Shrewton Village WebsiteWelcome to the
Shrewton Village Website.
Funded by Shrewton Parish Council
Last updated 09-May-2008 14:43

Welcome to Shrewton in Wiltshire, UK.  Plainly a great place to live.

CHARITY WALK IN AID OF ARROWHEAD
On Saturday the 10th of May (TOMORROW!), there will be a village charity walk in aid of our very own parish magazine, The Arrowhead. The walk starts at 2pm on 10th of May at the phone box lay-by in Salisbury Road, just along from the Roundhouse and almost opposite Parsons Green. The event - which is open to all comers - is being run by Shrewton WI.

Whilst not exactly the London Marathon (the walk will be 5 miles of roads, backways and countryside, taken at your own pace), it's all in a very good cause. Arrowhead is run entirely by volunteers and is funded by local advertisers and donations - but additional financial help is always very welcome, so let's get walking! Get a printable sponsorship form click HERE.

Best of all, at the end there will be the opportunity to recover the shed calories with a cream tea! If don't fancy the walk, but you DO fancy the cream tea, then just come along to the Methodist Hall from about 3pm onward.

All the proceeds from the walk and the tea will go to Arrowhead - Till Valley's favourite read.

AND... GOT AN HOUR A MONTH TO SPARE?
Can anyone give just an hour and a half a month to help bag up and deliver the parish magazine to the volunteers who deliver it to the door?  Please ring Gay Jennings-Bramly on 620422 if you can help.

SPRING PLANT SALE
Yes, it’s that time again – the annual plant sale at Shrewton Manor, on Saturday 17th May, gates open 10am.  Local greenhouses and windowsills are already filling up with young plants for the sale, which raises funds for the Flower Show.

If you have a garden, or only a window box, this will be the time and place to find a great selection of bedding plants, geraniums, perennials and vegetable seedlings, all grown locally and at very competitive prices to give you a whole summer’s show of colour and food!

There will be coffee and biscuits, and a range of home-made cakes to buy as well, and if the morning is fine, Lady Delacombe’s lovely garden is open to be enjoyed by all who come.

The Horticultural Society would be very grateful for any offers of plants or cakes to sell on the day.  For more information contact Jo Barnes on 620279.

Our coach trip to Hampton Court Flower Show is now a sell-out, but we are planning a trip to Wisley on 20th September.  Please contact Sue Beer on 620007.

KITTING OUT THE GARDEN FOR SUMMER
Wilts County Council has done a good deal with someone and by clicking HERE you can visit their contractor's website and get a large compost bin for just £9 - delivered (including the £1 web ordering discount). These are actually quite a lot bigger than they look in the pictures, the larger one is Dalek size! Once you have ordered, your bin will be dropped off by the next passing recycle collection - usually within one week. You can order as many as you like - as long as delivery is to a Wilts postcode. A gardener's bargain for sure.  

SHREWTON'S SILVER BAND: IN CONCERT 30th May.

SHREWTON SILVER BAND CONCERT with guest soloist STEVEN MEAD. Friday 30th May at 7.30 pm Blackledge Theatre, Godolphin School, Milford Hill, Salisbury

Shrewton Silver Band are joined for this concert by guest soloist Steven Mead -world-famous Euphonium player.

The band will perform a varied and exciting programme of Brass Band favourites, including Film Scores and Traditional Brass Pieces and Steven Mead will perform as guest soloist through the concert. Tickets are available from Cascade Flowers in Amesbury, Jacqui's Sunbed Studio in Winchester St, Salisbury, Clifford's store in Shrewton, or by calling the number below.

Adults -£7.50 per ticket, Children under 16 -£4.00. Group Booking Discounts available.

Light refreshments available on the night.

For further information call 07786 734742

ALAN DUNFORD: We learned with great sadness of the passing of Alan Dunford, Shrewton Band's star cornet player. Our condolences go to Alan's family and to all his friends in the band and elsewhere. A warm tribute to Alan to is to be found on the Silver Band's website.

For further information about the band and/or concerts go to www.shrewtonband.org.uk.

