A community day on the recreation ground with a range of food, sports and fun activities from 11am -4.30pm
A litany of road safety and parking issues have arisen around the new Histon & Impington Park Primary School since it moved to its new building on Glebe Way, the main B1049 road to Cottenham.
Major concerns have arisen about the speed of traffic passing the entrance to the school and the adequacy of safety measures.
The problems have led head teacher Jonathan Newman to survey parents and carers about their concerns and write to neighbours about the measures being taken by the school to address the problems, with a list of suggested improvements.
He said: “I am sure that you will understand that currently a significant amount of my time is taken up with dealing with issues around traffic and parking and many of these are completely out of my control. We do however want to work, wherever possible, with local residents and we will endeavour to keep you informed of any developments moving forward.”
Local councillors are in discussion with the school about the problems and a public meeting will be arranged with County Councillor Ros Hathorn.
Safety issues
Speedwatch volunteers have been monitoring traffic approaching the school crossing and found that between 5 and 10% of vehicles passing the school entrance are speeding, mostly between 35 and 40mph, though one was clocked at 53mph.
A Speedwatch coordinator commented: “People just don’t seem to realise that they are over the limit, and of course you will always get those who are in a rush.
“Our aim is to be overt as a reminder to people that they should be at the correct speed limit in our village to ensure safety of all our residents. The police will also attend and carry out sessions where they can issue fines, if there is a particular problem area.”
The school is encouraging parents and carers to raise their concerns with the Highways department at Road.Safety@cambridgeshire.gov.uk and to lobby the local authority. It would favour a 20mph speed limit and is awaiting written feedback from a formal Road Safety Audit that has taken place. In the meanwhile, the speed warning signs, which were initially placed too close to the crossing and also currently have the wrong form of display, will be replaced further away from the crossing.
As a result of earlier lobbying, the length of crossing time at the traffic light outside the school was increased by 40% in February, and the school is hopeful that its request for double yellow lines on Cottenham Road will also be successful.
At the crossing itself, the width of the path is thought to be too narrow, and the school is hoping that an adjacent verge will be either tarmacked or slabbed to address this.
Parents and carers believe the pedestrian barriers at the crossing are too short, but the Highways authority is adamant that such barriers cause more problems than they solve, due to the risk of pedestrians becoming trapped against the railings as they cross the road. They have been progressively been removing similar pedestrian railings elsewhere in the interest of safety.
The introduction of speed bumps has also been suggested, but neighbours are concerned that these would create a wider problem due to the noise levels from large commercial vehicles.
Parking
In the school survey, some parents complained of a lack of sympathy for people who have to drive to school.
Local residents have been raising concerns about the need for parking in the area and Parish Councillor Yvonne Murray and Edd Stonham of Greenleas Estate Management Ltd have been working with the headteacher and the children in the School Eco Group to create signs for the Greenleas Estate about where not to park.
The school is also drawing up a 5 minute/10-minute walking map to identify more places for parents/carers to park safely.
The Parish Council is encouraging the community to a look at the suggestions and issues raised in the head teacher’s letter and responses have been received to a post on its website. Several of these also relate to parking.
One comment raises problems caused by “a staff car park with inadequate capacity” and notes that “these potential problems were brought up time and time again by residents during the planning consultation for the new school. It rather makes a mockery of planning consultation when important issues like these apparently fall on deaf ears!”
Another points out that some parents have no option but to drop their children at the school by car: “I was able to cycle whilst we were in lockdown but now must work at the office in Cambridge, starting at 9.30. To arrive on time, I have to drive. I am left with no option but to park on nearby residential roads which understandably frustrates those that live there, despite my attempts to be as considerate as possible… the location was a poor choice.”
This Saturday will see our local litter picking teams head out for their next quarterly tidy up – coinciding this time with the nationwide Great British Spring Clean. Scheme founder, Cedric Foster, shares how you can get involved.
Histon & Impington Litter Pickers (HILP) was founded by Cedric Foster around eleven years ago and now has over 120 regular volunteers across the community of Histon & Impington. Every few months, these volunteers kindly give up their time to tackle the ever increasing menace of unwanted litter. This coming weekend sees the next of their regular quarterly Big Tidy Ups, falling this time within the Great British Spring Clean – a nationwide effort taking place between 28 May and 13 June targeting villages and towns right across the UK. Cedric takes up the story:
“On Saturday 5th June, we will be holding our next quarterly Big Tidy Up, and I will be on hand in the Village car park (located behind Corals Bookmakers off Histon High Street) from 9.00 am to give out equipment and bags but, just as importantly, simply to say ‘hello’. Those who can’t make the Saturday, may litter pick on Sunday 6th.
