The GREAT Great Chishill Sloe Gin Competition 2024

The Yarn Bombers 2023

Phil Maynard created a small 'Treasure Hunt' as a little bit of fun for residents of Great Chishill to do when out doing their bit of daily exercise. This proved to be quite popular with more than 30 people/households taking part. Following on from that he has set up two more. The third one has just been released, but still requires walking around Great Chishill. All three produce the letters of an anagram of something Chishill related.
Email Phil on pm@maynardprojects.co.uk for any of the questions.
All can be done individually or as a 'household', are suitable for any or all members of a family, can be done without touching anything, and don't need to be done in one go, or even on the same day. All of the clues are set somewhere within the bounds of Great Chishill.
No lockdown rules need to be broken to do it.
For the clues and more info, email Phil Maynard at pm@maynardprojects.co.uk

Rabbit Rescue

The Windmill Project is Nearing the End (Autumn 2018)

Why was the road closed?

Ceilidh

Friday 20th April was the date of another popular fund raising event, helping to further the St Swithuns restoration. The wonderful Cambridge University Ceilidh band had no problems in getting people up on to the dance floor in the village hall on a beautiful warm, spring evening.
Supper was provided by the ladies of the village - Coronation Chicken and rice, and chocolate brownies. Altogether a very successful evening - thank you to everyone involved. Watch this space to find out how much was raised.

Click here to see all the trees

On Saturday 14th October Professor Carenza Lewis talked to an enthralled audience about the history and archaeology of Great Chishill. Carenza Lewis has appeared on many popular TV programmes on history and archaeology, and she ably showed her talent for bringing the past to life.
Taking a panorama from the top of St Swithun’s tower as her starting point, she led us through a fascinating journey of discovery covering the Icknield Way, the prehistoric landscape – with aerial photos showing evidence of Neolithic enclosures all around the village. She told us about the discovery of a nearby Anglo-Saxon cemetery, where it seemed the victims had been decapitated!, a massive defensive system across Cambridgeshire, of which Bran Ditch (running from Heydon to Fowlmere) forms a part together with Devil’s Dyke and Fleam Dyke. She painted a vivid picture of Great Chishill as a village on the borders, between the wooded hills in the south and the marshy lowlands, and of the nuclear villages to the north and the dispersed villages to the south. She told us about the development of the village, The Stonk, a medieval moated manor, holloways, strip lynchets, lost fields and much more.
It was a wonderful evening, and following the talk there was a lively question and answer session, with everyone enjoying drinks and nibbles. This event celebrated the start of our Heritage Lottery Fund project, to repair the church tower and provide new facilities.

24th September 2017 saw Vyckie and myself (Tracey) take on the Berlin Marathon for the breast cancer charity Walk the Walk. We had a fabulous weekend with our team and have already raised £2000 this year so far. We did it in our bras to raise awareness of the charity - we took on the challenge #beatberlin42 and did!

Skylark Concert

At a service in Chrishall church on 26th July, led by the Bishop of Chelmsford, the Rt Revd Stephen Cottrell and the Archdeacon of Stansted, The Venerable Robin King, The Revd Dr Anand Sodadasi was installed as Rector of The Parish of The Icknield Way Villages.
Anand and his wife Shailaja come from Andhra Pradesh, South India, where they trained theologically and worked for 12 years as full time ministers. Anand was ordained as a priest in his Indian diocese in 2001 and both taught in a theological college for 5 years, training the ordinands. Anand went to Oxford in 2004 to do a Ph.D and the family joined him soon after. He worked as a Duty Priest in the Diocese of Oxford, while the children Stephen and Serena completed secondary schooling. Then they moved to the Borderlink Parishes, Hereford where Anand has been Rector for 7 years. Shailaja trained as a dispenser and worked in a pharmacy, while volunteering in the chaplaincy department of Hereford Hospital before being licensed as a Reader for the Borderlink Parishes.

We're looking for volunteers to help us produce a more interesting leaflet interpreting the history and heritage of the church, as part of our heritage lottery funded project to repair the tower.
It doesn't have to be just about the church fabric, it could include the bells, the war memorial, the churchyard, were there any interesting vicars? etc. etc.
If you'd like to help then please get in touch with Ro Gadian (email 1drakeral@gmail.com)
Look forward to hearing from you.
 
The picture on the left shows the church tower after it collapsed at the west end - more information required!

