March 1999
From the Chipperfield Larder
The demand for organic food is increasing and it is now clear that there is a need for a source in Chipperfield. Several of our customers have expressed a wish for organic food locally, and a selection can now be obtained at the Chipperfield Larder, where an area has been devoted exclusively to our new range of products.
We are very happy to hear our customers’ views and ideas for this new venture, and hope to extend the range as required.
WORK ON THE COMMON
Many older Chipperfield residents can remember the days when a good deal of Chipperfield Common was heathland. Unfortunately with the cessation of grazing and wartime neglect, virtually all of this heathland has been lost. However, remnants remain and already the Countryside Management Service can report good success in its attempts to help the heather to regenerate by clearing away scrub and gorse from certain areas of the Common. They are holding a further working party in this area from 10 am to 3.30 pm on Wednesday 24 March and local helpers will be welcome. If you would like to help, the meeting point is at the car park by the cricket pitch at 10.00 am. Please confirm that there has been no late change of date on 01727 848168.
WINTER GARDEN SURPRISES
I should never doubt our son’s good eyesight, but I was rather surprised when he said he had just seen a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker on the peanuts, as they are not nearly as common as their cousins, the Great Spotted. We have seen the odd one or two in the garden over the years, but they are rather shy birds and spend most of their time high in the tree tops; not on peanut feeders. The next day we had just settled down for our elevenses when I glanced across to the peanuts just as the Lesser Spotted arrived on them. I was amazed just how small he was, about the size of a house sparrow, with bright red cap and black and white bars right across his back. We always have binoculars on the coffee table and so we were both able to get really good views of him while he enjoyed the feast of nuts. The Great Spotted is a regular visitor to the nuts and his body is roughly the same size as the feeder but this bird was only a third as tall as the tube. When I have seen them before, they have always been in the tops of trees, and I had not realised just how small they are. This one was definitely a male, with his lovely red cap; the female is white on top. Our son, of course, said, ‘I told you so’ when he returned from school!
A little bit of overnight snow showed us just what had been going on in the garden during the night, and it seems as if our place is a fox’s playground. Amazingly I still have two bantams, but I wonder for how long? All of the lawns were criss-crossed with fox tracks, right up to the terrace, and several had been around the new orchard where the bantams live. There were foxes with big feet and some with small feet, no tussock of grass went unsniffed and no corner unexamined.
My father built our sheep a smart little shed ‘for the cold nights’, but there were six oval patches without snow in the deep run and six sheep with snow on their back when I fed them this morning. Some sheep are just downright ungrateful! Still, they did have a choice, and I suppose half an inch of snow is nothing compared with Shetland conditions.
DACORUM COMMUNITY TRUST
A local charity for local needs
The Dacorum Community Trust is celebrating 24 years of quietly helping people in need in the Borough of Dacorum. Using money raised locally, this Charitable Trust has helped resolve many difficulties. Its work has often to be confidential as it helps individuals as well as organisations. Its funds have enabled children in need to join in school activities, carers to have holidays and people without other means to visit sick relatives to mention but a few. Local people old and young, with disabilities have found the quality of their lives improved after the Trust has helped in the purchase of special equipment such as reclining chairs, special wheelchairs, nebulisers and other medical equipment not provided by the state. Local organisations have also been helped, often at that most critical of times - when they are struggling to get going.
The Trust is directed by a voluntary group representing the geographical area from Chipperfield to Tring and bringing a wide range of skills from medical to commercial to the decision making process. Each application is carefully considered and decisions made as early as possible.
The Trust is building up an endowment fund using money donated by local business, a share in the profits of the Nearly New Shop in the Marlowes, fund raising events such as concerts and the generosity of individuals. With only one part time salaried member of staff and a small office within the DCVS building the Trust keeps its core costs to the minimum. So how can you help your neigbours in Dacorum? You could encourage your firm or school or local organization to contribute or hold an event. You could remember the Trust in your will. You will know that your donation will benefit local people now and in the future.
