NEWS AND EVENTS

Past or future events shown on this page mostly apply to the whole village, or are meetings (or other events) open to non-members of the organisations concerned. For full lists of meetings, see the diaries of individual organisations. For church services, see the churches section.

Children's Easter Banner Dedication

The photo shows children of Whiteparish All Saints C of E Primary School with the Easter Banner they have created during their Christian Club, XTREME.

The Ven. Alan jeans dedicated the banner during the school Maundy service where the children re-enacted The Passion in the church and surroundings. The Archdeacon then dedicated the school’s new classroom and enjoyed a celebration tea party with the children, parents and staff. For a photo of the banner by itself, click here.

Annual Fireworks Display

The 2007 fireworks display was held on the Memorial Ground on Saturday 10th November; in clear and not-too-cold weather. Profits from the display go to All Saints School, and the school are most grateful to Pains Fireworks for their generosity in staging yet another spectacular display. The school also wants to thank the many villagers and others who bought tickets and enjoyed not only the fireworks but the extra attractions, which included hot dogs, candyfloss, hot chestnuts and mulled wine, and fairground rides for younger children; also the parents and others who helped with the organisation. The final profit was a very impressive £4,300 or so, a new record for the event.
For photographs, click here.

"Slum Survivor" Challenge

Slum Survivor was part of a joint initiative between two charities—Soul Survivor and Tearfund—which took place in Winterslow and Whiteparish at the end of October 2007, and in which 18 local teenagers took part. The aim was to raise young people's awareness by simulating the slum conditions in which one billion people live worldwide. For more information about the project and some more photos, click here.

Annual Pumpkin Show and Halloween Fancy Dress Competition, 2007

Whiteparish Garden Club held their annual Halloween Fancy Dress and Pumpkin evening on October 25th. It was a great success with 22 children taking part and 40 entries in the various classes. There were some weird and wonderful outfits together with imaginatively decorated pumpkins. Lynn Walworth, who very kindly agreed to be Judge for the evening, had her work cut out in having to choose the winners in each category. However, after much deliberation, she selected the following:

Annual Flower and Hobbies Show, 2007

The Garden Club's annual Flower and Hobbies Show was held on 25th August 2007 in the Village Hall, and prizes were presented this year by PC Henry Clissold, our Community Beat Officer. For a fuller account, click here. For some more photos, click here.

Carnival Week and Annual Fete, 2007

After rather a soggy start I can safely say that this year’s events were a record success!! Thank you to all those who patiently set up their cars for the Car Boot Sale and I can only apologise for the dismal weather and poor turn out. The children didn’t mind and loved the Rounders Tournament and BBQ. Better luck next time.

The Friday night Hog Roast was a great success with five local bands playing and lots of enthusiastic youngsters enjoying an event especially for them.

The fete was a good all round family day out with entertainment for everyone young and old. The New Forest Plonkers were such a hit they are already booked for next year. We are also very grateful to the Countess of Chichester for bringing Therese the camel along to join the Carnival. This was done entirely free of charge and drew the crowds as well as delighting the children. Therese helped judge the Fancy Dress with aplomb being herself decked out in glorious Indian costume. The 1st Prize winners were thrilled to win a camel ride ...what an experience!

Thanks also to the Army for laying on the assault course which being free kept the youngsters busy all day, while their parents enjoyed the refreshments, stalls and music.

We are therefore delighted to announce that the combined events raised over £7000* for the church and school. A fantastic result. I’d like to thank all those on the committee who worked their socks off to this end:
Joanne Austin on Teas, Chris Crew on the Bars, Neil Stace on Sports, Claire Smith on Stalls, Sue and Trevor King on BBQ’s, Jane Dunlop as Treasurer.
Not forgetting Dave Crombie on Electrics, Chris Mann on Hog carving and the Manners on Counting.

Thank you too to all the other generous folk who played their part in the weeks’ events.

Finally may I just add that you don’t have to be a member of the school or church to join the committee or help out, in fact we will be looking for volunteers to take on small but essential jobs like setting up the children’s display in church on the Friday afternoon or getting the bread rolls or being in charge of rubbish ( I can recommend that one and Yes we did recycle the lot !) SEE YOU NEXT YEAR

Jane Lax

(For fete photos, click here.)

*Thanks to a generaous donation from Southern Electric, the final figure was actually over £8000—an even more fantastic result !

Full house for the Pepperbox Players

The Pepperbox Players are delighted to report that this year’s panto, ‘ Alice in Wonderland’ on February 8th —10th, had a full house on the Friday and Saturday evenings and the Saturday matinee and the hall was literally heaving. The atmosphere was great and the interesting take on Alice in Wonderland, to include a Queen (as in the rock group) rendition and a scene of Blind Date, delighted the audience.

The ‘amateur’ actors rose to the challenge (nothing like a big audience to fire your cockles) and gave superb (and sometimes very professional!) performances, with the odd bit of forgetfulness and some hilarious ad libbing, which always goes down a storm.

It is great to have the continued support of many in the village and this year, more press coverage brought in the curious from Salisbury and over the hill Tytherley, not to mention Landford and Wellow. Word is clearly getting out, outside the village. Regretfully, the Village Shop had to turn people away when all the tickets had been sold, so reserve your seats early for the 2008 performance – whatever that might be – for another creative re-enactment of a classic panto.

And by the way, don’t forget Thursday evening! – the opening night can be a gem in itself! It’s a great opportunity for clubs, societies and other groups, with special group rates, so please enquire when we publicise next year’s event on the website.

