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John
Riches our Village Correspondent writes weekly reports about the village for
the local media. We are pleased to place them on our web site in
order that those interested in Abthorpe can access the latest village
news from anywhere in the world.
This page will keep the latest 3 or 4 reports.
On the Archive page we will store past articles
and other pieces of
particular interest.
Also, our newsletters can be downloaded on the Newsletters
page.
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29th September
Our
new Rector
the Rev’d Paul McLeod will take up his duties in Abthorpe and
the other parishes of the Whittlewood Benefice at a service to be
held during the evening of Saturday 6th November. At
the time of writing the venue of the service had not been decided.
He will be instituted by the Rt Rev’d Donald Allister the Bishop
of Peterborough and inducted by the Venerable Christine Allsopp
the Archdeacon of Northampton. The service will mark the beginning
of a new phase of Paul’s ministry and is sure to be a wonderful
celebration at which we will welcome him into our lives.
Glut.
The fruit trees in Abthorpe are absolutely loaded this year. The
branches of our apple, pear and plum trees are groaning under the
weight of fruit. We have been squirreling away lots of our
produce. Joyce my wife concentrates on stocking the freezers
whilst I concentrate on making jam and bottling fruit.
Nowadays the advent of jars with pop-up safety buttons has made
the whole process very easy. After stoning the plums, we pack them
into a clean jar and pop them into an oven heated to 110degrees
for 35 minutes. Once they’re cooked we remove the jars and using
a hot sweet solution made of 8oz sugar to every pint of water,
cover the fruit. The lid is placed on the top of the jar and then
after two minutes or so it can be screwed down tightly. As the
contents cool the safety buttons will click to tell you that a
seal has been made.
The fruit keeps very well. We still have some left over from last
year and it’s in perfect condition.
Once the winter comes and we’re sitting in front of the fire, we
love opening a jar of our home preserved fruit and serving it up
for pudding along with custard or dairy ice cream. It’s a real
reminder of summer.
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22nd August
Operation HNB.
The village was scoured for volunteers to take part in an
operation to the far north. At an early stage in the planning of
the potentially hazardous mission it was gallantly decided that
the group would be men only.
Villager Steve Andrews, with experience of serving his Queen and
country far behind the iron curtain where he continued to send
important signals back to the
UK
– was to be in command of the expeditionary force.
At
09:00hours on the appointed day the 13 volunteers were full of
trepidation as they gathered at base camp in the pub for a final
briefing session. Steve, believing that an army marches best on
its stomach, had arranged for Andy Houghton from base camp’s
catering corps to serve up a substantial breakfast of eggs, bacon,
sausage, baked beans, tomatoes and toast that would surely
energise our boys.
At 10:00hours precisely transport arrived with SMS emblazoned on
the sides – surely meaning Steve’s Militia Services? After
mounting, the vehicle set off for the far north – of Oxfordshire
where the target of operation HNB was located. After a quick recce
the volunteers split into two platoons for the final strenuous
push to the summit of their desires – The Hook Norton
Brewery.
The experienced professional guides soon explained the history of
the brewery that was founded in 1849 when young Queen
Victoria
was on the throne.
England
had endured Magna Carta, the Wars of the Roses, the Reformation,
Oliver Cromwell’s Parliamentarians, the Restoration of the
Monarchy and was well into the Industrial Revolution when John
Harris set up his brewery in the
village
of
Hook Norton
. After centuries of tempestuous history the locals were ready for
a few decent beers. Our boys, by the time they had completed their
examination of such a fine example of a Victorian tower brewery,
sampled each of the beers the brewery produces and looked at the
draught horses, their energy levels were drained. So a strategic
retreat was made to the Sun Inn for lunch. Refreshed the mission
headed back to cross the border into Northamptonshire. After such
an exhausting day there were doubts whether our intrepid
adventurers would make it back to base camp without further
supplies. Steve had anticipated this and had arranged a stop at
Hooky pub the Three Coneys in Thorpe Mandeville for further
refreshment.
One villager who saw the volunteers quietly return stated that
they were obviously tired but elated by the success of their
mission.
Debriefing took place back in base camp and it was unanimously
decided that Steve really could organise a booze-up at a brewery
and that he deserved a medal.
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16th August
New Rector appointed.
Back in October 2008 it was announced that our Rector Canon
Bridget Smith was to retire after 14 years service to Abthorpe,
Silverstone and the other parishes in the Whittlewood Benefice.
Our church was particularly well attended on 22nd
February 2009 as we celebrated her time ministering to our
community and expressing sadness that she was leaving.
At
that time the church authorities stated that it was hoped that a
new priest would be in post in between 6 and 9 months. But by the
end of last year the Abthorpe church newsletter reported
that finding a new vicar was proving a slow process. The vacancy
had been finally advertised in early October 2009 and interviews
organised for the first week in December. The newsletter added
that if the job was offered to anyone it would probably be after
Easter (2010) before we could welcome our new vicar. Five clergy
were said to have enquired about the post but nobody actually
applied.
By early May Peter Byng the
editor of the Whittlewood Benefice magazine explained that once
again the post had been advertised in the Church Times and thanks
to the generosity of a parishioner it was also advertised in a
major motor sport magazine in the hope that the vacancy would be
brought to the attention of a priest who was not actually seeking
a move but who might be attracted by the opportunity to forge
close links with Silverstone racing circuit.
That clearly did the trick as
the Venerable Christine Allsopp the Archdeacon of Northampton has
announced recently that our parishes have a new vicar the Rev’d
Paul McLeod who is a keen follower of motor racing! Paul is
currently a priest at Newbiggin Hall and Bycker in the Diocese of
Newcastle upon
Tyne
. He is married to the Rev’d Sue Faulkner who has been appointed
priest-in-charge of the nearby Knightley Parishes.
We look forward to welcoming
Paul and Sue to our community and thank the clergy and lay people
who have worked so hard to keep things going during the long
interregnum.
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