Come along to the Village Hall for our first film of the year this Saturday, January 25th. We will be showing The Miracle Club, a heart-warming story following three generations of friends who have the dream of winning a pilgrimage trip to Lourdes. Starring Maggie Smith, Kathy Bates, Laura Linney and Stephen Rea. ‘A charming emotional rollercoaster… with stellar performances’ according to The Independent.

Certificate 12A

Tickets £5 from the Village Shop, on the door and online by clicking this link.

Doors and bar open at 7pm and the film starts at 7.30pm

Hambldeon Village Trust Trustees are delighted that Kevin Deanus, Surrey County Council Councillor for Waverley and Eastern Villages, has confirmed that we have been successful in a grant application for the new shop roof. A magnificent £20k has been allocated to our village project from the SCC Your Community Fund.

This has made a significant change to the fund-raising thermometer which now stands at approximately £75k. Work continues to finalise the tendering process.   

A very big thank you to Kevin Deanus and everyone who has donated so far. The shop is at the centre of our community and it will be splendid when it has a roof which is watertight and secure, whatever the weather.

Village residents joined with many others from across the Godalming, Busbridge and Hambledon Minster to say farewell to its rector, Rev Simon Taylor, as he and his family leave after almost 15 years.

At a packed service at Godalming Minster on Sunday (Jan 5^th), Simon spoke with great fondness of his time serving the local church community, while others spoke of his achievements and challenges. He was given a big round of applause, and cakes, coffees and sparkling wine were served. Among other pieces of music, the Minster Choir gave a rendition of Handel’s Zadok the Priest.

At the end of the service, and with his wife Catherine and three sons, Jacob, Luke and Daniel, at his side he cut a celebration cake.

Simon arrived as rector of Busbridge and Hambledon churches in 2010 and soon became a familiar face as well as a driving force for change to more involve the church in local communities. This, ultimately, led to the creation of Godalming Minster, in early 2024.

The new Minster unites the town’s parish church of St Peter and St Paul with St John’s, Busbridge, St Peter’s, Hambledon, and St Mark’s, Ockford Ridge and refocuses both its resources and its outreach.

Simon was also instrumental in securing the future of our village church which, like many, was facing financial challenges. There was a real risk that the village would lose a dedicated vicar for the parish and its church being used for just occasional services.

Simon addressed villagers at special meetings in the village hall and gave a full and frank outline of the problems faced at St Peter’s. This resulted in a successful fund-raising campaign and the retention of a village vicar and the purchase of a new vicarage on Wormley Lane following the sale of the previous one at Mervil Bottom.

Hambledon’s vicar, Rev Simon Willetts, has been appointed as temporary replacement for Simon Taylor. The post for a Hambledon vicar is currently being advertised, as is the post of rector for Godalming Minster.

Simon, originally from Manchester and an avid football fan, started his working life as a teacher in West Sussex, becoming a deputy head before joining the Church and taking up his first post in 2004.

Simon has now been appointed to the leadership development team of CPAS (Church Pastoral Aid Society), a nationwide mission to bring the gospel to people across the UK. Its roots date back to the Industrial Revolution and one of its founders was Lord Shaftesbury, the pioneering social reformer.

Its purpose was to help the Anglican Church deliver its message at a time of massive social change and urban poverty. Today its mission is to promote effective local church ministry.

Simon Taylor goes with the best wishes of Hambledon parishioners and we wish him and his family well as they move from the area to their new home.

This winter, Hambledon has already experienced disruptive weather, and more is forecast.

Tomorrow (Saturday January 4th), a brief period of heavy snow is predicted for the late afternoon and evening, followed by heavy rain.

It is worth remembering that Hambledon Parish Council has an Emergency Plan in place in the event of severe disruption or health risk and details of this follow.

If you need help, other than that of the Emergency Services, please contact Stewart Payne, chair of the council and he and other volunteers will do their best to lend a hand where needed. Contact details are at the end of this article.

• Despite the problems snow can bring, it also creates beauty, as this photo of Church Lane taken in January 2010 shows.

Hambledon Parish Council has an Emergency Plan procedure in place in the event of harsh winter weather bringing disruption to the village.

