Uncategorized

The BBVA hosted the Quiz Night at The Vines and a big thank you to all those who made it possible. The event raised over £500 to support village activities and needs.

The VoiceBox Choir is back by popular demand with their repertoire of festive and engaging songs, at St Mary’s at 6,30 on the 12th. Most of the ticket price of £10 (children free) goes towards the church’s fabric fund. Do support this talented group and get into the Christmas spirit! Mince pies and mulled wine will be served!

Christmas comes alive when children meet Santa, receive a present and then join in the carol singing! It’s all happening at St Mary’s on the 20th at 5pm. If you want Santa to give your child/grandchild a present do wrap a present (no more than £5) add the child’s name and give it to one of the elves in good time! The Christmas Carol sing-along will be from 6pm. It’s free to all including some mince pies and mulled wine!

We welcomed our military friends for our annual Remembrance Service both at the memorial and at the church and afterwards at the Vines for light refreshments. We are privileged to have the war graves in our churchyard and also to have the commitment and support from our military neighbours when it comes to this important time of the year. It was unusual to see all the chaps in their fatigues this year as normally they are very formally dressed in their Number Ones but it made not a scrap of difference as the church was full and we were very ably led by Jeremy Lane. And everyone sang at the top of their voices which was excellent!

A big thank you to all who contributed to the Christmas Bazaar last Saturday whether by manning tables, making cakes, donating items for sale or helping with the general setting up. In spite of the horrid weather, it was good to see so many people in the church enjoying a morning of festivity and friendliness with a variety of gifts and handmade items for sale and some very tasty refreshments.  I am happy to report that all your efforts enabled us to raise nearly £1,000 which is absolutely amazing and will help us to continue making our lovely church a nice place to gather.

This Sunday is the beginning of Advent and so we mark this day by having a joint benefice service at 10.30 a.m. Do come along and meet our friends and neighbours from our two sister churches and enjoy some tea and cake afterwards. Christmas seems to come round quicker and quicker each year so before we know it we will be enjoying some lovely choral music from the Voicebox Choir from Witney (a big hit last year) and our own Santa’s Grotto and Carols complete with mince pies and mulled wine. Our Christmas Eve Holy Communion service is at 10 p.m on the 24th and I am pleased to say we have Phil Waite playing the organ for us so that we can all have a hearty sing song of all our favourite carols. Details of all the above in this newsletter so hope to see you at one or all events.

A very Merry Christmas one and all!!

Defibrillator Familiarisation Session

The session held on Wed 15th October in St Mary’s Church was well attended and was an enjoyable and very informative course.

We had a full practical demonstration of the defibrillator that we have in the village (using a training device the same as our defibrillator, not our actual defibrillator), giving everyone who attended the the knowledge and confidence on how to use it.

And from the BBVA chair:

On 15th October over 15 people that live in Black Bourton attended a training session to understand how to use the defibrillator that is located outside The Vines. Organised by the Parish Council, attendees were guided through the whole process of life saving skills that if called upon, could genuinely make a difference on survival chances.

The next steps are to set up an alerting system in the village, calling those trained to respond with the defibrillator to the casualty in a matter of minutes and offer full life saving support. In the meantime, our village has taken yet another step forward to look after its inhabitants and we are thankful for all those that attended on the day.

RAF Brize Norton Local Engagement Evening

Cllr Andy Lanham, chair of the parish council, will be attending an Aircraft Operating Surfaces (AOS) local engagement evening as a representative from Black Bourton Parish Council .

If you have any pertinent points that you would like us to request are added to the agenda please pass these onto Cllr Lanham before Friday 21st November – bbpc.al@blackbourton.org.uk

Please find below a link to their recent BrizeCast episode with an update from the head of the Brize Development Team and Officer Commanding Operations Support Wing to find out about the latest progress: Aircraft Operating Surfaces Update – YouTube

Sandbags

The parish council are looking into the availabilty of sand bags should we need them in the event of flooding. Please contact Councillor Pete Miles on bbpc.pm@blackbourton.org.uk

Parish Councillor Vacancy

We are looking for more councillors to apply to the Parish Council, please look at this new page what a councillor does and if you are interested or wish for more information, please contact one of our current councillors.

Thank you to all those who joined us for our October coffee morning and helped to make it such a pleasant and friendly gathering. Our next Village Coffee Morning is on Saturday 8th November from 10 – 12 in St Mary’s and all are welcome.  As this will be our last one this year we look forward to seeing as many of you as possible.  As well as our usual refreshments we may even be offering an early mince pie!

At our October Gardening Club meeting we were joined by Paul Green, a Gloucestershire nurseryman, Paul brought a wide range of plants, many quite unusual, and gave an engaging and enthusiastic talk about how to add colour and interest to your garden in the Autumn. Many of us took advantage of the opportunity to buy some of his stock for our own gardens.

Our Speaker Event in November will be Tuesday 18th November at 7pm in St Mary’s. Attendance at our talks is usually less than 20 people, please do come and join us, although the nights are a bit chilly and dark you will find a warm reception and hopefully enjoy an interesting evening.

