poughill parish newsletter - sept 2010
DESCRIPTION
The quarterly newsletter for residents of the Mid Devon parish of Poughill.TRANSCRIPT
PPoouugghhiillll PPaarriisshh
NNeewwsslleetttteerr
Issue No 15 September 2010
Copy deadline for next issue is 26 November 2010
e-mail [email protected]
Website - www.middevon.gov.uk/poughill
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The Poughill Newsletter is produced four times a year: March,
June, September and December.
I would be very pleased to receive any articles, photos, information
on births, marriages and deaths, achievements by our younger (and
older) villagers and anything else you feel you would like to be
included.
Articles can either be dropped into St Michael’s House, to me at
Penhay or emailed to me in time for our next issue.
Editor - Jill Shaw 01363 860217
Advertising and Subscriptions
Advertising rates are £3.50 an issue or £12.00 for the year.
Businesses outside the area £30.00
Phone Anne for more details on 01363 866349 or email her at
Contact the Editor for a postal subscription service for an annual
subscription of £5.00 including postage and packing.
Forge GarageForge GarageForge GarageForge Garage Proprietors: Kevin & Wayne Davey
East Village, Near Crediton, Devon EX17 4DBEast Village, Near Crediton, Devon EX17 4DBEast Village, Near Crediton, Devon EX17 4DBEast Village, Near Crediton, Devon EX17 4DB
Tel: 01363 866988Tel: 01363 866988Tel: 01363 866988Tel: 01363 866988
Mob: 07866 659807Mob: 07866 659807Mob: 07866 659807Mob: 07866 659807
Email: [email protected]
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The village website has been running for about 5 years now, and is
updated with new content when it is available. However, there are
some areas of the site that cannot function at all without the input
from villagers.
We are looking for any photographs, new or old, that represent
village life; summer days, harvesting, building, school days, snow
days – all these things are interesting to people reading about the
village and wanting to see what life is like here. Advertisements
from local companies are gratefully received, and if you wish to
write a little bit about what you do, then we will include that as
well. We can also include a website link and e-mail link if you
wish.
It would be particularly interesting to build up a history of the
village through stories or memories that villagers have. So if you
or someone you know has something they would like to contribute,
please do drop them in to me. If you know of any local services
that might be of interest to people using the site then again, please
let me have details. We have tried to ensure that any services we
know are correctly represented, but it can be difficult to keep track
of the changes, so please let me know if anything is out of date or if
there is anything new.
We do have a small links page at present, but this can always be
increased and I am particularly looking for anything that will be
interesting to parish residents, and to help build the site up as a
source of information for villagers and visitors alike. If you do wish
to contact me about the site, please either drop in at 5 The Glebe,
phone me on 866606 or drop me an e-mail to
Peter Hilton
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Poughill Parish Council Minutes
A Parish Council meeting was held in the Village Hall on
Wednesday 14th
July 2010 at 7.30pm. Those present were:
Peter Hilton (chair) Gladys Evans, Wendy Hopson, Sarah
Norman, Chris Crossman.
Apologies. Paul Rossiter, Julian Moger.
Minutes of Last Meeting.
Minutes of the previous meeting were unavailable.
They will be signed and approved at the September meeting.
Matters Arising.
Bees Beya and Simon gave a short talk on the plight of the British
colony bee and provided information that would help to support
bees in the locality. Questions were asked by all those attending.
The Council approved the funding for the sponsorship of a hive, to
be looked after by a local beekeeper. An article will be published
in the September issue of the Parish Newsletter highlighting what
steps parish residents can take on their own properties to help
support the local bee population. Thanks were expressed to both
for a very informative talk.
Newsletter Views were expressed that the June issue of the
newsletter was superb. Each issue will now be available for
downloading from the village website, starting with the June issue,
available now.
Recycling SN confirmed that MDDC are unable to offer Poughill
the same level of recycling service as Cheriton Fitzpaine and other
parishes due to funding constraints. She has lodged our desire to
receive better recycling services in the future, and will keep us up
to date with any further developments. MDDC now work in
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partnership with North Devon District Council on waste and
recycling services.
