Newsletter 3

Seasonal Gardening Notes

Gardeners are often dismissive of the old roses, saying that they are temperamental and that they flower only once. This is not necessarily so – there are many old roses that repeat their flowers. For those that do flower only once, it is usually a six-week season, and there is often a secondary display of attractive hips and good autumn colour on foliage. As for temperament – many are far easier to grow, and certainly easier to prune, than Hybrid Tea bush roses. Some need never be pruned at all. The following three roses are easy, beautiful and very hardy.

‘Tuscany’ is a deep crimson rose with golden stamens. It has been grown since 1585, and is from Gallica family.

‘Frau Dagmar Hastrup’ has huge chalky pink single flowers, followed by large scarlet hips on a dome-shaped bush. This is a rugosa rose.

‘Buff Beauty’ is a Hybrid Musk rose. It has soft apricot flowers with a rich scent that will go on flowering until Christmas.

Acton Beauchamp Roses, Worcester WR6 5AE www.actonbeaurose.co.uk will deliver bare-rooted roses between November and March.

Hannah Willetts

Going Unitary

As readers will know, the Unitary Council is moving towards taking up the reins on the 1^st April 2009 when the existing South Shropshire District Council ceases to exist. The business case was built up to show significant financial savings and, for South Shropshire at least, a reduction in Council Tax in real terms over the next 3 years. This was to be achieved ensuring continued & enhanced local access to services, better community engagement & minimal redundancies.

Currently, the Implementation Executive, which is the decision making body made up of councillors from all Councils across Shropshire taking forward this project has made considerable progress. At a meeting in London on 17^th June with John Healy MP the Minister responsible, it was clear that out of all those Unitary proposals agreed by the Government, Shropshire’s plans are far & away further advanced than any other area. This is in no small part due to the way in which elected representatives from all Councils are working together, across the political spectrum, to make sure that what we end up with is what we set out to achieve. At the moment the County Council leader, Cllr Malcolm Pate, has indicated that we look to achieve savings of closer to £11 million rather than the circa £9 million in the original business case.

It is a big job bringing together all of the District Councils & County Council in one large Unitary Council but initial consultations with staff & unions have been held and the Implementation Executive has agreed a final structure. The appointment of a Director of Community Services & Director of Development Services will take place by the end of July 2008 with appointments of a new Chief Executive & Director of Director of Children’s services following in the Autumn of 2009. The staff assimilation process is underway & it looks like we will be able to get away with fewer redundancies than originally planned.

The new structure will have regulatory committees (e.g. Planning & Licensing) based in the North, South and Central areas of the County with front line services based locally, eg District offices like Stone House will remain but there will be an increased use of ‘Telly Talk’ points, like those now in use at Greens Garage in Bucknell and an 0345 number for easy contact by the public. There will be 27 local joint committees (11 are currently in place), with Parish Council involvement & delegated budgets to spend on local priorities. There will also be strong links to the LSP (Local Strategic Partnership) and area partnerships.

A great deal of communication is currently taking place with stakeholder progress briefings, newsletters linking with Parish & Town newsletters and a Shropshire Magazine to all households covering all authorities. The implementation executive has also agreed the name of ‘Shropshire Council’ & branding & logo design is underway.

We expect the Boundary Commission to publish its draft report on its website on the 1^st July and there will be elections in either May or June (probably June) 2009. Work is continuing to manage the transition with redundancy/redeployment/recruitment as required and at the same time staff across all authorities are working hard to maintain existing workloads to make sure we keep district services running up to vesting day on the 1^st April 2009.

There is going to have to be a culture change in some areas both politically and managerially if this is to succeed and there are still significant issues with things like Housing performance, (the new Council will have a mixture of Council owned & Housing Association properties when it takes over). My view as a Liberal Democrat has always been that we must get the grass roots democratic representation right, a ‘bottom up’ approach rather than a ‘top down’ managerially led approach. I am yet to be assured of that, particularly since the current political leadership at the County has not shown itself capable of listening much to local opinion e.g.: the current Primary Schools debacle.

