WCA Report

Good evening, everyone. First, I would like to bring you up to date in the condition of
the community centre buildings. Following the replacement of the roof in 2022, work
had to be carried out on the front gable to the main building. This was completed in
the Autumn by the builders, H. G. Frosts, who replaced some of the front gable
brickwork and re-pointed other areas of the building. The cost was £3.828.
Still to be done is the waterproofing of the front wall to the kitchen which lets in water
when heavy rain is being blown on to it. When the wall has dried out, it will be coated
with a specialised waterproofing material, and we hope that this will cure the
problem. The storage garage at the rear of the community centre also needs
attention. The building is sloping slightly and the roof is damp and has woodworm.
The WCA proposes to replace the existing garage with a lined container. This will be
done in conjunction with the Astronomy Club who plan to bring a container to site to
store all their equipment. The containers will be waterproof, secure, and free from
the rats and mice which are a constant problem at the moment. Their location at the
rear of the building should ensure that they are not visually intrusive.
Early this year, the WCA was very grateful to receive a donation of £373 from Jeff
Pyne from the sale of the village calendars which he organised last Christmas. This
money has been put towards the purchase of a new barbeque, which will now be
available for village events. Thank you, Jeff.
Events during the past 12 months have generally been very enjoyable and well
supported. On 7 th May we held a Coronation Party. Thanks to a generous donation of
£500 from the West Suffolk Locality Budget, we were able to hire a bouncy castle for
the children to enjoy, and a quantity of Prosecco for the adults. The Parish Council
funded the gift of a commemorative medal to all the children in the village.
On the 10 th June, there was a Quiz Night and Fish and Chip Supper, which raised
£460.80 for WCA funds. Our thanks go to Nigel Bond for his excellent job as
quizmaster. On 2 nd July our Summer Fete was very successful, raising £2,435.18.
The highlight of the day was an unofficial fly-past by George Haye in his Spitfire.
In September, a Barn Dance was organised by Vicki Skeels, Baber Yusaf, Gill
Wilson Chang, and Shirley Mundy, to raise money for WCA funds. Lee from the
White Horse kindly ran the bar and the very enjoyable evening raised £496.50 which
enabled us to buy a new radio-microphone for our PA system. Thank you, Vicki,
Baber, Gill, Shirley, and Lee.
A coffee morning on 21st October raised £292.71 and the evening of Fun, Food and
Fireworks on 11 th November made a profit of £1,806.89. This was a very popular
evening, with nearly all the tickets sold in advance, and quite a number of people
coming on the door. We unfortunately ran out of food, and the bar, again run by Lee,
nearly ran out of drink. I was advised afterwards that people came to the evening to
watch the fireworks and enjoy the bonfire without paying for a ticket. I’m not sure
what we can do about that, but it will be taken into consideration this year. Thank you
Richard Gleed and Mike Morris who let off the fireworks, and Lee and Hannah for
running the bar.

Our final event of 2023 was the Christmas Fayre on 2 nd December which was
organised by Rhonda Key and which raised £943.50 for WCA funds. Thank you,
Rhonda, for all the work you put in.
So far this year we have organised a Jumble Sale on16th March which has made a
profit of just over £300 so far. There is still money to collected in for this. The
Valentines Dinner which we had planned for February, unfortunately had to be
cancelled because of lack of support.
There have been several new initiatives at the community centre during the past
year. We have recently changed our electricity supplier from EON to EDF, which has
not only almost halved our electricity bill and allowed us to have a smart meter with a
worktop display so that Di o longer has to climb on the worktop to read the meter.
Thanks to Kerry Richmond we have a new Facebook page and Mark Hayley has
designed a website for us.
Quickbooks is now fully up and running. Di Howe, our treasurer has struggled with
the new accounting system, but it is now fully in place. I would like to thank Ian
Lambert who has been our auditor this year and who has helped Di prepare the
year’s accounts on Quickbooks. You can see the result at the WCA AGM on 23 rd
May.
Thanks to the Parish Council, especially Garry Corcoran, and with the aid of grants
from the Local Authorities, the community centre now has Wi-Fi installed. The router
is in the old Post Office room and the password for visitors is shown there. We hope
that this will encourage a wider range of booking for the hall.
As to the future, for personal reasons, both Rhonda Key our secretary and myself
will be standing down from the committee at our AGM on 23 rd May. If anyone here, or
anyone you know would be willing to give up some time for a couple of years, to help
run the WCA, we would be very grateful. Meetings are only once a month and we
run about 10 events a year. We’re a friendly bunch, so why not give it a go.
And finally, I would like to thank the Parish Council for their financial support for the
newsletter, the Coronation Party and the Wi-Fi, the WCA Committee who give me so
much support, especially Di Howe our treasurer and bookings secretary who works
tirelessly to keep the community centre running, to Lee and Hannah from the White
Horse who regularly hep at our events, and the group of mature gentlemen, known
as the Doughnut Boys, for all the work they do for us. Without their help the
community centre and play area would cost far more to maintain and we are very
grateful.
Thank you.

