MENTMORE PARISH NEWSLETTER

Volume 20, Issue 1

March 2013

DIARY PAGE
EASTER EGG HUNT The Easter Bunny will be out early on Easter Monday hiding lots of lovely Easter Eggs in the church and churchyard at St. Marys, Mentmore. So why not bring the kids (0 - 11 years old inclusive) along to the church on Easter Monday, 1st April to join in the massive Easter Egg Hunt. It will cost 3 per child for the Hunt; all profits will go to St. Marys Church. A selection of refreshments will also be available to purchase. Activities start at 11.00am for under threes and accompanying adults and 11.15am for the older children, so come along and join us for a fun time. Why not help the Easter Bunny and St. Marys and donate some eggs, however small?! Karen at The Old Laundry, Mentmore would be happy to receive Easter Eggs on behalf of the Easter Bunny.

VILLAGE PLANT SALE Calling all gardeners, this now annual event will take place from 12 noon to 4.00 pm on the village green on Saturday 20th April. There will be stalls from professional and amateur growers, supplying a wide variety and choice of plants. There will also be a local, Mentmore, stall so if you have any excess cuttings or seedlings for potting up, unwanted plants, pots, compost or even unwanted gardening tools why not donate them to our parish stall all donations gratefully received. There will also be tea & cakes (all delicious and home-made), plus the usual barbecue, with excellent local sausages and burgers. For more information call: 07707 218719 or check out the parish web site www.mentmore.org

PARISH COUNCIL The Parish Council will meet again on Tuesday 14th May 2013. This will be the annual Parish meeting which will start at 7.30pm and it will be followed by the annual meeting of the Parish Council at 8pm. The next meeting of the Village Hall Committee will be on 1st May at 8.00 pm in the Village Hall.

MENTMORE ARTS FESTIVAL The next Mentmore Arts Festival will be held from Saturday 25th to Monday 27th May 2013 in the church and village hall. To help celebrate the 5 th year of this event we are launching an exciting new idea the Mentmore Arts Festival Artists Award. All exhibitors will be able to enter, and the winner of this award will receive a prize of 200! We would like the public to decide and vote for each piece of art entered on the theme of Mentmore deserves your recognition. All details of how to exhibit or enter the competition can be found on the new updated web site, www.mentmore-arts-festival.co.uk

WORDWORKS Give a Child a Chance The story of how a small group of individuals are working together to reverse the trend of low literacy achievement in disadvantaged communities in South Africa.

As you know, following her introduction to the 'Wordworks' scheme while on holiday in South Africa last year, Jennifer Langley made the decision to return for 3-4 months as a volunteer on the scheme. Before she left for South Africa, and with the help of friends, family and parishioners who organised a very successful Quiz and Promise Auction, she was able to raise a fantastic sum of money (nearly 8,000) for the scheme. Jennifer returned from her trip in late January and has kindly written this report of her amazing time in South Africa. NOTE FROM JENNIFER I left for Cape Town in September 2012 with mixed feelings - nervousness, trepidation but most of all excitement. I believe strongly that the key to South Africa's future is education and this was going to be my chance to help, if only in a small way. Once in Cape Town I travelled south to Hout Bay, a coastal suburb of Cape Town with a mix of neighbourhoods from the very rich (multi-million rand mansions, luxurious holiday homes and some small wine estates) to the very poor (informal settlement - a settlement of cramped and squalid conditions with no plumbing, roads or any discernible infrastructure for sustainable living). I was to spend the next few months in this community working for the Wordworks scheme, in a capacity similar to that of our pre-school and year one teachers, in three of their partnership schools.

