Hydon Hobble returns to the Surrey Hills on Friday 7 June 2019. This is a fun filled, family-friendly running event is for people of all ages. All money raised, including entry fees, will go to help disabled residents at Hydon Hill, Leonard Cheshire – a residential home for disabled people in Clockbarn Lane Hydestile.
After the event, there will be time to relax and enjoy yourselves at Hydon Hill itself.
Find out more here: LINK
Hambledon is united in sadness following the recent deaths of two loved and respected villagers – Mic Coleman and Pat Williams.
Mic died earlier this week (13th May) and Pat on 28th April. Both lived long and active lives and died peacefully in their own homes, surrounded by family. It would be hard to think of two people who could have given more to the life of the community in which they lived, and with such generosity and kindness.
Pat’s funeral takes place in her beloved St Peter’s Church, Hambledon, on Wednesday 22nd May at 2.30pm. Details of Mic’s funeral are yet to be announced but it is likely to be on 6th June. Both had suffered recent spells of poor health but until then had been active in the village where they devoted so much of their time.
Mic, who was 90, was awarded the British Empire Medal in the Queen’s Jubilee Birthday Honours in 2012 “for services to sport and the community in Hambledon”. A teacher by profession, he moved to the village in the 1950’s and he and his wife Sylvia have lived here ever since. They also celebrated their diamond wedding anniversary in 2012.
Mic has been a stalwart of village life, working tirelessly for the football and cricket clubs, becoming president of both. He has helped in a host of other organisations and activities including the village hall committee, the fete and the flower and produce show. Not many know that he was the man behind the beard when Father Christmas visited Hambledon Nursery School every year.
Mic was also chairman of Hambledon Parish Council between 1976 and 1983. At the start of the monthly meeting on Tuesday a minute’s silence was observed and tributes were paid.
Mic, pictured here, was a regular at the Merry Harriers, often with his family which included daughter Sarah and sons John and Tim, their spouses and, more recently, his grandchildren.
Pat was secretary to the chief executive of ICI Agrochemicals, working in Fernhurst. She married Ray Williams, who had taken over running Hambledon’s village shop and Post Office on his retirement from the National Institute of Oceanography in 1982. Ray, another highly regarded villager, died in 2016.
Pat, pictured below, was an active member of the congregation at St Peter’s where Ray had been treasurer, churchwarden and verger. She was a member of the choir and assisted Ray in his duties as warden. For many years she edited the church magazine and in the early days she typed out all the stories, laboriously copied each magazine using a Roneo duplicator and then stapled all the pages together by hand. Even after standing down she continued to deliver it to subscribers around the village as well as writing the always well-informed Parish and People section.
She was an early volunteer at the village shop when it became a community-run venture, and carried on in this role for more 20 years.
All are welcome at Pat’s funeral which will be a celebration of her life. Details of Mic’s funeral will be made known soon.
Hambledon sends it love and sympathy to the families of both and celebrates two lives well lived.
Local beers and ciders and local bands will feature at a Spring Beer Festival to be held at the village pub over the weekend of Friday May 30th to Sunday June 2nd.
The Merry Harriers has sourced a range of bitters and ciders from breweries in Surrey and neighbouring counties which will be served from a marquee in the pub garden.
In addition, Toxic Sausage will be playing on the Saturday evening. A popular covers band which regularly performs at the fete ball, it features village resident Mike Blanchard on keyboard.
On Sunday afternoon another local favourite, the LuxDeLux blues band, will be performing. Featuring Jim Luck on vocals, this band has been playing in the Godalming area for many years to great acclaim.
Music will be outside if weather permits.
It is expected that comedy routines will be performed on the Friday evening, yet to be confirmed.
Hot dogs will be served from a barbecue throughout the festival.
Entry is free. The festival hours are 4pm to 11pm on Friday and Saturday and 4pm to 8pm on Sunday.
Just to let the community know that we finally have our facebook page launched for the youth section, so that people can get to know more about HCCC.Our outdoor training has begun at Hambledon Community Cricket Club, Vann Lane.
U12s Training is on Friday’s from 6 to 8 pm, U11s and U9s and below Saturday’s from 10am to 12pm with Pizza on Friday nights!!
