Edition 544 March 2022
Printed courtesy of Mrs Annette Haynes as a service to the community
Please email your entries for the April 2022 issue to ThePennant@mail.com by 21st March 2022
Village Hall AGM
The Village Hall AGM will be held on Thursday 9th March, in the Village Hall, at 7.30pm. Everyone is welcome to attend.
St.Mary’s Community Trust
We have changed the name of our group from Bradford Abbas St Mary’s Week Charitable Trust to St Mary’s Community Trust. Since we have events all over the calendar and not just in a fixed week, we feel this name better suits what we do.
Thanks to everyone who came to our CHRISTMAS SINGALONG and CHRISTMAS WREATH-MAKING and joined in with the VILLAGE SANTA COMPETITION. We estimated that around 200 of you joined us for the OUTDOOR CAROLS AND NATIVITY on Christmas Eve in front of the church. At the end of January, our WASSAILING evening was a lot of fun and in February our BIG BREAKFAST was a great success. Thanks for your support.
Later this year we are planning:
Friday 3rd June THE CHURCH THAT ROCKS (as part of the village’s Jubilee celebrations).
Saturday 10th September THE CHURCH THAT ROCKS 2 – in the playing field.
December – more Christmassy events – to be announced.
Look out for posters and notices on the Pennant’s Facebook page for details of all these.
If you can help with any of these events, please contact us.
Jo, Alan, Rob, Ruth, Trevor and Gary, The ST MARY’S COMMUNITY TRUST team
email on info@StMarysWeekBA.org.uk.
Social media: @BradfordAbbasStMarysWeek
Bradford Abbas Paris Council
Tuesday, 12th April 2022: The Annual Parish Meeting will be held in the Village Hall. More information will be available nearer the time on the website and noticeboard.
The Parish Council has been successful in its submission for National Lottery Community Funding and now, together with amazing contributions from the local community, we have almost enough to purchase the new multi-play unit, additional picnic tables, and football goal posts.
Many thanks to everyone that supported the cake sale in February. We ran out of cakes! Just over £158 was made to fund the new equipment in the playing field.
Parish Council contact details: Tricia Chapman, Parish Clerk, bradforabbaspc@hotmail.co.uk, 473 833 or go to the Parish Council's website: bradford-abbas.uk
Bradford Abbas History Society
The next Bradford Abbas History Society meetings will take place on:
Tuesday afternoon 29 March 2022 at 2.30pm and Thursday evening 31 March 2022 at 7.30pm.
The topic will be "The Lords of the Manor of Bradford Abbas from 1748 and notable people associated with Bradford Abbas."
These meetings are open to all at a cost of £2 per person per meeting or you can join the History Society at a cost of £10.
We are pleased to report the number of members is on the increase with a good cross section of new members. With this in mind, Tony White is proposing a few historical evening tours of the village in the summer months. It is expected that these should be well subscribed so therefore a few dates will be arranged to cater for all registered applicants, at a small fee for the society funds. More information to follow. To beat the rush for the May tour, drop a note of interest with name and contact details through the door of Wisteria Cottage, The Cross.
Bradford Abbas Women’s Institute
Our regular meeting in March will take place at 7.30p.m. on Tuesday 15th in the Village Hall when we welcome our village historian Tony White to give us more of the history of Bradford Abbas. We have welcomed several new members recently so if you are thinking of joining us, come along learn more about the village – all welcome.
We are hoping to make lots of crocheted and knitted poppies for Remembrance Day in November. If anyone has any unwanted red wool they would like to donate for this project we would be very pleased to receive it.
Rose and Crown, Bradford Abbas
Well, today as we write this is a poignant and sad day for a couple of reasons but primarily because we all say our goodbyes to Ron Gosney, the village thatcher and great character of Bradford Abbas.
The family would like to thank everyone for their condolences, well wishes and support for which we gave him a great send off and he will be missed by all, thank-you to everyone.
Secondly, it’s also a sad day as we have had confirmation that we will be handing the pub over to the new landlord and landlady Jess and Sarah on the 7th March, with Saturday 5th March being our last day. This decision is purely for both business and personal reasons. Despite trying to get people to manage the pub for us and also offering Admiral the opportunity to find a manager for us so we keep ownership, the only option has been to relinquish it fully so that it was we have decided to do.
We would like to thank everyone for their great support during the last seven months where we have built the business up significantly and believe Jess and Sarah will build on this and build it even further as it is a great opportunity. We will remain in the village and offer our support to them as required moving forward and wish them every success.
Thanks again to you all for your custom and support- you have been great.
Mark, Karen and Team.
Monday Night Bingo
Every Monday at 6.45pm with eyes down at 7.15pm at Bradford Abbas Sports and Social Club.