Community Funding SN informed us that section 106 monies can
be used for community projects such as play equipment. CC will
feed this back to the VHT. SN will also find out if 106 monies
might be available for building projects such as the Village Hall –
in its role as the sole community facility other than the church. She
was unable at this stage to confirm this. See also item in Finance.
Potholes Since there have been no further complaints about the
potholes on the Pennymoor and Cheriton Fitzpaine roads it is
assumed that they have been remedied.
Matters requiring Discussion
Equipment Shed CC attended the meeting to discuss the council’s
proposal for aa permanent groundsman’s shed somewhere on VHT
land. The idea has been accepted in principal, however issues such
as health and safety and insurance cover are of great importance to
the VHT. PH to contact current PPC insurers and the contact CC
for further discussions. Three quotes will need to be provided to
satisfy requirements for the funding already in place. See also
Finance.
Correspondence
A list of printed matter received by the Clerk over the last two
months appears on the agenda.
Financial Matters.
The claim for VAT arising from the work carried out on the church
walls has now been finalised and £999.75 will be credited in due
course.
In concert with Dr. Bennett, the new Clerk has re-submitted the
Annual Audit.
£89.00 was paid for the printing costs of the Parish Newsletter.
Eight payments for advertising of £12.00 have been received.
The Clerk presented a putative salary and expenses claim, the terms
and conditions of which have yet to be settled with the Chairman.
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An e-mail from Steve Densham on 11th
June confirms that
£1000.00 has been committed to the project to erect an equipment
shed.
Planning Matters.
(i) Marsh Farm. SN advised that this application has been
approved.
(ii) Listed building and planning consent application for the
installation of 20 photovoltaic cells solar collectors on outbuilding,
Riggledown Farm, Pennymoor.
Dated 18th
June 2010 10/00799/LBC and 10/00798/FULL
Any Other Business. None
Date of next Parish Council Meeting Wednesday 15th
September
2010.
Poughill Parish Council Contact Information
Councillors Contact
Gladys Evans 01363 866274
Peter Hilton (Chair) 01363 866606
Wendy Hopson 01363 866152
Julian Moger 01363 860098
Paul Rossiter 01383 866817
Parish Clerk
John Wilkinson
4 Silver Way, Shobrooke
Crediton EX17 1HP
01363 774751
Mid Devon District
Councillor for Way Ward
Sarah Norman
07918 153 529
Parish Council Email [email protected]
Mid Devon District Council can be contacted on:
Telephone: 01884 255 255
or on e-mail: [email protected]
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Church Report
July was a busy month in the Church with the
christening of Peter and Emma Hilton’s son,
Charlie on the 18th
and the wedding of Nick and
Vanessa Moon’s daughter Lucy on the 31st.
Both were very happy occasions.
Forthcoming events:
26 September Harvest Festival and supper
15 October Card Bingo in the village hall
Line Dancing Poughill Village Hall
Mondays, 8pm- 9pm (Starting on 6th September)
Suitable for all levels & beginners
First session is Free Then £2.50 per session
Come along & have a go!
Please contact Sarah on 01363860151 for more information
Supported by 5x30 (Devonwide project to encourage people to be
more active)
Next Meeting of Poughill Parish Council Wednesday 14
th September 2010 at 7.30pm
Agenda will be displayed on the website and on the
village notice board.
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Recollections of Poughill School Sixty Years
Ago
In May 1947 my parents and I moved from Manchester to Poughill
as my mother, Sarah Shaw, had been appointed Head-teacher at the
school. For her interview in April we travelled by train to Crediton
where we stayed for two nights at the Ship Hotel and were taken to
Poughill by a taxi from Moore’s garage. The hedgerows were full
of primroses and daffodils and I think that my parents, having
endured the harsh winter of 1946/47 together with food and fuel
rationing, felt that they had arrived in “Paradise”. A house was
provided for us at 2 West End. On settling in we soon found that it
was possible to supplement our rations by buying eggs and the
occasional chicken from local farms. Clotted cream, something we
had never tasted before, came from Mrs Isaac at Village Farm.