“We will be combining our efforts to coincide with The Great British Spring Clean, where similar groups will be taking part throughout the UK”.
The 100+ team of HILP volunteers already cover most areas across our village but there are always additional areas needing the help of willing volunteers. Cedric explains:
“One such area is the wooded area alongside Butt Lane, just before the Recycling Centre on the right, which is planned to be tackled on the morning of Sunday 6th. I am looking for some volunteers to join in to litter pick this area. Parking of cars and bikes will be available in the nearby Evolution Business Park car park and if you would like to join this team please get in touch with me for more details.
“There are undoubtedly also areas in the village that could just simply do with a bit of extra tender loving care. If you know of somewhere in need, or would like to join a team to clean things such as bench seats, the duck viewing platform etc., please do let me know.
“Recently we have recruited new volunteers for the bus shelters/noticeboard on School Hill and Cottenham Road. Additionally, Daniel Moore, of D G Moore Cleaning Services, who regularly cleans our local street signs free of charge, has volunteered to steam clean the round seat on the island opposite St Andrew’s Centre and clear all the vegetation beneath. He also hopes to clean all the seats on The Green and the viewing platform on The Brook”.
If you would like to offer your help to the HILP team, or have suggestions of areas needing attention, please get in touch with Cedric at cedric.jl.foster1944@btinternet.com. Alternatively, you can join the HILP dedicated Facebook page, here.
The library is now welcoming browsers aboard the bus in its new home at the recently vacated New School Road Infant School site in New School Road.
On Monday 17th May, Histon’s Mobile Library van moved to the now unoccupied Infant School site on New School Road.
This new location will see longer opening hours, with the van now being open Mondays and Thursdays from 10am until 6pm. At last it will also be possible to get on board and browse the shelves.
Friends of Histon Library are planning to run occasional book sales there, which may become a regular fixture, though this is not yet confirmed.
The first of these will be on the afternoon of Thursday 20th May, with a sale of children’s books for pocket money prices. “Do take some loose change”, say the Friends.
For information on all Friends of the Library plans and events, keep an eye on the HILF Facebook page here.
Histon FC will join the Northern Premier League under the Football Association’s long-awaited reconfiguration of the English football league. John Payne told Liz Hill about the changes afoot.
Histon FC is moving from being one of the most northerly outposts in the Isthmian League to sit in the most south-easterly corner of the Northern Premier League (NPL) following a Football Association (FA) review into the structure of non-league football.
The Bridge Road club will start the 2021/22 season in the Northern Premier League’s Midlands division.
The new 20-team league has been formed based on geographical location and Histon FC will be one of five Cambridgeshire-based clubs in the competition. The Stutes will be joined by local rivals Soham Town Rangers and Cambridge City, with Wisbech Town and Yaxley also being relocated.
They will all join nine former members of last season’s Northern Premier League, plus six clubs that have been moved across from the Southern League Central Division.
This change brings to an end the two-year period in Histon FC’s history when they were members of the Isthmian League but didn’t complete either season due to the Covid-19 restrictions.
The English Football Pyramid system allows promotion and relegation from a County League right up to the Premier League, with different leagues at different ‘steps’ in the pyramid.
The restructuring is part of the FA’s plan to create eight ‘Step 4 divisions’, giving the National League System a configuration that will reduce the need for lateral movements of clubs between the various leagues at the point of promotion and relegation between Steps 3 and 4 – something the Stutes have suffered from in recent years.
First team manager Lance Key has mixed feelings about the move. “It is disappointing in some ways in that we have come out of a league in which we have found our feet over the past two years and were starting to become competitive” he reflects.
“Going into the NPL Midland Division means we are going into the unknown in terms of the opposition we will be facing. Some clubs we already know about, such as Corby Town, Stamford, Soham Town Rangers and Cambridge City, but we will have to get our homework done on the clubs based in the West Midlands area.”
The greatest impact of the change will be on the club’s players. Everyone from last season’s first team squad was willing to return again, including players who have been loyal to Histon FC in recent years and wanted to end their playing career at the club until Covid-19 intervened.
