THE VILLAGE MARKET June 2014

VILLAGE MARKETt h e

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June 2014

SEE PAGE 3

Folk forged

preciouslinks with

the Maasai people of

east Africaduring an

exotic eventat Elford’s

idyllic WalledGarden. Read about it in the

July issue of ‘Village Market’

Superb display- Elford’s idyllicWalled Garden

GUILTYHe lived the high life whiledestroying his victims’ lives

Giant leap:David Loshiyeshowed how it

was done.

Mark William Lewis goes to jail for £478K fraud

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A former Fradley busi-nessman who defraud-ed pensioners out of

their life savings has been jailed for 6.5 years.

Mark William Lewis (50), formerly of Barlow Drive, was sentenced at Staf-ford Crown Court, on May 28.

He had pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing of defraud-ing eight people out of a total of £478,000.

AllegationsThe initial in-

dictment com-prised 39 counts involving 20 people who had alleg-edly been defraud-ed of a total of £992,606.

Not guilty verdicts were recorded in re-spect of 23 of the charges.

In what has been an ex-traordinary case, Lewis first ap-peared at Can-nock Magistrates Court, in April last year.

Then he faced 24 counts vari-ously of fraud and deception involving a total sum of around £2.2 million.

Travesty of justiceBoth the police and Crown

Prosecution Service have come in for heavy criticism for their handling of the case.

Lewis’ victims claim it has been a travesty of justice.

Recorder, Miss Sally Hancox, last month said that in the be-ginning the case, “had not been dealt with as smoothly as it should have been”.

Defence barrister Anthony Bell said his client was not guilty of selling fraudulent investments, but of the lesser crime of obtain-ing credit by fraud.

Miss Hancox did not agree. She dealt with the charges in two separate groups.

The first involved the people

who had been sold fraud-ulent property invest-ments.

The second group had been sold worthless

investments in solar panel com-ponents and a company Lewis had claimed to have set up, Com-

paresolar.com.

The crimes in the sec-

ond group were committed while Lewis was out on po-lice bail.

He was first arrested on suspicion of fraud on February 8, 2011.

Lewis was sentenced to four and half years impris-onment in respect of the first group of 12 counts.He received a further term

of two years in prison to run consecutively for the second

group of four counts.The credit

he received for pleading guilty before the tri-al and the six

months he spent inside on re-mand, means Lewis should be out on licence in around two years and three months’ time.

In closing, Miss Hancox praised the, “quiet dignity”, with which his victims had watched the proceedings.

She said none of them could be blamed for being tricked and taken in by Lewis.

Nor it seems was anyone safe from his lies and cunning.

The fraudster even preyed on his closest family and friends.

The deception was so com-plete unwitting victims came to treat him like a son.

He returned their kindness by cheating them out of every pen-ny they had.

Homes put at riskHe persuaded some victims to

re-mortgage their homes to fat-ten his pockets.

Not even being arrested stopped him wrecking lives.

The crimes he committed while on bail point to him being a pathological liar without the scintilla of a conscience.

He made contact with both of his latest known victims while working for solar energy com-panies, named in court as Wilt-shire-based British Eco, and So-larontime, from Shropshire.

It was stressed in court that the businesses had no involve-ment in Lewis’ fraud.

Once Lewis had their custom-ers’ trust he ‘groomed’ them to return later with his own invest-ment scheme to defraud them.

But long before Lewis met these victims he was already on the run from people after him for money.

Lewis had been a financial ad-

visor with Willenhall’s First Stop Property Shop Ltd.

International fraudWhile there he talked peo-

ple into investing with Longdon Green-based, Ocean View Prop-erties (OVP).

The company set up by Colin Thomas, of Yoxall, sold overseas resort properties off-plan, which were then never built.

A major international criminal investigation ensued.

More than 1,000 Britons lost a total of £45 million when OVP was dissolved, in 2009.

There is no suggestion Lewis was in on the alleged fraud.

But in May, 2008, he and his wife, Joanne, set up three com-panies of their own.

Turn to page 22

VISIT our website www.villagemarketnews.co.uk 3

Two victims have died - another was taken seriously ill to hospital - he took pensioners’ life savings - he took a beloved father’s legacy off his bereaved son - he invited himself into people’s homes for coffee, smiling and ‘grooming’ them while plotting all along to fleece them

Fradley fraudster gets 6.5 years

Mark William Lewis: his victims saw him as a favoured son. Now they see him for what he really is.


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Disclaimer: Every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of dates, event information and advertisements, appearing in ‘The Village Market’. However, events may be cancelled, or dates may be altered by the organisers. Village Market Micronewspapers Ltd. therefore cannot accept responsibility for the accuracy of any claims made by advertisers within the micronewspaper or upon any literature it may deliver on their behalf.

VIEW ‘VM’ ONLINEYour monthly micronewspaper can now be viewed online at:

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Middleton Craft Centre, Middleton, Staffs, B78 2AE

Tel: 01827 282 113

Clock Repairs & House Clearance

www.meadowviewantiques.co.uk

Bennion bye, bye There were cheers

across the ‘VM’ area when Haunton farmer

Phil Bennion lost the seat he never won.

His party was almost totally eradicated from the European Parliament in last month’s elec-tions.

Electoral slaughterOf the 1,197,161 votes cast

for the four top parties in the West Midlands, Bennion and his colleagues only took 6.3 per cent.

The Lib Dems’ collapse was put down to the electorate be-ing unable to trust them to keep their promises.

The controversial Liberal Democrat only became an MEP thanks to Europe’s bizarre ver-sion of democracy.

Clifton Campville’s former parish councillor got his ticket on the ‘gravy train’ to Brussels in February 2012.

That was because his prede-cessor, the popular Liz Lynne, quit her seat.

The Lib Dems’ dismal 12 per cent vote in the 2009 elections meant the party only secured one Euro seat in the West Mid-lands.

MEP by defaultBut being second on their list

of candidates gave Bennion the right to take over when Lynne left despite him never having won anything.

He has stood and failed sev-eral times in the UK’s general elections.

He was also ousted from his seat on Lichfield District Coun-cil, in 2011.

He succeeded in making him-self massively unpopular in the ‘VM’ area when a move was made to put colossal wind tur-

bines on his land, near Haunton.There was public outrage at

his attempt to cash in on the subsidies the public were being forced to pay people like him through their energy bills.

Massive turbinesThe German firm that at-

tempted to put 420ft-tall tur-bines on Bennion’s land pulled

out of the planning process at the very last moment when it seemed they might not get the result they wanted.

That cost the district’s council tax payers a wasted £90,000.

Community halls were packed as hundreds of resi-dent rallied to stop the farmer wrecking the Mease Valley landscape.

Furious neighboursThey were up in arms over

the effect his turbines would have on the sick and elderly living nearby.

It was said people seeking respite at Haunton’s convent would also suffer.

Before long the local nuns’ religious community around the world had joined in the cam-paign to block the turbine plans.

Bennion has always been coy about the money the machines would make for him.

But it was believed he stood to earn £80,000 a year.

He told the ‘VM’ that he wanted the turbines on his land to help, “save mankind”.

Silent on profitsSince money was not an is-

sue for him, he was asked if he would donate his profits to the community.

He did not respond to the challenge.

He also produces the sup-posedly ‘green’ biomass fuel, miscanthus.

He claimed this too was part of his effort to protect the en-vironment.

What he failed to point out was that at the time he was sending HGVs belching out ‘greenhouse’ gasses on 200-mile trips to get the material to his customer.

