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Friday 29 June 2018

Needham Village Annual BBQ

Sunday 12 August
From 1pm
Needham Coronation Village Hall
Live Music
Bouncy Castle
Face Painting
Tombola
Raffle

Plenty of food available & a bar with drinks for all tastes

Photos

Technical difficulties mean that there are no accompanying photographs with the latest edition.
Needham Village Link

July/August 2018



@needham_link

Doing the Needham Walk

Slightly thunderous clouds were in the sky so I decided to take my jacket. I had no need of it for, as you can see from the picture above, the sun shone brightly. A goodly crowd of 18 people joined Stephen Poulter at The Red Lion for the beginning of Needham Heritage Walk (first public event of the Needham and Brockdish Heritage Project). 
As a Brockdishite (Brockdishian?) I have both walked and cycled through Needham village, but I confess, mainly I drive through. I have never done so much noticing - helped, of course, by our expert guide. Not only was my attention drawn to the true nature of some of Needham's ancient buildings hiding behind brick and later additions, but, until the walk, at least one village house has barely rippled the surface of my awareness. At one stage I felt as if I was walking through Needham past and present at the same time -  perhaps I should have worn a sun hat!
There was so much to see that we ran out of time and all agreed on a follow-up walk to view the central and eastern side of the village.  
                  
  Tim Brook

Needham Walk Part 2 takes place 11am on Sunday 8th July leaving from the Red Lion Car Park. £4.00. All welcome

Editorial

Well, it looks like summer has arrived in all its glory – blue skies, sun and lots of pollen! My sympathies go to the many hay fever sufferers, but I am told that if you eat local honey (made with local pollen) it can give you an immunity to it – worth a try.
As you will see from the newsletter, there’s a lot going on this summer: the highlight for the village will be our annual BBQ at the Village Hall on 12th August: it provides a wonderful opportunity to meet other villagers and enjoy the food and entertainment. The Red Lion is also hosting a number of events from a Spanish Night to an Hawaiian Beach Party which includes an authentic sandy beach! The Needham and Brockdish Heritage Centre was officially opened by the Bishop of Norwich on Saturday 23rd June and they have a line up of presentations and exhibitions that celebrate the history of our area. I joined one of their walks around the village and was amazed to learn that Needham has some 23 listed buildings – no wonder there has to be a second part to the walk on 8th July to cover the eastern part of the village! I hope that you enjoy reading the remarkable story of the Pope’s intervention in the early 15th century to ensure that the residents of the parish were served by a chaplain.
The Needham Action Group are making excellent progress in creating our village green, although they will be praying for rain over the next few weeks in order to realise their dream.
I’ve also included in the newsletter details of local people who have contributed so much to the village over many years and have fascinating stories to tell.


Any contributions for the next edition of the Link (Sept – Oct) will be welcome and should meet the deadline of Friday 17th August.

Alan Jeffery

Needham Parish Council

Annual Meeting: 14 May 2018
The Parish Council is now employing a contractor to maintain local footpaths. 
At present these are; the path that leads from the High Road to the bottom of Mill Lane, the Loke that leads down to the river opposite the Mill and the area of river bank around the bench at the bottom of Mill Lane.  In the past these have become impassable due to the growth of nettles and undergrowth. We hope that residents will enjoy being able to access these paths so please let the Parish Council know if you find this action helpful and we will consider what other areas should be maintained.
This initiative is amongst a large amount achieved by the Parish Council in the last year. This includes acquiring a half share with Brockdish Parish Council of the Speed Awareness machine, meeting with Saffron Housing Association to discuss new homes in the village and forming a sub-committee with Needham Action Group to assist in the creation of a community space for the enjoyment of the village.  A lease is now being drawn up for the area behind the Village Hall that has already been drilled with grass seed. 
We have also created a Parish Council web site: needhampc.org.uk.  Minutes and agendas will be published on the site as well as news of events at the Village Hall.   We do not generally use email to contact residents.  However, a change in the law requires us to obtain your consent to be able to hold your contact details.  If you wish to be on a circulation list for information, such as agendas, a consent form will be posted on the web site.  However, if you are a Parish Councillor, Committee Member or volunteer we do not need this consent.
The Parish Council is here to promote the interests of Needham residents. There is currently a vacancy on Parish Council.  We meet once every two months on a Monday evening so it does not occupy a great deal of time.  If you are interested in joining as a Parish Councillor please contact me.  Our next meeting is at 7.30 on Monday 23 July.
                                                                          
Andrew Major, Chairman

                                                     andrewmajor@mac.com 01379 852958


We are pleased to report that Mrs White is recovering from her hip replacement operation and we all send her our best wishes for a complete recovery. 

