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.

Events List

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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.

2010 Fete Roundup!

A great big thank you from the 2010 committee for a hugely successful range of activities this year. Several people worked very hard – amongst them the long-suffering families of the committee members!!!!

You will see a breakdown of figures from our trusty Treasurer, Langdon below. As I type this message, we expect the profit to be approximately the same as last year. In this financial climate I think that is a superb result and a tribute to everyone’s generosity.

There were some new ideas tried this year – the Quiz night and the Horse show, both of which were an unqualified success. The only sour notes were that bales were damaged again this year on the Friday evening; and we didn’t get support from our local constabulary. This made clearing the field after Bands night an arduous exercise for a few gallant folk after a long busy day. We’ll take both of these things into account when planning for next year.

Yes – we have booked the date – Saturday 11 June.

If you have ideas and energy to support this great example of village life, then please look out for a fete meeting in October, which will be publicised in the September magazine.

This article cannot be completed without mentioning our friend and a great supporter of the fete, Neil Stace. Neil unfortunately broke his wrist and we wish him a speedy recovery!

Sue King

The money taken over the week of the Fete from all the activities and sponsorship exceeded £12,000, which was down on last year’s figure by just over £1000, but still an excellent result. The Committee have tried really hard to lower the expenses that are incurred in running an event the size of “Whiteparish Week” and have succeeded in reducing the costs by some £500 compared to last year, but they are still expected to exceed £5000. Below I have noted the takings achieved by most of the main events.

With a couple of invoices still to be received, we expect the profit that will be shared between the Village School and Church to be somewhere near to last year, when £7000 was divided between the two.

Langdon Nichols

2010 Carnival & Fete Prizewinners

Treasure Hunt: Mrs Unwin and Rachel Unwin

Rounders: The Javelins

Quiz: Beat the Bishops

Grand Draw: Kathy Feely

Fancy Dress Parade
Pre-School: 1 Matthew Gillett; 2 George Davey; 3 Alice Snow.
Key Stage 1: 1 Ethan Marchi; 2 Elena Pinkney; 3 Joe Oliver.
Key Stage 2: 1 Ailsa McWilliam; 2 Jamie Ball; 3 Bethan Oliver
Groups: 1 Ellie and Iona Wyatt; 2 Toby and Maddy Cooper; 3 Amber, Jessica, and Megan Hollick.

Competitions Judged in Church (storytime theme)

Picture of your favourite character
Pre-School: Jasmin Gillam

Poetry ("It was the night before the Whiteparish Fete"
Key Stage 1: 1 Merlin Mulberry; 2 Megan Hollick.
Key Stage 2: 1 Adelice Ashworth; 2 Bethan Oliver; 3 Ellie Wyatt.
Secondary: 1 Amber Hollick; 2 Emma Francis.

Design a Book Cover:
Key Stage 1: 1 Iona Wyatt; 2 Toby Cooper; 3 Amy Tanner.
Key Stage 2: 1 Holly Mills; 2 Kieran Higgins; 3 Ellie Littlecott.

There were no entries in the Adults Art Section.

2010 Pantomime: "Aladdin"

February 4th, 5th, and 6th saw the staging of another top-notch village panto by the Pepperbox Players—this year's was the more traditional Aladdin (which they had last done back in 1992). We went to the Friday performance (or one of us did, anyway), and thoroughly enjoyed the show.

It would be unfair to single out individual performers for praise. As far as we could tell, everyone played their parts well, both onstage and off, in a slick production; and the company seems to go from strength to strength. The prompter didn't seem to have as much work as in some previous years (can't imagine why!). And the costumes seemed especially good this year, notably Abanazar's (see left) and the genie's—so well done to the wardrobe team. According to the programme notes, scenery painting had fallen behind schedule because of the snowy weather and the loss of a set (due to an unfortunate incident with a blowtorch and some frozen paint), but it was all in place for the show—so well done there, too. Thank you, Pepperbox Players; whether main characters, supporting players, or production team, you're all stars !

For some photos of the show, click here.

2009 Fete: Report from the Fete Committee

I am very pleased to report, on behalf of this years’ committee, that the grand sum of £7000 will be shared between the school and the church !!! You will see from the breakdown of the figures Langdon Nicholls has kindly prepared that we have a small surplus in hand to kick off next years’ proceedings.

The marvellous weather undoubtedly helped us have a very successful day and our grateful thanks go to everyone who worked so hard to make a day to remember. I have to say a big thank you too to my very generous employers, Southern Electric who increased our takings by £1000 !!