The talk is free to Gardening Club Members, £5 to non members, unless signing up on the night!  This will be our last talk this year so do try and join us.

For any queries regarding the above events or membership please email: blackbourtongardeningclub@gmail.com

You will no doubt have noticed the intensity of the colour of the leaves on the trees and bushes around us not to mention the carpet they are creating under our feet as they gradually fall to the ground. I mentioned last month the abundance of fruit and berries this year and so it seems that the leaves are not to be outdone in the colours they are showing. I say this because the church flower team created the most wonderful arrangements for harvest festival using all the reds, yellows and ambers of the bushes and berries around us together with the bold colours of the late flowering perennials which have been spectacular this year. Thank you to all those who contributed and also to Christine Pope who laid out a country scene in the porch reminding us of the autumn bounty which we are lucky enough to be surrounded by.

The main events for November are our usual Remembrance Day service in church preceded by the laying of wreaths at the War Memorial. This starts at 10.50 and moves to the church for the service led by Jeremy Lane and attended by a good number of our military neighbours from RAF Brize Norton. It is a moving service and gives us all a chance to remember and reflect on the courage of the men who fought for our freedom in two World Wars and who in the end made the ultimate sacrifice.

In error last month, I mentioned that the Christmas Bazaar was  on the 14th November so I  must quickly point out that it is Saturday 22nd November from 10.30 till 1.30 p.m.  There will be lots of handmade items to buy for Christmas including crafts and gifts made by Niki Clarke and cushions and stocking fillers made by Lene Bussell as well as other contributions. There is a tombola and a raffle, some delicious cakes and preserves and a chance to chat to village folk over a cup of tea, a slice of cake or even a glass of mulled wine and a mince pie.  All money raised goes towards improvements for the comfort and use of the church, not just for worshippers but for all those who use the church as a place to meet, whether it be clubs, coffee mornings or concerts! And if you haven’t got cash (and to avoid disappointment!) we now have a card reader which will happily take your payment. Please come along and support us – all your contributions are very welcome and we would love to see you all at this happy and festive occasion.

Donations for the tombola can be left with Doreen Hart (01993 844124) before the event and cakes or produce to Wendy Taylor or Doreen either the day before or on the morning.

To round off the news this month, the following week we come to the First Sunday in Advent (can’t believe we are hurtling towards Christmas so fast!) and as it’s also the fifth Sunday in the month it falls on St Mary’s to hold the Joint Benefice service. This is the only service held in the benefice on that morning so all our friends from St John’s and St Britius will be joining us for communion and some coffee and refreshments afterwards. Another get together with friends before we start the countdown to the Christmas activities!!

We thoroughly enjoyed taking part in the Village Fete again this year and are very grateful to the BBVA for inviting us to to have a stall to help generate funds for the Gardening Club. Huge thanks to everyone who supported us, whether by donating items to sell, helping with the set up on the day or coming along to buy from us.  We had a very successful day and were pleased to increase our takings on last year! Here we are just before the start of the fete!

We held our first AGM on Tuesday 23rd September and celebrated our first anniversary with a hot supper enabled by making use of the oven facilities in St Mary’s Hub with home cooked food provided by members. The food and refreshments were well received and the Committee have all been reelected for another year. Membership fees will remain at £15 per household for the year and are due in October.

Our next Village Coffee Morning is on Saturday 11th October from 10 – 12 in St Mary’s this is an informal relaxed event, an ideal opportunity to meet other local residents and even join or renew your membership of the Gardening Club.  Do pop in. Donations of cakes and bakes and help with serving always welcome too.

Our first Speaker of the Autumn on Tuesday 21st October at 7pm in St Mary’s will be Paul Green of Greens Leaves Nursery in Gloucestershire, who specialise in rare and unusual plants suitable for growing in the UK. Paul will talk about plants for the Autumn season, he is very knowledgeable about grasses but will also cover foliage plants and evergreens.  He will bring a selection of plants from the nursery to sell so do join us and bring cash, cards or phones to make the most of this great opportunity to get something a little more unusual for your garden. The talk is free to Gardening Club Members, £5 to non members, unless signing up on the night!  We are very keen to swell our numbers so ALL ARE VERY WELCOME!!

If you have fruit trees in your garden you will have noticed how heavy the crop is this year despite the lack of water throughout the summer. The hedgerows are laden with blackberries, sloes, and crab apples and it seems that everyone is busy making the most of this bumper harvest by making jams and chutneys and freezing the apples, plums and pears. Apple pressing and BBQ organised by the BBVA has been brought forward to next Saturday October 4th at 1pm because of the glut!

