Extracts from 2003 Witham Staple issues
This page selects some extracts published during the year that provide a flavour of the prevailing themes.
@ @ @
March 2003
Editorial
– Stan Underwood
Daily
life in this part of rural Lincolnshire often seems a far cry from the problems
and complexities of the wider political world; here we can easily feel secure
and comfortable and not find the need to concern ourselves with such matters.
Even so, part of our inescapable everyday awareness is seeing and hearing the
busy military air traffic in the skies above us, taking off from and landing at
RAF Waddington. This, of course, a daily reminder that we and our country are
constantly well protected, day and night, from any attack from outside, unlikely
though that has seemed since the fall of the Iron Curtain. But it is also a
reminder of a more sombre reality.
The
sobering truth is that, by the time you read this, the United Kingdom may be at
war — war, for heaven’s
sake! Where people kill and are killed! - unless, that is, wiser counsels come to prevail, on the one side
and the other. How distressing to realise that mankind can still resort to such
hideous and uncivilized means to settle international differences! Have we
learnt nothing from our long and conflict-ridden history? We cannot escape our
common destiny; we are each our brother’s and our sister’s keeper, and no
country can expect to operate today in isolation from or disregard for the rest
of the world.
We
too, then, surely cannot escape addressing the awful dilemma facing the world
community. As we cherish the freedom and peace we enjoy here in Lincolnshire, so
too must we do all and anything in our power to seek the same peace and freedom
for all our fellow human beings - and
by peaceful, patient means, if at all possible.
Parish Council Meetings – Road Safety
Dovecote
Lane, Haddington is an extremely narrow road which has a speed limit of 30mph
and a weight restriction. Owing to the recent weather conditions, the verges are
very soft, making it increasingly difficult for two cars to pass. Drivers using
this road should therefore exercise extreme caution and adhere to the speed
limit.
Much consideration has been given to the poor visibility for drivers leaving Torgate Lane, Bassingham. All drivers are therefore requested to exercise caution at this junction.
@ @ @
April
2003
Editorial – Stan Underwood
Oh, to be in England
Now that April’s there,
And whoever wakes in England
Sees, some morning, unaware
That the lowest boughs and the brushwood sheaf
Round the elm-tree bole are in tiny leaf;
While the chaffinch sings on the orchard bough
In England - now!
Home
Thoughts from Abroad - Robert
Browning
It is
evident that Robert Browning had an eye and an ear for the wonderful sounds and
sights of Nature, as indeed many of his mid-nineteenth century contemporaries
must have had. Life then was still largely lived at a pace set by the rhythms of
the natural world and the cycle of the seasons.
How different is the frenzy of many people’s lives today! Mankind has made great strides in the last 150 years, and we are provided with ever more ingenious technologies to improve our work and leisure. But does all this, in fact, improve the quality of our existence? Are we perhaps all too easily persuaded that to be cramming more and more into our daily routine is what we really want or need? Sometimes we can be so busy that we haven’t time to... live! As with gluttony, only by taking less can we really savour what we do have.
One
thing Browning would certainly have noted today is that we have, sadly, lost
from our landscape that most quintessential of English trees, the elm.
@ @ @
May
2003
Norton
Disney Parish Council
The Annual General Meeting of the Parish Council and the Annual Parish
Meeting will take place on 8th May at 7.30 pm in the Village Hall. Guest speaker
at the Annual Parish Meeting will be Lincolnshire County Council’s Countryside
Access Officer, who will talk about Public Footpaths and Access to the
Countryside.
The Parish Meeting may by law discuss all
parish affairs and pass resolutions about them. All are welcome.
Jenny
Wright Parish Clerk
A46
Newark To Lincoln Improvement
Permanently
Changes Local Landscape and Traffic Flows
March
saw
the traffic running on the new carriageway with the exception of the Brough
Bypass. The old A46 reconstruction is now well underway, with all the earthworks
completed other than topsoil and shaping of some banks and ditches. Brough
Bridge is open to traffic and Haddington Bridge is expected to be open by early
May. Brough Bypass is expected to be open in mid-May, followed by the Winthorpe
to Halfway House section operating as a full dual by late May; then Halfway
House to Hykeham operating as a full dual in early June. Minor side road works
and the old A46 works at Brough should see the contract completed by the end of
June, some five months earlier than the two-year contract period.