2006 Village Photo, 10th December

Stuart McWilliam, one of our local professional photographers, took the 2006 Parish Photo from some handy scaffolding that was already in place on All Saints church tower for the current re-shingling work. Unfortunately there was a slight mix-up over times, so not as many people turned up to join the congregation outside the church as might have been hoped—but there was still a reasonable crowd. We can't include the parish photo itself on the website—not yet, anyway—because prints of it are to be sold (£5 each) to help fund the re-shingling work. However, you can see a couple of photos of the occasion by clicking here.

2006 Annual Fireworks Display, 11th November

The 2006 Fireworks Display, staged by Pains' Fireworks, was held on the Memorial Ground on a windy but clear evening—with the wind blowing the smoke etc away from the crowd, so we all had a good view. This year the Sherfield English fireworks display down the road was unfortunately scheduled for the same evening, but this didn't seem to have any noticeable impact on numbers at the Memorial Ground. As well as the fireworks, there were plenty of other attractions to appeal to young and not-so-young alike, including a big bouncy-castle-style slide. And as ever, the display was spectacular. This event is organised by the PTA for the benefit of All Saints' School. The school have asked us to express their thanks to Pains' Fireworks for a magnificent show, and to all who came to support the event, which this year raised over £3000 for the school—a record. For some photos, click here.

Annual Pumpkin Show and Halloween Fancy Dress Competition, 2006

The Garden Club's annual Pumpkin Show and Halloween Fancy Dress Competition was held on 26th October 2006 in the Village Hall. With a record number of entries in the children's section, judge Don Munro had his work cut out picking the prizewinners. For a fuller account, click here. For some more photos of the event, click here.

Annual Flower and Hobbies Show, 2006

The Garden Club's annual Flower and Hobbies Show was held on 26th August 2006 in the Village Hall, and prizes were presented this year by Mr Jeremy Wood. For a fuller account, click here. For some more photos of the event, click here.

Hog Roast & Annual Fete, 2006

On the evening of Friday 16th June the second-ever pre-fete Hog Roast was held on the Memorial Ground on a very pleasant, warmish, evening. While the event followed the same general format as last year (roast hog, beer, music), the musical content was wider this time. The redoubtable Cricket Club All-Stars did their thing, but some of the village's younger musicians played their hearts out, too. The evening was a great success and now seems to be becoming an established feature of Fete week. Let's hope so, anyway!

On the following day the traditional annual fete was held on a lovely warm and sunny afternoon. "Commander James Bond" took time off his less exciting duties (like creating mayhem for Queen and Country) to pilot a Royal Navy helicopter all the way to Whiteparish just to open our Fete. (Someone in Whiteparish must have some good connections!) The fete was well attended with gym and dancing displays, football competitions, tug of war, the Gun Run, and the Procession and Prizegiving as usual, together with a good variety of stalls and other attractions round the field. Some of us slavered over Commander Bond's Aston Martin in the cars section, and another particularly nice exhibit that we noticed there was a pre-war Salmson sports car, entered by Mr Truman, former headmaster of All Saints School. Those fine musicians the Hythe and Dibden brass band accompanied proceedings in their usual very competent way.

The organisers are grateful to everyone who made the event such a success, and on their behalf Sue King has written a "thank you" on the Fete's own page, which you can read by clicking here.

For more photos, click here.

Community Building Village Meeting, 17th March 2006

(Because of its importance to the village, we're giving more space to this report than for most of the items that appear here.)

Nearly 80 people attended this lively meeting on a bitterly cold evening at the village hall. Trevor King (chair of the Parish Council) introduced the meeting and gave the historical backgrounds of both the Village Hall building and its upkeep, and the Memorial Ground sports pavilion and its upkeep; and summarised previous attempts to build a combined community facility, bringing us right up to date.

Dave Boakes, chairman of the Community Building Working Group, then gave an excellent presentation of the pros and cons of building a new combined village hall and sports pavilion. The Working Group had done this initial groundwork but in order to take things further they needed feedback from the meeting on whether villagers would wish to go ahead with this scheme. Both Trevor King and Dave Boakes impressed upon those present that the decision tonight was not irreversible, and there would be no commitment to proceed with any specific plan without another village meeting, when definitive proposals would be presented.

The meeting was then invited to ask questions or air views or comments on the proposals. One villager advised that two useful websites offer more information on these very problems. The Charities Commission’s website www.charitycommission.gov.uk which gives examples of how two trusts can be combined, (we have our Village Hall Management Committee [a Trust], and the Memorial Ground Trust). The Sport England website www.sportengland.org has examples of good guidance on planning an effective village hall/recreational facilities building. The working group will be putting information on any further developments in Steeple & Street. After a lively session, the meeting was then asked to vote on the following:

“Does the village support the attempt to develop a project for a single community building, providing both village hall and pavilion facilities, to be located on the Memorial Ground, and the necessary changes to the two charities involved to allow this to happen effectively?”

There were about 70 FOR the proposal, and approximately 8 AGAINST.

The meeting then closed at 8.30 pm

Jackie Hawker

Excellent Ofsted report for All Saints School

Ofsted inspectors issued what Paul Sorrell, chair of governors, described as a "glowing report" on Whiteparish's All Saints Primary School. Teachers were described as "very good"; pupils were praised for their "excellent attitude"; parents supported both their children and the school "very well"; and the head teacher Carol Kite was praised for her leadership. On the school's own page within this site, you can find links to summary and full versions of the report.

Events List

Submit a Story

If you want to publicise a forthcoming village event, or to give us a report of one that's recently happened, give us a call on 884689 or email us at comments@whiteparish.co.uk.