March 2000
With this copy of the Chipperfield News all residents of Chipperfield Administrative Parish should receive a short questionnaire. This seeks everyone’s views on the key things which go to make up the village character, what helps to enhance it and what detracts from its attractiveness as a place to be.
As mentioned in last month’s issue, the questionnaire is the first stage in putting together a group of guidelines to be adopted by Dacorum Borough Council as enforceable guidelines for any future development of Chipperfield. For this to happen, it is most important that any ideas put forward are the result of considering the views of the residents in a large part of the village. The members of the Village Design Statement Team do urge you to spend a few moments to complete the questionnaire and return it to one of the boxes provided at the Chipperfield Larder or the Post Office Stores.
We plan to provide a summary of the results as part of the Workshop to be held in the Village Hall on Saturday 15 April, which starts at 9.3Oam. We do urge you to take part in this. It should be both interesting and fun, with teams going out with cameras to take pictures of those features in the village they appreciate and those they don’t. After rapid processing, the prints will be available for display and discussion, after which a summary of the key points will be shared and then used to prepare a report. This report will be the basis of proposed new Supplementary Guidance for the planners.
The more hands to work in helping at the Workshop and in drawing up the plan the better! If you are interested in helping or would like to find out more, please give me a ring. David Nobbs
Chairman of the Parish Council (01923 269480)
BT CABLE WORKS IN THE VILLAGE
Essential engineering work to repair and improve underground telephone cables will be taking place in The Street, Chapel Croft, Chipperfield Road and Langley Road until 3 April. There will be temporary traffic lights in use to control traffic flow safely round the works. The engineers doing the work for BT, Barhale Construction Plc, will have a site office and equipment store on the cricket car park throughout this period. The site will be staffed throughout the day and a watchman will be on duty overnight. If you have any problems or comments about the work while it is in progress, Barhale have a Freephone Helpline on 0800 243186.
POLICE WARNING
If you receive a telephone call from an individual who identifies himself as an AT&T Service Technician conducting a test on that telephone line or from anyone else who asks you to do the following - DON’T! They will state that in order to complete the test you should press nine, zero, the hash (90#) and then hang up. If you do this it gives them full access to your phone line allowing them to make LONG DISTANCE, INTERNATIONAL or CHAT LINE calls billed to your account. Remember DO NOT PRESS 90# for anyone - it could cost you a lot of money.
DON’T STAMP OUT OUR POST OFFICE!
Our village Post Office is under threat from proposed government changes in the way in which state benefits are paid. This will have a far-reaching effect on hundreds of towns and villages.
The Western Daily Press has launched a campaign to keep our post offices and is backed by support from the National Federation of Sub-Postmasters. If you wish to join the fight, please sign the petition when you next visit the village Post Office. The petition will be sent to the Prime Minister.
GLADYS’ NEXT JAUNT
Gladys Taaffe is busy flexing her boots for another spring walk to raise funds for the Chiltem Open Air Museum.
She will be walking seven and a half miles from Latimer to the Museum in April on a date to be announced. Offers of sponsorship are welcome. Please phone Gladys on 01923 262923.
KEEPING BUSY
A change to my daily routine has seen me taking my morning run around Kings Langley Common after dropping John off for his school bus and before doing my ‘chores’ at my father’s farm. This is quite a different habitat from home, the grass being mown very short on the cricket pitch and the surrounding areas. The harebells that were there when I was a child have long been mown away, but the pied wagtails love it. We only see an occasional one in our garden, but most mornings a flock of approximately twenty are bobbing away on the common busily hunting for insects. They can’t stay still for a moment, their tails keep bobbing even when they are not running along. They always reminded me of vicars, especially in winter when their throat plumage goes from black to white with a black crescent, just like a dog collar on a black shirt! I returned home one morning last week to find I had missed a grey wagtail, the one with the longest tail and pale yellow under parts, that had come to visit our new pond. This probably goes to show that I should spend more time at the kitchen sink, which affords the best view of the pond, but I’m resisting the temptation!
Jake, our Shetland ram, is in my black books at the moment because, true to type, he will keep ramming Molly’s goat hut. In the past he has thumped the back of it, pushing it around the pen, but then he started to attack its sides, finally making it crack. The sheep don’t actually need a hut, in fact the ewes never lie in theirs even if it snows, as their wool is waterproofed by lanolin, but goats are not at all waterproof and hate rain and so must have somewhere dry to lie. A few years ago, I acquired three red fibreglass ‘missile covers’ from the RAF which have made perfect goat huts, light enough to carry around, heavy enough not to blow away, but not, unfortunately, ram proof. Jake had become a little over amorous with Molly and one of my neighbours was beginning to feel sorry for her, so, to protect her hut and give her a little bit of peace and quiet, I made two adjoining pens. All seemed well for a few days but then we returned from church to find that Molly, aged 14 years, had jumped the middle electrified fence and was back in with Jake! You just can’t win sometimes! Wendy Bathurst
HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY
I seem to belong to that very small minority of people who believe that the next millennium doesn’t actually start until 1st January 2001 but, whether we have arrived in the twenty first century or not, I feel that now is not a bad time to review the current state of the society and where it’s going.
