January 2016 - St Giles Church

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What’s on in Uley
January 2016
4th The Ark 2pm
10th Police visit Uley 3pm
10th Police visit Nympsfield 4pm
13th Winter Soup Kitchen
Nympsfield
13th WI 7:30pm
16th Uley Bury Working Party
10am
21st U3A Group Fayre
21st Uley Society 7:30pm
23rd Burns Night and Ceilidh 7pm
February 2016
1st Rodmarton snowdrops
1:30pm
7th Police in Uley 1pm
7th Police in Nympsfield 2pm
10th Winter Soup Kitchen
Nympsfield
March 2016
6th Police in Uley 1pm
6th Police in Nympsfield 2pm
9th Winter soup kitchen
Nympsfield
12th Uley Under 5s open day
28th Uley Open Gardens
Uley Singing Allsorts herald the Christmas Season with their concert in the
Village Hall.
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Parish of Uley with
Owlpen and Nympsfield
Churches of St Giles, Holy Cross
and St Bartholomew
Rector: Rev’d Diana Crook
Telephone 01453 860444
Parish days off-Usually Thurs & Fri
Messages listened to daily
Churchwardens
Mrs. J Rymer 860265
Mr. D Valentin 860245
Assistant Church Wardens
Mrs Pat Jones 860696
Mrs. A Hardy 860876
All bookings for the Church and
St Giles Room to
Marion Kee 860364
or email:marionkee@fsmail.net
St Giles’ is open for prayer
9-9.30am
Normal church opening times are 10am6pm
or dusk whichever is earlier
www.stgilesuley.org.uk
Uley Parish Council
Chair: Jonathon Dembrey 0780 1217230
Vice Chair: Janet Wood 860236
Belinda Holley 860604
Charles Goldingham 860974
Melanie Paraskeva 07929360221
Jim Dewey 01453 860795
Mike Griffiths 01453 860463
District CouncillorTim Boxall 861665
County Councillor Steve Lydon.
07748328061.
Clerk to the Council Ashy McKay
861260.
Village agent Sue Colquhoun
07810630145
The Parish Council meets in the Village
Hall on the first Wednesday of the
month at 7pm. You are very welcome to
attend.
Details of the meetings can be found on
the notices at either end of the village.
Uley village website can be found at
http://www.uley.eu
Mark Warren
PAINTER &
DECORATOR
Interior and
Exterior painting
Wallpaper
Hanging
Uley WI
Great low pricing
Tel 01453
861268
7.30pm, Uley Village
Hall.
President: Dorothy Collett
Secretary Linda Duffett
uleywi@gmail.com
Wednesday January 13th
Trish Tenn: Strength in Life
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A New Year letter from Revd Diana
And the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and
the darkness did not overcome it. John 1.v4-5
Happy New Year! This greeting is on everyone’s lips and it carries a
wish and a promise of good things to come. We make resolutions and
turn over a new leaf in hopes of getting our lives and our world sorted
out. It’s a chance for a fresh start, and it comes just as the days are
noticeably beginning to lengthen after the deepest darkness of the
year. The increase in light fits right in with the spirit of optimism that
surrounds a new year. Sometimes it’s, “Wow! We got through that
and now we’re ready to move on.” Sometimes it’s looking ahead to a
special event that is coming up. This year we will be looking forward to
the celebrations around the Queen’s Birthday celebrations.
For Christians the new year begins not with the New Year, but several
weeks earlier on the first Sunday of Advent (that’s four Sundays before
Christmas), just as we are moving into the darkest time of the year.
That says a lot to us about the Christian conviction that God is always
ready to walk with us through our difficult and dark times. How good
it is to have Christmas and New Year during the darkest times of the
year, to remind us that God came to
be with us just when we most
needed light and love.
As we move into 2016 our world
seems to be facing darkness and fear
as conflicts, human misery and
extremism dominates our world
news. Perhaps optimism may be in
short supply, but our Christian hope
should never be. For we can count
on God’s love for all people and all
of creation. It is this hope that gives
us confidence to repeat the greeting,
“A Happy New Year!”
With Love
Diana
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WI DIARY DECEMBER
The spirit of the WI is all about fellowship, education and culture, with some politics (small
‘p’) thrown in. Therefore our Christmas meeting, which is a party, has to fulfil all these ideals. In order to do this we all gathered in the Village Hall and enjoyed a really good feast in
excellent company. Invited guests included members from other WIs in our Group and
special guest, Debs Cole, who gave so much help with the Village Hall kitchen project. Culture and education were provided in the form of some superb piano playing from Sue Hollins and Pat Uglow, an informative reading from Angela Pendlebury, relating the sequel to
last year’s account the encounter of young Albert Ramsbottom with the lion, and included
a salutary reminder of the trouble a lad might cause if in possession of a stick with a horse’s
head handle. There was also a ditty about someone who has lots of clothes but never has
anything to wear which was rather close to home.
Every 5 years it is our turn to organise the Coaley Vale WI Group Christmas Carol Service, so
the following day we assembled in St Giles for carols and readings, with the Reverend Diana
presiding. The musical accompaniment was provided by Miriam Salman, and two pieces
were performed by a small group of Uley WI singers. Coffee and mince pies rounded off
the afternoon very nicely.
More mince pies and coffee after a bracing walk around Uley the day after that, and then
we can all relax (?!!!) and enjoy Christmas.
Sally Lamerton
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Could I make you aware of a burglary that has happened in The Street next to the junction of Woodstock Terrace which happened over the weekend of 11th-13th December. The offenders have targeted the rear of the
property.
As we are close to Christmas please could we please pass on to our watches this advice to prevent burglary.
Sometimes it is obvious that no-one is home and advertising your property as being empty can be a
great opportunity for a burglar. Some simple precautions can prevent you from being a victim of crime:

