November and December 2010 News

23rd December 2010: Children's Party goes ahead: The children's party held in the Appleton Village Hall was, in spite of the weather conditions, well attended and, by all reports, most enjoyable. Alison Jeffreys commented: "45 children made it to the children’s party on Saturday, although the entertainers couldn’t. However, we all had a great time!"

23rd December 2010: Charity Opera success: Claire & Stephen Barrat from 'Charity Opera' would like to thank everyone who came to the concert in church on 10th December and in doing so helped to raise £280 for PACT - Parents & Children Together.

23rd December 2010: Janet Buckley's Thanksgiving Service. The Service of Thanksgiving for the life of Janet Buckley, long-term resident of Appleton, will take place on Thursday 23rd December at 2 pm at St. Laurence Church.

22nd December 2010: The Plough Christmas Draw will take place on Wednesday 22nd December at 8:00pm. All tickets have been sold

22nd December 2010: Newspapers delivered 8:30am Newspapers have been delivered. Thanks to Lisa Buck for using her 4x4 to take Shop volunteers to Botley to stock up the Village Shop. Great spirit as always.

20th December 2010: Papers in shop. 2:30 Newspapers have just been delivered: those who have their newspapers delivered will not be charged for delivery nor the newspaper - but if they want a newspaper they should collect from the shop and pay for it! Fruit and veg, milk and bread arrived this morning.... no eggs but probably tomorrow!

18th December 2010: Travel challenges! "My husband had to take a friend to the train station at 9.30 this morning and he said the roads were TERRIBLE.  The A420 hasn't been cleared at all.  He said cars had stopped on the edge of the road as their windscreen wipers had frozen."

And another message ... "A420 from Faringdon to here is poor and iced; don't venture unless really necessary All roads in the Cotswolds are barely passable - we were in Bibury overnight; appalling journey to Cirencester; not passable to Burford. Even 4 x 4 were in trouble."

And another: "I have been to Wantage and back today - in a four-wheel drive car via a bit of the A420 & the A338 in the late morning. The salting of the roads has been completely useless - 99% of the road surface is compacted snow. Four-wheel drive cars were OK but some two-wheel cars/drivers were struggling. There was not much traffic."

And yet another "I have travelled from Appleton to Abingdon and back over the last three hours and the roads are horrendous. No gritting or clearing of snow even on major roads. My advice? Stay put." 

16th December 2010: Severe Weather warning for the Parish: A brief note about the possibility of severe weather. On Saturday there is the risk of waking up to snow, possibly very heavy snow. But, snow is difficult to predict accurately, especially in this area. There will be strong winds and deep drifting could occur – enough to disrupt transport and isolate the village. A weekly forecast will be published on the website on Friday morning as usual.

Sunday 5th December 2010: Margaret Reading features on Radio Oxford. Subject: The Big Society and volunteering at the Appleton Community Shop. Listen to the clip by linking to Margaret Reading on BBC Oxford Sunday 5th December 2010  and fast forward to 2.14.56 and the piece ends at 2.19.17

Friday 26th November 2010: Website forecaster, John Evans, warns ... "The forecast for next week is, as of 09:00 this morning, not good - although the statistical confidence of these medium term forecasts is not high. It could be very cold, very windy with a serving of snow which could disrupt village transport".

Saturday 13th November 2010: Dinner and Awards ceremony. ACC held its annual Dinner and Awards ceremony at the Blue Boar, Longworth and the winners were: The John Douglas Peel Batting Trophy: Alex Gilkes. Bowling Cup: Rob Uren. The TopSport Catching Trophy: Martin Bungay. Roach Dropped Catches Cup: David Manning. Those awards voted on by club members are: The Sir N A Wright Trophy for Clubman of the Year: Roger Gilkes. The Rose Trophy for Senior Player of the Year: Carl McKno and The Jim Griffiths Trophy for Junior Player of the Year: Rob Uren. Photographs of the evening can be seen at Annual Dinner & Awards and the ACC Trophy Winners & Awards for full information. Many congratulations to all the winners. The club is in great shape, lead by Clubman of the Year, Roger Gilkes and the evening, with speeches by David Manning on the "overseas" tour to the Isle of Wight, Club Captain Martin Bungay with the season's summary, David Roach anecdotes about the fines record, Andy Buck presenting the club ties and Chairman Roger Gilkes Master of Ceremonies came to a conclusion with the raffle prizes! Players, their wives and girlfriends enjoyed an excellent evening and thanks to the Blue Boar for making it possible.

13th November 2010: Keith Stammers becomes a Parish Councillor: Chair of the Appleton with Eaton Parish Council, Claire Salmon, said: I would like to extend a very warm welcome to Keith Stammers as a co-opted Parish Councillor which was effective from 1st November 2010. Keith's election now sees the parish council at full compliment for the remainder of our term. Keith has been a stalwart of the Parish Neighbourhood Watch scheme and his involvement in council affairs will be good. Parish Council elections will take place in May 2011 further details will be available nearer to the time."

7th November 2010: Appleton & the March for Honour. Appleton villagers turned out in significant numbers to witness the RAF team on their route to Wootton Bassett in honour of the fallen. Rev Lyn Sapwell assisted in the laying of a wreath remembering the dead, and a prayer was said.

5th November 2010: David Hine speaks out about Broadband. David Hine of Eaton who is leading the efforts of the Parish to get a better Broadband service was reported in the Oxford Mail of 4th November...read David Hine Oxford Mail 04 Nov 2010 and a letter written by district councillor Dudley Hoddinott was published in the Oxford Times making reference to Appleton read Dudley Hoddinott’s letter Oxford Times 04 Nov 2010 

4th November 2010: Shelves of Community Shop are filled ... but. After a major shop today, the shelves are filled.The management of the shop would like to emphasise the price increases are entirely due to pricing policy of the Co-operative organsiation and not the Community Shop. They are conscious some customers might conclude it is a new pricing policy following refurbishment: it is entirely down to the Co-op.

2nd November 2010: Calendar Girls ticket available: The WI has one circle ticket suddenly available for this Wed matinee (2:30pm performance) at the New Theatre Oxford to see Calendar Girls. The person who had the ticket is called away and cannot go and has offered her seat to anyone who can take the opportunity. A man, if interested, would be welcome !!!!!!!!!!!! Anyone able to go, get in touch with Penny Moorley 862865 (up until 11:00pm tonight or Wednesday morning by 12 noon) - Penny can take the lucky person to Oxford but cannot bring back!