Cotswold Chatterblog

The Spirit of Christmas fund raising evening will run from 4pm till 8pm on Tuesday 4th December encouraging people to raise funds for charity while enjoying the traditional spirit of Christmas with festive stalls, Father Christmas, carol singers and a nativity tableau to name but a few of the event’s attractions. Our fundraising events will include the Rotary Club tree of light, an indulgence tree, pony and trap rides, a prize draw and cracker trails.

The event will open with Father Christmas traveling from the Guild in Sheep Street at 4pm and there will be entertainment throughout the evening, the length and breadth of the High Street including our own Morris Dancers, a living nativity tableau, carol singing, North Cotswold Community Radio, drumming by Year 6 from St. Catharine’s School Come and enjoy mulled wine, a pig roast, hot dogs and stalls selling seasonal produce including wreaths, lavender gifts, old fashioned toys, and much, much more.

Enjoy a pony and trap ride from the Guild to Court Barn (or Court Barn to the Guild) then take part in the children’s or adults’ cracker trail, visit Father Christmas, win an amazing prize from the indulgence tree or enjoy Playbox’s seasonal production. Don’t miss Nell Gifford and her husband Tito, both of Gifford’s Circus, who have kindly agreed to attend the evening and to help us with the switching on of the lights.

Programmes with a full listing of events and locations will be on sale from mid-November and every £1 paid for a programme will go directly to the Luke Jeffrey Memorial Trust (Regd. Charity No. 1120375). The programme contains a form for free entry into a prize draw (be sure to fill this in) and a form for the Rotary Club’s tree of light.

Proceeds from the Spirit of Christmas fundraising activities this year will be going to the Luke Jeffrey Memorial Trust. The Luke Jeffrey Memorial Trust is a local charity set up in memory of Luke Jeffrey – a fifteen year old swimmer and an Olympic hopeful who tragically lost his life in a swimming accident last year. The fledgling Trust’s first project is to initiate a UK awareness campaign in water safety through production of a national curriculum linked DVD to be circulated to every primary school in the UK. At a regional level, the charity is providing bursaries and scholarships to help children make the leap to competitive swimming and is sponsoring and promoting a mentoring scheme for young swimmers. The charity’s initial target is to raise £20,000. Let’s help them do it!

This is a great opportunity to complete all your Christmas shopping in a single trip, as the vast majority of shops in town will be staying open until 8pm, while raising funds for a very worthwhile cause. We look forward to seeing you on 4th December!

(From the noticeboard section of the Chipping Campden Bulletin. Reproduced with kind permission of Jeremy Green)

(From the noticeboard section of the Chipping Campden Bulletin. Reproduced with kind permission of Jeremy Green)

The Mickleton Society was due to visit Kelmscott Manor on 6th September but the trip had to be cancelled because of the recent flooding problems. At short notice, a visit to Berkeley Castle was arranged for the same date and 34 people set off that morning. The weather was excellent and the visit to the Castle was enjoyed by all. Our ticket also included a visit to the Edward Jenner museum and this, too, was greatly enjoyed. Edward Jenner lived in a beautiful house next door to the Castle. He was, amongst several other accomplishments, a country doctor but is famous for inventing smallpox vaccination – the leaflet says that this discovery was responsible for saving more lives than the work of any other man. There are some quite fascinating relics and photographs in the museum. A very good day was had by all and special thanks are due to Janet Walmsley for arranging this trip at such very short notice. Our winter 2007 program commences on Tuesday October 2nd in King George’s hall at 7.30pm with a talk entitled “Bess of Hardwick”, followed on Tuesday 6th November with “Sahara Marathon”; the final 2007 event being our annual Christmas supper on Friday December 7th. Christmas supper tickets are now on sale and going rapidly! Marguerite Bell will be catering for us again, to her usual high standard and this year there will be entertainment by a member of the Magic Circle. Tickets will be on sale at both the October and November meetings, with the price held at £13. Alternatively they can be obtained from Sandra Barlow (contact us for details), who be pleased to seat you with your friends, if you let her know by November 14th. I am sure you all know early booking is essential as this event is always a sell out.

(From the noticeboard section of the Chipping Campden Bulletin. Reproduced with kind permission of Jeremy Green)

Very recently the town council was asked about the above stone and, as they had little or no information, they asked around. I was able to fill the gap and below I set out what I know of its history.

It starts at the Cotstone Quarry, which was worked out and was just a large hole in the ground. I believe that it was owned by an Irishman named Macateer, who was in financial difficulty and fled to Ireland to escape his creditors. In the early 1980s Eric Raines, who was and still is a well-known local farmer, went to Ireland and arranged to purchase the quarry.