Friends of St Peter's Church

The AGM of the Friends of the Village Hall
was held on 16 April when the management
committee was re-elected.  The good news
is that there is an increasing demand to
hire the Hall that is considered to have the best size and amenities in the district.  As a result the Hall’s finances are healthy.  The meeting also resolved to support the efforts of NAG in creating an amenity area behind the Hall.

The meeting agreed there are two priorities for the next twelve months.  Firstly, a programme of refurbishment should take place commencing with internal redecoration.  Secondly, and more critically, new committee members are needed to help with the running of the Hall.  Currently we are reliant on committee members who do not live in the village, so it is important that village residents take a greater role in the running of the Hall. 


It was agreed that the Village Summer Barbeque is to be held on Sunday 12th August starting at 1.00pm.  If you would like to help, join the Friends when we meet in the Hall Annex on Monday 30 July at 7.30 to finalise the plans. 

St Peter's Church

Church Services
1st July          Morning Prayer 11.00am
8th July          Morning Prayer   9.30am
15th July        Morning Prayer 11.00am
22nd July       Holy Communion  9.30am
29th July        At Billingford Holy Communion 10.30am
5th August     Morning Prayer 11.00am   
12th August   Morning Prayer  9.30am
19th August   Morning Prayer 11.00am

26th August   Holy Communion 9.30am

Contacts:
Rector: Revd Nigel Tuffnell - 01379 308905
Email: rector@7churches.org.uk
Website - www.7churches.org.uk
Facebook - www.facebook.com/7churches.org.uk
Administration - 01379 851148
Email admin@7churches.org.uk

Church News
The wall at the front of the Church has now been repaired and we are just waiting for a date for the Church pathway to be resurfaced.
The PCC would like to say a Big Thank You to Lenny Whymark for volunteering for a number of years in keeping the church yard all neat and tidy, unfortunately Lenny has had to give up due to personal reasons. So once again - Thank You, Lenny. 
    
Gill Powell

Needham Action Group

A green field at last!

Have you seen it? Although there is much work still
to be done, with a little imagination...and a lot of
mowing, our Village Green stands before us – at
last, Needham has a green field for the community!
Seeded in May after a very dry spell, the grass has slowly but surely taken, and although it is still fragile, work can resume to preen and tidy it, preparing it for mowing, mowing, mowing, and (fingers crossed) rain, rain, rain!
Meanwhile we must remove the large stones and flints from the surface to make it possible to mow. Our great thanks go to those who have already made a start on this task: both the kind passers-by who have taken a few moments out of their day to gather rocks into a mound or pull up weeds ready for removal; and the amazing gang of locals who gathered for a ‘stone picking party’ last Friday afternoon. Fuelled by elderflower presse and sweet treats, we made some excellent progress together, and felt truly inspired by the team spirit and the willingness to get involved: our great thanks go out to all those who came and participated in what was a very enjoyable community afternoon. Transforming this field is a huge task and every little bit of help makes an enormous difference.
Garden Work Party Saturday 14th July at 2pm 

And finally...the moment we have all been waiting for: a name! Thank you to all of you who got in touch to make your vote.  With votes still to come in, we have decided to hold a ballot at the village barbeque. Please look out for it and cast your vote on the day to have your say! The names are as follows (with two late entries added in):

The Village Green, Gnarly Green, The Glade, The Needham Nook, Needham Playing Field, Needham Village Garden

Village Green Work Party


Village Green Garden Work Party Sat 14th July 2pm
Please bring ... you guessed it: a pair of gloves and a wheelbarrow if you have one!
Refreshments provided. All welcome.  We hope to see you there!

