Brookwood Village News

Volume 22   Issue 3   December 2001

Published by Mac Fryatt with financial backing from BVA and Printed by Greenprint & Design

Christmas comes but once a year but if you are in the business of Christmas, you can stretch it over a four-month period! Keep your eyes open for the first Easter Eggs (we don’t mean the Cadbury’s little ones)!

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Now, once again we offer a bottle of decent wine for the best Christmas lights effect in the Village. We are looking for something special and if you won last year you will have to have a go at a different display! The idea is to brighten up the Village at this dark and dull time of the year so all join in! Result in January 2002 Newsletter.

Oh! It’s all "thank yous" this month!

TO EVERYONE WHO SUPPORTED THE ROYAL BRITISH LEGION POPPY APPEAL especially to those who bought their poppies from the local shops who deserve a special thank you for putting up with the box of poppies and the tin on their counter for a couple of weeks. We can’t do the door-to-door collection any more as it required too many people to get round the Village but we do provide ample opportunity to show we all care. Especial thanks go to our Curate, David Minns, and his team for a very enjoyable Remembrance Sunday service held most appropriately in the Memorial Hall. There were close to 200 residents attending the service ranging from the very young to the – well, not so young! Wreaths were laid before the Memorial stone by the youth organisations and also by the Memorial Hall on behalf of all Brookwood residents. The youngest among us went off into the Committee room after the initial proceedings and busied themselves making two splendid pictures of a poppy and a dove, returning to the Hall to show us all and thus nicely bringing the service to its completion.

THE CHARITY WHIST DRIVE on November 2^nd raised £285 for the Surrey Voluntary Association for the Blind. Trina Sellers who organised the evening has received a letter from Lance Clarke, Chief Executive of SVAB expressing their heartfelt thanks for the donation. Trina has asked us to pass these on and to add her thanks to the Memorial Hall for their generous donation of the premises for the occasion, to the Scout Group who "stood down" from the large Hall so that it could be available and to all those who came along to play, who provided refreshments (Oooooh, those cream cakes!) and those who donated prizes for the raffle. There were so many prizes it took almost as long to do the draw as to play whist!!

Thank You!

• to various people who have helped us to get the Newsletter out every month. Firstly, we thank the various shops and businesses that have sponsored the issues. Their support is not just financial – they do actually read it as well!! And we have had a number of anonymous donations to help with Newsletter costs. Only the Editor knows their true identity and his lips are sealed! We thank Trina Sellers who was unable to continue providing the printing after a few years of doing so and, after a month hosted by Tony Gray, Helena Lawani of Greenprint volunteered to do the printing in the early summer and typesets and produces the Newsletter in a very professional manner. Well, she would wouldn’t she? Helena’s an expert! Nobody would get the Newsletter if it wasn’t for the team of Ladies and Gentlemen who brave all weathers, all extra pages, all fierce letter boxes, all slippery paths, all barking dogs, all instructions from the Editor – we could go on but we won’t – who deliver it to every house in the Village! Many thanks to them from the Village as a whole for this support.

• Once again on behalf of the Village, let us say " thank you" to the various Village organisations that provide interest, support and services to the community. There is no reason for anyone in Brookwood of any age to be a lonely forgotten person when we have the youth organisations, the Church, the WI, the Art Group, the Autumn Club and many other Groups offering contact and enjoyable activities. All these are staffed by people who care for what they do and put many hours outside the meeting times to make sure that you, we, us can enjoy our leisure time. So if you are one of these or you support them with cake making, raffle ticket purchases, jumble donations or having your car washed, pat yourself on the back!

Brookwood School’s Christmas entertainment is a musical "Blast Off"

and will be given on the afternoon and evening of 13th and afternoon only on 14^th December. Parents will receive details from School and the Autumn Club will have an invitation as usual for afternoon of the 13^th.

Term ends at 2.00 pm on 20^th December and recommences on Monday 7^th January 2002 – don’t be late!

Basingstoke Canal News. The Brookwood pound is to be dredged in the New Year to improve water levels. It should be completed by end March. Silt dredgings will be spread on to the fields above Lock 14. Permission of the landowners (Woking BC) and tenant farmer has been received and a habitat survey has been carried out by the Wildlife Trust who say there is no flora or fauna to be concerned about in doing so.

Lock 15 began to be "blitzed" before the end of November to get it up to a standard of presentation that will be used as a "benchmark" for all the Locks. A new Ranger (James Emmett) will be starting in December who will be working on the Flight with Peter Munt.

Neighbourhood Watch.

A pedal cycle was taken from front garden in Manor Crescent overnight 30/31 Oct. Remember to lock your cycles!

In Early November, someone posing as a utility official got into and robbed a house in Connaught Road. Described as being a white middle aged man with a local accent if anyone has any information let the Police know. Always be wary of unexpected doorstep callers, i.e. roofers, tarmac layers, broken down motorists claiming to need water etc or anyone trying some excuse to get into your house. Always check for ID by insisting on seeing a card with a photo and a telephone number etc. and if you are still doubtful, shut the door while you call the utility concerned and if that doesn’t help call the Police anyway!

Overnight 11/12 November windows were broken at the front of a house in Connaught Road, nobody seen unless you did! Call the Police if you know anything about it..

BVA’s ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING attracted 36 residents and supporters including Mark Pritchard, our local Councillor and Elizabeth Compton, our County Councillor. Happily, some new blood was forthcoming and the new Committee, including re-elected members is:

Chairman: Nick Swain, Vice-Chairman: Neil Thomas, Treasurer: Frank McEvoy, Secretary: Pauline Lock

with Mark Craven, David Minns, Peter Whicher, Andrea Zing, Judith Johnson, Nisha Patel, Varsha Patel and Gill Mapstone.

Mark Pritchard updated everybody on the status of the various matters that have been concerning the Village ranging from the imbecilic road works at each end of Connaught Road, dropped kerbs, telecom masts and other longer-term development plans in the area, to the unwanted Astrological Clock for which he is leading the objections!

Our Councillor stressed the importance of his having the "corporate" views of the Village to strengthen his work in the Council. If ever more proof was needed that the Village must have a residents association, it became clear that this is so at the AGM. It is important that residents contact BVA whenever they have a problem involving WBC or SCC or of general interest to the Village so that timely action can be taken as necessary.

Mac Fryatt would like some additional volunteers to deliver the Newsletter each month. We have two or three very kind-hearted people who do well over 60 copies of every issue and that’s a lot, especially if there is a second sheet to be dealt with! A couple of extra pairs of hands and feet in Connaught Road East, another helper in Heath Drive and one in Connaught Road West would help cut the rounds down to about 35 copies each. No experience required, suit persons with outdoor yearnings, applicants must be numerate (to follow the house numbers) and enjoy doing something in the community for free! No forms to fill in, no references required, just call Mac on 473246 and you’re in!!

STARS IN YOUR EYES?! Pirbright Players are auditioning for their June 2002 production of "Wind in the Willows". Auditions for children over 8 years of age and adults will be held at Lord Pirbright’s Hall on Monday 7^th and Wednesday 9th January at 7.30 pm – children will be auditioned first. First rehearsal will be on 4^th February and the performances will be in Jubilee week – details to be announced. YOUR CHANCE TO ACHIEVE FAME!!