Cllr Nigel Hartin

Clun Division SCC

Tel: 01547 530400

Email: Nigel.hartin@shropshire-cc.gov.uk

Recent Events

Kim and Sheila Smith, whose profile was published in the last edition of The REDLAKE held a party in their house and the Village Hall to celebrate 120 years. I gather this was their combined ages, not the number of years they had been together! It was a wonderful evening with delicious hog roast, booze and a dance band. (There are some select pictures on the website!). Congratulations to Kim and Sheila and thank you for hosting such a great party.

An afternoon’s entertainment and tea was held on behalf of St Mary’s Church on the 1st June. The entertainment was provided by local performers of all ages and between the performances everyone sang specially chosen hymns. After prayers we were all treated to delicious cakes, sandwiches and tea. The Church was beautifully decorated thanks to the flowers from Andy and Claire’s wedding the day before and many people had brought their wedding photos, which were displayed on a board at the front of the church.

We’ve had three weddings in Chapel Lawn since the last issue of the REDLAKE:

On 24^th May Rory Lynch and Emily Moakes, who both have links with Chapel Lawn, were married, though there may have been some doubts for a while as the bride was half an hour late!

On 31^st May Andrew Hull from Worcester and Claire Oakley, Vera Price’s granddaughter, were married. Claire arrived at the church on her grandfather Morris’ old tractor – suitably decorated. Vera’s sisters created a wedding theme at the back of the church incorporating a wedding dress from the late 1800’s and various appropriate old photographs. Claire’s cousin Kathryn played an Eric Clapton song during the signing of the register.

On 5^th July Patrick Cosgrove and Di Slater were married. Di was hoisted onto a beribboned charger and led from the church to the village hall.

The afternoon and evening were dampened by the weather but it did not dampen Patrick and Di’s happiness, which was so evident.

Becky Whitton

Farming Column

Well, here we are, the next contribution to the farming column. As I write, it is high summer – strong winds, heavy rain and cold nights.

The time consuming and labour intensive lambing and calving periods are behind us and most farmers are now busy conserving forage for next winter’s feeding.

Farm gate prices are much improved since the dark days of foot and mouth last year. Unfortunately, this is being offset by the 3 F’s, not the words you will hear echoing across the valley when we gather sheep but the ever-increasing costs of ‘Fuel’, ‘Feed’ and ‘Fertiliser’.

However, farmers are nothing if not resilient. The neighbours across the valley have mown several fields of hay. This morning, I noticed they were driving a large bunch of cattle round and round one of these fields. I assume this was to ted the hay and save on the high cost of diesel.

I have been very busy spraying one of the best crops of thistles we have ever grown. Unfortunately, the wind was very strong and blew the tractor off course on a few occasions. This has resulted in several strips of unsprayed thistles, which I am now spraying by hand with a knapsack sprayer. This is hopefully before the neighbours notice and injure themselves falling about laughing.

Let us hope we have a fine and enjoyable summer, with bumper crops for the happy farmers. See you all at the harvest festival, though I suppose we have to endure the usual anthem: ‘All is safely gathered in, except at Hodre and the Bryn.’

Bob James

A bit of history…

The Smithy

The Smithy, the old stone building at the very centre of Chapel Lawn, has been owned by members of the same family for nearly 140 years. The census of 1861 shows that a blacksmith already lived at the Smithy, but by 1871 John Adams from Cleobury Mortimer had established himself as the village blacksmith. By 1871 he and his wife Mary, from London, had two children, one of them born in Chapel Lawn. In the following years they had 10 more children - Thomas, Fanny, Mary, Charlotte (Lottie),John, George, Herbert, Florence Rose, Annie, Charles and Alfred (Fred) who was born in 1888 and who, with his elder brother George, eventually became the Chapel Lawn blacksmiths. Several of these children lived to good ages, Annie to nearly 100,and are still well remembered by local people. Fred himself lived to be 86 and saw many changes.

