Heroes of Henley Honoured

On Sunday 18th October 2009 one of the largest parades Henley had ever seen processed through the town for a service of dedication to a supplementary war memorial in St John’s parish church.

Dr Douglas Bridgewater (below left), a former High Bailiff and an expert on the history of the First World War, had established the names of 11 heroes who had not been included on the original war memorial in the church. These soldiers and sailors were all recorded as having been born or resided in Henley.

Led by the Shirley Pipe Band, the parade set off from the Memorial Hall in Station Road and made its way to the church in High Street in time for a service at 10am. 17 standards were on show including those of the Royal British Legion, Warwickshire Fire Brigade and the Royal Signals Association. The parade also included ex-service men and women, residents and members of the Court Leet.

Photos by Alan Robson

The new plaque to the right of the original war memorial in St John's church

The names on the new memorial are:

Frederick Ernest Long. Private 1st Bn R Warks Regt, killed in action in Flanders on 3rd December 1914.

William Beard, Lance Corporal 2nd Bn Worc Regt, killed in action at Loos on 26th September 1915.

Herbert Henry Perkins, Sergeant 8th Bn R Warks Regt, killed in action on the Somme on 1st July 1916.

Albert Charles Adkins, 1st Bn Warks Regt, died of wounds in Germany on 13th May 1917.

William Eardley Hayward, Ord Seaman RNVR died in England 3rd April 1918.

Howard Hobbins, Private, 2nd Bn R Berks Regt. died of wounds in France on 27th April 1918.

Frederick Ernest Lowe, Private RASC, died in Egypt on 12th July 1918.

Percival Thomas Evans, Lance Corporal, Royal Engineers, died in England on 6th August 1918.

Harold Ingram MM, Private 2nd Bn Coldstream GDS, died of wounds in France on 27th September 1918.

William Oliver Burden, Private 2nd Bn Worc Regt. killed in action in France 29th September 1918.

George Valentine Crompton, L Bomb. RFA, died of wounds in France on 6th November 1918.

View Slideshow of the parade

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This event has been added to the Henley Life page of the Town's website

Centenary Dinner at the Memorial Hall

Over one hundred residents including the High Bailiff, 4 former High Bailiffs and the Chairman of the Henley War Memorial Trust, Peter Crathorne, attended a dinner to mark the centenary of the opening of the Memorial Hall.

The Public Hall and Institute was officially opened on New Year's Eve 1908 with opening performances following in the first week of 1909. It was the brainchild of Dr Ernest Nelson a well respected Henley doctor and principal of Arden House School. He raised £1,500 from the issue of shares at £1 each and the directors were local businessmen and professionals whose names form part of the town's history.

During the first world war the hall became a hospital for wounded servicemen and established an excellent reputation for the care and recovery of its patients. In 1947 the hall was purchased after an appeal within the town as a memorial to those who had laid down their lives and to those who had rendered services to their country during the second world war. Along with the Memorial Playing Fields on the Stratford Road it continues to be administered by the Henley-in-Arden War Memorial Trust which is a registered charity, often referred to as The Town Improvement Committee (TIC).

The evening commenced with a reception followed by an excellent four course meal provided by Sue Dalby. Following the meal the audience were treated to a performance by the charming New Zealand operatic star Amelia Whiteman, pictured right. Her repertoire included items from well known operas and stage musicals.

Former High Bailiff John Latham auctioned a coaching session with a well known Warwickshire cricketer. After enthusiastic bidding it was knocked down to the Johnson brothers, Pete and John. Everyone attending congratulated Duncan and Marijana Bainbridge for organising a splendid evening. The hall looked outstanding with the new red chairs in use for the first time.

The vision of previous generations was greatly appreciated by all who attended this centenary celebration.

View Slideshow of the evening

This event has been added to the Henley Life page of the Town's website

Aston Cantlow Farm sold to pay for church roof

The 18-year legal "nightmare" over the repair bills for the Aston Cantlow church roof came to an end when the farm was sold at auction by John Earle, the local Auctioneer & estate agent.
  
Andrew and Gail Wallbank had been deemed liable to pay for the repairs to St John the Baptist church under a "chancel repair liability" law dating from when the Church  lost the House building and farm land when Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries and gave the former church property and land to his local nobles making them Lay Rectors.

The couple failed to overturn the law and saw Glebe Farm in Aston Cantlow, Warwickshire, fetch £850,000 at auction, to pay for the repairs and the PCC's legal bill totaling about £400,000.
  
