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CHOLSEY 1000 plus |
Event Reports
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*5 April 2008
A small army of volunteers descended on Cholsey's Millennium Wood on Saturday, to give the trees some much-needed maintenance.
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| Brendon Burton removes a tree guard |
Richard Cory Wright and Brendon Burton |
Felicity Aska |
The Tidy-up Day was arranged jointly between Cholsey 1000+ (the village association), Cholsey Parish Council, and Cholsey's Phoenix Youth Club. The Parish Council had recently taken over responsibility for looking after the wood, which led to a review of some much-needed maintenance work.
The working party of 25 villagers was split up into a number of teams, each with a leader having a particular knowledge of forestry. A significant quantity of branches, especially where trunks had bifurcated, were removed, and dragged to the edge of the wood to provide habitat for a variety of wildlife. All the original tree guards were removed, which had kept the trees safe from rabbits while the trees were small.
"It was a great opportunity for youngsters and others with little experience of working with trees to learn a bit about woodland management", said Parish Councillor Richard Cory-Wright, "and it is good to have established that there is already a fund of know-how on this subject within the parish".
"More schemes for planting trees are in the pipeline, and ideas for more woodland projects are being considered in Cholsey. We are also very grateful to SODC for their help with the Tree Warden Scheme, which has been a very beneficial to us in Cholsey".
*Friday 25 April 2008
The Eastenders of Cholsey by Tony Rayner
Venue: Old School. 7.30 start
Standing room only! at Tony Rayner's "Cholsey Eastenders" talk
The Day Centre was full to capacity on Friday 25 April 08 for Tony Rayner's fascinating illustrated talk about the people and places in Cholsey's Eastend. Tony had a collection of over 150 photos & maps of then and now... from our earliest records in the 1500s right through to the present day. Many people in the audience had contributed their own family histories, photos & memories. I think many of us came away thinking that it would be great to capture some of this living history, maybe through a "Memories of Cholsey" reminiscence week-end, where people could bring along their old photos & record their favourite memories. This might perhaps lead to a new Cholsey history book?
(Copies of Change at Cholsey - again! are still available at £12.50 from Stennings Hair Studio, or 16 Lapwing Lane, Cholsey).
*Sunday 4 May 2008
'May Day' Celebrations & Fun Run program of events
A new sub-committee organised May Day for the first time this year and we learnt a lot by the end of the day!
The sub committee felt it was a good day overall and many people have commented positively on the day.
We had attractions ranging from ferret racing, a full sized traction engine offering children's rides, miniature steam engines in the pavilion and the Rucksack Rush About – organised by Rose Noorduyn (involving children rushing around when they stopped the winning square corresponded to a ticket sold on the random grid before the event).
We had 6 village organisations bringing stalls – including the Parish Council with the plans for the proposed new pavilion.
Children from Cholsey school and Pre school danced around the May poles, and Ridgeway Step and clog dancers entertained us on the Forty (and later at the school) - where Amelia Maddox was crowned our May Queen and James Kelly and Emma Chenery her attendants .
The scouts once again organised the excellent bacon butties and ran the 23rd Fun run.
A busy day - but just the sort of community event 1000plus should organise?
Unfortunately a loss of around £300 was made on the day – but the Day Centre, Scouts and stallholders all had an opportunity to raise funds and profiles!
* Saturday 10 May 2008
The St. James Singers in concert with Three Pressed Men
Following an unplanned - but ultimately fortunate - relocation to St. Mary's Church, Cholsey, an appreciative audience enjoyed an informal evening of fine music, delivered by folk trio Three Pressed Men and the unaccompanied all-male St. James Singers. The church's excellent acoustics ensured that not a note or word was lost and both groups showed good form during rousing choruses, concertina medleys, sacred pieces and songs in a more reflective vein. Selected items had been specially prepared as 'joint efforts' and the extra hours of preparation were fully justified by the performance.
Many audience members supplied feed-back which was generously complimentary and which will be used to guide future concerts. An email contact group will be set up to notify music lovers not only of future concerts in Cholsey but also of other live music events in the area. To join this group or to say what kind of music you would like to see presented in Cholsey, send an email to ian@cholsey.com.
Regrettably the mailing list can only be operated by email at present but non-emailers are welcome to phone 01491-652295 to leave contact details in case other means become available.
* Saturday 16 August 2008
The night under the stars
On Saturday 15th August 2008, Cholsey 1000 Plus successfully hosted another fantastic event. Over 150 people from Cholsey and surrounding areas attended the first ‘Movie under the Stars’ to be shown in the village. Cholsey Primary School became Rockville for the evening as locals and visitors alike strutted their stuff on the dance floor to excellent 1950s music from Musical Connections and following the expert Jiving of Didcot’s Beat Street Jive. Dancing was briefly interrupted by an impromptu version of ‘Look at me, I’m Sandra Dee’ sung valiantly by a Pink Lady hen party threesome.
At 9.00pm the music stopped and both guests and helpers supplemented with drinks, pop-corn and ice-creams took their seats to partake in the open-air screening of the film ‘Grease’. A dubious hush descended over the crowd as they settled and the screen went dark. Then the opening credits flashed up and the crowd were away like horses from a starting gate. This was audience participation on a grand scale. Every song had local backing, every glimpse of John Travolta caused the faux love-struck to swoon. There were wolf-whistles for ‘new’ raunchier Sandy and every catty Rizzo put down was booed or cheered depending on your coolness or personal allegiance.
The front row was nailed down by a group of 10 year olds who were experiencing “Ryedale High” for the first time. “It’s a good seat and beside the pop-corn” confided Josh a 10 year old from the centre of the group. “I’d never seen it on the big screen” said Mike from behind the Burger bar, “It was really good”. “Do ’Top Gun’ next!“ pleaded Angela, the perpetual Cholsey event supporter. “You can count on me for the next one” beamed Alan the silver–tongued Compere. “The best night I’ve had in Years!” said Glynn an elderly gentleman in immaculate boot-lace tie, “People don’t know what they’ve missed".