www.whiteshillandruscombe-pc.gov.uk

The WaRbler Whiteshill and Ruscombe

Spring 2018 Edition

Spring 2018

Dear Parishioners Happy new year to everyone. Following the open day at Ruscombe Chapel, when visitors had the opportunity to view inside and out, we have now had in the responses relating to interest in its future. The overwhelming majority of responses show a keen interest in keeping the chapel as a community building. There were however a few points of concern raised about the overall financial viability of taking on this building and these will need to be addressed over the next couple of months. Acting on the responses the Parish Council have registered an interest with Stroud District Council and we now need help to form a working group to take the project forward. This will need to be people with the enthusiasm and skills necessary to investigate funding opportunities, building proposals and their viability, alternative uses and setting up a management committee to run the project. So if you have skills you think would be useful please do come forward. Let the Parish Clerk know. Thank you to all those who organised and visited Santa’s Grotto before Christmas. Another successful event was had with donations of £124.00 for future events. The playing field has been taking a bit of a hammering from the recent weather; not least because currently when there is heavy rain or snow melting the water runs from almost at the Bird In Hand down the road and all ends up coming through the drain on to the playing field. This is understandably causing considerable damage at the moment. We have been in touch with Highways and are awaiting their response to the problem. Also in the play area the climbing frame will be replaced over the next few months so if you see things happening there it is for the good.

Parish Council News 3

New Facilities at R&W Village Shop and Cafe

5

Whiteshill Village Hall 6

St Paul’s News 7

Carol Singing Report 8

Boxing Day Walk Report 8

Shop Community Award 9

Defibrillator for W&R 9

Russ Cartoon 11

Fair Shares Walks in Stratford Park

11

Update from PCSO Lynch 12

A Walk in the Woods 12

Community Wellbeing Service

14

Stray Dogs 14

Future WaRbler Deadlines 15

Community Connexions 15

Recipes from Dorte Annual Parish Meeting

16/17

Classified Adverts 18

Activities—Village Hall & Scout Hut

20

Highlights Inside SPRING 2018 Edition No 44

Whiteshill and Ruscombe Parish Council’s aim is to make the parish a pleasant place to live

From the Parish Council Chairman

The photo on the front cover was taken in Standish Woods by June Clark. Please forward your high quality seasonal photos to us (see back page) and preferably in por-trait format). Thank you

Page 3 The WaRbler

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During the meeting there were two avenues to be explored, one was having the chapel as a community hub and the second was to look at a community land trust for affordable housing. It is planned that both of these options will be investigated. If you wish to be in-volved please contact the Parish Clerk. Information will be on the website as and when it happens and also on Facebook

Helen Dunn

Stroud

Community TV

Here is the Ruscombe Chap-el video from the event held on 4th February http://stroudcommunity.tv/ruscombe-chapel-future/

Philip Booth

Speed Camera

Update Your Parish Council has for many years been concerned about the traffic speed through the parish, especially on Main Road. Driving at excessive speed increases the possibility of seri-ous injury or death in a road traffic colli-sion, it’s more harmful for our environ-ment, producing more pollution and greenhouse gasses and through a parish such as ours, it’s simply antisocial.

We have engaged in initiatives to re-duce speed - notably the official reduc-tion of the speed limit from 30mph to

Par ish Counc i l

We are considering having a dog fouling awareness day to try to high-light the problem on the playing field and pavements, so you may well see posters and information going up about this. In the mean-time, please do make sure you pick up after your dog and persuade oth-ers to do the same.

As always please keep communi-cating about anything you see in the parish you think is of interest.

Rebecca Charley,

Parish Council Chairman

Ruscombe Chapel As mentioned in the Chairman’s letter we held an open event at Ruscombe Chapel at the beginning of February giving local residents a chance to look around the inside of the building and to consider the possible future of the asset.

75 surveys were completed with 64 wishing to save the chapel as a com-munity asset. Lots of ideas for future use were put forward and a number of people have come forward to be part of a working group. On this ba-sis, Whiteshill and Ruscombe parish Council resolved to submit an ex-pression of interest to bid. This will now trigger a further 4.5 months for the Parish Council and the working party volunteers to put together a business plan to look at the poten-tial future prospects for the chapel.

.

