Forncett Flyer 2013

Oh what a busy year it’s been! I just looked back over the last ten issues of the Forncett Flyer and I feel exhausted, but proud. Not for myself, but for the dozens of people who have contributed in many ways - large and small - to the village.

Thank you all! Best wishes for a happy Christmas and a busy year in 2014.

From the Editorial team.

I promised you, “no more orange Flyers”, and yet here we are again, ORANGE on the front page and a certain amount on the back page! All in a good cause though, and nothing to do with sport.

Su Leavesley

Back from the summer activities to a bumper 16 page issue. With 36 excellent photos to fit in we have upgraded to 8 colour pages. On the cover is the presentation of £900 to the Village Hall committee by the Diggers & Dibblers Garden Club committee: this money was raised at the open gardens day in June, to the delight of the Garden Club committee who were expecting a considerably smaller figure. Margaret Webster takes her bow and a lovely bouquet as prime mover (with John Webster) of the St Edmund's fete (more photos inside), and Harry gets busy with a paint brush. Inside are more photos of tireless workers running up and down ladders with paint tins, again at the Village Hall. Thanks to them and the recent Big Lottery award of £6,711 the Village Hall will soon be looking splendid.

There is a picture of a woolly hedgehog; a rabbit quilt, and some spectacular flowers and veg at the Diggers & Dibblers annual show.

Grace Reid celebrates her 100th birthday with a telegram from the Queen.

FLOSSY is back for those of you who like a flutter, and Forncett Tank Museum open day is deftly described by our new correspondent Phil Whiscombe.

Has anyone got a shoe-horn? I have had trouble getting everything in this month’s edition; what with the sports finals where Forncett came second by only a few points. Forncett St Mary church had a valuation day, and Austhorpe House had a very enjoyable fete. Forncett St Edmunds church also had a fete, and Graham Prior had a little lie-down on page 6, and there are monster strawberries in the allotment report.

The Village Hall committee have been working very hard to find sources of funding for work on the Village Hall, and are ecstatic to announce that the Big Lottery have granted £6,700 for windows etc., so read all about it, and the £900 donated by Diggers & Dibblers from their summer activities.

There will not be a September issue, but if enough bits and pieces come in (events notifications etc – including the full details of the harvest supper) I will do an online page in about a month’s time. Have a lovely summer and write and tell me about anything interesting.

So many different events have happened in Forncett over the last month I hardly knew where to begin! Naturally I forgot something, but with 16 pages to fill and 66 photographs to place crop and enhance, I had my work cut out. And of all people it was John Webster that I let down. He wrote a lovely piece about Forncett St Edmunds church roof, and I forgot it.It can, however, be found on the web site: St Edmund’s acquires a new hat

Apart from that, we finally get to meet the Revd Suzanne Cooke, the new vicar for the group of parishes. Those energetic orange-clad sports people get a whole page to themselves as they have done remarkably well getting through to the finals again.

The fete on Saturday was one of the best I have ever been to: the weather was kind to us and once the barbecue had got going properly and we could all breathe, there followed a timeless example of village life; beer, burgers, raffle and cakes. The Tank Museum promised us a vehicle, and in the end they brought at least four, and the smartly dressed chaps who came with the vehicles stayed all day. There is a feature about their forthcoming Military Weekend on page 11.

All Diggers & Dibblers summer antics are on the back page together with a picture of a lovely young couple – just wed, 50 years ago. Congratulations to Shirley and Peter King.

For the twitchers amongst you, there is a photograph of a Ring Ouzel taken in Forncett recently, and on page two there is a pic of 18 bags of refuse collected from around the village by some welcome volunteers in the Big Litter Pick, organised by Brian Frith. John Webster has so much to say that he has been awarded a full half-page: and he still managed to get the date of Margaret’s next coffee morning wrong! It should be Thursday 20th June at the old Trowel and Hammer at the top of Tabernacle Lane. There is a tractor run organised by the Little Tractors playgroup that has a new space in the Forncett Flyer to let us all know what they get up to in the Village Hall each day. (p.3). Quinton Spratt’s history of farming– which has been very much appreciated - draws to a close this month.  Sandy Barnes’s Macmillan evening that raised over £500 for the charity is pictured on the back page.  And we say a final farewell to Neville Chapman who died recently.

The previously postponed pudding night went ahead at last, and how well it went too! More puddings than you could point a spoon at, and each one found its devotees. This event will be repeated later this year, so get your granny’s cookbook out and start practicing. The grant applications for the Village Hall repairs are ongoing, and £2,000 has been granted by South Norfolk Council to be spent on fascias and guttering. There are more photographs of food on page 11, where the members of Tharston W.I. sat down to pancakes on Shrove Tuesday. The school children are pictured reading during an event of “Extreme Reading”, and winning prizes for it. There is finally a shot of Richard Bower installing a recreation of a “Chester” organ in Forncett St Mary church.

Let's get the mistakes over and done with first, shall we? On the front cover the caption for the photograph should have read 'see full story on page 12' but it fell off the side of the page.

The new regular At the Village Hall page 2 is entirely done by Terry Henderson apart from the pudding Night piece which is by Jackie Bowers. This is a new venture and you can come as a pudding chef with a bowl full of your Granny's favourite pud to share out, or you can just come with an oversized spoon to help us sample them all and vote for a winner, it's up to you, but please contact Jackie soon if you want to bring a pudding (01508 530729) so we can get organised.

There are two maps this month; one showing the proposed route of the new A11 bypass at Elveden, and the other showing how to get to Wymondham now that Silfield Road is blocked at Silfield for roadworks lasting 8 weeks. (they must be dualling it and building a Little Chef!!)

Sadness and shock at the closure of Hoddy's Farm Shop is expressed by several people on page 3, alongside news of a swishing party at Wacton.

Quinton Spratt's short farming series takes over Railway Ron's page, and if anyone has any old photos of local farming activities, give me a ring as it would be nice to use them.

Su 01953 789752,

All the photos of Forncett's Christmas activities that are fit to print – and one or two that are not – are assembled here for those of you who can bear the festive season for a little longer. Doc Willis is back, cynical but philosophical as usual: school dinners Roman style are pictured on the back page (you can keep the olives, thanks) and Michael Marlow takes us on a nostalgic look at a 1940's childhood. All the local W.I. dates and talks schedules are on page 5, and some local walks on page 6.

If you are wondering where the Parish Council report is, I can tell you that Sarah Berwick and husband were so busy with the 4x4 rescue work that I gave her slot to John Webster, but fear not, the report can be found here on the website. Railway Ron gets a final send-off in readiness for our new series on Farming – more details later.

And finally a goodbye party for Greg Spencer on page 11. The Forncett Flyer will be the poorer without his input, as will many of our village activities, but Greg has a life to live and I wish him all the best – whatever he opts to do. Terry Henderson has stepped into Greg's place on the flyer team, and is already contributing wonderfully. Here's to the next 5 years! (Oh heck, did I really say that?)