But first I should like to say a big thank you to all the committee members and exhibitors who have done so much for the society over the past year. In
particular, I should like to thank Pete Houghton who is standing down this year from the committee
after many years service. We wish Pete all the best and a speedy return to full health. On a personal note I should like to thank Pete for his encouragement and advice to me when I first started exhibiting.
We have certainly come a long way since the society was founded in 1945 and it is thanks to people like Pete who have helped, organised and exhibited over the years that we are now very much part of the village scene. We continue to hold our shows three times a year, we have a large membership and a reasonably healthy bank balance. So, on the face of it, our society is in a pretty healthy state.
However, appearances can be deceptive. Although we have a large membership, very few of those members play an active role in society affairs. Our committee members fall into two categories - the more mature ones have given a lot to the society over the years and deserve to take things a little easier, while the younger ones are very enthusiastic but have other commitments - such as work, family and other interests to compete for their time. We are not alone of course, many local horticultural societies are struggling and some have had to close. Indeed, the horticultural society in one of our neighbouring villages had to cancel their autumn show last year due to lack of support.
Of course the whole concept of gardening has undergone tremendous changes since the society was founded at the end of the Second World War. We live in a world of instant gardens, designer gardens and outside living rooms. People don’t spend a lifetime watching their gardens maturing any more, they get Charlie Dimmock to sort it out in an afternoon. Although people seem to be getting more and more environmentally conscious and attracted to the idea of organically grown food, few seem willing to put in the effort to grow it themselves. Rather than a source of relaxation, the garden is now seen as an investment to add to the saleable value of your property. The local flower show, for many years a traditional part of the village scene, now has to compete with a thousand and one other activities, as we have found to our cost when we find that one of our shows clashes with a major sporting event.
In such a world then, is there a place for such a things as a Horticultural Society and is there a place for village shows? Well I, for one, believe that there is. It is precisely because of today’s rat race that there is more than ever the need for some of the old traditions such as the village flower show, where people can take a break and have a quiet cup of tea and a gossip. We would like to see this continue. If you haven’t been to one before, come along to our Spring Show on April 1st and see what I mean.
So I would like to think that our society can survive to the end of the next century (that’s the one that starts on January 1st 2001), but it will need a lot of support from a lot of people to make it happen. A few years ago a committee member resigned because he felt that he wasn’t contributing enough. My answer to that is that no matter how little you have to offer, that little saves someone else the hassle of doing it. At the moment, we simply don’t have enough committee members any more - sometimes we only just have enough at meetings to comply with the requirements of our own constitution. Similarly, our Saturday morning shop provides a useful service but at the moment we are struggling to find enough volunteers to help us run it. Next year’s schedules are ready for distribution but there aren’t enough people available to deliver them. We are planning to stage an exhibit at the Millennium Village Day but need more pairs of hands to help us run it.
So if you feel you may be able to make a contribution in any of these areas, no matter how small, please give me a ring on 01923 268852. It’s your society.
Bob Taylor
To all our many friends who have sent cards and floral tributes for the funeral of Bob Taylor, we wish to say thank you for so much.
We, as a family, feel very uplifted by your kindness and the many prayers given,
Our love and thanks again to all of you.
Olive Taylor
THOUGHTS FOR LENT
Lent will soon be upon us and this is a time when many people try to give up their indulgence - usually food, though whether this be for the body or the soul is anyone’s guess.
So, try this for Lent - you won’t shrivel up and die! Many reading this lived through the war years with little more and rations then were a great deal better than the poor amounts of food obtained during the 1st World War.
As far as I can remember these were the civilian rations (per person) at the height of the 2nd World War: Per week 2 rashers of bacon, 1 egg, 3-4 oz. margarine or lard, 6 oz. cheese, 1 pint milk, 2 oz. butter, 3/4 lb stewing steak, Per month ‘/4 lb tea, 1 lb sugar or jam. 20 ‘points’ covered tins of steak, Spam, corned beef. pilchards, beans or spaghetti in tomato sauce.
Salads, vegetables and fruit made up the bulk of the diet, but all this had to be home-grown. Only bananas and oranges were imported and then rarely available. Fish wasn’t rationed and consequently queues were long and the fish often red mullet! Offal was also off the ration and landed up in hotels, where meals, at the height of the war, were limited to 5/- (25p). Bread was rationed towards the end, but was generous. Children, expectant mothers and those with debilitating illnesses such as T.B. received extra dairy produce. No convenience foods - macaroni cheese being about the sole supper snack, alternating with spaghetti in tomato.
Those living in the country undoubtedly managed to obtain extra milk, eggs, fish and honey; the odd pheasant fell to the gun and piglets frequently met with unexplained deaths. Old cockerels were soon silenced.