The Mease Valley’s hugely unpopular MEP has been blown out his seat on the Euro gravy train

Supposedly green: farmer Bennion forgot to mention the diesel fumes.

‘WANTED’ no longer: Phil Bennion.

The ‘Boris bubble’ burst with a bang when he in-sulted every resident of

the ‘VM’ area.Michael Fabricant’s popped

and began wheezing flat when he called them all, “mugs”.

No one who listens to the news will have been surprised when Staffordshire’s acrylic blond Par-liamentary buffoon fell from grace.

After the ‘selfie’-obsessed MP repeatedly made a clown out of David Cameron it was inevitable.

‘B’ is for BorisBut when Boris started talking

‘b*******s’ with added nastiness I confess being surprised.

When the bluff blond Bullingdon Club graduate inherited Michael Hesletine’s Henley constituency, in 2001, he turned out to be a pretty awful MP.

He has always got away with it thanks to his quick wit and slick repartee.

He was a happy-go-lucky privi-leged funster with a silver spoon stuck up his fundament whom everyone loved.

His madder outpourings were seen an uber-intelligent toff who wanted the proletariate to think he was kind, approachable and well, just like them, really. Even if, un-like him, they were not filthy rich.

And perhaps it was his immuni-ty from the realities of life that led to his mask slipping last month.

Telling us that if we objected to HS2 on environmental grounds we were talking, “b******s”, was pretty offensive and not funny.

Yew what!?And when he claimed trees only

lived for 60 years my infant great-nephew spat out his pureed prunes and burbled in disbelief: “Is that really the sort of b******s they’re teaching at Oxford now?”

But, Boris, when you insulted us for being upset over our prop-erties being devalued, you were bang on the money!

But how dare you make a joke about hard working families see-ing tens of thousands of pounds slashed off the value of their homes by your hideous HS2.

When members of the Bulling-don Club went out in their penguin suits to smash up restaurants it wasn’t a problem was it?

People of your ilk simply reach inside their silk-lined jackets for the cheque book and laugh it off.

And no doubt some of your friends will make fortunes out of the building of your unwanted and obscene rail project.

But a lot of people in our neck of the soon to be bulldozed woods are already suffering hardship be-cause of you.

They cannot move to new jobs because they cannot sell their homes.

The crippling policies of your Bullingdon buddy, George Os-borne, have left many people un-able to pay their mortgages, or repair their houses.

Unsaleable homesAnd the houses so many peo-

ple invested in to give them a nest egg in retirement will now become unsaleable, because of you and your kind.

And another thing, don’t you dare call us NIMBYs.

We are to a man, woman and child, NIMBYANIAEEs - and don’t you forget it!

When your tonsorial doppel-gänger, albeit he seems to use more hairspray (or lard) than you, met us in Boley Park, we told him plain and simple: “Not In Our Backyard And Not In Anyone Else’s Either.”

HS2 will not fix the north/south divide.

It will not run at 250mph, as your lot boasted.

It will not bring business north, it will migrate it south.

It will not connect with the Eu-ropean high-speed network. Even Birmingham will be on a spur.

The existing rail infrastructure will have to be cut to pay for it.

It will only be people like you who can afford a ticket.

It is not even going to stop in Staffordshire to pick people up.

Vast debtsBut it will, just like HS1, saddle

the taxpayer with a vast and unaf-fordable debt.

Fabricant, who called someone a, ‘tw*t’, on-air, may be right say-ing HS2 cannot be stopped.

But what he may not have spot-ted was that when he betrayed his constituents he sent his own career screaming into the buffers.

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Two tousel-haired Tory party tw*ts!!!

Boris Johnson (left) and his Tory party chum Michael Fab-ricant both share a passion for HS2: Boris thinks ‘VM’-area people are talking ‘b******s’. And Fabricant thinks they are all, ‘mugs’.


Paid £,£££s-can’t change light bulb

County councillor Simon Tagg takes £20,572 a year off taxpayers in al-

lowances alone and he cannot even fix a light bulb.

After two Whittington street lamps failed last February, on The Green, an 87-year-old pensioner tripped in the dark and went flying.

Deadly tripFalls like that can kill elderly

people and there are a lot of pen-sioners in the village.

Elsewhere in the country coun-cils fix streetlights within three hours if there is a public danger.

Non-urgent repairs are done within five working days.

Whittington’s lights had been out for five weeks when Whitting-ton and Fisherwick Parish Council (WFPC) told Tagg’s team about it, on March 31.

The team raised a report num-ber (14216868) but a month lat-er the lights were still out.

Twenty-nine days after WFPC made its report a friend of the pensioner had a go.

‘Tagger’ flummoxedA Tagg-teamer told him they

could not, “raise a report num-

ber”, because he had not given them enough information.

He gave them more informa-tion - the anonymous pen-pusher said it was still not enough.

So he told the ‘VM’: “For heav-en’s sake! The Green is 100 yards long, it has four street lights and half of them are out.

You’re kidding!“Can these people really not

work out which ones they are?”He told Tagg’s team to try do-

ing what they were being paid for and gave up in disgust.

They then sent him the report number they had sent WFPC, which they said they could not raise without more information.

A fortnight later someone did come out and fix the lights.

But Tagg’s contractors, E.on, told the pensioner’s friend it was they who found the fault, on April 15.

They said the Taggers did not tell them about WFPC’s report un-til the day after.

Waiting E.onsBut the man from E.on said

they were not allowed to fix the fault and had to ask the network provider, Western Power Distribu-tion (WPD), to do it.

He then told the pensioner’s chum an investigation was un-derway to find out why WPD did not get the job done until May 9.

Councillor Simon Tagg then re-vealed that WPD could have left the job until May 27, had they

wanted to.So in some counties when

safety is at risk the lights get fixed within three hours.

Under Tagg’s jurisdiction it can take three months.

The pensioner and his friend were not impressed.

Nor is it the first time the coun-ty highways department has put ‘VM’-area residents in peril.

Every time the common factor has been their refusal to act on information sent in by the public.

Killer returnsVillagers were furious when

‘highways’ reinstated a death trap that killed three people.

The department ordered the obliteration of road markings

Two streetlights go phut - pensioner goes flying - a parish council tells Tagg’s team about it (NOTHING HAPPENS) a villager tells Tagg’s team about it (NOTHING HAPPENS) Tagg’s own contractors pass the road and spot the fault and still NOTHING HAPPENS!!! Yet again people are left at risk.Tagg match: anyone asking Simon Tagg to sort out a safety hazard may be in for a long and very hard fight.

Magical mystery tour: the sign in the foreground shows how it was for years. It took a hit and run case and media exposure to force ‘highways’ to twist it round the right way.

Inbuilt danger: vil-lagers were appalled when the county highays depart-ment built a ‘traffic calming’ chicane opposite a gate leading out of Bit End Field. Children often emerge from the gate onto the pavementless side of Fisherwick Road. Instead of taking traffic away from the danger zone, the chicane forces traffic going in both directions to skim past the opening. Despite the obvious danger the bureau-crates refused to remove it.

warning drivers of the accident black spot on Lichfield Road, near Whittington.

Yet when villagers sent the alarm to ‘highways’ they were ignored. Eventually they told the ‘VM’ to have a go.

Cars were hurtling towards each other at a combined closing speed of 120mph out of a blind dip near a hidden junction.

Elsewhere, a blind pensioner was knocked down by a hit-and-run driver speeding along a sin-gle-track road.

‘Highways’ had twisted a road sign through 90 degrees sending Alrewas traffic the wrong way.

