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Issue 164 Dec 2010
Dear Members, At the heart of any village are its resi-dents, and I believe that the difference as to whether a village is desirable place to live is not dependant on the number of ―picture book‖ houses, its floral displays, or its location, but is largely based on how the village com-munity interacts and helps each other. It is rather telling that a recent nation-wide Government survey found that almost a third of the population think people in their local area do not treat each other with consideration or re-spect. They have lost their sense of pride in their community, with residents often feeling that their views are ig-nored when decisions are made about their area. Not in West End! I know that we all care about where we live, and have a real sense of pride that is borne out by your concerns about over devel-opment, your very vocal support in lob-bying the Borough Council and having your say in the many issues that affect us. For example, your support and re-sponses for the Village Design State-ment, which hopefully will be submitted to the council for adoption around the end of the year, has been extremely welcome. Similarly, if you have not al-ready heard, West End‘s success in the ―Surrey Community of the Year 2010‖ competition, where West End came FIRST in the ―Best Large Village Community‖ category, and runners up for the Best Overall Village in Surrey was an incredible and deserved
achievement. My sincere thanks go to everyone who is involved in any aspect of the village. This award is recognition for your achievement. Please visit our web site www.wevs.org.uk for details. Our AGM for 2011 is on Tuesday 15
th
February commencing at 7.30pm. We do hope to see you there because it is so very important to hear your views so that the Village Society can continue to sup-port you, the members, and the village in the way you want. Of course these days the AGM is also a social event with wine and nibbles! It remains for me to wish you all a very Happy Christmas and hope that you will, once again join us on the Village Boxing Day walk which will start at 10.30am at the Tringham Hall car park. The walk is organised by the West End Ramblers club (TWERPS) all ages are welcome, and please dress sensibly for the weather. As always give me a call or email on any issues or comments. Marc Bedwell Chairman Mb 07880 715812 [email protected]
Chairman’s Letter
Inside this issue:
Chairman’s Letter
Women’s Institute
1
VDS Report
Serpell’s Bells
2
Parish Council
Diary Dates
3
Brentmoor Heath
Ag and Hort Update
4
Special Point of Interest: AGM—15th Feb 2011
WEVS Committee
Chairman Marc Bedwell Mobile: 07880 715812 e-mail: [email protected]
Vice Chairman Dave Norris Treasurer Robin Short
Secretary Duncan Peebles
Membership Secretary Stuart Cazaly 01483 474374 28 Broad Street, West End
Communications Team Pete Jones, Yvette Jones and Savitri Kegge [email protected]
01483 476073
Newsletter Editor Dianne Norris e-mail: [email protected]
Jeff Llewellyn, Judy Douch, Graham Alleway
Ildikó Roth – Promotions Sue & Dave Gandy – Fete Organisers
Visit us on: www.wevs.org.uk
West End Women’s Institute West End WI warmly invites all women to come along and experience our WI first hand. A warm welcome awaits you, age no barrier. We have an exciting and diverse programme booked for 2011 with wide appeal to all women. In addition to monthly meetings we have organised walks, lunches and outings and we welcome new ideas. We meet on the Second Wednesday of the month at 8pm in the Sports Pa-vilion, Benner Lane. Come and see for yourselves, and we look forward to meeting you for a floral demonstration on January 12th 2011. Jean Williams
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WEST END VILLAGE’S DESIGN STATEMENT – UPDATE
Serpells Bells—Article by John Smith
Through 2010 ―West End‘s History Project‖, put on displays at the Village Fete, Agricultural Show and at the West Sur-rey Family History Societies open day at Woking Leisure Centre. We helped provide some of the photos and docu-ments for the ―Best of West End Exhibition‖ at Surrey Heath Museum and assisted our Parish Council to record onto CDs their well preserved minutes from 1968 to 2008. We have through the year recorded many other photos and re-cords which will find their way to Surrey Heath Museum in due course. We have also asked Surrey Heath Borough Council to include in their current review of listed buildings our War Memorial Cross. At the moment it is not listed. Shown below is an article from the West Chobham Parish Magazine dated February 1923 of special interest to bell ringers. It may also bring back memories, it does for me.....