For me, the unpalatable items were powdered milk and eggs, salted beans and eggs pickled in isinglass. Oh yes! and a disgusting thing called a soya sausage. I remember a recipe for marmalade - it was made from a child’s ration of oranges, very little sugar and
swedes! When I was in the Navy things were better. A favourite meal was baked beans on a piece of very fatty fried bread, washed down with a mug of equally fatty ship’s cocoa. These were the days before I acquired a hiatus hernia!
Despite all this, I can never remember feeling actually hungry. We had trim figures and there was no obesity!
A New Phase for Chipperfield Larder
How pleased I am to see The Chipperfield Larder entering a new stage in its eventful life. Thirty years ago when I first came to the area “The Village Stores” was owned by the Hawkins family. One was greeted by David and Val as a friend and one continually met all one’s friends in the shop. The shelves were stocked with everything a village could need and one rarely came away disappointed.
Twenty-four years later it was a great challenge for Sue and Nikolas Bartlett and me to renovate and re-open the shop after it had finally and sadly closed. With Jim McLachlan’s knowledge of the retail trade and Ann Sommerville’s dedication not only to developing the take-away side and gifts section but to the daily organisation of the whole enterprise, the shop went from strength to strength. The enthusiasm of our daughters Catherine and Gemma Bartlett and the many wonderful part-time helpers, suppliers and customers made us many more friends.
Recently I read of the similar rejuvenation of a village shop in Minstead, Hampshire. They said it had become their “Harrods on the doorstep”. I seem to remember our shop being likened to Fortnum & Mason!
Three years ago the ownership of The Larder was transferred to Jim. Now it belongs to two more local people, Annie Green and Angela Panayi. May I wish them every success with The Chipperfield Larder and the continued support of Chipperfield
TEMPTATIONS, TEMPTATIONS
How good are you at resisting them?
Lent is traditionally a time when people remember the 40 days Jesus spent in the wilderness preparing for His ministry. During this time He was alone with God, yet He faced a number of temptations as part of His preparation for what He would have to face in the three years up to His crucifixion. It was, therefore, a crucial time for Jesus, in which He must have faced His past, present and future. We cannot know exactly what He went through during this time, but St Matthew tells us that He fasted ‘for 40 days and 40 nights and that the devil confronted Him with three temptations. These temptations tell us a great deal - not just about Jesus, but about the things that He was likely to be tempted by and yet resisted. They are not so different from the things which sometimes tempt us.
Firstly the devil said to Jesus: If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread. In this the devil tempted Jesus to use His supernatural powers to (a) prove that He was the Son of God and (b) use them to satisfy His own needs, in this case, hunger. Jesus resisted by quoting the Bible at the devil: Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. In doing this Jesus refused to succumb to the temptation to use His power for Himself or to prove to the devil who He was.
Question for us: In what ways do we use the power, authority, responsibilities God gives us to satisfy our own needs?
The second temptation came when the devil took Him to a high place and said to Him:
If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down;for it is written “He will give his angels charge of you In this the devil tempts Jesus again to test His supernatural powers and put Himself at risk of falling to His death. This time Jesus replies: Do not tempt the Lord your God, to show that the devil was wrong in trying to lead Him into temptation.
Question for us: In what ways do we allow ourselves to be tempted or led into wrong ways and then say to God: If You’re really there, get me out of this or Why did You let that happen to me?
The third temptation came when the devil took Jesus to a very high mountain and said to Him: All these kingdoms of the world will I give you, f you will fall down and worship me. Jesus replied: Begone Satan! For it is written: You shall worship the Lord your God and Him only shall you serve. Jesus points to the fact that in the first instance these kingdoms are not the devil’s to give and yet he tries to trick Jesus into accepting a gift and worshipping a lie - that is, the devil.
Question for us: In what ways do we succumb to the seductive powers of a consumer society, which demands that we serve it by acquiring more and more and ultimately leads to more time spent maintaining our lifestyle than with God?
Whatever your particular temptations, the world we live in is full of temptations and lies which the devil would have us believe. If we are to resist the things which he tries to trap us into and which would ultimately harm us we need, like Jesus, to know how to answer him, using - as Jesus did - words from Scripture. Christians are therefore invited to discipline themselves during Lent by putting aside extra time to deepen their relationship with God by learning about Him and spending time with Him. In this way Lent can provide a welcome oasis in the middle of a busy life as we learn again how much we are loved by God and how much He wants the best for us.
This year we will, appropriately, follow five meditations on paintings by Stanley Spencer, in which he depicts Christ in the Wilderness. Unlike previous Lent or Advent courses, these evenings will be non-participative - you won’t have to say anything! We will listen to a talk and follow it with silence and prayer, lasting in all about 45-60 minutes. The first talks in this Monday course will be:
13 March: St Paul’s; 20 March: Sarratt; 27 March:Our Lady’s; 3 April: Baptist Church. Final question: Will you succumb to one of the many temptations to stay away?!
Angela Butler