The first school, Oranjekloof Primary, where I helped with assessments last January, was originally a Moravian Church School built for 200 children and now serving 1200 aged between 7 and 14 years old! There is very little outside space as the playground is now full of extra classrooms. The children all come from Imizamo Yethu Township, the informal settlement in Hout Bay, and although some have good English, some have none at all. They are taught in English, in classes of about 50 with one teacher, but no assistant. So the Wordworks literacy scheme is invaluable in starting them on the path to reading and writing. The second school, Disa Primary, built by private funding, was also situated in the Township. The children at this school all have the same language problems as those at Oranjekloof, but here there is a fantastic team of teachers, classes of only 30 and superb facilities. Even with these improved facilities the Wordworks scheme is still a very important part of the childrens first two years of education. The third school, Kronendal, is the original primary school. It is a co-educational, government school with over 350 students and an average class size of 26 to 28. The school is very well run and has excellent academic and sporting facilities. Unlike the other two schools there is a varied intake of children; some from very wealthy homes, some from the Township and everything in between. The children speak many different languages, however only English is spoken at school so the children have a much better chance. My work there was more with children who had learning difficulties. I was there for the last three months of the academic year so didnt make as much progress as some of the others who had their children since January. However, the time spent with the children was invaluable, if only for the social interaction and talking. Its very humbling to realise how little some children have, materially but also in experience. Very few six year olds knew what a pig, caterpillar, snail or sheep were. Some had never even been to the beach which is only half an hours walk from the Township. My afternoons were spent looking after Leon, six years old, from Zimbabwe. He had very little language at all, so therefore no understanding. In the four months I spent with him we made huge progress he was starting to read, his English was greatly improved and he could hold a conversation. The fantastic amount of 7,600 raised at the Quiz and Auction last year was increased by 800 by clever transfer in November, when the exchange rate was at its highest. Some of this money has been used for the publishing of a new training pack, which is to be used by the Wordworks scheme throughout South Africa, and some in training teachers in the two Township schools. There is still some money left and this will be used for future Wordworks projects. So, a very worthwhile result and so much appreciated by everyone involved in Wordworks. People were amazed that so much money had been raised by one community. Thank you all. Jennifer

Mentmore Village Hall

The hall has disabled access, can accommodate up to 50 adults and is ideal for childrens parties, family get-togethers and educational or social functions. Hire includes the use of a fully equipped kitchen, tables & chairs and a garden area. . Price: from 5 for parishioners (commercial rates negotiable) Hall furniture available for separate hire, rates on application To book and for all hire enquiries please call 07707 218 719

YOUR VILLAGE IN FOCUS

NEWS FROM ST. MARYS CHURCH
Spring is fast approaching and the D.C.C. are once again employing the services of Glen Ansell to mow the churchyard. They would like to thank those volunteers who continue to help out when they can, and the Parish Council who give a grant towards the maintenance of the churchyard.
A R T Y 8 ' 7

Fundraising: Along with all churches Mentmore D.C.C. have recognized the necessity of raising funds in order to maintain the everyday running of St. Mary's. There has been a long history of the village providing much needed funds through village events helped by church members, and of course the church itself at initiated fund raising events. We have a fund raising committee and also a Mentmore Arts Festival Committee. 2012 was no exception to this way of doing things, although the financial results were exceptionally good, and probably will not be achieved in the same volume in 2013. The Arts Festival which normally donates circa 2500 to the church did not take place in 2012 due to the Queens Jubilee and a separate committee, called Mentformore, was set up to arrange a Promise Auction and discuss other fundraising ideas. Altogether 11806 was raised to support St. Mary's last year and this is the breakdown: 61 - Easter Egg Hunt 570 - Concert and Picnic 1296 - Mentmore Summer Fete 1870 - Mentmore 200 Club 7505 - Promise Auction 504 - Christmas Craft Fair at Mentmore Park Farm The money raised has been used to cover costs incurred throughout the year, including the annual insurance premiums, churchyard maintenance, electricity and a new carpet for the nave and chancel, while any remaining funds will be available to help with the ever increasing costs we expect in 2013. Thank you to everyone who has played a part in helping to raise this money; the committee will continue to organise events in 2013 so look out for information throughout the year on how you can help. MENTMORE BOOK CLUB A belated Happy New Year to all you avid readers out there. I know that many of you will have received Kindles from Father Christmas but for all, including the more traditionally minded who love the feel and smell of a real book, there are some wonderful novels around at the moment. This year the book club are choosing two books each meeting and members are invited to take their pick. One book comes from the Richard and Judy Book Club list and the other is a "wild card" chosen by a member. In January we read The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce, a story about a man who decides to walk from his home in Devon to visit a dying ex colleague in Berwick upon Tweed. In a style reminiscent of the Canterbury Tales, he encounters many along the way, each with their own story to tell. Gradually the cause of his own unhappiness is revealed as his journey is as much emotional as physical. We also looked at Hard Times by Charles Dickens, his shortest novel but none the less entertaining and thought provoking. The next meeting is on Monday 8th April and we will be discussing Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn and The Crow Road by Iain Banks. If you wish to join, or know more about the book club, please e-mail Penny at penny1922@live.co.uk