Wild rabbits were plentiful and Mrs Matten, our next-door
neighbour, was happy to prepare them for us to cook. Fruit and
vegetables were readily available from several people in the
village.
Poughill School at that time was an Elementary School with the
ages of pupils ranging from five to fifteen. When we arrived Miss
Norman was teaching the infants and from May to July my mother
taught all the others. The 1944 Butler Education Act brought major
changes in secondary education which reached Poughill in
September 1947 when pupils aged eleven and over went to the
Secondary Modern School in Tiverton, transported by Kingdoms
Coaches. This left fewer than twenty-five pupils at Poughill which
then became a one-teacher school because the Education Authority
provided an additional teacher only when the number exceeded
twenty-five. Consequently, my mother then had to teach all the
children from five to eleven. In subsequent years when the number
of pupils was sufficiently large various teachers – Mrs Perkins,
Miss Greenslade, Miss Bowden and Miss Davey – came to teach
the infant class. When this happened the schoolroom would be
divided into two by pulling the concertina partition across.
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I think that when my mother arrived in Poughill she was somewhat
dismayed by the under-achievement of many of the pupils and was
determined to rectify this. The only pupil she ever heard of gaining
a place at a grammar school was Leslie Matten who became a
boarder at Queen Elizabeth School, probably in the early 1940s.
My mother saw this as a challenge and believed that more pupils
from Poughill School should be given the opportunity to attend a
grammar school. Gradually this began to happen. In my time in
Poughill Tony Matten, Helen Pride, Malcolm and Jennifer
Summers, Marion Hamilton, Rita Bowden, Roland Chamberlain,
Rodney Matthews, Jennifer and Catherine Ball, Rodney Branton
and I obtained grammar school places. News of this achievement at
Poughill School encouraged a number of parents from
neighbouring villages to send their children to the school. At that
time passing the eleven plus dominated the thoughts of many
parents.
For my mother the “three R’s” were of prime importance and much
of each day was spent in teaching them. As in any other school she
worked with a wide range of abilities. Despite often teaching
entirely on her own she made up her mind that no child would
leave Poughill School unable to read, write and have basic
arithmetical skills. In achieving this objective she was very
successful. Any child who struggled with reading was asked, or
perhaps told, to come to our house after school for extra help. You
might think this would be resented but children came willingly
because on finishing a book they were given sixpence – a
significant reward at that time.
Trying to provide a stimulating education for every child in a one-
teacher school was demanding and my mother relied quite heavily
on the BBC radio programmes to provide the older children with
some knowledge of history, geography and nature study. I
remember also that “Singing Together” was a favourite broadcast.
Although unsupervised, no child could think of the programmes as
a time for playing around. The relevant words would be written on
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the blackboard. Using these we had to make notes about the
subject. These were checked and then written up in our exercise
books.
For my mother there was no free time during the school day. Even
the lunch hour was often used to give extra help to individual
children. After school Mrs Olive Pike, the caretaker, began
cleaning the schoolroom while my mother began the “office work”.
There was no typewriter nor secretarial help and so all
correspondence was hand-written by my mother. There was not
even a telephone in the school. On the rare occasions she felt it
necessary to communicate with the Education Office in Exeter, all
the pupils would have to leave the classroom and stand by the
telephone kiosk, fortunately just opposite the school, while the call
was made.
We had not long been in Poughill when one of the School
Managers said to my mother, “Us ‘ave yerd the school is going to
close”. My mother, alarmed at this news, contacted the Chief
Education Officer who said to her “Mrs Shaw, just treat it like
water off a duck’s back”. My mother retired in 1963 and the new
Head-teacher was Fred Coombes. When he left, Harry Pritchard
became Head and after him Michael Rumsey who was at the school
when it did close in the early nineties.
