October 2003
The Chipperfield Horticultural Society’s Autumn Show was truly fantastic! The Village Hall was a picture, full to overflowing with the most wonderful exhibits. After our hot dry summer, we did wonder what the entries would be like, but this show was the best we have had for many years and congratulations should go to all the exhibitors. All sections were a delight and drew many admiring looks. The standard was higher than ever and reflected the endless patience and hard work needed to produce such outstanding exhibits.
We welcomed a number of new members to this show and look forward to seeing them exhibit next year, as they all said how much they had enjoyed themselves. If you would like to come along next year and enter the shows, please do. There are plenty of people who are happy to lend a hand and help with any questions you would like answered. If, however, you would just like to come along after the judging has taken place, you can enjoy a cup of tea and a gorgeous piece of cake, take part in the raffle and buy the prize-winning produce at auction.
The Society’s trophies were awarded as follows:
The Silver Rose Bowl for the Autumn Show Champion with most points awarded for vegetables, fruit and flowers went to Frank Venables, who also won the G.A.Usher Challenge Bowl for the best autumn flowers. Mike Leon won the W.Bates Cup as Autumn Show Runner-Up and the Timberlake Cup for the best onions in the show. The H.Butcher Cup, for chrysanthemums, was won by Ron Atkins who was also awarded the National Chrysanthemum Society’s Medal for his blooms. Jeff Norwood won the National Dahlia Society’s Medal for the best exhibit. The Peter Franz Cup, for the most points in the Domestic Section in all shows this year, was awarded to Mrs. S.Jones and Mrs Ann Rees won the C.P.Brousson Challenge Trophy for the most points in the Floral Art Section this year. Leigh Tyler retained the Junior Challenge Trophy as Junior Champion with the most points from all three shows. Ann Soanes
THE VILLAGE CLUB
Progress is continuing apace with the plans for the old village club.
It has been decided to give the club a new name that reflects the fact the building was given to the village by the Blackwell family. Consequently it has been agreed to call it
Blackwell’s : The Village Club.
Among many fund-raising initiatives, one will be a village golf day which is being organised at a local course to be held on Thursday 6 November. This promises to be a memorable day with significant numbers expected from the village. So please lend your support and come along. For further details contact Peter Tydeman on 01923 261662.
As a further fund-raising initiative to help support the club’s refurbishment, the Working Party are pleased to announce that a New Year’s Party will be held at Blackwell’s: the Village Club on Wednesday 31 December. Tickets will be available from 1 November - book early to avoid disappointment! (for details see box). Further progress will be reported in future editions of Chipperfield News and a new notice board is being erected outside the Club which will also pass on news. The Working Party would be pleased to hear from anyone willing to contribute their time to the project. Contact Steve Foskett on 01442 833684. Peter Jackson
CHIPPERFIELD TENNIS CLUB
Our annual Doubles Tournament was held at the beginning of September. Once again great fun and competition was had by the 100 or so members who took part. The weekend was rounded off with a barbecue which provided the ideal opportunity to discuss the highs and lows of the matches played. Congratulations to: Caroline Dowd and Charlotte Dowd, winners of the Ladies’ Doubles and to Sheila Simpson and Pat Baylis, the Runners-up; to Grant Witeat and Peter Thomas, winners of the Men’s Doubles and Lyle Rainey and Peter Hill, the Runners-up. The Teenage Doubles was won by Jonathan Locke and Charles Saunders, with Callum Weir and William Fraser as Runners-up. Ben Hug and Jack Foskett won the Junior match with James Sanders and Matthew Barton as Runners-up and the Girls’ Doubles winners were Lizzie Melhuish and Chloe Brown with Edith Bond and Emily Thomas as Runners-up.
Ruth Dicker
YOUR GARDEN IN OCTOBER
We have had a magnificent summer but it’s time now to get busy in the garden again. Lawns will soon green up once they have had some rain but it’s important to rake and scarify them and they should be aerated too, using a garden fork or a specially designed aerator. Feeding the grass with an autumn lawn fertilizer is essential so that the winter does no further harm to the lawn. Once the ground is moist enough, but before it gets saturated with the effects of the autumn rain, the vegetable garden should be dug and the borders turned over. Main crop potatoes, if not already dug, should be lifted and stored, and tender perennials such as large-flowered fuchsias, dahlias and pelargoniums should be lifted and put inside safe from the frost. Dahlia tubers should be dusted with sulphur powder to prevent rot. Cuttings of geraniums can be taken soon and in the vegetable garden the early onion sets can be planted.
