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Needham Village Link
March / April 2013
The newsletter for the villagers of Needham
Thursday 28 February 2013
From the Editor
This time last year we were all bemoaning the lack of rain and we were just about to enter drought restrictions. The summer of rain has been followed by a January of snow which made the village look very attractive and provided entertainment for the children. The downside was that it did make life difficult and was followed by flooding especially in Mill Lane and at points along the High Road.
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| Francis & Ellis in the snow |
There has been a good response for volunteers to train to operate the speed monitoring device (SAM) in the village so it is hoped that this will be soon be in operation and prove a deterrent to those who exceed the speed limit in Needham. Please see the letter on the letters page.
You may have seen the new notice boards. One of the boards outside the Village Hall is for Parish Council notices as is the board outside 119 High Road. The other board at the Village Hall was paid for by the Village Hall Committee and is for community use. All the boards need a key to open them. items for display can be left with a member of the Village Hall committee.
The latest in the series of articles about houses in Needham is about my own home, Mill Farm Cottage. I should like to continue this series as there are so many interesting houses in the village so if you can write about your home, I’d love to include your article in the next edition of The Link.
The printing costs of The Link are exceeding the grant given by the Parish Council so, unfortunately, I may have to restrict the amount of colour printing in the future. If anyone knows of a cheap but reputable source of printing ink (HP) and paper (80g) I’d be interested to know! In the meantime, there are photographs online at www.needhamlink.co.uk . Again, if you have any photographs you would like to share please send them to me at needhamlink@gmail.com
Helen
A Long Road
Run over, suffered brain damage, accident announced as fatal on radio, days in coma, discharged unable to spell my name. Mentally impaired with my memory banks wiped clean and my mind in turmoil I found uniting words to form a sentence difficult. I was able, however, to recognise my lovely wife, Sheila and she became my mentor cementing our wedding ring inscription; “Love and happiness always.”
I had months of speech therapy with the speech therapist bringing order to a troubled mind. She suggested I compose a sentence which conveyed the word “tranquil.” After many attempts I wrote;
“The sun is setting low in the sky, the heat of the day evaporated. Boats are moored for the night. Tired holiday-makers return to relax and enjoy the warmth of the evening in the historic fishing village which has known the grief of the cruel sea but has turned its back to savour the merriment of summer vacationists.”
This was and is my therapy and is the reason I write.
Derek Buttle
Letters to the Editor
It was good to receive a letter for this edition of The Link. I should like to have a letters page so please don’t hesitate to contact me with your views or articles.
Dear Editor,
Speeding. We all speed, intentionally or otherwise. One, sadly now deceased, resident’s pet hate was speeding. Whenever we met and a vehicle sped past he would exclaim, “He’s going too fast!” When the limits were first introduced in the Pulhams he was one of the first to be caught. I remarked that it seemed to be alright to speed in other villages but not in Needham. Something to bear in mind as we drive through not only our village perhaps.
Name supplied
Spring Clean!
The hedge trimmers have been out so the hedges are all neat & tidy before the birds start nesting. Unfortunately, it does leave a bit of a mess along the road and pavements but one community minded resident has done his bit by clearing the pavement by Harmers Lane. Thank you Harold!
Borderhoppa
2012 was a busy year for Borderhoppa. In April we became a flexibly routed service, this meant that anyone, any age could now use our service, not just our members.
Also, Norfolk County Council joined Suffolk County Council in allowing free transport on our buses for concessionary pass holders after 9.30am.
On Mondays throughout the year, we’ve continued to run regular outings. These are for members only but membership is free; you just pay for the outings. Members have enjoyed visiting towns & cities for shopping, trips to the seaside, boat trips, pub lunches & visits to local gardens & garden centres.
In the Autumn, Borderhoppa launched a ‘new bus club’ which is a lottery open to everyone to help raise funds for a much needed new bus (although due to the weather recently we’d be better buying a boat!) It also gives people a chance to win a share of the funds each month for just £2 a number. This has proved to be very popular & the first lottery draw in Decembers saw prizes of £57.50, 2 x £23 & £11.50 being won.
If you would like to book a journey for shopping, doctors, hairdressers etc, become a member to enjoy our outings, book a place on an outing, hire one of our buses or take part in our monthly bus lottery, then please call: 01379 854800 between 8.30am – 5.00pm Mon – Fri.