Originally corn was ground and flour produced by the blacksmiths in the mill next to the Smithy. The big sacks were wound up on a hook by hand and tipped into the mill, which was run by a four cylinder Lister engine. In later years farmers would bring the oats and barley in horse drawn carts, and later by tractor, and kibble them themselves. The mill is still there.

At the same time the general blacksmiths work was going on, repairing machinery and hurdles, general ironwork and shoeing of the big shire workhorses. Fred's granddaughter, Ann, well remembers her grandfather working the bellows to keep the fire hot. Paraffin was sold at the Smithy, and there was also a ‘Woodbine’ cigarette machine! The workshop was a great meeting place and children going home from school loved to stand and watch the blacksmiths; they were sometimes allowed to use the bellows to revive the fire.

Fred was very innovative, he and a friend invented and patented ‘Moorgrips’ which were used on old Fordson tractors. He owned the first car in the area - a Triumph Super Seven - registration number OX9747 and he was also the first to have a television.

Fred’s children were George, Jack and Dora. Jack took over the farming side of the business. The Adams had fields dotted all around the place. Rumour has it that some were acquired as payments for smithying services. Jack started up in milk production; he had a cowshed and later the barn which is still there. George delivered the milk, brackets having been made for the back of the car to carry two milk churns to meet the milk collection tanker at Knighton.

When Fred retired the blacksmiths shop was no longer used, although the tools and equipment are still in situ and younger members of the family still live at the Smithy, for so many years a key feature of Chapel Lawn life.

Jane Kent

Many thanks to Connie Adams and Ann Connolly for valuable information.

From the Editors

Welcome to our third REDLAKE. Every editorial team hopes for a dramatic banner headline for the front page containing words like terror, scare, attack, invade. We thought we had such a headline with 'Twitchers invade Pentre Hodre' but thought better of it: the story appears in page 4. And how about 'Council trashes wild flowers', also on page 4.

This quarter we delve into a bit more history with the story of the Smithy in Chapel Lawn (page 3).

We continue to monitor the Parish Council minutes and will report on anything for items relating to Chapel Lawn ward: however, nothing this quarter.

THE REDLAKE is published by The Redlake Valley Hall Committee and neither the committee nor the editors can accept responsibility for any opinions expressed by contributors in these pages. The editorial team reserves the right to edit contributions as it believes appropriate.The Redlake is funded by grants and donations and it is our policy not to accept paid advertising due to restraints on space.

The editorial team comprises: Jane Kent, Christine Page, Becky Whitton & Michael Macturk
How to contact us: by mail The Redlake Editors, Squire Farm, Chapel Lawn, SY7 0BW
by telephone 01547 530 530 or by e-mail theredlake@squirefarm.co.uk

Profile

Kate & Jamie Grubb

Photo by Martha

Jamie, Kate, and Martha their five year old daughter, live just over the boundary of Chapel Lawn at Obley, where Jamie farms the very farm he has lived at all his life, although he went as far as Shrewsbury to be born! Kate’s earlier life was somewhat more eventful. Raised in Warwickshire she left home at the age of 18 with a rucksack and £300.She worked her way up to the west coast of Scotland, where she lived mostly in Mallaig. Here she worked in pubs and hotels, on fishing boats and on the Caledonian McBrayne ferries to the Western Isles. She came back south via Leicestershire, working in pubs, transport ‘caffs’, and factories. She eventually became, at 22,a receptionist in a veterinary surgery, where she trained on day release as a veterinary nurse. Tempted by a tied flat going with a job in Leominster she applied and was appointed.

