The Village of Wark

The Northumberland Theatre Company managed to pull off that almost impossible feat, to present a play that was funny while at the same time giving you lots of important things to think about.  With just 5 actors and someone on lights and sound they presented a packed Town Hall with no fewer than 12 characters in the fictional village of Aldale.  ‘A Village Life’ is based on conversations that the writer Mary Cooper had with bus drivers and post men, farmers and business people, young people and councilors  and many more during 2009 and she managed to lift from those conversations truths that we’d all recognize. Moments of hilarity were mixed with extreme tension- everyone must have felt the loneliness of the farmer struggling to keep his farm viable, while moments later having to smile at the approach of the ‘Wellburn-Tofts’, the Lord of the Manor and his very posh wife.  I’m afraid this writing can’t do justice to the piece itself or to the performances of the actors.  If you missed it I can only recommend that you try to get to see it at Newbrough Town Hall on 26 March 2010.  With regard to our own performance in the hall last weekend, I can report that thanks to bar, raffle and a full house the Town Hall committee made a small profit.

The school field was also the scene of much activity, when a group of parents, children and one or two school staff created a brand new school vegetable garden.  Thanks to the generous support by Johnson Controls in Washington, where one of the parents works, all the materials for the veg garden- fencing, boards for raised beds and geotextiles to keep the weeds down- was paid for through their Blue Sky Initiative.  Over the next few months the beds will be planted up and the hope is very much that some of the vegetables will be ready for the summer holidays.  You might even see an entry or two in the Leek Show in September as well.  I understand that the children are already excited about growing their own vegetables.

If you missed the bingo this week or if you fancy another one, you need to know about the bingo in aid of St. Michael’s Church which will take place in the Town Hall next Tuesday, the 9^th of March.  Most of you will know the form, just turn up by 7.30 when the fun starts.

Finally a quick word about the Stonehaugh Community hall. Firstly, there is an election on.  This time we’re not talking about the General Election, but the election of committee members.  There are 10 people on the list to fill five vacancies on the committee and according to the governing document all residents over the age of 18 living in the parish of Wark are eligible to vote.  To get an election form you can contact Anne Bulman on (01434) 230624 or from wark Parish Council.  Forms need to be returned by Wednesday 10 March 2010.  The Community Hall in Stonehaugh will be officially opened on Friday 26^th March.  More details will follow later this month.

Joseph Oliver and Friends played for hours on Saturday night entertaining a group of people just large enough to fill the Hall with dancers.  With accordion, fiddle, keyboard and drums they played a mixture of ballroom-type dances and ceilidh and with help of some able dancers just about everyone had a go.  As always the shared supper worked a treat. It is quite amazing that you can feed a Hall full of people when everyone brings something and even more amazing to think that the balance of different foods is almost always about right.  I understand that the evening just about broke even and that everyone had a great night out.

The Friends of Wark First School are planning their annual Bingo fundraising night for Tuesday 2nd March and a call has gone out to see if you can help provide suitable items as Bingo prizes. They need about 30 prizes to hold this event.  Chocolates, bottles, gift sets or anything else you think is suitable would be appreciated. The Friends of Wark First School would be grateful if you could drop off any prizes at the school as soon after half-term as possible.

I’m sure you’ve remembered that it is the Table Top Sale at the Town Hall on Saturday 20^th of February. The sale will start at 1 p.m. with sellers being able to set up from 12 noon.  You might still be able to book a table by contacting Judith Weir (01434- 230250), otherwise, do come and have a browse to see what’s on offer.  Entry is just 50p per person and that includes a cup of tea.

Finally, a reminder for the play by the Northumberland Theatre Company on Saturday 27^th February 2010 again in the Town hall.  They are bringing us ‘A Village Life’.  Based on a wide range of conversations that the writer, Mary Cooper had with people for different rural areas, including Wark, the play explores modern village life in rural Northumberland.  It’s a comedy so expect a laugh, by I suspect it will be quite recognizable.  Tickets for the play are £8 and £5 for concessions and are also available from Judith on the telephone number above.

You may not be surprised to hear that the Charity Lunch for 2010 is already in preparation and I am sad to say that the second sitting is already fully booked all on word of mouth! This year the Charity Lunch will be on Wednesday May 12^th and it clearly promises to be a sell out again.  Between the two sittings, the first one between 11.30 and 1 p.m. , the second one starting at 1.30, 200 people are catered for by an extensive band of volunteers.  The Charity Lunch is coming of age this year, its 21^st birthday and a phenomenal amount of money has been raised over those years.  It started with £722 for Hexham Hospital in 1990 and last year more than £3500 was raised for the Sir Bobby Robson Foundation.  All in all nearly £43000 has been raised in the past 20 years.  This year’s good cause is Tynedale Hospice at Home and I’m sure people will dig deep for such an important charity.  If you want a place at the first sitting you’d better be quick.  You can book by contacting Annm Bell on (01434) 230259.