Outings coming up:
Mon 4th March: Bury St Edmunds £12
Mon 18th March: Stowmarket & lunch at The Black Horse, Thorndon £12
(lunch extra)
Needham Carpet Bowls Club
This is the first report for 2013. We have played home matches against Brockdish and Kenningham both of which we lost but we were the winners against Syleham. The return match against Syleham on 11 February was lost.
We have an away match against Debenham on Wednesday 13 March so, unfortunately, there will not be a club evening on that day.
Our annual dinner and presentation evening will be held on Saturday 9 March at 7:00 for 7:30 at the Red Lion.
The AGM will take place on Wednesday 20 March at the Village Hall starting at 7:15pm. This will be followed by our usual club evening.
We have been invited to enter the Annual Bowls Tournament at Debenham on Friday 12 April at 7:00pm. This is usually a very enjoyable evening and we do hope some of our members will attend.
We are pleased to welcome John and David as new members of our club.
The club evenings are every Wednesday evening at the Village Hall starting at 7:30pm. The fees are still only £1.50 which includes tea/coffee and biscuits. Equipment is provided. Do come along and join us - new members are always welcome!
Nudger
New Arrival in Needham
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| Jasper |
We are pleased to announce the
arrival of Baby Jasper Huxley Q Miller born in Needham on February 1st, at 6:10am weighing in at 7lbs 14oz, joining the clan of big sister Gaia and big brother James (also a Needham baby) and proud parents Fariba and Stephen.
The birth was very quick; so much so that the midwives didn't make it on time and dad delivered him in the front room at home on his own.
Phhewwwww!
Well done Stephen - and Fariba!
Mill Farm
Does anyone in the village recall the names Mill Meadow, Helwys at Crosse or Fulls Gap? These are all names of properties that appear on nineteenth century title deeds for Mill Farm. What seems certain is that the farm was built in the 1790’s possibly in response to the demand for wheat created by the Napoleonic wars. It ceased to be an operational farm when the buildings and land were sold off separately in 1972.
The last family to farm here were Godfrey and Mary Newcomb who purchased the farm from a Mr Leist in 1950 for the sum of £4250 including £500 for the stock and crops and £1000 for the house. On this basis the land was valued at £55 per acre. Leist in turn had purchased the farm from Miss Bullivant who purchased the farm in 1942 for £1100. Going back to the nineteenth century, the farm appears to have been the property of a large landowner James Drane.
Mary Newcomb is now remembered as an outstanding artist and her work is in many collections. Her daughter Tessa, who grew up on the farm, is now an eminent artist in her own right and still lives locally.
A tractor is just visible in the photograph of Mary and Godfrey parked in the shed that is now our living room and in the photograph of Tessa in a pony trap, taken from the same view point but at a later date, steps can be seen leading up to a loft where Mary had her studio. Amongst other enterprises, Godfrey used the barn below as a pottery studio. The threshing barn can be seen in the background of the photograph of Tessa, this time on a donkey.
When the farm was broken up, the large threshing barn, now known as the Tithe Barn, was sold to Mr and Mrs Kempstone and their son Jake. It was subsequently sold to Gill Levin and many will be familiar with the barn through the concerts that she holds there and from the Waveney Valley Art Trail open days.
Mill Farm itself, which is the small cottage next to the lane, was bought by Natalie Oliver, the wife of the band leader Vic Oliver. (His first wife was the daughter of Winston Churchill, much to the great man’s displeasure!).
The remaining farm outbuildings, now Mill Farm Cottage, were purchased by an architect Jean Condor, who went on to marry Jacko Moya, one half of the architectural practice Powell & Moya, best remembered for designing the Skylon at the Festival of Britain. By coincidence Jean was the sister-in-law of Natalie Oliver. Jean Condor converted the buildings to provide a kitchen, bathroom and living room. The total cost of the work was estimated at £4028 for which she received a grant of £1000.
Mill Farm Cottage was then sold in 1985 to John and Audrey Valentine, who many in the village will remember. Helen and I purchased Mill Farm Cottage in 2004 when the Valentines moved to be closer to family. Sadly, John died in 2009.
We should be fascinated to hear if anyone has any recollections of the previous owners of Mill Farm, or indeed of the days when it was still a working farm. I am grateful to Tessa and her sister, Hannah, for their kind permission to reproduce their photographs and for the loan of documents relating to the sale of the farm.
