Suddenly it is no longer 'late summer' but the season of mists and
mellow
fruitfulness. The celebration of Harvest is a timely reminder
to me
that my newsletter is overdue - unless I choose the excuse that it
allows
me the opportunity to use some Harvest Festival photos which, come
Christmas,
will feel too far out-of-date.
Our church was decorated as becomes the season and many gifts
were brought
to our Harvest Festival service. In years gone by it was traditional to
take
fresh fruit and vegetables to such a service - a real harvest from our
gardens.
How to deal with such produce before it deteriorated was always a
problem.
Nowadays most churches ask for canned food and non-perishable items.
And
so by the end of the Harvest Festival service the altar was surrounded
by
supermarket carrier bags filled with both goodies and necessities. The
gifts
given to St Anne's church are taken to Aldershot to support the
Step by
Step project who
help homeless young people to achieve their full potential.
There is a joke about London busses that you wait ages for one
and then three
come along together. So it has been with feel-good factors.
We
have had nothing to shout about then in 2012 we have had the Queen's
Jubilee,
the Olympics and Paralympics, a Brit won the Tour of France, a Brit won
a
tennis major for the first time in over 70 years, and Europe's golfers
even
managed to retain the Ryder Cup. Feel-good and be-proud it
most certainly
has been.
The year started very dry and before the winter was out the
water companies
imposed a hose-pipe ban that was expected to last all year. So after a
hot
spring the inevitable happened and the weather became wet wet wet.
And so it was for the Jubilee though this only dampened
spirits a bit.
Bagshot had its street party closing the whole of the High
Street.
The afternoon started off fine. My wife and I had
decided to
watch some of the River Pageant on TV then go down to the village later
in
the afternoon. It was sunny when we left home but 5 minutes later it
was
a downpour! But still some people were sitting at the
tables!.
Nick Ransom of UKTeenTV
reports on the Bagshot Jubilee Street Party
Prior to the 'big day' St Anne's Church had a Festival of Flowers in
celebration
of the Jubilee with over two dozen arrangements themed on events,
ceremonies
and visits during Her Majesty's reign, sponsored by many Bagshot
individuals,
groups and businesses.
The banner seen behind is that of the Duke of Connaught which hung in
St George's Chapel, Windsor.
Some people were instantly inspired by the Olympics, but I think for
most
people it was something that grew on them. The Olympic Torch Relay was
claimed
to pass withing 10 miles of nearly everybody in the country.
It did
not come through our borough, its nearest point being Ascot.
I don't
think too many people were inspired to try to get there to see it.
I
was in Sussex on the day that it went through that county.
Its route
was going to cause us problems travelling home unless we waited until
it
was well past. So we decided to join in, got the bus to
Chichester
and found a raised bank to stand on near the Festival Theatre.
And
there we waited in the rain as sponsors' vehicles and the like went
past.
Then the rain abated and a minibus stopped right where we were waiting
and
out popped a torch bearer. Before too long the runner came
along and
we witnessed the change-over right in front of us.
It was not until I was looking at my photos later that I
realised that there
were several people facing the 'wrong way' - the police need to be
complemented
on the way they achieved the desired level of security so
unobtrusively,
I just had not noticed them at the time.
I am sure we all have our favourite memories of the Olympics -
whether that
be the James Bond stunt in the opening ceremony, or particular events.
I
took an interest in the TV coverage of the road cycling events because
they
were traversing places that I was familiar with from my formative
years.
Indeed the time trial event went past the end of the road
where I used
to live. I think I'll claim that places have changed a lot
for I only
recognised a handful of places!
I have had a message from Janet Dowling who had been looking at my
material
about the Jolly Farmer
and is
seeking help from my readers "I would like to ask about more
information
on William Davies who was the original Golden Farmer, was also a
highwayman
for 40 years until he was unmasked and hung at Gibbet Lane. I am
writing
a book on Surrey Folk Tales (to be published April 2013) and would be
interested
to know what people local to the area have to say about him, and any
local
tales of what he did!" Drop me a line if you wish to be put
in contact
with Janet.
