Short Mat Bowls
Quite simply, Short Mat Bowls is a version of outdoor bowls but played
indoors, predominantly over the winter months but can be played all year
round.
In Upton village hall we have all the equipment required and a group play
socially on three Wednesday evenings each month.
If you are looking for an evening fun activity then please come and join us
from September, I am a qualified bowls coach and Umpire and will help
you get started and to improve your game.
For more information, please contact Mike Weston -07706 795950 or Joan
Durbin – 850035
Short Mat Bowls is a competitive game played Nationally and
Internationally and although we just play for fun on our Wednesday
evenings, several of us play for Harwell in the Oxfordshire Leagues, with
some progressing on to County and National Competitions. Harwell is also
looking for new members and the club is holding some Open Sessions later
this year. Again, contact Mike on 07706 795950 for more information.
Upton Village Hall Amenities Trust Chairman’s Update, July 2023
Finances
The hall finances continue to remain in a healthy state with funding for the
toilet refurbishments as well as other smaller projects (tidying up the patio
area, de weeding and refilling gaps with sand cement) available.
Thanks to the volunteers Chris Traynor, Brian and Giulia Rippon, Ali
Lewington, Kim Gould, Debbie Paul, Victoria Griffiths, Gillian Collins and
Gerogie Mason for their support and fundraising efforts during Uptonogood.
The hall remains in good decorative condition with some minor painting
required. The paint is available and this will be carried out by one of the
committee members.
Bookings
There has been a return to party bookings as well as the long term regulars
and booking for the kitchen by Style Acre for training their staff. We are
pleased that the return of the Drop in Coffee Morning is starting again –
first session 27th July 10:00 – 11:00
Development Projects
Work on replacing the poor guttering has begun (this will also include
installing the water butt for the Nature Garden).
The working group, looking into the refurbishment of the ladies and
disabled loos are now looking into local builders and a few names have
been put forward. There is no urgency for this work (the toilets are
functional) and any work would be best carried out during the quieter
period, after the summer.
Caretaking
Cleaner still employed.
Rob Traynor
Chair, UVHAT
Blewbury Post Office News
Here are the updated opening times for Blewbury Post Office! I’m away in
August, with no extra staff! Sarah should be taking over on the 12th, we’ll
be closed until approximately 11am, as the auditors will be there checking
everything!
Our opening times for August are as follows,
Mondays 8.30 to 12 noon and 2.30 to 5pm
Tuesdays 8.30 to 12 noon and 2.30 to 5pm
Wednesdays 8.30 to 12 noon
Thursdays 9 to 12 noon
Fridays 9 to 12 noon and 2.30 to 5pm
The following days we are closed;
Wednesday 16th August closed
Friday 18th closed for the afternoon
Monday 21st, Tuesday 22nd and Thursday 23rd closed
(open Thursday 24th and Friday 25th mornings only)
Monday 28th Bank Holiday closed
Tuesday 29th closed also Friday 1st for the afternoon
Thank you for being patient!
Karen, Maggie, Andrew and Sarah
Upton Village Fete
The Upton fete will be taking place on Saturday, 2nd September from 12:00 to 3:00. Lots of exciting things to do including:
A fun dog show – bring your pooch (it doesn’t need to be pampered!) –there are lots of prizes to be won!
Gymnastics display
Morris dancing
Blewbury Brass Band
Classic car display and parade
Teas and cakes
Pimm’s bar
Barbeque
Kids’ area
Ice cream
Lots of stalls including plants, preserves, books, raffle, tombola and
books. Contributions welcome! Please leave books in the church porch and
tombola/raffle prizes with Katie Dickens at Midway, Prospect Road (green
box in the porch or call 0791 205 9430). Rosemary de Wilde will soon be
asking budding bakers for cakes.
We’ll need the usual help setting up on Saturday morning and dismantling
later in the day. Please let Paul Batho know if you’d like to volunteer
(pjsbatho@btinternet.com or 07794 239775).