If you would like to hear more about the work of this local grant making Trust we would like to hear from you on 01442 231396 or at 48 High Street Hemel Hempstead. HPI 3AF. The Dacorum Community Trust is a registered charity no 272759. Wendy Bathurst
1ST CHIPPERFIELD BROWNIE PACK
In September, we welcomed Chloe Bourne, Grace Tydeman, Chloe Brown and Amy Martin. During September/October, 3 members of the Civil Aid kindly ran a six week first aid course and I am happy to say that all 25 members of the Pack passed their badge with flying colours.
In October, 5 of our girls and 6 Brownies from Langleybury teamed up to enter into the Division Brownie Competition in Berkhamsted. This was an afternoon of team games, crafts and quizzes ending in a campfire singing session. The two Packs had not met before, but our team, working extremely hard, won the shield for the most points during the day. We were very proud of our girls as Kings Langley District has not won this competition since 1979!! Well done to Rosemary Cronin, Alice Nolan, Elyse Thompson, Danielle Johnson and Emily Flynn.
During November/December, 11 Brownies worked tirelessly to help with the annual Hollyberry Fair. We also went carol singing in the Harlequin Centre and joined the Carols by Candlelight Service at the Baptist Church; thank you and well done to Rosemary Cronin, Danielle Johnson, Faye Chippendale, Sophie Dicker and Amy Martin for these events. To end the term, the Pack entertained parents and friends with a Christmas Concert of Carols and Readings and we said goodbye to Rosemary Cronin who has since joined Kings Langley Guides. In January, we welcomed Charlotte Barton and visited the Pantomime (Cinderella) which was greatly enjoyed by everyone. In February, we said goodbye to Louise Shaw and welcomed Rebecca Nicholson. We had an evening of making marmalade, thanks to Wyn Fairclough for her help. We also had an evening in which the Brownies all brought in photographs of themselves as babies and everyone had to guess who was who!
Although our Pack is full to bursting at the moment, it’s never too early to put your daughter’s name on our waiting list. The starting age is 7 years old. Also, if you are 18 years or above, have 1 1/2 hours to spare on Tuesdays, and would like to help at meetings, I would be very pleased to hear from you: we can always do with an extra adult!! Please contact Sian Hopkins on 01923 268852.
SCHOOL OF DANCING
For seven years the Chipperfield School of Dancing has held classes at the Baptist Church Hall in Chipperfield. Girls from all areas gather twice a week to work hard towards their dancing examinations and show work, and up until now we have been a very happy school. Unfortunately, with the change of management, there have recently been many disagreements over the letting of the hall and parking arrangements, all of which have been very unsettling for the parents.
We have decided to move our venue so that we can continue to work without any problems, and anyone wishing to join the school will find us at the Social Club, where we will be hiring the back room. The parking will also be a great deal safer for the children. The topic this year is the show to be performed in November with Peter and the Wolf and Coppelia. There are a few places in the school, so if you are interested in joining in the fun, contact Mrs. Gurney on
0181 428 9906.
IS THERE AN ORCHARD ON YOUR DOORSTEP?
In the last 30 years, Hertfordshire has lost about two thirds of its old orchards and local varieties of fruit. The Hertfordshire Orchard Initiative is currently conducting a survey of orchards, both past and present, within the county, seeking to establish how many are still in existence. If you know of an orchard, whether it is still viable or has been cleared, please contact David Curry at the Museum of St Albans on 01727 819340 for a simple survey form, or for further details.
RECENT NEWS ABOUT JOHN PRESTWICH!
For more than 43 years, since contracting polio in America on his 17th birthday, John Prestwich has been totally paralysed below his chin and entirely dependent on a ventilator to keep him alive. As if that wasn’t enough, he has also been unable to move himself independently from A to B - without help he is literally rooted to the spot. But sometime this year he will, hopefully, achieve his ambition to at last become independently mobile. Because of advances in technology and the increased capacity of battery power, a prototype motorised chair/bed is being developed which will give John the means of mobility he is so desperate to have. It would also be a tremendous help to his wife Maggie, who for all these years has been pushing and shoving John and all his respiratory equipment around - a total weight of 31 stone! Surprisingly enough, if John was less disabled, he would have been supplied with a motorised wheelchair, but it would seem that no provision is made for someone with such an extensive disability.
Most of the research and development so far has been done by John and Maggie’s good friend Jarlath Pattinson (who also lives in Scatterdells Lane). Jarlath has also taken it upon himself to try to raise the necessary funds for the project. If there is anyone who would like more details, or who feels that they would like to make a contribution - however small (or large!), do get in touch with Jarlath on 01923 265878.