However, there are many simple precautions villagers can take to make sure they can cope with cuts to power supplies and phone lines, a problem that has affected Hambledon in the recent past and usually caused by high winds or heavy snow.

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Back in the summer three organisations – two from the village and one Surrey wide – got together to agree how to manage donations for the Hambledon Shop Roof Appeal in the most financially beneficial way.  This article also appears in the December edition of the Parish Magazine and provides a summary. 

HVT + HCF + CFS reach MOU for HVS roof appeal, as Debbie Calverley, chair of HCF (and TLA expert!) explains

Back in the summer the Hambledon Village Trust (HVT), the Hambledon Community Fund (HCF) and the Community Foundation for Surrey (CFS) drew up a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) as to how they would work together to manage donations for the Hambledon Village Shop (HVS) roof appeal.

The donations are to HVT as freeholders of HVS and Pendle Cottage and therefore responsible for maintaining the fabric of the building, including the roof.

However, to attract certain legal financial benefits it would make sense for donations to be made to a charity, which HVT is not. Therefore it was agreed, and formalised via the three-way MOU, that donations will be added to – and ‘ring-fenced’ within – one of the two investment funds held and managed by CFS on behalf of HCF, because CFS does have charitable status.

Charitable donations attract Gift Aid whereby the government adds an additional 25%. In addition, any donations over the £3,000 IHT-free limit are not liable for inheritance tax (IHT) when made to a charity.

You might imagine there’s a sophisticated system for managing all this but, on the contrary, CFS have voluntarily taken on the mammoth administrative task of accepting bank transfers, cheques and online donations, adding Gift Aid and investing the proceeds in the HCF fund in a ‘ring fence’ which essentially means recording everything in a document.

When the time comes for outgoings, HCF will make drawdown requests to CFS for withdrawal of monies from the fund for HVT to settle invoices.

This is a model that CFS has used before and we’ve been guided by their expertise. HVT and HCF are extremely grateful to CFS for doing most of the administrative work.

The donation total has now reached an impressive £45,000 towards the £100,000 target, with thanks to all those who’ve donated so far.

If you would like to make a donation just click the icon below:

A public consultation on the the first draft of Surrey County Council’s Rights of Way Improvement Plan has been published. Surrey County Council would love to hear from you. Back in February 2024, Surrey County Council first asked for input to the plan. The plan helps shape the way local highway authorities identify how to make the rights of way network more useful to the public and gives a strategic approach to managing public access. Many residents took part in the initial survey which will have been used to inform this new plan.

As listed on the Rights of Way website the plan is required to:

• Refer to other relevant plans and strategies that may affect use of the network, including structure plans; local plans; healthy living; leisure; tourism; transport and community strategies
• Assess where the existing rights of way network is considered to be deficient and where it could be changed to better reflect current needs
• Assess the extent to which the rights of way network is accessible to blind and partially sighted people and those with mobility problems
• Indicate how any identified deficiencies could be remedied

The first draft of the plan can be found here. Surrey County Council have asked for feedback via a survey which is available until Sunday 9th February 2025, so there is plenty of time to consider it:

Rights of Way Improvement Plan Statutory Consultation – Surrey County Council – Citizen Space

More information can be found on the main website here.

After many years of campaigning, the whole of Hambledon village is now within an HGV exclusion zone. This means that a driver/owner of a lorry over 7.5 t weight is breaking the law if it enters the zone, unless on a local delivery or operating from a base within the zone.

Emergency and public services vehicles are exempted.

The ban replaces the previous advisory notification, a blue sign largely ignored that simply stated a road was unsuitable for HGVs. Now, all roads at the entrance of the zone have signs with a red diagonal line.

Hambledon resident Paul Osborne, Surrey County Councillor Kevin Deanus and Hambledon Parish Council pressed for a ban repeatedly over the past few years. The exclusion zone required careful consideration to ensure that, in banning HGVs from Hambledon’s narrow lanes, other nearby villages were not blighted. There also had to be a public consultation.

The result is one of the largest HGV exclusion zones in the country and covers not just Hambledon but all adjacent parishes. First time offenders will receive an official warning but repeat offenders can be fined or prosecuted.