COFFEE MORNINGS
It was lovely to see so many at our first coffee morning in the Village Hub – and such a delicious array of cakes. These will be taking place every month, on the last Thursday of each month (dates for your diaries: 24th February and 31st March at 10.30am) and all are welcome.
VPS AGM
The Village Preservation Society AGM will take place on Thursday 24th February at 7.00pm by Zoom. We are looking forward to our first AGM. It would be fantastic to see as many people as possible. We have many new and exciting things in the pipeline, so if you would like to be part of this and feel you have any particular ideas/skills/talent or general enthusiasm you can bring to the village, or if you would like to represent a business or organisation that would like to become involved, we would really welcome your input and also be very pleased if you would like to join us!
If you would like to attend, please email winterbournestokevps@gmail.com If you have any questions or need help or assistance to set this up, please contact us. These are exciting times moving forward. The VPS represents the whole community and this is our chance to create a village you’re happy to live in
PANCAKE RACE
Following last year’s inaugural pancake flip, we will be holding a pancake race on Sunday 27th February at 11.30am. The Golden Frying Pan Awards will be presented to the winners of the Under 10s and the Over 10s. The race will run along Church Street, from the corner of the Old School, through the churchyard gates, and finish at the church. Don’t forget to bring your own frying pans (pancakes to toss en route will be provided!). Depending on numbers and ages, we may run the races in heats, to make it as fair as possible. More details will be on the Facebook page.
FILM NIGHT
Many thanks to those who have loaned equipment for this new venture. The first Village Film Night is scheduled for Friday 4th March at 7.30pm and will be held in the Village Hub. Admission is £5 which includes a complementary drink. Other drinks will be available for a small fee. Feel free to bring your own snacks, cushion and lap rugs. All money raised will be split between the Raise the Roof Fund and the VPS.
Film nights will be held on the first Friday of each month and we aim to show less mainstream films that you might not have come across before. All on the big screen! Film nights are open to all villages in the Benefice, but seating capacity is limited so it would be helpful if you could register your attendance in advance by emailing winterbournestokevps@gmail.com. If we are nearing capacity, we will notify the village Facebook group. Payment can be made on the night by cash or contactless payment.
Film nights are led by Harry Palmer, Film & Creative Media student, who has selected the following films for March. He would love to hear your suggestions for future screenings.
PROGRAMME
7.40 Short Film from the early days of cinema; Intermission; Main Feature: First Cow 2019 (2h 1m) United States dir. Kelly Reichardt; Rating: 12; Language: English
SYNOPSIS
In the 1820s, a taciturn loner and skilled cook travels west to Oregon Territory, where he meets a Chinese immigrant also seeking his fortune. Soon the two team up on a dangerous scheme to steal milk from the wealthy landowner’s prized Jersey cow – the first, and only, in the territory.
MOTHERING SUNDAY
Olivia and Angie will be running a workshop on Saturday 26th March at 2.30pm in the Village Hub for all the children in the village to make posies and cards for their mothers. All flowers and materials will be provided free of charge.
MEET, MAKE & MEND
Over the coming months we will be working on creating themed bunting for village activities. If you’d like to come along and join in, we meet on the last Tuesday of the month at 7.30pm at the Village Hub. The next Meeting is Tuesday March 29th at 7.30pm.
SPRING FAIR
A Spring fair is planned for Sunday 3rd April in the afternoon. We are looking to sell cake and refreshments, hold a Plant Stall (garden and house plants), have an area where you can purchase seeds and plant them in pots ready to take home and many other exciting things. As the weather warms and you’re out in the garden dividing and clearing, if you have any that you can spare these would be most welcome on the stall. If you have any other ideas, or you’d like to take part and help out please could you let us know either by contacting a committee member or by emailing us at the VPS email address.
EASTER
Although it’s a little while away, we are already planning a variety of activities to celebrate Easter. The large wooden cross will be going up in the churchyard again, to be decorated with flowers and drawings; there will be a workshop on Good Friday (15th April) at 3.00pm to create an Easter garden outside and make cards and decorations; a Family Gathering on Easter Day (17th April) at 11am outside (in the sunshine – hopefully!) to admire the Easter Garden with Easter eggs for everyone – and, lastly, an Easter Egg Hunt (on Bank Holiday Monday at 2.30pm).