Astronomy Club

3a is a group of amateurs with an interest in Astronomy from West Suffolk. Members, of which we have around 40, fall into 4 categories: 1. Some exceptionally good and experienced Astrophotographers 2. Some very good observers and skilled users of telescopes 3. Some with just a general interest in the subject, from beginners to good knowledge 4. A few thereotical physicists and astrophysicists who can give technical insights into topics. We have 3 members from Whepstead, all 3 serve on the Committee of 8 people. Lilias and Nigel O organise events; Nigel O looks after our equipment and I run the Members Programme, organising talks and arranging speakers.

In the last 12 months, our biggest external event was to have a stall at the Bury Spring Fair over the Whitsun Bank Holiday weekend; we will do the same again this year. A number of members did talks to schools and cubs and scouts. Our inventory of equipment is growing and storage at the Whepstead Village Hall has become an issue for us. We would like to thank the WCA for their support in allowing the Club to investigate installing a shipping container at the rear of the building to house our scopes and equipment.

We have had an active programme of talks, presentations and workshops this past 12 months. We have had 6 outside speakers, including Paul Fellows, the Chairman of the Cambridge Astronomical Society; Keith Townsend, twice, from Peterborough Astronomical Society; Professor Martin Hardcastle from University of Hertfordshire; Andrew Green from the Royal Astronomical Society and Dr Matthew Bothwell from University of Cambridge. 

They covered topics such as Radio Galaxies, the Voyager Mission, the Sun, the Apollo Programme, How fast is the Universe expanding. We had technical presentations on topics such as Classification of Stars, Electromagnetic Radiation, Spectroscopy, Gravity and measuring distances to stars and Galaxies.

Our Chairman does a regular slot on what’s topical and another on what’s in the night sky at present. He has also covered topics such as Moons of the Solar System, the JWST and  talks on the individual planets. We had club visits to Orwell Observatory and to Breckland Observatory during the winter months. And if the weather allows, we sometimes go outside and look up at the night sky. Looking ahead we have a full programme out as far as Christmas, dates on our website, which we updated recently. Outside speakers will cover:

The Life Cycle of Stars
The Rosetta Mission, Comet chaser
Black Holes and Stephen Hawking’s Physics
Extra Terrestrial Impacts on Earth
Galaxies at the edge of the visible Universe

We will continue to cover all topical events, and have evenings looking at the work of the astrophotographers, we will have beginners evenings helping to set up scopes and how to understand the night sky etc. We are running a programme over the year looking at the work of the great physicists and astronomers of the past, this year we will look at Albert Einstein; Christian Huygens and Isaac Newton.

Our observers are running a programme to discuss the significant astronomical objects in the constellations of the zodiac; this year we will look at Sagittarius, Capricorn and Aquarius.

Please come along, every 2nd Wednesday. It is educational, it’s fun and it never fails to generate interest. Our talks avoid formulae and numbers, we try to keep it all understandable by beginners. Don’t be scared that you won’t understand, our aim is to have a good evening, have fun and learn a bit.

Nigel Bond

The Doughnut Gang

The doughnut gang was formed as an offshoot of the village walking group because paths were becoming overgrown. We were asked by the parish council to provide two kissing gates on the footpath alongside the community centre.  We have since expanded into handyman type tasks for the church, community centre and parish council where appropriate. We have gained and lost numbers over the last few years covering moving house; retirement from active service and COVID….happily no deaths! We are open to new members joining us and the selection process is not too onerous. Over the years we have planted many trees some succumbing to the fallow deer herds and dry summers, which neatly brings me onto my role as tree officer for the parish council. I have a nursery for trees and will take any garden self-setting trees from villagers and can also provide trees of various species in small and large quantities. Do get in touch if you need any.

Steve Nutt

Walking group: Whepstead Walkers 2024

The group was established for a specific purpose, initially to provide protection of Darney Lane, a green Lane which starts at the bottom of Tuffields Rd and was a route through to Hartest. It was being trashed by 4 x 4 vehicles. We achieved success in protecting the lane under the leadership of Kala Nobbs. Since then we have continued to meet as a group on Sunday mornings on one Sunday morning a month in order to check and maintain footpaths meeting at Beith Cottage on Rectory Road as advertised in the village newsletter. We have previously enjoyed refreshments at the White Horse pub after our walks, however this is no longer possible, so we are considering changing the walks day to a Friday morning which will be advertised in the newsletter following approval of the group.