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Since the camera was installed it has surprisingly recorded approximately 100,000 vehicle transits in a 30 day period. The number of vehicles travel-ling over the 20mph limit has reduced by around 10% from since the camera was first installed in November, with around 75% of vehicles travelling below 24mph. In November, only 50% - 60% of vehicles were travelling below 24mph.

However, there are still an unacceptable number of “serial” speeders who will not slow down despite the presence of the camera. The fastest of those has been recorded at 53mph, with many regularly travelling above 40mph.

The registrations of the vehicles involved are stored on the system and the Police are currently recruiting additional com-munity safety camera officers to deal with the data provided from ours (and others).

This initiative is supported by Martin Surl, (Police and Crime Commissioner) (PCC), under the Neighbourhood Policing Model whereby local officers from Stroud work closely with parishes to address antisocial driving behaviour.

Both Gloucestershire Highways and the PCC are very keen to support road safety initiatives and see our type of camera system as valuable tools in reducing speed and enhancing road safety. It is anticipated that many more will be used around the county in coming years. Graham Birt

20mph in 2014. This did result in a slow-ing of traffic generally, but there was a sizable hard-core of drivers who still drove at excessive speed through the parish. We felt that more could be done and so looked at other traffic calming options. The option settled on was a sys-tem which should not only discourage drivers from speeding, but would also record those vehicles that continued to speed – it would identify the persistent offenders. The evidence could then be presented to the police for action.

Many of you will have noticed the collec-tion of “bits and pieces” on the lamp post outside the village hall on The Plain. This is an automated number plate recogni-tion system (ANPR) and speed camera. The camera collects data on every vehicle passing, day and night and in both direc-tions. It records the vehicle speed, the exact time the vehicle passed, and it pho-tographs every vehicle, highlighting the registration plate. It does not identify the registered owner of the vehicle and the driver cannot be identified from the vehi-cle image. The camera software can de-liver its information via the internet to parish council and police computers via a secure link.

An important benefit of the system is the ability to identify traffic patterns which enables the police to identify when seri-ous breaches of our speed limit are most likely to occur. The police can then react accordingly. It must be stressed that the system is completely secure, and that the parish council operates within a strict data protection policy regarding the dis-tribution of data. This policy is available to view on the parish council website.

Par ish Counc i l

Page 5 Community

New Facilities at

Ruscombe

and

Whiteshill

Shop

and Café

We now have several new facilities for you at the Village Shop:

The credit/debit card facility is being used by many customers with a mini-mum spend of £5.00. We are all getting used to the Pre-payment Top-up facility. It offers the opportunity to pay for gas and electricity using a key or card with E-on, npower and EDF (but not British Gas). You can also Top-up your mobile telephone “pay as you go” card/vouchers as well as pay your local com-munity tax.

We have set up the website which will be launched by the time this goes to press. The web site will be linked to our Facebook Group page.

The café facility has now been refurbished, all but the new floor-ing which will be laid when phase 3 the shop has been completed. The café refurbishment includes a new heating system, new lighting, new windows, installation of IT trunking, update and replacement of the electrical and plumbing system as well as a new kitch-en and decoration of the café area.

We would love to know what you think of the wallpaper - come and have a look and give us your opinion

We plan on a bit of a break before we launch into phase 3, the shop. This phase in many ways will be more chal-lenging as it will involve closing the shop whilst we strip it all out, repair what needs to be done, decorate, lay the flooring and replace display units. I am sure there will be some surprises for us once we can see the skeleton of the building.

It has become apparent that we need a phase 4, which will be the replacement of the flat roof and treatment of the wooden cladding on the building. Be-fore starting the project we did consult and were reassured that at that time the roof was sound and repairable. Howev-er the snow produced some leakage and upon further inspection it appears the leakage is from around the down out-lets, which we intend to repair. Howev-er, as the roof is 20 years old, it would be wise to look to replace it all in the next twelve to twenty-four months. We intend to start further fundraising activi-ties to raise the money required to com-plete this work. The roof will cost at today’s quote £6,500 + VAT.