Now is the time to start planting the winter-flowering bedding plants such as pansies, polyanthus and primroses. Tubs, containers and hanging baskets can be planted with bedding plants, trailing ivies, small conifers, grasses and the half-hardy cyclamen. The grey-leaved cineraria maritima helps set off bedding schemes too. Spring-flowering bedding plants such as wallflowers, sweet williams, forget-me-nots and Canterbury bells can also be planted now. October is a good month to plant bulbs in the garden. There are many varieties of daffodils, tulips, hyacinths, crocus and a host of less usual bulbs in the garden centre at the moment. When planting bulbs in the garden, the soil can be improved by mixing in a multi-purpose compost. Bulb fibre is a special compost used when growing bulbs in bowls for the house. Hyacinths can be used both indoors and in the garden; if prepared bulbs are used, flowering can be speeded up so that they can produce a display inside around Christmas time.
It is a good time now to cut back those border perennials which have started to die back but the penstemons are best left untouched until next spring. Some of the perennials should still be in flower now – asters (Michaelmas daisies), rudbeckias, solidago (golden rod) and Nerine Bowdenii. There will be a host of shrubs and trees with fruits and berries at this time – cotoneaster, pyracantha, callicarpa, malus (crab apple) and the specie roses with their ‘hips’. October is the month for autumn colour. Just look at the acers, amelanchier, cotinus, rhus, parthenocissus (virginia creeper), liquidambar and the spectacular euonymus elatus with its vivid crimson autumn foliage. Quite breathtaking! Terry Simmonds
LOCAL GIFT SHOP
Special Occasions, High Street, Kings Langley, celebrated its first birthday during August. As a new gift shop in the area, it appears to have become very popular with its wide range of gifts at reasonable prices. Preparations are now under way to receive the Christmas ranges which will be arriving soon. For those who are not familiar with the shop, the management is offering a Neuhaus praline to anyone who mentions this article when visiting during October.
THURSDAY LUNCH CLUB
If you are over 60 and would like to enjoy a hot lunch in good company once a week, why not come along to the Parish Room on Thursdays from 12noon to 1.00pm? The meal costs £1.60 and is followed by tea or coffee. Please phone Mary West on 01923 260688 if you would like to give it a try. Transport can be arranged to collect you and take you home if necessary.
AIRCRAFT NOISE
A resident who has recently returned to the village after several years absence has contacted the Parish Council about his concern with the increase in the noise level and frequency of aircraft flying over the area. The Parish Council have undertaken to contact the various agencies who monitor noise pollution, but before it does so I should be pleased to hear from any other residents who are aware of increased aircraft noise and may be troubled by it.
Liz Holliday (01923 267483) Chairman, Parish Council
THE ROYAL BRITISH LEGION POPPY APPEAL
The Royal British Legion was founded in 1921 to help needy ex-Servicemen and women financially and to restore self-respect by providing employment. Over 80 years later these principles still hold true. The RBL carries out more, and a much wider, range of charitable work than ever before, available to all sections of the ex-Service community –young and old – and their dependents who are in need.
The Pension Department deals with over 13,500 new war pension claims each year, and has a team of trained officers who represent claimants at over 3,600 war pension Tribunals each year. In any one year they obtain over £14 million in pensions and allowances for claimants, including war widows. Through its welfare work, the Legion looks after the needs of ex-Service men and their families, helping the long-term sick in times of need with grants and maintaining the Legion’s three convalescent homes. The Legion also runs seven residential homes for those in need of permanent care.
Resettlement training has always been a priority for the Legion. Each year, thousands of ex-Service personnel attend training courses at the Legion’s colleges at Ellesmere Port and Tidworth. The Legion is a major employer of disabled ex-Service men and women and runs courses for disabled personnel from anywhere in the UK to help overcome or diminish their disabilities.
The work of the RBL is funded through the annual Poppy Appeal with collections taking place during the first fortnight in November. I do hope that you will continue to give as generously as you have done in the past when the village ‘poppy ladies’ knock on your door once more.
Remembrance Sunday is on 9 November and there will be a short service at the War Memorial on the Common at 10.55am, followed by the Remembrance Service in St Pauls Church.