MENTMORE PARISH COUNCIL www.mentmore.org

It hardly seems three months since I made the report for the winter newsletter. As mentioned at that time, a series of improvements are to be carried out on the Village Hall. I am pleased to report that some work has already commenced. However, it should be noted that the Parish Council is mindful of the hard work by the Village Hall Committee members past and present to raise funds so there will be careful monitoring of expenditure.

Secondary glazing of the two main windows The window that had been painted shut has been freed and repaired at a cost of 115.00. The windows and the hall will be repainted in white at a cost of 714.00. Once the windows and other wood work have been painted, Everest will install secondary glazing to the main windows in the hall. They will be sash style to match the existing units. The total cost for this will be 2,424.00, of which 606.00 has already been paid in the form of a deposit.

Roof Insulation The interior of the hall roof will be insulated, and the void in the roof will be ventilated using the original ventilation shafts, thus not changing the exterior of the building. Before the insulation can be installed the roof structure will need exposing to check its condition and where necessary replacement joists fitted or strengthened. As the roof structure's condition is unknown an exact cost cannot be forecast. For the insulation work a cost of 3965.00 has been quoted. For the roof inspection and strengthening a projected cost of 920.00 has been estimated. Two access hatches will be installed for any future maintenance

Other expenditure We are in the process of purchasing new notice boards for the Green. Dog waste bins are to be purchased for the Parish and a contract will be arranged to collect the waste material. Proposed sites will include one in Crafton, one in Ledburn and two in Mentmore. The lime trees around the Green have just undergone a survey costing 345.00 and will be having works carried out on them at a cost of 1,350.00. This work is not only required to preserve the trees but also for insurance purposes and health & safety issues. A table tennis table is to be bought, at a cost of 274.99 plus 24.99 delivery paid for from Village hall funds, for the use of Parishioners in the Village Hall. A commitment from a local table tennis association has been made to book the Village Hall for 15 sessions over the next year which should pay for the table. The table will be stored when not in use to prevent damage.

Lighting in the Village The lamp post, near the entrance to Mentmore Towers, has been damaged for some-time and the council are awaiting the delivery of the specialist parts required to carry out the repairs. Delivery of the parts, and hence repair of the lamp, is understood to be imminent!

Events December saw the hall play host to the Annual Christmas Fayre, which was once again a huge success. The following week the hall was again a hive of activity when parishioners organised a Christmas party for the children of the Parish. The Parish Council would like to thank all those involved in the organisation of the events for giving up their spare time. Finally Carol Cox has recently resigned as a Parish Councillor for Mentmore. On behalf of the Parish Council, I would like to thank Carol for her efforts whilst on the Council and in particular her hard work in obtaining a grant towards the renovations to the Village Hall. An advert for a new Councillor was placed on notice boards and on the Parish website. Two applications were received and, after careful consideration Amanda Longhurst from Roseberry Mews has been appointed as our new Parish Councillor.
Cllr Nigel Bradshaw

BOOKS IN THE VILLAGE HALL The bookstall continues to open most weekends and Bank Holidays and is a regular source of income for the hall. Please do come along and check it out. Thanks again to those who have contributed books. Any surplus is donated to the National Trust bookshop in Ashridge.

