News

Village Lives has proved a great success with over 150 copies of the book already sold, showing the level of interest in our local history. You’ll find copies on sale in Broadhempston Shop and at only £5.99, this is a good stocking filler.

The book contains historic Parish News articles that paint a vivid picture of life in Broadhempston, Landscove, Littlehempston, Staverton and Woodland in past years. Read more about this wonderful project and how to look at the book online in this July news item: Village Lives is Published.

Here’s an opportunity to eat cake and support village activities. The Cakeaway Service offers a delicious range of homemade cakes delivered to your door in a Covid secure way. Littlehempston ladies are poised to bake a cake especially for you – you can feast on Kendal’s Crunchy Top Lemon Cake, Lesley’s Luscious Victoria Sponge, Judy’s Scrumptious Gluten Free Orange Cake, Devonshire Jill’s Apple and Sultana Cake, Tracy’s Famous Fruitcake and Val’s Fabulous Flapjacks.

You can order or get more information by contacting Ali or phoning 01803 865058. The cost is a mere £7 to include your made to order cake and delivery, with all proceeds supporting local activities and helping pay the Community Space bills, while it remains shut during the pandemic. And this could make a thoughtful gift for friends or family who need cheering up!

Pictured here are the first happy customers – Ollie and his mum, Laura. (He was a little disappointed it wasn’t a birthday cake.) Click on this link to the leaflet for full details of the service and the cakes.

Many thanks to all those who have already contributed prizes to the Littlehempston Christmas Raffle with delights such as gardening services, £10 Halls the Butcher voucher, massage sessions, a craft session for 2, wine, framed historic photos, a handcrafted chopping board and a beautiful hedgehog house. You can buy tickets from James Dunn, Val Hoare, Ali Taylor and Jill Todd or by phoning 01803 865058.

Tickets are £1 each. You can pay by cheque, cash or bank transfer. The list of winners will be posted online and in the community meadow along with the results of the Poster Competition on the afternoon of 24th December. The raffle is organised by the Community Space Team to pay the bills for the church and Space, whilst normal fundraising activities have been put on hold due to the pandemic.

Thanks to Val Hoare for news of this great competition to keep us busy over lockdown.

Littlehempston is holding a Christmas poster competition. This is an open event and we welcome entries from anyone and everyone (that’s adults and children). We want you to design an A4 size Christmas poster, for example in the form of a painting, drawing or collage, that could be turned into a Christmas card. We will photograph or scan them, laminate and display on boards in the Community Meadow.

Each entry costs £3. Please confirm your entry as soon as possible and deliver your creation to me by midday on Wednesday 16th December. From Thursday 17th December to midday on Thursday 24th, you will have the opportunity to view the entries, either in the meadow or as photos on the village website, and to cast votes for your favourite two posters – just like we did for the scarecrow competition. Winners will be posted in the Community Meadow and online on Thursday 24th.

There will be two cash prizes, and the six most popular will be turned into cards printed in time for next Christmas to send to your friends and relatives. For more information, and to enter and vote, please contact Val Hoare, or phone or text 07792 802307.

Colin’s plaque is finally in place on the south wall of the nave on the opposite side from Beatrice Carfrae, another parishoner who worked so hard to keep the church in good repair and open for all. Our much loved Prof. Colin Platt was instrumental in the re-ordering of the church to create our valued Community Space. A proper opening ceremony will take place once we are able to come together in groups.

Pictured here is skilled stone mason, Ben Jones, who created and installed both plaques. Ben also makes beautiful sundials and was very taken with the one on the outer church wall, though apparently it’s not keeping good time!

If you’d like to contribute towards the cost of  the plaque (£300 still to raise), please go to the Dart and Avon Mission Community website’s Littlehempston Online Giving page, or contact church warden Val Hoare or phone her on 01803 866133.

Many thanks to Steve and Jane Fussell for this exciting piece of news:

Thanks to a group effort and community concerns over this historic piece of equipment, we are very happy to announce that the Cider Press at Higher Court Farm has been saved by transfer of ownership to nearby Pine Ridge Woodland Farm, where it will be restored and put back into service pressing apples (& pears). Pictured here operating the press is Bert Blackler in c1982.

The concrete base pad is being prepared in the barn and re-erection of the press IS likely to take place in the Spring of 2021. A new crushing deck has to be made in situ as the old one has rotted away, but we hope to be pressing fruit in September of next year. The transfer of this press has not been without some significant obstacles and we thank all involved for their co-operation – a special mention to Chris Davis of Torr View Forge for his careful dismantling in an awkward working environment, the builders at Higher Court Farm for their assistance with manual power, until the load could get onto a telescopic handler, and the former owner in releasing the press to us, as part of their discharge of planning conditions. Restoration and re-erection next…

Subject to community support, we are planning on having an open day each September where the press will become available for community apple pressing and which we will probably combine with a charcoal making demonstration, BBQ cooking and more tree related activities besides – watch this space. Anyone interested in this is welcome to talk to us.

