7East Hendred Bulletin10 East Hendred Bulletin

East Hendred Millennium Record

This special Bulletin pull-out is a small sample of the informaThis special Bulletin pull-out is a small sample of the informa--tion contained within the Village Millennium Electroniction contained within the Village Millennium ElectronicRecord which has been produced on behalf of the ParishRecord which has been produced on behalf of the ParishCouncil, the Millennium Committee and villagers. Council, the Millennium Committee and villagers. The record provides a snapshot of the life in our village The record provides a snapshot of the life in our village during Millennium Year, not only including the special eventsduring Millennium Year, not only including the special eventsorganised during the year, but also of the two churches, organised during the year, but also of the two churches, pre-school and two primary schools, Snells Hall, sportingpre-school and two primary schools, Snells Hall, sportingactivities, village residents and businesses and the many activities, village residents and businesses and the many village clubs and societies. village clubs and societies. A great deal of work has gone into the production of thisA great deal of work has gone into the production of thisrecord and the associated 3record and the associated 3 11 /2/2 hour video of the Millenniumhour video of the Millennium

events. We should like to sincerely thank all those who haveevents. We should like to sincerely thank all those who havebeen involved.been involved.We are very pleased that the Millennium Commission wasWe are very pleased that the Millennium Commission wasable to provide the funding to enable the production of thisable to provide the funding to enable the production of thisspecial Bulletin insert and the electronic record (availablespecial Bulletin insert and the electronic record (availablefrom the village shop).from the village shop).We hope that this pull-out and the electronic record willWe hope that this pull-out and the electronic record willprovide future generations with a glimpse of life at the provide future generations with a glimpse of life at the beginning of the 21st Century in an active and attractivebeginning of the 21st Century in an active and attractiveOxfordshire village. Oxfordshire village.

Dr.John Sharp, Chairman, East Hendred Parish Council

On New Year's Eve the village celebrated the coming of the New Millenniumin fine style, despite the weather - a well attended Christingle service atSt.Augustine's Church, followed by a children's party in the hall, anEcumenical service in St.Mary's, followed by a not to be forgotten torchlitprocession, with musical accompaniment, progressing from Hendred Housethrough High Street, Chapel Square, Orchard Lane, Cat Street and intoSnells. For those of us at the rear of the procession the effect of watchingthe torches snaking down through Snells towards the Hall was quite spectac-ular and magical. A cracking(!) firework display followed. Earlier in the day,

by kind permission of the Hendred Estate, a splendid beacon had beenerected at the top of Snells and this was duly lit at the appropriate time tocoincide with other beacons which were part of a national chain extendingfrom Scotland to London. Villagers then went to their own parties or to SnellsHall to see the New Year in to the strains of Auld Lang Syne. Definitely it wasa night to remember for all who took part New Years' day was celebratedwith bell ringing at noon (as part of a national event), followed in the after-noon by a special football match at the Sports Ground (mixed teams, ladiesand men).

New years eve Dec/Jan 1999-2000

April saw several special Millennium events organised by the VillageMillennium Committee. On Saturday April 8th, the District Councillor, TerryFraser kindly opened an exhibition of children's art work from the two villageschools, the Pre-school and also from our twin village, Sarceaux in

Normandy, held in Snells Hall. Terry praised the high standard of the work,which also included artwork, verses and essays on the Millennium. On thesame day the Parish Council presented mugs to village children and theWomen's Institute Collage was unveiled.

Children’s art exhibition April 2000

Lighting the beacon had beenplanned for the last day ofMillennium year, but had to bepostponed because of badweather. A small group of parishcouncillors and villagers travelledup to the Ridgeway to see thebeacon lit by Julian Gold, on itsmore traditional site. As on NewYear's eve this formed part of anational chain of beacons andmade a fitting end to Millenniumyear. In addition a specialthanksgiving ecumenical servicefor the Millennium was held inSt.Augustine's church in January.

New years eve Dec/Jan 2000-01 The village Millennium Group was set up by the ParishThe village Millennium Group was set up by the ParishCouncil in 1997 to co-ordinate the several events and activiCouncil in 1997 to co-ordinate the several events and activi --ties associated with Millennium year. Many thanks to theties associated with Millennium year. Many thanks to themembers of this committee for their hard work and effort inmembers of this committee for their hard work and effort inensuring that the village fully recognised this very specialensuring that the village fully recognised this very specialyear. A video of the above events (and several others duryear. A video of the above events (and several others dur --ing the year) has been made and is available from theing the year) has been made and is available from theVillage Shop. A CD-ROM containing details of these events,Village Shop. A CD-ROM containing details of these events,including photos and video, together with information on vilincluding photos and video, together with information on vil --lage people, organisations and businesses in the Year 2000lage people, organisations and businesses in the Year 2000has been made by the Millennium Record group and is alsohas been made by the Millennium Record group and is alsoavailable from the Shop.available from the Shop.

A Millennium project was brought to completion when Lady Penney, now 95,returned to the village with her family to formally open the Penney Playparkin Snells on Sunday Oct 1st. In 1992 Lady Penney gave a generous donationto the Parish Council in memory of Lord Penney who died a year earlier, toestablish a children's play-park in memory of her husband. Lady Penney cutthe ribbon across the gate to the park and unveiled a plaque commemorat-

ing the opening, with the wording 'Penney Playpark - opened by Lady Penneyon Oct.1st 2000' She enjoyed having her photograph taken for the localnewspaper with lots of village children in the background. Lady Penney alsoplanted a tree to commerate the completion of the Playpark.