Rosalind Hobbs (formerly Shaw)
All aspects of tree surgery/Tree Inspection
Stump Removal
Hedge Cutting and Reshaping Tree and
hedge planting
All types of fencing supplied and erected Grass
Cutting/Strimming
General Garden Maintenance Landscaping
A Large Selection of Annual and Perennial Plants
NPTC Qualified to British Standard 3998
Fully Insured/Free Quotations [email protected] www.fourseasons-treeservices.com
Oliver Vernon Bycott Farm, Halberton, Tiverton, EX16 7AU
01884 820839 07766168162
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When it’s more than just Colour
Have you ever seen a beetle that at first appeared black but when
you held it in the light, it glowed with a sheen of violet or green?
Noticed a cock pheasant in the
morning sun and seen more than a
palate of colour? Or a shiny green
car that turned mauve when you
walked past it? This special kind of
beauty is formed by means of
which the artist can only dream.
We know it as iridescence and
there are two optical
phenomena which cause the light
to work in this way.
Firstly, where changes
in hue correspond to the angle from
which a surface is viewed, through
multiple reflections from multi-layered,
semi-transparent surfaces (such as a soap
bubble), or secondly, with a diffraction
grating – a fine ruling of grooves which
interrupt the reflection of light, such as
that forming the rainbow of colours on
the surface of a CD. There are many
natural surfaces that form colours by one or other or both of these.
This is why a Kingfisher on a sunny day is eye catching as it flies
past. The blue part of the sun’s spectrum is shining at you like a
torch in the same way that dew drops glisten in the morning sun.
His blue would be a dull gray without this effect.
The dust-like scales on many butterflies are finely ridged to form
this iridescence. Other butterflies utilise the multiple reflection
technique like the soap bubble. Sometimes the whole wing is aglow
as with the Morpho from South America or partly and intricately so
as with our own Peacock Butterfly. These are surfaces in
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which complex interference of
the reflections modulates the
incident light by amplifying or
attenuating some frequencies
more than others; hence in these
cases the colours do not change
with the angle of sight.
How many things can you find that use
more than pigment to be colourful? Sea
shells, minerals, some pottery glaze,
decorative glass, insects, …..
Derryck Morton
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Walks from Poughill
Circular walk from Poughill to Puddington
Bottom to Woolsfardisworthy and back.
The walk is an hour and a half; 4.5 miles and 9,500 steps (of your
daily recommended 10,000 a day!)
Leave the main Poughill village road to the left hand side of St
Michael’s House (next to the church) marked with a ‘Public
footpath’ sign. Cross the field, through a gate and walk diagonally
left towards a gate next to the bungalow. Turn right taking the road
towards Pennymoor. Continue along this road to Greenhill Cross
signpost to Pennymoor 2 miles and turn left.
Continue to the bottom of the hill over a small ford to Puddington
Bottom. Cross a bridge and turn left passed stock barns and
continue through the field to a gate, through the gate and turn left.
Cross the stream, through a gate and up through Cleave Copse and
Venn Channing Copse along Binneford Water to Woolsery Mill.
Through the mill to the Woolsfardisworthy /Poughill Road and turn
left. Walk up the road back into Poughill.
Jill Shaw
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The Gardening Club
On the 29th
of July six keen gardeners from Poughill went to visit
Wildside Garden at Buckland Monachorum. This garden was
featured on Channel 4 programme The Landscape Man.
Keith and Ros Wiley made this garden from scratch; they bought a
four acre paddock in 2004 and set about transforming it into a very
different kind of garden.
The major design feature of the garden is a series of ponds and bog
gardens that are linked by narrow streams. In the centre of all of
this Keith has created a fantastic courtyard garden, flanked by
block- built walls. It is a work in progress. We were filled with awe
for the work that had been done and can’t wait until we visit again.
We also visited The Garden House which was just up the road from
Wildside. Keith Wiley was head gardener there for 25 years. The
garden is 8 acre north facing valley slope.