DAY CENTRE SAYS FAREWELL TO ELLA
This month we have been busy with Easter projects. We made beautiful Easter cards and miniature bonnets decorated with silk flowers and ribbon to give to family and friends.

Wiltshire Dancing have been visiting us providing seated dance sessions to get us all moving! This has been most enjoyable and had generated lots of laughter.

On Maundy Thursday, the centre celebrated Easter with a holy communion taken by the Rev. David Collinson. Mrs Pat Eggleton played the organ. A raffle and Easter quiz followed a wonderful lunch. Mike Vincent and Mrs Lily Wilson, our two newest members,  and I cut the superb simnel cake made by Mrs Daphne Affleck. A presentation was made to Mrs Ella Cooper who after 10 years is retiring from helping at the centre. Ella will be greatly missed by all.

We are always looking for volunteers who can spare a morning or afternoon a month to help out at the centre or volunteer drivers. If you are interested and wish to know more, please contact me.

Best wishes

Hazel Burns
Till Valley Day Centre Co-ordinator,
Tel: 620429

OLLIE LONG
Many Shrewton old timers will be saddened to learn that Ollie Long has died at his home in Wales. Ollie was born in Shrewton and loved the village, returning very often to see old friends. A full tribute to Ollie will be published soon in Arrowhead.

SHREWTON SAYS 'GOODBYE HOURIHANS':

Shrewton has said a fond farewell to two people who have been at the heart of village life since they arrived ten years ago to run the Post Office, and local friends threw a surprise farewell party for them. Cleo and Denis Hourihan left last month to join their daughter and her family in Adelaide, South Australia, where they have bought a bungalow for their retirement and applied for Australian citizenship.

The couple moved to Shrewton in 1998 after 30 years in South Africa, and immediately settled in and became part of the village scene, buying the Post Office from the late Denis Gosden.  When they became due to retire, they stayed on at the branch until its future was assured, determined not to let villagers down by allowing it to close. In 2004, with the branch due to be safely moved into Clifford’s store, they retired to a bungalow in Hindes Meadow, but remained very active in Shrewton.  Both were drivers for Link, and Cleo was a valued member of the WI.

“We will miss everyone in the village, all the friends we have made,” said Cleo, who also ran a Christmas Club for the Day Centre from the Post Office.  “We hadn’t lived in a village before – in South Africa we were in a big suburban area where you did not know your neighbour.  We love everyone here and will miss you all.”

But the couple felt the time had come to move closer to daughter Jayne White, son-in-law Tracy and grandchildren Nicky, 22, and Rebecca, 10 – though they promise to come visiting when they can.

MARY’S DAY ON THE BOX
Shrewton’s Mary Ridout appeared on the popular Channel 4 brainteaser show Countdown recently after spending a nail-biting day in the TV studio with stars Des O’Connor, Rick Wakeman and Susie Dent. “It was fun really,” said Mary, who confesses to being a Countdown addict who tries never to miss the programme. Mary and her husband Dave – once half of the local building firm Isaac & Ridout – travelled to Leeds for the recording in February and were put up in a hotel overnight and given a meal voucher. 

“They really took care of us,” said Mary. “I got a goody bag with a little clock, a dictionary and a Countdown T-shirt to take home.  “It was interesting to see the programme afterwards.  You know that you did not win, but you hope at least you didn’t make an idiot of yourself.”

She said five programmes were being filmed that day, so she was in the studio all day, a “nerve-wracking” experience. The show was screened in March. But Mary preserved the honour of Shrewton, doing better on the word-making section than the dictionary team!  She used eight of the nine letters to make the words “coolants”.

…AND MICHAEL GETS AIR-TIME TOO!
Shrewton Laundry owner Michael Hall’s first reaction was disbelief when Radio 5 called and asked him to do an interview for their morning show. “The call came on 1st April, so I was a bit dubious!” he said.

The station telephoned Michael and asked him for his comments and advice to those taking part in BBC One’s The Apprentice – the task being running a commercial laundry for 24 hours. “It only lasted about 30 seconds, but they were quite difficult questions,” said Michael, who lives in Salisbury Road with wife Helen and children Sarah, Matthew and Edward.  “I really needed about three hours to answer properly!”