Traffic
Management
Haddington Lane Bridge – Early May:
The opening of the bridge will allow the straight-on traffic between Haddington
and Thorpe on the Hill as well as right turns at the Haddington Lane/Fosse Lane
junction.
Brough Bypass - Mid May: The opening
of the bypass will mean that local traffic on the Lincoln-bound carriageway will
need to use the slip lane junction just to the Newark side of the bridge. Local
traffic on the Newark-bound carriageway will need to use the off slip lane and
on slip lane junctions of the old M6 each side of Brough village, as
appropriate.
Winthorpe to Halfway House Dual
Carriageway - Late May: This section has five wide crossings at Gravel Pit
Road, Folly Lane, Potter Hill Road, Wood Lane and Newark Road. These wide
crossings allow for all turning movements at the junction and are so called
because the central reservation is wide enough to accommodate articulated
lorries or tractors and trailers without them having to overhang the fast lanes
of each carriageway. Cow Lane will be ‘left out’ only and Green Lane will be
‘left in/left out’ only, as at present.
Halfway House to Hykeham Dual Carriageway
- Early June: Other than the slip lanes at the Haddington Lane/Fosse Lane
junction, there are only private access junctions on this section of the road
that will not be able to cross the central reservation. Right turn movements at
these accesses will necessarily be via Halfway House Roundabout, Haddington Lane
Bridge or Hykeham Roundabout.
Specific enquiries to Public Relations Officer, Steven Brudenell (Alfred
McAlpine)
@ @ @
June
2003
Editorial – Stan Underwood
Summer is y-cumen in,
Loudé sing, cuckoo!
Groweth seed and bloweth meed
And
spring’th the woodé now -
Sing, cuckoo!
Anon
Some things in this whirling, alarmingly unsteady world remain reassuringly unchanged. It is surprisingly heartening to realise that the anonymous medieval poet who wrote the lines above would easily recognise today many of the welcome signs of early summer: the call of the cuckoo, of course, and, as he says, the new crops sprouting in the cultivated soil and the woodland trees in full new leaf.
Sadly, though, he might have to look a bit harder than in his own day to find fields full of meadowland flowers, that were clearly so familiar to him. Yet it is only in the last fifty years or so that our stewardship of the land and the countryside has often so wantonly failed to cherish and protect the wonderful plant, animal and bird life that was our natural heritage. Even nearby, we have watched with very mixed feelings as one of the few local fields where each year corn marigolds have miraculously appeared was lost for ever under the concrete and tarmac of the new west-bound carriageway of the admittedly long-awaited A46 improvement. Such is progress..
But all is not lost. Recent new trends in land-management together with the imminent major overhaul of the EU Common Agricultural Policy may well both help redress the balance and even retrieve some of the losses of the past. Let’s hope so.
@ @ @
July/August 2003
Editorial – Stan Underwood
Following
the AGM, The Witham
Staple committee wishes to
convey on behalf of readers an appreciation of the work done over the past year
by all those who help each month in the production and distribution of the
magazine. From the regular feedback we receive, it is clear that the team, which
includes volunteers from each of our villages, provides through the magazine a
service that is widely appreciated as a valuable contribution to the life of the
community.
If I may be permitted for once to sound a personal note, I should like to endorse warmly Mike Allport’s comments overleaf about our retiring chairman. John has more than anybody striven resolutely to ensure the soundness, integrity and quality of The Witham Staple during its most formative years. His behind-the-scenes support and encouragement for me as editor and his readiness to share tricky problems have been a constant help and reassurance. Along with others, I am very relieved that he is not disappearing from the team!