Just as a reminder here are the contact details of the shop and café:- Phone: 01453 753247 Email: wrvscafe@gmail.com Twitter whiteshillvillageshop New Website: www.whiteshillvillageshopandcafe.co.uk (See page 9 for our piece about our Rotary Award)

Ruth Kelly on behalf of the Management Committee and Volunteers Ruscombe and

Whiteshill Village Shop and Café

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Whiteshill Village

Hall The committee is pleased to report that the redecoration of the main hall is now com-plete. There has been nothing but praise for the colour scheme chosen and the quality of the professional workmanship. Allied to the very efficient new central heating system installed it makes the premises an attractive and comfortable environment. Gone are the days for ex-ample when those attending art classes had to work with numb hands when tem-peratures were freezing.

Choosing the exact shades of grey and white paint was a tortuous exercise with numerous tester pots and conflicting opinions, but nevertheless worthwhile. The experienced decorator could look back to the day when he started his ap-prenticeship when there were about six colours to choose from. Now there are hundreds with exotic and tempting names. Also contrary to a well used cur-rent saying it is not always as 'it says on the tin.' Fortunately the decorator was able to warn us of potential problems complete with harrowing stories of cus-tomers insisting on particular colours and finishes only to say on completion that 'I didn't expect it to look like that.' In the case of the committee we were able to say it surpassed our expectations. Our caretaker who is also responsible for hall bookings has reported that potential us-ers of the hall for functions are now amazed when they see the interior for the first time.

Thanks to those who attended the most recent AGM where the com-mittee was able to report that it had met its targets for the past year. Along with the previous work which included rewiring of the premises, refurbishing of the floor, improved parking facilities and tidying up the outside appearance of the hall much has been achieved for the benefit of parishioners in the whole of Whiteshill and Ruscombe.

The main targets for the current year are to redecorate the entrance lobby to match the colour scheme of the main hall and to paint the woodwork on the exterior of the building to stop any further deterioration. Passers by may also have noticed a hole in the wall at the front of the building left by the re-moval of the flue from the previous heating system. That will be attended to and a similar task awaits at the rear of the building. A best match with ex-isting stonework is essential. Some additional gravel is also required at the front of the premises.

All of this could not have been accom-plished without Lottery Funding, the support of Whiteshill and Ruscombe Parish Council and self help. Neither should it be forgotten that it was initial-ly the generosity of parishioners in making financial contributions in re-sponse to an appeal which started the ball rolling.

Keith Davitte (Chair, Village Hall Committee)

Page 7 Community

St Paul’s

Church

News On December 7th, an Investiture Ceremony was held for Whiteshill Beavers and Cubs, with a performance of the Christmas Story and carols. Whiteshill School also enacted the Nativity on 18th December.

Whiteshill & Ruscombe Community Choir together with the Cotswold Youth Singers were welcomed by a packed Church on 20th December. They sang festive songs by candlelight. All proceeds went to the Marah Trust. Children cele-brated Christmas Eve with our annual Christingle Service and later, a Midnight Christmas Communion took place.

St Paul’s celebrated its Patronal Festival on January 28th. That afternoon, a licens-ing Service at St Matthew’s, Cainscross, was held to welcome our new Team Rector for Stroud, the Reverend Kate Stacey. Kate’s last Parish was in the Wychwood area, in Oxfordshire.

On the 5th February, a funeral was held at St Paul’s for Mrs Heather Lewis, who was a member of the Local Ministry Team and who, until quite recently, led Morning Prayer. The Church was full. She will be sadly missed.

On March 11th, we will be celebrating Mothering Sunday.

Photos by Carol Jefferies

Easter Sunday falls on 1st April and the Services are:

8.00 am Holy Communion at St. Paul’s 10.30 am Family Communion at the Church of the Holy Spirit, Paganhill

There will be an Easter Beetle Drive on Saturday, 7th April at 7.00 pm in the Maypole Hall.

The Church AGM will take place on Tuesday April 24th at St. Paul's at 7.30pm. All parishioners are invited to attend, and express their views. There are vacancies on the Parochial Church Council and anyone on the Electoral Roll, who is a confirmed member of the Church of England is entitled to seek election. Nomination forms will be avail-able in due course. There is a vacancy for Churchwarden, which has a 6 year maximum tenure.

Christian Aid week is from 13th May to 19th May, and offers a chance to help provide life-saving new homes to the poorest communities at jeopardy from disasters. Volunteers are invited to de-liver envelopes, and, or to give gener-ously. Looking ahead, this is the cen-tenary year of the Armistice of 1918, and a suitable celebratory event is being planned to feature our local Community choir.