The Chishills' senior members celebrated Christmas on 15th December in the village hall with a wonderful tea funded by the Parish Council and organised by the team of ladies shown here (Liz Parkes, Janet Crouch , Eileen Murrell and Sue Price).
Neil Heywood was there with his camera and he took lots of pictures which can be seen by clicking here or clicking on the 'Photo Album' tab above.

The Great Chishill and Heydon Children's Party was held in the Village Hall on 11th December. More han 50 children and the families were entertained by the marvellous Stripey Wipey. Father Christmas interrupted his very busy schedule to fly in specially! Thank you Father Christmas.
 
The Youth Club enjoyed a Disco & Pizza night on their final club of the year - with DJ Simon supplying his brilliant music. Instead of party treats, the young people made donations of food for the Hitchin based homeless hostel ‘North Herts Sanctuary’. As a result Dan was able to deliver a large box full of food to this worthwhile cause.

Photos © Neil Heywood Click on picture for larger version.
If you took any pictures, please email them to webmaster@greatchishill.org.uk

St Swithun’s Church was pretty in pink for the second week of October, bathed in pink lights to herald operetta trio ‘Pink Champagne’s lively evening of song, laughter and audience participation for St Swithun’s Appeal Fund. Together with our sponsor’s Pinkster gin (and tonic) from Barley, pink champagne and pink-themed canapés the audience of 100 settled down to enjoy a programme ranging from the ‘Champagne Trio’ from Strauss’s Die Fledermaus to an Ivor Novello tribute and extracts from Lehar’s Merry Widow. With a well supported raffle, the £950 raised takes the Appeal Fund over its initial target of £50,000 in two years! The Appeal Committee extends a huge thank you to all who have supported events over the last 2 years.

Last year, Wendy and David McKeown organised dance lessons for absolute beginners with all proceeds being donated to the Great Chishill Windmill Trust. This was a great success and £1000 was added to the fund. The original dancers persuaded Wendy and David to run more lessons through the Autumn and Winter. They are held in Great Chishill Village Hall at 7.30 to 8.30 on Friday evenings.

The Great Chishill Cricket Club season came to a close with promotion into the Senior League Division 3, for only the second time in its history!!
Winning the penultimate game with authority and dominance against promotion rivals Wilbraham’s. Sadly the final game of the season was rained off at the half way stage, the only rain loss of the season.
As a club 31 different players have been chosen to represent the side over the 18 games that were played. At the close of the season the club had the second leading wicket taker with 29 wickets, the highest run scorer with 764 runs, the top fielder (wicket keeper) with 24 dismissals and greatest not out batsman in the league with 8 not outs, not too bad for a small village team, beating Royston on all counts!
The annual dinner is being held on Saturday 8th October, tickets are selling rapidly so book yours now through Angus at angusgent@gmail.com
Indoor nets will be running in the New Year, so don’t forget to dust off your kit then! New members are always welcome so don’t hesitate to contact Angus for details.

Great Chishill DCC (responsible for the care of St Swithun’s church) is delighted to announce the award of £29,700 from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

This first-round funding means that HLF has endorsed the outline proposals and earmarked funding, as well as contributing towards the costs of the initial work. Once we know what restoration work is needed we will submit detailed proposals to HLF in a second-round application later this year.

St Swithun’s is an important example of an intact medieval parish church, whose history is strongly linked to that of the village. The church is grade II* listed, reflecting the significance of its architecture and heritage. The tower has suffered various mishaps over the years; it caught fire (affecting the roof and floor under the bells) in the disastrous fire of 1798, when 80% of the village was destroyed. The tower began to crumble badly in 1884 and the top fell off in 1891. It was rebuilt in 1896-7 at a cost of £865, but without the original spire. Now it is suffering serious damage as a result of water penetration through the upper flint walls, especially the East face.
You can read the full press release here.

On Sunday 20th March, 140 people turned up from far and wide and took part in the Great Chishill Sport Relief Event. The sun shone, the WI served freshly baked cakes, Wobbly Wayne bought along one of his bouncy castles and we were all set for a great time.
Everyone seemed to have a great time, as they walked, ran or ambled either 1, 3 or 6 miles around a scenic Great Chishill route.
The final total of funds raised will not be released until June (when the sponsorship pages close), but on the day, and coupled with great events organised by Chishill Chimps and the Youth Club, over £1000 has been raised so far. Thank you all for your tremendous support, you were amazing!

Pictures from the event available on ourSport Relief 2016 page.