One day a young farmer, Jamie, arrived with Mack, a sheepdog with a broken leg, and the vet introduced him to Kate. Perhaps the story would have stopped there but the vet, a natural match maker, suggested to Kate, who knew little about farm animals, that she should spend a weekend lambing on a local farm and rang Jamie’s dad to fix it...and two years later Kate and Jamie married in Chapel Lawn. They had a 24hour honeymoon and then moved into a caravan on the farm, where, despite frequent applications for planning permission for a house, they were doomed to remain for two years until Kate was too pregnant to fit through the door! Fortunately they were able to rent the Langdale cottage in Obley and have lived there for the last six years with Martha, their five year old daughter. In the meantime, Jamie has taken over responsibility for running the farm, 300 acres including grass keep, sheep and cattle and some arable on which he still uses a 1964 Clayson M80 combine. Kate has established a business, letting an eco-cabin to holidaymakers. This is a self-sustaining cabin, designed and project managed by Kate. It has won various prestigious awards including Country Living ‘Best New Business’ and has enabled Kate to meet the Queen - “What is an eco-cabin?” - Princess Anne, Sophie and Camilla, who she kindly invited to visit with Charles!

In between times, in 2002 Kate found time to have Martha. Jamie was present at the birth, which was a stressful 24 hour process, but Jamie describes it as the highlight of his life, even better than winning the cup for the 100 metres at Bucknell inter-school sports; even Kate was quite enthusiastic!

Jamie and Kate are at last building their own house in the farmyard of the family home, New House Farm. As you would expect it is not conventional; indeed it is the first of its kind but much researched. It is timber framed, wrapped in limed hessian, with walls cast in a mixture of hemp and lime and the whole encased in larch boarding from Powys Estates and roofed in a form of corrugated sheet from Bucknell. We do hope that Jamie, Kate and Martha will be very happy there.

Jane Kent

Twitchers invade Pentre Hodre

About 50 twitchers were seen in Pentre Hodre, complete with their equipment, over several days in May following reports of the sighting of a Hoopoe in the garden of Timbercroft next to Hodre pond. This was reported to RSPB in Shrewsbury and someone came along to inspect within the hour, thus demonstrating how rare an occurrence this sighting was.

The hoopoe is a smallish bird with a 'red Indian' head-dress and is a rare visitor to Britain and then only in the far south. This one must have been blown north against its will as the weather at the time was far from clement.

Luckily Gary Wall was able to take a video of it in his and Cyntia's garden and this can be viewed on the Chapel Lawn website, www.chapel-lawn.co.uk (click the picture)

Council trashes wild flowers

Not really, but...

In May Bryncalled lane was a picture, with a profusion of hedgerow flowers - a delight to walk down. By early June they were nearly all gone, demolished by the council's verge cutter. We were under the impression that Bryncalled lane was included among the verges that the council had agreed not to cut until the autumn. Obviously the larger roads have to be cut on the grounds of traffic safety, but the narrow single lanes could easily be left until the autumn, except perhaps on the corners. We believe the county council are willing to listen to suggestions, so if you have a favourite lane where the wild flowers grow, please let us know and we will approach the council, through the proper channels of course.

Parish Plan

Parish plans started in 2001 where about 3000 local communities across the Country were invited to produce a statement of what their local community wanted over the coming years. The process has continued to develop and, in Shropshire, the majority of parishes have now produced their plans. Clun & Chapel Lawn parish plan is coming in the later stages of the process but is by no means at the end of the line.

The objectives are, first and foremost, to enable local residents to be able to define what they want from the community. To that end, the evidence of parish plans will justify the case for changes, but there is no guarantee that funds will be available to implement them. What is certain is the converse, that bids for funding without the evidence of a Parish Plan are less likely to succeed.

The next stage in our parish has come with the completion of the question-naire given to all over the age of 12. Thank you for your responses: early results suggest a better than expected rate. They are being analysed and the results will be published as we have them. The responses will join the evidence that we gained from the survey at the Clun Carnival 2007 and Chapel Lawn Village Walk to enable us the write the plan.

The winners of the prize draw of the parish plan questionnaire will be announced at the Clun Carnival.

Kim Smith

Dawny	Not sufficiently dry – used of hay
Maggoty	Fidgety, restless – from the behaviour of fly-blown sheep
Swodgey	Big and sway bellied – used of sheep
Wee Wow	Crooked or askew