Mr Wallbank, 69, and his wife, 62, have been told they must pay around £230,000 to repair the crumbling 13th century church and also face a legal bills of around £250,000. They inherited the farm in 1972 and were unaware that the parochial church council would shortly thereafter be seeking from them monies to pay for the cost of repairing the Chancel as they were Lay Rectors now they owned Glebe Farm. Speaking after they saw the Grade II listed farmhouse go under the hammer at a sale in Henley-in-Arden, they accused the Church of England of acting disgracefully.

Mr Wallbank, from Carno, Powys, said he had no regrets about battling the obscure law. "I felt what they were doing was so wrong that we had to take a stand against it. It was quite disgraceful the way the whole thing was handled - why they couldn't have agreed to let us buy ourselves out (of the covenant) before I just don't know."

The couple  have had to agree to pay the Church £37,000 last week to remove the covenant so the property could be sold.

His wife also criticised the church adding: "It's completely against Christian principles. As the auction was going on I was thinking 'you are giving the church our house'."

The covenant that dates back to the reign of Henry VIII was challenged by the Wallbanks on the grounds that it breached their human rights.

Aston Cantlow's Church of St John the Baptist stands on an ancient Saxon site and is thought to be where William Shakespeare's parents were married.

Peter Cornford property correspondent

Heartstart Resuscitated!!

When Heartstart was formed at the turn of the century the Court Leet agreed to hold any money acquired by Heartstart for the running of its organisation.

At their last meeting, however, the Court Leet decided that they no longer wished to have any responsibility for Heartstart and were about to donate Heartstart funds to Warwickshire Air Ambulance. This spelled trouble for Henley’s wonderful first responder, Sara Butler, who had recently become a qualified technician with West Midlands Ambulance Service and needed a new, more advanced defibrillator that would also enable her, along with all her other skills, to take ECGs (Echocardiograms).

As a result of the Court Leet’s decision, a meeting was called by a group of supporters on Thursday 15th October 2009 and ‘Friends of Heartstart’ was born. After much discussion this new organisation emerged, a constitution was drawn up, a chairman, treasurer and secretary were appointed and it was agreed to open a new bank account so that with the transfer of funds Heartstart could continue.

In fact Heartstart should carry on in an even better form – Sara not only has the training to administer oxygen and perform CPR alongside the use of the defibrillator, but is also qualified to respond to a wider variety of calls and to take ECGs once the new defibrillator has been acquired. All these things are vital in the enabling of early diagnosis and therefore treatment.

Henley is determined to make sure Heartstart continues to serve the people of this town. There have been 15 callouts already this month which proves that Heartstart is still very much needed. If you would like to register your support as a ‘Friend of Heartstart’ please click on the button below and complete the form so we know that people in the town care about this organisation.

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER AS A "FRIEND OF HEARTSTART"

Also, if you are considering becoming a First Responder and would like to know more, then visit WMAS website (www.fastaid.org.uk ) or you can phone/e-mail either

Sara Butler Tel: (01564) 792975 e-mail barneybee@hotmail.co.uk
or
June Griffith Tel: (01564) 795168 e-mail mjunegriffith@aol.com

So, ‘With a little help from our Friends’, Heartstart breathes again!!

Jan Crathorne reporting

Rector Applauds Community Payback Team

They turned up in a big white van, put on their orange tops and got on with the job! That was a few weeks ago.

Five visits later St. Nicholas' churchyard has been strimmed, mown, lopped and pruned into shape thanks to a Community Service Scheme. On the back of the orange tops you will read the word 'payback' - these are offenders who are paying us back for their crimes. In conversation with them I have learnt that Community Service is inconvenient and sort of embarrassing, and therefore a good deterrent.

Nevertheless all the young men have been polite and good natured and hard working, and one or two of them have even enjoyed their work! I am sure that we are all grateful to the scheme organisers...and the workers...for doing a very good and worthwhile job.

John Ganjavi reporting

Surprise find on X20

Cleaning staff at Johnsons Coach & Bus got the surprise of their life recently when carrying out the evening cleaning on one of the firm's Double Decker Buses which operates the busy X20 Birmingham to Stratford~upon~Avon route. Underneath one of the seats was a Bum Bag, inside a carrier bag containing well over £2,000 in notes!

A company spokesman said “Our cleaning team are used to finding all sorts of things on vehicles from musical instruments to false teeth and everything in between, but this package gave them a bit of a shock."

The firm immediately contacted the Police and later handed the money into Steelhouse Lane Police Station in Birmingham where a grateful passenger was later reunited with his missing money.