After giving you that lovely news it is a shame that I have to share some rather more disappointing news with you. There is a gentleman in our village who for some time has helped the church raise funds by hiring out a marquee he owns and then giving half of the fees he collects. This year a considerable amount of damage was caused to his marquee, so much so that it really can’t be used in future. In the course of our investigations as to what happened, it appears that several adults witnessed young people causing the damage but did nothing to stop it. I really don’t understand how that could have happened and hope that we don’t become victims of our own success. There seems to be an increase year on year in the vandalism – last year guy ropes and the twine on the bales were slashed and the previous year the pavilion was broken into. This Friday evening event has become very popular and it will be a great shame if we have to abandon it. Let’s try harder next year to ensure nothing like this goes unchallenged.

Fete day 2010 is 19 June – please put it in your diaries and give the great support you did this year.

Thank you to all our sponsors and our customers – we couldn’t do it without you.

Sue King

More About the 2009 Hog Roast/Bands Night, and Carnival & Fete

Hog Roast/Bands Night

Spot the Band—through a tentful of happy dancers pogo-ing (mostly) to the Specials' "Too much too young".

Ah, there they are. Headliners "May Contain Nuts"

Thanks to commitments elsewhere (making salads etc for the fete lunch tent the following day) we could only manage to spend an hour at the Hog Roast, but it looked like everyone was having a great time. Headliners May Contain Nuts (MCN) were serving up hits from the 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, and Noughties with guts and panache, seemingly not put off at all by weeny break-dancers a couple of feet in front of their mike stands! Hadn't seen MCN before, but they can certainly play.

The evening seemed very well attended, with little groups of friends socialising all over the Memorial Ground, and (we understand) a record amount being taken on the barbecue & roast stall. So quite promising for the fundraising.

Carnival & Fete

Can't help thinking the fete's living on borrowed time as far as the weather is concerned. This must have been the fourth? fifth? year running without rain, although some was forecast. Anyway, even if the carnival procession was a little bit short of floats (basically there was only one: a splendid thatched Morris Minor with added dragon from the King's Head), everyone in the parade made up for it with enthusiasm and some excellent "panto-themed" costumes. Some of the adult costumes looked a teeny bit familiar, but if members of PP have taken recycling to heart that's very commendable !

The fete was formally opened by attractive local girl-about-town "Colleen" (see left), though one couldn't help noticing that perhaps if she'd made more use of her LadyShave (or any use of it, come to that) she'd have been even prettier !

Then the fete proper was under way. First item was the presentation of prizes for the fancy dress costumes in the parade, with pride of place going, as usual and quite rightly, to the children's classes. And after that it was all the usual fun of the fete, including a dancing display and a juggler, which was nice. This year, unfortunately, there were no entrants (or not enough, anyway) for the tug-of-war to be run. We wondered if interest might fade towards the end of the afternoon without this event, which has been popular in previous years. But the ground still seemed to be pretty full well after four o'clock, with a lot of people staying for the Grand Draw.

For photographs, click here. For a movie of the start of the procession, then all the participants in front of the pavilion, click here. Many thanks to Martin Fisher for sending us the movie file. (The file may take a little while to download. If it doesn't play , try clicking on the link again and it will probably start!)

Thanks

The Fete Committee are very grateful to the following companies for their generous sponsorship:
Golden Acres Nurseries, Pains Fireworks, Lancer Property Asset Management, Langdon Nichols, D J Davis & Sons, Cleansing Services Group Ltd, Courtens Garden Centre, and all contributors to the Grand Draw Prizes.

The committee would also like to thank everyone who has contributed in any way to the fete.

"The Vampire Strikes Back"

2009's panto from the Pepperbox Players, staged in the Village Hall on the 5th, 6th, and 7th February, was right up there with the best of previous productions that we've seen from them. We went to the Saturday evening performance and, like everyone else in the audience, had a great time.

The whole company deserves praise, but of the leading players Jimmy Goodland made a fine job of the role of Count D'Arcy Dracula, with comic expressions and poses to call on for every situation and his traditional rapport with the audience. The wonders of make-up turned Mandy Webb from the Village Stores into a suitably villainous-looking (and boo-and-hissable) Comtesse Elvira d'Evilla, with her amorous eyes on the Count. John Dunlop as Franklyn Stein the butler led the chorus in a stompingly professional performance of "The Time Warp" from the Rocky Horror Show. Nick Plane and Ian O'Neill as the Ugly Sisters lifted ugliness to a new plane (sorry), and Jenny Olley (as heroine Delilah) and Holly Angel (as Nurse Tway Snightly and the voice of the Magic Mirror) were the opposite and put in fine performances, too.