―Ring Out Sweet Bells‖
―Parishioners were first astonished, and then delighted, on Christmas Day and New Year‘s Eve, at the sound of sweet bells floating from the valley of Valley End‖. ―The mystery was solved by being told that Mr. H. O. Serpell, J.P. the owner of Westcroft Park had erected a tower in his park to contain a peal of bells. We have tried to get some particulars of the same, and are told the tower contains 18 bells, the total weight being about 46cwt, the tenor weighing over 9 cwt. They are played by the means of a clavier, similar to the celebrated Bruges Bells. The clock above, chimes the quarter hours on either the Westminster or the Guildford Chimes; the latter are considered the most beautiful chimes as yet produced from a musical point of view‖. The architecture is somewhat of a Dutch or Elizabethan style, being built with English oak and brick, and we believe this campanile is unique, being the only one of its kind in the British Isles‖. It is a great addition to the neighbourhood; it makes us feel we might be living near a cathedral city, and in the summer evenings, when sitting in our gardens, they will soothe our tired brains. Our best thanks are due to the donor. We must not dictate to Mr. Serpell, but would like to point out his park will now be an ideal place for Church and parochial gatherings, if only to hear the various selections the bells play‖. ―We hope now the good people of Valley End will replace their somewhat harsh Church bell, for a sweet toned one to harmonise with these‖. The August edition of the magazine carries details of the indi-vidual bells in the carillon. Carillon of Bells Erected at Westcroft Park, Chobham by Gillett & Johnson, Bellfounders and Clock-makers, Croydon ―This Carillon of Bells was installed by H. O. Serpell, Esq., J. P. Christmas 1922.‖ Note; it is thought that in 1932 the Carillon of Bells may have been enlarged to 23 bells and after the death of its owner it was reduced to a clock chime of 5 bells. For those not familiar with the area, Valley End is north east of West End near Windlesham. Photograph, courtesy of Surrey Heath Museum, showing the bells in the centre of the photo
Since the last newsletter good progress has been made: we held an open day on September 13th when we had a draft document and photographs for residents to view and comment on. In the eve-ning we made a presentation and overall the day‘s events were well attended. We have incorporated comments made both at the meeting and from other consultations into a new document The Future of West End: Guidelines from the Residents
I have attended a meeting together with Chobham‘s VDS committee members and Surrey Heath planners to discuss our draft documents. Proposed legislation will have an effect on VDSs and there-fore we will have some further work to do on our current document. In the meantime we intend to publish The Future of West End: Guidelines from the Residents on the website and the VDS will be delayed until 2011. More information on the effect of the Coalition‘s proposed draft of the Localism Bill being laid before Parliament imminently will be made available soon on the WEVS website. Judy Douch—Chairman
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West End Councillors organised and participated in a sponsored walk on 13
th November around West End
Common for Help for Heroes Charity. Two circuits were mapped out, one of 5 miles and one of 2.5 miles. It was a successful day with many West End people taking part. The figures for amounts raised are still being gathered but I can report in excess of £300 from on the day donations. Personally I covered both circuits in excess of 7.5 miles, and my own sponsors of family/friends/neighbours kindly pledged £350. With the addition of Gift Aid it should reach almost £450 for a fan-tastic cause. Great thanks to the Councillors and helpers, but an enormous vote of thanks to all of the sponsors for such generous donations for our boys. BOROUGH COUNCIL The Borough has achieved good results in the level of recycling for Surrey Heath. The Council offices in Cam-berley now accommodate the Police with the closure of Camberley Police station. The Parish is keen to ensure the Villages are serviced effectively with retention of a local base for our team. We need your support regarding this in the coming months when Lightwater Police station is reviewed for closure. COUNTY COUNCIL The County has made changes to the gritting and salt provision for Surrey Heath this coming winter. The local flooding mitigation measures implemented over the last year with Highway drainage and Gordon‘s Field Bund have yielded pleasing results with rainfall encountered so far. POLICE Crime and anti-social behaviour has received effective attention from our local team, and the leaflets they have circulated provide encouraging feedback to residents. Personally I think it makes better reading to hear about the results rather than how we have to impede our lives to limit their activities of theft and burglary etc. Let‘s help the Police make their lives intolerable, not ours. Always report suspicious activity. Operational reports can be read on the following web page. http://www.surrey.police.uk/neighbourhood/neighbourhood.asp?area=SHCB We welcome all Resident feedback via email [email protected] or phone 01276 855361
PARISH COUNCIL
Core Strategy and Development Management Policies Submission.
The Parish made a submission to Surrey Heath re-garding the above in September, and I am pleased to report that our points have been accepted as valid. Briefly we proposed the Core Strategy should: ac-knowledge the Community as the largest stake-holder; endorsed support for removal of reserve housing site on the east/south side of west end, and to be returned to green belt; provide further justifica-tion of 2500 new build housing target for Surrey Heath; reconsider the target of 40 dwellings per hec-tare as being overambitious; include the VDS in the Strategy document as specific to West End; incorpo-rate Local Plan protection policies with some en-hancements for green belt protection and small dwellings; and lastly the infrastructure effects of traf-fic accessing the M3 should Deepcut be developed. Hopefully these points will help preserve and protect West End and the rural Village quality of life. The Parish entered West End into the Fullers Surrey Village of the Year competition 2010. As you may know West End won the Best Large Village category, and came runner up in the Best Overall Village cate-gory. The competition focused on the Community and what goes on in West End. It is a tremendous accolade to the unsung voluntary groups that make West End a great place to live whether supporting people, organising clubs or staging events such as the Village fete and Agricultural/Horticultural Show. A great thank you to all of the Community Groups that made a representation. Now the dark nights are well and truly with us, we would like to ask all residents to check if their trees or bushes are restricting the effectiveness of street lighting/road side signs/paths/sight lines. If anyone has difficulty in cutting back we are willing to assist with some effort as best as possible. We have had a tremendous response to keeping paths clear of vehi-cles; it makes a real difference to elderly/scooter us-ers/mums with pushchairs etc, thank you. At the time of writing we are not sure what the winter holds in store for us, although West End Parish has secured a small amount of salt to use in essential areas.