What the Dickens Book Group

We meet every two months on the first Tuesday of the month to discuss the selected read at the White Horse pub. The group now consists of 12 members and Lee very kindly provides a buffet supper for us at a small charge. Members take it in turns to select a book and this is reviewed at the following meeting. We occasionally have a lucky dip selection or favoured reads too.

Art Group

Meetings are held in the red shed an art studio behind Beith Cottage on Rectory Road. We meet at 11:00 and generally end at 1:00. Refreshments are provided for a small charge. Meetings are held on Friday mornings fortnightly there is a stove in the studio for the winter months. A wide variety of skills and techniques are employed by members including crafts such as knitting and embroidery we share ideas and enjoy a good chat discussing a wide range of topics and interesting art venues to visit.

Lizzie Nutt

Whepstead CSW 2024

CSW were issued a new speed gun at the end of last year by the local constabulary, which is much simpler to use and will track the speeding traffic quicker, but the team has yet to try it out.

The small pool of volunteers are all busier than ever, between our commitments and the weather it is proving a little tricky coordinating the minimum three team members required per session .  However now the lighter days and more settled weather are finally here, we hope to be able to organise some sessions.

The traffic, needless to say, on the B1066 and am sure other roads throughout the village, is not getting any slower. In order to help combat this it is understood, with some financial help from the council, WPC are taking a first step into traffic calming measures and are in the process of purchasing 4 sets of low maintenance white gates at the boundaries of the village; two on the B1066; one set on straight road and another on school lane/chedburgh road. This is a positive step for us and a measure used widely across many villages.  Hopefully there are more schemes to follow.

VAS/SID

During the Police visit to drop off the new speed gun, it was confirmed the police have neither the manpower, nor the time, to check and analyse the data recorded by the numerous VAS machines throughout the county, which has been the case for quite some time.  The other difficulty, are the many different types of machines in operation with no common format to be able to coordinate this information.  Our VAS will continue to be used at the three locations along with the councils ANPR machine, although the period between our allocations seems to be getting longer.   

POLICE SPEED CONTROL

For the last several months, a Police speed gun operative has not been noted at the Hartest end of the village, it could be we just missed seeing them, or it could be they are no longer visit Whepstead, if so would be very disappointing.  

A conversation with the last operative highlighted a shortage of manpower, more sites being added and not able to get around to them all.  It could be a case of who shouts loudest gets, or more likely based on number of convictions and the financial incentives that brings. Either way, it would be good to go through the proper channels to see if they are still coming or not, and if not, then perhaps do a little shouting of our own.

If anyone can spare the odd hour or two to support the CSW team please give it some thought or the scheme may not be able to keep running. Contact PC for details

Thank you and drive safely

The CSW team

WILDLIFE GROUP REPORT

Whepstead Wildlife Group has two sections - the group working to conserve Cages Wood and another, larger, group who have occasional meetings and visits and who frequently share information about wildlife sighting-predominantly birds.

Within the wider group we enjoyed a guided visit to Lakenheath Fen last May, a trip to a private nature reserve in Thorpe Morieux and an excellent talk from Nigel Bond on winter birds in Scotland.

The Cages Wood Group continues to be very active, meeting every week to either work in the wood or to prepare firewood for delivery. In the late autumn we commissioned some fairly major tree work to create a glade so the winter has been spent starting the clear–up. We are already seeing the results with plenty of early butterflies enjoying the sunshine yesterday. Another highlight of the year was the sight of an otter captured on the camera trap.

The group would really benefit from some younger members and we have started to hold occasional weekend working sessions to encourage this. Please get in touch if interested.

Kala Nobbs

WHEPSTEAD BAPTIST CHAPEL

We meet every Sunday morning at 11.00am. We have a Junior Church that runs alongside the Service for children and young people. They enjoy a time of bible stories and craft activities. Once a fortnight some members of Brockley Baptist Church join with us as they only meet together once a fortnight. Refreshments always follow the morning service, and everyone is welcome.

As well as meeting together on a Sunday we meet weekly for Bible study and prayer via Zoom. This was started during the Covid lockdown and has continued due to it being popular. 

We have a Friendship Group which meets every 2nd Tuesday of the month from 1.30 – 3.30pm. This is a very friendly group that like to sit and chat over tea, coffee and homemade cakes. All are welcome to come along either for the whole afternoon or to pop in and out. Details of this are always printed in the Village News.

Our 7-Teens and Baked Teens group also meet once a fortnight on a Friday evening from 7-8.30 pm for children aged 7 and over. Dates for this are also published in the Village News. Games, tuck shop and occasionally pizzas are enjoyed. New members to the group are always welcome.

