‘Elvis’ makes an appearance in village and wows the Women of Weald – plus there’s a boost for canine partners
WEALD ROCKS. The Women of Weald (WOW) rounded off the year in style at their Christmas party with a performance from ‘Elvis’ who had the Memorial hall rocking! Like setting off a line of dominoes, it only took one person to get up and dance around a bit to get the party going. By the end of the afternoon nearly everyone had been on their feet enjoying the music.
As a group, members meet on the first Wednesday of every month at 2.15pm for a short business meeting followed by the talk. Afternoon tea, with home-made cakes and sandwiches, is served towards the end of the meeting. Visitors and new members are always welcome.
The WOW speaker programme for 2019 has been fixed. In January, Russell Bowes’ subject is ‘The utterly divine history of chocolate’. In February, David Thomas, the Queen’s jeweller will be giving an insight into the nature of his job. In March, Gilly Halcrow’s theme will be ‘Whatever happened to Christopher Robin’. She covers the highs and lows of the young boy who was the ‘Christopher Robin’ and what happened to him and the bear which was the inspiration for ‘Winnie the Pooh’. In April a new speaker will visit the village. Brenda Matthews started a collection of handkerchiefs many years ago and became fascinated with the stories they can tell. She now has around 4500 in her collection, some of which she will bring to illustrate her talk.
BOOMERANG BAGS. The Weald community shop is trying to stop the need for single use plastic bags and so now will be offering carrier bags made by a group of volunteers from recycled material. All the bags can be reused or returned to the shop for other customers to reuse. Judy Whiddett, who has been spearheading this initiate, says that her daughter said that she can see her whole life in these bags. Judy has used remnants from many of the dresses she made for her daughter when her daughter was young.
Although there are a few bags still for use at the shop, more volunteers are needed to cut or sew or make tags for additional bags. Please contact Judy Whiddett via the shop if you can help.
LIVING ADVENT CALENDAR. It is amazing to see the creativity of everyone who has taken part in this year’s Living Advent Calendar in the village. If you want a map of where the windows have been opened and where the dates on which the remaining ones will open, send an email to wealdnews@hotmail.com. The last window to be lit will be on 24 December at the Windmill pub.
A CANINE CHRISTMAS. Weald villager Ragna Tulloch is thrilled with the £1,100+ raised for the charity ‘Canine Partners’ as a result of the Craft Fair held in the Memorial Hall. She said: “I am over the moon! Money raised FAR exceeds either expectation or hope.” As well as a stall of doggy-themed items staffed by Canine Partners there was an array of pictures, painted silk scarves, enamel ornaments and jewellery, paintings and cards as well as glass gifts and ornaments, cakes, jams and jellies, fabric items, candleabra and much, much more.
The village has made a tremendous effort on behalf of the charity thanks to the organisational skills of Ragna and her team. There are reports that the village has raised around a third of all the money raised in Kent this year for Canine Partners and there is another date for the 2019 diary. Ragna intends organising a dog show together with a craft fair around the green on Saturday 1 June.
NEW BOOK. ‘Weald and the Great War’ is now on sale in The Weald Community shop, priced £7, along with the existing ‘The Changing Face of Weald’, a bargain at just £14.99! Both will make a great Christmas present.
HONOUR FOR VICAR. The Rev. Mandy Carr, the vicar of St George’s Church in Weald, was honoured during a service at Rochester Cathedral recently when she was invested as an Honorary Canon. Rev. Mandy now has her own seat in the cathedral and hers is named ‘Gundulf’ after a Norman monk who came to England following the Conquest. He was appointed Bishop of Rochester and Prior of the Cathedral Priory there. He built several castles, including Rochester, Colchester and the White Tower of the Tower of London and the Priory and Cathedral Church of Rochester.
STAINED GLASS TALK. Weald History Group had an interesting talk about stained glass in Kent from Sir Paul Britton recently.
A TRUE FRIEND. A recent story about a brass plate found on the former Wesleyan Chapel altar rail reminded villager Derek Wallace-Holman about a plaque he found 25 years ago while digging fence post holes in his garden beside the pan-handle of the village green down towards Mount Pleasant Road. It appeared to be a memorial, probably for a pet, who died with the unusual name of ‘Worry’. In those days the land was still part of the farm related to Kingswood Cottage. The inscription says ‘WORRY (a true friend) died April 19th 1936’. Then there is a line which states: ‘I helped my pals’. Is it an entwined ‘T’ and ‘W’ at the top? Derek wondered if anyone could shed light on this?
