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Josie
Clappison (13th Dec 2010)
It is with
great sadness that we have to record the death of Josie
Clappison at 4.30am yesterday, Sunday 12th December 2010.
Josie was born at North End Farm, Cowden Lane in the village
and lived and worked there for many years with her father and
brother, Philip. Josie was for many years a PE teacher. She
and Philip moved from the village in 1990 to Great Hatfield
where they have lived ever since. Neither Josie nor Philip
have ever married and were so they were very devoted to each
other.
Quite a few of you do remember Josie and everyone knew what a
lovely lady she was, always smiling and always had time for a
pleasant chat.
Josie had been ill for a couple of years but had declined
rapidly over the last month, up to which point she was her
usual jolly self. Philip was with Josie at the end and
obviously he is very distraught, I am sure all our thoughts go
out to him.
To see photos of Josie (1) click
here (2) click here
(3) click here.
Christmas
Fayre Makes £470 (10th Dec 2010)
As you can no doubt tell if you
were there or if you've seen the photos (click
here) the Christmas Fayre, held on Saturday 4th Dec 2010,
was a great success. So quite unsurprisingly quite a lot of
money was made, £470 to be precise. Thanks are due to
everyone who turned up, everyone who helped and, in
particular, many thanks are due to John and Julie Sherman for
allowing the Village Community Association to use the inside
of the Falcon; due to the weather there was no way the Fayre
could have been held outside.
Supermarket
Checkout Scam (25th Nov 2010)
It seems there is a new scam going round supermarkets which
you should beware of. When you buy a trolley load of stuff in
the supermarket and pay at the checkout, if you don't check
your receipt, it may be that a cash-back request has been
added without your permission. The money from the cash-back
request is then pocketed by the checkout operator.
There is every possibility this may be going on anywhere that
you can pay with a card. So you must be vigilant and check
your receipt as soon as you are given it and before you leave
the checkout, presumably if you try sorting it out later it is
much more difficult to prove what as gone on.
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Parish
Council Clerk Leaves (24th Nov 2010)
The present clerk of the parish council, Wendy Cook, as sadly
left the job she has served so well for the last 5 or 6 years.
I can personally vouch for the quality of her work as she
regularly sent me agendas and minutes of the Parish Council
meetings. Tony Crook, speaking for the Parish Council, also
expressed his praise for the quality and efficeincy of her
work. It will no doubt not be an easy job to find a
replacement of equal quality and we all wish Wendy the best of
luck for the future in whatever she chooses to do. So a big
thank you from everyone in Withernwick.
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Christmas
Fayre & Carol Singing 2010 (15th
Nov)
This year's Christmas Fayre will be on Saturday 4th
December from 12.30 to 3 pm, as last year it will be held in
the Falcon car park. The Ladies Group will be selling cakes
and other home produce. The Withernwick Community Association
will be selling "made in Withernwick" craft and
cards. There will be a guest artist, Claire West (Dawn's
sister) with her art work - click
here for her website. Obviously there will also be a
tombola stall and Santa will of course be fitting in a visit
in his otherwise tight schedule. There will be carol singing
with the help of St Alban's. The Falcon will be open selling,
amongst its usual drinks, mulled wine. We are still collecting
prizes for the tombola, please hand them into Blondies.
We are sure that, as with all Withernwick events, a good time
will be had by all.
Click
here for a poster of the Christmas Fayre.
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Rise Hall
Renovation Complete (14th Nov 2010)
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The beautiful
renovation of Rise Hall is now sufficiently complete for it to
open its doors as a venue for wedding receptions and other
events.
The force behind the restoration as, of course, been Sarah
Beeny best known for her TV series "Property
Ladder". Ever since the De Faucombergs were the Lords of
Withernwick and Rise, our two villages have had close ties and
so it is good to see the old hall brought back to life.
Click here to go to the
Rise Hall website. |
Proposed
Sale of Sunday School Building
(11th Nov 2010)
A meeting was held in
the Sunday school on Wedesday 10th Nov 2010. Many people
attended, including Matthew Grove, members of the Ladies Group
and Darby and Joan and many others. The meeting was conducted
by Keith Himsworth (from the Hornsea Methodist Group). It was
only known that the meeting was concerning the use of the
building.
Mr Himsworth informed those present that it is their intention
at the next circuit meeting to recommend that the building be
closed and offered for sale on the open market; this
came as a complete shock to those present. Although
temperatures were running high, Mr Himsworth was unwilling to
discuss the matter any further.