The Courtyard Garden
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This was also a fantastic garden, with many different types of
gardens set within the 8 acres such as a cottage garden, South
African garden, spring garden, wild flower meadow and much
more. You could visit anytime of year there would always be
something to see. We all went away with lots plants and ideas.
The Cottage Garden
Our next visit will be to Rosemoor which will be sometime in
September.
If you would like to join us please contact Carole on 866666 or
Betty on 866650
Experienced Electrician Available for all types of domestic work
Call Mike
07545 262944 or 01363 866585
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Hog Roast
On the 21st of August Poughill Village held a Hog Roast. Kelvin
Garnsworthy kindly donated the hog and spent the day roasting it.
The night was a huge success with over 65 people attending. They
enjoyed the perfectly cooked hog with trimmings of stuffing, apple
sauce & roast potatoes.
Thanks to Kelvin’s generosity
the evening made over £450.00
for hall funds. Many thanks
must go to everyone who
helped and supported this
event.
ADRIAN PAYNE CHIMNEY SWEEP
TELEPHONE 01392 851199
MEMBER OF THE NATIONAL
ASSOCIATION OF CHIMNEY
SWEEPS
CERTIFICATES ISSUED
HETAS APPROVED
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Fete
On the 29th
of August The Village Hall
and The Church joined forces for the
village fete. The fete was opened by
Sarah Norman she cut the ribbon and
welcomed everyone. The afternoon
started with‘Songs of Praise’. The
produce and flower show was a huge
success with over 118 entries.
We would like to thank Bill & Nora for
judging the produce and flowers and
Lesley for judging the photographs.
Well done to everyone who entered
especially the children with there
wonderful vegetable animals. There
were various stalls something for
everyone such as baskets, crafts, cards,
a delicious cake stall a ongoing B.B.Q.
We are pleased to announce that the fete made a grand profit of
£552.00 to be split between the village hall and the church. We
would like to thank everyone who helped and supported us which
made this event so successful.
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Race results from the Children’s Sports Day – June 2010
Egg & Spoon Under 5s
1st Willow Taragon
2nd Joe Hilton
3rd Max Atkinson
Egg & Spoon 5+
1st Holly Buckley
2nd Vicky Lancelles
3rd Joshua Atkinson
Egg & Spoon Adults
1st Sarah Taragon
2nd Emma Hilton
3rd Katie Acton
Sack Race - all ages
(children)
1st Charlotte Ridley
Rundle
2nd Holly Buckley
3rd Vicky Lancelles
Sack Race - Grown ups
1st Andrew Curtis
2nd Peter Hilton
3rd Ian Curtis
3 legged race - children
1st Holly Buckley &
Millie
2nd Vicky Lancelles &
Charlotte Ridley Rundle
3rd Ross Taragon &
Joshua Atkinson
Wheelbarrow Race (all
ages)
1st Ellena Borlase & her
dad
2nd Ella & Vicky
Lancelles
3rd Holly Buckley &
Milly
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WI
June was the Crediton Flower Festival and five
members went to see the displays and had lunch
in the Boniface Centre.
In June, Irene represented us, as well as three
other institutes, at the AGM in Cardiff.
In July we had a farm walk on the outskirts of Witheridge,
followed by a short meeting and a delicious cream tea.
On the 8th
and 9th
July three members had a wonderful time visiting
Kew Gardens, with an overnight stay in London and a visit the
following day to Hampton Court.
In August all members helped John and Christine Skinner celebrate
their Golden Wedding Anniversary.
The September meeting will be held at the home of our President,
Mrs I Butler, in Tiverton when the speaker will be Mrs Soul, who
will be recalling travel anecdotes.
Also in September, on the 20th
, members will be visiting
Highgrove.
Betty Bone
Simon Ridley
Blacksmith
Designer & Maker of all types
of Interior & Exterior metal work
01363 866902
07866425244
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Sarah Atkins – The Witch of Poughill
Did Poughill really have its own witch? According to the Exeter
Flying Post (a newspaper published between 1763 and 1917) it did,
for in its edition of the 7th
September, 1870 it reported:
The Crediton petty session was held on Thursday
before J. Quick and J. Wreford, Esqrs.