Wark History Group had a visit from our neighbours from Chollerton Parish last week.  The Chollerton Parish History Society has carried out a village atlas project and brought their display and a talk to our village.  It was fascinating to see both the differences and the similarities between two areas so close together.  The area around Barrasford Quarry seems to be littered with very early pre-historic sites, which aren’t anywhere near as common in Wark Parish (or maybe they’re just not known about).  The field patterns around Barrasford also clearly still show small cow pastures, areas where smallholders would be able to graze their cow and perhaps a few sheep.  You can see the same near Birtley, but I have never heard about such small fields near Wark.   All very fascinating.

There was a bit of a ‘to-do’ on the bridge in the night between Friday and Saturday last weekend, when someone managed to get their car wedged between the bollards on the bridge.  The driving must have been ‘particularly interesting’ because normally you wouldn’t want to try something like that!

It is not too late to book a table for the Table Top Sale at the Town Hall next weekend, Saturday 20^th of February. The sale will start at 1 p.m. with sellers being able to set up from 12 noon.  You can book a table by contacting Judith Weir (01434- 230250).

And finally a reminder for the dance with live music from Joseph Oliver and friends,  this Saturday, 13 February.  Tickets cost £5 and you’re asked to bring something for  a shared supper.  There will also be a bar of course.  The dance starts at 8.00 p.m.

Last Saturday night the Hall was just about filled to capacity for an evening to celebrate the individual effort of people supporting the British Legion in our area.  People who have been involved in the Poppy Appeals in the area between Humshaugh and Kielder were given awards, medals and commendations by the Duchess of Northumberland, who is this year’s Lord Lieutenant of Northumberland.  It was wonderful to see this tremendous effort being recognized by such a large group of people.  The awards ranged from commendations to the First Schools of Wark, Humshaugh and Chollerton, to awards for almost incredible 50 and even 60 years’ service!  One of the members of the audience was Mr. Jeff Lodge MBE, one of the Trustees of the British Legion, who told me that he had only once before seen 60 years’ service recognized.  He also explained that the Poppy Appeal had already raised £30million since November 2009.  That seems a very large amount of money, but it compares with the £100 million that the British Legion spends every year on welfare.  After the awards Mrs. Liesbeth Langford from Humshaugh gave a very moving talk about her experiences as a young girl in occupied Holland in the Second World War.  Mrs. Langford talked about the everyday difficulties and especially about the ever present dangers from the occupying Germans.  Mrs. Langford’s talk was very much appreciated by the audience.  The evening was rounded off by cheese and wine and music from Mike and Di Gibson and Stephen Fry.

Word has reached me that the new Stonehaugh Community Hall will be hosting taster sessions of a couple of activities in the next few weeks.  On the morning of Tuesday 9^th February Chris Blain will give you a flavour of Tai Chi.  That session is between 10 and 12 noon.  Then on Tuesday the 16^th of February you’ll have a chance to have a go at fitness training with John Familton.  The fitness takes place between 7 and 9 p.m.  Anyone interested can contact Alison Dennis on (01434) 230431 or Ann Bulman on (01434) 230624.

I told you last week about a number of things coming up in the Town Hall.  On Saturday February 13^th, Joseph Oliver and friends will play at the Town Hall for a dance.  I understand that Joseph is the grandson of the ‘Cowan’ part of the Kirkcowan Sound and is a very accomplished traditional dance musician. Tickets are only £5 and you’re asked to bring something for a shared supper. 

With regard to the Table Top Sale in the Town hall on the weekend after, the 20^th of February, I failed to mention that the sale will start at 1 p.m. with sellers being able to set up from 12 noon.  That failure to mention the time, hasn’t stopped people starting to book tables though; I understand from Judith that they are going well.  Those tables are £6 each and you can book them through Judith Weir (01434- 230250).

You might remember that I mentioned the vacancy on Wark Parish Council before Christmas.  This vacancy had arisen because Craig Moore and his family moved to Hexham last year and Craig resigned his seat.  When the Parish Council met last Monday it appeared that just one person had put themselves forward to join the Parish Council and Margit Stoksted was duly co-opted onto the group. 

The Mid Tyne Business Forum also met last week and elected a committee to run its affairs.  The Business Forum has been created to encourage like-minded business owners to meet regularly and to share ideas and experiences.  The group intends to hold Forum meetings every quarter with the next one being in Wall in March.  At these Forum meetings there will generally be one or two speakers.  In addition they will hold networking events at local cafes and tearooms around the area.