Sloe Gin Competition

Taking the lead by just one point, ‘Heydon Hell Raisers’ beat ‘Team Dog-Minion’ to win the musical quiz night held on October 17th in support of the St Swithun’s Appeal. And there was just one point between 2nd and 3rd place, so a closely fought contest!
Masterminded by Maggie Mather, questions covered a wide range of music from Bond themes through voice types to ‘Musical Consequences’. Recorded excerpts were interspersed with performances by Maggie, with Lucy Maynard.
This hugely entertaining evening has raised £1,300 towards essential church repairs. St Swithun’s Appeal Committee thanks Maggie and Lucy, the Russells for running the bar, Elaine Knobel-Forbes for running the kitchen and all who kindly helped with cooking, raffle prizes, ticket sales and setting up.

On 13th June the Great Chishill Windmill Trust held a Celebration Day which was attended by around 150 people! The day was packed with a wide range of activities including a dance demonstartion, scone making demonstration and a detailed report on the plans for refurbishing the windmill.
The children's art competion was also judged and prizes awarded to William Troutbeck, Harriet Scott and Eleanor Ferrie. £519 was raised from a raffle and sales of Wicken Mill flour. More information about the windmill can be found at www.greatchishillwindmill.com and here

Going, Going, all Gone

Village Hall Renovations Complete

Potholes and Fly Tipping

Bellringing is good for you!

Reporting Crime - a new number

You can now contact Cambridgeshire Constabulary on 101 for all non-emergency calls. The 0345 456 456 4 number will remain in use alongside 101 for several months to allow people time to get used to the new number.
The change comes part of a national programme to make 101 the single non-emergency number in England and Wales, giving residents an easy-to-remember number to contact local police wherever they are.
The call system is designed to recognise where you are calling from and connect you with the local police service. If you did not want to speak to your local force, or the force area you are in, you will be given the option to be connected to different one.
The number change does not affect the way that calls are handled and we will continue to take non-emergency calls 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Please continue to call 999 when an immediate response is needed because a crime is happening, someone suspected of a crime is nearby, or someone is in danger.
To give anonymous information call Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111

The Chishill Windmill

Need a lift? You can call on us!

Coronation (2023) - The Villages Celebrate

The major project to renovate the 5 old bells of St Swithun's, Great Chishill, and add a 6th bell, is now complete. Work started on 12th January and was completed on 29th April, and rung for the first time 'for real' on 3rd June to celebrate the Platinum Jubilee.
The project cost £105,000 (inc VAT which should be recoverable) and was paid for by the bellringers funds raised since the Millenium, fund raising events, donations, and £22,500 in grants.
We are exceedingly grateful to everyone who contributed in any way to the success of the project and in particular to the people and organisations listed by clicking here.
A full description of the project, its history and its progress with pictures can be seen HERE

Thank you to everyone who helped or came along to the BELL RESTORATION PROJECT fund raising event on 12th February.
A chilly but sunny day, and those who came were rewarded with lovely displays of many different varieties of snowdrops, their whiteness offset beautifully by the yellow of the aconites. Tea, coffee and hot soup was available to help against the cold. In total it boosted the funds for the project by just over £500.

from Priscilla Woollard
Our family have lived in the village for 35 years and we have two children, Tom & Georgina. Historically, Tom has played both for our village Football and Cricket teams.
Tom, as a Police Constable, decided to run a half marathon on Thursday 30th April wearing full riot gear, marking the 100th birthday of Captain Tom Moore as well as fund raising for our wonderful NHS. His route was from Royston Police Station to Accident & Emergency Department at Addenbrookes Hospital. His sister Georgina was his support, following by bike (which she has not ridden for over 15 years), carrying water and high energy drinks. Tom completed this in just over three and a half hours and at the moment, his Just Giving page has reached £2,600.00 plus gift aid.
See the BBC Twitter report here .

9000 New Homes Proposal for HEYDON

Great Chishill Open Gardens 2018

What IS that noise?