Sign of stupidityFor years vehicles bound for

the A38 were being sent in a circle through the narrow lanes, near Whittington.

Horse riders with injured mounts, cyclists and pedestrians all told of their narrow escapes.

“Highways’ were told about it ad nauseam - and did nothing.

The ‘VM’ sent them photo-graphs - they insisted the sign was correctly aligned.

The ‘VM’ then had to send them diagrams to prove they were talking utter rubbish.

Not hard, was it?A chap came out and, with a

twist of the wrist . . . fixed it!‘Highways’ are also notorious

for botching road repairs.Car after car driving down a

single-track lane near Clifton Campville was having its wheels wrecked by a 5ft-long pothole.

The deep fissure was impossi-ble to see or avoid at night - it was a lethal threat to bikers.

Villagers fearing a tragedy complained and were ignored.

They sat watching their TV shake as cars slammed into the chasm just feet away from them.

Each morning their hedge was adorned with wheel trims.

The suspension shattered on one car, which had to be taken away on a lorry.

Waste of moneyThe council at last sent out

a crew, whose botched repair popped out again the next day.

The piles of gravel it created sent cars skidding after they slammed into the Clifton pot.

‘Highways’ made yet another dismal effort in Whittington.

Gravel spewing from a botched ‘repair’ on a downhill slope was sending cars sliding across a junction into the paths of other vehicles.

A road engineer who watched the crew fix the hole said they were incompetent, or did not care.

The patch was breaking up al-most before they left the site.

‘Highways’ also installed two ‘traffic calming’ chicanes on Whit-tington’s Fisherwick Road.

One near Cloisters Walk was meant to slow the traffic outside a gate to Bit End Field.

Youngsters coming out straight onto the pavementless road needed protection.

But ‘highways’ put the chicane on the opposite side of the road.

Now traffic from both direc-tions is skimming past the hidden entrance and the youngsters face double the danger.

Chicanery‘Highways’ put the other chi-

cane outside St. Giles Hospice.That forced two streams of

cars travelling in opposite direc-tions into a single lane on the in-side apex of a blind bend.

The outcry was so great, ‘high-ways’ had to dig up their own stupidity and remove it.

And all the chicane they left has done is provide an exciting challenge for speeding farmers.

Residents living near Bit End Field are complaining bitterly about huge tractors and trailers hurtling down the road, jinking right and left through the ‘traffic calming measures’.

“Cars simple fly through the chicanes,” said one worried vil-lager.

Last year a colossal red pota-to harvester driving in the dark without proper running lights forced a motorist off the road and onto an embankment.


Now you see it: you cannot see the blind dip on the Lichfield Road. But you can see very clearly the broken white line saying it is safe to overtake.

Now you don’t: the car is hidden in the dip. But you can see the walker on your side of the road whom you need to avoid. The speed limit is 60mph.

And now it is too late: you have moved out to stay clear of the walker, the silver car has popped up from the dip - your closing speed is 120mph.

An air ambulance was scrambled when a Whittington schoolboy

was hurt in a traffic accident.Emergency crews feared Toby

Farnsworth (12) had suffered life-threatening internal injuries.

Birmingham’s Children’s Hos-pital was put on stand-by to re-ceive the incoming casualty.

Police closed off Main Street while paramedics rushed to the scene to save Toby’s life.

His mother’s prayers were an-swered when it was discovered her son had miraculously es-caped serious injury.

Saw it comingBut it was an accident people

had long predicted would happen as road safety in the village went from bad to worse.

Now Toby is using his terrify-ing ordeal to call for changes to be made before someone does get killed.

Residents feared a child would eventually be hurt when the po-lice were called on to tackle the chaos in Main Street, on March 16, 2012.

During busy periods busses were either picking up or empty-ing out dozens of excited young-sters onto Main Street.

Double-parked lorries were making deliveries to the local Tamworth Co-operative Society store.

Threat to lifeImpatient drivers were mount-

ing pavements used by mums pushing prams and people were parking cars across junctions.

Matters were made even worse by motorists parking on the blind bend adjacent to the Co-op shop.

Just metres beyond that is a blind junction that the drivers of 17-tonne delivery wagons re-verse into to turn around.

One lorry dropping goods at the Co-op even mounted the pavement outside, felled a con-crete streetlight and then drove off without stopping.

Deadly dangerThe column smashed down

across a pedestrian area and damaged the ramp handrail leading to the shop’s front door.

Despite the police intervention the problems have continued.

There are complaints that the traffic on Main Street is getting worse year by year.

One outstanding exception to the bad driving was the young woman behind the wheel when Toby had his accident.

He said: “I went out into the road from behind the school bus.

“I couldn’t see the car coming.“I couldn’t hear it either be-

cause of the noise being made by the people coming off the bus.

Careful driver“My friends told me the car

driver was going really slowly and carefully.

“I know it gave her a terrible shock. I want to say sorry to her.

“If she’d been going quickly, or not paying attention, I might not be here now.

“She ought to get a medal.”The ‘VM’ understands the

driver was a 17-year-old, from Shenstone, who had only just passed her test.

Close shaveThe traffic and narrowness of

the road means that cars have to drive past the busses with only inches to spare.

A witness told the ‘VM” that the young woman had no chance to avoid the collision and was not

to blame for the accident.Toby landed on her car bonnet

and then slid off.Potentially fatal

A wheel went over one of his legs but did no serious damage.

His other leg hit the front of the car, dislocating the knee cap.

Toby said new parking restric-tions, making Main Street ‘one way only’ and routing all busses through the village via Back Lane must all be considered in finding a solution to the problem.

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It was the one they knew was coming

History of danger in Whittington: villagers have campaigned to stop deliv-ery drivers double parking outside the local Tamworth Co-operative Society shop, creating a traffic pinch point. When they do traffic meets head-on on the apex of a blind bend.

Twelve-year-old road accident victim praises the young driver of the car he collided with and calls for the people in power to act now on road safety

Young campaigner: Toby Farnsworth wants something done about the dan-ger to Whittington’s school students.




No time for regrets A Wigginton couple

would love to miss the farming life they left

behind – but they never can find the time.

The crippling economics of dairy farming eventually forced Joan and Keith Riggal off the land.

Then they were asked to leave their local authority owned farm.

Yet like many canny country folk who had seen their agricul-tural margins decimated by the supermarket economy, they had already begun diversifying.

Chaaaarge!But they never expected their

fledgling business to zoom off at a mad gallop when they started focusing all their efforts on it.

Mrs. Riggal, said: “’Our horse feed company, the ‘A-Man’, just snowballed the second we were free to put all our efforts into it.

“We both enjoyed farming. And I think we’d miss it too, if we had any time to spare.”

The couple, who married in 1970, began in life in rearing beef, at Hemswell, Lincolnshire.

For Keith it was more than a job, it was a passion. Rearing animals and occasionally show-ing them was among his greatest pleasures.

They eventually turned to dairy

farming, quietly developing their A-Man business as they went along.

The company’s close connec-tions with its rural customers and the countryside are a huge bonus for the Riggals.

And everyone who goes there to shop for their equestrian needs, city folk included, can be confident in the knowledge they are talking to experts in top qual-ity forage.

The business, founded in 1997, is sited just outside the village of Wigginton, near Tamworth.

They sell a wide range of top quality feeds and bedding for horses, along with hoof products, fly repellents and even tail disen-tanglers.

Everything you needThe couple are also now selling

large quantities of pet and farm animal foods for everything from guinea pigs and cats, to dogs and ducks.

And they provide home com-forts too, in the form of logs for people’s living room fires.