But whether players based in Essex or working in London will be able to play, given the distances they will have to travel and fit around their normal jobs, this is far from certain. “We will have to look at all the possible scenarios for next season while organizing our pre-season schedule”, Lance said.
Supporters of the club will be faced with the additional mileage to away fixtures as a result of the re-structuring. To attend every away match next season, as many will do, fans will need to travel a total of 2,788 miles compared with the 2,066 they would have travelled last season had Covid-19 not intervened. The longest road trip will be the 230 miles to Belper Town and back on the edge of the Derbyshire Peaks district.
Despite the challenges ahead, Lance is as bullish as ever about the prospects of continuing the progress of recent years: “Things will be different next season but we will be up for it and are looking forward to having a crack at it. Sometimes changes do you good, so we will have to wait and see what it brings.”
The Stutes’ pre-season campaign gets under way on Friday 9th July when the club will be welcoming fans back, Covid precautions permitted, for an evening match against Walsham le Willows. The Histon FC league programme kicks off on Saturday 14th August.
The full list of the teams making up the Northern Premier League Midlands division is:
Bedworth United
Belper Town
Cambridge City
Carlton Town
Chasetown
Coleshill Town
Corby Town
Daventry Town
Halesowen Town
Histon
Ilkeston Town
Loughborough Dynamo
Shepshed Dynamo
Soham Town Rangers
Spalding United
Sporting Khalsa
Stamford
Sutton Coldfield Town
Wisbech Town
Yaxley
Every third Saturday of the month, Histon & Impington is visited by one of the very best Farmers Markets around, hosted within the grounds of Impington Village College. Local resident and regular visitor Nicole Barton stopped for a chat with those involved.
Covid made us acutely aware of how dependent we are on producers at every scale, and for many it was our first time ordering sacks of local potatoes, searching out local livestock farmers, signing up to the milkman or ordering a local veg box etc. Supporting our Farmers Market is a great way to continue some of the good habits we’ve picked up over the last year and, frankly, it’s just a lovely way to start your weekend. You can pop down by foot or bike, bring the dog and chat away with producers, friends and people you vaguely know whilst munching on a pastry. I met some of the stallholders to find out more about them and their passion for good food.
Riverdale Organic Farm & Farmers Market Organiser – Edwin
Edwin and his wife Karen co-ordinate the Farmers Market at IVC, serving us HisImpers in-between their more star-studded visitors, like Helen Mirren and Nigella, who frequent their Marylebone High Street pitch! Edwin has been doing the markets for 15 years, having made the shift after previously working for multinationals on their organic ranges. Realising that he was away on business too much and missing out on his children’s lives, he turned farmer.
Riverdale Organic Farm, Edwin’s organic fruit, veg, juice and herbs, are grown at his 25 acre farm in Upwell, near Wisbech. The road to organic has been a battle, he says with the public and farmers often not really understanding it. But now big farms and industrial producers are starting to copy some of their techniques, using a rotating system and bio-controls more.
Maintaining healthy soils is crucial to both the environment and to producing the good quality and range that Edwin can offer. Weeds are their biggest challenge and then it’s the deer and pigeons – Edwin’s farm has a ‘no shoot’ policy. In Edwin’s experience, heavy Roe deer trample produce and will stop at nothing to feast on radicchio, whilst Muntjacs are fussier eaters and rather short-changed in the brains department.
Edwin’s produce scores very highly on low food mileage and most of the produce is seasonal. There’s hardly any waste as they don’t have to meet the exacting standards imposed by supermarkets around length, weight and appearance. Edwin’s business is home to 23 different types of butterfly including some rare ones like the Wall. There are owls, buzzards, bats, sparrowhawks and the partridges have returned after they left the grass to grow long in their meadow.
CamCattle – Angelika
Angelika of Cam Cattle owns the famous cattle we see grazing the city’s commons and believes that supporting the local economy and local systems by purchasing produce that’s grown where we live is of vital importance. She doesn’t shy away from the word ‘killing’, and thinks it’s healthy that people make the connection between their meat and a living creature. It all helps people to make a pro-active choice to buy high welfare.
The animals are hyper-local so the food miles are tiny and there’s virtually no waste either, with Angelika selling the bones and offal, and making pies.
Angelika says that her cattle are very healthy, very rarely needing the skills of her weekday job as a vet! By selling her beef and lamb at the IVC Farmers Market, Angelika gets to keep the profits. If sold via a retailer, they’d take 90% of the profits gained from the two and a half years it takes to grow her grass fed cattle.