DOG WALKERS When the snow had thawed 19 piles of dog waste were picked up on the green. This area is for all to enjoy, especially the village children who use it frequently for football and rugby, so please be responsible for your dog. And for those thoughtful people who do clear up after their dogs please try and remember to take the bag home after the walk as it is very unpleasant for someone who inadvertently strims one!
Jennifer Langley

Calling All Artists The next Mentmore Arts Festival will be held fromSaturday 25th to Monday 27th May 2013 in the Church and Village Hall. If you are a painter, sculptor, photographer or work in wood, glass or ceramics, this is a great opportunity to show and sell your work. In 2011 we had over 600 visitors and raised over 5000 for local charities, which is why were asking you to exhibit your work and be part of our continuing success, in this enjoyable and well organised event. Mentmore Arts Festival Artists Award To help celebrate the 5th year of this event we are launching an exciting new idea - the Mentmore Arts Festival Artists Award. Allexhibitors will be able to enter and the winner of this award will receive a prize of 200! To be

eligible we ask that artists produce a work of art on the theme of Mentmore which will be displayed with their other work, but clearly marked as being part of the competition. The public will be asked to vote for their favourite entry during the course of the Arts Festival and the voting will close at midday on Monday 27th May. All details of how to enter are on our new updated website deadline 29th April!
Or come and visit Mentmore Arts Festival is a regular summer event for art lovers and the whole family to enjoy. This year we're raising funds for the Stroke Unit at Luton & District Hospital and other local charities. Local artists will be exhibiting a huge range of work including paintings, prints, photographs, sculpture, glass and pottery for you to enjoy and buy. Plus we want your help in deciding who is worthy of our Artists Award. Take a look round all the exhibitors in the Hall and the Church their entries will be clearly marked then post your entry into one of the boxes provided. join in the fun! Entrance is only 2 per adult and free for children under 16. Plus bring the kids to the art workshop it's only 2 per session with free entry to our junior art competition. Weve a raffle with great prizes and an amazing selection of delicious cakes and refreshments will be served in the Village Hall and garden so come and make a day of it! Or why not learn how to draw or paint at one of our One Day Drawing and Painting workshops on the village green? 70.00 per workshop 10 am to 5pm (break for lunch) includes use of all equipment and materials. Expert tuition Tuition will be from Elinor d'Angelis (who has 25 years of teaching experience) and Anne Bennison, an artist who currently tutors at the Queen's Park Centre in Aylesbury. Saturday 26th May: Drawing for the Petrified - 10.00am to 5.00pm If you want to draw, but think that you have no talent, then this exciting workshop is for you. You can draw, just as you can write! We have decoded the secrets of the creative process and know how to tune into the artistic and intuitive side of the brain. We will show you how simple mediation exercises and fun and easy right-brain tasks can heighten your awareness of shape, colour and form, making you see more clearly and intuitively in a remarkabley short space of time, giving you the pleasure and satisfaction of becoming a competent artist. No previous art experience needed. Sunday 27th May: Portrait Painting - 10.00am to 5.00pm We show you the secrets of how to paint and draw a realistic and skilled likeness in just one day. Simple mediation and right brain exercises will radically increase your confidence and heighten creativity, making it easy for you to achieve a high level of artistic skill. You will be delighted with the results and will have created your very own and unique self-portrait. To exhibit, book your art workshop or for further information see our website for details www.mentmorearts-festival.co.uk or contact Caroline Gates 01296 661123, Sue Scott 01525 372757 or Deborah Hall 01296 668114

