April 1999

Thanks to the Rudston Parish Council for generously sponsoring the April Newsletter.

Editorial:

Apologies to Dick Robinson who delivered his April Gardening article the other day, not suspecting that our dog – Poppy – would enjoy an hour or two chewing up his efforts! Many thanks to Dick for bringing an alternative article. (I intend to make a mail box which will be fastened to the porch trellis).

A warm welcome to any new inhabitants of Rudston.

The subject of teenagers comes up again this month with a couple of letters received. I can understand some of what is said – there have been fairly general comments made about teenagers causing problems. But as usual the majority go unnoticed and get on with their lives. The "good kids" know who they are and so do their parents. I know, because I have the pleasure of teaching some of the village teenagers. They are a credit to their parents.

Cheers, Colin.

After living in Rudston for nearly 58 years, Mr & Mrs Martin Thompson have now moved into Bridlington. We would like to send them lots of love.

We would also like to welcome the Sheard Family to Rudston and hope they are very happy at "Barley View."

Obituary It is with much sadness I have to report that Norah Dawson has passed away. Norah was a Club social member for some years and which she thoroughly enjoyed. They moved to Hornsea and joined a club there. She was known as a very kind and caring person and always had time to listen. Our most sincere condolences go to Jon and his family at this time.

There will not be a general meeting so I would like to remind you the annual subscription is now due. It remains at £15 per person. NEW MEMBERS ARE VERY WELCOME and if you have not played before, no problem, we have Club bowls and members willing to help. Perhaps you would be happy to try us out before joining?

Maintenance of Green Alwyn Ward and Arthur Moore have kindly consented to cut the green and maintain the condition (not an easy task by any means) and Duncan Corner will do it on Saturdays for Sundays matches as before. Once again, on behalf of all of us I would like to thank them for their continuing support. From time to time they will need extra help and if they could call on you at odd times please let me know.

It is Very Important that I have the following information before 23rd APRIL to enable me to organise our competitions.

League Games Tuesdays and Thursdays The Driffield Association League Games start Tuesday 11th May. We have entered 3 teams again and need at least 30 players to cover for illness and holidays.

Wednesday Triples League starts 12th May. We play alternative teams to enable everyone who wants to take part to do so.

Philip Proctor Memorial Cup Triples to be played 5/6 designated Sundays, May - September.

Club Competitions All members will be entered in the appropriate competitions - Ladies, Gents, Pairs and Open Singles unless I hear otherwise before 23rd April.

Cleaning Rota In the past we have had a very successful rota and if you can help this year we would be most grateful.

Pavilion Annual Cleaning Day Thursday 15th April from 9.00 a.m. Please come if you can help.

Opening Day hopefully will be Saturday 10th April, providing the weather permits.

First Club Game will be a Domino on Sunday 2nd May. Number of bowls to be decided. NEW PLAYERS may like to join in as it is a fun game. Club bowls available but flat shoes must be worn (not trainers). Entrance 50p to be used as prizes. Entries for this no later than 27th April.

Competition to Design an Emblem entries are invited from Members of the Driffield and District Affiliated Bowls Clubs to design an emblem which can be adapted to identify the Association.

A Reminder That All Villagers and their friends are always welcome on the Playing Field to join a Club or spectate. The Playing Field belongs to us all.

Further information, Pauline Warters,

We Would like You To Come and Have a

Cup of Tea or Coffee and Chat

At

2.30 – 4.30 p.m.

Every 2nd Tuesday of the Month

At

White Cottage, near the Bridge

All Welcome

At Lamplugh House

Clive Urquhart, Jarrod Cooper

And Paul Gutteridge

For further information contact:

Lamplugh House

Thwing, Driffield

East Yorkshire

YO25 0DY

Tel. 01262 470282

Kingdom Faith Ministries is a Registered

Charity (No 278746)

Having read the comments in the Newsletter last month about ‘unruly teenagers’ (most unfortunately given the same description as dogs and in the same sentence, perhaps to be dealt with in the same way, I wonder!), I would like to compliment the villagers on the provision that you have in fact made for these teenagers over the last couple of years. Since it is a multi-purpose building for many others in the village, of course it makes an excellent place for a Youth Club. No it isn’t the Village Hall with pleasant facilities, it’s just one square yard of the village that you so generously allow them to go. Neat, red, usually good repair, conveniently situated, well lit, parking alongside. On warm evenings there’s a nice grassy bank for outside activities and provides good shelter on cold and rainy nights, although a little cramped when 3 or more attend. A telephone is provided and shelving for books, purses and make-up. Shelves also make ideal seating arrangements for discussions.

