A few local artists are participating in an open studio event taking place across Surrey. Surrey Artists Open Studios is a fantastic opportunity to meet Surrey based artists and makers, to find out more about their work, and buy directly from talented artists, continuing to support them at this challenging time.
More information can be found by clicking here.
Artist_Open_Studios_Georgie-Gardiner-dragged-2
For further information and contact details please look at earlier news story on this website, available here: http://www.hambledonsurrey.co.uk/?p=13667
The annual Cricket Club v Village Shop match took place on Saturday 22 August with each team playing for what is now the Mary Caroe Cup. Mary was passionate about Hambledon. She was also a well-loved figure in the village, a shop volunteer, and a tough but fair competitor. It is entirely fitting that this fixture should be named in her memory. Andrew Dunn reports on the match. Many thanks to Ged Hockridge and Tom Powell for permission to use their photos.
From the outset of the Covid-19 pandemic, Hambledon Village Website has played a key role in keeping residents informed. The final Sunday Reflection comes from the web team.
With the arrival of Coronavirus all our lives changed dramatically. New rules, regulations and instructions were being issued on an almost daily basis and only the website could react, almost instantly, keeping villagers abreast as we went into lock-down.
At the beginning the website posted an update every day, alerting people to what was happening around the village and providing emergency contact details.
On March 29th, just after the introduction of lock-down, it ran a short article entitled A Sunday Reflection. It began with these words: “It is an extraordinary time when families and friends cannot gather together over Sunday lunch, when our little church up on the hill cannot be open for Sunday worship, when our village pub cannot open for convivial drinks and conversation, and even our remarkable community shop has to take a short break…
Yet, just as extraordinary, has been the response of the people in our village and its immediate neighbourhood, and today we say “thank you” to all those who have made sure vital things happen when so little can happen.”
The reflection captured the mood of the moment and it was well-received. The web team decided to offer a weekly opportunity for others to ponder on their changed circumstances. Since then, individuals and organisations have stepped forward to provide a fascinating insight into how one small rural village adapted and coped in extraordinary times.
The village shop, its volunteers, the church, the pub, the parish council, nursery school, football and cricket clubs, the village hall, ramblers, cyclists, parish magazine, and many others, have contributed Sunday Reflections and they will stand as a testament to the resolve and fortitude of our resilient community.
The Reflections gave a contrast to the necessary factual information that the website has provided since lock-down – a chance to draw breath and take stock, gather our thoughts and, very often, count our blessings.
We lost a remarkable village lady, Mary Caroe, to the virus. Other were afflicted by it. Some of us had to isolate. It was a challenging time for us all.
Now lock-down has been lifted, restrictions have been eased, and a semblance of normality has returned. Deaths and infection rates have dropped. But we all know that the virus is still at large and we must hope and pray it will not return on the scale we witnessed this Spring and early summer.
The Sunday Reflection has given a weekly window on life in Hambledon at the most unusual of times. It has done its job and run its course. We hope you have enjoyed reading them.
The Village Web team – Paul Osborne, Jon Petersen, Mary Burrows and Stewart Payne
This Saturday 22nd August will see the annual cricket match between The Cricket Club and The Village Shop on the Cricket Green. As of this year, the contest will be for the Mary Caroe Cup.
Mary was lost to Covid earlier this year and as we slowly return to some normality with this cricket match, in this strangest of years, it feels fitting to establish this fixture in her memory. Mary was feisty, fair, took no prisoners and always seemed to have a smile on her face, the cricket will be played in that spirit.
Please come down and support the teams. Play starts at 1:30pm and the match is 30 overs a side. Bring a picnic and a blanket, the Cricket Club bar will be open, gin may be available and someone will have the shop keys if supplies run low.
The weather forecast is good. Let’s remember Mary how she’d like us to, having some fun.
The Management Committee have decided that it is not going to be possible to hold the usual annual general meeting this year, but because there are formalities required to approve the accounts for the year to 31 January 2020 and to confirm certain other decisions, all shareholders should have recieved a SurveyMonkey invitation to vote.
If you are a Hambledon Village Shop shareholder and have not received either a SurveyMonkey email invitation or (if you have a btinternet email address) an direct invitation to vote, please contact jane63moore@btinternet.com before 20 August and a new invitation will be issued.
