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2009
Grendon Sapphires
Building work has started on the Grendon Sapphires facilities!
To find out more, see the Sapphires own page Grendon_Sapphires
Grendon Bell Ringing
Grendon tower continues to ring regularly on Tuesday evenings and also for Sunday services. Our Tuesdays are often assisted with ringers from other local towers and this allows us to expand our repertoire. We are very grateful for this support. Our new ringers continue to improve and our youngsters, who had been training on tied bells under the watchful eyes of Martin and Don on Saturday mornings and also before the main practice on Tuesdays, are now joining in the main practice with the rest of the band and even for Sunday service ringing. If you have heard the bells ringing at other times recently this is because we have had two weddings in the village since the last ringing newsletter and also visiting bands have rung in the tower. Ringing is a sociable activity and ringers are always interested in trying other bells. If you are interested in the Grendon bells and the art of ringing, either as a ringer or just to see what it is all about, please feel free to visit us on our practice night, any Tuesday between 7.30 and 9.00. or contact any of the ringers below. Martin Howell, 01933 664038, Tower Captain, Don Green, 01933 663850, Assistant Tower Captain; Mike Brown, 01933 663332.
See more on the Grendon Societies page.
Grendon WI
Our meeting on Monday 6th October started with the AGM. Our President, Isabel Gillett, gave her report, highlighting the varied programme of events that had taken place during the year, her favourites being the visit to the garden in Desborough and the talk and display of Hatpins through the Ages.
The meeting was then handed over to one of our members, Mary Flint. One of Mary’s pastimes is Chinese Brush Painting, and she had brought with her a range of equipment to demonstrate this art, as well as some finished pieces. She explained that brushes can be made from a variety of materials, such as bear, wolf and badger hair. Paper tends to be very thin, and has to be weighted down, and then rested on felt to absorb the water. The techniques of painting have a ceremonial aspect, and can be calming for the spirit. Paintings often contain phrases in Chinese script, so Mary showed us the eight basic strokes which make up the Chinese characters before demonstrating an example of bamboo painting, using ink and water. Finally we all made an attempt at Chinese paper cutting, which produces very intricate designs. If we were very careful with our scissors, we ended up with six lucky red pigs to take away with us!
Grendon School – “A GOOD SCHOOL!”
Not once or twice, but three times this year Grendon Church of England Primary School has received a very good inspection report. The full Ofsted inspection in February stated that ‘pupils achieve well’ and their personal development is ‘outstanding’. The Anglican Schools Inspection in April recognised that ‘all pupils feel valued and special and enjoy their learning experiences’. In September an HMI detailed inspection of English recognised the good standards achieved in reading and writing through high-quality teaching, a creative curriculum and effective leadership. If you would like to come along and see this consistently high-performing school in action, please ring 01933 663208 to make an appointment. New entrants for September 2009 will be most welcome.
The Flower Arranging Demonstration
On behalf of the Grendon Show Committee, and Katy Coleman - thank you to all those who supported the fundraising event at Grendon Village Hall recently.
The Flower Arranging Demonstration was a resounding success and general feedback is a very enjoyable evening was had by all. A cheque for £500 is to be donated to `Kids Out Charity'. (information on this organisation can be found on the internet)
Hopefully all expertise passed on by Katy will be displayed at the next Grendon Village Show in September 2009 by new exhibitors, we look forward to that. However, if you still require advice or indeed need flowers then Katy can be contacted at Lee Berrill in Earls Barton.
Snow
After some spectacular recent snow falls, many residents were snowed in; as a result Tony and the team at the Half Moon pub did splendid work keeping everyone fed and watered.
 The pub looking inviting in the snow |
 Whiteout in Easton Way |
 Looking up from Church Way |
 Entering the village from Easton Maudit |
 Manor Farm |
 Manor Court |
 Manor Rd |
 Birdman Guy Marshman |
Former resident
Mark York, late of Main Road and a member of the share club has announced an intention to take French citizenship. Mmm!!
2008
Grendon Cricket Club
We now have our own website section under Grendon Societies with details of club officals, fixture lists etc.
Grendon Bells Tower open morning
There will a tower open day for anyone interested in seeing the bells and learning more about this ancient English art of full circle ringing on Saturday 21st June. Are there any ex ringers out there? We would love to hear from you. The tower will be open from 10am to 12 noon, feel free to come along and talk to any of our ringers and even have a go yourself. If you cannot make this date or time, contact one of the ringers below or just come along to the church on any Tuesday evening between 7.30pm and 9.00pm:
Martin Howell 01933 66403 Tower Captain : Don Green 01933 663850 Assistant Tower Captain : Mike Brown 01933 663332
Safari Supper
The annual "Safari supper" was held on Saturday the 17th May - as usual it was a very convivial evening and over £1,000 was raised for church funds.
Twinning
On the 10th May we had our annual exchange with our twin village Bois Bernard in the Pas de Calais nord, in France.