The White House Coffee Co Ltd – Ellen
All of Ellen and Charlie’s coffee beans are roasted 24 hours before they travel to their market spots from Essex. The White House Coffee Co Ltd has been established for 16 years and was started after Charlie, who, having set up the coffee desk at Mitsubishi, decided he wanted to run his own business. When not preparing and selling coffee, Charlie grades coffee and cocoa on the London Futures Exchange!
The stall offers resealable pouches that are popular, and the coffee sacks get upcycled into all sorts or coverings and interior decorations. Because people can purchase exactly the quantities they want, there’s very little waste. They sell Rainforest Alliance coffee that promotes replanting and regeneration where forest is lost to coffee production.
Mimi’s Handmade – Hamera
A redundancy triggered by COVID led Hamera to take the courageous decision to turn her passion for home cooking into a source of income with the setting up of her business Mimi’s Handmade; making and selling Kashmiri inspired food.
Hamera’s key product is her natural, homemade vegetable salsas made with fresh veg like black carrot, beetroot and Asian spices. She loves to research old recipes, favouring those from Persia and those passed on from her mother and grandmother. Hamera tries to use seasonal ingredients and is looking to replace some of her plastic packaging with bamboo alternatives.
Hamera has also now started selling wholesale to nurseries, independent food shops and farm outlets.
Covenham House Orchard Fayre – Kathy
Kathy has a beautiful stall filled with preserves, syrups and fruit cakes made from the produce of her Norfolk orchard. Kathy worked in legal services before setting up her business farming, harvesting, cooking and selling everything herself. She’d been thinking that Covenham House Orchard Fayre might be a semi-retirement step, but says she’s never been busier!
Kathy has 70 trees; bringing a bounty of walnuts and almonds for Christmas cakes and then the usual plum, cherry, apple etc. There’s also peach, nectarine and apricot trees whose crops can be a bit more hit and miss. Chickens provide eggs and there are hives too. Kathy focuses on seasonal products, the food miles are low and because most of the products are preserved, there’s minimal waste.
Cheese Tellers – Chris
Cheese-Tellers sell artisan products from Italy – mainly cheeses that come in a huge variety of shapes, smells and consistency. The company was founded 14 years ago by some folk working in big-pharma who were craving something different – so they started importing their favourite cheeses from producers they’d previously only visited on holiday.
Filippo, the owner, won’t sell any cheese he doesn’t like himself and everyone on the stall loves to see the faces of shoppers light up as they hear the stories behind the products. The one I bought, Basajo, is a creamy blue, aged in Passito dessert wine and its unique flavour came about quite by accident. Soldiers occupied a village in Italy where the ewe’s cheese was popular and the soldiers liked it as much as the locals. Keen to ensure supplies for themselves, the producers stashed it in barrels that had been used to hold the Passito wine. On retrieving the cheese, they discovered it had taken on a brilliant new flavour.
Chris says there’s very little waste because people can try before they buy, and so only purchase what they really like in the exact quantities they want.
Pinewood Nurseries
99% of the plants on this ornamentals stall are grown in a nursery in Ashdon near Saffron Walden, as opposed to many plants that we buy that are often imported from Holland and Belgium.
Unlike the supermarkets, smaller quantities and attention to care mean there’s much less waste. Surplus compost is put into a large steamer with a fire at the base. The heating destroys weeds and bacteria so it can be reused.
Cards in Bloom – Sue
Owner of Cards in Bloom, Sue took to taking pictures of nature and flowers over lockdown and since then has created a card collection and beautiful, colour photo-book of the images. Sue has donated 200 of her books to care homes and hospices so that those stuck indoors for this terribly long and lonely period could enjoy the beauty of nature and the changing seasons.
Sue Balding wrote the foreword and the profits from the book are split between three charities, including the Addenbrooke’s Charitable Trust.
The Farmer’s Market visits Impington Village College every third Saturday between 9am and midday. Their next scheduled visit is Saturday 19 June.
Demand for GP services is up by 50% since last year, yet staff struggling to cope with the volume of work are still facing hostility and abuse from some patients.
Firs House surgery continues to be the target of “derogatory, unfounded and sometimes aggressive and threatening comments” as patients’ frustrations boil over at the constraints on medical care created by the pandemic.