Alongside our regular events we also join together with Churches Together in Bury St Edmunds for activities and events.

We held a very successful Kites and Cream Tea event jointly with Brockley Baptist in June. The weather was not too brilliant for kite flying but it didn’t stop people's enthusiasm for having a go. This was followed by a delicious afternoon tea and a Songs of Praise. Over £500 was raised for the East Anglian Air Ambulance.

Our annual outing to Walton was held in July and is always popular, with fish and chips on the beach and afternoon tea included.  The children and young at heart enjoyed games on the beach and playing in the sea. Gazebos provided a welcome shade for those who would rather sit and chat.  This year's trip is already in the planning.

The Harvest Supper, held in September is also one of our big annual events too. A roast meal was once again enjoyed by many. This starts off our Harvest Celebration weekend.

We are at present in the middle of going through an insurance claim for subsidence. Many of you will have noticed that we have had to lose 5 rather large trees.  These were proved to be a source of danger to the church building. We are now moving towards the next stage of repairing the building. We will then look at landscaping the area where the trees have been and extending our memorial garden.

We are celebrating our 180th Anniversary this year. Events are in the planning for the weekend of 22/23rd June. We are hoping the Saturday will be a time for present and past members to get together to enjoy craft activities, food, etc. followed on the Sunday by a Songs of Praise in the afternoon and a chance to hear about the History of the Church. All will be very welcome to join with us. Watch the Village News for more details.

Sorry we were unable to send a representative in person this evening. I hope the above gives you a small insight into what goes on within the Chapel building.

Amanda, Julie and Sharon

The Leadership Team at Whepstead Baptist Church

St Petronilla’s Church report to Whepstead Parish Council  AM April 2024

St. Petronilla’s Church in Whepstead,is  part of the Horringer Benefice of six parishes,formerly led by Max Osborne, who has just recently left us to be in charge of the Anglesey Benefice , near Cambridge.

 But we have an excellent team of clergy and layreaders,  built up by Max in his time with us, so we still have one service every Sunday, except for the fourth Sunday of the month, when we alternate with Brockley, having very longstanding connections there. 

All are most welcome to attend any service, notice of which is in the village newsletter, on notices outside the church, or by email if you wish, just let me have your email address! Some services are taken from the BCP, and others are using the latest liturgy – something for all, and we always have refreshments after services.

The building itself is always open, and anyone may come in just to look around, or just to sit quietly at any time. No rush or hurry there, just peaceful quiet.

 The sound system and  hearing loop, and  new heating, both installed last year are proving to be very beneficial to us all, not just for our regular services, but for our fundraising events, too.

As with all such organisations, we need to fund raise many thousands of pounds a year to supplement our weekly/annual giving and we try to put on a range of mixed events to appeal to as many different sections of the community as possible _ you don’t have to be a church service goer to come.

Over the last year we staged an art exhibition, had musical events and our now annual February talk followed by a lunch in the Community Centre. Our annual Harvest Festival lunch was again held at the White Horse in October

So thanks must be made to all those who do come to our services and to the events that we put on and very much also to those who help, from cleaning, flower arranging, grass cutting, path spraying, ivy removal and so much other behind the scenes activity. Thank you all   And last November we were able , at last, having been delayed by the Covid outbreak, to hold a “Thank you” party.in the church, to which anyone who has helped us at all was invited, we sent out nearly one hundred invitations, and about 60 of you lovely people were able to come, apologies if you felt missed off the list!

 We do appreciate all interest, and try to make you all welcome, let us know if we fall short.

Our future events, all to be advertised in the newsletter, will be our annual plant sale and coffee morning due to be held next month, on Saturday 11th May  followed by a talk on the King’s Gardens  given by the renowned Caroline Holmes with a lunch, and then in the autumn there is 44th annual SHCT Bike Ride/Stride on September 14th, just come for coffee in the morning if biking or walking around to Suffolk’s lovely churches is not your thing , sitting having a drink and a chat maybe! Last year our intrepid team of 4, cycling in the great heat of that day achieved the greatest amount of all the rural parishes and were second only to Bury’s Catholic church overall in our deanery, of about 30 parishes, thanks cyclists, and their sponsors.

The church calendar goes on as usual much as it has done for the several hundreds of years, and, having celebrated Easter last month, preceded during Lent by a concert by the Mead Singers, our next important festival is Pentecost, Sunday 19th May, our patronal festival of St Petronilla being a fortnight later at the beginning of June. Harvest Thanksgiving in October is followed by the Remembrance Service in November with the village carol service just before Christmas.

All of this last year we were visited by those making their way along the Pilgrim’s Way from London to Walsingham, via Bury St Edmunds There is a book about it , the history and the route in the church if anyone is interested. Perhaps you may like to try parts of it