For all enquiries about Church activities, and volunteering, please contact the Office Administrator Miss Christine Pearce, 01453 759099, Mondays to Fridays 10.00-12.30

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Carol

Singing Thank you to everyone who gave to the collec-tion for Longfield Hos-pice when we sang carols around the village. There was a good number of people who turned up to sing, all in fine voice helped by John who plays the cor-net for us and most importantly gives up the starting note!

Singing around the Christmas tree out-side The Star gets our vocal chords warmed up before we set off around Whiteshill & Ruscombe The highlight is when we sing ‘Silent Night’ across the valley. By the time we get back to the pub all we need is a sit down and a drink. Singing carols for two hours is thirsty work!

Thank you to Ken for the mince pies and to everyone who came along to sing and especially those who stayed to sing even more carols in the pub. In total our carol singing raised £233 for the Hospice.

Maggie Booth

Boxing Day

Walk

I think Maggie's pho-tos say it all but here is some words to go with them (also see page 17).

It seems a long time ago, but as the photo shows Boxing Day morning was the only blue sky day over the Christmas break. Around 30 well wrapped up villagers, 4 dogs and a bike took ad-vantage of the good weather to do a circuit of the village.

We started down the path behind the church to Callowell then through Barrow Field and Farmhill Crescent to the path that runs across the Ruscombe valley to Bread Street. We continued up the skyline path to Randwick then into Standish Woods. We followed the Cotswold Way until the top of the hill and took the path to the radio mast then down to the top of Zion hill. As usual I forgot to set the pedometer but our Boxing Day walks have never been

about distance —the main thing is to enjoy our beautiful local countryside in the com-pany of friends and neighbours which we certainly did and hope-fully will do for many years to come.

John Rogers

(Photos by Maggie Booth Photography)

Page 9 Community

Shop Community

Award

Jane Tiley from the Rotary Club of Stroud made the Community Award to the Village Shop and Cafe and said the following;

"The idea of the Community Award was to give support to some of the projects set up in the Stroud area which are of real benefit to the local community and for whom the grant of a relatively small amount would make a difference. It was felt your plans for the refurbishment of the shop and cafe at Whiteshill certainly fulfilled the criteria. You and all the vol-unteers are to be congratulated on your hard work and commitment to provid-ing such an asset to the village".

Defibrillator for

Whiteshill and

Ruscombe Have you noticed boxes like this one are appearing across the country? They are semi-automatic defib-rillators and they are there to help ordinary people help save the life of someone who has just suffered a heart attack. The Ambulance service recommend that a defibrillator should be used within 4-5 minutes of a heart attack with the chance of making a full recovery reducing by 10% for each mi-nute after that. Unfortunately, the tar-get time for an ambulance to respond to an emergency is 8 minutes. Which is where these public defibrillators come in. If they are used together with cardi-opulmonary resuscitation (or CPR for short) they can help people stay alive until professional help arrives.

Clearly defibrillators are a good idea but how would one work in our vil-lage?

The key question is could the defibrilla-

tor be brought to the casualty in less

time than the ambulance will take. The

nearest publicly accessible defibrillators

are at Wyatt House care home in

Mathews way (6 minutes round drive

from St Pauls church) and Randwick

village hall (12 minutes round drive

Page 10 Community

from St Pauls church) so it is not be pos-sible to retrieve one of these within the 4 minute target. In 4 minutes running at jogging pace you could fetch a defibrilla-tor from a ¼ of a mile away. If you can get a car on the road in 1 minute you could fetch a defibrillator from ¾ of a mile (or a straight-line radius of 0.6 mile). A defibrillator located somewhere on the main road would include a large proportion of the village within 0.6 miles access circle. The location has to be one which it is easy to give directions to, as the people helping the casualty may not be local. After discussions with the Parish Council it looks like there are 2 possible locations one on the School railings and the other at the village green.

This sounds like a good idea so why doesn’t the Parish Council buy one? Well they can, and the cost would be added to your council tax. However, we could also raise the money buy public subscription. British Heat Foundation will provide a public access defibrillator for £600 in areas of high foot fall or ru-ral areas providing that access is main-tained 24 hours a day and where there is a commitment made to provide CPR training. The cost of housing the unit will have to be met by the community. This is about 50% of the market price. The significant feature of the BHF offer is the commitment to provide CPR train-ing.