Their home delivery service is the icing on the cake.

For information about the A-Man people should ring 01827 66678, or log onto www.a-man.co.uk.

Dozens of hungry cus-tomers descended on a favourite ‘VM’-area

cafe to help people overseas.They flocked to Doughnuts &

Dollars on World Fair Trade Day to support the movement that helps farmers and producers get a fair price for their goods.

Backing FairtradeThere is no greater supporter

of the scheme than Jamie Lowe,

who runs the Whittington eatery.It was she and other local

businesses who, in 2012, helped the village become the first in the county to gain ‘Fairtrade status’.

Tasty supportMs. Lowe, said: “Every spoon-

ful of sugar, cup of coffee or tea, or sachet of tomato sauce we serve helps people overseas.

“Whenever there is ‘Fairtrade’ choice for any product we use it.

“It’s something we firmly be-lieve in and so we were delighted and very grateful to everyone who came along to support our special event.”

Ms. Lowe said it was great to see her customers supporting lo-cal business too.

Local produceOn her Fair Trade Day menu

were sausages and bacon from the ‘Woodhouse Farm and Gar-

den’ community interest compa-ny, based near Whittington.

All of it was eagerly devoured.Ms. Lowe also has hundreds

of people to thank for supporting her business.

Doughnuts & Dollars opened as the global financial firestorm caused by the greed of rich bankers was destroying jobs and companies all over the UK.

She said that at times it had been a struggle to keep going with so many people either being made redundant or being forced to take wage cuts.

But now, said Ms. Lowe, her business was enjoying a very en-couraging upturn.

Demand is also increasing rap-idly for her ‘outside bar’ service.

She said: “We started it up two years ago.

On the rise“This year it has really started

to take off.“Among the dates in our order

books are the Whittington coun-tryside fair and Lichfield’s Proms in the Park.

“We will also be providing the VIP bar at the Canwell Show.”

Doughnuts & Dollars is one of 36 parish businesses and organi-sations that support Fairtrade.

They include Downes & Daughters (estate agents), Whit-tington Pharmacy, the Dog Inn and Coton House Riding Stables.


Jamie’sdoing a

Fairtrade‘VM’-area cafe that goes the extra milefor overseas farmerscelebrates an upturn after weathering the bank-driven global financial meltdown.


FLORASCAPE


Hints’ blissful summer bounty has set an all time record.

The first plump ripe red strawberry was plucked from the plant earlier this year than ever before.

It was due in part to the warm winter.

But it could never have happened with-out the skill and care Elaine and Si-mon Clarke and their team lavish on their plants at Manor Farm Fruits.

HarvestTheir first har-

vest, on April 24, came a full month

earlier than in 2013.

The team

has also had yet another reason to celebrate.

They have just won Asda’s ‘Most Consistent Quality Award’.

Ms. Clarke, said: “Our early crop goes to supermarkets, res-taurants and markets.

Super award“Winning recognition from

such a key company has given us a huge boost.

“We are all feeling very proud about what we have achieved.”

Manor Farm also produces a wide range of other fruits to tempt people’s taste buds.

They include raspberries, gooseberries, red and blackcur-rants, loganberries and black-berries planted over 12 acres.

Yet the star performer for fruit fans who love a day out will al-ways be the strawberry.

But the hundreds of pick-your-own enthusiasts who

converge on Hints each year will have to wait until the second half of June before Manor Farm’s 41st season opens and they can fill

their punnets.Mrs. Clarke promised to make

a public announcement about the date as soon as she could.

In the meantime her team will be working flat out to satisfy the huge demand for Manor Farm’s fruits.

Super-saleswoman Gina Scarpete Xafa has been coming to Hints for the past 11 years.

The high-flyer holds two uni-versity degrees and speaks flu-ently a range of languages.

She told the ‘VM’ she and her husband, who runs Manor Farm’s packing sheds, had never considered moving to the UK.

Beautiful homeland“I would miss my beautiful

Romania too much,” she said.But she added she would nev-

er miss her summer seasons in Staffordshire either.

Manor Farm Fruits planted their first crop in 1972 and is now one of the area’s longest established growers.

Visit www.manorfarmfruits.co.uk for more information.

‘VM’-area’s record-breaking beauties

Summer visitor: Gina Scarpete Xafa would never dream of missing her annual trip to Hints.

Taste of summer on sale a month earlier than last year

15VISIT our website www.villagemarketnews.co.uk


17VISIT our website www.villagemarketnews.co.uk

18 VISIT our new website www.villagemarketnews.co.uk

We needDISTRIBUTORSIf you would like some extra cash, ring 01543 432341 or email:[email protected] you would like to join our door-to-door de-livery team you will need to be 18+ (no upper age limit) and be able to give up to five days in the first week and a half of each month.

19VISIT our new website www.villagemarketnews.co.uk

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Joanne and Mark Lewis ran Alfie’s DIY, Alfie’s Overseas and Alfies Property Development from 55 Tamworth Street, Lichfield.

Before the end of 2008, angry OVP investors were on the door-step searching for Mark Lewis.

Doors were kicked open by peo-ple trying to get at him - threats were made against his family.

Man huntFurious people were also batter-

ing the door of the Lewis’ home, in Barlow Drive, Fradley.

A lorry driver dumped tonnes of rubble onto their driveway.

Investors in Alfie’s Property De-velopment (ADP) were also after Mark Lewis.

On March 20, 2009, two people who had put in £20,000 tried to get their money back.

The cash supposedly went into refurbishing Shingles Cottage, on Abnalls Lane, Lichfield.

Mark Lewis bought the house for £250,000, on June 19, 2008, with money borrowed from Link Lending.

Suspicions risingBy August, 2009, the investors

were anxious about the total of £24,000 that was owed them.

There is absolutely no sugges-tion that Joanne Lewis had any part in any wrongdoing.

It was in innocence that, on October 13, she wrote to the in-vestors, signing herself as ADP’s, ‘managing director’.

She said: “All is going well, how-ever (the project is) behind sched-ule, as previously mentioned.

“I do not see that the full amount will be available on time at this stage.

“I have an amount that is maybe more achievable to get to you for November and a further amount as soon as the project is finished, which is looking towards January (2010).”

In November, 2009, a £45-a-ticket charity ball Joanne Lewis was putting on in aid of the Birmingham Children’s Hospital was cancelled.

Take your pickShe told ticket holders it was

because of marital problems.She told the hospital is was be-

cause of a family bereavement.But an advisor she hired to help

with the event told the ‘VM’ it was because she had told Joanne Lewis to cancel.

The advisor said she only took the job because Joanne Lewis claimed comedian Billy Connolly would be appearing.

But, she said, no acts had been booked and the event had no pos-

sible chance of succeeding.Joanne Lewis left Alfie’s Lichfield

shop, as had her husband, and could not be located.

She left behind her debts total-ling tens of thousands of pounds owing to the ball venue and sup-pliers, her landlord, her company’s employees and tradesmen and consultants.

In January, 2010, the ‘VM’ was told an attempt had been made to sell Shingles Cottage.

It had allegedly been offered to a woman living nearby at a £50,000 discount, on condition she paid in cash at short notice.

It was further alleged that the woman took the money to the house only to find it had been re-possessed.

The allegations were denied.Investors crushed

The house was sold but failed raise enough to pay off Mark Lew-is’ mortgage.

The people who invested in his refurbishment scheme lost all their money.

They also lost £65,000 Mark Lewis persuaded them to put into OVP.

