.m. You can enter team of up to 6 people in team and tickets are £4 per person. There will be a shared supper and a bar. You can get tickets from Judith Weir on (01434) 230250.

For next weekend, Saturday 28 May to be precise, you might want to make a note of the fact that the WI will be having a cake stall on the Green. It will start at 10 a.m. which really means that you need to be there about 15 minutes early so that you get in the queue. The WI cake stalls are always very popular so if you leave it too late, you’re likely to find it sold out.

Many people will have been glued to the television on the day of the Royal Wedding but at least two people chose to come to the Friday coffee morning as usual.  Later on the Friday, about 50 people braved the strong wind to have tea on the Green.  As usual the village did itself proud with both quality and quantity of the baking and it was a lovely occasion to have a bit of a chat with people about the big event or just to catch up, even if you needed a coat.

St Michael’s Church held it’s book sale over the whole of the weekend and when I called in on Sunday afternoon, people were still calling by to have a look round.  I’m not sure how many of these electronic reading devices we’ll have in the village now, but books continue to do well.  There’s always something interesting to pick up and I suppose many of them eventually make it back to a fete or a special event like this one.

With Wark School being back this week, I’ve been asked to encourage all gardeners to help provide vegetable plants to set the school garden.  Please remember that ideally those plants should provide their yield before the summer holidays or in September, as there is no one to harvest them over the summer break.  Any seedlings can be brought into school in the next week or so.  The second item is about a school garden a bit further afield.  Teacher Emily Coulthard is doing a fundraising trek on the Massai Way this August to raise money for a school vegetable garden in our partner school Mae Juu in Tanzania. You can show your support by attending the first fundraising event, which is a Live Music Night featuring a range of artists from the North East.  It takes place at Stonehaugh Village Hall on Friday 20 May 2011 starting at 7.30 p.m. and there will be home-made curry and a licensed bar.

Finally I would like to give a mention to the person or people who empty the dog bins which must be one of the most unglamorous things you can do. Before Easter someone had put a barbeque tray in the dog bin at Blindburn which had clearly been too hot and had melted all the plastic.  Emptying that bin must be pretty difficult anyway as is it so misshapen and it must have been even more difficult with half the plastic melted. So here’s a thank you to the person who empties the dog bins!

The Wark Parish Plan was launched last week and it was nice to see a few people there. It has been a bit of a marathon to get the thing completed, but it should help with any funding applications etc. The Plan was originally funded through grants from Community Action Northumberland and Northumberland National Park Authority and representatives from both organisations were there to see it launched.

Although Wark School is now on holiday, I’ve been asked to give a couple of bits of news both to do with school gardening. First, Emily Coulthard, has put out a call to all gardeners to help provide vegetable plants to set the school garden. Please remember that ideally those plants should provide their ield before the summer holidays or in September, as there is no one to harvest them over the summer break. Any seedlings can be brought into school after the Easter holiday. The second item is about a school garden a bit further afield. Miss Coulthard is doing a fundraising trek on the Massai Way this August to raise money for a school vegetable garden in our partner school Mae Juu in Tanzania. Please show your support by attending the first fundraising event, which is a Live Music Night featuring a range of artists from the North East. It takes place at Stonehaugh Village Hall on Friday 20 May 2011 starting at 7.30 p.m. and there will be home-made curry and a licensed bar.