On his return he applied for planning consent to use the quarry for landfill and was granted permission for only clean soil and for hardcore to be dumped. At this time the M42 was under construction and there were literally tons of surplus soil. Cotstone was the nearest site and hundreds of loads of soil were dumped there.

All this coincided with Campden being flooded on two occasions and therefore a new drainage system was being put in. One section dealt with the eastern end of the town and another the west end. The former meant removing the old stone culvert in Leysbourne, which had collapsed. It was constructed of ‘cut’ stone which is very valuable. To get rid of this the contractors decided to dump it in Cotstone Quarry, paying Eric Haines a fee for each load. Eric told the contractors to leave the stone on the top of the quarry and each evening he, with an employee, collected the stone and removed it to his farm, which was then in Blind Lane.

Subsequently he asked me to meet him in Blind Lane where he proudly showed me the stone he had salvaged. He offered me a piece for a Cotswold Way marker in the Square. The Cotswold Wardens picked it up the next day and erected it where it stands today. They had the ‘Bath 100m,’ cut into it and as this became a traffic sign, it was exempt from planning consent. The little plaque, which reads ‘Cotswold Way, the beginning and end was supplied by the then head warden Ted Fryer, the cost being borne by the Gloucestershire county council.

Just as a matter of interest, the Cotswold Way was the brainchild of Tony Drake a prominent rambler, who for over thirty years was an influential campaigner for the footpath network of Gloucestershire. The Cotswold Way was launched in 1970 and the beginning of the Way was at the Square. Persons who suggest it should be at St James’s church are completely wrong.

Reg Martin. (He was chairman of the north district Cotswold Wardens from the late 1970s until the early 1990s.) Campden and district historical and archaeological society.

www.chippingcampdenhistory.org.uk

The Campden and District Music Society launches its 47th season on Tuesday 9th October 2007 with a concert by the Fitzwilliam string quartet. Lucy Russell, Jonathan Sparey, Alan George and Andrew Skidmore founded the group in 1968 when they were Cambridge undergraduates and became well known through their close association with Dmitry Shostakovich, who entrusted them with the Western premieres of his last three quartets. With a busy concert programme across the world, many recordings and international awards, Campden Music Society is delighted to have them launch their concert series. They will be joined by another well known musician, the principal cellist of the London Symphony Orchestra, Moray Welsh, whom some will have seen at the Campden music festival in May. Moray studied cello under Rostropovich at the Moscow Conservatoire and has enjoyed a long music career of solo performances, recordings and teaching at the Royal Northern College of Music for 18 years.

The concert opens with a short work, “More Fools than Wise” by Jonathan Rathbone who was musical director and arranger for the Swingle Singers for twelve years. It is inspired by the words and music of the seventeenth century composer Orlando Gibbons’s madrigal “The Silver Swan”, which tells how a swan, having been silent all her life, reportedly sings most beautifully just before she dies. The title comes from the last line – “More geese than swans now live, more fools than wise.” – a line particularly important to Rathbone, as it expresses a dilemma in music today. Borodin’s 2nd string quartet in D, written between 1881 and his death in 1887 is one of the most beloved works in the entire quartet literature. Written on a summer holiday and dedicated to his wife, this tuneful work exudes contentment. Some of its glorious melodies were made even more popular over sixty years later as songs in the Broadway musical “Kismet”. The concert ends with the string quintet D.956 in C major of Schubert, written in 1828 with two cellos, just one of many astonishing compositions dating from the composer’s final months. Every moment in this, his last and greatest chamber work, completed only seven weeks before his death, is magnificent in its tragic beauty.

This not-to-be-missed concert takes place in Chipping Campden School Hall, Cider Mill Lane. Chipping Campden at 8pm on Tuesday 9th October. With an annual membership subscription of £40, members have free access to the season’s five concerts and may introduce a guest. Members also have opportunities to join group visits to ballet, operas and concerts at different venues and bookings for these have now opened. New members (£40 for five concerts, i.e. ONLY £8 PER CONCERT) are warmly welcomed. To ensure that you receive full details of membership, contact Campden Music Society, c/o Treasurer, Saxfeld, Hoo Lane, Chipping Campden, GL55 6AZ or phone 01386 841520.

The Society thanks its commercial sponsors: Cutts of Campden, Cotswold House Hotel, Martin Gotrel, Andrew Greenwood, Robert Welch, Mark Annett Estate Agents and Graphic Print Partnership.