For more information, contact Caroline Tristem: caroline@tristem.co.uk or ring 07860 618262
Kate Walford, head teacher of Hambledon Nursery, reports on how a grant from the Hall Hunter Foundation has helped transform the school’s vegetable garden and pond.
The work was carried out by volunteers from the local Hall Hunter-run Tuesley Farm, growers of soft fruit.
“Thanks to a very generous donation from the Hall Hunter Foundation we have been able to revitalise and enhance the outside space at the nursery.
We are thrilled to have been able to gain raised beds in our vegetable garden. A working team visited the nursery over the Easter holiday and set about laying paving slabs and building up the beds out of large wooden sleepers. A huge lorry arrived delivering enormous bags of soil and the team filled the wooden beds ready for use as soon as the nursery returned for the start of the summer term.
The nursery staff and children were so excited to see the results and we have already planted potatoes and pumpkins into the space.
In addition to this project, the team from Tuesley Farm made us a pathway around our two ponds in our environmental garden which will help the children to access the area for pond dipping and bug hunting more easily.
Finally, we received a new wooden picnic bench for our playground from which to serve drinks in the warmer summer months. The nursery now eagerly awaits a delivery of a large collection of wooden blocks that we can use to build enclosures and dens that the Hall Hunter Foundation have so generously purchased for the nursery.
We are so grateful for the work carried out and for the awarded fund that we have been able to use to further improve and enhance our beautiful outside area at the nursery.”
The Hall Hunter Foundation was set up in 2011 and raises funds in support of good causes which are then donated to a range of local charities.
Hambledon Nursery School, a registered charity, is a thriving nursery school for children aged two to five and was formerly the village primary school at Rock Hill, Hambledon Road. When the school closed in the 1980s a village-led initiative secured its Victorian classrooms and playground for the benefit of local families and it reopened as a nursery several years later.
On Sunday 5 May at 5 am, eight of us met at Hambledon Village Shop, by which time the dawn chorus was well underway. We crossed the Green and went into the Hurst, then back across the Green and up onto the Common.
In all we heard 18 different species of birds: robin, blackbird, song thrush, wood pigeon, blue tit, great tit, collared dove, jackdaw, blackcap, pheasant, Canada goose, chaffinch, wren, chiff chaff, tawny owl, mallard, carrion crow, rook.
We didn’t hear a cuckoo during the two hours we were listening at this particular time, but like some other birds it has already been heard in the village. This is just a record of what we heard at this time.
Judith Steele
The Conservatives have lost overall control of Waverley Borough Council.
Witley and Hambledon Ward returned two Tory councillors, although only a handful of votes separated them from a challenge by an Independent candidate.
The result, as reported by Waverley Borough Council, is as follows.
Following the local government elections on Thursday (May 2nd) the count was held today.
Across the Borough there were gains for the Liberal Democrats and the Farnham Residents party.
The Conservatives had 23 candidates returned. Farnham Residents Association had 15, Liberal Democrats 14, Labour 2 and there was one Independent – a combined total of 32.
The full results can be found on the Waverley Borough Council website by clicking on the following link.
Vann garden is open under the National Open Gardens Scheme this bank holiday Monday, May 6th from 2 to 6pm. Come and see the garden in all its springtime splendour.
Tea, coffee and home-made cakes will be available, provided by the Village Hall team. Entry to garden £7, children free.
A successful Annual Parish Meeting was held last week (Apr 25th) with a record attendance and lively debate, particularly on the issue of speeding in the village and measures that can be taken to prevent it.
A packed Village Hall heard from Inspector Gary Smith, Surrey Police’s Waverley Borough Commander, who spoke of how his force is having to combat budget cuts and reduced officer numbers. Despite these restraints he was upbeat in his appraisal of policing in the borough, which has the lowest crime rate in the county.
He listened to concerns expressed about speeding on Hambledon’s narrow roads and the rat-run and HGV issues on rural Salt Lane and Markwick Lane. He said that funding cuts limited what measures can be taken and pointed out that other areas suffered from greater speeding problems than Hambledon. That is where resources will be directed.