Christians Alive and Well in Henley

ST JOHN’S CHRISTMAS BAZAAR – Saturday 28th November in the Church Hall 11.00 am to 3.00 pm. Stalls include homemade cakes, gifts, cards, tombola, jewellery, toys, produce, bottle stall, Father Christmas, teas and hot lunches, etc.

QUIZ NIGHT on Saturday 5th December. Church Hall Beaudesert Lane. Teams of 4 are invited from organisations in the town, groups of friends and/or families to join us.  £6 per person to include Ploughman’s Supper. Tickets from Diane Bayley (01789 488209).

YOUR PARISH CHURCH IN THE WORLD. The congregation of St. John’s give financial support to help cure Leprosy in Nigeria and to help feed immigrants in Sabadell. It also supports the work of the Church Army who help people in the marginalized parts of our society and assists young people in need in Birmingham through the work of St. Basils. In Lent they support the work of CORD who seek to ensure new life after conflict in war torn areas of the world. Our Harvest produce goes to support the work of Coventry City Mission and at Christmas toys go to the Birmingham City Mission. Many St Johns members take part in the annual May Christian Aid door to door collection in Henley. If you would like to be part of this and meet those involved ring 797949 for more information.

HENLEY METHODIST CHURCH has available for community use a medium sized meeting room which comfortably seats about 40 people, with modern kitchen and toilet facilities. Booking enquiries should be made to Brian Bradley on 01789 488551.

Sunday Services all at 11.00 am are: 1st - Mr. Barry Sutcliffe; 8th – Revd. Robert J. Powell (Sacrament); 15th – Mr. Telfryn Pritchard (10.55 am Remembrance); 22nd - Mr. James Steele; 29th – Revd. Brian Mason. The Baby Group meets every Monday 10.30 am.
 
HENLEY IN ARDEN & DISTRICT ROYAL BRITISH LEGION. Remembrance Day Parade will take place on Sunday 8th November at 11.00 am. Parade will leave Memorial Hall in Station Road at 10.25 am. The Evening Service will this year be held at Aston Cantlow at 6.00 pm.
 
BEAUDESERT & HENLEY CHRISTMAS LIGHTS. The Switch On for 2009 will be on Saturday 5th December. The Carol Service will start at 5.00 pm led by the Alcester Silver Band, with the switch on by Carol Sheet design winners at 5.30 pm. Mulled Wine and Mince Pies will be available, supplied by Henley Ex Services Social Fund.

John Pudney - Religious Affairs Correspondent

Click here to read the latest Parish Church Newsletter

Henmen Rescue Plan in place

Following intervention by the Youth Centre Management Committee, the Men’s Group that meets at The Hub on the High School Grounds has secured its future until Christmas. They meet every Thursday from 10.00am until 12.00 noon at the centre. They have in the past taken part in activities which support independent living. Since Stratford College have withdrawn from the group these activities have stopped.

This is a very friendly group of men with an average age of around 75. They have requested that I write on their behalf to ask if there is anyone who could volunteer to help them with improving their culinary skills, supporting them in developing their IT skills, providing them with advice on the challenges of life and living or just joining in with the enjoyable interaction that comes from friends meeting up together for a chat, a game of pool or cards. Commitment would be at whatever level a volunteer could provide, probably by working on a fortnightly/monthly rota. Henmen would be flexible on commitments.

Henmen have solved their finance problems for now. They need two things to sustain them: new recruits and activity leaders. If you feel you could assist with this excellent and desperately needed community service or you would like to find out more about Henmen and its activities please contact: Peter Crathorne (Chairman of the Hub.) 01564 795470 or e-mail peter.crathorne@sky.com

Alternatively you could just call in for a visit any Thursday 10.00am – 12.00 noon.

Many thanks in anticipation of your help.

Peter Crathorne reporting

Henley Businesswoman Appointed to Top Job

Henley resident Anne Dorow has just been appointed Chair of Warwickshire Community Health, part of NHS Warwickshire.

Warwickshire Community Health provides a wide range of “out of hospital” services such as District Nursing, Health Visiting, Dentistry, Physiotherapy, Chiropody, Speech and Language therapy, etc and works closely with local General Practitioners and Social Services to keep people healthy and provide care for them as close to home as possible.

Anne said of the appointment “I am delighted to have the opportunity to influence and shape the modernisation of Community health services for the population of Warwickshire by leading the Board of Warwickshire Community Health. People have the right to expect a 21st century approach to the provision of high standards of healthcare and Warwickshire Community Health will do all it can to meet these expectations. We will work to provide healthcare services which are as close to home as possible and which are effective, responsive and sensitive to the needs of all users.”

Anne is a former Chairman of Solihull Primary Care Trust and in 2006 was involved in establishing the first Care Trust in the West Midlands area. During her career Anne has held senior roles in the private, public and voluntary sectors.

