yellow dahlia flowerWelcome to another, albeit rather overdue, newsletter. The problem with things that you can put off is that you do. Part of the matter is that as I approach the task I think to myself "now if I hold off a few days I'll be able to mention so-and-so"!

No sooner had I sent out most of the emails announcing that my last newsletter was available than I was reminded that I had omitted to mention the 1st Bagshot Scout's Centenary Celebrations that had been held in June 2009. So if you were very quick off the mark in looking at the newsletter then you will have missed this report.

The down-turn in the economy a while back meant that a lot of the estate agent chains pulled out of the village - but one enterprising businessman saw this as an opportunity to open a new independent agency, Howlands, which seems to be thriving. Good on you, I say. More recently a further independent has opened.

chestnutsOur local supermarket, Somerfield, was taken over by the Coop a couple of years ago and earlier this year was re-branded. Those people who I have spoken to about this are unenthusiastic about the result with many prices increasing significantly. One shopper who complained was told that the Coop perceive Bagshot to be an affluent area and therefore they charge us more. It seem to me that the flaw in this logic is that the affluent members of our community are far more likely to drive to one of the neighbouring places to shop in Waitrose than to patronise the Coop. That could be a good thing to do, as we are amassing a list of things not to buy in the Coop if you can avoid it as they are significantly cheaper in Waitrose or even M&S - top of the list is milk!

The closure of the Nationwide Building Society meant we lost our village-centre ATM - few people seem happy using the ATMs hidden away at the side of the garage. So one plus for the Coop is that they have installed an ATM in their shop front on The Square.

The housing development ofnthe old Waterer's nursery site off the A30 has at last got underway. I think it is about 150 houses of varying classes. The garden centre sales area remains and in essence the development surrounds it on three sides running across from the A30 to the railway line. The area being prepared for development can be seen in last year's Google aerial photographs here

If you have done a web search you may have noticed that there are two Bagshot web sites, this one at www.bagshotvillage.org.uk and another at www.bagshotvillage.com - but don't worry, we are not competing with each other. I hate the cliché 'organic growth' but that is how this site has developed - by reacting to contributions that I receive. As a result I guess you might call it the Bagshot Heritage web site and a lot of its visitors are ex-pats, people whose ancestors lived in the village and other non-residents. Not the least of my reasons for keeping clear of anything more than a minimal amount of 'topical' content is that I know that I could not put in the effort needed to maintain topicality - and to my mind there is nothing worse than a web site that is promoting as a future event something that happened last year. By contrast the other site is taking on that task and concentrating on topical issues and matters of immediate relevance to villagers. My involvement is as one of the contributors to the calendar. We occasionally discuss the prospect of integrating the two under a single address but since they function differently beneath the surface that is easier said than done and since we are all doing these things in our spare time it is not exactly top of the priority list.

Talking of new web sites, St Anne's Church have developed their own dedicated web site www.saintannebagshot.org.uk to take over from the Church's pages that I hosted here. That is now in the throws of going 'live'.

I'm not fishing for compliments, but it is nice to know that my efforts with this website are appreciated, such as this from Joan " I was born in Bagshot and really enjoy The Bagshot web site. The quiz is good fun. I managed to get 34 right. Thanks for an excellent site."

Earlier this year we heard of the death of former Bagshot businessman Ed Papworth - many older residents will recall the family's electrical store. Derrick Papworth has kindly contributed an interesting article about the family.

a large oak tree in autumnOther additions to the website since the last newsletter include

Enquiries

red rose hips on a bushPeter Baggs has written saying "I have links to the Gosden family my on line tree http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?db=pabaggs and if relations can contact myself I can include their families."  The link provides a contact address for Peter.

Google maps have new aerial photographs of Bagshot taken about May last year. They provide higher resolution images that were provided by the previous 2000 survey.  See http://maps.google.co.uk What caught my eye is the 'plane over the cricket ground.

 

With best wishes to you and those you hold dear.
Neil
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The opinions expressed here are those of the author, writing on his own behalf and not representing anyone else or any organisation. The opinions expressed by contributors are their own and are not necessariy endorsed by this website..

The previous newsletter was Christmas 2009.

copyright © 2010 Neil Bartlett. All rights reserved. Published privacy statement.

ps: each time I do a mailing telling friends like yourself about one of these 'update' pages I get several bounce back as undeliverable because the intended recipient has changed their email address, and I have no way of knowing what it has changed to.  So if you change your email please remember to put me on the list of people to tell if you want to keep in touch.

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