As well as a community event, another great way of preserving the press is to bring it into commercial operation, however modest. There are plenty of modern, more efficient methods of pressing apples these days, but we would welcome enquiries from anyone interested in having their apples pressed on this equipment. There are also plenty of apple trees out there laden with fruit in October. As we will be doing a series of pressings through the Autumn, stop the rot – get those apples pressed instead. Undoubtedly, some of the apple juice will find its way into cider barrels here on the farm, but fresh apple juice is also wonderful stuff for drinking direct or taking home for your own cider making activities.

The future of the press is now looking very positive. We had already been planting apple and pear trees long before we even knew about the press. Now that it is here there will be many more apple and pear trees going into the landscape here at Pine Ridge, along with the thousands of other tree saplings we have been preparing. All sounds pretty green to us.

Thank you to all involved.

Steve & Jane Fussell of Pine Ridge Woodland Farm

Pictured here is Steve (right), helper Mike Wright and the press.

Lindy Collard-Baker passed away peacefully at 1.30am on Friday 9th October, surrounded by friends and family. She started the Littlehempston Ladies Lending Library as a way to keep in touch with her friends. Here are a few of their thoughts:

Lindy was special – wise, generous and very funny. She was one of the first to welcome us to the village – her Games Nights at the Tally were a great place to make friends. As chair of the Parish Council, she played a big part in getting the Tally re-opened, smoothing the way with her ability to listen to others and getting people working together. Despite being ill, she stayed connected with local life and just a couple of weeks before she died was sending suggestions for future events. Great the scarecrows were such a success. What about a funny father Christmas or snowman one and mince pies and singing on judging evening? Green Christmas tree in the field? Solar lights? She knew she wouldn’t be here at Christmas, but that wasn’t the point. Reading this, she would probably crease up with laughter at all the compliments. But it’s all true, Lindy, and we’ll miss you terribly.

The things that come to mind when I think of Lindy are her positivity in the light of what she had to face day to day. I knew Lindy as a well person for a few years, and remember her then with her love for plants and her gardening work. Then later her garden always looked fabulous while she minded it from her chair and her bed. She inspired me a number of times with her knowledge of horticulture. Lindy took the “bull by its horns” when she had to confront her illness years ago and really defied predictions right to the end, when she faced it with frankness and clear eyed positivity.

Lindy was inspirational – at our gatherings to ostensibly discuss books, it never felt like Visiting the Sick. Lindy was always positive and interested in everyone – sensitive to our views and feelings. We did talk about books and read poetry aloud, but we also just talked and got to know each other better. Lindy was a facilitator, offering warmth, intelligent conversation and intuition – with a dash of naughtiness. The last time I saw her – no hugs or kisses of course, she showed me a gift one of her carers had made, knowing that I would love it too. She inspired me to make my own for Christmas presents. Typical of Lindy to be looking forward, thinking of others, while clear about her own chances – no self pity! Oh how we’ll miss her!

Lindy was one of my first friends when we moved to Littlehempston 37 years ago. Our immediate link was both having small children and both recognising the worth of our local school at Berry Pomeroy – in fact Lindy was the one who ensured that the school was given a new sign indicating that it was Berry Pomeroy AND Littlehempston primary school. Lindy was a fixture at school May Fairs with her badge-making machine – encouraging the children to colour in their own design so that she could turn it into a badge to be worn with great pride. She was also the driving force behind the school recipe book ‘In Good Taste’ – my copy is dog-eared and splashed with cake mixture, but it is a treasured memory of those times. Lindy was a supporter of all things ‘local’ – the Parish Council, locally grown food, the Littlehempston Environment Group which worked so hard 30 years ago to plant trees and improve local footpaths, but most importantly, she loved and supported her local friends with such a positive spirit. We will miss her.

Seeing Lindy walking down the school drive to my school. Pushing people in wheelchairs. Convincing her she could be the chair of the Berry Pomeroy Village School parents group. Enticing her with home made cakes. Introducing the Duke to the welcoming group at the school. Lindy was uncertain. I was tasked to meet him at the gate. I walked in with him to the room and announced him. Here he is – one duke. Lindy said it broke the ice. Lindy striving to have a play field for the children in the village. Neil obtained musicals she wanted to sing to. We sang our way through several!! Such an inspiration!! Tears falling…

Lindy was so many things. She was full of grace and warmth; she was gentle and resilient, she had great tenacity. Lindy was so instrumental and committed to the saving of the Tally and she continued all through her illness to join campaigns for positive change at both a micro and macro level. She was a good listener giving full attention to her visitors who she made to feel so welcome. At the LLLL she always had to hand a positive, funny poem to share and always reached out to people.

Her acceptance and the way she dealt with her own mortality was inspirational. Lindy’s wish was to die in her own home and her family, close friends and support team made this possible. I feel lucky to have known her. We all will miss her.

Ali, Anna, Christine, Jenny, Jill, Sandra, Val