October 2001
Congratulations to Flamstead who were the overall winners of this year’s competition.
Congratulations to Chipperfield too! We won the Younger People Category and will receive a plaque and cheque for £50. Special thanks to the team from the Youth Club for their winning contribution in our presentation to the judges.
We may not have won the overall prize this year but the wonderful support and co-operation from all who took part made the effort well worth while. And there’s always next year.
SPORTING DACORUM
Football and cricket in Chipperfield are featured on two panels in the Dacorum Heritage Trust’s current major touring exhibition. The exhibition illustrates both past and present local sports clubs and sporting individuals and can be seen at Berkhamsted Civic Centre from 2 - 6 October and the Pavilion, Hemel Hempstead from 8 - 13 October. The exhibition is open daily from 10.OOam to 5.OOpm and admission is free.
GOLDEN WEDDING
Congratulations to Jim and Daphne Pritchard, who celebrate their Golden Wedding on 20 October. Daphne (née White) lived in Vicarage Lane, Kings Langley, until they were married in 1951. After the wedding they made their home at Tuffs Farm (where Jim was born) and have lived there all their married life. Love and best wishes from Roger, Myra, Tracey & Julia Pritchard, and Marian, John & Rebecca Sparrow.
CHILTERN OPEN AIR MUSEUM Chalfont St. Giles
The museum remains open daily from 10.OOam to 5.OOpm until 28 October. The last two events in this season’s Historical Highlights take place on Saturday 6 and Sunday 7, with an opportunity to Meet the Romans and on Saturday 13 and Sunday 14 when the Hawk and Owl Trust are holding an Owl Weekend.
Admission charge: £5.50 (adults); £3 (children 5-16, under 5s free); £15 family (2A+2C). For more details phone 01494 871117 or 24-hour information line 01494 872163.
STOLEN DOG
Residents will have seen notices displayed in the village recently with details of a Springer Spaniel which was stolen from the car park outside Ley Hill Memorial Hall. Fortunately the dog has been found and has been returned to its owners. It seems that there are some unscrupulous people about who steal dogs and keep them until a reward is offered for their return. Who knows what happens to them if a reward is not offered?
Dog-owners in the village should be aware of this heartless practice and take extra care if they leave their dogs outside shops or leave them in an unlocked car for any length of time.
THE THIRD MILLENNIUM FOR CARE IN CHIPPERFIELD
A telephone call taken recently by a duty officer for Chipperfield Care was the 3000th received in the relatively short life of this voluntary good neighbour scheme run by and for Chipperfield people. Started in 1988, we aim to provide practical help to people, young and old, who may have difficulty coping and for all those in a time of crisis or emergency. The extent of our service is determined by one factor - if we can find a volunteer prepared to meet a specific request, then the service will be provided.
As one might expect, elderly people in the village are the principal users of the services of Chipperfield Care, particularly for transport to doctors’ surgeries and for regular hospital visits. However, we are available to help residents of all ages.
You may know of someone who lives near you who needs the kind of help we can meet or be aware of new residents in the village who might not know of this service or who might wish to volunteer as a driver or to help in some other way. To volunteer, please call our organiser on 01923 269882.
To make contact for assistance you should phone 01923 264700. You will hear a message which gives the telephone number of the volunteer duty officer for that day, who is available Monday to Friday between 9.OOam and 4.OOpm to take calls. (Services are not restricted to these hours). The duty officer will seek to find a volunteer to carry out your request and it helps greatly if you can give us at least two days notice. Where transport is involved a small charge is made, for example £1.25 for the return journey to a doctor’s surgery in Bovingdon or Kings Langley. Donald Main
BETTY HEALING CHILDHOOD MEMORIES
Betty Healing, who died on July 3rd, was most helpful when I was drawing up plans at the outset of the project “Chipperfield Within Living Memory”. I had recalled that in 1990 she had written an article about her childhood memories in the Chess Valley and from that I sensed that she would be a helpful person with whom to chat and mull over ideas. As a tribute to Betty, I have selected just a few edited excerpts from her own story: I was born and brought up in a beautiful but remote part of the Chess Valley in the early
nineteen twenties. On one side was Sarratt and on the other was Chenies. I lived on a small farm with my parents in Sarratt Vale. Altogether there were eight families living in the valley. There were two farms and the larger one was farmed by Mr. Saunders. This area was called the Bottom. Two lanes led up to Sarratt called the Top; one was Moor Lane and the other was Dawes Lane. There was no vehicle access to Chenies other than by pony and trap going through the river at the Splash or by bicycle over the only footbridge.