Volunteers on the day are always needed and just now we are ‘recruiting’ in
a couple of areas:
The Barbecue – can you offer a stint for an hour or so? Training provided!
And if anyone could loan a large gas-fired barbeque for the day, that would
be great.
The Kids’ Zone – there’ll be lots of attractions and games for younger
Uptonians, and we’re looking for people to manage and supervise this area.
It’s a perfect role for the whole family!
Please let any of the organising committee know if you can help: Katie
Dickens, Nicky Hall, Paul Batho, Jessie West, Ben Shaw, Katherine Verso,
Ann Parham and Peter McLaughlin, or drop us a line on uptonfete1@outlook.com.
Ladies Wine & Tapas Night
Thank you to all the ladies who came to our Tapas and Wine evening on the
7th! A special thanks to Jacqui, for her incredible culinary skills and support with planning and setting up, Duncan, for volunteering to be our superb barman, and Brian, for supplying a great selection of wines for us to enjoy and to enter into the raffle.
It was wonderful to see so many people who are relatively new to the village, as well as those who have been involved in village events for a number of years. For some, for differing reasons, this was the first opportunity they had to socialise with villagers -something I feel is incredibly important.
We were also welcomed by our very active and supportive female counsellors Cllr Debra Dewhurst and Cllr Sally Povolotsky. For a small group of 21 women, we raised a respectable profit of £350 for our charities – £225 for our Village Hall Association Trust, and £125 donated to Blewbury Preschool. The school have given us a card and passed on their thanks to the village. They rely on fundraising to keep open, and every little donation really does make a difference to keeping this incredible facility for local families.
Nichola Hall
New Photographic Competition
Summer – from now until 30th September.
Three categories –
1. Upton and Surrounding Area.
2. Birds – any kind: sitting, flying, eating and
from anywhere.
3. People/Person – at work, play, holiday,
family, friends or stranger
Good luck and get snapping!
Entries should be in JPEG format (highest
resolution you can manage) and emailed to –
upton.photo@outlook.com
Rob Traynor
Upton Village Fete
Upton fete will be taking place on Saturday, 2nd September from 12:00 to 3:00. Lots of exciting things to do including:
A fun dog show – bring your pooch (it doesn’t need to be pampered!) –
there are lots of prizes to be won!
Gymnastics display
Morris dancing
Blewbury Brass Band
Classic car display and parade
Teas and cakes
Pimm’s bar
Barbeque
Kids’ area
Ice cream
Lots of stalls including plants, preserves, books, raffle, tombola and
books
Contributions welcome! Please leave books in the church porch and
tombola/raffle prizes with Katie Dickens at Midway, Prospect Road (green
box in the porch or call 0791 205 9430). Rosemary de Wilde will soon be
asking budding bakers for cakes.
We’ll need the usual help setting up on Saturday morning and dismantling
later in the day. Please let Paul Batho know if you’d like to volunteer
(pjsbatho@btinternet.com or 07794 239775).
But above all, keep the date free and tell all your friends!
Upton Nature Garden
The grass is high, there’s elderflower in the air and the swallows are
swooping – the hallmarks of a classic Oxfordshire summer. In the nature
garden one villager has noted a good display of ox-eye daisies, viper’s
bugloss, campion and purple loosestrife. The roses, irises and honeysuckle
are blooming too. Also spotted: cherries on the tree Caroline planted for
Kit.
We’ve been asked by the PC to say whether the garden ‘is where it should
be in terms of appearance and plant development’. Interesting question.
We planted according to a design drawn up by a professional
horticulturalist, using plans and some computer renderings of what the
garden might look like in a few years. You can see them on the nature
garden website (www.nature-garden.co.uk). You can also see a fab bit of
tech magic courtesy of Brian, showing how the site looked before we began
the transformation and how it looks now. I think that’s a fair reflection of
where we are. But it’d be great to hear from you, especially if you’d had
different expectations of the nature garden, so we can feed back views
from everyone.