“I started to get really nervous when I was waiting for the call, which came at 7.50am, but once I was on the air I felt completely normal.  I suppose I was afraid I would make a fool of myself, but it was fine.” Michael added that he then made a point of watching the programme.  “I don’t normally watch it because it annoys me too much,” he said!

And Michael’s air time was followed by another interview on BBC Radio Wilts, who had picked up the Radio 5 one and wanted to do their own piece on it.

DRAMA CLUB SHOW COMING IN JUNE:
From Christine Jerrom

Shrewton Drama Club is delighted to announce that the farce, “Dish of the Day”, will be performed at the Recreation Hall in June 2008, directed by Ron Lock. It was a bit of a struggle to get a cast together and of course there was the inevitable sex change of one of the characters, but rehearsals are going really well and it is shaping up to be a really funny evening.

The story is set, not surprisingly given the title, in an Italian restaurant. At the first table sits a raucous hen party, at the second a mismatched couple on a blind date, and at the third a couple celebrating Mother’s birthday, who’d rather be at home watching Casualty. There’s also a chaotic waitress and last, but by no means least, a male stripper.

The cast is Jan Blake, Lisa Blake, Roxanne Foster, Liz Gordon, Neil Gordon, Janice Hippolyte, Christine Jerrom, Eddie Jerrom, Sarah Wootton, the stripper. As you can see, the cast is a good mixture of familiar and new faces.

So, please, give them your support and come along for a good laugh. The dates are Thursday 5th to Saturday 7th June. Doors open 7pm, curtain up at 7.30pm. And just to tempt you even more, there will be a bar. We look forward to seeing you there.

FLYING HIGH WITH NEXT MOVIOLA
The film based on Khaled Hosseini’s acclaimed novel ,The Kite Runner is May’s offering from Shrewton Moviola on Monday 19th May. “Spanning from the final days of Afghanistan's monarchy to the atrocities of the Taliban reign, this is an epic tale of fathers and sons, of friendship and betrayal.

An unlikely friendship develops between Amir, the son of a wealthy Afghan businessman, and Hassan, a servant to Amir and his father. During a kite-flying tournament, an unspeakable event changes the nature of their relationship forever. As an adult living in the USA and haunted by the childhood betrayal, Amir seeks redemption by returning to his war-torn native land to make peace with himself and reconcile his cowardice.”

Tickets will be on sale in Londis Stores. Please note that Moviola have increased their prices so that tickets in advance will now be £5, and £5.50 on the door. Doors open 7.00 p.m. Film starts 7.30 p.m.

TILL VALLEY LINK NEWS: from Carole Slater - Chairman of TVL.

A Good Neighbour Scheme providing help with transport and caring.

We are now entering spring with the warmer weather hopefully approaching.  We have been supporting Till Valley villages during the past months with the following trips having been undertaken:

This is a total of 597 journeys since our last Annual General Meeting. There were fifteen cancellations from clients due mostly to health reasons. 

During January an evening function was held to thank all our volunteers for their support to the Link during the past year.  We were fortunate to have the manager of Community First join us for the evening.  She thanked our scheme for its efforts in supporting the villages and for its excellent fund raising results.  All present had their photo taken (see above) .

At our last meeting we discussed our plans for fund raising for the coming year.

From all of us at Till Valley Link thank you to all who use our service.

NEWS FROM THE RECREATION GROUND/VILLAGE HALL:
In an open letter outgoing chair of the trustees, Tony Baxter, reflects on the successes of the Rec/Village Hall in recent times:

"A big thank you to everyone!

Because of new business commitments I am having to step down as chairman of the Shrewton Rec.   I would like to personally thank all of the trustees, committees, supporters and users who have contributed so much time and effort to make the Rec a facility that Shrewton can be proud of. 

It is now a year since the new bar and toilets were built and the lighting, heating and flooring in the hall upgraded.   A full licence was obtained last Christmas and a series of events such as the very successful Moviola film shows are well underway.

The new kitchen has recently been installed and I am delighted to tell you that funding has been secured and the major phase 2 redevelopment of the sports changing rooms and back stage area is about to commence.   