Sherborne Bradford Abbas Camera Club
Tuesday 8th March: Workshop on portrait photography. The first half of the meeting will be a demonstration of the techniques used to create attractive portraits. After the tea break we will have a practical session allowing members to practice the techniques demonstrated while maintaining social distancing in line with COVID restrictions.
Wednesday 16th March: Photoshoot in Mells, very picturesque, famed for daffodils, riverside opportunities and street photography.
Tuesday 22nd March: Macro and closeup competition - judge Tony Oliver.
More information at sbaclub@yahoo.com.
Yeovil Railway Centre at Yeovil Junction
Welcome back Pectin!
Sunday March 20th: The first Steam Train Day for 2022 opens with Pectin’s launch back into service. Our popular Peckett 0-4-0 steam engine. Pectin has undergone a major overhaul so we will welcome it back with a very special celebration.
For further information see our website www.yeovilrailway.freeservers.com
Friendship Club
The Friendship Club meets on the first Tuesday afternoon of the month at 2pm in the Village Hall. There will be Bingo, a draw, Tea & Biscuits and a chance to buy Eva’s cakes and quiches from our trading table. Also, there is a chance to have a chat and laugh with fellow villagers. Everyone is more than welcome.
St.Mary’s CE Primary School
February has been an exciting time for St Mary’s Primary School. We have had our long overdue visit from Ofsted and we are very proud of our children for the way they conducted themselves; sharing their experiences and learning with the team of inspectors. We are waiting for the final report to come out and then we will be able to share this with the community.
It is also the time of year when we spend a week thinking about developing and maintaining our children’s positive mental health. We use a variety of materials to stimulate conversation and learning within the school. We have been exploring how we can take care of ourselves and the different strategies we can use to help us when things do not go as planned. We used the story of Harold and his S-C-A-R-F to explore the values and skills of Safety, Caring, Achievement, Resilience and Friendship. We talked about how, just like a scarf can wrap around us, we can wrap these values around us, in and out of school, as a way to support each other. We ended the week with our ‘wear your scarf to school day’, to help us remember the story and the values represented by the story. We showed off our scarves in a special assembly and Mrs Newton’s class even performed a SCARF rap! The children had a wonderful week and it is a great example of the varied and diverse curriculum that we explore at St Mary’s.
If you would like any further information about our wonderful school or to see some photos of our events, please visit or school website at www.bradfordabbasprimary.co.uk.
Many blessings from the staff and children at St Mary’s CE Primary School, Graham Simpson (Deputy Headteacher)
St.Mary’s Church, Bradford Abbas
SUNDAY 13TH MARCH 10am Welcome2Worship (lay-led)
SUNDAY 27TH MARCH 10am Holy Communion
On weekends when we are without a service in Bradford Abbas, we encourage villagers to join a service at
one of our neighbouring churches. The services in Thornford and Beer Hackett can be found on the notice board in the church porch. For other churches in the Three Valleys Benefice, please see the benefice website: www.threevalleysteam.org
The church’s ANNUAL PAROCHIAL CHURCH MEETING (or “APCM”) will take place in the church at 6pm on Sunday 24th April. We hope to see you there.
There are two musical events coming up which you might be interested in:
Sat 23rd April COME AND SING - A scratch choir will come together to practise a varied programme during the day, followed by a performance in the evening. If you would like to sing, please pick up a leaflet from the church. If you would like to be part of the audience, look out for ticket announcements
Sat 7th May ABER VALLEY MALE VOICE CHOIR is performing in the church. Again, look out for announcements for tickets.
A message from the Rector
We are in the Season of Lent again and I know that a lot of people like to give something up for the period. In this world of instant gratification, it is a good discipline to remind ourselves that not everything we want should be granted straight away. However, there is more to it than this. Read the passage from Isaiah that follows:
Isaiah 58:6-7 New International Version (NIV)
6 “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
and break every yoke?
7 Is it not to share your food with the hungry
and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—
when you see the naked, to clothe them,
and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?
Mark Twain was reputed to have said: Most people are bothered by the passages of the Bible they do not understand, but I am bothered by the ones that I do. This passage from Isaiah should bother us. Written probably three thousand years ago, long before Jesus appeared on the scene, it reminds us of our responsibilities to each other. It does this by comparing the action we take with that of fasting. Why? Because like fasting it takes discipline, effort and commitment.
Lent viewed this way is not about simply about giving something up but about making a real sacrifice to help others. Some I know do this when for instance they miss a main meal for one day a week during Lent and put the money saved into a charity. However, Isaiah’s charge goes deeper than that. This is a call to arms (or a call to Alms if you’ll excuse the pun), a call to action to change the world, to usher in the Kingdom of God for everyone, to see that everyone is fairly treated.
Good Friday shows us what happens when we fail to change the world. Easter day shows us what happens when we succeed.
Tony Gilbert, Team Rector