I came from an old Chenies family and at that time there were four generations living in the village and so I spent most of my time on that side of the valley.
Our cottage, two up and two down with an outside loo, had an old fashioned grate with a boiler on one side, an oven on the other and in front a swinging thvet on which the kettle stood. My mother knew only too well how to black-lead a grate. There was no electricity in the valley, only gas. For lighting, we had an oil lamp, then we progressed to a shiny, chrome Aladdin lamp, which burnt pink paraffin.
My mother helped my auntie and uncle on their smallholding. She was good at milking cows but not so my father. I used to feed the chickens and collect the eggs but I viewed the pigs from afar. Mother loved to have young lambs indoors and fed them with a bottle in front of the fire. We always had fresh warm milk straight from the cow on our breakfast cereal, called Force. This was all before the days of pasteurisation and T.T. testing. Butter making was a tedious job. Auntie sat for hours with a churn on her lap turning the handle until the cream was ready for making butter. Sometimes it wouldn’t “turn” at all.
I attended Chenies School as did my father and grandfather. To get to school, I had a two mile walk over the moor by Mount Wood and along the lane, after crossing the river to the three step field. This was a short cut to Chenies Common, avoiding Holloway Hill, which is very steep. From the top of the field, I could see my mother waiting on the moor to see me. Winter months were very tiring for tiny feet, when the snow lay deep crisp and even. We wore macs and wellies or sometimes gaiters that had to be done up with a button hook and usually pinched our legs.
Our teacher Mrs. Life lived in a house adjoining the school. She was affectionately known as Guv’ness. She did so many things to make our schooldays happy, probably drying my wet clothes around the old classroom boiler and doing jacket potatoes for lunch. The school caretaker used to bring windfall apples and somehow we baked these as well. In the summer, our desks were put outside in an open fronted shelter. Before Easter, Guv’ness dyed hard-boiled eggs pink and her husband used to hide them in the hedgerows for us to find.
When one day, during the summer term, the needlework inspector arrived in her car which was so thick with dust you could write your name in it, I couldn’t resist the temptation! A few days later, I was called out in front of the class by the school governor, who was also the village overseer, and needless to say I ended up in the corner!
The day I acquired a bicycle was a turning point for me, albeit an old black contraption of the “sit up and beg” type with one brake on the front wheel. Pushing it up Holloway Hill was compensated for by riding it down again. Whitehill School for Girls was the venue for the rest of my education, except for one term. If I missed the coach from Chenies, I had to cycle all the way to Chesham. I had violin lessons after school and then had to travel back to Chenies by public transport. The problem then arose when I had to travel back home with my violin case balanced on the handlebars.
When I took part in a music festival at Berkhamsted, I was given a much treasured badge of St. Cecilia, goddess of music.
Little did I know that Chipperfield would become my home. In 1937, my father and Mr. Stockley decided to buy a plot of land in Chipperfield and each started his own smallholding. Two bungalows were built and we were ready to go. (Mr. Stockley’s bungalow was at the end of what is now New Road) Mr. Stockley already had chickens and so the henhouses had to be taken down. I was volunteered to help with his wife who was given to fits of laughter! Suddenly, seeing the funny side of things, she dropped the part she was holding and it wasn’t the sound of cackling hens that came from the inside the henhouse! The chickens were crated and transported in a motorbike and sidecar and I made the last journey on my old bike. A new life was to begin in Chipperfield with all mod-cons, water on tap and a bus at the end of the road.