Demand for medical services in the village has grown by 50% since March 2020 and to cope with the extra work, face to face appointments have had to be limited to those assessed as having the greatest clinical need.
But not everyone is happy with the emergency arrangements. While most patients have expressed gratitude for the care the surgery has continued to provide throughout the Covid-19 crisis, the negative behaviours directed at surgery staff that HI HUB reported in March continue.
Threats, inappropriate demands, shouting and swearing, and personal insults have all been thrown at staff working flat out to provide patient care.
Firs House is leading the Covid vaccination programme in the area for a Primary Care Network of GP Practices and the team staffing the local community vaccination hubs in Milton and Over are often doing so in addition to their day jobs, sometimes working shifts at weekends, on their days off and during their annual leave.
Organising, planning and running these clinics takes a huge amount of time away from both clinical and admin staff, who at the same time, are under huge pressure from the public to deliver ‘service as usual’.
Insulting comments such as “your service is disgusting” and “this is not good enough” have led the surgery to remind people on Facebook that “our reception staff cannot create appointments where we do not have clinicians.”
Having to deal with patient hostility has been “incredibly disheartening” for the team, the surgery says, as are “inaccurate social media posts from people who have made no attempt to contact the surgery to resolve issues they may be experiencing.”
They said: “We hope you can understand why we find the suggestion that ‘GP’s are not working hard enough’, or ‘not at all’ as claimed on some media platforms, is offensive, irresponsible and not reflective of the vast majority of practices across England.
“Please understand that every member of the practice team has gone above and beyond, sometimes at the cost to themselves and their family, to ensure that the patients get the best possible care that we can deliver.”
Additional information and full contact details for Firs House Surgery can be found at their website.
From little acorns, mighty plans have grown and on 11 May the community purchase of Long Meadow and the Croft Close Set Aside finally reached completion. Amanda Borrill has been talking to the team behind this success, along with Abbey Farm’s new owners, about the journey so far and what happens next…
In July 2020, the Rowley family-owned Abbey Farm house and grounds, with its two associated plots – Croft Close Set Aside (CCSA) and Long Meadow (LM) – all went up for sale causing much concern locally over its fate. What followed next was people power at its finest; a community coming together through a unique set of circumstances with one sole aim – to preserve this historic and beautiful part of our village for future generations.
The power of the people
Resident alongside the CCSA since 1966, nature lover Moira Neal is overjoyed that completion has finally taken place. Talking to Moira, you can’t fail to be drawn in by her passion and enthusiasm for its preservation: “Yes, I am passionate about it! Over the past 21 years we have enjoyed the field with our dogs and grandchildren.
“I have always vowed I would have been like Swampy and strapped myself to a tree if any developer had got hold of it. It is such a very precious space which Tony and I have nurtured for over 20 years. As I sit writing this I can hear the purr of the highly-endangered turtle dove calling for a mate. He has chosen our field as his summer home. We are indeed very honoured as they have decreased by 93% since the 1970s.”
Early steps
A walk around the area with Howard Biddle and his wife Hilary early last summer introduced me to this area of natural beauty that I had no idea even existed and took Howard into his leading role on the Abbey Fields Task and Finish Group – a joint collaboration between the community and our Parish Council. Howard shares how he became involved.
“During the first Covid lockdown we explored a lot of local walks and were delighted to discover new woods and paths, all between Histon, Girton and Westwick, but we couldn’t understand why there were no paths marked across Abbey Fields. I therefore decided to research the process for claiming formal Rights of Way. Tentative conversations soon evolved into a campaign and then, in July, came the news that the entire Abbey Farm estate was up for sale. The Abbey Farm house was going for a high price but the price being asked for the two plots now known as Abbey Fields (CCSA and LM) seemed within reach for the village. Publicity on HI HUB, Network Magazine and local social media very quickly established overwhelming support for what we were doing.”
Asking Howard what it means to him personally to have played a part in securing this land for our community, his enthusiasm shines through: “It was a project that needed doing and I couldn’t find anyone else to do it! Unwelcome as lockdown was, it gifted me time I would never normally have had to take this on. Green spaces in urban developments are important. These two pieces of land are special both from an environmental and historical perspective. My kids enjoyed these fields and so too now will future generations. It is brilliant that we have been successful.”