WILDLIFE UPDATES Winter is a tough time for wildlife. Food is scarce, the cold weather demands higher energy just to stay warm, days are shorter and parts of the food chain are not growing, hibernating, or maybe have migrated for the duration. As if thats not enough, they have us to contend with as well. The short days compel homo sapiens, who recognises the clock but not the sun as their measure of time, to get more active during hours of darkness. While that gives drivers commuting to and from work the chance to see some animals out and about on and around the roads and verges which in summer-time daylight we wouldnt normally see, like foxes or badgers, it also means they are themselves more subject to the hazards of traffic. Who hasnt seen the corpse of some poor unfortunate animal lying in the road, perhaps most tragically in some ways being run over again and again by drivers too busy or, to be fair, too intent on their and others own safety - to stop and move the body out of the way. Pheasants are a common victim locally; smaller birds an occasional addition. The only blackcap I have ever seen in Mentmore was dead by the side of the road, almost certainly hit by a car. This winter has been no different. Although it feels like we must be close to spring some daffodils are already in bloom, even if those on Mentmore village green itself havent quite made it yet as I write (the second week of March) it is actually snowing and the week ahead has a beast from the East wintry forecast. In the last couple of weeks I have had the grim sight locally of three very dead animals two foxes and one female muntjac deer. On my route to work in the last few weeks I have also seen more than one dead badger and narrowly avoided myself adding to the toll only this week when a brown hare one of my personal favourites locally ran across the still-dark road directly in front of me. All the species Ive mentioned come with some emotional and cultural baggage in the human world. Foxes divide opinion like few other species. Weve heard the news stories of urban foxes apparently attacking children see this story on the BBC News site for the most recent. To some they are aggressive vermin; to others their behaviour is a natural consequence of human behaviour in encouraging scavenging by liberal distribution of half-eaten food over our urban living spaces a view this Daily Telegraph article espouses. Rural foxes, which can seem almost like a different species in terms of their behaviour, being much more wary of man, are seen by some as a threat to livestock which should be hunted down and destroyed, and by others as a wonderful wildlife spectacle whose presence as top predator is at least a partial indication of a healthy ecosystem. The emotionally-charged debates over the laws around hunting with dogs owe some of their force to these opposing views. Without trying to take sides in this I will report simply that we have recently come across two dead foxes, within yards of one another, close to a public footpath within the parish. There were no visible signs of trauma on them and we concluded that they were very probably poisoned, and probably (given their colocation) dumped at the site where we found them. Whether they were deliberately killed is uncertain; its entirely possible they ate bait intended to kill rats a species without perhaps the PR position of the fox. Lets stick to facts again. Hunting with dogs (whether of foxes or hares or indeed anything else) is currently illegal in the UK. Killing foxes is not, provided a legal method is used. This web site summarises the position neatly as follows, In the UK, the Wild Mammals (Protection) Act (1996) prohibits the use of poison to kill foxes and, while the act of gassing mammals is technically legal, there are no legal gasses that can be used on foxes. Under Section 11 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act (1981), it is illegal to use all but free-running snares to trap foxes and there are strict guidelines as to where and how these snares should be set and how frequently they must be checked. So if the two we found had indeed been poisoned, that would be illegal. And if youre still interested at this point yes, we did report it to the police. If you want to read more around the debates which surround foxes, this site provides a great place to start. The muntjac deer is another species which, while less well-known than the fox, exemplifies another hotly-debated wildlife argument, that of exotic species i.e. non-native to the UK and artificially introduced. In the UK they are reported by the British Deer Society as limited mostly to south and central England and Wales, having escaped (or been deliberately released) from Woburn in the early 20 th century. What may surprise you more (though not if you are a regular reader of this update as I have

mentioned it before!) is the number of species we commonly see locally which have also been introduced over the centuries rabbits, brown hares, pheasants, red-legged partridge and Chinese water deer, to name but a few. And, finishing where I began, I have seen individuals of all those species dead on the roadside as victims of the internal combustion engine. Welcome to the UK.
Steve Thomas

N.B. If you have a printed copy of the newsletter you will need to view this story on the parish web site to access working links as highlighted.