So this brings me to Harvest Festival which is on Sunday 12th October at 10.30 and is our annual thanksgiving for the abundance of food we see all around us. Let us also not forget our farmers who work so hard tilling the land to bring food to our tables against all the awful conditions that nature can throw at them. For some years now we have asked for your donations so that we can support our local Besom food bank in Carterton and Witney so once again I ask for your generosity by providing food donations for this worthy cause. Obviously we can’t pass on the bounty from the trees and bushes around us but any nonperishable food will be most welcome. You can include things like canned baked beans, tomatoes, lentils, beans, peas, pasta, rice, biscuits, tinned fish or meat, breakfast cereals or packets of sauces, coffee, tea and sugar. I almost forgot jams,  marmalades, pickle –  the list is endless but you get the idea. Items can be left in the church on the Friday or Saturday prior to the service or I can collect if you would like me to. Thank you in advance and I hope to see you in church that day.

There will no doubt be a notice elsewhere in the newsletter from the Parish Council about the meeting in church on  Weds 15th October 7 p.m. for a discussion about using a defibrillator. We are lucky enough to have had one in our village for some years but it would be useful to know more about it and what we should do if we ever need to use it. I urge you to attend this meeting – it’s important for us all to be aware of this facility should we need it.

The Gardening Club continues with it’s autumn programme in October with a talk on ‘Autumn Planting’ by Paul Green from Gloucester. The club have just completed their first year and have done well with coffee mornings and guest speakers and a trip out to Friars Court. New members are welcome and the meetings are always very enjoyable with coffee and biscuits for all.

Looking further ahead we will be holding our popular Christmas Bazaar in November, more details next month, but please contribute if you can by making a cake or letting us have some produce from your garden or even a raffle prize! There will be a tombola so smaller items for this are welcome too. Tell your friends and pop the date in your diary Sat November 15th from 10.30 till 1 p.m. in the church so that you don’t miss it.

Services this month are Harvest Festival on Sunday 12th Oct 10.30 and Evensong on Sunday 26th 6 p.m.

Before I go I would like to say congratulations to Olivia and Aaron who are getting married at St Mary’s on Friday 24th October at 11 a.m. We wish them both a wonderful wedding day and hope that they have may years of happiness together.

We hope you have all enjoyed the summer and your gardens have not suffered too much long term damage from the lack of rain.

The Gardening Club Committee are busy preparing for the Village Fete on 7th September and would welcome further donations of plants, decorative pots, planters and gardening equipment as well as any good to eat garden produce.  Many thanks to those of you who have offered to help us on the day, we still have space for more of you whether helping to set up the stall or sell the wares we would be very grateful for your help and are sure it will be an enjoyable occasion!

After our summer break and the fete we are looking forward to the resumption of our Coffee mornings on the 2nd Saturday of each month. The next is on Saturday 13th September from 10 – 12 in St Mary’s.  This is also the Ride and Stride weekend so we may have some additional visitors.  If you can help with serving refreshments or making a cake please let us know.

PLEASE NOTE A CHANGE TO OUR PUBLISHED PROGRAMME
(Please note this is a week later than previously advised) 

• Celebrating the 1^st Anniversary of the Black Bourton Gardening Club
• AGM, Supper and Quiz – Tuesday 23^rd September 2025 (7.00-8.30pm)
• Please join us for a fun social evening including Hot Fork Supper and a glass of wine.
• Free to members – non members also very welcome

To help us with planning the catering, can you please email us to confirm your place.

We will also be collecting names at the Village Fete and Coffee morning or you can email us directly.  It is only to get an indication so no commitment is required and all will be welcome on the night, members and non members alike. We will also be gathering feedback on the first year of the Gardening Club via a questionnaire which we will also be circulating to our mailing list and have available at the fete and coffee morning. We plan to discuss the feedback at the AGM.

For any of the above please email us at blackbourtongardeningclub@gmail.com or contact one of the committee.

Well no one can say we haven’t had a good summer with non stop sunshine for months on end. Now we are all back from holidays and children start school for a new year, we move into the autumn schedule with busy weeks ahead. This Sunday there is a benefice communion service at St Britius at 10.30 so if you can spare the time do go along for worship and fellowship with our friends from Brize and Carterton.

The Film Club starts it’s new season on 4th September at 7.p.m. with a showing of ‘Annie Hall’ – have a read about this film in the Film Club section.

The weekend after the fete we have the Ride and Stride which takes place on Saturday 13th throughout the day but this also coincides with the Gardening Club coffee morning so it will be a lovely day of saying hello to our local neighbours as well as those from a bit further afield. Nikki is helping to organise so let her know if you are free to do an hour in the front porch.

I am pleased to say that the porch roof has been replaced and looks fantastic. We have also had some pointing done to the porch walls and will continue to work our way around the main body of the church as and when finances allow.

Work on refurbishing the path starts soon.

For those of you who would like to learn more about the bible and what it tells us, we start our autumn session of Bible Study on Tues 16th Sept at 5.30 at my house alternating weekly at Jeremy’s. These sessions are very informal and you can join in as much or as little as you want to, but it’s interesting to hear how the scriptures written thousands of years ago have so much relevance in our modern day life.

Normal services are Holy Communion on 14th Sept 10.30 a.m. and Evensong on 28th Sept 6 p.m. and we’ll be holding Harvest Festival in October as usual, more details next month.