(From the Chipping Campden Bulletin. included with kind permission of Jeremy Green)

(From the letters section of the Chipping Campden Bulletin. Reproduced with kind permission of Jeremy Green)

Dear Jeremy,

Another wonderful flower festival is over and now many of us are reflecting on the very successful weekend it was. In our tea rooms we had a really happy five days serving lunches and teas to over 1,000 people, but none of that could have happened without our enormous band of helpers: firstly, all the kind people who donated the food (over 100 cakes) and also the non-food items; and then the large number of friends who worked in shifts in the kitchen. The stars of the tea room “staff were the children. They behaved beautifully and were polite and helpful to our customers, especially the elderly and disabled, and we all enjoyed their cheerful company. So a very big thank you to Maricon, Olivia, Tyler, Theo, Felix, Ellie, Daisy, Alexander, Kelly, Sidney, Hamish, Serena and Rosanna.

Last but certainly not least I want to give a huge thank you to my “Stalwarts” – Jenny, Carol and Avril. They worked so hard but together we had such a fun and happy weekend. Thank you to you all.

Yours sincerely,
Jessica Brook

Also, see our other Flower Festival article here.

The Campden and District Music Society’s 47th season will start with a concert on Tuesday 9th October 2007 with the Fitzwilliam string quartet and Moray Welsh, cello. They will play music by Borodin and Schubert.

On Tuesday 13th November 2007 Thomas Barber, oboe and James Southall, piano will give the recital, sponsored by the Countess of Munster Musical Trust, which supports exciting new young artists.

The Feinstein Ensemble will launch 2008 with a concert on Tuesday 8th January using both modern and period instruments, flute, recorder, harpsichord and strings with music by Bach and Vivaldi.

On Tuesday 5th February 2008 the Kandinsky piano trio will play music by Haydn, Schumann and Beethoven.

The final concert of the season on Tuesday 18th March 2008 is the Wakeford Ensemble Septet, seven players with harp, string quartet, flute and clarinet and music by Mozart, Debussy, Skempton, Saint-Saens and Ravel.

All concerts take place in Chipping Campden School Hall, Cider Mill Lane, Chipping Campden at 8pm. Members also have opportunities to join group visits to ballet, operas and concerts at different venues. Bookings for these will open very soon, so your membership is necessary to participate and attend concerts. New members are welcomed.

Campden and District Music Society Website

(From the Chipping Campden Bulletin. Included with kind permission of Jeremy Green)

North Cotswold Community Radio (NCCR) are pleased to announce that the Chipping Campden Community Trust has awarded NCCR a grant of £1,000 which will be put towards the purchase of much needed equipment for the studios at The Old Police Station in Chipping Campden. The award comes just a month after the devastating floods that caused extensive damage to the NCCR studios.

Robb Eden, chairman for NCCR says, “It is perhaps timely that the Chipping Campden Community Trust have granted us this award. It gives a much needed boost to our dedicated group of volunteers who have kept the project going despite numerous setbacks. To show our gratitude we would like to invite anyone from Chipping Campden or the surrounding area to become part of a management committee which will oversee the running of the facility in Chipping Campden.”

North Cotswold Community Radio

(From the Chipping Campden Bulletin. Included with kind permission of Jeremy Green)

Love that moves the sun and other stars…

The Complete Singer touring production of The Coronation of Poppea, by Claudio Monteverdi at 8.00pm on the 22nd September 2007, St. James’ Church, Chipping Campden.

The Complete Singer is an exciting young company, largely comprised of musicians from the London music colleges and the Birmingham Conservatoire, with additional members who hope to pursue post-graduate singing. This newly formed ensemble aims to marry deep theatrical and musical expression. Under the expert tutelage of the singer and director Jenny Miller and the conductor Lesley Anne Sammons, the company will tackle Monteverdi’s last operatic work, written in 1642 and universally acknowledged as a landmark in the genesis of opera.

The dramatic construction of the piece is intricate and compelling, exploring allegorical and historical narrative. Like many Renaissance artists, Monteverdi and his librettist Busenello drew on the classical world for their creation. Their political dramatization of Nero’s court is framed by an allegorical presentation of Virtue, Fortune and Love who each claim to be the supreme force governing human existence. Love’s bold declaration “Today, when I have beaten both of you in a single combat, you will admit that I can change the world”, invites us to contemplate what really compels human action.

Monteverdi’s instinctive understanding for the subtleties of all his characters is remarkable. The Coronation of Poppea is a drama for all time because it boldly confronts complex human truths which are of universal significance. Come and enjoy our original rendition of this masterpiece!

Tickets at Campden Fruit & Veg from 1st September. To reserve places please write to: thecompletesinger@hotmail.co.uk. Alternatively, buy your ticket on the night. £10/£5 (concessions).

(From the Chipping Campden Bulletin. Included with kind permission of Jeremy Green)

The summer show at Ebrington was held a week earlier than usual on llth August. However we had plenty of entries in most of the classes — flowers, vegetables, cookery and children’s classes were particularly well supported. In all, there were more than 430 entries throughout the show.