Fortune favours the brave
Securing this land, however, has not been without its challenges. It is to all our fortunes that one multi-million pound offer for all three plots was subsequently withdrawn and some very good samaritans, in the form of the Jenking family, came along with the means to buy CCSA and LM – taking them off the open market and keeping them within the community.
Anthony Jenking takes up the story: “It has been a surprisingly complicated process spanning over 10 months and I’ve certainly learnt a lot on the way. Over this time I have met some amazingly talented and dedicated people that, strangely, I have yet to meet in person due to the pandemic. I can’t wait to rectify that!
“Essentially we (myself and my wife Bogusia) have bought CCSA and LM and covered the related costs for the short-term. Unfortunately, we’re not in a position to donate all of the money, so our aim has been to ensure that the land was off the market and ‘safe’. Now that this has been achieved, our group has more time to organise and deliver a permanent solution, to ensure the fields can remain a community asset in perpetuity. We’re also excited to be able to open that process up to the wider community now that the private sale has been completed.
“Although I’ve lived in the area for over 20 years, I had no idea that the CCSA existed. When I talked to friends in the village, it seemed that a good proportion of them were also unaware of this incredible piece of land on our doorstep. My aspiration is that, if we can make this a success, we can replicate the process again: our group has dreams of a “Histon Loop” where people can walk around the village on connected fields and pathways. It might take a lifetime to realise but this is a great first step!
“This is the first big community effort I’ve been involved in and I have been bowled over by the spirit that has been displayed. The people of Histon & Impington are just as special as the environment we live in.”
With completion of the sale of Abbey Fields, comes a new chapter in the life of the Abbey Farm estate and I asked Anthony how he saw the relationship between the Task Group and the new house owners evolving. “Obviously I don’t wish to speak for them, but we should bear in mind that a huge task lays ahead for them with renovation of the house and grounds. This is likely to keep them very busy for the foreseeable future. I can say though, throughout the sale process they have been incredibly supportive of all we are aiming to achieve and I see them being a fantastic asset to the community.”
Abbey Farm – the next chapter
So, just who are the new buyers of the Abbey Farm estate? I had the pleasure of speaking to one half of the husband and wife team behind the purchase – Michael Watson. Michael oozed enthusiasm for their return to the village he grew up in and it was clear that he and his wife Sue are keen to build a harmonious and long lasting relationship with the community.
Michael’s family connection with the villages goes back many generations with his great-great grandfather once owning the windmill and his sons running Loves Butchers. His parents still live in the village and, until her recent retirement, his mother, Rosemary, worked in Barclays Bank here on our High Street. Michael tells more:
“I have very fond memories of Abbey Farm (or Rowley’s as it was always called) particularly at times of the Feast Parade where the procession would assemble on the drive, before starting its journey through the High Street. With that as the background, it is therefore a privilege (if not also a little daunting!) to be stewards of the next chapter for Abbey Farm.
“We welcome the enthusiasm from the village community in trying to bring some of the grounds into public ownership and have been working hard, alongside Howard Biddle and other members of the Task and Finish Group, to allow this vision to be brought to reality. What amounts to almost 40% of the original Abbey Farm grounds will be designated permanently as open spaces to be enjoyed by everyone. This is a fantastic achievement and the newly named ‘Abbey Fields’ will, I’m sure, be the envy of many other villages who could only wish to achieve a similar result.
“We will be taking up residence on 11 May, and our initial focus will be to renovate the main house, as well as restore and find new uses for the historic farm buildings within the grounds. There is also a lot of general catch-up maintenance to make safe a number of damaged or diseased trees and ensure the rather unique natural environment can be preserved for the long term. You may notice therefore increasing levels of activity in the coming months as various equipment, materials and people are brought in to help with these tasks”.
Over recent weeks, the erection of new signs on the estate has prompted questions on local social media. I asked Michael about these and how he sees the relationship developing between his family and the community. His response was a fair one:
“The Rowley family were generous over the years in hosting events and allowing access to their land. Once our initial projects are completed, we too will look to find ways for others to enjoy the grounds. In the meantime, we hope people will understand our need to balance that against the privacy we all expect in our family homes. Many of you will have seen the new signs we have erected to help identify the areas that will have public access, as opposed to those that will remain private. We are really pleased with how this has been respected so far and we thank you for your continued understanding as we work through sorting out a new future for Abbey Farm. We look forward to strengthening old friendships and creating many new ones as we settle back into the village.”