The Parish Council ran a trial training

session last November which they have

agreed to repeat. If we can raise a sig-

nificant amount of the finance directly

from the village it will show a commit-ment on the part of the village to the project which should help secure a grant.

However, the provision of a defibrillator is only part of the solution we will also need more of us going on a suitable course. This is not as daunting as it sounds, the one ran in November had no gory videos, complicated jargon, embarrassing incidents, or exams but, it did include some sound advice and a chance to work with resuscitation dum-mies. Interestingly of the 2.5 hour course 2 hours was spent on CPR and 30 minutes of defibrillators, they really are that simple and it’s more like following sat nav instructions than an episode of casualty.

Where do we go from here? The total installation cost would be

around £1000 or about one Costa

Coffee a household. So, we are starting

by a straight forward appeal please can

you donate £5 or more using the “just

giving website” https://

www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/

whiteshillandruscombepc

If we do not reach the target we may need to do some additional fundraising. If you would like to get involved with this please email me at jgrwhite-shill@gmail.com. Any additional funds raised could go towards a defibrillator for the far end of Ruscombe if there is sufficient funds available.

If you would like more background in-formation on defibrillators you may find following web links useful:

Page 11 Community

South West Ambulance Service (https://www.swast.nhs.uk/What%20We%20Do/defibrillators.htm). BHF . (https://www.bhf.org.uk/heart-health/how-to-save-a-life/defibrillators/applying-for-a-public-access-defibrillator Thank you for reading this article and

please consider giving a donation so

that together we can help save lives in

our village.

The PC has set up a Just Giving Page for

anyone wanting to donate.

https://www.justgiving.com/

crowdfunding/

whiteshillandruscombepc

John Rogers

Fare

Shares

Walks in

Stratford

Park Fair Shares is re-starting their Gentle Park Walks for older people, at Stratford Park, meeting at 10.30am at the Mu-seum in the Park, Stratford Park, Stroud. We meet first to enjoy a cup of coffee and a chat and then we start the walk about 11am and we usually finish around 12.30pm.

The walks will take place on the 2nd and 4th Friday of the month at the same time and same place except for July 27th and October 26th when we will probably meet at the Old Nelson. There will not be any walks during August.

The walks are designed to be enjoyable for anyone who would enjoy and benefit from a gentle walk. We usually have a couple of walks with one accessi-ble to those who use a wheel chair or other mobility aids. People are wel-come to bring dogs (on a lead), but they are not allowed inside the Museum.

More Walk Volunteers Needed We also need to find a few more volun-teers to help support the park walks. Would you like to find out more about this? If so contact Chris or Emma at Fair Shares, email as above or tel 01453 706555. A training day will be available for anyone who feels they would like to help out with the walks.

Chris Moore Fair Shares

From Russ your Local Scribbler

Page 12 Community

Whiteshill update from

your Local

Officer –

PCSO

249239

Gary

Lynch Hello from your local Officer for White-shill and Ruscombe , PCSO Gary Lynch. You may well have seen some recent coverage in respect of the all new Community Alert Gloucestershire sys-tem . This facility gives real time alerts and keeps you informed on what going on in your area. This is a free messaging system and is designed to keep residents and business-es up to date about what’s happening in your area. In the very near future your local Officer PCSO 249239 Gary Lynch will be provid-ing Community updates, appeals for in-formation, crime prevention and events through the Community Alert system. You can sign up to this free service via www.yourcommunityalerts.co.uk Can I thank the members of the Commu-nity who called in to visit the Neighbour-hood Policing vehicle on Wednesday Feb-ruary 7th 2018 , whilst based at the local

community car park, Whiteshill . I will be organising further dates/visits to the area by the Neighbourhood Policing vehicle. Under the new Neighbourhood Policing model I have been and I will be seen more on foot within all my Communi-ties including Whiteshill and Ruscombe. I have already started to apply more focus on this aspect and look to making further progress in the coming months. So please feel free to approach me and catch up. I thank you for your ongoing support, forbearance and time. PCSO Gary Lynch 249239 E.mail -: gary.lynch@gloucestershire.police.uk Operational Mobile : 07718708125 ( non- urgent enquiries/help only)

A Walk In The

Woods

Violet I walked down the lane and into the woods through the gap in the hedge. Slowly I made my way along the famil-iar track. My tummy began to rumble. As I went round the corner our Wood-man’s cottage came into view.

