Have your say on leisure across the district

Published 26 February 2020

This February and March Lichfield District Council is consulting with residents about leisure across the district, to assess how it can encourage more people to take part in regular exercise.

Max Associates, supported by Leisure-Net Solutions, will be conducting the public consultation on the council’s behalf, which will include an online survey, carrying out face-to-face surveys on the street, and holding focus groups.

The short survey asks local people to set out how much exercise they take, and for their thoughts about local leisure centres and facilities, and what would encourage them to get more active.

Councillor Liz Little, Cabinet Member for Recycling & Leisure, said: “We all know how important it is to take part in regular physical exercise. Not only does it help us to keep fit, it boosts mental health and wellbeing, weight management and our overall health.

“It’s important that we get lots of responses to our survey, as we need to know what is stopping many of our residents from taking part in structured exercise.

“This is your chance to tell us your views about leisure across the district, and help shape our priorities.”

To complete the survey online, visit www.lichfielddc.gov.uk/leisureviews

Village news from Helen Price – 20th Feb 2020

Published 17 February 2020

Wednesday Club

Our speaker in February was Michael Wetson author of “A Life of Two Halves.” Michael’s book is a personal account of his experience of living with bi-polar disorder and other health issues. Michael, a resident of Kings Bromley, was born in Lichfield. He talks in his book about some of the struggles he has faced during his life and the ups and downs of living with bi-polar disorder admitting, “It sounds quite gloomy but there is humour in it!” Ruby Wax and Frank Bruno are among several well-known personalities who have openly discussed their experiences with bi-polar disorder and Michael has met with both of them.

Michael was a founder member of “The Open Door of Hope” a self- help group based in Lichfield. It was established to cater for the needs of mental health service users in Lichfield and surrounding areas. It opened in October 2011 and continues to offer help and support to those with mental health issues, their families and carers.

Our next meeting will be on Wednesday March 4th when our speaker Marian Baldwin will be sharing “Memories of School Days.”

New 2 U

The “New 2 U” sale of good quality, second hand clothes, soft furnishings, shoes, handbags and costume jewellery will be in the Village Hall at 2 pm on Saturday 4th April.

Please start looking out items you could donate. We need items that will appeal to women, men and children, perhaps items in your wardrobe hardly worn, or unwanted gifts. It would be appreciated if you could iron anything that needs a spruce and bring to the hall on the morning of the 4th between 9.00 – 11.30 am. We will also accept books and DVDs in good condition.

If you could help in the morning (but more especially in the afternoon from 13.45 till 15.30, Peter Gee would love to hear from you. Also let Peter know if you have items which need collecting, just call 472157.

Australian Fire Relief Fundraising Event

£1000++ was raised on Saturday when hundreds turned out in force on a very wet and windy afternoon to support this worthy cause at the Village Hall. The Kings Bromley Harmony choir opened the event with some old Aussie songs to get everyone in the mood.

Many items were on sale, plus a silent auction, tombola, raffle etc and the WI, as usual, provided some delicious cakes together with tea and coffee.

Congratulations to Tracy Allanson-Smith and her team, the WI and of course our choir. Thanks to all who contributed with donations and their time. All proceeds will be donated to the Australian Fire Relief fund.

Village news from Helen Price – 13th Feb 2020

Published 10 February 2020

Australian Fire Relief Fundraiser, Saturday 15th February

We will be raising money for Australian Fire Relief in Kings Bromley Village Hall on Saturday 15th February between 2.00 and 4.00 pm.

Kings Bromley Harmony Choir will open the event at 2.00. The event includes a Tombola with amazing raffle prizes, Children’s colouring-in competition, Nearly new clothes, Bric-a-brac and Craft Sale. Tea, coffee and cakes provided by the WI.

If anyone wants to help or donate items, please get in touch with Tracy Allanson-Smith (0771 5678905). Every penny will be donated to https/www.wires.org.au to help animals, fauna and fire rescue volunteers in Australia.

Kings Bromley Gardening Guild

The Chairman, Allan Howard, welcomed everyone to the meeting on 20th January and gave the talk on ‘Kings Bromley in the Best Kept Village Competition’. He showed slides of the village’s history in the competition, starting from its inauguration in 1956 to the present day. Allan went on to look at the judges’ comments for 2019 which showed how important community participation is in the outcome. Organisations and businesses, individual adults and their houses and children all play a part.

The audience made comments and gave suggestions, including the need for more volunteers to help with the churchyard team who meet every Wednesday morning around 10-11.30am, to mow the grass and tidy up. Duke of Edinburgh volunteers were also invited to help with the churchyard or tidying up the village and every household was encouraged to put up a Best Kept Village notice in their window. Volunteers were also asked to monitor and ‘look after’ a particular road or area in the village, particularly with regards to litter. It was agreed that people could do more to stop grass verges and hedges growing over the pavements and to take down signs which are for out-of-date events.

In conclusion, all those who do so much to keep the village beautiful and tidy were thanked.

A suggestion was made to co-ordinate the Best Kept Village, Open Gardens (13-14 June) and the Ironman event (7 June this year), with decorated old push-bikes around the village. The WI will be yarn bombing the village and putting up knitted wreaths.

The next meeting is on 17th February when Byron Lewis from Lichfield Garden Centre will talk about ‘Early Spring Showcase’, bringing along a range of plants.

Kings Bromley WI

The ladies of the Women’s Institute celebrated a late Christmas meal at the Royal Oak on 6th February. We are very grateful to our village pub for hosting this for us. We have grown in members over the year and forty ladies enjoyed a good meal, and a merry time was had by all. We enjoyed fun and laughter with the waiting staff who worked so hard and kept us all amused. The evening ended with a splendid raffle.

The next meeting on 5th March will be our AGM and will start at 7.30pm at the village hall. This will be an opportunity for our members to hear the reports from last year’s activities and also to vote on the committee for the following year.

Village news from Helen Price – 6th Feb 2020

Published 3 February 2020

Kings Bromley Historians

Richard Stone, a regular guest speaker on local history, came to talk to the Historians group on the subject of Stained Glass at our first meeting of the year. The fourth Century was the earliest that stained glass appeared in England as it was wholly a Christian art form. At that time, the glass was coloured using metal oxide and urine (this today being replaced with oils). The tools used were very simple ones, quills and brushes of various sizes, and have altered little with the passing of time.

The stained glass windows were used to tell a story from the bible or commemorate an event, such as the plague window in Eyam church. They were also commissioned by individuals to celebrate a life or occasion.

Both Winchester and Lincoln Cathedral had their windows smashed during the Civil War but in both cases the local parishioners collected the broken glass that remained and rebuilt them, maybe haphazardly, but with love.

There was a great revival of stained glass in the 19th Century, partly due to the Pre-Raphaelites. Philip Webb the architect and artists such as Rosetti, Burne-Jones and Ford Maddox-Brown, together with artist and entrepreneur William Morris all created beautiful windows.

A popular subject was ‘Labour of the Months” which depicted the twelve seasonal tasks on the land. Many windows in Lichfield Cathedral were created by Charles Kemp 1838-1907, whose ‘signature’ was a wheatsheaf. Wychnor has four beautiful windows of the four seasons. The spires of the Cathedral and the River Trent are shown.

Allan Howard thanked Richard for a very interesting talk which gave us plenty of ideas for a trip planned for later this year. Next month Byron Lewis from Lichfield Garden Centre at Curborough will present a talk on Early Spring Flowers and bring along a variety of plants to see and purchase.