VILLAGE PANTRY
The “Village Pantry” is proving a great success: thank you to everyone supporting it. Some lovely items have been appearing and then disappearing. It has now been refreshed with new items and a kids treat basket has been added. Thank you for the generous donations that have been made. These will go back to replenishing the pantry. You can easily find it at the back of the church – please feel free to donate anything non-perishable and, if you’re short of something, help yourself, swap for something else or make a donation in the honesty box.
VILLAGE HISTORY
We were delighted to hear from Terry and Josie Salisbury in Shrewton who contacted us after they read last month’s magazine. Fanny Adlam was Terry’s Grandmother. She married Frank Smith Blewden, and their firstborn Hilda Martha (Terry’s mother) was born on the 26th December 1906. Vera Maud was born 2 years later on 3rd October 1908. Sadly Fanny died a few weeks later. Hilda Married and went on to have 14 children and died in January 1996 in her 90th year, and Vera never married, but lived with her sister and family, she died in January 1986 aged 78. Hilda and Vera lived with their father and his mother (in Jessamine Cottage in Shrewton) and they continued to live there after his death in 1916.
Thank you, again to Andy Shuttleworth for providing this month’s Village History
TRAGIC FIRE
In March 1819 The Cambrian reported a dreadful fire that had taken place in Winterbourne Stoke. This is yet another tragedy in the history of the local Adlam/Adlem family.
There are a number of historical references that suggest the fire affected a pair of cottages in Spring Lane (sometimes known as Back Lane), the track that runs from the A303 by the western entrance of Manor Farm, down to Till Cottage. The house, or at least the ruins, were still standing in 1912 and were opposite the village allotment gardens (The allotments existed until at least 1951) – anyone know what happened to those, when and why?
The Cambrian observed: “Dreadful Calamity by Fire. An accident of the most appalling nature has occurred at the village of Winterbourne Stoke, about eight miles from Salisbury on 8th March 1819, originating in carelessness, and causing the sudden destruction by fire of no less than seven human beings. The fire broke out between one and two o’clock on Thursday morning, in the house of Mr. G. Kellow; in one end of the house a shopkeeper and his family resided; in the other two families, consisting of nine poor persons, seven of whom were burnt to death. The fire was not discovered till the whole of the latter part was in flames, and it appears that it was occasioned by Mary Adlem (one of the sufferers) having, previously to going to bed, placed some ashes near to a bundle of heath, in a buttery not far from the fireplace. The names of the unfortunate sufferers were, Christiana Adlem, aged 80 years; Mary Adlem, aged 40, and her daughter Jane, aged three years; Jane Target, aged 63; Ann Davis, aged 22, and her infant daughter Jane, aged ten months; and Elizabeth Wilkins, aged 17 years. J. Davis (the husband of Ann Davis) escaped with great difficulty, saving one of his children three years old. This man leapt from the window to the ground; but recollecting his wife and children, he re-entered, and ascended into the chamber; at that time the woman of both apartments were running about in despair; he caught his eldest child with his left hand, and with his right dragged the mother, clasping her infant to her bosom, down the staircase; but by some means the wife became disengaged from his grasp, and was lost with her infant in the flames which surrounded them. The father bursting through the door, which was on fire, again reached the outside with his child, but both were dreadfully burnt. The roof at this moment fell in, burying, in addition to the mother and her infant, the four women and the child who remained. The family of the shopkeeper, occupying the other part of the house, and consisting of seven persons, escaped unhurt. The fire then communicated with a barn, stable, and granary, and outhouse, the whole of which were consumed, together with about 330 fleeces of wool, and a few sacks of vetches. The scorched and mutilated bodies of the unfortunate victims were removed from the ruins in the course of the day, to a barn, where the Coroner held an inquest on them. Verdict: Accidentally Burnt”.