Anne also currently serves as an Independent Member on the Standards and Ethics Committee of Stratford-on-Avon District Council, ensuring that high standards are maintained in public service by local Councillors. In recent months Anne has also been elected Chairman of the recently formed Henley-in-Arden Allotment and Gardening Club.

Henley Wildlife Programme 2010

The Henley-in-Arden Wildlife Society has published its programme for 2010.

Full details of the society are available on the Town website www.henley-in-arden.org

St John's Christmas Bazaar - 28th November

This year’s Christmas Bazaar will be bigger and better than ever. It will be open from 11.00am to 3.00pm and for the first time we will be providing hot lunches consisting of jacket potatoes with home-made chilli and/or cheese. We will also be serving the mince pies and cakes to have with a cup of tea or coffee.

There will be an increased range of stalls including books, china and glass, bric a brac, jewellery, gifts, raffles, toys, tombola, handicrafts, preserves, cosmetics and cakes. Two new features this year will be Steve Causon from Your Hand in Mine Wedding Photography who will be taking family photos which will make ideal presents for friends and family this Christmas, and Fudge Heaven selling a wide variety of delicious flavoured fudge.

Contact either Daphne Jones (01926 843515) or Barbara Colclough (01564 793710) for more details.

Checkpoint Charlie & the Berlin Wall

In a change to the Beaudesert & Henley Society's original programme due to illness, Roger Sutton stepped in to give a talk on the Berlin Wall. Roger drew on his own experiences of being stationed in Berlin for ten years to give an account of how the Wall came to exist in 1961 and why it came down 28 years later.

Berlin was originally two settlements: the twin sister cities of Cölln and Berlin. These grew in parallel until they finally became unified under the name of Berlin in the early 18th Century. Berlin was the final German city to fall during the Second World War and it led to the city being divided between the Soviet Union and the Western allied forces – A Military City. Ultimately this led to the Wall being built, a physical symbol of the Cold War. It separated friends and family, divided a nation but gave a bizarre stability between East and West. The Wall was originally just a barbed wire fence that was put up on the 13th August 1961 by the order of Walter Ulbricht. It was 28 miles in length, divided a city and enclosed over 3 million people.

Later on the wall was improved and strengthened, including a 200 yard no mans land zone with watchtowers and check points. It was not until the late 1970s that the infamous 4th generation wall made of 12ft by 4ft slabs of reinforced concrete was put up at a cost of about 16,155,000 East German Marks. The wall went down the middle of Streets, it brought about the destruction of houses, sewers were blocked up and windows in some of the buildings on the wall were bricked up. Despite this many people did manage to escape from the East to the West. In total some 5,000 were successful but 80 died trying. Roger gave illustrated examples of some of the clever and extraordinary escapes including down tunnels, using high wires and being smuggled in cars.

The beginning of the end for the wall came with Gorbachev and his reforms called Perestroika. The communist political force declined in Russia and Eastern Europe. After Hungary opened its borders in August 1989, this triggered a series of events in Czechoslovakia, Romania and Germany as political systems collapsed. In East Berlin pressure built at checkpoints along the wall until the stand off ended with people being allowed to cross. Over the next few days parts of the wall were demolished. The 9th November is thus considered the date that the Wall fell.

Arthur Gennard, on behalf of the members, thanked Roger for his informative talk and the meeting finished with refreshments and the usual friendly chat. The next meeting will be on Thursday 19th November when Mr Gerald Lesinski, Master of Lord Leycester Hospital in Warwick, will give a talk on ‘Guarding the Queen’.

Tickets are still available for the Cheese & Wine Evening & Talk in the Guildhall on the 14th November, contact Lesley Eastwood - 01564 792251.

Medal for Local Marathon Runner

The blanket and the medal may be unfamiliar but many Henley-in-Arden residents will probably recognise the young lady in question. Her name is Rebecca Shaw and for the past few months she has been pounding the pavements in and around Henley and Wootton Wawen. Her motive - to successfully complete the Birmingham EDF Energy Half Marathon on Sunday October 11th.

As the picture shows, she succeeded in a good time of 2 hours 25 minutes. Pretty good for a first attempt. Furthermore with the support of local sponsors, particularly Nigel Walker of Ardencom Ltd, plus friends and many of the regulars at The Three Tuns, where she occasionally works behind the bar, she raised £1071.50 for The British Heart Foundation. Now she is planning to try for the London Marathon.
 