Tev Hall wrote: "A big thanks for the website. I have not ever
lived in Bagshot,
but I lived in Windlesham until I was about nine and moved to West End
and
stayed there till a move to Fleet (Hampshire) in 1975. I used to go to
most
of the pubs in Bagshot at various times with my friends (the usual pub
crawl)
and have very fond memories of the Bagshot area (well in between the
pints
anyway Ha Ha). I just wanted to say that I really enjoy reading your
web
pages and thanks for your dedication to it (a very time consumming
thing
I'm sure)."
Thirty years ago the Windlesham Society set up a sub-committee
with the aim
of producing a series of leaflets describing walks in the civil parish
which
covered all the public rights of way in Windlesham, Lightwater and
Bagshot.
The publication costs of the 18 walks in the series were met by
Windlesham
Parish Council. They proved very popular with the public and were
updated
and re-printed over the next 15 years to take account of changes in
land
use, new development etc.
Now the walks have again been revised by former parish
councillor and retired
journalist June Green, and they are being published on the
parish council's
website so
that they can be downloaded and enjoyed by residents. Initially four
walks
were published, others will follow.
The walks are all circular and range in length from just over
a mile to four
and a half miles. They are illustrated with maps and colour
photographs,
and in addition to a clear description of the route to follow, they
contain
historical and other details of interest relating to the area.
June said: "I know many people enjoyed using the original
walks leaflets;
now there are many newcomers to the area who might not be aware of the
rich
rights of way heritage we have in Windlesham civil parish. All the
walks
are easy to follow and not too strenuous, and most can be tackled by
all
members of the family. I hope a new generation of walkers will download
them
from the website and set off to explore the area."
Tim Price, Clerk to the Windlesham Parish Council, is very pleased that
the
leaflets are available again. He said: “The Windlesham Walks were
always
very popular and the revised leaflets have been produced to a very high
standard
with colour photographs. They are much more easily obtained now that
they
can be printed directly from the website. It would be interesting to
hear
from people who use them”.
I often add a note to the end of these newsletters reminding
readers to update
me if they change their email address. I have had yet another
example
of the importance of this. Eight years ago some material
about the
ornate ceilings in Bagshot
Park
was added to the website. This had been prompted by someone
seeking
contacts with anybody who had any information about a Bagshot builder
called
Boyce - an ancestor who may have been involved. Most new
visitors to
my website arrive because they have spotted something of potential
interest
when using an Internet search engine - but this is a process of chance
and
it is often many years later that something crops up. I have
just had
a message from someone who is also related to a Bagshot builder called
Boyce.
Is this the same person? We will never know because the email
address
I have for the original enquirer now bounces. Please, please,
if I
have published an enquiry for you then keep me updated when you change
your
email address.
You may have noticed that many websites now have pop-up
messages about their
use of "cookies". This is in response to recent EU
legislation. Cookies
are little bits of supposedly plain-text data that are written by a web
page
and which can be read back later. I say "supposedly" plain
text for
most appear to be coded so that you have no way of knowing what
actually
has been stored. I make very little use of cookies.
If you use
the facility that exists on many of my pages to change the font size
then
the page will set a cookie
which
will be read by the next page you visit so as to keep using your
preferred
font size. If you were to read the cookie file on your computer you
would
find that my cookie really is plain text - it will say something like
"font
size = 10".
.
With best wishes to you and those you hold
dear. Neil home
221 prior to Easter 2006
854 prior to Christmas 2006
1261 prior to Spring 2007
1609 prior to Christmas 2007. Then reset/new counter
330 prior to Spring 2008.
358 prior to Summer 2008 - but counter may have got reset
387 before Christmas 2008
434 before May 2009
no record for Dec 2009
563 in Sept 2010
566 before Christmas 2010
503 before Easter 2011
495 before Sept 2011
510 before Christmas 2011
518 before Easter 2012
668 before Harvest 2012