Archives

Open gardens

Published 28 June 2017

The Open Gardens held on the weekend 10th and 11th of June raised over £1500 for the Village Hall Renovation Fund and was much enjoyed. Thanks to all those who supported the event, especially those who opened their gardens, the WI for their ‘yarn bombing’, the Show for letting us use the field for parking and the Church for letting The Historians put up their display. As new gardens are always welcome, please consider whether you would like to open yours next year.

Allan Howard

Lorries parking in lay by

Published 15 June 2017

Lorries should not be parking overnight in the Yoxall Road lay bys north of the village. If you witness any overnight parking please report this to Staffordshire Police by dialing 101 ideally with the registration number and any supporting photograph / images.

Village news from Helen Price 12/6/17

Published 12 June 2017

Women’s Institute meeting 1st June

‘Food Glorious food’ was the talk from speaker Kath Reynolds. We were taken back in time to the days of the first convenience food. Kath gave us a witty and entertaining look back at our eating habits during the times of rationing, and how we used Be-ro books on basic cooking from the Bells Royal Flour Company. We were shown an array of items, some still eaten today. Spam and Old Oak ham were introduced in 1937, but became a household favourite in the 1970’s. We remembered the days of the Bird’s instant trifle, with sponge and dream topping. Mr Bird developed his instant custard in 1837 because his wife was allergic to eggs but loved custard.

We had the wonderful opportunity to look at those old favourite TV adverts from the Smash potatoes robot aliens, we sung along to the New Seekers and the Nimble bread advert. We were shown how our portion sizes have increased and how daily staples like ketchup and salad cream were not given in large quantities because they were expensive and seen as a luxury item. By the end of the talk we all felt extremely hungry for a spam fritter or a Bernie Inn prawn cocktail, steak and chips, and black forest gateaux!

Ann Wilkes, one of our members, has completed a 64.62 mile bike ride from Windsor to central London for the charity “Women V Cancer” on the Ride a Night bike ride on Saturday 27TH May. Ann has already raised £575 with a donation from us too at the WI, in aid of 3 women’s cancer charities. Ann has a Just Giving fundraising page if people wish to donate. Congratulations and well done Ann.

We would like to remind our members that we need £4 for the Blyth group meeting in September at the meeting in July. We still need items for the show hamper; maybe we could add a few retro vintage packets of Angel Delight, tinned Spam, and Fray Bentos pie too. Please bring an apron, and a chubby jam jar to next month’s meeting on 6th July ‘Entertaining your grandchildren ‘.

Village news from Helen Price – 10/6/17

Published 10 June 2017

Gardening Guild

Members enjoyed an evening visit to Mr and Mrs Dunning’s garden in May. Although it was a rather wet evening, members had a lovely time walking round the beautiful garden, followed by refreshments (indoors!).

The next meeting of the Gardening Guild will be on 19th June when Byron Lewis will be talking about ‘Patio and Basket Plants’, bringing along many examples to buy. Kings Bromley is looking forwards to the Open Gardens weekend on 10th and 11th June when 7 gardens will be open from midday to 5pm. Entry will be £5 per adult, free for children who will be able to look for fairies in the gardens. Refreshments and plant sales will be available. All profits will go towards the Village Hall renovation fund. There will also be a history display in the church.

Kings Bromley Historians

Southwell in Nottinghamshire has a varied and fascinating history as revealed by Dr Chris King from Nottinghamshire University who talked at our May meeting about the Landscape History Research project he oversees in that area. Test pits were dug in 200 gardens scattered about the town to give an overall picture of the early settlement. Some pits revealed objects that would have been contained within the manure and
rubbish compost spread on the fields. Taking core samples from the soil and geophysics revealed organic matter and hidden structures. The findings, together with the geography of the village built along the River Greet, all help to form its past history. Southwell Minster was built in the late 950s on a site given to the Archbishop of York by King Eadwig. Excavations around Southwell Minster revealed 200 Saxon burials believed to be Christian, along with some Roman mosaics. Also on site are the remains of the Bishops Palace where Cardinal Wolsey stayed en route to his execution. Amongst the interesting findings was pottery from several ages, including ‘grass’ pottery (the clay contained grass which burnt away when fired, leaving small holes). A 13th century ‘versica’ seal was also found, indicating the spread of literacy and a Queen Victoria Diamond Jubilee brick unearthed in 2012, the year of our Queen’s Jubilee. Dr King then turned his talk to timber-framed buildings, with slides of scorch marks, witch marks and carpenters marks and their meaning. The oldest timber-framed building in Southwell is the Saracens Head built around 1332-40, where Charles I fled after his defeat at Oxford and subsequent surrender to the Scottish Army. In an upstairs bedroom there is a medieval wall painting which retains amazing colour detail even now.

It was a fascinating and memorable evening; a real treat! Our next meeting will be on 23rd September, a trip to Kirby Muxloe Castle.