In this, our penultimate Sunday Reflection, Jane Woolley and John Hindley, the editors of Hambledon’s Parish Magazine, reflect on how it has kept the village informed and entertained throughout the Covid-19 pandemic and resulting lock-down.
“All church services cancelled”; “Cricket suspended”; “Promising season curtailed”; “A rousing last performance”. Just some of the headings we were having to write during March as we edited the April issue of the Parish Magazine. Our hearts were sinking deeper and deeper into our boots: what prospect was there of any subsequent issues as everyone and everything locked or shut down until further notice?
However, by April 16th, the last date for receipt of copy for the May edition, there was so much material that, for only the second time in recent history, we had a 60-page issue on our hands. But not the last.
Although runs could not be scored on the cricket green, no goals kicked at the football club, no audiences entertained at the village hall, just about all the other village organisations and clubs – from the church to the pub to the shop – had re-activated themselves in ways that they had never imagined of in pre-pandemic days.
Parish Council meetings? No problem thanks to Zoom. Church services? Worship, prayer and fellowship on offer online. Pub grub? A special take-away menu prepared for those who were having to self-isolate. The weekly shop? Just telephone or email your order to Hambledon Village Shop for delivery to your door-step on the very same day.
All this plus community assistance and fundraising initiatives launched to provide for those in need of support, including financial help, and articles on how individual families were responding to lock-down.
And where to find all this vital information? In the Parish Magazine, of course. Throughout the pandemic the Magazine, with a team of volunteers to deliver it to doorsteps, attempted to keep track of and report on the often fast-moving and sometimes contradictory changes that affected everyone in Hambledon.
Perhaps an even more important role has been its ability to keep people aware of what a significant number of individuals and groups have been doing to ensure that village life continued under the new-normal. New contributors appeared, with wonderful offerings, and three more 60-page issues followed. VE Day was commemorated.
For people who had to self-isolate and for to all who had to lock-down, the Magazine demonstrated that Hambledon’s community spirit never wavered.
The editors had few problems, other than dealing with last minute changes. The good-news stories continued to flow and one of the best headlines we were able to write for the latest (August) issue of the Magazine was “Heading back to normal” (although caution did dictate the addition of a question mark!).
Here is something you can do to help the village and keep those young (and older) minds creative and busy for a while!
As many of you may know, a group of volunteers have set up a speed watch in Hambledon. The intention is to make drivers more aware of their speed and generally slow the traffic through the narrow lanes of the village. But it only works when we are out there in our high vis jackets…
..And that’s where you, your children and grandchildren come in. We are launching a Speedwatch Scarecrow Competition. The idea is to make a scarecrow, dressed and decorated in whatever way you like, with a sign attached to it imploring drivers, in a friendly way, to slow down. Then attach this to a pole, fence panel, hedge, wooden stake, gate post, deck chair etc on your land but visible from the road. If you don’t live near the main roads through Hambledon then get in touch and we can arrange somewhere visible.
This initiative will be a more constant reminder to drivers to check their speed, as well as alerting them to the presence of children on the lanes in the village. We intend to get The Surrey Advertiser down to cover the story so that the speeding problem gets more coverage and have asked a local police officer to judge the competition!
The deadline for displaying your Scarecrow is October 1st. The scarecrows will be judged and the winning design will be awarded with a special prize …to be announced!
Below are a couple of links to help you make a basic scarecrow and then – get creative. Maybe you want to make the classic Scarecrow from The Wizard of Oz or Worzel Gummidge, a well known cartoon character, a (flattering) likeness of someone in the village, or perhaps someone with a high vis jacket, speed gun, or zimmer frame is more your style, or a character with a well known slogan, or perhaps local racing driver Damon Hill ..the choice is yours – the more eye-catching the better!
Please get in touch on jokirkland@yahoo.com if you have any questions and to let me know where your Scarecrow will be so we don’t miss any. If I can’t answer then I’ll enlist the help of Mary Grove head of all things speed watch and a Parish Councillor.
https://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Scarecrow
http://www.thekidsgarden.co.uk/makeasillyscarecrow.html
We look forward to seeing your creations!
The Hambledon Speed Watch Team