Once again a big thank you to all concerned and my very best wishes for future success.

Tony Baxter"

The Village Hall has a Premises Licence for entertainment functions and use of the bar. Bookings for the use of the Village Hall and/or Recreation Ground may be made via Mrs Trish Metcalfe at The Plume of Feathers (Tel: 620201).

CHRISTMAS COMES EARLY FOR LOCAL PEOPLE:
Why? Because Michael Knight has already booked 35 seats for the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra’s Christmas Celebration Concert with John Rutter at the Westminster Central Hall on Saturday 20th December at 3pm. The coach will leave Shrewton, the bottom of Highfield Rise, at 11.30am.  The inclusive cost is £42.50, giving some of the best seats in the hall!

John Rutter returns to conduct a festive blend of familiar choral and orchestral favourites in his much-loved Christmas Celebration Concert, which includes his own lyrical carols – with plenty of chances to sing along.

Please ring Michael on 620956 if you wish to go, and he will add your name to a provisional list, with confirmation and payment required by 30th September (Michael has to pay for the tickets up front).  Don’t forget to put the dates in your diary!

SHREWTON VILLAGE MAINTENANCE – PARISH STEWARDSHIP SCHEME
- From Carole Slater
By now you will likely have seen the Yellow Vehicles belonging to the Parish Steward on their regular visits to the village. The scheme has been most successful with regular reporting of areas needing attention to WCC Highways Department at monthly intervals.

The Parish steward is responsible for: 

·         Hand cleaning of grips, these are the channels cut through verges to ditches

·         Rodding and cleaning of small culverts and manholes

·         Hand cleaning road gully tops

·         Hedge trimming around road signs to maintain visibility

·         Washing highway signs

·         Kerb repairs, overrun damage

·         Strimming of grass verges for visibility at junctions and of highway signs

·         Siding out overgrown vegetation obstructing footways and roads

·         Clearing debris and leaves, but not litter

With your support and the support of Karl McApline our local village steward, we hope to build on the good work already started and maintain the appearance of Shrewton. 

You are welcome to report any of the above tasks to me: Carole Slater on 07831 836 521.

 OBITUARY – MRS KATHERINE SOUTER.
“Scotch Kathy”

Around 60 people, including a dozen from Shrewton, gathered to say farewell to a great local lady who has died aged 85.

Mrs Kath Souter was born Katherine Collins in Fife, Scotland, the only daughter in a family of eight born to a coal miner and his wife.  She went on to study nutrition and gained a degree, but as World War II intervened, Kath joined the WRENS to serve her country.

At 28 she married her husband Sid and came to Binfield to work as catering officer for the electrical engineering giant Ferranti, based in Bracknell, where her job carried a £500,000 budget and made her responsible for serving up 2,000 meals a day.  Kath worked for the same company until she retired, and kept in touch with other employees there until the end of her life.

Kath moved to Shrewton 16 years ago, Sid having sadly died in 1977 at the age of 52,and she became very active in Shrewton WI, serving on the committee for several years and helping run the WI Plus and Wine Circle groups within it.  She was also a member of St Mary’s Church and always ready to help any local organisation running an event.  She was greatly loved by all who knew her in Shrewton, who were sad when Kath made the decision to move away last May to live with her daughter in Binfield.  Kathy passed away in the Thames Hospice, Windsor, on 11th March, after an illness of a few months.

At her funeral at Bracknell Shrewton bagpiper John Shone turned up in full regalia to pipe the coffin into the crematorium to “The Skye Boat Song” and to pipe as the guests left after the service.

Kath leaves a son, Graham, a daughter, Kay, and five grandchildren.

BRAVE NICKY’S DIVE FOR SON’S MEMORY
Skydiving Orcheston mum Nicky Cox has won some good from the tragedy of her son’s death, raking in more than £1,344 for Wiltshire Air Ambulance with a daring parachute jump (pictured right). She says Jonathan (pictured below), who died in a motorcycle crash at the Gibbet in 2006, would have appreciated her adventure – “he was never afraid, always up for anything”. Jonathan, 22, died from multiple injuries after the May Day accident, but Nicky and husband Pip, from Whatcombe Brow, will always be grateful to the Air Ambulance who got Jonathan to Salisbury Hospital, winning enough time for his parents to be at his bedside when he died.