He did, after more strong comments from those present, give
three reasons for the decision:
1 - Formal liabilities (the Sunday School is an ancillary
building), the actual Methodist Chapel has not been used for
10 years and was sold 7 years ago.
2 - The use of the premises.
3 - Numbers that take up worship in the village are very few.
This is the only meeting place left for the Parish Council,
Ladies Group, Methodist worship, Darby & Joan, chidren's
parties etc. So we need as many people as possible to write to
Mr Himsworth with their concerns and views in order to try and
get them to change their minds regarding the sale. Indeed no
final decision has been made as yet and so your letters will
be important and may well succeed in keeping the Sunday School
for our use.
Mr Himswoth's address is
2, Eastbourne Road, Hornsea, HU18 1QS
All letters must be sent before 1st Feb 2011, a decision will
be made at the March 2011 Methodist circuit meeting.
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12000
Hits in a Year (3rd
Nov 2010)
When the website hit
counter reached 17500, I know that we have had 12000 hits in a
year, in fact in 11 months. That is an average of over 1000
hits a month (actually 1090). I have known that we were
getting a 1000 hits in some months but to maintain that over a
whole year is truly remarkable. It has been increased over the
last year by the family history section which is attracting
people from all over the world and who have no personal
contact with the village, but even people such as this who
have never even visited the village are giving us real
positive feedback. I can't imagine setting a target for next
year (as is the trendy thing to do nowadays), it would be a
fairly meaningless thing to do (as most target setting is!),
but it is a good reason for a pint in the Falcon (oh well you
lot can anyway).
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| Booming
Withernwick (16th
Oct 2010) |
Whenever we hear the news nowadays, there
are frequent reports of declining rural communities. Village
pubs are closing at an alarming rate and villages are turning
into dormitories for nearby towns. So as we think about our
village, I belive we can say that Withernwick is really
bucking that trend. With the sucess of food in the Falcon,
which is wonderful but not altogether surprising, and along
with other successes, our village is well on the road to a
bright future.
This success has not simply drifted into our village like a
sea-fret, no, it is down to the hard work and commitment of
the villagers. I have no doubt that people all around will be
wondering what if there is something in the water in
Withernwick, but we all know why this has come about.
Let's keep it up, this hard-won success will not simply carry
on of its own accord, but, for now, we have earned the right
to celebrate, so treat yourself to a meal and a drink in the
Falcon!
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High Speed
Broadband ? (5th Oct 2010)
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BT has organised a survey to see
which communities are interested in aquiring high speed fibre
optic broadband. Withernwick goes through the Aldbrough
exchange, so although it may seem unlikely that HU11 will get
the service, we should certainly have a go; it may well help
us in future even if it comes to nothing now. Just think how
wohderful it would be to watch that You Tube video or that
missed TV programme of BBC I Player without going off to make
a cup of tea while it streams.
So please go to www.racetoinfinity.bt.com
it will only take a minute even at present slow speeds. And
get anyone you know in Aldbrough to vote as well. |
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Railings Painting
Completed (3rd Oct 2010)
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On a murky Saturday morning (2nd
Oct), Pat
Page, Tony Page, Chris Bates, Jack Bates, Tony Crook and Dawn
Dickinson got their pait brushes out and completed the
painting of the War Memorial railings. The railings now do
look as good as new and with careful maintenance should last
for a good many years.
It is right and fitting that the men remembered on the
memorial are still treated well. Click
here to read more about them.
Click here to see
more photos. |
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Car Thefts (2nd
Oct 2010)
On the night of 1st October, three cars in
Hatfield were targeted by thieves. They were looking for cars that
were left unlocked and police report that all three of the targeted
cars had indeed been left open. I guess we all consider that one of
the better aspects of living in a village like Withernwick, is that
there seems to be little or no crime. Thankfully, that is mostly
true, but that does not mean that we should be complacent. So do
ensure that your cars are locked and also lock your garages and even
your houses. Let's keep Withernwick a crime free place and so not
give thieves unnecessary opportunities. We must thank a resident of
Hatfield for warning us about this.
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Children's Christmas
Party 2010 (29th Sept 2010)
I know it is early, don't worry Easter Eggs
will be for sale soon! but we need to know numbers of children who
will attend, preferably by 16th October, so that Santa knows who to
buy presents for. As in previous years, all children will get a
present, there will be food and a children's entertainer. Can you
let Julia know in Blondies if your child will be attending or let me
know and will pass it on.