And while we’re talking about the garden’s genesis, it’s worth remembering
that every penny spent on the garden [£6,700], including all materials,
plants, trees and equipment has been covered by grants or donations.
Creating and maintaining the space has been entirely down to our excellent
and enthusiastic volunteers. Thank you.
Which brings me to:
Working party on Saturday 1 July, 10am
Please join if you can for a maintenance session – plenty of light tasks
available or heavier jobs if you fancy a workout.
All ages and abilities welcome. Cake and drinks.
We look forward to seeing you if you have any time to spare.
Kieron Humphrey
St. Mary’s Vestry Project
Great news – after more than five years’ planning and saving, the project to
refurbish the church vestry is now going ahead! When complete, it will
provide a WC (for the first time in more than 900 years!) and new catering
facilities that will enable the church building to be used more widely as a
resource for everyone in the community.
Work is due to start at the end of July and it will take about 8 weeks. As it is
mostly within the existing building, noise and disturbance to neighbours
should be minimal but we will directly contact everyone who might be
affected in advance to let you know exactly what is happening and to
answer any questions.
The only thing that will affect Upton residents as a whole will be the
temporary closure of Church Street outside the church itself for a short
period towards the end of the project (so probably around the end of
September) to allow for a connection to be made to the main sewer. Full
details will be published later but access to all properties will not be
interrupted.
We are immensely grateful for all the generous contributions from Uptonians
and from others further afield, plus a number of significant grants, which
have made this project possible. We are planning an opening ceremony in
the autumn – look out for details in due course.
Paul Batho and Jessie West – Churchwardens
Uptonogood 2023
This year’s Uptonogood? takes place on Saturday 17th June and will be the 10th occasion we’ve held
the event! Conceived to raise money for the village hall extension the event began in 2010.
Since then the event has helped fund many village facilities including:
Village Hall Extension
Village Hall Kitchen
Village Hall PA system
New Adventure Play Area
Pump Track
Ride on Mower
Marquees
Nature Garden
Friends of St. Mary’s
In all, £76K has been distributed to local projects and groups. Full details of
these can be found at www.uptonogood.org.uk/fundraising/. We are very
proud of this record but are acutely aware that it is only made possible by
the support of Upton village residents.
We need around 60 volunteers to fill the variety of roles needed on the day.
These include marshalling on the routes, pre-riding and sweeping the routes,
staffing registration and finishing line, serving tea and cake, beer and cider,
chilli and burgers! If you think you’re qualified to wear a high-vis and would
like to volunteer please sign up at www.uptonogood.org.uk/volunteer/. In
return we will make a £25 donation to a charity of your choosing. In
addition, you will get tea, a piece of cake, a pint, and a burger (or veggie
chilli) as a thank you for helping the day.
Get Ready, Set, Bake for Uptonogood 2023
The wonderful homemade cakes sold at Uptonogood are always a huge hit
with the people that visit our village.
WE NEED YOUR HELP TO MAKE THIS YEAR BETTER THAN EVER!
We need everything from flapjacks, muffins and scones to cakes and tray
bakes.
You can drop off your cakes to Jacqui at Shearbarn Cottage, Pound Lane,
between 2-5pm on Friday, 16th June or please bring them to the village hall
before 10am on Saturday, 17th June.
Proceeds will be going to the Upton Village Hall to help with much needed
continued upgrades to our toilets and also other maintenance.
Thank you
UVHAT Trustees
If you prefer to dust off your bike and ride the wonderful tracks we have
about us, then great! You can sign up for the ride of your choice at
www.uptonogood.org.uk/enter/
Finally, if you can’t picture yourself on a bike or wearing a high-vis don’t
worry, we have your back! Purchase Adult Music Only tickets (kids free)
from www.uptonogood.org.uk/tickets/ and invite your family and friends
to kick back and revel in the music.
Thank you for your continued support,
Bob Lott & Mike Tibbets
Organising Team
Email: info@uptonogood.org.uk
Web: www.uptonogood.org.uk
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