Village Voice by Rosie Warrillow 4th November

Our W.I ladies are pleased to announce that their next meeting will be an open meeting. The speaker will be local wildlife expert and artist John Ashton, who has spent many hours photographing the local wildfowl and wildlife on the River Avon. John has spoken to the group before and his talk will be much anticipated by the community. Anyone can come, that’s the good part and the charge for non-WI members is £3 each to be paid on the door. There will be refreshments and a question and answer session will end the evening. The event takes place on Thursday November 11th at 7.30pm, with the WI business taking place earlier in the evening.                                                                                      

There will be a Christmas Craft and Gift Fair taking place in the village hall this coming Sunday, November 7th between 10am-4pm.    The fair will be in aid of the foodbank, which will be facing the upcoming Christmas season and will be in need of support and food donations, to help needy families. There will be a raffle and Dinah Ashton is asking for any donations for prizes. She can be contacted on john@artashton.co.uk . There will be so much to see with a selection of lovely things to buy and a raffle, and also some lovely light refreshments, come on down and start your festive shopping and help our foodbank! Please wear masks in the hall.                                                                                              

The village shop now has the 2022 calendar in stock which features lots of lovely images of the wildlife on the river, please call into the shop for your copy, an ideal Christmas gift? The shop is also asking people to wear masks when using the premises, a wise precaution given the rising number of cases locally.                                                                                                                                             

The Parish Council meets tonight at 7.30pm in the village hall, come along to hear about new developments in our community, the works on the green and the improvements to the children’s playparks to name just a few topics!                                                                                                                                  

Ken Doughty’s little gem of a book, The Aveton Gifford Miscellany, is available for sale on quite a few fronts. Jo Smith, St Andrews treasurer has some copies, and they can be obtained from me too and Ros Brousson. The book contains well-liked Ken’s writings and observations on life in our community over his many years here as a resident. This is truly a lovely book and with the festive season approaching maybe a good present choice. The book, priced at £7, will help to raise funds for the churchyard extension in St Andrews.

Last Sunday there was a Team Benefic service at Ringmore Church which, in spite of quite blustery conditions, had folk from all of our churches enjoy a wonderful Holy Communion service led by retired vicar Stephen Weston recently moved into the area. The Ringmore WI hosted the refreshments after the service, which was very welcome and much enjoyed by everyone! This week St Andrews will have a Sunday Worship service led by Reader Joyce Hewitt, which will start at the usual time of 11am., all are welcome to attend and there will be refreshments after the service.