Burns Night for St Nicholas

Inspection of the timbers of the mill has revealed both good and bad news. The main supporting timbers (side girts) are less rotted than feared and, with simple steel straps and plates across a couple of cracks, should last at least another 100 years. The corner upright posts have all suffered quite badly with the constant ingress of water and all need attention. It looks, though, that we will not need to replace them as the millwright has a plan to cut 50mm from their outer faces and ‘plate’ them with new green oak to give the required strength and surface on which to attach the new weatherboards.
What was not expected and is the cause of significant extra work was the condition of the main horizontal weather beam that supports the wind shaft holding the sails. So much rot has occurred at its ends that it is no longer securely attached to the corner posts and has tilted forward under the weight of the sails. The sails have had to be removed, the wind shaft propped up and the weather beam removed. The repair to the weather beam will require the addition of a steel joist to give real strength to the structure.
Tony Andrews has taken photos of the removal of the sails. See them here
History of the windmill
The unexpected damage has pushed the total repair estimate up to £118,000 but having granted the project £15,729 towards costs before discovery of the extra work, Historic England’s funding committee reconsidered the position and agreed to increase the grant to around 70% of the requirement. Together with the Sponsor a Board money, other grants and contributions, there is now have sufficient to complete the structural repairs and make the mill weatherproof once more. This will remove it from Historic England’s 'Heritage at Risk’ listing and return it to its position as a public attraction.
 
On Sunday 14th October, and quite co-incidentally the morning after archaeologist Carenza lewis' talk on local history, 51 keen metal ‘detectorists’ of the East Coast Searchers group gathered on Tom Duke’s field on the Little Chishill Road to see what evidence they could find of our predecessors.
Klaine Feagan is currently working on the repair of our windmill and came up with the idea of bringing his colleagues to see what they could unearth that would add detail to Chishill’s long and varied history. The group is based around Manningtree though one couple had travelled from Padstow, Cornwall to join in! Tom kindly agreed to them using his 40-acre field, the sun shone and everyone had a grand time. At the end of the day, Sue Clark, Chair of the East Coast Searchers, said that it had been a very productive and enjoyable event. As well as ancient buckles, clasps, musket balls, spinning weights and buttons, a well-preserved wax seal stamp was found. Coins were also numerous, including a fine looking Roman piece thought to be from the reign of Constantius II – AD 337 to 361.
The group kindly donated some of their finds to the Windmill Trust for display in the mill. They, and Tom Duke, generously waived all expenses and charges donating all proceeds to the windmill restoration – a magnificent £792.50!
Pictures of finds and of the day.

A couple of years of hard work organising fund raising events, filling in forms, producing policy documents, and plans for community involvement etc has paid off! The DCC have been awarded £196k of National Lottery support to carry out the urgent repairs to the church tower.
A smaller grant in March 2016 was used to investigate the cause of water penetration, which has plagued the tower for many years damaging the fabric of the mediaeval tower arch which is now crumbling badly.
Following this work will start towards the end of August raking out the tower flint work on all elevations, re-pointing with hot lime mortar, consolidating the fabric, improving water shedding from the tower, removing internal plaster and providing better ventilation to help the tower dry out.
The project has also been given funding to install basic facilities, an accessible toilet in the tower together with a water supply and drainage. This wonderful and much loved building will then be more useful to the wider community for meetings and events.

On Saturday 15th July the Chishills' annual fete was held on the playing field in Great Chishill. A warm but not so sunny afternoon brought out the villagers for fun and games, competitions, face painting, tractor rides, Bar-B-Q and of course tea and cakes! Neil was there with his camera and you can see more of his pictures from the event by clicking here. Clicking on any picture will load a bigger version.
 
Liz Parkes writes 'Many thanks to everyone who entered the Annual Heydon & Great Chishill WI Fete Quiz. Over 100 people took part and of the completed entries received back, 3 people got 100% of the answers correct.
Congratulations to: Andrew Drury, Lisa Mackenzie and Philip Gough.
All 3 names were entered into the draw at the WI meeting on Tuesday 15th August and Philip Gough was the ultimate winner of the WI hamper. It was lovely to hear the positive feedback from a number of you on how much you enjoyed completing the quiz and we will definitely be running another one next summer!'

On 3rd May (2017) ownership of The Pheasant passed over to the Wickens family.
Debbie (Debs) and Mark became the new licensees and moved into the flat above with their two children Joshua aged 6, Evalyn aged 3, and Louis the dog. The family have moved here from Potters Bar. Mark, had to give up his previous job as a builder due to a knee injury and saw The Pheasant as an opportunity to start a new career and move to the countryside. Debs was a 'stay at home mum', a role that she still plays as well as being a full time landlady!
Initially they intend to keep things pretty much as they were, but to gradually put their own stamp on the pub. The first change has been the removal of the 'no children' policy so that families will feel more welcomed. In the longer term there are plans to extend the pub and relocate some of the facilities like the dart board. Mark is very keen that the 'pub is the hub' in the village and that everyone will feel at home there.
Food is now being served 7 days a week (except Sunday evening).
Steve Lemon - the very popular chef who used to work at the Pheasant with the previous owners HAS RETURNED and launched an exciting new menu!