But he said he and his officers would work closely with villagers if they decided to set up a Community Speed Watch. Some residents signed up to this at the end of the meeting and others may do so if they wish at the Village Shop. Or please email parish councillor May Grove on grovemum@aol.com
The scheme would need at least six volunteers giving and hour or so a week and they would receive police training in the use of speed detection devices. Motorists caught speeding would be sent warning notices. The scheme would also be a way of providing data about speeding in the village.
More details can be found here
The meeting, hosted by the Parish Council, heard a report of its activities over the last 12 months from chairman John Anderson, who also thanked Paul Pattinson, who has stood down after 12 years as a councillor. He is replaced by Robin McKeith, who was welcomed to his new role.
All of the village’s many clubs and organisations gave positive reports about their activities.
Two days after the meeting the annual village clean-up took place, followed by a barbecue outside the village shop.
Join Julie Steele on Sunday the 5th of May to experience together a May dawn chorus of birdsong. Julie will assist in identifying the birdsong. Meet outside the Village Shop at 5am.
A defibrillator has been installed on the external wall of the Merry Harriers pub and is available for public use in an emergency.
Danielle Montgomery-Page, pub manager, said that it had been decided to provide the potentially life-saving device as the pub now caters for an increasing number of guests staying in its accommodation as well as local customers, cyclists and walkers.
Our photograph shows the defibrillator in position secured to the pub’s front wall, on the left side of the building.
Defibrillators, also known as AEDs (Automated External Defibrillator), are used on people experiencing sudden cardiac arrest, a major cause of premature death. The device detects the heart’s rhythm and, if necessary, delivers an electric shock (defibrillation) to re-establish the heartbeat.
They are increasingly common, in places of work and in public. In Hambledon there are already defibrillators available on the wall outside the village shop, at St Peter’s Church and at Hambledon Football Club’s ground at Badger Park.
It is expected that another will soon be installed inside the decommissioned red telephone kiosk at the Hydestile Crossroads, which is currently undergoing renovation.
Although the devices are easy to use and instructions are given when it is activated, courses are also available and a number of villagers have already received basic training in their operation.
Further information can be found here
Hambledon’s Annual Village Meeting, hosted by the Parish Council at the Village Hall this Thursday evening, is to be addressed by Inspector Gary Smith, Waverley Borough Commander for Surrey Police.
He will give an overview of policing in the borough as well as deal with concerns about speeding traffic in the village.
The Parish Council has been exploring various road traffic initiatives and has held meetings with police and Surrey County Council highways engineers in recent months. However, it has been made clear that no traffic calming measures are likely to be introduced.
Budget restraints and a lack of statistical evidence to indicate that Hambledon has a speeding problem have been cited as reasons why the village can expect little in the way of new measures. The council had been exploring a proposal for a 20mph speed restriction in the centre.
The Annual Meeting will provide an opportunity to ask questions of our borough commander as well as hear more about what the Parish Council has been trying to achieve.
There will also be an opportunity to consider whether Hambledon wants to set up a Community Speed Watch where volunteers, with police training, use detection devices to check on the speed of vehicles in the village. Those caught above the limit are sent warning letters.
This would also be a means of determining whether speeding is a real issue and not just anecdotal and would help reinforce the case for traffic calming measures.
The scheme would have to be run by villagers and without sufficient volunteers it will not happen.
Those interested in taking part will be asked to sign their names at the end of the meeting, which will also hear annual reports from the Parish Council and village clubs and organisations.
Refreshments will be served from 7.30pm and the meeting starts at 8pm. (See previous news item for more information)
Details will also be given about taking part in the annual village clean-up, which takes places on Saturday (April 27th) followed at around noon by a parish barbecue outside the village shop.
All are welcome at the Annual Meeting, the clean-up and the barbecue.
Hambledon FC were crowned Premier Reserve League Champions on Saturday after a comprehensive 6-0 win over local rivals Milford & Witley at Badger Park. They now have a Cup final this Thursday at Westfield to try and complete the double by winning the Premier Reserves Challenge Cup. A good season for the Dons, can they make it a great one?
Your Support on Thursday would be appreciated by the Lads : Hambledon Reserves v University of Surrey
18th April 19:30pm KO Westfield FC, Woking, Surrey GU22 9BA