Sarah Atkins, of Poughill, enjoys the unenviable
notoriety amongst some of the villagers of being a
“witch,” and one day a little boy (Francis John Coles
by name) had the temerity to call Sarah so before her
face. This provoked the hitherto imperturbable
Atkins, and she “pugged” the boy for it – an
indulgence for which she was fined 12s.
Mrs. Atkins lived at Piley Cottage, she was 57 years of age, and the
wife of John Atkins, a farm labourer. Young Francis was only 9,
the son of the village blacksmith, Moses Coles, who lived 4 doors
away at “Church House”.
Of course, we do not know if Mrs. Atkins really was a witch, she
may have been the old lady that the parishioners went to for a
herbal cure, or she may have been able to charm warts, or gifted in
ways that uneducated people did not understand which today would
be put down to more natural causes, and of course, it is possible she
wasn’t all that beautiful!
In fact Sarah was very much a local girl, her parents Richard and
Alice (née Ball) Nicholls were married at Poughill Church in 1811
and although Sarah was actually born at Knowstone shortly
afterwards, whilst her father was working there for a brief period,
she spent all her life in Poughill, marrying John Atkins at Poughill
on 11th
November 1833, and raised a family here. An old witch she
may have appeared, but for many years she raised her
grandchildren after their father had died. By the time of the 1881
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census she was living at “Ball”, a cottage next to Mount Radford.
She died in 1883 and her husband two years later, and, no doubt,
their bones lie in the churchyard, along with Moses Coles, and his
gravestone may still be seen.
“Pugged “is a slang word for box (she therefore must have boxed
Francis’s ears), a complaint made, and the magistrates fined her 12
shillings – a huge fine when you consider her husband would have
been earning that much for a 54-56 hour week. Today a farm
worker would earn over £400 for the same amount of work – so it
was a very steep fine – and must of caused much bitterness and
division in the village. There will have been some who
commiserated with her and told her that the lad had had it coming
to him, and then there would surely have been those who sided
with the blacksmith’s family and said what a brave young chap he
was to say it to her, as there was plenty as had thought it!
It seems that some of our Child Protection laws are not all that new
after all.
Charles Cole
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Nature Watch
In Africa when the rains come after the dry season the changes to
vegetation and to everything that lives in and on it happen very
quickly. So too in Poughill this last fortnight as serious rain fell at
last after the long dry summer. Visible and audible birds had almost
disappeared from the garden but within just two or three days of
rain it was spring all over again: mixed flocks of tits, warblers,
bullfinches and sparrows roamed together through the trees
foraging for a new crop of insects, the blackbirds and thrushes were
suddenly busy all over the lawn looking for worms and other food
throughout the day, and pairs of sparrows and caffinchs flew
together as though wanting to repeat the fun of March and April.
Otherwise there has been little to report though we have at last
found a grass snake in the garden, near the compost heap of course,
and the whitethroat nesting near the footpath beside the house
reared her brood. As a follow up to my comments about seeing a
few hedgehogs in the lanes after what seemed like years without
them, Diane from the Glebe reported that they have a hedgehog
visiting them regularly. So, it’s official – they’re back. And for the
gardeners amongst you, and I am a poor one, we had our first crop
of peaches – thanks to the previous incumbents – big, sweet and
juicy too. A nice end to summer.
Please, please send in more reports of sightings as there are many
people in the village keen to know about the other inhabitants and
passers-by in the parish.
HANDYMAN
No job too big or small
Fencing, new & old, DIY, Bespoke Gates, Garden Furniture & Sheds,
Garden Tidy Up
Digger work, Soil Removal, Decking
Repairs, Flooring, Woodwork
Call David Fox on 01363 866711 or 07976563441 Dunscombe Farm, Cheriton Fitzpaine EX17 4JU
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The Hare (II)
My Love she is the wild hare that runs the weathered moor.