Since mid-2008, Mark Lewis had also been selling Alfie’s prop-

erty investments to other people.By late 2009, ten of them were

alleging he had defrauded them.The total sum they claimed he

owed was £347,000. But by this time he could not be located.

Franchise purchaseA few months earlier, around

August 2009, Joanne Lewis had bought her husband a £5,000 franchise with Wokingham-based, British Eco.

Alfie’s shop windows had fea-tured large promotions for the so-lar energy company.

On December 16, 2009, the ‘VM’ told its managing director, Tony O’Connor, there were multi-ple allegations of fraud against his franchisee.

The paper raised concerns that Lewis might target British Eco’s customers.

Mr. O’Connor, said: “We know of issues with Mr. Lewis’ previous life.

“We’ve met him and his wife. We know Alfie’s owes people money.

Knew about his past“We spoke to him yesterday.

We know of issues with his previ-ous life - he was an employee of Ocean View (OVP).”

Mr. O’Connor explained that

Alfie’s promoted British Eco.“We do affiliate business with

them,” he added.Mr. O’Connor said he had com-

plete faith in Joanne and Mark Lewis and would stake his reputa-tion on their honesty.

It was barely a month later, when Jo and Jeff Coupe, from Rugby, saw a British Eco advert in the Guardian newspaper.

The company sent Mark Lewis out to see them.

Around the same time the ten Alfie’s investors owed £347,000 were beginning a civil action against him in the High Court.

The Coupe’s inquiry also coin-cided with Joanne Lewis receiving a County Court Judgement against her over a £1,942.42 debt.

In June, 2010, the High Court group’s solicitor contacted Mr. O’Connor.

Lewis untraceableThe lawyer had been unable to

track Lewis down.So he asked the managing di-

rector to let an agent be present when Lewis came to his offices.

This was so court papers could be served on him.

It was later claimed that the meeting was cancelled so service could not be made.

On June 16, British Eco’s work on the Coupe’s house was at last signed off.

Some time later a man from the company visited the family.

Mrs. Coupe, said: “We know it was one of the bosses.

“He was large and balding. He wanted to take photographs.

“We thought they would be used in British Eco’s advertising.”

Meanwhile a spokesman for the High Court group also contacted Mr. O’Connor.

He sent the managing director copies of the affidavits that had been submitted to the judge as evidence of Mark Lewis’ fraud.

O’Connor told the spokesman he would contact his franchisee’s cus-tomers to ensure he had not been trying to sell them investments.

It was about that time when Lewis returned to the Coupes’ home, in Rugby.

Mrs. Coupe said he came to help with connecting their British Eco installation to the National Grid.

In August the ‘VM’ contacted O’Connor once more.

More come to lightHe was told about further al-

legations of serious fraud made against Lewis.

He was also told the alleged vic-tims’ losses ran into several mil-lion pounds.

And he was told that Lewis was communicating with his victims via his British Eco email account.

The paper also told him of fears that Lewis might use the access he had through the company to tar-get more victims.

Mr. O’Connor restated his trust in Lewis and resisted a suggestion


The happy couple: Mark and Joanne Lewis spent a fortune on their extraordinary Mediterranean wedding. But eventually they were both being pursued by people to whom they owed thousands of pounds.

Shingles Cottage: the investors lost everything. The house was repossessed.

Shouldhave been a ball.

From page 3

that he should investigate.

But, on August 24, 2010, Mr. O’Connor wrote to the High Court group’s spokesman.

He said: “Following my dis-cussions with him (Lewis) and contact with a number of leads and customers who Mark Lewis contacted in his role as our fran-chisee, I have not been able to identify any examples of Mr. Lewis using British Eco clients to secure further financial investment.”

Franchise terminatedHe wrote once more to the

spokesman, on September 6, 2010, saying: “Mark Lewis has now had his franchise agreement formally terminated.

“I have no further interest in this matter so please do not feel the need to update me on your progress.”

A month or so later, Lewis re-turned to the Coupes’ Rugby home.

He said British Eco had gone bust and O’Connor had gone to America.

Mrs. Coupe, said: “He told us he had set up his own business, CompareSolar.com, and asked if we wanted to invest in it.

“On December 22, 2010, we signed up for a £4,000 stake.”

On February 28, 2011, Lewis was arrested on suspicion of fraud and released on bail.

Mrs. Coupe, said: “In May, 2011, Lewis gave us a small amount of interest on our £4,000.

“He persuaded us to let the £4,000 roll-over and add another £1,000. We received some inter-est on the £5,000 too.

Completely taken in“By now we were hooked - he

convinced us it was safe to invest much larger sums over a much longer period.”

Lewis eventually took their en-tire life savings of £100,000.

In court he only admitted to taking £60,000.

Mrs. Coupe said that had Brit-ish Eco warned them about the allegations against Lewis, or even told them his franchise had been terminated, they would never have fallen for the fraud.

On December 4, 2013, Tony O’Connor rang the ‘VM’.

He said Lewis’ victims were naive in letting themselves be

duped.He also said he had terminated

Lewis’ franchise with, “a heavy heart,” and felt that he had been, “misunderstood”.

Not responsibleMr. O’Connor also said Lewis

told him the only complaints against him arose from the al-leged Ocean View Property fraud, for which he was not responsible.

Yet the managing director also said he had read thoroughly and fully understood the High Court affidavits, which clearly had nothing to do with OVP.

Mr. O’Connor was told that Mr. and Mrs. Coupe felt that he had been under a moral obligation to warn them about Lewis.

Mr. O’Connor asked the ‘VM’ to set out their views on paper so he could take advice before making a statement.

British Eco statementHis ‘legal secretary’, Jacque-

line Sheppick, wrote back: “We wish to clarify that neither Mr. O’Connor, nor British Eco have been in contact with or associ-ated in any way with Mr. Mark Lewis since the termination of his franchise, in 2010, and have no knowledge as to his activities, whereabouts, contacts, clients, relatives or current employer.

“Furthermore, Mr. O’Connor and British Eco were, and re-main, in no way connected to or involved with any fraud that may or may not have been committed by Mark Lewis at any time, and are unaware of any allegations appertaining to fraud having ever been notified to them by any of their customers, either at the time of Mark Lewis’ tenure with them or for that matter since the termination of his franchise a number of years ago.

“Mr. O’Connor and British Eco wish to make no further comment or statement concerning your let-ters, the content of which con-cerning Mr. O’Connor and British Eco are inaccurate and a distor-tion, nor on any matters pertain-ing to Mark Lewis and/or any of the alleged fraud which Mark Lewis may or may not have com-mitted.

“Please consider this a formal request to cease and desist in

making any further contact with Mr. O’Connor, British Eco or its associates regarding this issue and to desist in your harassment immediately.

“This includes, but is not lim-ited to, contact made via tel-ephone, email, post or any other medium.

“Failure to desist and any at-tempt made by you or anyone representing you to contact or at-tempt to implicate Mr. O’Connor, British Eco and any of its asso-ciates may result in action being taken against you.”

While Lewis was on police bail he also targeted a Mrs. Maureen Firth, from Birmingham.

Crime on bailLewis used a lead provided by

Shropshire-based, Solarontime, to gain her trust.

He talked her into making a worthless £5,000 investment.

But the company’s director, Mr. Ashley Allum, said Mrs. Firth rang them trying to locate Lewis.

The instant he realised what Lewis had been up to he insisted that she should ring the police.

Meanwhile, he contacted all of his customers to make sure Lewis had not been trying to swindle them too.

Lewis was a salesman for Npower when Mr. Allum met him.