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Old School Building
for Sale (28th Sept 2010)
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The former school building
has finally been put up for sale for the bargain price of £80000.
Apart from the condition of the building which is not good, as it
stands, planning consent is for D1 use; this is for non-residential,
institutional usage such as a library, nursery etc. So for
redevelopment as a house, a change of use would have to be applied
for. It could be used as a village hall under D1 usage. Hopefully
though, it will see the end of the buidling as an ever worsening
eyesore.
Click
here to see the advert in full.
Click here to see
the full brochure in Acrobat format. |
Books
for Sale for Charity (27th
Sept 2010)
Julia has cookery and other books for sale for charity, so when you
visit Blondies of you hair doing, have a look through the selection,
there may be something of interest. The cookery book has been
written by Pat Myers of Bobtail's Animal sanctuary at Roundhouse,
Rise. It is a collection of old recipes and costs £6, all proceeds
will go towards running the sanctuary.
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Facebook
and Twitter (26th
Sept 2010)
To help promote the website I have set up Facebook and Twitter pages
for the website. On each simply search for Withernwick and you will
find them. I won't do much with the Twitter page, but you can add
yourself as a follower. When using Facebook ignore the page called
Withernwick City, that was set up by Wikipedia and is nothing to do
with us. Please sign up as a friend and leave comments if you wish.
The main purpose of these pages is to advertise the website to
people who haven't previously found it.
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Food
in the Falcon (25th Sept
2010)
Both by the guestbook and
email I have had several very complimentary comments about food in
the Falcon. After waiting a while for food to be served in the
Falcon, it is fantastic that it has started so well. I am sure the
pub will now go from strength to strength, I really don't think
there is any competition in the area - there simply is no other
friendly, tradional pub serving good food anywhere near. I do hope
to give more details when I can, I am sorry for the lack of
information so far. But, go and try it out and let me know what you
think, I am collating the comments.
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Breaking
the Laws of Probability ? (12th Sept 2010)
Those of you who attended the
quiz in the Falcon on Friday 10th Sept will have witnessed a
remarkable event. Apparently when the raffle tickets were being
drawn to choose who had a go at Plat your Cards Right, five times in
a row a ticket was drawn from the same table. Now for a bit of
maths, guessing there were about 50 tickets in the bag and that
there were 5 people on that table who each had one ticket, the odds
of that happening are roughly 1 in 2.5 million! Actually, of course,
it doesn't break the laws of probability, just because something is
highly unlikely doesn't mean it can't happen.
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Mink
in the Village (10th Sept
2010)
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A mink was caught on CCTV
attempting to attack fish in a pond. These are American mink
that were introduced into Britain in the 1920's to be bred for
their fur, but many escaped and are now naturalised in the UK.
They look like stoats or weasels but are far larger, they can
grow to be two foot in length. They need to live near water,
and so have probably found their way into larger ponds in the
village. They will eat anything but are especially fond of
fish, so please protect your ponds if you have valuable fish
in them. |
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Haystack
Fire (24th August 2010)
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During the night of
23rd/24th August a very large pile of hay bales, on Whitedale Road,
was probably deliberately set on fire.
The blaze must have been considerable as you can see from the
photograph there is very little left. It required two fire engines
to bring the fire under control. The hay must have been worth a good
deal of money, and so is no doubt a great loss.
If this is arson, then it is to be hoped that the culprits are
apprehended. |
Paul Meets Cedric
Harsley (2nd August 2010)
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On Monday 2nd August 2010, I travelled
to Leven to meet Cedric Harsley. He was born in Tanton Terrace,
Withernwick in 1915, just one year after the start of World War 1.
So he is now 95 and probably the oldest living Withenwick person (if
you know different, let me know).
Born and brought up in Tanton Terrace, he and his family moved to
Whitedale about 1930 when his father Hubert became the signalman at
Whitedale station (click here to
see Hubert).
He has since moved to Leven, where he still lives.
He is still a very active man, such as travelling to Hornsea by
bicycle and riding his 1960 BSA motorbike which he has to kick
start.
He has a fantastic memory and had many interesting tales to tell
about his time in Withernwick and Whitedale.
Click here to see a larger version
of the photo. |
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