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Dear Ed Swavesey Carols - How it all Began It all began the Christmas after the Silver Jubilee Celebrations of 1977, the build up to, and the activities that took place on that memorable day rekindled a new spirit within the village. This prompted the late Alan Lee, Adrian Layton, Bob Stone and myself mulling a few ideas over a pint in the White Horse. We were keen to try and put something else on, we were very ambitious and decided on a Carol Concert with a brass band, log fire braziers, tea/coffee, hot mince pies, sweets for the children and of course the all important Father Christmas, we gave this honour to Alan. The trees in Market Street as you can imagine 27 years ago were very small and our plan included having a tree decorated with presents and lights, so not having the right tree would seriously jeopardise the main part of our preparations. Alan Lee at that time was renting the orchard tucked away in a corner over the brook behind the coal house. We decided to cut down 3 old trees about 15ft tall and erect them on the green in Market Street. This we found quite a challenge to say the least, but nevertheless we managed to get the trees in place, held up with a number of guy ropes. We purchased lights and placed them on the trees, Alan's wife Joyce and some friends collected cardboard boxes and wrapped them up in Christmas paper so we could tie them on the tree, everything was going to plan. The next task was to find a number of old oil barrels that we could use for the braziers, these we obtained from our friends at Barwells Engineering, "but what about logs to burn on them" we cried, so back to the orchard where we felled a couple of dead Elm trees, sawn and split ready to burn. Our enthusiasm was now starting to wane with the volume of work we had undertaken. "So how do I appear before the children in the middle of Market Street dressed as Father Christmas" Alan asks, reasonable question, "what we really need" Bob replies "is a sleigh"! So we made a sleigh large enough to sit Alan in but which would need several people to pull along. One week to go before our first Carol service, everything is now in place, trees decorated on the green, braziers and logs at the ready, wives and villagers making mince pies, burko boiler outside Kath Clewlow's back door for tea/coffee, the sleigh constructed and painted bright red, Band ordered and insurance in place, we can relax!! What if it rains, we have no protection for the Band, it could be very uncomfortable trying to play your flugal in the pouring rain. So who's going to ask George Hendry if he can provide scaffolding, boards and tarpaulins? So, on the morning of the Carols we all assisted George with collecting and erecting a small stage ready to receive the Band, complete with tarpaulins, beer crates and scaffold boards to give the Band a bit of height and a fluorescent tube borrowed from someone's garage to provide light for the Band. We had decided to position Father Christmas at the far end of Market Street ready to be pulled along on the sleigh across the green with the help of a few friends. We had coerced several car owners to place their cars either side of the green and at the given signal we pulled Father Christmas zigzagging across the green through the car headlights, as we did this it had just started to snow, creating a truly magical sight! The braziers glowing with bright red flames, trees and lights twinkling and the Band playing Carols, the look of sheer excitement in the children's and Mums faces said it all. It's hard to believe that those young children of 1977 may have children of their own and attended the Carols of 2004. We continued working together putting on the Christmas carols for the next 17 years, one of our greatest highlights was when we arranged to have Father Christmas flown in by Helicopter onto the main green, it took Alan a few days to recover from that one! It's nice to know that the Carols are still continuing from an idea born by four old muckers all those years ago, long may they continue. Kind regards Derek A Flitton Byways Maintenance The criticism in last month's Swavesey Council Parish News was unjustified. When the byways were chiefly used for access to land by owners and occupiers, the system of regular levy and occasional handfilling of potholes by those landowners worked well. The traffic then was mainly agricultural vehicles, farmers visiting their fields or walkers. Now the pattern of vastly increased motor traffic, on byways never designed for such use, has churned up the surface. In addition, although some people drive carefully, slowly and considerately (thank you to them) many of these cars are driven inconsiderately fast, churning the road into mud and creating hazards for children and dogs. These droves are an asset and a resource for the village as a whole and it is not reasonable to expect landowners alone to bear this increased brunt of day to day traffic. Landowners are not dodging their responsibility: they already pay a byways charge and they continue to fill potholes. It is not they who are creating the present problem, it is the change in the pattern of use, and inconsiderate use which make the existing system unworkable. It is the underlying problem which needs to be addressed. While some increase could be made in the byways charge for landowners, some system of funding which reflects widespread general use must be found. Yours faithfully Jane Whiter WOEFUL ARE WE ! Once upon a time a nice garden bench we had here |