Becci has been a resident of Henley-in-Arden for almost three years. A Brummie by birth, she and her husband Rob spent five years in Australia but came home to get married in St Peter’s Parish Church in Wootton Wawen in September 2006. They returned in February 2007 and have been part of the local community since then.
 
Her interest in running started when she lived in Sydney. "The weather was good, lots of people ran and it seemed a good way to get fit" she says, "but it was not until my return to the UK when a chum suggested I tried a 10 kilometre run for fun that I thought, why not?  I can’t guarantee the sunshine, but I will give it a go." Several of these followed, always for charity, culminating in her recent success.
 
You are likely to see her ‘on the run’ so as to speak but if you want to offer money for the next event she would be happy to stop and speak to you.

Janet Shaw reporting

Letter to DEFRA - Stupid but True

Rt Hon David Miliband MP
Secretary of State.
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA),
17 Smith Square
London

16 July 2009

Dear Secretary of State,

My friend, who is in farming at the moment, recently received a cheque for £3,000 from the Rural Payments Agency for not rearing pigs. I would now like to join the "not rearing pigs" business.

In your opinion, what is the best kind of farm not to rear pigs on, and which is the best breed of pigs not to rear? I want to be sure I approach this endeavour in keeping with all government policies, as dictated by the EU under the Common Agricultural Policy. I would prefer not to rear bacon pigs, but if this is not the type you want not rearing, I will just as gladly not rear porkers. Are there any advantages in not rearing rare breeds such as Saddlebacks or Gloucester Old Spots, or are there too many people already not rearing these?

As I see it, the hardest part of this programme will be keeping an accurate record of how many pigs I haven't reared. Are there any Government or Local Authority courses on this? My friend is very satisfied with this business. He has been rearing pigs for forty years or so and the best he ever made on them was £1,422 in 1968. That is - until this year, when he received a cheque for not rearing any.

If I get £3,000 for not rearing 50 pigs, will I get £6,000 for not rearing 100?  I plan to operate on a small scale at first, holding myself down to about 4,000 pigs not raised, which will mean about £240,000 for the first year. As I become more expert in not rearing pigs I plan to be more ambitious, perhaps increasing to, say, 40,000 pigs not reared in my second year, for which I should expect about £2.4 million from your department.

Incidentally, I wonder if I would be eligible to receive tradable carbon credits for all these pigs not producing harmful and polluting methane gases?

Another point: these pigs that I plan not to rear will not eat 2,000 tonnes of cereals. I understand that you also pay farmers for not growing crops. Will I qualify for payments for not growing cereals to not feed the pigs I don't rear?

I am also considering the "not milking cows" business, so please send any information you have on that too. Please could you also include the current Defra advice on set aside fields? Can this be done on an e-commerce basis with virtual fields (of which I seem to have several thousand hectares)?

In view of the above you will realise that I will be totally unemployed, and will therefore qualify for unemployment benefits.  I shall of course be voting for your party at the next general election.

Yours faithfully

(Name withheld)

An Urgent Petition to President Klaus

Please sign and send on

Dear TPA supporter,
 
I'm writing to urge you to sign a crucial petition that the TPA is running. As you may know, there is now only one man standing between the Lisbon Treaty (formerly known as the EU constitution) and ratification: President Vaclav Klaus of the Czech Republic. President Klaus has come under huge pressure from the EU and other European leaders to sign the Treaty, but so far he has held out in the face of all the threats and incentives that have been offered to him.
 
Every single main party promised us a referendum at the last General Election, but we have been denied it. We are running a petition to send a message of support to President Klaus, and to urge him to hold out until we get that vote that we were promised. By contrast to our own leaders, who have betrayed their promise, he is sticking his neck out for our democracy as well as his own, so the least we can do is to express our thanks and express our support for him to continue his valiant action.

Please do sign the petition here and forward it on to all of your friends and family - the more people who sign, the better our chance of getting that referendum.
 
Thank you for your support,
 
Matthew Elliott
Chief Executive
The TaxPayers' Alliance

Click here to sign

Parish Council calls for Grant Applications

At its last meeting the Parish Council announced that grant applications by Henley's local organisations should be received by the Parish Clerk on or before 9th December 2009 and that next year's grants would be agreed at the council meeting on 21st December 2009.

Although there was a massive 35% increase in the parish precept, it will be unlikely that the councillors will be passing on a proportionate share of this increase as the whole amount has already been allocated to pay for the increase in the Parish Clerk's salary and increases in its communications budget.

List of organisations which benefited from grants last year

In 2009/10 financial year the Joint Parish Council will provide grants to support local organisations which provide benefits to the Parishes.