This year it was our French friends turn to visit us - and a good weekend was held by all. A gala evening was held at the pub in Great Doddington (the Half Moon unfortuantely not being big enough to take all of those present) and the weather smiled on us. Some pictures will be posted shortly.
New landlord at the pub
Tony Pool is the new landlord at the Half Moon pub, which has been re-painted and generally spruced up. We wish the pub well and look forward to the revival of this important village facility.
Tony has updated the pub's entry and details of the new menu are now on the site, along with contact details for booking.
Village Shop
Tony Pool advises that the time scale for the creation of a village shop in the barn next to the pub has increased due to the unexpected decision by the Charles Wells Board of Directors not to fund this project. Tony has now taken back control of and finacial responsibility for the project ourselves and will continue to post updates on his progress.
Theatre Production
Grendon Village Hall is hosting a production of “The Farm” on Thursday 22nd May at 7.30 pm. This is a drama telling the painful, funny, uplifting story of the end of a family farm. The production is being staged by Northants Touring Arts in conjunction with New Perspectives Theatre Company.
Tickets for the event can be obtained from Martyn Smith (666183) or Gillian Morgan (665386). The cost is £7.50 per head, which includes a complimentary glass of wine or soft drink. The Village Hall is a registered charity and any surplus from the event will be used for the maintenance of the hall.
2007
Twinning - Bois Bernard
Another succesful twinning weekend was held from the 26th - 28th May 2007 with a contingent from Grendon travelling to France - and by all accounts had better weather than those remaining here over the bank holiday! For more information and some pictures see here.
Safari Supper
Many thanks to everyone who helped raise over £1500 at the Safari Supper held on Saturday 5th May. Special thanks to all who contributed through their gifts and magnificent hospitality. Also, to the Barclays Community programme for their generous donation of £750.
Spring Clean Day
As a result of feedback from the Village Questionnaire and the recent Parish Plan meetings, an Environment Group has been set up in the village. The Group’s first initiative was to organise a spring clean day which took place on a warm and sunny Sunday morning on April 15th.
Around 40 villagers took part in the event. In total, we collected somewhere between 80-100 sacks of rubbish, not to mention numerous larger items such as tyres, road signs, car bumpers, kitchen appliances and garden furniture. Wellingborough Borough Council provided the equipment for the event and collected the resultant pile of rubbish.
The litter pick covered all the roads in the village, including the 4 principal through- roads (Main Road, Station Road, Yardley Road and Easton Way) out to the Parish boundary.
Many thanks to all who took part, similar events are planned for the future.
Grendon Village Questionnaire
The summary and detailed results are available here.
Village Questionnaire & Parish Plan
Exactly 122 households filled in and returned their village questionnaire, which is fantastic. Click here to see the results.
The answers you gave have been used to create a draft Parish Plan and it will be presented in the village hall on these dates;
- 21st February, 7:30pm
- 6th March, 7:30pm
Please be there! Your feedback is needed to guide us on which parts of the plan take priority. Also a plan is no good if no one is willing to do anything, hence you are strongly encouraged to sign up to one of the action groups. If people don’t then no action will be taken, for example you won’t get a shop!
Community Speedwatch
The Parish Council would like to thank all the volunteers who took part in the recent Community Speedwatch in the village. They gave freely of their time, often in damp, freezing and misty conditions. Thanks also to Alison for organising the three weeks. Once results are received from the police these will be published. Training for volunteers in the use of speed cameras has been organised for Sunday 28th January 2007. Anyone willing to volunteer should ring the Parish Clerk for times.
Church floodlights
The Borough Council of Wellingborough has decided to save money by informing all parish churches that they would no longer pay for the lighting of churches. This news was received by the Church in September, with the information that lights would go off at the end of that month (they still appear to be on). The Parish Council was contacted about this and is in ongoing discussions about the continuation of the church lights. We have contacted an electrical firm to carry out a check on all the lighting equipment to ascertain the likely maintenance, repair and any replacement costs. To keep the church lit will cost more than when the Borough Council was responsible, as they received a reduced electricity rate across the Borough. Some parishioners have come forward to say that they would be willing to sponsor towards the cost of keeping the church flood lights on. If any parishioner has views on the church lights, please inform any councillor or the Parish Clerk.
New Bench at Sweetacre
Parish Council members turned out on Saturday 2nd June to fit a new seat at the entrance to Sweetacre.
If anyone has any concerns or comments about other areas of the Village please contact a member of the Council.
 Bench still in wrapper |
 Making secure |
 Bench in full glory |
Marriage
Former Grendon resident and current share club member Mark York was re-married on the 23rd June at Northampton Guildhall. Mark who now lives in St Prest, France married Beatrice Buono - we wish them all the best. Pictures of the event may be seen here.
 The happy couple at the Registrar's |
Gyspy Funeral
A very large gyspy funeral took place in the village on Thursday 21st June. Such was the size of the party that the Police felt that they needed to virtually close the village and restricted parking on various roads to allow for attendees to park. It is thought that some 12 Police officers were present during the service. Unfortunately some residents had their cars blocked in their drives by thoughtless attendees.
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