Thank you!
UNEXPECTED VISITORS
I got up from bed the other morning just after daybreak, put on my dressing gown, went into the kitchen and, as I usually do, while waiting for the kettle to boil, looked through my kitchen window at my garden beyond. I should explain that almost at the end of the garden is a wooden fence, open at both ends with wrought iron double gates in the middle. The actual boundary of the garden at the back is a hedge two or three yards behind the fence. This particular morning there, just in front of the wrought iron gates, was a deer, quite a sutrdy one with horns, a buck I guessed.
I fetched my binoculars and we stood looking at each other for a while, then he passed out of my sight behind a shrubbery to the left, probably starting to nibble at some of my plants. I quite like deer so I thought, ‘Carry on, friend, enjoy yourself, as long as you don’t overdo it’. But as I looked, around the right hand end of the fence appeared cautiously another deer, a slimmer one, a female it seemed. It looked around a bit and then disappeared behind the shrubbery where the first one had gone. ‘Hallo! it must be this mild weather! Sex is rearing its head! It looks as if rutting has started.’
As I said, I like deer. I wouldn’t mind one as a pet, but I don’t want any wild orgies in my garden. I had a vision of looking through the window one morning with the deer population swollen to four, all nibbling away busily at my plants. So I went outside and advanced a few steps towards them. They seemed to take the hint and trotted off round the end of the fence and out of my garden through the hole in the hedge, through which they had doubtless entered. In order to get from the woods where they live they have to cross a couple of fairly busy road and two or three gardens. In a way I hope they come back. I’ve had the odd one in before, but preferably one at a time!
I suppose I could start a small deer park and charge people to come and see them, with the odd tea or ice cream laid on. People keep all sorts of creatures in their gardens (sometimes called private zoos) nowadays. If the kitchen door had been inadvertently left open on a warm summer morning, I think I would prefer to look up from my morning cup of tea and see a young deer peering at me (as long as he wasn’t nibbling at the bedspread) than discover a tarantula or a snake in the bed.
WARTIME EVACUEES IN CHIPPERFIELD
Daisy Hart came in 1941 with her 5 year old son George to stay with her sister in King’s Langley in order to escape the bombing in Essex. She and George then mobed to Chipperfield where, at a crowded meeting of evacuees at the home of Miss Brooks in Megg Lane, Daisy volunteered to take on the job of cook and housekeeper to Miss Maggie Smith, the overworked 60 year old District Nurse, in exchange for free accommodation.
She stayed in the old Nurse’s Cottage in Kings Lane for the next twelve months. They pooled their food rations. Meat was a Sunday treat.
In the summer months of that year Daisy attended musical soirees on three evenings a week at Lavender Cottage in Dunny Lane, where concert pianist Miss McNair would play requested music. George attended a similar function for children, held on the other two weekday evenings. In the following winter Daisy assembled a working party of evacuee mothers at Miss Brooks’ house and 300 soft toys were made for the evacuee children’s Christmas presents.
George attended St Paul’s School in Chipperfield from Easter 1041 until the following Easter, when he and his mother returned hom to Essex, because there was a lull in the bombing.
However, they returned here in July 1944 for about 10 months when London and the Southeast were targeted by flying bombs.
For £15 Daisy bought a wooden hut, measuring 16 feet by 10 feet, which was situated with other pre-war holiday homes in a field at Bucks Hill. From there, George went to school in King’s Langley. One lovely September day in 1944 they watched for about 1 1/2 hours while droves of American planes flew over Chipperfield from Bovingdon Airfield on their way to Arnhem. Daisy and her son finally left Chipperfield just prior to VE Day in 1945 when it was clear that the war in Europe was drawing to a close.
Daisy died in 1997, aged 92, but she visited her sister in King’s Langley right up to her nineties and recalled her fond memories of Chipperfield with great clarity. The Millennium Project to produce a book on ‘Chipperfield within Living Memory’ is making good progress. However, further accounts of the village in the Second World War would be welcome. If the above account inspires you to recall your Chipperfield experiences of that period, please contact Mary Nobhs on 01923 269480.