Financial grant award applications are invited for the financial year April 2009 to March 2010. The closing date for applications is 9th December 2009.

If you wish to apply for a grant from Beaudesert & Henley-in-Arden Joint Parish Council please see the criteria for donations to clubs and charities and grant application form which are both downloadable below.

Download Grant Application Form

Download Criteria for Donations to Clubs & Charities

Further information about the JPC and grant applications is available on the JPC of the Town Website.

Unfortunately the JPC's own website, shown below, is one year out of date. The application form shows the Parish Clerk as Karen Parnell and the download criteria shows the Parish Clerk as R P Hill.

POST SCRIPT
As a result of this article, the JPC corrected the errors reported above and the new forms can be downloaded as follows:

Download Community Grants for 2010

Download Grant Application Form

Download Criteria for JPC Grant Guidance Notes

The Gallery Upstairs - Annual Winter Exhibition

10th – 28th November 2009

The Gallery Upstairs forthcoming exhibition will be colourful and exciting, showing the work of over 40 artists in a mixed media group show: paintings and prints, ceramics, glass, sculpture and jewellery. As well as our regular artists such as Michael Felmingham with his evocative paintings of Venice and Mary Rich with her distinctive clean-lined porcelain ware, we have new and exciting work from a number of artists who are new to the gallery. These include beautifully made and presented stained glass by Tamsin Abbott depicting animals and the countryside, Emma Hardicker’s textile influenced silk screen prints and Richard Godfrey’s unique, quirky teapots.

People from all over Warwickshire and further afield come to our exhibitions which are held twice a year in May and November. Established in the Midlands as an important centre for exhibiting British contemporary art and craft, the gallery likes to promote the work of young artists ‘setting out’ alongside reputable artists and craftspeople.

The main gallery is 45’ x 18’, with good natural lighting and a relaxed friendly atmosphere. The gallery is behind the high street shop and above the studio, where resident ceramicists Jayne Lucas and Carey Moon work. The gallery overlooks a cobbled courtyard which was once an Elizabethan coaching inn and has an ancient yew arch leading to the garden where we show sculpture in the spring.

Download an Invitation from The Gallery Upstairs

The Gallery Upstairs and Torquil, 81 High Street, Henley-in-Arden, Warwickshire, B95 5AT
Web: www.thegalleryupstairstorquil.co.uk Email: galleryupstairs@aol.com Tel: 01564 792174

GWR 8750 Class 0-6-0T no 9600 Test Runs

A diminutive 0-6-0 GWR pannier tank loco that has recently undergone an overhaul at Tyseley and has had the OTMR (On-Train Monitoring & Recording) equipment fitted to allow it to run on Network Rail (a loco “black box” costing over £20,000) will steam through Henley without stopping. On Wednesday 4th November it is planned to run the locomotive as a light engine from Tyseley to Stratford and back to ensure there are no problems, passing through Henley southbound at 11.35 and northbound at 12.16.

Later the same day it will haul an excursion to Stratford, passing through Henley at 17.18 and returning at 19.22. Further details on the Vintage Trains website at: www.vintagetrains.co.uk/vt2009_1104.htm

Clive Hanley report & photo

Seymour Fieldhouse Homes
Stratford Road, Wootton Wawen, Warwickshire, B95 6BE
REGISTERED CHARITY NUMBER 221993

WANTED Clerk to the Trustees of the Seymour Fieldhouse Homes

This honorary position arises because after 10 years the incumbent requires to give more time to sick, elderly relatives.

The person appointed to take over these modest duties should be capable of recording Minutes of the Trustees' meetings which take place twice a year.

Duties also include simple letter writing and a basic knowledge and availability of a computer would be an advantage. A small honorarium is payable to the Clerk.

Anyone prepared to give some time to this very worthwhile local Charity should contact the Chairman, Mr A Withnall on telephone 01564 792685 who will give further details and answer any questions that you may have.

Johnson Double Ensures Famous Cup Victory

CLAVERDON RFC 21 - STONEYGATE RFC 7

Man of the match - Johnson
Try scorers - Johnson x 2, Barton
Conversions - Wyllie x 3

Claverdon RFC 1st XV produced one of their best performances in recent years as they beat a very strong Stoneygate RFC in a cup fixture at home on Saturday. Claverdon outscored their high flying Midlands 4  opposition by three tries to one, running out 21-7 winners as they continued their excellent start to the 2009/10 season.

