December - almost a wrap for 2024, it seems to have flown by and here we are again at Christmas! Christmas services inWaterstock start with the carol service on Sunday December 15th at 5pm,with a bring and share supper with the Shipperley's at Home Farm afterwards, starting at 6.30pm. Please let Janet know if you are coming, and what you'd like to bring (janet.shipperley@gmail.comor 07808 403166). If anyone would like to help decorate the church for Christmas, you'd be most welcome to come along on Saturday December 14th
On Christmas Day there will be a family service with Communion at 10.15am.
In November, as usual Susie Edmondson collected for the Poppy Appeal, raising around £500, followed by the Remembrance Day service which took place at the War Memorial, raising an additional £209, giving a magnificent total of over £700! This has to be verified and confirmed before it's official and Susie should receive that confirmation in early 2025. She sends a huge thank you to everyone who gave so generously and made her job so much easier by returning their envelopes. You may remember earlier in the year Rob Arthur undertook to clean the War Memorial after an adverse comment from a visitor, so it was looking particularly fine this year.
A piece of news which I found particularly interesting is that the Arthurs have discovered that one of their old varieties of apple trees is unique and unknown on the national apple database - and they have the opportunity to name it! Lorna writes:
'We have discovered that we -Waterstock has a unique apple tree. No-one knows the variety and it is not listed on the national database. We have been invited to name this apple and all we have come up with is 'Waterstock Wonder' as we thought it would be good to have Waterstock in the name. So please let us have your thoughts. The reason we discovered the tree is unknown is that Rob has been trying to preserve the old varieties of apple tree that we inherited in our orchard which was previously part of the kitchen garden of Waterstock House. He found Bernwode Fruit Trees https://bernwodefruittrees.co.uk/about.htm at Ludgershall who know just about everything there is to know about apples and asked them for help with the grafting of the old stock onto new plants. They were very pleased to find many old varieties and had the apples they'd grafted from here compared to the national apple database. However, there was one (see picture) which came back as 'unknown'. Bernwode describe the apple from this unknown tree as fairly large fruit, slightly flattened with five prominent ribs. 9cm wide and 7cm tall. The skin is pale to mid-green with scattered small dark lenticels, and with amber blushes and merged streaks in the sun. The apples are of fine dessert quality, juicy, sweet and with a good flavour.'
If more name ideas are wanted, here's a couple to kick off: Waterstock One-Off, or Arthur's Apple! Contact Lorna with yours!
Looking back over the year, it initially seemed just like a blur of rain, and more rain. I'm pretty sure it literally rained solidly until the end of April, and then of course we had the devastating rain in September which flooded houses. Ironically, back in the April news Keith Stubbs reported on a Thames Valley Flood Scheme, the brainchild of the Environment Agency, with Waterstock being one of 17 sites being considered for flood storage. Perhaps the events of this year will hasten some decisions on this. Thames Water seem to be an increasing (and not altogether welcome) part of our lives, having spent a lot of time in the village over the past few years trying to fix inadequate drainage; they are now here again lowering the level of the manhole cover at the entrance to the Oxfordshire Way footpath near the church. This has sported its own cone for a while now, to alert drivers and walkers to a potential trip hazard, so I guess
this is a welcome development.
If it's possible to see a silver lining to the wet weather, Johnny Powell reports it’s been a bumper autumn for water-loving birds, with plenty of Lapwing, Teal, Wigeon, and Shoveller Duck spotted taking advantage of the temporary lakes, as well as the less common Pintail, and two very rare Great White Egrets. Large numbers of Snipe are still around along with every UK raptor including Peregrine and Hobby. Good numbers of Greylag geese are still present but probably too many Canada Geese.
The battle to protect our Green Belt and the golf course has been epic this year, with key players led by Henry Manisty investing huge amounts of time marshalling our troops and experts to provide a powerful defence and backup to South Oxfordshire's own defence of the refusal. We are well over halfway through this gruelling process, which should wind up in mid-January. The latest depositions being made as I write should have been Chris Shaw, an expert on highways, and Rob Arthur on sustainable transport, although due to overrunning Chris was postponed. Nick Edmondson will be taking the stand on behalf of golfers, backed up by a representative from Golf England, which shows how seriously they take this case. Let's hope2025 will kick off with some good news on this front, saving what we and all our visitors love about Waterstock, whether it's golf, riding, cycling, walking or just watching the river go by on Bow Bridge.
There have been some other high points of the year: in May Sophie and Ruvern from the Waterstock Riding School got married at a beautiful ceremony in St Leonards Church, with horses and dogs playing their part on the procession back!
In September Keith Stubbs undertook a London to Paris cycle in aid of the Myeloma UK charity, dedicated to supporting people with this incurable blood cancer, for which Keith has spent the last five years developing new medicines. As a non-cyclist, this was quite a challenge but he completed it successfully despite some horrific weather! He writes: 'Day two was particularly challenging with torrential rain all day and a cold crosswind. The amazing French food helped and most of the low points were forgotten as we cycled past the Arc de Triomphe with a police escort, finishing at the Eiffel Tower. It was hugely rewarding to cycle with patients and the myeloma community and I would like to thank everyone in the village that so generously contributed to my fundraising efforts.’
And finally there seem to be a decent community of hedgehogs in the village, particularly as reported by Caroline at Home Farm Barn. I've also had a large hedgehog hanging around the garden and making a lot of noise - it got stuck under the gate which was pretty alarming, and I had to remove the gate entirely to get it out, but with no apparent ill-effects as it subsequently scoffed quite a large plate of dog food.
Wishing everyone a very Happy Christmas and all good things for 2025.