A special feature of the afternoon was the presentation of the Peter Righton Cup for the best dahlia in the show. Following his death last year, it was felt that it would be a fitting tribute to Peter to establish a new award, recognising his love of dahlias. His widow, Barbara, presented the award, and it was won for the first time by their son Kevin.

The chairman, John Massey, thanked the Drinkwater family for allowing the use of their barn for the show. The club really appreciated it. Jo Spark presented Dorothy Drinkwater with a bouquet of flowers. John drew attention to the bronze medal on display which had been won by the club at this year’s Hampton Court Flower Show. Many thanks to Barry and Sally Sabin who had prepared and set up the winning hanging basket and window box for the competition on our behalf.

As always, the success of the show was down to the hard work of all those committee members, judges, friends and volunteers who had given their time to prepare the barn and set everything up to run smoothly on the day. He thanked every one who had entered the show and who had helped to make the day a success. Everything had gone very well – even the weather was beautiful, bringing out the crowds to enjoy the sunshine.

(From the Chipping Campden Bulletin. Included with kind permission of Jeremy Green)

Related articles:
Ebrington wins Bronze Medal
Ebrington Gardening Club goes to Hampton Court
A Memorable Year for Ebrington Gardening Club

A taste of life in England during the 1500s by Roger Keight, Campden and district historical and archaeological society.

Most people got married in June because they took their yearly bath in May, and still smelled pretty good by June. They were starting to smell, however, so brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the body odour. Hence the custom of carrying a bouquet when getting married.

Baths consisted of a big tub filled with hot water. The man of the house had the privilege of the nice clean water, then all the other sons and men, then the women and finally the children, with last of all the babies. By then the water was so dirty you could actually lose someone in it. Hence the saying, “Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water”.

Houses had thatched roofs, thick straw piled high, with no wood underneath. It was the only place for animals to get warm, so all the cats and other small animals (mice and bugs) lived in the roof. When it rained it became slippery and sometimes the animals would slip and fall off the roof. Hence the saying, “It’s raining cats and dogs”.

There was nothing to stop things from falling into the house from the roof. This posed a real problem in the bedroom where bugs and other droppings could mess up your nice clean bed. Hence, a bed with big posts and a sheet hung over the top afforded some protection. That’s how canopy beds came into existence.

The floor was dirt. Only the wealthy had something other than dirt. Hence the saying, “Dirt poor”. The wealthy had slate floors which would get slippery in the winter when wet, so they spread thresh (straw) on the floor to help keep their footing. As the winter wore on, they added more thresh until, when you opened the door, it would all start slipping outside. A piece of wood was placed in the entrance way. Hence the thresh hold.

In those old days, they cooked in the kitchen with a big kettle that always hung over the fire. Every day they lit the fire and added things to the pot. They ate mostly vegetables and did not get much meat. They would eat the stew for dinner, leaving leftovers in the pot to go cold overnight and then start again the next day. Sometimes the stew had food in it that had been there for quite a while. Hence the rhyme, “Peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot nine days old”.

Sometimes they would obtain pork, which made them feel quite special. When visitors came, they would hang up their bacon to show off. It was a sign of wealth that a man could, “bring home the bacon”. They would cut off a little to share with guests and would all sit round the table and, “chew the fat”.

Those with money had pewter plates. Food with high acid content caused some of the lead to leach on to the food, causing lead poisoning death. This happened most often with tomatoes, so for the next four hundred years or so, tomatoes were considered poisonous.

Bread was divided according to status. Workers got the burnt bottom of the loaf, the family got the middle and guests got the top or the ‘upper crust’.

Lead cups were used to drink ale or whisky. The combination would sometimes knock the imbibers out for a couple of days. Someone walking along the road would take them for dead and prepare them for burial. They were laid out on the kitchen table for a couple of days and the family would gather round, eat and drink and wait to see if they would wake up. Hence the custom of holding a wake.

England is old and small and local folks started running out of places to bury people. So they would dig up coffins and would take the bones to a bone house, and re-use the grave. When re-opening these coffins, one out of twenty-five were found to have scratch marks on the inside and they realized they had been burying people alive. So they would tie a string on the wrist of the corpse, lead it through the coffin and up through the ground and tie it to a bell. Someone would have to sit out in the graveyard all night (the graveyard shift) to listen for the bell; thus, someone could be “saved by the bell” or was considered a “dead ringer”.

Roger Keight. Campden and district historical and archaeological society.
If you are interested in joining CADHAS or want to find out more information, you can visit the Chipping Campden History website.

(From the Chipping Campden Bulletin. Included with kind permission of Jeremy Green)