Penney playpark October 2000

End of year exhibition December 2000

At the end of December there was a special exhibition at Snells Hall toshow what East Hendred did over Millennium year, partly funded by theMillennium Commission. Ten village organisations took part and provided photographs and items todemonstrate what they achieved during the year. Dame Jennifer Jenkinskindly opened the exhibition and inaugurated the recently revamped villageweb site, the home page of which was projected onto a screen in the hall.On the evening of Friday December 29th a special showing was given ofvideos of historic village events, including some of photographs dating backto the early 1900’s. During the exhibition the Hendred Heritage Truststaged a slide show of past village events and village features.

9East Hendred Bulletin8 East Hendred Bulletin

East Hendred Millennium Record

This village Millennium celebration event held on 19th August, included awide range of stalls, sideshows and competitions as well as an exhibition ofvintage tractors, motor cycles and other vehicles, the Hendred 1831 Heritagefire engine, a dog show and many other items. The main attraction was the"It's a Knock out Competition", with a series of large inflatable obstacles forthe four teams that took part, which were the Olympic Coachbuilders, "Pettis"

Posers, Johnson Controls and "Durhams" Dynamos. The winning team wasthe "Pettis" Posers and they were presented with the Hendred Sports Club"It's a Knock-out" shield. -- Following the afternoon's events there wasevening entertainment in the marquee, starting with a disco, followed by twolocal bands, and finishing with the Grand Draw.

Village Millennium event August 2000

For the Millennium year, the annu-al show was bought forward fromits usual timing of September to19th August to enable it to formpart of the Hendred VillageMillennium Celebration. With afurther break with tradition, theshow was held in a splendid mar-quee set up on the Sports Groundin Mill Lane. There were overwere over 100 classes andalmost 40 trophies awarded, pre-sented to the winners by DaveMcDowell and Edward Eyston.

On Wednesday, April 12th, both schools put on a special concert at SnellsHall, for the parents, to celebrate the Millennium, with singing contributionsand poems, introduced by John Laverty and Liz Tansley. Overall there was a

high standard of presentation with excellent behaviour by the children.The chairman of the Parish Council thanked both schools for their highquality contributions to this special Millennium concert.

Schools concert April 2000

Hendred Heritage opened up Champs Chapel for most of May, as part ofthe Museums' Month activity, for an exhibition of life in Hendred from theRoman times to the present day.

Passion play April 2000

About 100 three to eleven yearolds thoroughly enjoyed thespecial party arranged for themat Snells Hall on June 24th, bythe Village MillenniumCommittee. Attractions includ-ed a disco, conjuror, bouncycastle and lots of food! A groupphotograph was taken at theend especially for the record.

Childrens party June 2000

A special lunch in Snells Hall on Sunday June 25th, to celebrate Millenniumyear, was organised by the DGA. The celebration menu included paté detruite, breast of chicken and home cooked ham, followed by trifle, cheeseand biscuits, coffee and mints. Musical entertainment followed, with audi-ence participation! A special group photograph was taken at the end of thelunch for the record.

DGA Lunch June 2000

During the afternoon of April 8th Parish Councillors presented theMillennium mugs to all the children under 16, living in the village. The chinamugs are unique to the village as only 400 were produced, bearing a designof the village shop on one side, by kind permission of a local artist, and onthe reverse a crucifix and the date. Who knows, being a limited edition, theymay become collector's items in the future.

Also on Saturday, April 8th after the art exhibition and presentation of themugs, the special Millennium collage of village scenes produced by mem-bers of the Women's Institute was unveiled by the Chairman of the ParishCouncil (John Sharp). A splendid effort by the ladies (Sue Mulford, BettyBeechey, Betty Bushnell and Monica Stoter) who produced a beautiful col-lection of needlework pictures of 9 distinctive buildings in the village. Thecollage is now mounted and framed and hangs on the staircase at SnellsHall for all to admire.

Millennium mugs and WI Collage April 2000

A Passion Play for Easter ' TheGreatest Gift' initiated bySt.Mary's Church, was held in theground of Hendred House on theevenings of April 21st and 22nd,involving people from Hendredand several neighbouring villages.Despite very poor weather on thepreceding days and on the earlypart of the actual days them-selves the weather fined up foreach evening performance whichwere of a high standard and amoving experience. The followingweek-end the Passion Play wasperformed in Hampstead Norris

Hendred Heritage Exhibition May 2000

The first week-end in July saw the coach arrive from Sarceaux (inNormandy) , bringing over 40 visitors to the Hendreds, for the first twinningvisit of the new Millennium. The big event of the weekend was for the visi-tors and hosts to go to the special Oxfordshire Millennium event inHeadington Park, Oxford, entitled 'OOMPH'. It included a grand processionaccompanied by bands and musicians, followed by a visual spectacle,involving huge pyramids of light, magical rivers and pathways, with spectac-ular aerial trapeze artists lit by spotlights, and finishing with a grand fire-works display. After the formal lunch on Sunday in Snells Hall a groupphoto was taken. The visitors returned to France on the Sunday evening, viathe ferry from Portsmouth.

Twinning Exchange July 2000