The Town Hall is heading for a busy February.  Next Monday, February 1^st, Wark History Group will have a speaker from the Chollerton Parish history Society to talk about the history of Barrasford and Gunnerton.  There will be refreshments and tickets are £2.

Then on Saturday February 13^th, Joseph Oliver and friends will play at the Town Hall for a dance.  Tickets are only £5 and you’re asked to bring something for a shared supper.  On the weekend after, the 20^th, the Hall will host a table top sale, which always proves to be very popular.  Tables are £6 each and you can book them through Judith Weir (01434- 230250). A great chance to try to turn some of you unwanted stuff into cash.

Then right at the end of the month, on Saturday 27^th of February, the Northumberland Theatre Company will bring their play ‘A Village Life’.  You might remember that the writer Mary Cooper came to our Friday Coffee Morning some months back to talk to people about village life and those conversations (and many others in other locations) have now culminated in this play. Tickets for the play are £8 and £5 for concessions and are also available from Judith.

Thankfully, much of the snow and ice seems to have disappeared for the moment at least, although there are some treacherous patches still in odd corners.  What all this snowmelt has revealed is just how shockingly back all this stuff for our roads and pavements.  Never perfect at the best of times, we seem to have acquired a complete new series of potholes and broken up bits of tarmac.  One of the most intriguing is the pronounced hump that has appears at the village end of the bridge.  From a distance it looks a bit like a small speed hump, just at the point where the access onto the bridge has been narrowed.

One of the more positive things to appear from under the snow, is some early signs of approaching spring.  I know there could be much more winter weather under way, but I can’t help being cheered up by the first signs of snowdrops.  You may well tell you that you’ve seen snowdrops out in various places, but along the riverside I noticed some where the white of the flowers is just showing.

On a more mundane note, I can let you know that the Mid Tyne Community trust will be holding its AGM in the Town Hall on Thursday 28^th of January starting at 7.30 p.m. Issues on the agenda include ‘Becoming the Community Forum for the Mid Tyne area’, there will be a report from the Mid Tyne Business Forum and talks from our own Philip Wanless and Colin Earnshaw of the Northumberland national Park Authority about renewable energy and sustainable energy.  Anyone living or working in the Mid Tyne area can be involved in the Trust, so you will be most welcome at the AGM.

Those of you who made it to John Kirkpatrick’s performance before Christmas, would probably agree with me that Carolling and Crumpets was a real treat. What you might not have realized that we were very lucky to have been early in the series of concerts in the North of England: I understand the performance at Haydon Bridge on the following Saturday was cancelled because John wasn’t well enough to perform. At the Wark preformance the Hall was well filled and people were in pretty good voice, joining in with the choruses from the very start. Mr Kirkpatrick is clearly a very accomplished concertina and accordion player, but his lyrics are pretty special too. There were great wassailing songs from Shropshire and Gloucestershire as well as more well know traditional carols such as the Boar’s Head Carol and the Holly and the Ivy. All in all another fantastic evening of traditional music, thanks to the wonderful Highlights programme.

You’ll remember that I mentioned in this column last week that the Senior Citizens Christmas Dinner had been running for at least 25 years.  Well, word reached me this week that this is a tradition going back at least 50 years!  My informant tells me that she became involved that long ago and that it had been going for some time then.  I think we can safely say that this is another venerable Wark village tradition and one very much worth carrying on with.

I’m sure you won’t need reminding of another, slightly more recent tradition.  The Christmas carols on the Green will take place again on Christmas Eve, starting at about 6.30 p.m.  I know from one or two people from further afield, that they have discovered this get-together and look forward to coming to join us on the night.  Of course we trust that Santa will make an appearance again, but I suppose you can never be quite sure of that.

Christmas services this year will be a Midnight Mass at St. Mungo’s in Simonburn at 11.30 p.m.  on Christmas Eve with a Family Communion on Christmas day at St. Michael’s at 10.30 a.m.

For this next section I’d like to stray just a few miles up the valley.  I do hope some of you got the chance to make a trip up to Bellingham last week to see the Bellingham and District Amateur Dramatic Society’s show the Cristal Mere, one of the fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm.  The set was very interesting, using a big chunk of Bellingham Town hall and the costumes were out of this world.  The play itself was quite an unsettling story of power, love, loss and growing up, all beautifully done by a huge cast of actors.  I thought it especially great to see so many young people involved and who knows, we might get them back to Wark sometime.