NATURES UPS AND DOWNS
The first chill winds of autumn greeted me this morning as I went around the sheep. Where has the summer gone? As I walked under the apple trees a Speckled Wood butterfly fluttered up from a rotten apple that it was feeding on and I suddenly realised how few butterflies we have seen in the garden this year. I do spray some of the nettles in the garden, we would be on huge nettle bed if I didn’t, but I always leave some in the middle of the sheep run in the sunshine for the Peacocks and the Small Tortoiseshells, and some in a sunny sheltered spot by a tall hedge for the Commas. I only saw one lot of black shiny Peacock caterpillars in the sheep run and no Comma
caterpillars at all. It does seem to have been a good
year for nettles though, they have popped up
everywhere! The Comma caterpillars take
a bit of spotting as they are camouflaged to look like a bird dropping. When small they are dark brown and crusty with white patches, but as they grow they become spiny and tan coloured, with a splash of pure white down most of
the back.
It has not just been a lack of caterpillars, the Buddleias have had very few butterflies feeding on them: no Painted Ladies, one or two Red Admirals, hardly a Small Tortoiseshell, mostly Meadow Browns and a few Peacocks. On the plus side we did see a couple of Marbled Whites early on, a more common butterfly in the south west than around here. It has been nice to see so many Swallows at the farm this year. Five pairs nested in the barns, the most for quite a few years. We were afraid that they would stop coming at all after a couple of years when only one pair arrived! They have all managed two broods and two pairs are trying to raise a third but I am afraid they may run out of time before their long flight back to South Africa.
Nature always has its ups and downs, one sort of conditions suiting some more than others. I think that’s what makes life so interesting! Wendy Bathurst
CHIPPERFIELD ART GROUP
We held our Annual Exhibition over the August Bank Holiday and to our great relief it was quite successful. As some of you may know, due to falling membership and the expense of speakers, we have re-organised on an “exhibition only” basis inviting, through the press, local artists to become members with this object in mind. Consequently, we had no idea how many pictures would be submitted or indeed if any would turn up at all! As it turned out we did get some new exhibiting members and due to the hard work and ingenuity of all concerned the works were very well displayed. Our special thanks to Norman Wildman for all his help preparing the exhibition boards. Financially, the August show has ensured that we can put on another show next year. Two of our members deserve particular mention - Betty Lambert, who exhibited her beautiful flower studies and Ric Seliwood who showed local scenes and views of cricket matches. Both artists sold well and their works were much admired.
Many thanks to all those who visited our exhibition. Your support is greatly
appreciated. Joan Seliwood
CHIPPERFIELD TENNIS CLUB ANNUAL TOURNAMENT
Ruth Dicker reports
Once again the competition was keen at
our annual event. Unfortunately the sun
wasn’t particularly obliging but
nevertheless a lot of fun was had by all participants and spectators.
Congratulations go to:
Under 13s
Runners-up:
Callum Weir & Patrick Cousins
Winners:
Charles Saunders & Jonathan Lock
Under 16s
Runners-up:
Thomas McGrath & Craig O’Toole
Winners:
Andrew Lock & Thomas Goldie
Women’s
Runners-up:
Anne Sanders & Kath Weir
Winners:
Ann Lock & Karen Mclnerney
Men’s
Runners-up:
John Baxter & Steve Webb
Winners:
Martyn Dicker & Chris Panayi
HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY
I always try to spike my lawn in the autumn and for years have made do with an ordinary garden fork. However, these are not ideal and really one should use a purpose made hollow-tined fork to do the job properly. I spotted one in a local garden centre recently and decided to treat myself. Anxious to try it out I couldn’t find a single spot on the lawn where I could get the thing to penetrate my heavy clay but hopefully after a few days of autumn rain the ground will soften up enough to allow me to get stuck in with it. Then I will brush in some sand to try to help lighten the soil a bit to help improve the conditions for next year.