Leave a light on in the house or buy a timer switch.

Net curtains prevent easy viewing into your home.

Adequate security lighting around the outside of your home.

Strong and secure locks on doors and windows and include your access gates leading to the
rear.

Defensive Planting (thorns, bushes) can deter potential offenders.

Mark all valuable property with either an Ultra-Violet pen or a forensic marking kit and include
property in your sheds/garages.

Use a padlock on your shed, burglars take advantage of your shed being unlocked especially if
you have a lot of expensive garden equipment. Consider a shed alarm or anti-theft screws.
If you would like any
crime prevention
advice regarding your
property, please
contact PCSO Joshua
Griffiths 49232 on 101,
or email him personally
atJoshua.griffiths@glo
ucestershire.police.uk,
and he will arrange for
an officer to attend
your property.
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ULEY BURY WORKING PARTY TO BE HELD ON SAT 16TH JAN 2016
FROM 10am to 12noon. Please meet at the bench. Coffee provided.
New members very welcome! Details from Janet 860236 or Don
860450.
ULEY COMMUNITY STORES DIARY DECEMBER2015
Tel Shop 861592, PO 860203. (Jo, Eileen, Ailsa,Carolyn)
We have had a good trading year and some thank yous are timely!
To all our volunteer shop assistants and Post Office staff. To Committee
behind the scenes sorting out forward planning and finance, those who come in
to clean , dress the window, open and close up or do odd jobs.
To our regular local suppliers Phil Rymer, Cam Butchers, Godsells,
Dangerfields,
eggs from Bicks, Philpotts, Duff and Jean, plants from Susan Lewis etc.
TO YOU OUR CUSTOMERS WHO ENSURE OUR SUCCESS!
A HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU AND DO COME AND VOLUNTEER AT
www.uleycommunitystores.co.uk. RUN BY VOLUNTEERS
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University of the Third Age, Cam, Dursley & District
First a word about U3A – it’s a unique and exciting national organisation with the mot-
to “Learn, laugh and live!” The Third Age is the time after you have finished working
or raising a family and can pursue your interests at leisure and make the most of life.
We come together to learn, not for qualifications but for the sheer joy of discovery!
Members share their skills and life experiences: the learners teach and the teachers
learn, and there is no distinction between them.
We are Cam, Dursley & District branch, and currently have 170 members. Becoming
a member means you can come along to our monthly general meetings, held at
Dursley Methodist church on the third Thursday, at 10.30 a.m. when we have a
speaker, followed by refreshments and socialising. The next general meetings are:
Thursday 21st January - group fayre – a chance to find out what our groups are up
to.
Thursday 18th February – a talk by Paul Barnett on “Practising for D Day Landings”
Thursday 17th March – speaker is Jan Ryder of Longfield Hospice telling us about
their work and vision
Then there are Groups- each focused on a special area of interest. Anyone can start
a group and run it - some are only half a dozen people and meet in member's homes,
others are much bigger. Our branch currently has groups in: art history, bridge,
whist, craft, wine appreciation, walking, local flora, gardening, ukele, tai chi, nia
dance, books, discussion, science & engineering, scrabble, theatre, french, tennis I've probably missed one so check on the web site “Group” page for the full list www. U3Asites.org.uk/cam-dursley You can join any of the groups for no extra membership fee - just contact the group leader via the web site to check there is
space and when the next meeting is.
All the group leaders will be at the Group Fayre on January 21st , 10.30 a.m. at
Dursley Methodist church to tell you about their groups, and you can even suggest
ideas for new groups. So if you are a fan of blues music, or model making, or history,
or racing, or running, or cycling, or pub lunches, or beer, why not start your own
group!
For more information visit our web site www.U3Asites.org.uk/cam-dursley , e mail
camdursleyu3a@gmail.com , or come along to one of our
third Thursday meeting at Dursley Methodist Church.
Hope to see you at a U3A event soon
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Notes from the Archives.
Coroner’s Inquests – Extracts from Gloucester Journal 1786-1833