I cupped my hands against the window pain and peered in. Mother was scoop-ing out the dough from the enamel bowl and then she tipped it onto the scrubbed wooden table. She started to stretch and pound the dough with all of her strength. Flo, my little sister was

Page 13 Community

sitting on the peg rug, playing with ba-by Arthur. Soon Mother’s face was bright red, strands of hair had escaped from its pins. The blue faded flowery cross-over pinny had twisted round her.

When I went round to the door of our cottage I was not able to open it. That was strange. The door was never locked, even before the key had been lost long ago. I started knocking at the door, quietly at first, and then louder.

“It’s me Mother, Vi. The door seems to be stuck. “

They didn’t seem to be able to hear me.

Tears started welling up in my eyes. Perhaps I should go and find Father work-ing further away in the woods.

My arms were stung by stinging nettles, and brambles scratched my face and caught in my hair.

Glancing back at the cottage I noticed that there were none of Arthurs white napkins dancing in the breeze. There was no smoke coming out of the chim-ney either. The light had started to fade, but there was no yellow glow from the lamps. That was odd, Mother always made sure the wicks were trimmed and the lamps lit. Flo was frightened of spiders hiding in the dark corners of the old cottage.

There was a chill in the air now, and I was very tired.

The old fallen tree trunk felt very un-comfortable as I sat down, so I folded my cardigan, and leaned on it like a pillow. I could not stay awake any long-er.

“Violet. Violet. Mrs Cummings.”

Someone was gently putting a dark coloured coat round my shoulders.

I was frightened and my heart thumped.

“Violet it’s me Jane.”

She was wearing dark clothing and a dark hat. I seemed to know her.

“It’s me Mrs Cummings. Do you re-member me? Jane, Jane Hood, Police Constable Jane Hood. Lets’s help you up and get you warm and back home. You always enjoy a ride in my police car, don’t you?”

“It’s alright Mr Cummings, your wife has just got cold and the cuts and graz-es are all superficial. She had gone to the derelict cottage again. I have called the social worker Mrs Markham and she is on her way. You have done a wonderful job caring for your wife for so long. You do need to let her go and live somewhere more secure now.

“Who is this old man holding my hand and crying Jane? Shall I get my coat so that you can take me back home to the cottage now? Mother will be worrying about me. I am very hungry and Moth-er will have my supper ready. Father must be back by now. “

Mary Dunford

Page 14 Community

Community Wellbeing

Service

Many things affect our health and wellbe-ing, such as where we live, how we spend our time, our financial situation, and our relationship with friends and family.

Sometimes we all need a helping hand, someone to listen to us when we are struggling, or perhaps someone to find out what help is available in our local community.

Independence Trust is proud to have been commissioned to deliver the new Community Wellbeing Service for resi-dents of Stroud and Berkeley Vale. The Service has been commissioned by NHS Gloucestershire Clinical Commissioning Group and Gloucestershire County Coun-cil. It brings together Village and Com-munity Agents and Social Prescribing in a new, exciting service for local people.

There is a Community Wellbeing Agent local to you; and they will also become a familiar face at your local GP practice. Who is the service for?

The service is free and available to any-one over the age of 16 living in Glouces-tershire, or who is registered with a Gloucestershire GP.

The Community Wellbeing Agents have extensive knowledge of local services.

We can:

Talk to you about the challenges you may be facing and what would help you

Offer advice, information and practi-cal support

Actively signpost you to services that can help you find solutions to every-day problems

Discuss your interests and hobbies and help you find local groups you can get involved in

Would you like to find out more?

Stray Dogs In the first instance, if it is safe to do so, then the dog should be con-tained. If it is found during normal office hours i.e. Mon-Fri 9-5 then report it to the Dog Warden on 01453 754490. If it is found outside normal office hours then the dog can be taken to Teckels Animal Shelter from 07:00 – 20:00 that includes weekends, or the finder can hold onto the dog until the next working day and

Ring us on 0345 863 8323 and press option 2 for the Community Wellbeing Service or visit our website: www.independencetrust.co.uk . We look forward to hearing from you.