@
@ @
September 2003
Editorial – Stan Underwood
Once
again it’s September and the start of the school year for many of our young
people —
some of them for the first
time, with all its eager anticipation and excitement - while many of the older ones will be moving on to college or university.
They carry with them the hopes and good wishes of their families and the
communities they come from. Let’s hope that their education continues to be
what it always should be: a wonderful and enjoyable period of learning and
personal growth which will give them the best possible start in life, and not
simply the long succession of tests and examinations that has featured
prominently in recent years...
@ @ @
October 2003
Editorial – Stan Underwood
What
makes a thriving, happy village community, do you think? It’s certainly much
more than building numbers of new houses, important though they are. It’s
likely to be about how the people see themselves as members of a particular
community; how much they share common interests and aspirations; how the
individual joins in — and is encouraged to join in! — and shares responsibility for what together the village does
and achieves.
Part
of this must surely entail recognising and cherishing what we value about that
village, what makes it distinctive and is worth holding on to. But people need
to ‘fit together happily’ as much as do houses and this doesn’t just
happen; feelings can, sometimes quite understandably, run high over matters of
local interest, but this then calls for a readiness to work towards a common
understanding, a respect for sincerely held views that may differ from our own
[see letter below]. Such a community we can all enjoy living in.
Congratulations
to the people of Bassingham for winning their class in the Best Kept Village
Competition (page 4). This shows what can be achieved by pooling efforts in a
common endeavour. The aims of the competition are particularly interesting and
include: ‘making the village a more pleasant place to live’. It’s not then
about turning the village into a municipal park nor -
thank goodness -‘daffodillifying’
the country verges outside the village!
Letter
to the Editor
Dear
Sir
Carlton
le Moorland: petition objecting to three-storey housing proposal at Skayman
Fields off Clay Lane
152
households were invited by me to make a formal objection to the above proposal. 79
households objected, with one
anonymous letter received in favour. All of these papers were delivered to the
Director of Planning, NKDC on 29.08.03. and acknowledged.
On
the 28.08.03. the Developer called at my home to advise that he was intending to
amend the proposal to two-storey, this to be considered by the Area Planning
Committee on 02.09.03. Prior to this meeting, notification was received from
NKDC that the proposal had been withdrawn entirely.
I
have forwarded a letter to Carlton le Moorland Parish Clerk requesting that the
Council consider this objection to three-storey housing when making an
appraisal of future planning applications or formulating a ‘Parish Plan’.
Trevor
Townsend
Bassingham
Bonfire
The
bonfire will be held on Saturday 8th November at 7.00 pm. Could you
please take any suitable materials to the field on Saturday 1st November between
9.00 am and 1.00 pm, where assistance will be available. No mattresses or spring
upholstery items, please.
We
shall be serving hotdogs, burgers, mushy peas, sweets and soft drinks. Please
come and enjoy the evening but remember it is being held for the enjoyment of
the village; please give generously at the gate. The Bonfire is totally funded
by your donations and can only continue if we cover our costs.
@ @ @
November 2003
Editorial – Stan Underwood
The
often very fitful nature of our British climate means that we have a
well-deserved reputation for being constantly preoccupied with the weather -
and rarely satisfied with what it sends us! Yet we really can’t
complain with any justification about the summer we’ve had this year nor all
those lovely autumn days we’ve been able to enjoy during September and
October. But then, after weeks and weeks with no sign of any significant
rainfall in this part of the country, which has left the land looking utterly
parched and the vegetation crisp and dry and even dying off, some of us are
again anxiously watching every forecast hoping for a change in the weather...
Welcome to all those readers who have moved into our area in recent months. You are likely to find a friendly reception in these Upper Witham villages: a welcoming, no-fuss readiness to see you become part of the community and an expectation that you’ll want to join in whatever takes your fancy, without waiting to be invited. And you can count on The Witham Staple to keep you informed on most matters of local interest.
@ @ @
Witham Staple Web Editor can be contacted by e-mail: info@withamstaple.com