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HS2 update

Published 27 March 2019

In February, HS2 issued what are known as ‘Additional Provisions’. These are changes to the Bill that was published last year which either take into account objections that were raised by individuals, councils, public bodies etc or the need for HS2 to take additional land for construction purposes in addition to that outlined in the original Bill

The major changes outlined in the Additional provisions affecting Kings Bromley include changes to the Railway Junction at Handsacre where the new High-Speed line links into the existing West Coast main-line, straightening and widening Woodend Lane where it joins the A515 and measures to assist drainage from the proposed Borrow Pits into existing water-courses.

However, the major issue for the Parish concerns Common Lane which originally HS2 wanted to close where it crosses the new railway track. Last year, the Parish Council argued strongly that this road should remain open. Although HS2 agreed that a new link road should be built between Common Lane and the A515, we found out when we presented our Petition to the House of Commons Select Committee that this road would not be open until after the construction phase, which could take up to 5 years.There is nothing in the recently published Additional Provisions that helps this situation.

Therefore, the Parish Council have objected strongly to this and submitted a further
Petition to the House of Commons Select Committee requesting that HS2 proposes a suitable alternative that ensures Common Lane remains open. If this does not happen, ALL Common Lane traffic will be forced to use Crawley Lane past Richard Crosse Primary School – a situation that is totally unacceptable for all concerned. The stand the Parish Council has taken is supported by Staffordshire County Council, Lichfield District Council, Richard Crosse School, NFU, and landowners and businesses affected by this decision.

A copy of the Petition has been posted on the Kings Bromley Parish Council web site so it can be accessed from there. However, please contact me If you have any issues or concerns on this by e-mailing me on charleswcole13@aol.com or phone me on 01543 472423.

As always, we will keep you up-to-date with any developments on the Parish Council web-site or in the Parish magazine.

Cllr. Charles Cole
Copy of petition is here HS2 Hybrid Bill – Copy of petition March 2019 (61.2 Kb)

Village news from Helen Price – 28th March 2019

Published 25 March 2019

Jumble Sale, Saturday 6th April

The jumble sale will be held at the Village Hall at 2.00 p.m. on Saturday 6th April. Any clothes, small bric-a-brac and books in good condition would be very welcome. Please bring offerings to the hall on the Saturday morning between 10.00 and 11.30 am or ring Peter Gee on 472157 to arrange transport. Offers to help sort and sell the goods would be most welcome; again, please contact Peter Gee.

Kings Bromley Show, Saturday 13th July

Kings Bromley’s popular annual country show is excited and privileged to be celebrating 100 years of the Kings Bromley Horticultural Society. This year’s special celebratory show will centre around our competitive horticultural marquee, which includes over 100 categories. There is also an outstanding entertainment line up to kick off the celebrations.

The family fun dog show, equestrian events and vintage car display always draw in the crowds and around the field will be a variety of trade and craft stands, farm animals, children’s entertainment, food outlets offering a wide range of refreshments and much much more.

Open Gardens Saturday 15th and Sunday 16th June

This year the proceeds from the Open Gardens will be split between the Church Restoration Fund and the Village Hall – for a new noticeboard and benches/tables on the play area. The Village Harmony Choir, Ryknild Rabble Morris dancers and Jonathan Nason’s Jazz Band will be performing and the WI will be providing teas and Yarn Bombing again.
We have a good number of gardens already and would welcome more. If anyone would like to open their garden please let Alison Howard know on 472720.

Village news from Helen Price – 21st March 2019

Published 18 March 2019

Spring Fete, Saturday 13th April 2019

Kings Bromley Nursing Home hold their Spring Fete on Saturday 13th April from 3.00 – 5.00 pm. Amongst the attractions will be a tombola, craft stalls, raffle and BBQ. There’s entertainment in the form of Sounds Familiar.

Entrance is free: do come along and support this local event to raise much-needed funds for activities within our local nursing home. Anybody wishing to volunteer their time and help at the Home, e.g. with activities such as knitting etc. or our garden project, would be warmly welcomed. Please ring Emma on 01283 576145 for further information.

Kings Bromley WI

The Women’s Institute celebrated their AGM on 7th March with a fabulous cheese and wine buffet.