Patrick Gardiner Secretary, Royal British Legion
THINGS THAT GO BAA IN THE NIGHT
I have been keeping sheep or goats penned in the garden with electric fencing for more than ten years now and it has always worked well. From the wild flower management point of view it is perfect as it allows me to make odd shaped pens avoiding emerging bulbs, orchids and yellow meadow vetchling etc. The sheep don’t really like to graze the same patch for more than a week, so they can be moved on without munching anything I don’t want them to. On the downside I have caught a Muntjac in it a couple of times, and the big battery that runs it has to be lugged up and down the garden for charging.
Although it only gives a "tickle" if your hands are dry, animals normally touch it with wet noses and get more of a jolt and so are very respectful of it. Until a couple of weeks ago that is!
At five am on one of the hottest nights of the summer having finally got to sleep, I was awoken by baaing, from the wrong part of the garden! I was soon up and dressed. Three sheep were making their way to the pond while eight others were trying to decide if they were brave enough to jump over the knocked down fencing. Every morning I give the sheep a small bowl of their favourite cereal mix so that they always come to the bowl. Its much easier if the sheep chase you than the other way round! I shook my bowl and the three escapees came running. I grabbed the fence with my slightly sweaty hand to let them back in assuming that the battery had gone flat. Wow! It’s a bit more than a tickle when your hands are damp. To my amazement one of the young ram lambs that was out just pushed back in while the other two waited nervously for me to switch off. They all had their breakfast while I put the fence back up. Then the ram lamb just pushed his way out again! I was horrified. All I could do was put up new fencing and move them all to my last patch of green grass. With all the dry weather and hot sun most of the grass was drying to a crisp, except one patch in the shade which is very wet in winter. After moving them I had a long hard look at the lambs. They were as big as their mothers and in very good condition, but with no grass growing because of the dry weather they would probably lose condition from now on. Time for troublesome lambs to go. I went back to bed at seven o’clock. Later that morning I phoned the slaughterhouse and explained that I had a lamb that wasn’t frightened of electric fencing any more. "Oh you get one like that every ten years or so" said the voice at the other end, "bring um tomorrow" So off they went, a month earlier than usual, so we are back to four sedate ewes and a dozy old ram, and a bit longer in bed in the morning. I must thank our son John who has been typing and e-mailing these notes for some years. He is off to Exeter university now, so pity the poor editors struggling with my poor handwriting for future articles. Wendy Bathurst
CREATIVE CUISINE
Many of you may have read about Creative Cuisine earlier in the Year. For those who missed the article here is a brief history of the company.
Creative Cuisine is run by a professional and qualified chef, based in Kings Langley. It caters for all types of events including, weddings, celebration parties, holy communions, funerals, anniversaries, dinner parties, family and friend celebrations and even a freezer fill service for all your weekly meals. The previous article was so successful that the summer months have been non stop with one party or another, whether it be a wedding for 180 people or a lunch party for 12. So if you think you need to get the caterers in, especially with Christmas looming, Creative Cuisine would love to take your call on; 01923 264636 or 07831 522555 or E-mail creativecuisine@btinternet.com.
THE VILLAGE HALL
The refurbished Village Hall will have opened for the autumn season by the time you read this. We are grateful to all the contractors, our caretaker and all those who made this possible. Our thanks also to the providers of finance, namely The Community Fund, Eastern Region; The Chipperfield Parish Council; Dacorum Borough Council; Herts Community Foundation; Dacorum Community Trust; The Parish Church and St. Paul’s School. They contributed two thirds of the total project cost of £60K; the balance is being financed by the Village Hall itself. This now sets us on the road to market our facilities to other users, inside and outside the village. The current users take up roughly 70% of total capacity and we are most grateful for that support by regular users over the years. Anyone who wishes to view the new facilities are very welcome to do so by contacting our Caretaker, Moreen Wheeler, on 01923 264903. Also, regular users may well have other organisations they could suggest we contact. Such ideas would be greatly appreciated. We have issued a " Wedding List " of requirements to our users and friends, to indicate the priority of items still needed. Any person or organisation who wish to make a contribution should contact me or Graham Breen.
Finally, may I remind readers that the large shed, previously used by the Horticultural Society, is now available for rent and anyone interested should contact me.
R.A.Edwards.(01923 262549). Chairman, The Village Hall Committee