Claverdon's afternoon did not start well though, as they lost full-back Allsopp to a hamstring injury as he kicked off the game. Allsopp, who has unfortunately been blighted by injury over the last few seasons, was replaced by Noble, who went to centre, with Johnson going to full back. Wave after wave of attack from Stoneygate soon saw Claverdon on the back foot and the visitors would certainly have taken an early lead but for excellent defensive work from Horsfall, Westmacott and Johnson to keep the visitors at bay. This gave Claverdon some much needed confidence and the game developed into an excellent spectacle between two quality sides, both showing a willingness to try and play expansive rugby. After more sustained pressure from Stoneygate, flanker Gill turned over the ball for Claverdon. Some excellent work from the forwards and scrum-half Wyllie allowed Horswill to feed the ball out wide to winger Barton who easily outpaced his man, chipped over the full-back and won the sprint to score a wonderfully individually crafted try. Wyllie added the conversion to make it 7-0 to Claverdon.

The score visibly lifted the home side who began to match Stoneygate across all areas of the game, none more so than the scrum where Claverdon were asserting themselves well under pack leader Skinner. Grimsley continued his superb form as hooker and it was from a turned over scrum that led to Claverdon's next chance to add to the scoreboard. A trademark Westmacott run, and good work in the loose from Joyce and Visser, forced the Stoneygate pack to concede a penalty just outside their 22. Claverdon elected to kick from the resultant penalty, Wyllie hit the left post and the ball agonisingly bounced out. The score remained 7-0 to Claverdon.

During some heroic defending, Claverdon's captain Horswill fell awkwardly on his ankle and play was stopped while he received treatment. Given the earlier injury to Allsopp, Horswill was forced to continue on until half time despite clearly not being able to operate effectively on his ankle. Claverdon rallied to their captain's plight. Stoneygate's powerful, aggressive running was consistently met with stonewall defence from Claverdon with Noble, Visser and Horsfall, amongst others, making several key tackles. The breakthrough that Stoneygate were after came after an excellent period of well worked phase play which saw their centre score under the posts to bring the sides level. 7-7.

The home side were edging ahead in the scrum and line-out areas and their back line looked capable of scoring given any quarter, but equally so did Stoneygate's. Both Noble and Barton had further good chances for Claverdon and despite some strong running from Wyllie, Skinner and Carruthers, the half ended with honours even at 7 all.

The second half saw Horswill, Knight and Gill replaced by Lidsey, Brannon and Hill as Claverdon set about producing one of the shock results of the round. Johnson switched to his more familiar role of centre and Horswill deputised at fullback. Again Stoneygate started well and again stalwart defence from Claverdon kept them out. Hill and Grimsley in the loose were immense as Claverdon continued to disrupt and frustrate the Midlands 4 side. As the game wore on the balance of play began to shift in the home side's favour. Playing down the hill and with the wind in their favour some excellent distance place kicking from the outstanding Noble pinned Stoneygate deep in their own half, forcing them to show their own defensive abilities. Sensing something special the Claverdon support roared their approval as the Claverdon pack surged towards the line. First Skinner then Hill broke tackles as the home side raised the tempo. Stoneygate's defence was again broken by some excellent centre play by Westmacott and Johnson. Wyllie fed Westmacott, after another solid scrummage from Claverdon, who brilliantly drew his man and off-loaded to Johnson at pace, who beat his opposite number on the outside and scored from 30 metres out. Wyllie added a tricky conversion. 14-7.

The high tempo of the game continued, with more solid defence from Claverdon which twice kept good Stoneygate attacks at bay. Noble and Johnson in particular were outstanding in attack and defence and Noble's kicking game, combined with some well drilled line-out play from Claverdon, kept Stoneygate pinned in their own 22. As Stoneygate tried to orchestrate an attack from deep inside their own half their inside centre tried to off load the ball after a tackle from Westmacott, only for Johnson to read it well, intercept the ball and race away to score under the posts. Wyllie added the conversion. 21-7. Claverdon soaked up all Stoneygate could throw at them in the last remaining minutes but ran out winners of a thrilling game of cup rugby.

This week Claverdon look to keep their 100% league record intact as they travel to recently relegated Stourport.

Paul Brannon reporting
Pictures by Will Barnes

John Garner's Business Column

This is IT!

Yes, last week saw the launch of Windows 7 for your PC (Mac users look away now).

But don’t worry, I’m not going to say a word about it. Why? Because I’ve never seen it, never used it and so know almost nothing about it. I’ve never even used Windows Vista. Life is far too short.

What irritates me is that companies like Microsoft keep introducing software upgrades that normal users don’t really need, charging a lot for it and then quietly dropping support for the version you you‘ve used for ages and know inside out. Like Windows XP for instance.

But what I’m writing about today is the introduction a while ago of Microsoft Office 2007. You may not even have noticed it arriving. The previous version was Office 2003 and you’ll probably have this version if your computer was made before 2007.