Sue Penfold was voted in for her 4th year as our president and we gained a new committee member in Sarah. Ladies enjoyed the buffet and wine celebration whilst taking part in a Fair Trade Quiz hosted by Teresa from the Co-op. The Co-op donated some Fair Trade wine for the raffle and displayed a stall with home made Fair Trade banana bread and coffee cakes for members to enjoy. The three winning teams all had Fair Trade chocolate as a prize. The members learnt a lot about the Fair Trade movement which incidentally was a cause originally supported by the WI in 1992, and continues to be a focus of their work.

We have grown in numbers this year and had several new members join us for our AGM. We shall meet again in April when we will hear from the Blood Delivery services, who will be our Charity for 2019.

Wednesday Club

Our March meeting saw us “Behind Bars” with Steve Geale. Steve an IT and Advanced Maths teacher had spent a total of 11 years “inside” – teaching first at HMP Stafford from 2002 – 2006 and then at HMP Featherstone from 2007 – 2014.
Steve began by explaining the different prison categories and the purpose behind custodial sentencing. He then outlined the many underlying reasons why people find themselves in prison including mental health issues, drink, drugs, greed and accident. The latter often related to Health and Safety regulations. He also outlined the high rates of re-offending with some 84% of prisoners re-offending within 4 years of leaving prison.
Steve went on to describe prisons as small towns with each cell being a residence. These “towns” have healthcare facilities, a shop, library, gym, workshops and an education centre providing inmates with opportunities for work, recreation and education.
Steve concluded by telling us of some of the people he had met during his career. Among others was the Oldbury forger who at his most prolific was producing £110,000 worth of counterfeit £20.00 notes per day. After serving a 7-year sentence he was employed by De La Rue makers of our paper money. The 26 -year old convicted for the production and supply of drugs. On his release he obtained a gardening job at a National Trust property where he cultivated the perfect conditions for growing cannabis! The prisoner convicted of GBH who used his 6-year sentence to gain a First-Class Honours degree in Maths and now works as a statistician. Finally, the prisoner who following his escape in December 2004 sent the prison governor a Christmas card! A tradition he continued until his recapture in 2008!
Next Meeting: Our next meeting will be on Wednesday April 3rd at 2.30pm at The Royal Oak when Kevin Reynolds will talk about Dragonflies.

Voluntary Transport Scheme / Kings Bromley Medical Transport

Published 14 March 2019

As part of their austerity measures, Staffordshire County Council will discontinue support for this scheme from 31st March. The scheme exists to enable parishioners to attend health centre or hospital visits where public transport cannot be used due to disability or inappropriate timetabling. The Parish Council believe this is an essential service and have decided to take over its support. Users will see no difference in the scheme, they will ring Jane Pollard on 473151 and she will arrange for a volunteer driver to transport them. Volunteer drivers will see a simplified set of rates for the journeys. To make it clear what the scheme is and does it will be renamed Kings Bromley Medical Transport. The Parish Council wishes to thank Jane for continuing to run the scheme, which she has done calmly and efficiently for around 25 years.

Jane has a pool of seven volunteer drivers which is barely enough. If you would like to volunteer your services please get in contact with Jane.

Allan Howard, Chairman, Kings Bromley Parish Council

Open Gardens 2019

Published 13 March 2019

This year the proceeds from the Open Garden event will be split between the Church Restoration Fund and the Village Hall – for a new notice board and benches/tables on the play area.The Village Harmony Choir, Ryknild Rabble morris dancers and Jonathan Nason’s will be performing, and the WI will be providing teas and Yarn Bombing again.

We have a good number of gardens already, but would welcome more. If anyone would like to open their garden please let Alison Howard know on 472720.

Allan Howard.