Lewis later offered to do some freelance selling for Solarontime.

Mr. Allum did discover Lewis had been in jail. What he did not know was that he was on remand after being charged with fraud.

“He told me it was because of the OVP case,” said Mr. Allum.

“He claimed he was released because he had done nothing wrong - he was suing the police for wrongful imprisonment.”

Yet more liesLewis arrived at Mr. Allum’s

premises, in St. Martins, near Os-westry, in a sleek and expensive new Audi motor car.

Then the car seemed to dis-appear. He claimed it had been wrecked in a crash.

Mr. Allum, said: “We gave him £1,200 to buy a car to keep him going.”

Lewis bought a Nissan which he registered in Joanne Lewis’ name.

Once Lewis’ fraud had been exposed the company tried to re-cover the car.

But it was alleged that Joanne Lewis had already sold it.

Lies, lies, liesMark Lewis told the same car

wreck lie to the Coupes.He had in fact stolen the Audi

- he paid for it with a cheque, drove to his bank and immedi-ately emptied the account.

He was found guilty of the crime, on April 13, 2013, in the Wolverhampton Crown Court.

He received a 12-month super-vision order and was ordered to carry out 200 hours unpaid work.


Mark Lewis whisked a large party of friends away to a

holiday paradise to attend his marriage to Joanne, on July 27, 2007.

Nothing was too good for his guests who enjoyed the luxury of five-star hotels for the two-day extravaganza.

Lewis even bought clothes and shoes for them to wear to his register office ceremony.

Afterwards mountains of food accompanied waterfalls of Champagne.

A lavish blessing was staged the next day aboard a private luxury yacht.

Nuptial cruiseThe happy couple sailed off

on an unforgettable ‘honey-moon’ night as they cruised the crystal azure waters of the Mediterranean.

Their guests set off for a feast at another five-star ho-tel to await their return.

Free drinks flowed while the party-goers swayed to the sounds of a free disco.

One of Mark Lewis’ clos-est friends, whom he later allegedly cheated and made homeless, took the couple’s wedding photographs.

Shane Moore told the ‘VM’: “The whole thing must have cost an absolute fortune.

“When we came back to England Mark gave Joanne a brand new Audi Q7 as a pre-sent.

“It must have been me who paid for it.”

Present for the missus: Mark Lewis had a passion for Audis - paid for and stolen.Alfie’s, Lichfield: the Lewises left owing between them hundreds of thousands.

The ‘VM’ revealed last month how a man bad-ly hurt in Whittington

waited an hour for an ambu-lance.

Witnesses said the official ex-planation for it was untrue.

Then the West Midlands Ambu-lance Service (WMAS) was fined £2.6 million for not meeting re-sponse targets.

Costing livesWMAS’s former chief executive

said England’s failing services were costing 2,500 lives a year.

Roger Thayne said poor re-sponse times were a problem - so too were poor medical techniques and the lack of defibrillators.

A woman who saw the man in Whittington fall off his bike feared his neck had snapped.

He was unconscious in the street and bleeding heavily.

A resident, in Back Lane, di-alled 999.

She said the ‘call taker’ kept telling her to move the casualty.

It was against everything she knew about spinal injuries.

A second 999 call was made 20 minutes later, just before para-medics turned up.

But it took a full hour for an ambulance to arrive.

A WMAS spokesperson said the first 999 caller indicated that the man’s injuries were non-urgent.

She said that view was con-firmed by paramedics.

But people who were there said all that was untrue.

They said both 999 callers stressed the case’s urgency.

They also said the paramedics did not downgrade the emergen-cy, they reinforced it.

And the paramedics told them there was no ambulance because none were available.

Roger Thayne left WMAS, in 2006, to be replaced by Anthony Marsh, who has received an hon-our from the Queen.

Discontent withinNow a medical service insider

has told the ‘VM’ that WMAS staff morale is at rock bottom.

He said: “Under Thayne call takers were medically trained.

“Now they’re not. They’re just people who simply tick boxes.

“A medic would have sent an ambulance immediately to the man in Whittington.”

The whistle blower said Roger

Thayne was ousted for being, “too innovative” - he made other services look bad.

“Ambulance response times were 12 per cent better than the national average.

Era of excellence“The cost to the taxpayer per

call-out was 50 per cent lower.“The resuscitation rates for

heart attack victims was 400 per cent higher than the average.

“Thayne set a response time target of just five minutes. Now it’s eight.

“Thayne’s critics jeered at his, ‘shoot and scoop’, policy for re-covering casualties.

“But they should have called it his, ‘shoot, scoop and give proper treatment fast’, policy - it saved lives!

“Thayne also had ambulances dispersed around the area, not hanging around at the station.

“Then they were in the areas where statistically there was the greatest chance of an emergency.

“The police are now doing the same thing.

“It makes perfect sense to put officers closest to the known trouble spots.”

He said in Thayne’s time crews took their breaks wherever they were when it was quiet.

But now, he added, they can take them back at the base where they began their shift.

He said, “a crew might drive to Lichfield from Birmingham to take a five minute break.

“While they are doing it their vehicle is effectively out of ac-tion.”

Last month the ‘VM’ also re-vealed how ambulances were being kept waiting for hours at hospital A&E units.

Crazy rulesThis was because of rules for-

bidding a crew to leave until hos-pital staff sign for their patients.

The insider claimed A&E staff ignored the ambulances.

He said: “They keep their heads down to avoid more work while they are fighting to keep up with what they already have.

“Marsh’s response to the £2.6 million fine was to say more mon-ey needed to be thrown at run-ning WMAS.

But the whistle blower said: “It isn’t money that’s needed, It is better organisation.”

24

Go-slow ambulance service fined £2.6MInsiders say system is obsessed with ‘box-ticking’, not good outcomes

Critical timing for 3rd business showThe ‘VM’-area’s now re-

nowned annual business exposition could not be

coming at a more critical time.Markets are reviving across all

sectors of a UK economy ravaged by the most catastrophic financial meltdown in history.

No hiding placeGlobalisation meant that no one

was immune from the chain reac-tion, sparked by the U.S. hous-ing sector, that dominoed its way around the world tearing down once seemingly indestructible in-stitutions in its wake.

But now at last some optimism is gradually returning.

And yet it is fragile and eminent-ly reversible.

Grass roots initiatives such as the, ‘Business Connect Show’, first held in 2012, have a vital part to play in consolidating the gains companies are now seeing.

The third annual event, which will be held at Lichfield Rugby Club, on Tuesday, June 10, is dedi-cated to helping local companies find new markets and customers.

Equally important is its role in providing businesses with an op-

portunity to network and offer each other mutual support.

It has proved key in helping en-trepreneurs to keep moving for-ward during the long dark years of recession.

But now it has a new and exciting function as an engine for advance-ment for those busi-ness people determined to make the most of what the burgeon-ing recovery has to offer.Opportunity

Especially important for business start ups are the special stand rates available to them.

Get in-volved - ring 07561 49221.


Law-breaking scrapmen in the ‘VM’ area had plenty of time to ske-

daddle when the cops and council went on their trail.

On May 20, the police joined forces with Lichfield District Coun-cil (LDC) to crack down on rogue metal dealers.

But when their volunteer look-outs tried ringing in reports about their targets’ activities some gave up in frustration at being unable to get through.

Put on alert Neighbourhood Watch members

had been put on alert and told to report seeing any scrapmen out on the streets.

It was stressed that the joint op-eration would run for one day only, between 9am and 4pm.

People were told to dial ‘101’ and recite the special code, “130 of 20th May”.