If you use Microsoft Office 2003 or an earlier version, you will be familiar with the .doc file format for text documents. However, you may more recently have come across .docx format files which have been sent to you but which your version of Word can’t open. This the default format produced by Word 2007 and as more and more people have upgraded to the latest version of Office, .docx is fast replacing .doc in popularity. Similar things happen with Excel and PowerPoint too.

So do you have to rush out and buy Office 2007 ? No, there are several ways round the problem:

• ask whoever sent you the .docx file to save it first in Word 2003 (.doc) format
• download the Compatibility Patch
• use an on-line conversion tool.

The Microsoft Compatibility Patch can be found at www.microsoft.com/downloads/ . I use this and it works extremely well, in fact you don’t notice you’ve got it.  It also allows you to save your Word 2003 file in Word 2007 format.  Clever.

If you don’t want to install the Compatibility Pack or only have a few files that need to be converted there is a good tool at: www.zamzar.com and it’s free to use.

There is however another possibility: you can ignore Microsoft products altogether and install the Open Office suite of programs. These are fully compatible with Microsoft Office, very powerful and very similar in use. They are also completely free.

The suite can be downloaded at www.openoffice.org . I use this regularly and I’m very impressed.

Oh, and if any Mac users have read this far, you can use Open Office too!

John Garner

Make Henley Greener
Save Money - Help Save the Planet

Make Waves at ‘The Wave’.

On the 5th of December tens of thousands of people from all walks of life will flow in a wave through the streets of London to show their support for the need for a safe climate future for all. The gathering is organised by a coalition of over a 100 organisations. These include the Royal Society for Protection of Birds, Oxfam, The Co-op, Christian Aid, World Wildlife Fund, the Woodland Trust, the Methodist Relief and Development Fund, the Campaign to Protect Rural England, the Women’s Institute, etc. The demonstration is to support the government in its negotiations at the crucial UN climate summit in Copenhagen.

The Stop Climate Chaos Coalition with a combined supporter base of more than 11 million people is asking the government for 3 things:

1. To end our reliance on dirty coal power and instead boost the UK’s renewable energy supply to help build a green economy and create new jobs. Burning coal has contributed 50 per cent of the build up of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere today. We must stop emissions from coal urgently if we are to keep global warming below 2 degrees C.
2. To protect the poorest. The world’s poorest and most vulnerable are already suffering the impacts of climate change. They are being hit first whilst we and other rich countries who created this mess are making it worse. There is no justice in this. These communities have contributed the least to climate chaos but are suffering first and most. The UK must provide the resources needed, on top of existing aid commitments, to help vulnerable people in poor countries adapt to climate change and pursue a low carbon development path. The Stop Climate Chaos Coalition calls on the Government to provide our fair share of the resources needed, on top of existing aid commitments, to help people in poor countries adapt to climate change.
3. To deliver a fair global deal in Copenhagen that keeps global warming under 2 degrees C. December will see world leaders decide how to tackle global warming at the UN climate summit in Copenhagen. They must not fail to deliver a fair global deal to keep us all safe from dangerous and irreversible climate change. The UK is historically one of the countries most responsible for climate change. Today Japan, Europe and the US pump out over 40 per cent of global CO2 emissions. It is only fair that rich countries like the UK act first and fastest to cut their emissions.

The Stop Climate Chaos Coalition calls on the Government to push urgently for a fair global deal in Copenhagen which limits global warming to under 2 degrees C,  to lead the way by committing to reduce UK carbon emissions by at least 40% by 2020 through domestic action and call on other rich countries to do the same. The Copenhagen summit has been described as the ‘most important meeting in human history’.

The Wave is a family friendly event and starts at Grosvenor Square. Assemble at 12 noon and then walk to the Houses of Parliament where we will encircle the buildings at about 3pm. Participants are asked to wear something blue so that the crowds will 'flow' through the streets.

Many organisations are providing transport to the event. Snitterfield Actioning Climate Change (www.snitterfieldacc.org) has a Johnson’s coach leaving Snitterfield village hall at 9.00am on the 5th December and returning later in the day for only £12.00 per person. Henley pickup is a possibility.

If you'd like to book a seat contact Vicky Parker on 01789 731348. For more info go to: www.stopclimatechaos.org

Go on.....you can do it.......it will be a fun day out. I hope to see you there.

Lesley Hammond - Make Henley Greener

Stratford District Council

Planning Applications - Search on-line Stratford-on-Avon District Council Website

Laurence Marshall

Stephen Thirlwell