Diary Dates
Boxing day Walk— Meet as usual at 10.30 am at the Tringham Hall car park. WEVS AGM—is on Tuesday 15
th February 2011 commencing at
7.30pm in the Sports Pavilion. WEVS Meeting Dates Meetings commence at 7:30 p.m. with Police Surgery at 7:00 Monday Jan 10th , Tue February 15th, Monday March 14th Monday May
9th Monday July 11th Monday September 5th Monday November 14th
WEBSITE
We have been making a few changes to the
WEVS website. The Home Page has changed
to provide more information on news items
and now let you know what has changed. The
village and old home page are now combined.
Please provide feedback on
www.wevs.org.uk
Brentmoor Heath Nature Reserve
Mary and James Adler
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DISCLAIMER: Articles are supplied and printed with permission of the authors, who have sold responsibilities for the content contained therein.
Printed by Red Eye Print —56 Goldsworth Road, Woking, Surrey GU21 6LE Tel: 01483 772111 e-mail: [email protected]
Stepping Stones for Stag Beetles There have been several reports of people finding Stag beetles in West End in recent years. To encourage the provision of suitable habitat in gardens and for more information etc. click on this link
WEST END AND WINDLESHAM AGRICULTURAL AND HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY Following another successful show last September it is time to start thinking of next year‘s show. The date for your dia-ries is SEPTEMBER 10
TH 2011. It is always the second Saturday in September with the Ploughing Match being held in
Windlesham the Saturday before. I have been Secretary of the Society for 20 yrs. now and a member of the Society and committee for 30yrs. It is the best committee that I sit on----we laugh a lot and the spirit of camaraderie as we plan the show is great. Show day and more importantly the day before is exciting -the arrival of the marquee, followed by the trucking in of the tables and tres-tles sets the scene for a hive of activity to swing into action. Rolls of newsprint are pinned to the yards of tabletops, poultry cages are assembled, numbers of each class are checked and space allocated, before class numbers are pinned in place. Over the years we have got Friday preparations down to a fine art and it is very satisfying to see everything ready for the hustle and bustle on Saturday when the doors open to the early entrants at 8am. When I first became Secretary all the entries received the previous Saturday were processed by hand. As we now have up to 1000 entries each year, we, or rather Mr. Geoff Walker has, developed a computer system to record entrant numbers and their classes entered (so entry cards can be written), assess table top space required and process the results on Show Day to allocate prize monies and trophies. Mr John Arnott now assists with this task. Mrs Rosemary Walker has also been Treasurer for 20 years and a committee member for more than 30 years. We discussed at com-mittee the fact that if either of us fell under a bus the week before show day ---having shown our bus passes --there would be chaos --and the usually smooth operation of the show would not happen. We could both do with understudies!! Everyone loves the show. It is a unique part of the village. When we use ‗and district‘ in our title we really do include those villages around us, just look at those folk who enter. The show has grown so much in the last 15 years and has adapted to reflect the changes in people‘s interests. We want it to continue to be as successful in the coming years and this can only happen if those who love the show as much as we do are prepared to put their money where their mouth is and carry the Society on. Please think about what I have said in this article and if you would like to join us the A.G.M is Tuesday January 18
th 2011 at The West End Club
8pm. followed by a committee meeting, after refreshments. Angela Astall 01483 480342
Red deer roam ranges to protect Pirbright heathland Deer that became locally extinct over 200 years ago have been successfully reintroduced to Surrey‘s Pirbright heathland. The award-winning project, led by Defence Estates, Natural England and Surrey Wildlife Trust, is a pioneering, landscape-scale, conservation project where red deer are being introduced to protect the vitally important heathland habitat at the MOD‘s Pirbright Ranges, near West End Village. It was at 4:40pm on Monday 15
th November that the
gates between the holding paddocks, where the deer have been for the sum-mer, and the main enclosure were opened for the deer to wander out onto their 740ha (1830 acre) new home. For more on this article from James Adler of Surrey Wildlife Trust please visit the WEVS Website www.wevs.org.uk