Andrew Major
Mothering Sunday
Mothering Sunday in the UK falls on the fourth Sunday of Lent which this year will be on 10 March. We have celebrated Mothering Sunday which was also known as Refreshment Sunday, Pudding Pie Sunday or Mid-Lent Sunday since at least the 16th century.
It was a day in Lent when the fasting rules were relaxed in honour of the Feeding of the Five Thousand. No one is absolutely certain how the name Mothering Sunday came about but one theory is that the celebration could have been adopted from a Roman Spring festival celebrating Cybele, their Mother Goddess.
Most Sundays in the year churchgoers in England worship at their nearest parish or 'daughter church'. Centuries ago it was considered important for people to return to their home or 'mother' church once a year. So each year in the middle of Lent, everyone would visit their mother church - the main church or cathedral of the area.
Inevitably the return to the mother church became an occasion for family reunions when children who were working away returned home. It was quite common in those days for children to leave home for work once they were ten years old.
Most historians think that it was the return to the mother church which led to the tradition of children, particularly those working as domestic servants, or as apprentices, being given the day off to visit their mother and family.
As they walked along the country lanes, children would pick wild flowers or violets to take to church or give to their mother as a small gift. They might also take a gift of a cake, traditionally a Simnel Cake.
Eventually, this religious tradition evolved into the Mother’s Day tradition of giving gifts to mothers.
A Simnel cake is a fruit cake with two layers of almond paste, one on top and one in the middle. Different towns had their own recipes and shapes of the Simnel cake. Bury, Devizes and Shrewsbury produced large numbers to their own recipes, but it is the Shrewsbury version that became most popular and well known.
The name Simnel probably comes from the Latin word simila which means a fine wheat flour usually used for baking a cake. A popular legend attributes the invention of the Simnel cake to Lambert Simnel but this is clearly false since the Simnel cake appears in English literature much earlier than Lambert.
There's also a Shropshire legend that a man called Simon and his wife Nell argued over whether the cake for Mothering Sunday should be baked or boiled. In the end they did both, so the cake was named after both of them: SIM-NELL!
The cake is made with 11 balls of marzipan icing on top representing the 11 disciples. (Judas is not included.) Traditionally, sugar violets would also be added.
Recipe for Simnel Cake
Ingredients
- 100g/4oz glacé cherries
- 225g/8oz butter, softened
- 225g/8oz light muscavado sugar
- 4 large eggs
- 225g/8oz SR flour
- 225g/8oz sultanas
- 100g/4oz currants
- 50g/2oz chopped candied peel
- 2 lemons, grated zest only
- 2tsp mixed spice
- a little apricot jam
Method
- preheat the oven to 150C/280F/gas mark 2
- grease and line a 20cm/8in cake tin
- cut the cherries into quarters, rinse under running water and dry well
- place the cherries in a bowl with the butter, sugar, eggs, flour, sultanas, currants, candied peel, lemon zest and mixed spice and well well until thoroughly mixed
- pour half the mixture into the prepared tin
- take one third of the marzipan and roll it into a circle the same diameter as the tin and place on top of the cake mixture.
- spoon the remaining cake mixture on top and level the surface
- bake in the preheated oven for about 2 and a half hours or until well risen, evenly brown and firm to the touch. cover with aluminium foil after an hour if the top is browning too quickly.
- leave to cool in the tin for 10 mins then turn out, peel off the parchment and finish cooling on a wire rack.
- when the cake is cool, brush the top with a little warmed apricot jam and roll out half the remaining marzipan to fit the top. Press firmly on the top and crimp the edges to decorate. Make a criss cross pattern on the marzipan with a sharp knife. form the remaining marzipan into 11 balls.
- Brush the marzipan with beaten egg and arrange the marzipan balls around the edge of the cake. Brush the tops of the balls with beaten egg and carefully place the cake under a hot grill until the top is lightly toasted.
Very Important Notice
Some very angry residents have contacted The Link to protest that, despite repeated requests, a few inconsiderate dog owners are continuing to allow their dogs to foul the pavement and verges and not clearing up afterwards. This is really anti-social, dangerous and an offence. According to http://www.gov.uk/control-dog-public/dog-fouling if you don’t clean up after your dog you can be taken to court and fined up to £1000.
People will be on the lookout to identify the culprits!
Village Hall Committee
Annual General Meeting
Any questions please contact Caroline carosdear@yahoo.co.uk or via Facebook ‘Needham Village Hall’.