During this period, some rather unfortunate events happened in Uley. Ray Barnfield has been researching such incidents and you will see that not everyone in Uley led an uneventful & happy life!
1786 – Oct.9th. On Wednesday morning last, three men were drinking at a public house in Uley. One
of them, RICHARD SMITH , a shear man, toasted some bread, dipped it in his beer and ate it. He suddenly fell from his chair & died instantly. An inquest was taken on his body and the jury brought in
their verdict – died by the visitation of God.
1787 – Jan.8th. A poor woman of Uley locked her two children, aged 4 & 6, into her house whilst she
went a little way to her work. In a short time neighbours heard the screams and bursting open the
door found the youngest with its clothes in a blaze – the other child running from it to avoid the same
disaster. The neighbour caught up the child and ran with it to the neighbouring brook into which he
plunged it to extinguish the flames, but the miserable little creature expired in great agony.
1825 - Aug.22nd A labouring man was walking in Tawney Wood, about 20 yds from the footpath leading from Uley to Nympsfield. He observed a dead person lying on his back. His height was about 5ft
5”, dark brown hair. He had a wound on his right leg. He wore a brown coat, blue waistcoat, drab
fustian trousers, black silk handkerchief, a white apron around his waist and a black chip hat with
crepe around it. A bundle lay nearby containing one dowlas and two flannel shirts, marked with the
initials W.L. His tobacco box contained a pawnbroker’s duplicate, dated Wotton-under-Edge, July 4th,
the name WM LAKE. His working tools consisted of a small shuttle, pickers, shears, etc. Verdict –
Found dead. Decently interred in the Church at Uley with the usual rites.
1832 – July 7th. FATAL ACCIDENT AT ULEY. An old man, JOHN BIRT, in the employ of Messrs Sheppard & Sons, had just finished his weekly labour. He was putting on his coat when it became entangled around the shaft which drives the machinery. Some of the men hearing an unusual noise went
immediately to the room where John Birt was working. A spectacle presented itself which struck them
with horror, the shaft was going round at the rate of 60 times per minute. The steam engine was
stopped immediately, but too late to preserve life as blood was flying from one end of the room to the
other and nearly every bone was broken. He had served his employers nearly forty years and had
been a leader in the Church Sunday Schools. Verdict - Accidental Death.
1835 – WILLIAM FEREBEE, a shopkeeper of Uley was returning home from Stroud, accompanied by a
little boy. It was getting very dark and he had borrowed a lanthorn. His route was through Long
Wood, passing a very dangerous stone quarry, near Buckholt Gate. When he thought he had passed
by the quarry, he turned to the boy just behind him, but William suddenly disappeared, carrying the
lanthorn
with him. The boy cried out and a shepherd of Frocester hearing the cry went to his assistance and
found the unfortunate man at the bottom of the quarry, but not quite dead. A cart was procured but
before he could be conveyed home, William had ceased to exist.
Mr Ferebee was a strictly honest man and a good Christian. Verdict - Accidental Death.
Margaret Groom.
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First
David Sykes,
Second Sam & Guy Blanch
Shadwell Number 55
Shadwell Number 52
£15
£10
Winter Soup Kitchen - Nympsfield Village Hall on
Wednesday 13th January 2016. The price will be £5
and the profits will be given to local charities
Please note that the Village News
can now be found on the Church
website. http://stgilesuley.org.uk/
notice-board/village-news/
Links to the website are to be
found on other village websites
and the Village News Facebook
page.
“From the Parish Register”
Congratulations to our wedding
couples married in
December: Adam Morris and Jo
Seddon married in St Giles’
Church.
And those whose year’s mind
falls at this time:
Ray Burne, Michael “Norman”
Butcher, James “Jim “Pegler,
Phyllis King, Vivien Parsons,
Kenneth Frederick Bartlett,
Diana Lewis, Basil Holloway,
Derek Claridge, Mary Evelyn
Hunn, Nicholas "Nick" Edwards,
John Jones, Don Downton,
Dennis Ashton, Baby John Chang
Endacott, Trevor Clayton,
Lynette “Lyn” Owen, Francis
Penley.
ULEY SOCIETY
The first meeting of 2016 will take
place on Thursday 21st January in
Uley Village Hall at 7.30pm when