Page 15

Volunteer Drivers

Urgently Needed Community Connexions is a Gloucestershire community transport charity. We provide transport to the most vulnerable in our communities, combating social and ru-ral isolation and loneliness. Our transport is for those who cannot ac-cess mainstream public transport and, without our services, many of our cus-tomers wouldn’t be able to leave their homes. We are a ‘door to door’ service facilitating journeys to doctor and hos-pital appointments, day centres, library clubs, or essential shopping.

We provide our services using accessi-ble minibuses and, crucially, volunteers using their own vehicles.

We are desperately short of volunteer drivers all across the Stroud district and sometimes find it difficult to meet the demands of local people. Volunteers can claim 45 pence per mile for jour-neys and at the same time be doing something which really does improve the quality of life for vulnerable people.

http://communityconnexions.org.uk/ Address: Sandford Park Offices, Col-lege Road, Cheltenham, Glos GL53 7HX Phone: 0345 680 5029 Email: info@communityconnexions.org.uk

Paul Riddick, Chief Executive

call the Dog Warden then. Any found dog can also be taken to a vet to check for a microchip, but most vets will not then hold onto the dog. Please note that the police will no longer take in stray dogs.

It’s also probably worth noting that all dogs should be wearing a collar and identification tag whilst in a public place. Failure to do so can result in prosecution and a fine up to £5000. Since 2016 it has also been a legal requirement for all dogs to be microchipped and for the microchip details to be kept up to date. Failure to do so can result in a fine of up to £500.

Dog Warden

Stroud District Council

Community

FUTURE WARBLER DEADLINES

SUMMER 2018 Friday 4th May

AUTUMN 2018 August 3rd

WINTER 2018 November 2nd

SPRING 2019 Friday February 1st

Thank you for all your Contributions

Page 16

Mullein flowers picked in the sun St.John's Wort flowers picked in the sun (small leaved plants not garden specimens) Marjoram leaves and flowers Small- flowering Willowherb ( leaves stalks and flowers) Spruce tips (very young shoots) Rosepetals in all colours (from un-sprayed organic plants) Collect plants in sunshine if possible. Store securely so they don't get damp and mouldy. Use a very little, infuse about 5 mins, make a second brew. Most of the plants can be found in our surroundings, one does not have to have all of them to make a gentle soothing tea. Careful drying in an open tray or basket followed by dry storage

A friend in Herefordshire who had caught a large pike in the River Wye asked me how one would prepare such a fish in Schleswig Holstein. The following recipe is for pike, carp, tench, trout, perhaps other large fish too: For 4 people one would need about 1.5 kg.fish .

Community

Recipes from Dorte

Shelley Summer Dream A delicious gentle infusion for cold days. translated from a text in German by the Swiss herbalist Maria Treben (not listed in order of seasonal appearance) Coltsfoot first the flow-ers later the leaves Cowslips (heads) Violets all sorts flowers and leaves Lungwort (heads) Wood sorrel flowers a small sour clover Bugle -only very little as a spice – the upper flower heads Nettle -the first young shoots in spring Ladies Mantle leaves and flowers Speedwell flowers stalks and leaves Strawberry leaves also young Black-berry and Raspberry tips of shoots Elderberry tips of shoots later flowers Daisy flowers Lime Blossom (picked in the sun) Camomile (picked in the sun) Meadowsweet flowers Marigold flowers Woodruff flowers stalks and leaves Thyme flowers stalks and leaves Lemon Balm flowers stalks and leaves also without flowers Peppermint flowers stalks and leaves also without flowers Yarrow bot. Millefoil only very little picked in the sun

Baked Fish : Ingredients: 3 tbsp lemon juice, salt, pepper, 1 medium onion, 1 tbsp capers, 2 anchovy fillets, a small bunch of pars-ley, 200g sour cream, 1/8 litre white wine, 125g grated cheese (e.g. strong cheddar) De-scale and clean the fish and remove the back bone. Rinse and sprinkle with lemon juice and let it rest for about 30 minutes. Season in and out with salt and pepper, finely chop onion, capers, anchovies and parsley and mix these with sour cream,. Place fish flat into a roasting pan, cut- side down, cover with sour cream mixture and sprinkle with cheese. Especially pike can be quite dry and needs some cream . Bake for 1 hour on 190*-200* Gas mark 3 in pre-heated oven, serve with jacket potatoes or boiled in their skins. ( I've made this dish without the capers and it's still very good.)