Caroline
Queen's Diamond Jubilee Committee
The committee will be meeting to discuss how best to use the money raised during the Jubilee on projects which would benefit Needham. There has been one suggestion of a boules pitch for the village. If you have any ideas please contact:
the Editor at needhamlink@gmail.com
or Caroline at carosdear@yahoo.co.uk
Parish Council News
The Parish Council met on 7th January in the Village Hall. The meeting was preceded by a public forum with County Councilor Martin Wilby and District Councilor Jenny Wilby present. Villagers are reminded that this is an excellent opportunity to meet your Councilors who are able to offer authoritative advice and support.
A parishioner reported that the Highways Authority are to carry out repairs to a brick culvert under the High Road taking water from the north side of the road and discharging in to a ditch on his property. He enquired if there was any financial or practical help that he could be offered to assist in clearing the ditch to ensure that the water drains efficiently to the Waveney.
The meeting was told that the maintenance of ditches is the sole responsibility of the landowner. Unfortunately, although as in this case the culvert is draining from another property, each landowner is responsible for their part of the drainage system.
It was also reported that roadside hedges are obstructing sight lines close to Skeetsmere Farm. It was agreed to report this to the Rangers for action. Should parishioners have similar concerns over everyday maintenance of the road side, the Parish Council are able to report these to the Rangers who visit periodically to carry out street cleaning.
The date of the Parish Council meeting had been brought forward in order to meet a dead line imposed for setting the Precept. This is the money that the Parish Council receives from the Council Tax. It was agreed that there should be no increase in the Precept. This means it has remained unchanged now for three years.
It was reported that two new notice boards, paid for by the Parish Council, and a further board for the use of the Village Hall and paid for from funds raised during the Jubilee year, had been delivered.
Andrew Major (Chairman)
Friends of St Peter's
March
Sunday 3rd March 11.00am Holy Communion
Sunday 10th March 6.00pm Evening Service
Sunday 17th March 11.00am Holy Communion
Palm Sunday 24th March 11.00am Morning Prayer
Wednesday 27th March 10.30am Morning Devotions
Good Friday 29th March 11.00am Devotional Half Hour Easter Sunday 31st March 11.00am Holy Communion
April
Sunday 7th April 11.00am Holy Communion
Sunday 14th April 6.00pm Evening Service
Sunday 21st April 11.00am Morning Prayer
Sunday 28th April 11.00am Morning Prayer
Stop Press!
The
Friends of St Peter’s A.G.M. is
planned for Friday May 17th, 7.30 p.m., Needham Village Hall. David
Cunliffe, who has been our treasurer since the Friends were formed, will
definitely not be standing for re-election to the Committee. Clearly he will be
a great loss. Without his enthusiastic contributions, especially these last few
years, the Friends may well have folded. None of the present committee is
prepared to take on the treasurer role and, not to put too fine a point on it,
if we cannot find a replacement treasurer, sadly we will not be able to
continue as an organisation. I am happy, if elected, to continue chairing the
Friends if we have a treasurer, but if there is a Needham resident who would
like to take the chairmanship on I am equally happy to simply serve on the
Committee if required. The Friends exist to raise money for building repairs
and improvements to St Peter’s. Church attendance is not a precondition of
being a Friend. If you feel that St. Peter’s building is worth preserving do
please give this serious consideration. If you would like to find out more
please contact me on 01379 853284, or email clive.hudson@talktalk.net,
Reverend Clive Hudson
Ramblings from the Rectory
March can be cold but it can also be when the first signs of spring can be seen. If we get some mild March weather, I will start to see my bees out and foraging once again. The cold may not have gone in March but at least there are likely to be signs that warmth and light are on their way once again. Hopefully, March will see me out on my motorbike more.
March ends with Easter day (March 31st). A time to celebrate new life and light to the world. Jesus is risen from the dead to show that even death is not the end. Easter is a time of hope and happiness. So at the end of March I hope you enjoy your chocolate eggs and rabbits and remember the gift of new life that they symbolise.
Christ is risen. He is risen indeed! God bless you, now and always,
Nigel.
Friday 22 February 2013
March /April Edition
The March/April edition of The Needham Link will be available to read online from 28 February.
Friday 8 February 2013
Deadline
The deadline for articles to be included in the March/April edition of The Link is 15 February. Make sure you don't miss it!
Email: needhamlink@gmail.com or post your contributions through the letter box at Mill Farm Cottage.
Email: needhamlink@gmail.com or post your contributions through the letter box at Mill Farm Cottage.
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