Duff Hart-Davis will talk about “The
Countryside at War 1939-45”.
Visitors welcome at £3.00. Refreshments. Raffle.
Len Freeth 860476
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ULEY PARISH COUNCIL WHAT WE HAVE DONE THIS MONTH DECEMBER
2015
Parking at the entrance to Goldingham Close
There have been reports of parked vehicles narrowing the neck of the entrance to Goldingham Close from Raglan Way. This makes it very difficult
for large vehicles to get access to the Close and is a particular problem for
the farmer for whom it is the only access to the top field, often with a tractor and heavy farm vehicles. Could all residents please ensure that they
and their visitors keep this access clear and do not cause any obstruction,
not only for the farmer but also for delivery vehicles and emergency services.
Launch of the Community Design Statement.
We are very pleased that after over a year of hard work, the launch for
consultation of the Uley and Owlpen Community Design Statement is on
course for February 2016. With the Stroud District Council Local Plan now
in place the CDS will provide additional guidance to future development in
the parishes and additional safeguards to protect our unique environment.
Flood Warden.
We are pleased to announce that Guy Blanch has volunteered to be the
new flood warden. His contact details will be published in a future edition
of the newsletter.
Parish Council minutes.
Just a reminder that the minutes of the full proceedings of each monthly
meeting are posted on the Uley Parish Council website and are also available in a file in the Village Shop. Agendas for each meeting are also available
in the Shop, on the website and on the two village notice boards by the
Village Hall and the Fop Street bus shelter. All members of the public are
most welcome to come to the meetings which are held every first
Wednesday of the month at 7pm in the Village Hall.
Uley Parish Council would like to wish you all a very merry Christmas and a
happy New Year!
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Uley Open Gardens
Dig out your
unwanted gardening
books for our
Open Gardens
book sale
Please contact Jill on
(01453) 860474
All
proceeds
to local
charities
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Uley Garden in January
If you have read this column once or twice, you may have noticed that I am keen
on trees and on fruit-trees, or as my old friend, Peter Gorge, used to call them,
‘Greengrocery Trees’ in particular. You can grow soft fruit, edible fungi and
flowers beneath the tree-canopy; you can build and clothe yourself from the
products of woodland, and in my view, trees and water are basic to survival. All
the problems start when trees are cut down on an industrial scale and not
replaced. This is especially the time of year to be thinking about trees (and
warming yourself in front of those that have been felled and cut up and dried,
being aware of their
generosity). If you like
to
supplement your
thinking with reading,
there are two books
which you might enjoy:
Thomas Pakenham’s
The Company of Trees:
Year in a Lifetime of
Quest, which is by
a
someone with a
passion for trees, for following the plant-hunters and for planting trees on an
Olympian scale. He has already written about our chestnut at Tortworth, more a
grove than a tree nowadays, the Tortworth Chestnut, in Meetings with
Remarkable Trees. It is worth a visit now or at any time of the year. The other
book, Norwegian Wood: Chopping, Stacking and Drying Wood the Scandinavian
Way, by Lars Mytting and Robert Ferguson, is obviously the other end of the story
and already has (I am told) quite a following. Now is the time to plant and prune,
to cut and care for trees, so at some stage we must rise from the fireside and do
more than just think about them. But if you also love the rituals of apple
orchards, Stroud is holding a Mummers’ Festival on 8th-9th January, and there will
be the Stroud Wassail at noon on Saturday 9th in front of the Sub Rooms and at 3
o’clock at the Museum in the Park.
Towards the end of the month the snowdrops will be
out: Rodmarton Manor will open its garden at 1.30 pm
on 1st February, so I give you advance warning in case
this should reach you too late.
Uley Pippin
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Printed by J&C Carter, 22High Street, Cam GL11 5LE email: cotsmark@btopenworld.com 01453 546645
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