Wereham Village news September 2008

Our monthly update from Wereham

News from St Margaret's

In spite of ongoing restoration work, we have held a service in the church every Sunday and have also managed to have two weddings, our annual Church Festival and a Children and Young People's Art Exhibition in the nave!

As you may have noticed the work St Margaret's is not yet quite complete and, after the festival, work still had to be done on the north side drains and on the interior of the church tower where the plaster was in a parlous state. Perhaps by the time you read this all will be complete with the exception of the South aisle which is the very last piece of outstanding restoration work to be tackled. Unfortunately, indications of paintwork beneath the plaster below the marble monuments embedded in the walls means that, before any further work can be done, the PCC committee need to have the wall thoroughly investigated by experts, before any restoration and repair can be sanctioned. So that is the very last hurdle remaining and after that of course another fundraising drive for the work itself.

Flowers and church cleaning

Obviously it has not been possible to arrange flower rotas and cleaning dates until the current operations have reached completion but we hope to have this up and running by October.

Art Exhibition with a Woodland Theme

An exciting and colourful Arts Exhibition was put together by Stina Burger and Joanna James assisted by Joanna's sister Caroline. Their weeks of hard work culminated in the creation of a charming Woodland theme displaying a wonderful variety of natural subjects depicting birds and butterflies, insects and trees in a whole variety of different media. Thank you, Stina, Joanna and Caroline, for showcasing the considerable talent that exists in our small community and thank you each and every one of you who contributed your paintings- not forgetting the Wereham Tots and some of the very youngest artists- you delighted us all with the cleverness and imagination of your entries.

We really hope that it helped you to think about nature and the environment and the importance of woodlands in saving and protecting it.

Wereham Tots -"Teddy Bears Picnic"

Despite the weather, bears of all shapes and sizes -- and animals too--- a giraffe, a sheep and I do believe "Piglet" descended on the village hall for the Teddy Bears' Picnic. Because it's the school holidays a few older children also arrived with their siblings and bears to take part- which was really nice.

So with the picnic rugs all in place it didn't take long to fill the space and to enjoy a spread of savouries fruit and cakes provided by our band of mums grannies and carers. Mandy entertained the children with a game of "animal hunt" and would you believe -- everyone a winner!. A really good time was had by all and not a wet, soggy bear in sight!

If anyone out there would like to join us at Wereham Tots- do pop in (we don't bite) we're a friendly group, we meet the Fridays in the Village Hall at 9:30 a.m. onwards..... and remember

The first session is free!

Do come and join us!

Angie Godden

St Margaret's Festival Day

The annual Festival Day was held on 20th July under sunny skies and colourful bunting.

This year the display in the church featured an exhibition of artwork by the children and young people of the village. The church was filled with many colourful and talented contributions and our thanks go to Stina and her helpers for all their hard work in organising the exhibition and especially to the artists themselves. The money raised from the exhibition was donated to St Margaret's, the Mothers and Toddlers Group and the Youth Club.

The Wereham Wildlife Woodland group also created a table display within the church promoting the project. Through out the day Tom played suitable wood land themed music on the organ.

As well as the traditional stalls, this year we welcomed the Youth Club and Mothers and Toddlers who also organised their own fundraising which went very well. The green was buzzing with youngsters enjoying the two bouncy castles.

The day was used as an opportunity for the 2nd reunion of ex Wereham School pupils and it was good to see some familiar "old" faces from near and far including Ken and Betty English who drew the raffle for us.

The donations of prizes for the raffle and various stalls were very generous and much appreciated as were the cakes and produce that were so freely given to sell.

We hope that our visitors felt, like us, that the friendly traditional village fete atmosphere was a key part in the success of the Festival which raised the best ever sum of £1639.33.

Tom played the organ again in the evening for Songs of Praise with hymns requested during the day.

Our sincere thanks go to everyone involved in the preparation, organisation and running of the event. Your hard work and good humour were certainly rewarded!

Liz Baddock on behalf of the PCC

Chris and Chandra moved to their new house in Flegg Green in February this year having lived for many years in their previous home in Bishop's Stortford in Hertfordshire. Chris had taken semi-retirement from his career in the mobile phone industry a couple of years ago, and Chandra had the opportunity to take early retirement from her work at Guy's Hospital in London earlier this year. They have a wide range of interests including learning to play the guitar, art & photography, and local and family history, which they fit in between the hundred and one jobs needed to be done when you move into a new home.

They had been coming to Wereham for a period of several years to visit their parents, Bill and Barbara Ward, and so knew the area well. They had often thought how lovely it would be to live in a rural village community like Wereham. They have agreed to take over gathering together the Wereham Village News for the G4 monthly magazine and look forward to meeting lots of new faces within the village in the process.

Pammie Walker