Turning pledges into hard cash
As completion is finalised, the team reaches the most difficult part of all – raising the money needed to buy this land for the community. A call for pledges in August last year saw offers totalling over £130,000 and now the time has come for these pledges to be turned into hard cash. Fundraising lead on behalf of the Abbey Fields group is Kate Brierton. Kate told me what drove her to take up this challenging role and how it is planned to gather in these vital funds:
“I have been walking the land around Abbey Fields nearly every day with my family for the last 15 years and when I heard it had come up for sale, I immediately wanted to protect it from development. I’m a clinical psychologist and there is lots of research showing that contact with nature is good for emotional and physical wellbeing. The importance of this has been underlined by the pandemic and I feel these green spaces have been invaluable during this period.
“Our minimum target is £450,000 to cover the purchase cost but our ambition is to raise significantly more than this so that we can invest the surplus to provide income to cover the cost of the upkeep. I am looking forward to collecting more pledges from individuals and local companies, as well as organising fundraising events and grant applications. Most of the funds will come from individuals in the local community but we will also be applying for grants both from local authorities and other grant awarding bodies that focus on environmental conservation. A charity is being established under our Parish Council so donors can be confident in our objectives and accountability. The fundraising and collection of pledges will take place after the charity we are forming is registered.
“It’s amazing what you can achieve with a group of like-minded people working towards a common objective. Now we’ve secured the land – I can’t wait to get started on this next phase!”
Community Action
To inform, educate and involve the whole community, a village meeting is planned. This will take place at 7.30pm on 10 June and will give everyone the opportunity to hear more from the team involved about their next steps. More details on how to join this meeting will be made available on the Abbey Fields website, here on HI HUB and across local social media.
The team is also looking for people willing to get involved with fundraising. If you have experience in fundraising or a just passion to help, please contact Kate Brierton at kate@brierton.net.
You can find out more about the project, the land and its archaeological history at the Abbey Fields website, here.
Previously on HI HUB:
https://www.hihub.info/news/unanimous-backing-for-abbey-fields-community-campaign/
https://www.hihub.info/news/abbey-farm-sale-progressing-slowly-but-surely/
https://www.hihub.info/news/optimism-grows-as-mystery-bidder-withdraws-from-abbey-farm-purchase/
Members of The Men’s Shed in Histon have been out painting our high street planters to bring some cheer to the village. Member Cedric Foster explains why.
Over the course of last week, six members of The Men’s Shed group have been out painting the 11 wooden planters in Histon High Street and on School Hill.
The reason I decided to start the ball rolling was to give everyone a lift after the last 12 months and to attract more people to the village to enjoy our many amenities. I was also inspired by the newly created planter outside Estelle’s, the beauty salon on Histon High Street, which was painted in keeping with her shop.
Starting on Monday 26 April, six Shed members – Bill Muncey, David Collins, Mike Salmon, Bill Bailey, Roger Clarke and myself – painted the planters over the course of a few days. Histon & Impington Parish Council provided us with £100 for the project and several of the planter owners contributed towards the cost too. I gave each owner the opportunity to choose their preferred colour and I’m pleased to say all received their first choice.
The Shed, based in Histon, is part of UK Men’s Sheds Association. This organisation helps tackle isolation and feelings of loneliness in men, through meeting like-minded people, having someone to share their worries with and gaining a renewed sense of purpose and belonging through practical projects that help the community.
About five years ago, village residents, Helena Perry and Erika Hunt, along with myself, got the support of traders and the Parish Council to install these planters and Erika has lovingly cared for them since. Although she will still continue to tend the plants, she will be unable to continue watering them from the end of April, so we’ve asked the owners to water them and would like people in the village to give them a drink too, especially during hot, dry spells.
We’d love to hear your ideas about what other community projects Shed members can work on together and if you, or anyone you know, would like to join The Old Forge Men’s Shed email us on: oldforgeshed@gmail.com
Dance for Fitness & Wellbeing will re-start on Wednesday 14th April for 6 weeks after Spring Bank Holiday, initially on Zoom but may transfer back into the Community Room on the Recreation Ground if is allowed.
It is a fun way to get fit in a small space. The class consists of a general warm up, followed by a section where we practice steps over and over and then usually about six dances choreographed to individual tracks varying from Jive, Salsa to Street Dance and even Banghra.
If you are interested in joining this class please e-mail Cathy Middleton catherine.middleton749@btinternet.com who will send the Zoom information.