ALBRIGHTON & DISTRICT

CIVIC SOCIETY

(Albrighton, Boningale, Donington-with-Boscobel & Tong)

     Main Aim: To improve the appearance of our villages and the quality of life.

 

 

Public Meeting and AGM on 10^th October.

Thank you to all who attended and we were pleased to welcome some residents from the new Millfields development. The Chairman reported on our failure to get Shropshire Council to deal with the tree roots uplifting the pavement outside the estate agents shop even though they had written to us to say that they would do so. Albrighton parish council had also chased them up but so far no action. We will redouble our efforts and pressure them again. The dip in Station Road near No. 56 which, this next winter, will cause black ice on the footpath is also an issue which we will pursue again – last winter at least two people slipped causing a serious injury to one person. We did have success with getting the graffiti removed from the gable end of Rumbles Chip Shop – after searching the land register to identify the owner we then contacted him and he had the tenant paint it over within just a few days – thank you, and well done to owner and tenant for their prompt action.

     The new Albrighton with Donington Fayre committee started off with a dozen members but then from its second meeting only four plus the secretary of the Civic Society remained. Usually the work needs far more people to make all the arrangements including: finding entertainers and agreeing their fees, organising commercial organisations that come and sell their products, negotiating a fee from the Jennings Funfare (Steph French even managed to obtain a significant increase in fee this year), liaising with the brewery over the use of their car park, liaising with the RAF on their involvement, writing the programme leaflet and getting it printed and then this year delivering it to all houses in the village, organising the parade of floats, lorries and vintage vehicles, organising the Rose Queen including holding events to choose the Queen and her attendant and providing costumes, holding an evening for stall holders to book their pitches......,, and many many more things. This year the Civic Society used its good relations with the Air Ambulance to get them to bring their Helipod for visitors to try out – and even better, got their agreement to fly a helicopter above and along the High Street at the time of the parade.

Whew! Did this small committee really do all that and more? The remaining five Fayre committee members buckled down and carried on even though it was not so sure that after a two year period with no Fayre that it would work. Many local clubs and societies depend on Fayre Day to renew memberships and to sell their wares and produce so it is an important day in the village’s calendar. We, and in particular the Fayre Committee, were all pleased and relieved that the Fayre was a great success.  The Society wanted to place on record thanks to this small Fayre Committee for reviving the Fayre and so Life Membership of the Civic Society was presented to Robert Parry, Steph French, Mel Jones and Alison Tomlinson to the acclaim and applause of the audience. Robert addressed the meeting and thanked Rod Smith and all who helped on the day particularly Dave Williams and Lee Chatburn and the staff of the Co-op who manned the road closures.

 

The theme of the School Awards Scheme this year was Albrighton Railway Station. Albrighton Primary School was awarded the Crawford Cup and St Mary’s Primary School was awarded the runner up Crawford Shield. The Chairman said that the quality of the entries was excellent and all pupils were awarded a Certificate of Merit for their efforts.

Peter Illes spoke on behalf of Mike Pitchford who unfortunately was ill and could not make his presentation concerning the Broadplace.

One-to-one help with computers/laptops/tablets/smart phones is available every Thursday from 2.30pm at the Red House with a nominal change of £2 per hour. Call Matt Randle on 07761 010752 to book your place.

     We were pleased to welcome John Stretton, Chairman of the Historical Society, who firstly outlined their objections to the proposed large solar farm at Pepper Hill: the area is noted to have Ancient British and Neolithic artefacts and there is Place Name Evidence. There is a potential for important remains to be on and around Pepper Hill linked to the Talbot Family (Earls of Shrewsbury). One questioner wondered if the developer could be asked to finance a dig prior to construction of the work. Dave Slatcher, Chairman of Boningale PC, said that the amended planning application is awaited before comments may be made and that there is a majority in the parish who object. John then described the background to his new book “A History of Boningale” which is being launched at 2.30pm on 15^th October at St Chad’s Church.

An update on the project to Conserve the War Memorial was then given. First donations of funding had been received which had allowed specialists to be engaged to start to deal with the listed memorial. The 100 year old original architects’ drawings were located in the Historical Society’s archive and these showed the details of the foundation of the timber post in the stone foundation which was proving useful in determining how the work should be carried out. Next some results of the archaeologist’s digs in the High St and the lawn of the Vicarage were discussed and photos shown of the floor of a probable market which was uncovered. Finally John explained that the Society had available several publications covering local history and that their archive of photographs of the village had been arranged by street or road name and that these files were available for inspection in the Library.

    Jay Gohil, the owner of the post office, then gave an update of the recent changes and said that the shop had ceased selling food and was now a stationers. He was keen to encourage residents to use the post office as more footfall was needed to ensure that post office services could continue. He noted that the last bank in the village had closed and the PO can now carry out banking services for most banks. He said that if the PO was not viable and if he had to close it then the usual procedure by Post Office Ltd was to allow the branch to close and not to find another location in the village until they were ready to do so.

     The Chairman thanked all speakers for their interesting and thought provoking presentations and to all the audience who had attended.

    (A walking stick was found at the end of the meeting – can the owner please contact the Secretary)

 

For more information please see   www AlbrightonAndDistrictCivicSociety.co.uk     or contact:

Peter Woodman – Chairman (T: 372225) 31/32 High St  or Rod Smith - Secretary (T: 372765)