It’s the first Saturday of every month.
Coffee, cake, and chat.
11:00 – 12:30
Cafe Church this coming Saturday 4th October will be in aid of MacMillan Cancer Support. It will be lovely to see as many of you as possible to support this worthwhile Charity.
Thank you
Valerie
2025
October 4th
November 1st
December 6th
The new Grapevine is here !
Download below, or click on their logo on the site homepage, or go to the site Grapevine page for this edition and many previous additions.
From : Elizabeth Threlfall
ADULT SOCIAL CARE WEBINAR
If you want to find out more about Adult Social Care in Wiltshire, there is a webinar on Tuesday 7th October from 6pm.
Anyone who would like to join can sign up via the link below. You can also use the link to send in questions ahead of the webinar.
Elizabeth Threlfall
Wiltshire Councillor for Brinkworth Division
I said I’d report back and here are the results :
I received 16 replies. Thank you to those people that replied, it really helped !
Of those 16 replies, all 16 felt the website should continue so that’s what I will do.
Which rather suggests that I should invest some time in making it more “visible” so that people let me know of events etc. I’ll have a think about that.
An additional development
Whilst this was going on I also received an email from the Press Association.
It seems that there was a post on the website in 2017 where I was reminding people that the church was their polling station for the upcoming election. That post was illustrated with a picture of a ballot box. There were literally hundreds of similar images that Google returned but it seems that without realising I chose an image that was copyright.
I apologised and removed the post.
They came back to advise that I must buy a licence from them for £792.50 to compensate them.
I explained that the site was not commercial, non revenue generating (it actually costs me money to run it !), and really a public service site serving around 200 residents in a small village and that there were so many similar images that if I’d known it was copyright I’d simply have used another image. They’ve replied that lack of knowledge isn’t a valid legal defence…
I have to say that my view of the media wasn’t particularly positive to start with but now ?…
If anyone knows a copyright lawyer who could advise me I’d be grateful !
From : Caroline Adams
On behalf of Sizewell C, Oxford Cotswold Archaeology presents:
‘Archaeology of Sizewell C Development Site
An Introduction to the Archaeology’
Presented by John Boothroyd and Rhiannon Gardiner, Oxford Cotswold Archaeology
Wednesday 8th October 2025, 7pm
Free webinar
To book, visit www.tinyurl.com/sizewellcarchaeology
This is the first in a series of webinars to take place over this autumn and winter to present the initial results from the extensive archaeological excavations associated with the construction of the third generation of nuclear power station at Sizewell in Suffolk. This has provided unparalleled opportunities to examine the Suffolk coastal landscape which has been at the forefront of numerous continental migrations over the millennia. Excavations are also providing a rare chance to look at the agricultural estate associated with the first Leiston Abbey (1183-1363), vast tracts of which have been uncovered in the course of the excavations. This first webinar presents an introduction to the work; the how, why and where of the archaeological project and overview of the results which will be examined in greater depth in future presentations.
In advance of Sizewell C’s construction, Oxford Cotswold Archaeology has been working on one of the largest archaeological projects ever undertaken in the east of England, to uncover the millennia-long history of human occupation in the area.
Find out more on our website: www.oxfordcotswoldarchaeology.org.uk/project/sizewell
Hi, Simon here, for those who don’t know me I live on Follyfield and manage the village website.
I originally offered to build the new site and look after it for 2 years. That was over 12 years ago – another IT project with a significant overrun !
Anyway…
Over the last couple of years I’ve noticed that I get informed about fewer and fewer events around the village because people tend to use the WhatsApp group and DIY it !
Which kind of suggests that now might be a good time to have a bit of a rethink about what we have ? Perhaps the time has come to “park” the website and use Facebook and WhatsApp instead ? (there is a Facebook Group already, it’s just never been used). That would allow even more DIY ?
The only thing to bear in mind is that both WhatsApp and Facebook tend to be rolling streams of information. It’s difficult to pin static pages that can be used for reference (eg. Bin collections, local businesses, image galleries, Grapevine back issues, etc.) as the posts become old and soon disappear from the first page.
So what do people think ?
Let me know and I’ll collate the responses and let everyone know what I find. Either drop a note below or mail me at : simon.kearsley@symmetry.co.uk
From : Peter Wyman
It was recently learnt that in 2024 Bunny Lees-Smith became an Honorary Member of the Royal Air Force Flight Engineer & Air Engineer Association. The attached link covers that event and includes a number of very interesting photographs.
Just in case anyone missed this….
From : Philip Carter
This Sunday, 7th September, as part of the Athelstan Pilgrim Way (APW) there will be a walk from Crudwell Church to Hankerton Church, leaving Crudwell at 2.30, after gathering from 2pm. It will be mostly across the fields, finishing with cream tea in our church at 4pm and a short evening service.
There are 2 routes, a shorter one joining the Hankerton road by the Murcott roadsign and a longer one via Eastcourt. Everybody welcome.
Philip
Hankerton Village 