The local owl and raptor conservation scheme in Bucks now has a new name, the Buckinghamshire Owl and Raptor Group BORG, and a web site: www.bucksorg.org.uk. I continue to volunteer as a licensed monitor for the scheme and this year have renewed my trainee ringers license, so hope to get some practise in later this spring. In the meantime the new nesting season is now underway and already we have news from some parts of the country of earlier than usual tawny owl nesting. Tawny owls and kestrels are the species I need to keep an eye on at this time of year as they will already be in residence at their nest sites, so please be careful if you know of any box locations they are easily disturbed during this early stage of nesting and as a result will abandon the nest. The checking of barn owl boxes will not start until late April, but in the meantime it would be helpful to know if there are any owls in the area. So, if you regularly see any of the species were mo nitoring please do let me know. We already have regular sitings of barn owl, buzzard and red kite, with less frequent sitings of kestrel and little owl. In order to protect any nest sites and their occupants I will not give any detailed reports until the end of the nesting season.
Karen Thomas

ENGLAND'S GREAT LITTER COUNT Each year, Keep Britain Tidy identifies the companies whose products are littered most. From fast food containers to drink cans to sweets wrappers, they count the brands that create the most litter...on our streets, in our parks or beside the water. They call it Englands Great Litter Count. The results are released to the media and because litter affects so many people, they usually list the companies whose products litter the most. This year, in order to collect the most comprehensive information ever, tracking litter in more communities than ever before, they enlisted the help of the public. So during the first two weeks of February volunteers were asked to take a walk down a local street, or along a local beach, and count the kinds of litter you see. Everything needed to carry out the survey was supplied by the campaign organisers. Volunteers didnt have to pick up a thing, just count and record what was seen. More than 500 people signed up, allowing us to count more than 37,000 pieces of litter on the street, in parks, on beaches or beside rivers and canals. The results of the survey were released on 22nd March and can be seen at http://www.keepbritaintidy.org/News/Default.aspx?newsID=1122 As someone who hates seeing the litter in our verges I decided to take part and so on a warm sunny Thursday in the second week of February I set out from my home, in Mentmore, with the intention of doing my half hour survey on the road towards Crafton. I had decided that I would collect the litter seen as well as counting it. What I didnt expect was that in the time allotted I would only have got as far as the bend in the road just beyond the entrance to bridleway near the cricket club and on one side of the road only! In that time I had filled one large bin bag cans, plastic bottles and various sweet wrappers.

I was so disgusted by the quantity of litter that I continued on the same side of the road for a further hour and a half and reached the small copse on the right-hand side of the road. By now I had another two large bags of rubbish. The opposite side of the road was still untouched so I went out again the following weekend, this time with hubby Steve, and spent a further three hours (so six in all as we were both out there) over two days collecting more rubbish from the verges and ditch. In total along that small stretch of road we collected: Two large bags of plastic bottles One large bag of cans Two large bags of miscellaneous sweet & crisp wrappers One large bag of various plastic bags & sacks Three recycling boxes of glass bottles Two pairs of old boots Two coats Two microwave ovens One table-top fridge One vacuum cleaner Various pieces of broken car and a tyre.

This is a horrendous amount of rubbish in such a small area, but what makes it even worse is that I found out later than Jonathan Langley had been down the same stretch of road, as far as the bridleway, only two weeks earlier doing the same thing picking up litter. The current resulting lack of litter on this stretch of road, has only heightened our awareness of just how much litter there is on the other roads in our parish and, oh guess what, the litter is already beginning to build up again on this stretch of verge! It is not just an issue of rubbish, within the many bottles and cans we found the remains of several small rodents. These small animals enter the rubbish looking for food and once in t hey cant get out so die of cold and starvation. Jonathan continues to do his bit by going out litter picking when he can, but I ask all of you to check the roadside outside your homes and help us keep our villages looking tidy by picking up and removing any litter that appears. Steve and I will certainly be doing our bit to keep our stretch of road clear.
Karen Thomas

If you have an item which you would like included in the next Newsletter (June, July & August) please contact either Liz (Tel 661309 /email crackerdack@aim.com) or Karen (Tel 661509 / email karen.thomas@dial.pipex.com) Newsletter deadline: 15th May 2013

To offset costs we are looking for small business advertising. Would you like to sponsor an issue? Your ads could be anything from one liner to more striking boxes and graphics. For more information please contact Liz or Karen. This newsletter was sponsored by Domestique.