News

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Tuesley Farm Consults on Increased Polytunnels Proposal

The Hall Hunter Partnership, owners of the Tuseley Farm soft fruit business, is inviting Hambledon residents to view its latest proposals to extend polytunnel covering.

The business, which grows strawberries, blueberries and raspberries on the farm that occupies land between Tuesley Lane and Hambledon Road, and is partly within the Hambledon boundary, has already previewed its plans to local parish councils and is in pre-application discussions with planners at Waverley Borough Council.

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Hambledon’s “Lockdown Reflections” Published for Posterity

The village website’s “Sunday Reflections”, a popular feature that appeared throughout the Coronavirus lock-down period and beyond, are now available in print as a lasting account of life in our small village under extraordinary circumstances.

The Reflections have been collected together and reproduced in a booklet which is available from Hambledon Village Shop from Monday (October 11th). This includes contributions reflecting almost all aspects of village life during the pandemic, and with a foreword provided by local MP and village resident Jeremy Hunt.

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Parish Council – A Vacancy

A vacancy has occurred on Hambledon Parish Council and a formal process has now begun to find a new council member.

This follows the decision by Mike Parry to stand down after more than eight years on the council.

In the first instance, the parish council has informed the local election authority, Waverley Borough Council, which has issued a notice that allows for a 14-day period for ten or more local electors to request an election.

This notice can found on this website’s Parish Council page in the document library under Legislation and Planning, or by clicking here https://www.hambledonsurrey.co.uk/?page_id=166 

If no such request is made, the parish council can then begin a process of looking to co-opt a new member to fill the casual vacancy. Applications will be invited. 

Details of this procedure can be found here https://www.hambledonsurrey.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Councillor-co-option-process.pdf

 

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SPEEDWATCH SCARECROWS – THE JUDGE’S VERDICT

Judgement has been delivered on Hambledon’s speed watch scarecrows and the winners declared.

And, as befits our small and connected community, they ranged from a nonagenarian to a youngster aged five.

Jane Woolley, long-standing village resident, founder of Hambledon Village Trust and for many years its parish clerk, was asked to step in to conduct the judging, after local police casualty reduction officer Steve Milton had to withdraw at the last minute.

With notebook and pen she examined all the scarecrows scattered around the village. More than 30 were inspected, each one a home-made creation by local families and friends, individuals and groups, and each delivering a message to motorists to drive slowly through Hambledon’s narrow lanes.

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Warning After Rise in Local Covid-19 Cases

Waverley Borough Council has issued a warning to all local communities to be “extra vigilant” following a marked increase in Coronavirus cases in the area.

The new advice is regarded as an amber warning to ensure people follow all the latest safeguarding advice, and is not intended to suggest any need for alarm – just to be aware of the increase and the need for exercising due caution.

The new advice is available on Waverley’s Facebook and Twitter posts and on its website here: https://www.waverley.gov.uk/news/article/655/waverley_sees_rise_in_covid-19_case_numbers

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Hambledon Speed Watch Scarecrows Feature on Local Media

Hambledon’s Speed Watch Scarecrows are to feature on regional television, radio and in the local Press.

The eye-catching roadside scarecrows have caught the imagination of the media and various villagers have been asked to give interviews to explain their purpose.

Local resident Jo Kirkland came up with the idea of home-made scarecrows to deliver a message to motorists to drive slowly and carefully through the narrow, unlit and unpaved roads of Hambledon. The idea has been endorsed by the Parish Council and is supported by the Hambledon Speedwatch team led by Mary Grove.

Locally donated prizes will be awarded to those judged to have made the best scarecrows.

Today (Wednesday September 30th) the BBC regional television news programme South Today ran a feature on the scarecrow campaign in its breakfast show and this is likely to be repeated during afternoon and evening bulletins.

BBC Radio Surrey is expected to air a slot at around 7.50am tomorrow and the Surrey Advertiser is planning to carry an article in the edition published this Friday.

Up and down the village, householders have been busy making scarecrows and then putting them outside their homes to get across the message of safe driving. They come in all shapes and sizes and, to date, there are 26 spread around the village, from Hydestile to Lane End.

Due to the success of the scheme the date for entries has been extended until next Tuesday, October 6th,  so there is still time for more villagers to make a scarecrow. And Fearless Martial Arts, based in The Coal Yard, is the latest to offer a prize, a two-week family pass for free training.

For a list of the other prizes please see earlier news items here. https://www.hambledonsurrey.co.uk/?p=13815 and https://www.hambledonsurrey.co.uk/?p=13667

On behalf of concerned villagers, Hambledon Parish Council has been pressing for increased safety measure in the village, including further speed reductions. However, Surrey County Council has, so far, indicated that no new measures can be introduced.

The Speed Watch campaign is supported by Surrey police and the scarecrow competition is to be judged by the local casualty reduction officer. This website will carry the results and photographs of the entries.

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Surrey Artists’ Open Studios 19 Sept – 4 Oct 2020

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.

 

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The Mary Caroe Cup – Match Report

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.

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A Final Sunday Reflection

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

 

 

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The Mary Caroe Cup – this Saturday

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.

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Hambledon Village Shop Annual General Meeting

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 [email protected] before 20 August and a new invitation will be issued.

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Sunday Reflection

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!).   

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Speeding Scarecrow Competition

OPEN TO ALL, YOUNG AND YOUNG AT HEART!

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 [email protected]  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.rhs.org.uk/education-learning/gardening-children-schools/family-activities/Activities/activities/make-a-scarecrow

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