New Parish Councillor

Simon Guy has been co-opted onto Aston Abbotts Parish Council following the recent retirement of councillor Bob Carvey. The Parish Council wish to welcome Simon and also send their grateful thanks to Bob for his past commitment and service.

Village hall closed for refurbishment

Building work started in October; the work will take 12-14 weeks so look out for a grand re-opening in February!

Thursday Coffee Mornings in the Church

Some twelve years ago two regular churchgoers, April Curnow and Rita Robinson, started the Thursday Coffee Mornings which have become such a popular social event for villagers and, thanks more recently to Tracey, they have continued to be so.

As the Village Hall will be out of use for several months, probably until February next year, the PCC has decided to hold a Coffee Morning in Church on the first and third Thursday each month, starting in October ie on Thursday 6th.  I am afraid we haven't yet the facilities to provide Tracey's yummy bacon butties but she will be there with hot coffee/tea, cake and biscuits with the help of a member of the PCC.

We will ensure that the church is warm as I can't believe the hot weather will continue into October and November!

We look forward to seeing all the regulars again on 6th October in church.

Caroline Abel Smith
Churchwarden

Aston Abbotts Village Hall news – September 2016

Aston Abbotts Village Hall news – September 2016              

Update on refurbishment

Just waiting for WREN (our major funder) to approve our budget and choice of builder, then we’ll let everyone know! Expecting to start around 17 October; the work will take 12-14 weeks so look out for a grand re-opening in February!

Clear the hall

The last bookings will be w/c Monday 19 September. We will be clearing the hall and kitchen on Sunday morning 25 September from 8.30am. The kitchen equipment, crockery, cutlery, glasses, chairs, and the best of the tables will be stored. A small number of chairs, tables and some crockery will go into the church temporarily. If any user groups have other things in the kitchen cupboards please take them away or let us know what you’d like done.

Funding

We still have a shortfall, so we are still very grateful for donations. Thank you very much to the family of Denis Knight who kindly donated half of his funeral collection to the hall. If you can help, please contact any one of us.

Vale Lottery

The top cash prize is £25,000 and every week a few people win £25 – hopefully an Aston Abbotts winner soon! We are getting a small but regular payout from our local supporters that’s really appreciated (particularly as we won’t have any lettings income while the hall is closed). If this is your thing, please buy your tickets from our page and we get 50%:

www.valelottery.co.uk/support/aston-abbotts-village-hall-trust

The chair test

Fete goers tested sample chairs.  Thank you all!  The green, upholstered chair took an early lead but was overtaken by the blue, wipe-clean version by the end of the afternoon. Maybe not blue though. We’ll look at more before deciding.

Village History book still available!

Aston Abbotts 1000-2000: A village history is back in print at £10 per copy, proceeds to the village hall. If you’d like one please email us or give me a ring on 681373.  Just one box left!

Caroline Lane – Aston Abbotts Village Hall trustees

Aston Abbotts Village Hall Trustees group: Caroline Lane (Chair), Liz Hall (Secretary), Nigel Palmer (Treasurer), Peter Shorrock, John Whyte, Kevin Copping. Email: astonabbottsvillagehall@yahoo.com

Harvest Festival Supper and Auction

The 2016 Harvest Festival Supper will take place in the Village Hall at 7.00pm on Monday 19th September.

The Coffee Morning finishes... for now

In July the popular Thursday Coffee Morning in the Village Hall closed for the holidays and in preparation for the imminent Village Hall renovations.

The Coffee morning started around eleven years ago and in recent years it has been run by Tracy Hinds along with a rota of volunteer helpers. It is highly valued, particularly by retired and older residents who are around in the village on a Thursday morning.

We hope that the coffee morning will be restarted in the not too distant future, but in the meantime we offer our thanks to Tracy for her hard work. Tracy is pictured below dishing up her delicious bacon rolls.

Aston Abbotts Village Hall news – June 2016

£44,100 offered to us from WREN

This was our major grant application. We are all very pleased!

The money, awarded by WREN’s FCC Community Action Fund, will be used to underpin and replace floors, install a new kitchen, fit out the new disabled toilet and rewire the hall.

WREN is a not-for-profit business that awards grants for community, biodiversity and heritage projects from funds donated by FCC Environment through the Landfill Communities Fund.

Queen’s birthday weekend 11-12 June

Village Hall, Saturday 11 June 10am-4pm and Sunday 10am-12 noon, exhibition covering 90 years in Aston Abbotts. Photos, newspaper articles, maps. Buy a reprint of local history book Aston Abbotts 1000-2000: A village history. We’ll also have a few copies of Neil Rees’ The Czech Connection to sell, hard to find these days! Refreshments. Admission free, donations to the village hall improvement fund.


Email: astonabbottsvillagehall@yahoo.com