Page 17 Community

Photo by Maggie Booth Photography

ANNUAL PARISH MEETING

You are invited to the Annual Parish Meeting

on May 17th 2018 at 7.30 pm

in the Village Hall It’s a great opportunity to

catch up on what the Parish Council is doing and to ask questions.

Refreshments included

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A MEN’S GROUP (Fair Shares)

meets for a drink, to have a chat, to play games and to

make new friends. It’s on EVERY SECOND AND FOURTH

TUESDAY at The Old Crown Pub, Park End, Paganhill, Stroud GL5 4AZ on between 2.30pm — 4.30pm

For more details ring Emma on 01453 706555 or just come

along.

On the Learn My Way website we offer free 30 minute online courses on some of the following subjects including:

Make money Work

Keeping your personal information secure online

Online and mobile banking

Simply go to https://www.learnmyway.com 1. Click on Register in the top right of

the screen 2. Complete Your Name, Email address

and then choose a Password (OUR CENTRE NUMBER is 8000052)

3. Then click on your preferred subject.

Page 19 Classi f ied Ads

Parish Council

Contacts Rebecca Charley (Chair) Mrs Helen Dunn (Clerk) 23 Tennyson Road, Dursley, Glos GL11 4PZ OR phone Tel: 07941 171805 clerk@whiteshillandruscombe-pc.gov.uk . for Warbler articles by email please send to: Dilys Warren at editwarbler@aol.com or to Helen above.

www.whiteshillandruscombe-pc.gov.uk Please let the Parish Clerk know of any changes to group contacts activities. Thanks

Scout and Guide HQ

All enquiries and bookings for the hall contact Edd Brereton on 01453 762469

TUESDAY — 9.00—15.00 Whiteshill Playgroup Contact: 07717 874881 WEDNESDAY — 9.00—15.00 Whiteshill Playgroup Contact: 07717 874881 Whist Drive 19:15 Contact Ken Wood - 01453 764175

THURSDAY — 9.00—15.00 Whiteshill Playgroup Contact: 07717 874881

WHITESHILL ACTIVITIES Page 20

Village Hall All enquiries and bookings on 01453 759023

MONDAY — Taiji 37 short form 17.45 –

19.15 Poh-Eng San 01453 297847 pohengsoundbuqi@yahoo.co.uk Keep Fit 19:30 to 20:30 (Ring Lyn on 01453 766609 or 07773 493517)

TUESDAY—Taijiwuxigong (Qi gong)

09 15 am- 10.45 Poh-Eng 01453 297847 pohengsoundbuqi@yahoo.co.uk Yoga 19.00—20.15 — all welcome lisataylor32b@hotmail.com

WEDNESDAY - Yoga 10.00—11.30 — all

welcome. lisataylor32b@hotmail.com or phone 01453 764521 and 07530 323951 Art Club—2-4pm Community Choir 7:45 — 9:15pm Nick Quayle 01453 752519 or email nikkiashworth@hotmail.com

THURSDAY — W&R Toddler Group 9:30

to 11:30 Please phone Debbie Williams on 07706 593200 Wives Group First Thursday in month 19:00 to 21:00 Parish Council 2nd and 4th Thursday in month 19:30 to 22:00

FRIDAY - Ballet 16:00 to 18:00

Nia First class for FREE Contact: Claire Miletitch 10.00-11.00 07920 748933 / chickpeas@hotmail.co.uk

ADVERTISING IN THE WARBLER 1 x advert price @ £25.00, 2 x repeat adverts @ £42.50, 3 x repeat adverts @ £60.00

4 x repeat adverts @ £75.00

To advertise your business in The WaRbler, please forward items to Helen Dunn, Parish Clerk (see address under Contacts) enclosing a hard copy of the

advert layout, order and a cheque made payable to “Whiteshill and Ruscombe Parish Council”.

Technical Spec: Ideally, submit a High Definition 300 dpi PDF or JPG image needs to be emailed to clerk@whiteshillandruscombe-pc.gov.uk in the exact size 65 mm W X

85 mm H