The brave couple, who also have three daughters and a son between them, immediately agreed to donate Jonathan’s eyes and pulmonary valves to help other patients. Nicky then planned to do the parachute jump on what would have been Jonathan’s birthday month of December last year, but weather conditions forced her to postpone it until 27th January. “I had always fancied doing it, but never had the incentive.  But I happened to see the Red Devils at Enford last year, and a friend of mine is actually with the Red Devils, and he provided me with contact details, so I thought I would give it a go.”

After a brief training Nicky, a store worker at Larkhill, took to the skies from Netheravon and jumped with partner Pete Mac. “I can’t remember much about it,” confessed Nicky.  “At the end of the drop they swing you from side to side to slow you down, which is like carsickness, only tripled!  When you are at 12,000 feet the curvature of the earth is amazing and the sunset was gorgeous.”

Nicky plans to hand over the sponsorship money along with cash from a rather less glamorous source - £141 from her workplace swear box! – to the Air Ambulance.  £1,177 was also raised from Jonathan’s funeral collection.  Nicky wishes to pass her and her family’s sincere thanks to all who supported her in her fund-raising jump.
 

THE FRIENDS OF ST MARY'S
Who are they, what are their aims - how can you help? Click HERE to find out more...

BURGLARS ABOUT!
The Salisbury Plain district - unfortunately including a couple of homes in Shrewton - have been targeted by PC thieves. The police believe that the thieves are not so much after the equipment, as for information it may contain - such as bank details which can be used to obtain money or perform identity theft.

Can you help? The Old Police House on Amesbury Road was broken into. Whilst the owners, Mr & Mrs Osborne, were out between 09.25 and 10.05 (just 40 minutes) on the 5th of February, a thief broke in through the front door and stole a laptop computer. Adrian Osborne says that some witnesses have come forward saying that they saw a graphite grey BMW 1 Series car being hastily reversed out of the drive at about 10.00 am. There was only one person in the car - a man with brown hair. If YOU saw anything related to this incident, please let Amesbury Police know immediately on 0845 4087000.

For Adrian and his family things were not quite as bad as they might have been. They were able to get all their bank and account passwords changed very quickly. Although the thief tried to get access to accounts a few days later, the Osborne's prompt action prevented any access. Adrian says: "Searching on the internet I’ve found numerous companies that, for a fee (of between £10 and £25) will provide you with software that is extremely difficult to remove. If your computer is subsequently stolen and you inform the company, they will begin tracking your computer and when it next connects to the internet it provides them with its exact location (which they immediately give to the Police) and then there are numerous options such as an automatic deletion of all data on the computer or the ability to take control of the computer and prevent them from accessing the files.". The following links are examples of such products (these have not been tried, and are provided only for information).

http://www.absolute.com/computraceplus/faqs.asp  for Computrace
http://www.stealthsignal.com/resources/1/Docs/XTOOL_LAPTOP_TRACKER.pdf  for Xtool
http://www.lojackforlaptops.com/ for LoJack

If you've found others that you favour please email the webmaster and we will list them.

Local residents are advised to keep watch on their own and neighbours houses for any unusual daytime callers or bogus tradesmen and report anything suspicious to the police immediately, again the number is 0845 4087000.

An additional protection you can put in place on your PC is to password protect any folder which contain bank information you may keep on it (such as account numbers etc). Click HERE to see an article on how this can be done on a Windows XP system. Whilst password protecting folders and files does not guarantee your details will be 100% secure, it does make it much harder for anyone to extract the vital info. Putting a start-up or login password on your PC does not guarantee anything, since the bad guys can simply connect your hard drive into their own PC as a second hard drive and access all the files it contains without needing to know any password. By contrast, protecting your files at the folder level cannot be worked around in this way. 