So although the nights are drawing in that doesn’t mean that it’s the end of the gardening year - far from it - now is the time to be preparing for next season, and apart from the lawn I shall be looking at ideas for the rest of the garden too. I’ll be digging in some manure soon on the vegetable patch and leaving the ground rough so that the frosts can break it down although I’m trying some green manure as well this year. I sowed grazing rye on one section of the plot a few weeks ago and this will hopefully keep the weeds at bay over the winter before being dug in during the spring.
Meanwhile my dahlias continue to flourish and hopefully will continue to do so until the first hard frosts. In fact I can’t remember a season when they have done so well with some of the plants being well above head height, and, as I’m over six feet tall, that is
pretty high! John Hopkins
ARTHUR HENRY YOUNG
13 March 1908 - 2 May 2001
Arthur Young passed away peacefully at Felden Croft Nursing Home on 2 May aged 93 years.
Originally from Tonbridge Wells, Kent, Arthur and his wife Florrie lived in Chipperfield for many years and loved the village. They were married for 58 years. Florrie died at home in July 1993, having been lovingly cared for by Arthur through a long illness. Arthur lived at Honeywood, The Common until early 1997 when he moved to Felden Croft.
Arthur was a keen golfer and played at West Herts into his eighties. As a teenager he was offered a trial by Manchester United but on the advice of his mother learned a trade instead. As a result Arthur became a highly skilled carpenter before working his way to the position of General Manager with Rush & Tomkins.
Both Arthur and Florrie were keen gardeners and the small garden at Honeywood was a delight. They participated in the popular open garden days alongside the Swan House, Burford House and Mahogany Hall. They also loved to support Chipperfield Cricket Club and could be seen regularly watching the game from their favourite spot, accompanied by their little dog Penny.
Florrie’s “end-of-season presentation nights” were a highlight of each year and not to be forgotten by those present. The trophies were often prized carvings of birds, the result of many hours work by Arthur. He was very talented at carving and exhibited at several local shows.
A service was held for Arthur at West Herts Crematorium on 14 May and his ashes will be placed in Florrie’s grave in St. Paul’s churchyard. He will be remembered with great
affection by all who knew him. Shirley Hoy
ROUND THE WORLD ON A SOFA
Roll up your flying carpet, turn off that box in the corner, sit comfortably on your sofa and meet the world.
In universities and colleges across the UK there are thousands of international students who would love to meet some of the inhabitants of these islands and chat about the differences in our culture and lifestyles, as well as discover points of contact.
HOST, a well-established national charity founded by the British Council and the Foreign Office, is seeking volunteers to welcome one or two students into their homes for a weekend or over the Christmas period. Such an experience would stand out in their memories of Britain and may change their perceptions of this country for ever.
For more details call the HOST Regional Organiser, Trina Golland on 01707 642091 or send an email to richard.golland @ virgin.net
You can also visit their website at www.hostuk.org
POPPY APPEAL
This year the Royal British Legion celebrates its 80th year on active service and the need for the Poppy Appeal remains as strong as ever. In its first year, 1921, the Appeal raised £106,000. Last year, with your help the total exceeded £20 million.
Residential and convalescent homes care for ex-service men and women who are no longer able to care for themselves. Each year over 600 holidays are provided for the severely disabled and the Appeal allows for grants to be made to over 5000 permanently incapacitated people and widows.
The Legion is also the largest private employer of disabled people in the UK. This includes the Poppy Factory where over 35 million poppies are made each year.
A nationwide network of support operates through over 3000 Legion Branches and involves over 20,000 volunteers. Special attention is given to the long-term sick and the housebound. Service men and women are there to defend us and our freedom. They are young people and always have been, usually under the age of 30. When they are called on to fight, and if necessary die, they will. Many have to bear the effects of service in later life and it is for them that the Poppy Appeal exists. Please give as much as you can afford to enable the Legion to help those who have given so much.
Patrick Gardiner
Secretary, Royal British Legion Chippetfield Branch
(Registered Charity No. 219279)