I’m told that the comments made last month were a good representation of the majority of villagers. Well, they are not representative of mine. Your hostility towards them will teach them to fight back and continue to be disrespectful. We reap what we sow. Now take another look at the village teenagers and you will see the fruits of the bitter seeds you have sown.

As for "village bobbies", perhaps you could more constructively use your time by setting up something for them.

If the girls are fed up with this situation, then please, with the permission of your parents, come to my house on Friday at 7.30 p.m. prompt, to discuss. Miss it, Miss out!!!

The situation is the same in many of the surrounding villages and provision can be made for you. Some of us do care about you and are willing to help you.

Girls and parents can contact me: Mrs Susan Lyons.

Congratulations to the Domino Team on WINNING the Hunmanby & District division two, fives and three’s Domino League intheir first season back in competition after a few years out of the league.

The winning team consisted of the Captain, Peter Lingard, his wife, Barbara, the Rev. Stephen Cope, Albert Pritchard, Dave Hammill, K ‘Steve’ Stephenson, Tom Sheldirick and Tony Hogan. With occasional help from Dave Sellars. Next up is the team knock out and the Division Winners Competition – let’s hope the good play continues and they walk away with all three trophies!

MILLENNIUM New Year’s Eve 1999 plans are still being formulated for this exceptional night. Details should be available by the next newsletter.

At the time of writing before the meeting of the 24th March, the paperwork regarding Parish Council Elections has just been received. What a lot of it there is aswell! There are the usual 11 places to fill and I notice there are 13 lots of forms, so if anyone not currently on the Parish Council fancies it, please contact me either directly or via any present member, for your paperwork. Of course, at this moment I don’t know if all 11 present members are standing again. Should there be more than 11 names put forward, there will have to be a proper election in the Village Hall on 6th May, which the Parish Council would have to meet the costs of. On the other hand, if less than 11 names are forwarded, we shall then have a few weeks in which to co-opt a new member or two. Anyway, by the time you read this, notices about it all should have appeared on the notice boards.

Now I hear there is some speculation about the old car park, so here is an update as I understand it. It has not been mentioned for a few months because after our Chairman’s meeting with the East Riding of Yorkshire Council chap at Driffield Court last year, I was hoping to have some good news any time soon. Unfortunately, these things don’t move as quickly as that, and the news when it came (after some prompting) was not all good. It seems that through some ‘loop-hole’, if the car park were to be given by the Parish Council to a local VAT zero-rated organisation (for instance Village Hall Committee), no rates would be liable. We had been led to believe that this would apply to the alledged back-debt aswell. However, it now seems that this is not true, and the ‘no rates’ would only apply if the car park were to be re-opened under the aforementioned zero-rated organisation. Unless the Chairman has any further news this week, that’s where it stands at the moment.

A reply has been received from Highways Department. In turning down our latest request to consider the widening of South Back Lane, they very impressively quoted the actual date in 1992 of the original request. Their computers didn’t start with a blank when they moved to Beverley after all! Also they promised to come into the village to inspect all round for any more pot-hole repairs required, and to act accordingly.

An interesting thing for the Parish Council (and maybe everyone else) to think about, is that we are being asked to make any Nomination for honours which might be deemed worthy locally. The Lieutenancy Office, on instruction from government Cabinet Office, is looking for "potential recipients for the lowest level of award at ‘grass roots’ level". The type of person they are looking for will have been a nurse or dinner-lady or something for years and be good with old people with a particular interest in teenagers and drug problems. That’s my interpretation, but any suggestions welcomed.

P. Crossland (Clerk)

Saturday 24th July,

a BIG fun day with lots to do and all for the good of the village hall.

The first meeting of the steering committee took place recently where ideas, plans and suggestions were abundant (look at the name for the event!).

