28th April: Parish connections and the London Marathon. The website editor has been informed of two parish connections and last week's London Marathon. Mark Wheeler (son of Pam) who spent his childhood in Appleton and now lives in the USA, and Ian Bowen-Morris. Mark's brother, Nigel, is a resident at the John Masefield Leonard Cheshire Disability home in Burcot and Mark raised £5,000 for this organisation. Mark recorded a time of 5 hours 11 minutes. Editor's "informer" did not disclose Ian's charity nor his time! Well done to Mark and Ian who continue the tradition of parish Marathon runners in 2010 with the Gilkes' Brother's success in 2009. Were there others viewers know of?

27th April 2010: Oxfordshire Fire Service awards Appleton: As a result of the villagers who supported the fire service during the fire ar The Close in January 2010, The Oxfordshire Fire Service will present an award to the community before the Annual Parish Meeting to be held on Thursday 29th April. With the issuing of the news release BBC Radio Oxford swung into action and Claire Salmon was featured on the Bill Heine programme just after 5:00pm. Connect BBC Bill Heine Show and fast forward to 1.05.12 until 1.12.09 with Claire’s interview and Dave Etheridge of the Fire Service. See Letter of Thanks to the Community.

26th April 2010: Playground and Recreation Group awarded £5,000 grant: The Playgound and Reacreation Group said: "We are delighted to announce that we made a great start towards our target today when Sovereign Vale Housing Association awarded the group £5000 towards the playground! Natalie Crawford and Rachel Knight presented our case to Sovereign Vale at Millets farm and out of 37 groups ours came third with the amount of votes they achieved!!! The Association had already noticed the press coverage we had recently and were impressed by the involvement of the whole community in the project so far - a big thank you to everyone!!! We can add this to the generous £1000 already awarded by the Village Shop. Playbuilder have embargoed the results of the big grant application until after the General Election so we have to wait a little longer for this unfortunately. Everything crossed though!"

22nd April 2010: Richard thanks the Parish Posse & Supporters - nearly £4,000 raised for charity. Richard Dick thanks all those in the parish who supported him on his “High Sheriff Easter Thames Trail” either by sponsoring him, joining the walking party at Northmoor Lock or walking with him on the Lechlade to Newbridge and Newbridge to Oxford legs of the walk this Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. Richard completed the walk in full and he will have raised nearly £4,000 for the Footsteps Foundation – and money is still coming in!

15th April 2010: Burglary in Eaton Road: Between 1530 hours and 1535 hours on Thursday 15th April a property in Eaton Road, Appleton was subject to a burglary. The offender entered via a rear door and went up into the living quarters and stole a large quantity of cash. The offender is described as white male with fair complexion, closely shaven blonde to fair hair, mid to late 20's, height 6ft 1 inch, slim build. He was wearing light coloured tracksuit with a dark colour down the sides with white trainers. If you have any information ring the non-emergency number 08458 505 505 and quote URN 842 of the 15th April 2010.

10th April 2010: Poll Cards state wrong voting station! Relax! We are NOT voting at Kennington or Botley! The Parish will be voting in the Appleton Village Hall as usual! New cards will be issued shortly, and some have already been received.

8th April 2010: Tubney Wood Preservation Group new Chairman: After a six-year "retirement", Graham Rose has been reinstated as chairman of the Tubney Wood Preservation Group (TWPG), an organisation that was first set up in 1989 when the Sandpit was first muted. Graham said: "With the prospect of the final stages of extraction and the restoration programme becoming a reality, I feet passionate about seeing this project through to its completion. Others who are in the TWPG are villagers Margaret Reading, Nick Hester and John Sear: John Watts, chairman of the Fyfield and Tubney Parish Council is also a member - as he has been since the formation of TWPG." Graham will be meeting with the Oxfordshire County Council Minerals Officer on Friday 16th April 2010 to establish the present position.

5th April 2010: Greyhound at Besselsleigh to Re-open on 13th April. After a period of refurbishment, the Greyhound at Besselsleigh will re-open on 13th April. Ceasing the branding of Blubeckers, owners Brunning and Price will offer a "pub-like" environment with good food. See News Release and See Staff Vacancies at The Greyhound with the Summer shortly upon us ...

4th April 2010: Appleton with Eaton Tennis Team Rules! Very many congratulations to all ten lady players who represented Appleton with Eaton tennis club in the winter league and were unbeaten, winning all eleven matches, a truly fantastic achievement. Club Chairman, Adrian Carey,commented: "As you can appreciate the matches were often played in very inclement weather, but our ladies battled though and will now be promoted to the next division."

1st April 2010: Website hits the ton ... 19 times in March. See Website Statistics  The Parish Website is being viewed more and more! From a previous record of seven times over 100 viewers in a day in January 2010, March was viewed by over 100 viewers on 19 occasions – the Weir issue certainly helped. The total number of viewings in the month of March 2010 reached a record 3,550 and this compares with March 2009 at 1,397 and the previous record of 2239 in January 2010.