Ivy Butcher

Published 6 March 2019

Ivy Butcher, a much-loved villager, passed away after a short illness on the 3rd March at Hoar Cross Nursing Home at the age of 102. Ivy was born at Victory Farm, Kings Bromley, in 1916. Her father, John Jefferies, a farmer, had once been a coachman to the Lane family at Kings Bromley Hall and her mother was lady’s maid to the Hon. Mrs. Grace Lane. In 1928 the family moved to Eastfields. She attended the Richard Crosse School and left at the age of 15. Having been marked out as a bright girl, the wife of the headmaster had given her shorthand lessons and the vicar gave her the use of a typewriter and in 1931 she got a secretarial job with a subsidiary of the Selfridges company in London. She always said that it was Hitler who finished her secretarial career as she and her uncle, with whom she was living, moved back to Kings Bromley to avoid the air raids and because of his ill health. Not one to let the grass grow under her feet, she joined the Lancashire County Hospital as a nurse, a job she really enjoyed. Moving back to Kings Bromley after the war to look after her ageing father, she took a part- time secretarial post in Lichfield. David Butcher, a demobbed soldier, who was working at Woodshoot Nursery, lodged with the family and in 1952 Ivy and David Butcher married.
Ivy was a founder member of the Kings Bromley Historians and the Gardening Guild and for years was secretary of the Horticultural Society, which ran the Village Show, seeing it through some difficult times. She was also very active within the Church, the Parochial Church Council and the ladies’ group that looked after the flowers in the Church. She published six books on local history and in 2008 received The Local History Award for Personal Achievement from the British Association for Local History. She was able to establish contact with the descendants of the Lane family, who had left the Village and the Manor in 1928, and recovered from them huge quantities of archive material which is now held at the Staffordshire Record Office and the Kings Bromley Historians Archive. Ivy had a razor-sharp mind and memory right up to the end and was the go-to oracle for any information about the village.
Unfortunately, David died in 1993 and they had no children. It was a mark of the love and respect that the village had for her that in 2016 a celebration of her 100th birthday was held in the Village Hall, which was one of the biggest events that had occurred in the village for years. In January of this year Kings Bromley Historians had a photo taken of her by Simnetts of Burton, who had taken the one of her as a child nearly 100 years previously.
Allan Howard

Village news from Helen Price – 7th March 2019

Published 4 March 2019

Kings Bromley Historians
Maggie Slingsby began her talk on the History of Staffordshire Pottery at our February meeting with a brief early history. The beaker folk have left us with evidence of their pottery skills which were kept alive by the monks and farmers who made and used the pots to store grain. Butter was also sold in pots and in 1670 a Bill was passed stating that the pot should weigh no more than 6lb of the 14lb tub of butter.
Charles II’s wife, Catherine of Braganza, popularised tea drinking and imported china teapots via the East India company and so introduced porcelain. Burslem was the birthplace of the Staffs Pottery industry as the clay there was excellent for pot making.
In 1760, at the Dwight factory, Bradwell (the owner) was so secretive of his methods that he only employed “deaf mutes” and “simpletons” to work his clay. One of these “simpletons” was Twyford whose skills we still appreciate today. Probably the most well-known of the potters was Josiah Wedgewood, who became a master potter at 12. He was an entrepreneur, being instrumental in the building of the Trent and Mersey canal and also having a showcase in London to display his wares. Staffordshire pottery was shipped and known all over the world by the hundreds of small and large producers.
Maggie was very relaxed and entertaining in her delivery. Our next meeting has been brought forward to 22nd March (before building work on the village hall begins). Our April meeting is a trip to Tissington Hall.
Gardening Guild
Helen Harrison gave up work as a Home Economist to follow her interest and love of flowers. She became Chairperson of the Stone Chrysanthemum and Dahlia Society, for which she now raises funds by giving regular talks. For a few years dahlias were her favourite flower for showing, but then Helen turned her interest to snowdrops. The Gardening Guild enjoyed one of her talks on this subject at their February meeting.
Snowdrops are part of the Amaryllidaceae (Amaryllis) family and the bulbs have the same structure and basal cells as an onion. Helen drew our attention to the great variety of leaves, flowers, spathes and ovaries of a snowdrop. She demonstrated this by passing around several different shaped and textured leaves, plus around twenty different varieties of snowdrops. Apparently the holder of the National Collection has over one thousand pots of snowdrops and rare single snowdrops have been known to sell for over £1000! Snowdrops originated from Holland, Armenia and the Urals and may have come over to the UK with the Crimean war.
Janet Stubbings thanked Helen for a very interesting talk and reminded everyone that the next meeting of the Gardening Guild will be the AGM/Cheese and Wine evening on Monday 18th March at 7.45 pm in the Village Hall – all are welcome.
Live and Local Theatre Production
The Live and Local theatre group put on a ‘spellbinding’ performance of The Wonderful Discovery of Witches in the County of Lancashire in the Village Hall this week. They performed to a sell-out audience, combining theatricality, haunting capella singing and dark humour.