Puppy Power


Meet Bella, Daisy and Oscar. Apart from being three beautiful pups, they have a serious mission in life: to transform the lives of visually impaired people by training as Guide Dogs. They are being sponsored by the Coffee Morning Team at the Red Lion who have already raised £312 for them through their monthly coffee mornings. In addition, they have also raised £168 for Needham Village Church; £50 towards the Needham/Brockdish Heritage Centre; £50 for the Ladies Pink Tractor Run; £450 for the Christmas Appeal for underprivileged children in the area; and £500 for Macmillan Cancer Research. A truly remarkable achievement!

Needham's Mr Rotavator : George Vickers

I’ve lived in Norfolk now for nearly 58 years and Needham itself since 1963. When I came to the area a government initiative had just been introduced to boost employment in the region, which had been hit by the closure in 1958 of the RAF Maintenance Unit at Pulham – the old airship site. It resulted in Howard Rotavators moving to Harleston from their previous location in West Horndon, Essex. One hundred feet of the factory was constructed with parts which we brought up to Norfolk and the remaining structure was built with local labour, employing some 200 people from the area, some from Needham.

Initially, I was allocated a council house in Dickleburgh. but I wanted to build my own house. The local district council suggested a piece of land in the middle of Needham which had been abandoned for some time. I bought the land and moved my family to a bungalow in Harleston while we set about developing the plot. I submitted my design for a new bungalow and cleared the site of brambles, weeds, the ruins of a pair of clay lump cottages – and some chicken carcasses! I dug the foundations and with the help of my wife Eileen (sometimes in charge of the cement mixer) the bungalow took shape and in 1963 we moved in. Over the years I’ve planted over 70 trees, built greenhouses and outbuildings, designed a rockery and pond area and grown lots of my own vegetables.
With the success of Harleston Industries and the subsequent factories at Halesworth and elsewhere, I joined the Board of Howard Rotavators and became Group Plant and Service Director, looking after 7 factories which employed hundreds of people.

My life here has been a good one and I hope I’ve been able to give back to the area some of the benefits that living in East Anglia has given to me.

What's On

HARLESTON CINEMA:  FILMS FOR JULY – AUG  2018
THURSDAY, 26TH JULY 2018 – THREE BILLBOARDS
OUTSIDE EBBING MISSOURI
Crime/Drama (PG) – 1hr 55mins (Director – Martin McDonagh)
The film tells the story of Mildred Hayes, a woman frustrated by the lack of police activity into finding the culprit of her daughter’s murder, takes action into her own hands. The divorced mother decides to rent three derelict billboards on the outskirts of her town of Ebbing to declare war against the local police.
 
Venue: Masonic Rooms, The Thoroughfare, Harleston
Tickets: £4:  for further information and to book please ring Harleston Information Plus on 01379 851917.
Matinee:  Doors open 1.30pm, film starts at 2.00pm.
Evening:   Doors open at 7.00p, film starts at 7.30pm.


U3A TALKS IN JULY - AUG 2018
WEDNESDAY 18th July  2018
Stephen Poulter – To the Hammer Born: Confessions of an occasional auctioneer. As an auctioneer and online dealer in antiques, vintage items and collectables Stephen reveals the insider secrets of how to make a living in the trade. Using examples from the wide variety of items, pictures, furniture and ceramics he sells, we learn the fascinating stories behind all sorts of historical objects dating back over the last 250 years
WEDNESDAY 15th August 2018

Pat Alker - Project Dukem: Pat will take us on her amazing journey through the historic routes of Ethiopia, Lalibela and its rock hewn churches, Axum and the Ark of the Covenant, Lake Tana, Simien Mountains, its people animals, history. Any money raised will contribute to Project Dukem, to help feed HIV/Aids orphans at a small school in Ethiopia and thereby break the cycle of poverty that exists in that area.

Meetings are held at the Masonic Rooms, Harleston, Norfolk IP20 9EN at 2pm. For details phone Kim on 01986 788149 or contact:www.u3a.org.harleston

Please note that our local U3A Group has been renamed as Harleston & District U3A to reflect more accurately the area it serves