You’ll remember that I flagged up John Kirkpatrick’s ‘Carolling and Crumpets’ concert on Tuesday the 15^th in the Town Hall.  As many of you know, Highlights events are always worth it, but this week word has reached me that John Kirkpatrick has been nominated for the BBC Radio2 Folk Awards for 2010, making it even more special to have such a fabulous musician come to Wark. Tickets are going well, so if you want to be there, you’ll have to get your skates on.  Tickets cost £6.50 (or £4.50 for concessions) and are available from Judith Weir on (01434) 230250.  The gig starts at 7.30 p.m. and there will be a bar.

This Sunday, 13 December 2009, Stonehaugh Community Hall will be hosting the village’s annual Christingle Service at 6.30p.m. Of course everyone is welcome to attend and the traditional Christingles will be distributed.  In addition they’ll be serving mince pies and mulled wine after the service. 

Last weekend saw plenty people flocking to the Town Hall in Wark for St Michael’s Christmas Bazaar.  As usual the cake stall was incredibly popular, selling out in a very short time and the same happened to the stall selling Christmas wreaths.  Children from Wark School had made lots of Christmas cards which gave a hall a very festive look.  The Ladies Guild, which organizes the Christmas Bazaar, raised just over £800 which is an excellent result.

Also last week was the annual Senior Citizens Christmas Dinner, again in the Town Hall.  I’ve been trying to remember how many years this event has taken place and it must be at least 25, but it’s been difficult to pinpoint it precisely.  Just under 90 people sat down for their Christmas Dinner.  I’ve been asked to mention especially the behind the scenes support received from many people and especially the school and the Battlesteads, without which the event would be difficult to organize.  Thank you very much for your contributions.

Over the last few weeks staff,  governors and children at Wark First School have been discussing the strengths and areas for development in our school to inform our annual School Development Plan.  They’re hoping to renew many of the school awards such as the Healthy Schools award and the Green Flag Eco award and would like to do more with the school grounds and further improve outdoor provision.  Developing links with the wider community also figures in the list.  If you would like to make any suggestions to inform the School Development Plan Head Teacher, Mrs. Henry would be delighted to hear from you. In the mean time you might also be interested to know that the school Carol Service will take place at St. Michael’s Church on Friday 18 December, starting at 2 p.m.

Finally a quick mention of this year’s Poppy Appeal by the Wark Branch of the British Legion.  A magnificent £3505 was raised by about 30 people working the area between Humshaugh and Bellingham.  That’s about £200 more than last year.  Thank you very much for both your financial support and the volunteer effort to run the appeal.

There is a bit of a Christmassy theme to this week’s Wark Notes, starting with tomorrow’s  Christmas Bazaar in Wark Town Hall.  St. Michael’s Christmas Bazaar is an honourable village tradition bringing you a whole variety of stalls: cakes, a wide range of Christmas decorations, books and gifts together with a tombola and a raffle.  Of course you’ll also be able to stop by for a cup of tea and a biscuit.  St. Michael’s Christmas Bazaar starts at 2 p.m. and entry is just 50p.

Then there’s a bit of warning of a Highlights treat for Christmas, also at the Town Hall on Tuesday 15 December when one of the most respected folk musicians in the country visits.  John Kirkpatrick will bring his Christmas show ‘Carolling & Crumpets’ which peels away the commercial gloss of modern Christmas to reveal the many mysterious and murky goings-on in midwinter.   John Kirkpatrick is an expert player of Button Accordion, Anglo Concertina and Melodeon as well as being a great singer and a very humorous entertainer.  He was once a member of Steeleye Span together with Martin Carthy and they both currently play together in ‘Brass Monkey’.  Tickets are available from Judith Weir on (01434) 230250 and the gig will start at 7.30 p.m.

This year’s Christmas play at Wark First School is a traditional nativity story, but with a modern twist.  There are two performances, on Tuesday 8^th December  at 2p.m. and then again on Wednesday 9 December at 6.30 in the evening.  Staff and pupils will be very happy to see members of the local community there.

Despite the recession people in the area seem to be as generous as ever:  the Town Hall Christmas Bingo last week raised a whopping £500 for Town Hall funds.  I’ve been asked to especially thank all the businesses and individuals who provided prize for the bingo, and all those who attended the evening.

Finally, a mention of the vacancy on the Parish Council.  The Parish Council is seeking to fill this vacancy by co-opting an additional member. Parish Councillors are expected to take an interest in the community and be able to contribute to improving it.  The Council meets six times a year; the next meeting being held on 18 January 2010. If you would like to be considered for this vacancy please contact Pat Johnston, the Parish Clerk by 20 December 2009 for further information.  You can contact him by telephone on (01434 674095 or by email on clerk.wark@tiscali.co.uk,