On 20^th May this year, our daughter, Rebecca, was married at Holy Cross Church and we were reminded of why Hankerton is such a wonderfully supportive village in which to live. We were truly grateful for the offers of help we received in the months before and on the day of the wedding from fellow villagers and would like to take a moment to thank them all.

To Ted and Catherine for offering their field to site a marquee, to Chris Jarvis for her offer to help with the floral arrangements, to Carrol for offering accommodation for our guests, to Chris Betts for organising a team of ladies and gentlemen to give our church a thorough clean and to those who were part of that team – many thanks.

We really appreciated those residents of Church Lane who allowed our guests to park in their driveways and Mike Geake and Tony Jarvis, our very special parking supervisors who worked valiantly in the pouring rain to ensure that cars were parked sensibly. Also thanks to Philip Carter who did sterling work with umbrellas, allowing our guests to arrive at the church in a dry state.

Lorraine and Valerie ensured that our florist, Emily, was looked after in the church on Saturday morning and Valerie looked after the church flowers while we were on holiday – sincere thanks to you both.

Finally, to Carrol and June who braved the inclement weather to see guests and the bridal party arrive at the church – thank you!

We’re sure that we have forgotten someone in our list but please be assured that all your efforts and time were very much appreciated by our family.

Hankerton is, indeed, a very special village in which to live!

Heather and Mike Goodwin

LEFT IN HANKERTON CHURCH.

A small anorak, turquoise and pink flowers, nametape Isabelle Lawrence.

It was noticed on about 8^th June, general election day.

Please contact Philip Carter, Old School House, next to the church. 01666 575465.

Nightmares !  (boom boom)

It’s the annual Charlton Park Funride this Sunday (18th) !

The event has both short and long routes and the long route brings the horses along the bridlepath to Bullocks Horn, down to Cloatley Road, into the village, and then out down the small lane past the Old Post Office.

The route will be signposted with orange signs and orange ribbons and I would have thought that horses would start to appear in the village from around 10:45. The organisers typically remove the signage the same day or the day after.

The event is organised by the North Wiltshire Saddle Club which is a friendly local club that organises various events for local riders throughout the year. The funride is a charity event supporting Charlton Church, Riding for the Disabled, and The Air Ambulance.

You can see the event page <here> and if you can ride why not have a go ?   It’s just a turn up on the day thing.

They’re a friendly lot so give them a wave as they pass !

and finally….

What do you call a well balanced horse?

Stable !

Apologies, the earlier post went a little early !

Wessex water are proposing work to rehabilitate the sewers in the village starting in 18 September. The work involves lining the current sewers with a new pipe and requires access to manholes only to complete. I’ve included a leaflet detailing he process for your information.

The work involves closing Chapel lane 18-22 September, Cloatley Road 25 September – 4 October and Murcott lane in the vicinity of Folly field  5-6 October. Location plans and closure diversion routes are also attached for your information.

I will be writing to those affected nearer the time and wanted to give you this advanced information for you to disseminate this to as many people as you feel necessary.

Kind regards
 
Dominic Gorton
Infiltration Engineer
Rehab Team
WECS Utilities

C9836 Hankerton Lining PLAN 2
4829 Sewer repairs leaflet update (epoxy) (2-2-16)
C9836 Hankerton TTRO MURCOTT LANE
C9836 Hankerton TTRO CLOATLEY ROAD
C9836 Hankerton Lining PLAN 1

Wessex water are proposing work to rehabilitate the sewers in the village starting in 18 September. The work involves lining the current sewers with a new pipe and requires access to manholes only to complete. I’ve included a leaflet detailing he process for your information.

The work involves closing Chapel lane 18-22 September, Cloatley Road 25 September – 4 October and Murcott lane in the vicinity of Folly field  5-6 October. Location plans and closure diversion routes are also attached for your information.

I will be writing to those affected nearer the time and wanted to give you this advanced information for you to disseminate this to as many people as you feel necessary.

Kind regards

Dominic Gorton
Infiltration Engineer
Rehab Team
WECS Utilities

For the last 6 months a group of villagers have been valiantly fighting the monster that is BT !

After many hours of work and masses of misinformation, misdirection, and misery our very own St George (Geoff Preston) has finally managed to find out what is going on……

Here’s his summary :-

Many of you are aware we have been experiencing issues in the village with broadband for some time. You will have seen the new cabinet on the corner of Follyfield (cab5) and may have been concerned its appearance late last year has not resulted in improvement to service. The Parish Council(PC) have been speaking to Wiltshire Council, BT and Openreach to ascertain exactly why this has been the case. We are now able to outline why there has been no noticeable improvement and advise this should change in the not too distant future. We can also clarify a key concern of the PC relating to just what the planned work is and will result in.

The PC and residents have had concerns the planned migration to the new cab5 would not be migration to fibre ports on cab5, but migration from the existing cabinet outside the village (cab3) and would use copper to cab5. Residents in the village had ascertained this was the current state of affairs and whilst users where connected to cabinet 5 they were seeing no significant speed or line improvement.

Based on the discussions we can confirm Openreach’s planned migration to cab5 will result in ALL existing users on fibre ports on cab3, being migrated to fibre ports on cab5. The current routing from cab3 to cab5 via copper is part of the “Live to Live” migration process aimed at limiting customers down time. The existing cab3 ports are routed to cab5 via copper in the interim, whilst OpenReach gain confirmation from all Internet Service Providers who use the cabinet that a defined date is acceptable for a 2-hour outage. Openreach advise most ISPs have now confirmed a date later this month however they are still waiting for one or two ISPs to respond. When all ISPs with customers on the cabinet confirm the date all users on cab3 will be cut-over to cab5 fibre ports. This will should result in faster speeds throughout the village and environs as the 1.2km – 2.0 km of copper cable will be removed.

Of course, speeds are also dependent on the package you have with your service provider i.e. limited download speed packages. In the interim new lines are being connected to cab5.

In summary, based on our discussions with BT/Openreach:

–          The current migration to copper is an interim part of the Live to Live cutover.

–          The planned migration target is for ALL users on cab3 fibre ports to be migrated to cab5 fibre ports.

–          OpenReach are currently liaising with Service Providers to agree a final cutover date later this month.

–          The final cutover will mean a loss of broadband for a period of 2-3 hours.

Many thanks Geoff !

General Election.

159 voted in Hankerton church today plus about 50 postal voters, total 209 out of 245 entitled to vote, a very high turnout of 85%. Well done you villagers.

Philip Carter