A Neighbourhood Watch spokes-person said afterwards: “I am aware that some people had dif-ficulty reporting via 101, and gave up in frustration.

“This should not happen and will be brought to the attention of man-agers. I can only apologise.”

It seems some calls did get through since it was claimed that as a result of the operation, “several vehicles were located.

“Action was taken where there were licensing issues, or a lack of insurance, etcetera.”

Elsewhere in the country press officers have been shouting out the results of their joint police/council anti-illegal scrapmen crackdowns from the roof tops.

The numbers of vehicle stopped, the nature of the offences commit-ted and the penalties handed out have been given in great detail.

Councillor ‘Scrap’But LDC’s ‘Mr. Scrap’, Councillor

Colin Greatorex, has always been strangely coy about giving out any information.

He is also responsible for the reporting system that members of the public can use whenever they see scrapmen operating illegally.

But is has been claimed that it appears to have been deliberately designed to be ineffective.

Boley Park residents have been campaigning vigorously to put an end to the nuisance and danger of scrap collectors operating outside the law.

The police have themselves is-

sued many warnings about the crime associated with them.

The problem has escalated with the rising price of raw materials.

Everything from manhole cov-ers and church roofs, to bikes and graveyard urns and plaques are fair game for thieves.

Yet the campaigners have com-plained that when they do report a scrap dealer, Greatorex’s team say nothing can be done about it unless one of their officers is on site to wit-ness the offence.

And since the scrap vans are mobile the chances of someone getting to scene in time are effec-tively nil.

But in any case, the campaign-ers have claimed, when they ring up it is either impossible to get through to one of Greatorex’s offic-ers, or they are told no-one is free.

Why not LDC?The residents also have also said

that while councils elsewhere in the country were only too keen to provide full details of the licensed scrap dealers operating in their ar-eas, Greatorex’s team have been unwilling to co-operate.

Changes in the law should have put a stop to the scrapmen problem.

Dealers are now supposed to carry documents proving how eve-ry item on their vans came to be their possession.

They have to have permits too, issued by the local authority.

Quiet! It’s the lawAnd they must not use amplifi-

cation to attract people’s attention.Yet the ‘VM’ is still receiving re-

ports of dealers breaking the law.The only thing that seems to

have changed is that some of them are now using real bugles instead of loudhailers. Both are illegal.

The Boley Park campaigners have claimed a partial triumph in that dealers working their streets no longer use amplification.

And they accept that on this oc-casion the public was told about the police/LDC operation, even though the details were sparse.

And yet they are suspicious about the timing of May’s operation.

A spokesman said: “Could it have anything to do with Stafford-shire’s Police and Crime Commis-sioner coming to LDC’s offices on the 29th of May to answer ques-tions from the public?”

It is Greatorex’s council’s official policy to refuse to answer any of the ‘VM’s press inquiries.


‘Scrapmen crackdown’ - poor police responseDid slow communications

let bad traders get away?

VISIT our website www.villagemarketnews.co.uk26

Put away too much Festi-val ale and it will be you the ‘Lady of Elford’ will

be gazing down upon.Burton Bridge’s dark amber and

aromatic ale weighs in at a whop-ping 5.5 per cent ABV.

Sink two of those from the fir-kin and you will be singing your lungs out before you know it.

Beer and skifflesWhich will be perfect because

July’s event in the Elford Walled Garden is aimed at blending an inpouring of real ale with an out-pouring fabulous folk songs.

The gates will open at 1pm. By 2pm the musical entertainment will be underway.

Organiser Dick Cowley promis-es there will be something on the programme for every taste.

And the line-up suggests he is right.

The Elford Singers will be the opening act. The excellent Tam-worth Male Voice Choir will follow in second spot.

But then the flow takes a sharp left-hander when the extraor-dinary Ghanaian Ras King Bobo (pictured) starts letting rip.

The Claret folk group will bring things back down to earth.

The Lighthouse Company, Jane Hill, Alan Davies Pro Tempore and Morag and Co will also be appear-ing.

The festival will end in a cre-scendo when Elford’s own, Walled Garden Wailers, get on stage to lead the last few songs.

There will also be something at the bar to start everyone’s lips smacking too.

It is hoped there will be at least 20 different real ales to try.

Aficionados will be able to kick off with a ‘Fruit Bat’, pour down a ‘Pursers Pussy’, pop in a ‘Wasp Nest’, experience ‘Hop Til You Drop’, sip some ‘Nemesis’, savour ‘Village Idiot’, start a little ‘Moon-gazing’ and end up with a ‘Pig On The Wall’.

Fine feastWines, ciders and soft drinks

and cream teas will also be avail-able.

Peter Coates, from Alrewas, will be supplying the burgers, sau-sages and pork for the barbecue.

But the day will not just be all about song, food and drink.

Visitors will be able to try their hands at boules and croquet.

Children will have free games to take part in.

Artwork will be on display with an opportunity for devotees to snap up a bargain.

But the real star of the show will be the Grade II listed garden itself.

Hard work & devotionIt took volunteers years of hard

work to salvage it from decades of neglect until it at last reopened

with a royal fanfare, in 2011.Cash from the team’s folk and

booze bash will go into looking af-ter it and making sure it remains for future generations to enjoy, free of charge.

In June the gardens, including the rose beds, are looking at their very best.

There is a scented sensory gar-den too - all areas are wheelchair accessible.

Parking will be free with special provision being made for people who are disabled.

A firkin of funAnd a garden full of roses on Elford’s annual ‘Folk and Real Ale’ family day - Saturday, July 5.

‘Lady of Elford’: vil-lage volunteers saved several fine female fig-ures from crum-bling decay. Today they lend the walled gar-den an elegance that echoes the enclosure’s grand past.It was once the kitchen garden of a Georgian hall sitting at the heart of a splendid 600-acre

estate.

The ‘VM’ area’s legend-ary ‘folkies’ moved their gig to a bigger home

and still it was packed out to bursting.

Out with the oldMartin Ryan and Stef Dzuiba

had for years staged their month-ly Doghouse Folk Club in Alrewas’ Crown Inn.

But when the pub was refur-bished earlier this year it instantly became clear that mixing chatter-ing diners and traditional tunes was a terrible idea.

But then the musicians found a new, better and bigger home at the village’s British Legion Club.

In with the newAnd on their opening night the

place was packed.Irish-born mandolinist Martin

Ryan, said: “Didn’t we have a smashing night?

“The room was full to capacity by 7.30pm.

“We started 15 minutes early thinking we may as well since we can’t get any more people in any-way.

“It is the best room we’ve ever had for our folk night events.

“The set-up at the Crown, which stopped us carrying on there, did us a great favour.

“On top of that the Legion club’s stewardess, Jayne, and the two lovely barmaids, Kelly and Danny, were so helpful, enthusiastic, and welcoming.

Bags of talentMr. Ryan said they were over-

whelmed by the number of floor singers who came along to have a go.

“We thoroughly enjoyed the wide variety of styles and songs”, he added.

He said in future they were go-ing to set up a system to ensure everyone who wanted to play would get a chance.

He added that each month three floor singers would be se-lected from the hat and be given a ten minute slot each.

The folk club usually closes for summer.

Clamouring for moreBut when the crowd in May

were asked if it should shut in June there was a near riot.

So the next Doghouse Folk Club will be staged on Tuesday, June 3.

Despite the huge improvement in the venue and the club’s ever growing popularity, entry is still free.

The only contribution people are invited to make is to buy a £1 raffle ticket.