The Coulshed family seemed to be making a takeover bid with four parts: Mike as a genial Colonel Ivan Itchen-Knutt (not sure about some of these names . . .), son Henry as a convincingly head-in-the-clouds aspirant writer Bill Shakespeare, and Mrs Coral Coulshed elegant as both Henry's Mum and Renata Grande Huile, wife to village shopkeeper Rene Grande Huile (Colin Males). Sterling performances too from Rosie Walworth and Ella Dunlop as Ding and Dong; Ches Carpenter as a "rapacious romany ruffian" and bandit chief; Helen Males as Mrs Ava Dracula (the Count's Mum); Rob Wale as Dr Scratchinsniv (who seemed to have brought a fan club); Phil Brown (who also directed) as Fairy L E Phant and "Barry" and last but by no means least Neil Orr and Alison Hill (though alas she couldn't make it on the Saturday night) as the front half and back half (though not necessarily in that order) of Donkey Hoti.

Other mostly younger members of the company did everything that could be expected of them and more in their supporting roles: as Villagers, the Gypsy Band, and the Senior and Junior Choruses.

For squillions of photos, click here.

PTA's Wine, Beer, and Music Evening

This fund-raiser for the Whiteparish School PTA, staged by local company CliffordMG in the Village Hall on 25th September, was very well attended and a great success, raising over £600. Sponsors included the Fountain Inn, Munro Accountants, Stuart McWilliam Photography, DJ Davis & Son Bouncy Castles, Redmayne Bentley Stockbrokers, Crusader Carpets, and Clifford Solutions. Rather than try to describe the evening here, it's easiest to leave that to the video highlights in the following YouTube clip! (Thanks to Martin Fisher for providing us with the link.)

Garden Club Flower & Hobbies Show, August 23rd 2008

The Garden Club's annual Flower and Hobbies Show was held in the Village Hall on Saturday 23rd August, with all the usual careful staging and friendly competitiveness ! This year the prizes were presented by Dr Rosemary Parry of Whiteparish Surgery. For a nice set of photos kindly sent in by Dawn and Langdon Nichols, click here. For the prizewinners and the garden club's own report of ths show, click here.

The Fete was Great in 2008

Sorry about the corny heading . . . but 2008's fete really was a good one ! Because no-one actually counts heads as people come in, it's impossible to say just how many people visited the 2008 fete—but attendance seemed just as good if not better than recent years. The parade, led by the New Forest Plonkers on a float, also seemed a bit fuller than in some recent years, with plenty of imaginative and colourful costumes on the "flight" theme. As appropriate for an event called the Magnificent Flying Fete, the official opening was performed by the magnificently costumed "rocket man", whose delivery and moves brought to mind a familiar Pepperbox Player, but perhaps that was just a coincidence . . .

So the fete proper got under way, the sun shone throughout, the New Forest Plonkers played throughout (when they weren't taking time out to play at being a tug-of-war team—good on the weight, maybe less so on the technique)—and everybody had a good time. The tug-of-war saw some impressive muscle and poundage being put to work, with the team from the Parish Lantern finally emerging worthy winners of a keenly-fought but friendly contest. Towards the end of the afternoon, there was a really nice display of maypole dancing from children of Whiteparish All Saints School, which along with the church benefits from any profit that the fete makes.

On display in the church on fete afternoon were some magnificent flower arrangements, together with entries from Whiteparish schoolchildren in the the photographs, models or paintings competition; and quite a few people took the time to admire both the flowers and the competition entries.

The fancy-dress competition winners were as follows. Pre-school: 1st Elena Pinkney, 2nd Amelie Davey, 3rd Toby Cooper. 4 to 7 years: 1st Joe Oliver, 2nd Ellie Wyatt, 3rd Luke Taylor-Blake. 8 to 11 years: 1st Scott, Amy, Kieron, and Georgia Higgins, 2nd Kate Woolstencroft, 3rd James and David Skeates, Charlie and Edward Davis, and Louis Rendall.

For some photos of the parade and the fete, click here.

Multi-User Games Area (MUGA)—Grand Opening

The MUGA facility on the north side of the Memorial Ground was officially opened on Wednesday 11th June 2008 at about 4.30, with the traditional cutting of a ribbon. However before this, pre-school and primary-age children from All Saints School enjoyed some sports coaching and fun sports competitions, and were then amazed when a Royal Navy helicopter flew in and landed on the memorial ground, and the two aircrew emerged to present one of the prizes (for the longest flight by a paper aeroplane) and to watch the ceremony.

After some introductory words from Nigel Peterson (chairman of the Memorial Ground Committee), Canon Roger Sharpe made a short speech and blessed the new facility. Then Andrew Lax, who had made a generous donation to construction costs, enabling the completion date to be brought forward, cut the ribbon and declared the MUGA open. The children streamed out of the MUGA and the naval aircrew kindly showed some of them the helicopter (in groups). Afterwards there were more activities, including some sports coaching for all ages.

For some photos, click here.

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.