South Oxfordshire
Brownies and Guides start again at the beginning of September. A new Guide company is starting on Tuesday evenings, 7.30 to 9.00 pm in the village hall. Starting age is 10 years. If any girl is interested in joining the first meeting is 16th September. Emma Austin will be the guider in charge and Gill Birch her assistant.
Angela Newlands
Congratulations to all the Upton teenagers who have recently passed their exams with flying colours!
Special congratulations to Tim Traynor who is taking a Gap Year to travel and then is off to St. Marys, Twickenham to study Psychology and to Anna Hardy who is off to Bournemouth University to study Art.
Also congratulations to Kate Hardy, Georgina Traynor, Steph Davies and Zac Walker who have all done extremely well in their G.C.S.E.s this summer.
Congratulations to Karen and Richard Fenn on the birth of their baby son George William who arrived on 11 August, weighing 9lbs 3ozs.
Our thanks to all those who turned up in not the best of weather to help with work on improving the safety surfaces in the children’s play area.
Unfortunately the work did not go to plan due to the unexpected nature of the existing surface. Having rethought our ideas we would like your assistance again in few weeks time to continue the work of improving safety in the play area and improving the usefulness of the ball wall.
It’s now a couple of years since the last makeover of the web site, and time and software has moved on.
Over the course of the next few weeks the site will be migrated to use new technology, which will hopefully make it easier to use for viewers and contributors alike. We hope to be able to keep most of the previous material, but please bear with us – with over 240 documents, 350 photographs, 560 events and 350 articles to move, there’s quite a lot to manage. Not to mention some exciting new features we hope to add…
Mary Gutfreund turned 80 on the 8th August, and to celebrate the occasion she brought in cake to the Drop-in session the day before.
Drop-in session, 7th August
This is a Ringmaster message from Thames Valley Police.
On Friday 8th August 2008 a property in Beeching Close, Upton, was burgled. Offenders gained entry to the property by forcing the back door, carried out an untidy search and electrical items were stolen. If you have seen any suspicious people or vehicles in the area, please contact the Police on 08458 505 505 and quote URN 1493 of 8th August 2008.
At the regionals
Two youngsters from the village are working hard at their swimming.
Tony West died on June 23rd after a short illness.
Tony West was a much-loved husband, father and grandfather, a very good friend to so many and a pillar of our village community.
He was born in Penarth; and it was here that he developed his two big interests in life, everything to do with nature and a love of music. At the age of 13 he started playing the organ in his parish church and so started a lifelong love of organs and organ music. After leaving school Tony went on to study Electrical Engineering at Cardiff Technical College. In 1962 he moved to this area to work for UKAEA, first at Harwell and later at Culham where he stayed until he retired in 1993.
Also in 1962 Tony married Jessie and they moved into their present bungalow as soon as it was completed. Soon after moving to Upton, Tony started playing the organ at Hagbourne church, 10 years later he became full time organist at both Upton and Blewbury and played there and at other churches in the local benefice from then onwards. He was a churchwarden at St Mary’s for the last 20 years and spent countless hours helping to maintain the church and the churchyard. He was particularly involved during the interregnum, and the new lighting, which he designed and installed, will be a long-lasting memorial.
Nor did it take long for Tony to begin his massive contribution to the wider village community. As far back as 1967 he was one of the team who decided that Upton needed a new village hall to replace the existing wooden shed. There was a good deal of self-help involved and Tony was in charge of anything electrical. He was never far away when anything had to be done in the village. Time and again he and Jessie organised functions in the village hall and he became the expert mover of chairs and tables, he helped at the annual fete or simply with something that needed doing to tidy up the village. Only a month ago he was busy in the recreation ground doing his bit on the grass-cutting rota. For several years Tony served on the parish council, including a stint as its chairman.
Tony was also always prepared to help someone in need. He was an original member of the Local Ministry Team for the benefice and on his retirement from UKAEA he undertook voluntary work installing and maintaining personal alarms for the elderly. So many in the village will recollect occasions when his expertise with electrics or computers rescued them in an emergency.
For all these reasons, as well as for his placid good humour, his perpetual goodwill and tolerance, and his selfless service Tony will be sadly missed, by his family, by his countless friends and by our whole community. We thank him for all he did for us.
Upton Open Gardens was held on Sunday 29 June.