Starting at 2 p.m. on the field at the side of the Bosville Arms. It is intended to erect a large marquee (just in case our Vicar’s direct line fails to produce good weather!). During the afternoon there will be hot dogs, burgers, ice-cream etc, along with a table of crafts, jams, cakes and the like for sale. Also a tombola, raffle, games, donkey rides and entertainment. We are hoping to obtain the services of a magician/clown to entertain the children. A local pipe band has offered to open the fair.

In the evening, when the children have left, it is planned to have a big barbecue.

The ball is rolling! To make it a day to remember, it will need as much help from everybody as they can give.

We will need assistance and input - from baking cakes, to assisting on stalls, to organising tombolas, running barbecues and every little thing that needs to be done to raise the funds for the Village Hall Millennium Refurbishment.

SO! On MONDAY 12th APRIL we are holding an OPEN MEETING in the restaurant at the Bosville Arms. Starting at 8 p.m. – we look forward to seeing everyone there! Do come along and support your own village. Every little bit of help and every little constructive suggestion will be most welcome.

If you are unable to make the meeting but feel you could help in some way, contact the Rev. Stephen Cope, Tony Hogan, Peter or Barbara Lingard.

This is the month when I never am sure whether to start planting out, the sweet peas are hardened off and can be set into their summer quarters, but the young pentstemons, violas, osterospermums and early flowering chrysanths are a bit risky, yet I suppose any time now they will be planted. Certainly this is a good time to plant evergreens, holly, laurel, aucuba, in fact all evergreens can be moved now. We expect the soil temperature to rise steadily from now on, and again don’t forget to water newly planted shrubs if we have a dry spell. A mulch round with compost or manure helps to keep the soil moist and allows new roots to reach out and start their job of water absorption and feeding the plant. The slugs are active too, especially where new shoots of lupins and delphiniums are developing. Slug baits are fine but the senior gardeners used to place fire ash around the plants believing that slugs would not pass over a course surface. It’s also time to take stem cuttings of these two popular herbaceous flowers, pieces about six inches long cut off just below ground level, before the stems become hollow. place in a sandy compost in a cold frame and shade from the sun, when they will soon root and make healthy virile plants: its a good way or keeping any special coloured varieties as cutting come true to their parents. Keep a watch for frosts and cover the frames with an old mat or sack, there is still time for a real killer!!

These days we seem to have self blanching celery in the shops and never the longer white or pink kinds that were the main sorts grown in gardens and the commercial moss lands of Lancashire. The reason is the relative ease with which the self-blanching is produced compared with the old long sticks. The Show gardeners still grow these long ones, a visit to the Autumn Shows gives an opportunity to see these giants, along with the potatoes, onions, carrots, leeks and parsnips. My early gardening at Thorpe Hall included experience in making trenches for celery and having to dig the mature sticks out of frozen ground during the winter. Celery needs the very best of cultivation, and care with the temperatures when seedlings, otherwise plants can run to seed in the first year; the same can happen if the plants are allowed to get too dry, celery loves moisture. Trenches are prepared a foot deep, with the soil placed on each side, ready for earthing up later, and good rotted manure is dug into the trench, which are about two spade widths. Hardened off plants are set into the trench nine inches apart and soil earthed round the plants only when they have made lots of growth, this is a finishing process simply blanching the stems, leaving the foliage uncovered. All this work takes a lot of the time and energy, so its easy to see why the self-blanching varieties are grown, yet a good trench celery, especially after a frost, takes a bit of beating. Slugs, snails and fly can spoil celery, and on heavy clay land that has been well manured slugs are still a real problem. Wrapping the plants with paper before earthing up was an old trick, and dusting the foliage with old soot was the way to keep the celery fly away; these days we try slug baits and modern insecticides. For those keen gardeners who fancy having a go at trench celery we have a number of varieties, Giant Red, a sort that stands very cold weather, yes even that extreme frost we had last December, an old but well loved white sort is the Fenlander, an earlier one that came originally from a farmer in that area, a Mr Hopkins. At Thorpe Hall in the 1940’s we grew Carters Ivory, and Standard Beaver, rows of these in the old walled gardens. I don’t expect the later sorts are any better but as I do not grow celery now myself, its only my opinion!! Old gardeners often think like that. Self-blanching celery is planted about a foot apart on rich land, kept well fed and watered, it blanches itself by being closely planted. Incidentally we have one of the best commercial celery growers in the country in our East Riding at Tickton.