Barton-under-Need-wood will be showing off its summer finery

this month.The village’s Garden Festival

will be run over the weekend of Saturday, June 21.

From 1pm to 6pm each day there will be more than a dozen beautiful gardens open for peo-ple to explore.

Teas and music will be avail-able in the vicarage garden and in several other locations around the village.

The young at heart should bring their teddies along to enjoy the seven ‘teddy bear’ rides op-erating in the village churchyard.

And inside the Tudor Church of St. James will be an exhibi-tion of arts and crafts.

Scarecrows in on itThe festival also incorporates

a celebration of that rural crop guard, the scarecrow.

Ingeniously engineered sacks stuffed with straw made up to look cast members from the Wizard of Oz will be sited around the village.

People must buy a £3.50 programme to enter the events, which will be available

from the church, Post Office, or any ‘open garden’. Children can enter free.

Teddy bear specialA ticket to go on the five ted-

dy rides will cost £5.A ‘teddy passport’ and ‘brave

teddy’ sticker are included in the price.

Plants will be on sale at vari-ous gardens.


Folk craicsmash hit

What treats await: Barton gardens open their gates this month.

Blooming Barton

New bigger better venue - and a bigger better crowd to go with it - the new era’s looking good!

Folk from

the floor: an extroar-

dinary range of guest artists

take to the stage during the ‘open mic’ sessions.

It is an excellent gig for people just starting out as well as seasoned professionals

VISIT our website www.villagemarketnews.co.uk28

Titans of the tile gameThere has been celebration and sadness at the Elford Sports and Social Club.

A massive cheer went up when the dominoes team took top hon-ours in three major contests.

The tile-kings’ trophies include the Mercian League Cup, the Ron Lewis Cup and the Guide Dog Cup.

Not satisfied with their three wins, they also completed their glory winning campaign by being runners up in the Barry Holmes Cup and the Doubles Shield in the Shadow League.

Sad farewellThe one sadness is that it will

not be Ann Rowley’s job to look after the silverware.

A spokesman said everyone was sorry to hear that their popu-lar stewardess had called time on her 14-year stint behind the bar.

“Ann has kept the place running like clockwork,” he added.

“She will be leaving her job at the end of June.”

Job vacancyThe committee now wants to

hear from people who would like to take on the steward’s role at the premises on The Beck.

For the successful candidate it will mean looking after one of the ‘VM’ area’s busiest social clubs.

It has an excellent programme

of regular activities.The organisers are also renowned

for fund raising events, including a recent auction that brought in £350 for the Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen Family Association.

Packed programmeOn the menu for June will be ball-

room and sequence dancing each Saturday night, from 8pm to 11pm.

There will be bingo every Tues-day evening. The games will start at 8.15pm.

The club’s ever popular auc-tions will be staged each Monday throughout the month.

And there will be whist drives on the Thursdays of June 5 and 19, and July 3.

People wanting information about the steward vacancy, or club events, should ring 01827 383461.


Turning on the magicIt seemed like the end of an

era for loyal restaurant-goers when Tamworth’s

family-run premier town cen-tre eatery, Christopher’s, was sold.

It was 2000 and head chef-proprietor Chris Gill and his fam-ily wanted to concentrate on run-ning The Peel Hotel, on Aldergate, which they eventually bought.

Then, in 2009, they decided to develop their small hotel restau-rant into a business in its own right.

New beginnings‘Christopher’s’ was re-born un-

der the Peel Aldergate brand. Since then its reputation and

popularity has grown and grown.And now the family is to expand

into the ground floor of the road side town house that sits at the front of the 20-bedroom guest ac-commodation complex.

Diners are already looking for-ward to the new eatery opening its doors in mid-July,

Until then the existing restaurant will remain open as a private dining room and meeting room perfect for parties of up to 25 people.

The new Christopher’s will build on their established reputation for honest, unpretentious, professionally

cooked English and European food.During the day, customers will

find a slightly different more bistro style to their offering.

Christopher’s will be open for breakfast between 7am to 11am, for lunch from noon to 4pm and dinner from 5pm to 9.30pm.

Coffee and cake will be available during the day. There will be light-er more relaxed options for those not looking for the more tradition-al fare for which the restaurant is renowned.

Afternoon tea will continue to be offered - the business has already has a deserved reputation as the perfect venue for private afternoon tea parties for up to 28 people.

Traditional valuesThe restaurant’s traditional

Sunday lunch menu will remain, but with extended opening hours.

Last month the family received an extra boost as they worked to-wards their exciting new venture.

Christopher’s and the Peel Al-dergate four-star accommodation business both received TripAdvisor ‘Certificates of Excellence’.

These awards are given solely on the basis of positive customer comments sent in to the organisa-tion’s website.

Success built on reputation: chef Chris Gill’s food is about the finest culinary tradi-tions and styles in English and European cuisine. Tamworth can expect excellence.

30 VISIT our website www.villagemarketnews.co.uk

Friends of the Burton Wurlitzer (FBW) have seen their concert audi-

ences dwindle because of cut backs in the care sector.

Hundreds of thousands of fans have over the years enjoyed hearing the instrument in Burton Town Hall played by some of the country’s finest organists.

Chance to socialiseFor people living in care these

recitals are not only a chance to listen to their favourite music they provide a crucial opportu-nity for social interaction too.

But an FBW spokesperson said: “We are concerned that attendances from care homes have been dropping.

“Some homes have stopped coming because of the cost of transport and staff shortages.”

Now FBW is taking steps to

reverse the situation and make sure their concerts remain ac-cessible to all.

They are also extending their concessions to a new section of the community.

Inviting more peopleTheir spokesperson, said:

“There is a group that we have not accommodated in the past.

“These are the people who live in their own homes and are supported by a carer, or a care package from social services - it has been a serious omission.”

From now on they too will be able to enjoy the same conces-sions available to people living in care homes and warden assisted accommodation.

The extra mileFBW has even gone further.

Anyone bringing a member of one of these groups to a concert

will be seen as a carer and re-ceive a complimentary ticket.

And it does not matter whether the person doing the driving is a relative, friend, or the neighbour of someone living in a care home, or being cared for in some other way, whom they would like to see enjoying an FBW concert.

Double benefitOn top of the concession,

drivers will also be given a free parking space at Burton Town Hall.

It will be a treat for anyone who has never been to one an FBW recital.

The Burton Wurlitzer is re-garded as one of the finest of these instruments in the UK.

And the hall’s superb acous-tics set it off to its very best ad-vantage.

Other members of the public are also welcome to attend the concerts.

Everyone welcomeThey will be invited to make

a recommended donation of £4.The next FBW Wurlitzer con-

cert is due to take place on Thursday, July 10.

The organist will be Norman Scott, a highly accomplished musician and a favourite with the Burton audience.

Concerts will also be held on: September 4 (Arthur Tipper); November 6 (Nicholas Martin).

Timing is everythingAll concerts commence at

2pm and end at 4.15pm.Further details can be ob-

tained by ringing 01283 430035, or 07762 233303. Website: www.friends-of-the-burton-wurlitzer.org.uk

Cuts costlisteningpleasure

The price of transportcosts and staff cuts arepreventing vulnerable people from enjoying one of life’s great pleasures. A move to help them come back to their favourite Wurlitzer concerts willbe music to their ears.


‘The Village Market’, 9 - 11 Main Street, Whittington, Lichfield Staffordshire, WS14 9JU. Editor: GL Griffiths.t: 01543 432341. e: [email protected]. Published by Village Market Micronewspapers Ltd.

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THE VILLAGE MARKET June 2014