SHREWTON SCHOOL: WERE YOU EVACUATED TO SHREWTON DURING WWII?
An exciting local project to show the long history of Shrewton School is being put together by a local team headed up by Colin & Margaret Mills. One aspect of this is going to try to show how Shrewton did its bit for the war effort between 1939 and 1945. It is known that 35 kids were evacuated from heavily-bombed Portsmouth to the relative safety of Shrewton. School records show some details about them, but more is needed! Ideally Colin and the team would like to hear from some of these folks (email below) to get their memories of their stay in the village, and if they have mementos of their stay or perhaps even photos, the team would love to see them.

But the exhibition is mainly about the history of Shrewton School. The school was legally formed in 1867 (the local vicar at that time, Rev. Maslen, was the first chair of governors) - though its building (about two thirds of the Victorian building was put up at this time) was not completed until 1869. The 1869 school replaced a "national school" which occupied what is now "The Old School House", next door to the current school. National Schools were locally funded charity schools, with a limited number of free places for poorer people who could not afford to pay for education. This meant that not everyone who wanted to get educated could do so. Consequently, the church and government worked together from the 1850s onward to expand education in every way possible, such that enough places were available. The founding of the bigger and better CofE school at Shrewton in 1867 was undoubtedly part of this national drive for a more educated population. Compulsory education for younger children became law in 1870, but initially the law was widely ignored: It was not really nationally enforced until the 1880s. In 1899 the school leaving age was raised to 12 (It had previously been 10 in most areas of the UK).

Then, In 1912, all schools in England were brought under the primary control of local authorities, and of course Shrewton came under the control of Wilts County Council, where it has been ever since. In the early 1900s numerous attempts were made to get the school leaving age legally raised to 14 (finally succeeding in 1918), and probably in anticipation of this, the Shrewton School building was extended in 1903 (not 1913 as previously stated), with the leftmost classroom (seen from the road) and school office being added at this stage. The newer building on the central site opened around 1968, replacing two large wooden (probably ex-army) huts which stood there previously: One of these huts was known as "The Dance Hall" because it was big enough inside to hold events involving music and dancing.

Colin Mills is heading up the effort to put together the school history exhibition - which is to be staged within the next few months. The team is looking for any photos or written memories anyone might have of their school days at Shrewton. If you can help Colin & Margaret's team team please email them at: mmcmills@tiscali.co.uk

SCHOOL’S BIG DAY
Preparations are well under way for the school’s big open day this July, when residents will have a chance to take part in events, including an exhibition at the school. Saturday 5 July, 2pm  - Picnic in the Park with the Shrewton Silver Band.

During the afternoon each class will entertain us. There will be stalls, sideshows, pony rides, ice cream, face painting and of course a Raffle. In the Victorian Building there will be an Exhibition of the History of the School (a chance to see the big bell that used to be in a bell tower on the roof!). Do come and support our children

(If you would like to become a Friend of the School and help us with functions then please contact Margaret Mills on 620883).

BROADBAND - IS IT YOU?
Surely there can't be anyone still using dial-up internet access? Well, if there is, we have not heard from them! Maybe you've just upgraded - great - innit? Read our simple guidelines about security and configuration and you'll be well on your way to a faster, connected, safe and always-on computing experience.

Shrewton Website Photo-Features:

Coming in Next Week's Website Update  - Shrewton Post Office - A Moving Story. (Sorry, Held Over until next week's update).

"The Catherine Wheel, From Hostelry to Homes"
A photo feature on the life, death and metamorphosis of a local pub. Click HERE to view the feature.

"Albert Marrett - An Edwardian Entrepreneur In Shrewton"
A photo feature on a local businessman who left a rich legacy. Click HERE to view the feature.
 

Local Links:
Chitterne Village Website - Click HERE
St Mary's Church Page on the Shrewton Website click HERE
Shrewton United FC - Your local football team's website.HERE
Shrewton & District Women's Institute website HERE
Shrewton Silver Band website click HERE
Shrewton's Rock Band in Residence - Blindhouse! click HERE
Tilshead Village Website - Click HERE.
Walking In Wiltshire website click HERE  - site lets you download (for free!) details of more than 80 wonderful Wiltshire walks
 

BACK TO THE TOP

See Λrrowhead magazine
for full details on these and all your local stories.
(Free through the letterbox of all Till Valley Homes)