The year ended with a lot of mulled wine and home-made mince pies (thank you Wendy!) at St Mary’s, where we welcomed the arrival of Santa and his gifts and a merry sing-along to all the favourite Christmas carols and readings led by our Rector Barry.

In fact December was a busy time for the BBVA and St Mary’s – the VoiceBox Choir from Witney delivered an enjoyable and engaging performance, and the Film Club presented its family friendly seasonal offering “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” – the American equivalent of our “The Snowman”.

The coming year will see the return of many old favourites as well as a sponsored trip to David Ashley’s panto in Swindon. The very first event of the New Year for everyone is the BBVA’s AGM on Monday 12th January at 7pm in the church, at which the village will be entertained with illustrated highlights from 2025 and a conversation about how the BBVA could improve its offerings and funding support. There may even be some wine and mince pies!

So to make sure all voices are heard in the formulating of the BBVA’s activities do CLICK ON THIS LINK AND PLEASE TAKE TWO MINUTES TO ANSWER THE SURVEY! The BBVA really needs your inputs and ideas. The committee meets formally 12 times per year and many more times when erecting marquees and preparing for events.  Your support and input is vitally important.  So please answer the survey and let the committee have your  opinions at the AGM either in person or in writing. 

Email the BBVA at any time about anything! Happy New Year!

December is always a busy month in the life of the church and this year was no exception. Outside the tree surgeons were dealing with the big old chestnut near the entrance to the cemetery, trying to bring it back under control after 30 years of growth since it’s last haircut. Our biggest fear is that a branch will come down in a storm and damage the boundary wall, the bell tower or worse still, fall on someone’s head as they are walking along the path. So in a funny sort of way we were let off lightly, when in the process of lowering a big sawn off branch from the top of the tree, the thin end swung round and decapitated the castellation from the parapet on the top of the tower. Luckily the path had been closed to pedestrians and a clean break and a fall onto grass meant little damage was done. Not exactly good for the blood pressure though! So it’s with relief that the two stones have now been successfully reinstated.

We were able to get the Christmas tree up in church and decorated (thank you Janette) for the First Sunday in Advent which was also a communion service for all three churches in the benefice. Refreshments were served afterwards and we all had a good catch up with our friends from Brize and Carterton. The following week the outside trees were erected and dressed with lights, adding a really festive appearance to the approach along the path to the church and cemetery beyond. Thank you Richard for crawling around in all weathers fixing the cables and making everything work properly.

As usual Santa Claus paid us a visit last Saturday and gave out presents from his grotto in the Lady Chapel. We are always pleased to have him in Black Bourton and I am sure the children enjoyed his visit too. After the present giving we drank mulled wine and ate mince pies and sung all our favourite carols with Simon at the organ. As we have so few children of our own in the village I must thank those who came from the other churches in the benefice to read the passages from the bible and join in the service. We very much appreciate their boosting our numbers.

Rev Barry will be on holiday from Christmas Day for a month so on January 11th, the first Sunday in Epiphany, we will be welcoming Associate Archdeacon Rev Jane Haslam to St Mary’s to take our Holy Communion service, which I believe is the first time she has ever done this for us. So please come along and give her your support!

A Happy and Peaceful New Year to you all.

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!!