Completion of various works

The Lottery Works are completed and we thank the local firms T and M Hardy; John Downs (Electrics) and Jason Oram (new notice-boards).Most of the worked done is hidden but providing firm foundations for our future. The benches and seats from Ogilvies in Scotland will we expect give us the same quality of substantial value we have enjoyed from their previous work on the seats and gates.

The new mower sponsored by The Four lanes Trust has done sterling work.

Some additional work is required around the old sluice and this when finished will be a very special historical feature.

We are planning to give our volunteers better focus so we can move forward with the support of various grants and donations towards an even richer experience on our meadow.

Memorial Tryst Seat is installed on the Meadow

There are many places around the Meadow to sit and enjoy the views, and hear the sounds.

Of course, you could just sit in the grass.  Or in a tree.

There are also benches, in the shape of fish!, scattered about the Meadow.

This  memorial seat and tree sculpture is a tribute to Alison Wall, Anna Nason and Gill Nethercott — three Whitchurch women who greatly assisted the Meadow in its formative years.

Each of the three women is represented by a fish and each moves in its own direction. The seat will support people of all ages for a long time into the future. In past times, trees would be planted to intertwine; Such a Tryst planting of three trees stands in the centre.

Years ago Chairman Graham Burgess made contact with a firm in Scotland, Ogilvie Engineering. They made the Fish Gates , subsequently stolen and then replaced and the fish seats throughout the meadow.

The design was done by Geooff Cowley as part of an amazing comepetition involving children and adults.The competition file contians ten designs that would have looked superb.

No maintenance has been required on the gates or seats so Ogilvies were well in line for future work .

The Tryst Seat was orginally designed by Graham to celebrate the late Gill Nethercott and Alison Wall .Then Anna Nason ,a staunch supporter of the Millennium Green ,passed away so the Tryst Seat now celebrates the three independent ladies , each represented by a fish swimming in their own direction yet bound to bringing community benefits.

Competitive tender led to Ogilvie winning the contract for The Tryst Seat and the eight new steel picnic benches.

Nearer to home Hardy’s of Winchester Street won the contract to carry out lots of work including the installation of the seats.

All the seats are in place and the existing seats will have weed-proof surfaces placed beneath.

The great thing is that it is unlikley we will need to think about re-painting for 15 years

Two more new notice boards manufactured by another local man Jason Oram to designs done by Brian Shrubsall are in place either end of the dam that is the Hampshire County Council footpath.

Picnic tables and benches installed

Picnic tables and benches are being installed on the Meadow by Tony Hardy, a local builder.

First refreshment Tony Hardy

Mayday 2011 and Carnival Crowning

It was a wonderful day for some dancing around the Maypole!

The 2011 edition of this annual event was quite popular, with many people coming down not only for the traditional dance around the Maypole, but also to partake in some games, raffles, buy delicious food and buy some plants!

Oh yes, and to witness the crowning of this year’s Carnival Queen and Princess, all of whom were wearing lovely dresses made by Cindy Dunlop and Pauline Williams. Our mayor, Cllr. John Clark and mayoress Rosemary Crumplin did the honours. This year’s Queen is Claire Miller who is 12, and Princess is Abigail Davis, who is 9.  Their attendants are Chloe Roberts (13), Alicia Holt (11) and Summer Coughtrey (8).

There was also belly dancing by Yallah, horseshoe throwing overseen by Robin Allum, a dinosaur hunt and a wand (tree) hunt sponsored by the White Hart.  Several businesses also set up shop on the Meadow. There was tasty food served up by the Festival Committee and drinks plus desserts available from the Testbourne Mityana Project stall.

Report to Town Assembly 2011

Click this image to download a pdf version of the report.

Dr. John Wall, treasurer of the Whitchurch Millennium Greet Trust, the charity that oversees the Meadow, presented a report on behalf of the chairman, Graham Burgess, at the Annual Town Assembly.

The gathering was called by the Town Council and held in the Gill Nethercott Centre on Wednesday, April 20, 2011.

The Meadow’s full report is HERE.

A summary of the evening’s presentations, from all the community groups, is on the town website HERE.

Vic and Claire: our wild flower experts

Claire Wilson and Vic Johnstone are local residents and are known nationally for their work on Verbascum a plant that grows wild in Hampshire but over hundreds of years has been admired by gardeners. Vic and Claire have resurrected lost varieties and produced new ones that now sell in the horticultural trade.

Verbascum

Claire and Vic raise locally provenanced seed  and plant them out on the meadow.

With best scientific tradition they list plants using the Latin names and provide photographic records. Users of the meadow whether they be people or bees may not know who is providing the end results but all caring users will be grateful.

Our natural habitat on the meadow naturally attracts creatures that sometimes erode the efforts of human beings. Our aim is not to exterminate them but some control can help. We try to eliminate moles from the Ogham Circle as that is where people gather and need not to trip over. Elsewhere we aim to plug into another of Nature’s devices and that is to encourage wildflowers on the molehills.

Rabbits are very numerous all around town so we do protect some of our new plantings. Again our aim is not to exterminate them. Many country traditions like catching and eating rabbits and making coats out of moleskins have gone so we have to resort to netting.

We cannot do some things without funding so a key part of the Trustees responsibility is trying to get support.

Children Find Easter Eggs

Many children came with their families to the Meadow on Easter Sunday 2011. To their delight, many of them found chocolate Easter eggs hidden in the trees and shrubs!

Thanks go to the White Hart for donating the eggs; and to the visitors who donated some spare change to the Meadow, to help with its day-to-day maintenance.

Royal Wedding Nettles Party

Click picture to see larger version.

In celebration of the Royal Wedding, the Meadow cordially invites you to a real weeding on Friday 29th April 2011 at 3pm!

Bring a garden fork, gloves and a drink to toast the happy couple!

If you cannot make it, or if you cannot manage weeding a square metre, then please consider donating £5 and we’ll find a volunteer to do it for you!

Click our new DONATE button to learn how you can use PayPal to donate immediately.

POWER TO OUR ELBOWS

POWER TO OUR ELBOWS. 7^TH APRIL 2011.

Local electrician John Downes is busy installing the 5 double plug points in the secure cabinet ready for our forthcoming Maytime celebrations and the SSE Electric Company’s visit to lay power on next week. A combination lock will secure the plug points.

Financial Support of the Meadow

Following upon the successes of recent grants for improvements to the Meadow, the trustees recently decided to launch a scheme to involve our supporters more. We want them to help us build a regular income to help cover regular costs, such as insurance and mowing, for which there are normally no grants to be had.

The treasurer has developed a simple appeal letter and standing order form that will be given to known regular Meadow friends. We will also be approaching local businesses in a similar vein. We, of course, will welcome anyone who gets in touch with us to help in this way.

Success in this venture will underpin the Meadow’s finances into the future for the benefit of all local residents and visitors to Whitchurch.

Update: You can now donate from this website using PayPal – click DONATE.