On Friday 21st April the village hall was filled the music of the Cambridge University Ceilidh Band. These very talented musicians and their superb 'caller' had people up and dancing all evening. It was truly amazing the way that people were able to dance dances that they had never even heard of before after just a few minutes of 'run through'. A lovely Coronation Chicken supper followed by Chocolate Brownies further helped the proceedings. There was a licensed bar, a raffle and 'heads and tails' and the whole event raised in excess of £1100 for the St Swithuns restoration appeal.

AND

The Good Old Fashioned Auction

It's a What?

Windmill Progress

The annual Service of Remembrance took place on Sunday 13th November and was well attended, with nearly 100 people turning out. The service was led by Simon Bailey who is Chaplain to British Horseracing, and the Last Post was sounded by Stefan Butlin. This remembrance was particularly poignant as it was the 100th anniversary of the Battle of the Somme in which 4 young Great Chishill men died.
Read more here

The cookbook containing 52 recipes submitted by the Chishills residents and friends is now available to buy at the modest price of £7.50, with proceeds going to the Windmill Restoration Fund.
Available from Hazel on 838254 or hrhandmaj@btinternet.com. More information on the www.greatchishillwindmill.com website

August Bank Holiday weekend saw two events in Great Chishill - the first the wedding of Fiona Russell to David Hall - Congratulations. The reception was held in a marquee at May Street Farm by kind permission of Pamela and Terry Ingles. Fiona's parents, Stella and Nigel generously allowed the use of the marquee the next day for a fund raising event for St Swithuns Church.
The event was billed as 'Having a Laugh' and consisted of an afternoon of entertainment by comedy duo Danny Platton and Pat Nearney. More than 100 people were entertained all afternoon by this very talented couple who sang, played guitar and washboard, reminding us of many of the 'old songs' - 'My old man's a dustman', 'Wild Rover', 'Black Velvet Band' etc. There was some stand up comedy - jokes mainly based around Norfolk (with accent to match), and some very funny mime.
A splended lunch of pulled pork burgers with all the trimmings (crackling, stuffing, apple sauce etc) followed by apple crumble and custard, was included in the ticket price - well done to all involved. It was a lovely sunny day and a good opportunity for a village 'get together for a good cause.
The event raised a total of £1085 for the church restoration fund and a further £100 was raised for the Teenage Cancer Trust as a 'thank you' for the use of the field.

From chandeliers and chaises longue; rocking horses, pedal cars and bicycles to garden furniture, golf sets, guitars and a croquet set, the St Swithun’s Appeal ‘Good Old Fashioned Auction’ had something for everyone.
TV auctioneer, David Palmer, rattled through over 300 lots to help raise £2,000!! This brings the Appeal Fund to within about £5,000 of the £50,000 2 year target set in December 2014.
The Appeal Committee would like to thank everyone who contributed by selling, buying, making tea and cakes, portering, clerking, barbequing and more, to make a successful village event.
Photo by Gordon Brown

Trumpeter helps raise funds for St Swithun's

The music scholars of Kings College Cambridge - the 'Kings Men' - delivered a splendid concert in St Swithuns on Sunday 6th December. The programme consisted of a mix of secular and sacred music, sung to a packed church. There was plenty of refreshments available as well which all went to make a most enjoyable evening.
The concert was in aid of the church restoration fund - which needs to raise aver £200,000 - and raised an amazing £2,500. To see more about the restoration work needed, Click here

With thanks to Gordon Brown for the picture above

Church Report Not Good News

How to Lose POUNDS and Gain POINTS

'Youth Club' visits the Troop

Peal Success

On 6th January, 4 drivers received endorsements and fixed penalty notices for speeding in Hall Lane. This was in just an hour. All four were doing less than 40mph. Three other people were cautioned. So, if you speed in Great Chishill, be prepared to pay the penalty.

Home thoughts from abroad

Trading Standards

Time for Ringlets

Footpath and Byways Hedging

How often do you throw things away that you are sure 'someone could make use of'?
I discovered recently that it is very easy to find a home for things that I don't want or need anymore. By signing up to the local branch of 'Freecycle' you can find a home for almost anything. I recently gave away my old kitchen units, kitchen worktop, and even a dishwasher which had broken down! (The recipient knew that it didn't work). Isn't that better than hiring a skip or taking things to the dump?

You simply create a message saying what you have to give away (and it must be GIVEN away) and sit back and wait for emails from people who might be interested. To find out more visit the local website. There are branches at Letchworth and Stevenage too.

---