My love the long limbed girl, who lingered by my door.
A shape-shifter, a shaman, a wild-flower queen,
That jinks and weaves and doubles back,
Throughout my waking dreams.
I was bewitched one night by the scything moon
Shoaling forever against the stream
When my heart was stopped
And my breath was stopped
By a tearing, piercing scream.
And the echoes wove a limping pathway
That twisted through the night,
Glimpsed by the sliding moon,
Lit by the glow-worms light,
That marked the maze through the golden furze
And the cruel clawed clinging briar
And bought me to the hammered stake
And the straining, quivering wire.
The hare was caught by her blood red paw,
The sickle moon in her glassing eye
Embraced and held by the bracelets’ fire.
She danced deaths tune with the singing wire
I soothed her words sad long and low
With sacred rhymes of long ago,
For her pain was mine as I loosed the snare
And held her close this wounded hare.
And the firefly and the glow-worm strung strands of silver light
That lit once more the weaving way to lead us through the night.
Round about the marshes, through furze and brake and briar
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To steer us safety homeward to comfort cottage fire.
And I lay with her on the straw mat, beside the dancing flame
That drew into its’ burning heart her own hearts burning pain.
And time measured out the ebbing fire
And I ran with the running hare
And time breathed in the newborn day
And the straw mat lying bare.
And I rose sore boned from my patched bards throne
To a shadow at the edge of my eye
And a long limbed girl on her dancing feet
Who silently passed me by.
And my heart was stopped
And my breath was stopped
By that waking piercing dream
For I knew that moon in her glancing eye
And the rounding curve of her white silk thigh
For I had held her by the stream.
And she held for a moment by the open door
And smiled both long and low
That secret smile, that sacred smile,
Of long and long ago
And I marked clear,
On her slim wrist bare,
The thin purple scar of the wire snare
That only she and I would know.
For my Love she is the wild hare that runs the weathered moor.
My love she is the long limbed girl, who ran from my cottage door.
A shape-shifter, a shaman, a wild-flower queen,
That jinks and weaves and doubles back,
Throughout my waking dreams. Simon
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September – Courgettes and then some more courgettes!
Am I the only one who always plants too many courgettes and then
find themselves constantly trying new ways of serving them? My
family have become experts at detecting traces of hidden courgettes
in every meal, but the following recipes have become definite
family favourites.
Courgette & Blue Cheese Soup
(Makes a generous panful – serving approx 8 – and freezes well)
Ingredients
1 kg courgettes, washed and sliced
1 large onion, sliced
2 medium potatoes, scrubbed and
sliced
1 litre chicken (or vegetable) stock
2 bay leaves
250 g blue cheese
1 litre of milk
Freshly ground pepper
Method
1. Simmer the courgettes, onions and potatoes in half of the
stock, with the bay leaves, until just tender.
2. Remove from heat, remove the bay leaves then add the rest
of the stock.
3. Liquidise the mixture with the blue cheese
4. Return the soup to a low heat, then add then gradually add
the milk, stirring all the time.
5. Season with black pepper and serve hot with a little extra
blue cheese crumbled on the top.
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Courgette Fritters
These are a little fiddly but well worth the effort. They are
delicious served with a fresh tomato salad.
(serves 4 – makes 12 fritters)
Ingredients 140g Plain Flour
Salt & Pepper
2 large eggs
175ml milk
50g strong hard cheese (cheddar
works well) grated
Small bunch of chives, snipped
2 courgettes, grated
1 tsp or so of olive oil
Method
1. Heat oven to 200c/Gas 6. Tip the flour into a bowl, season
and gradually stir in the eggs and milk until you have a
smooth batter, stir in the grated cheese and snipped chives.
2. In a dry non-stick frying pan, cook the courgettes over a
high heat until just soft. Tip onto kitchen towel and gently
squeeze dry, then add the courgettes to the batter mix.
3. Add the oil to the pan then drop in small ladlefuls of batter.
Cook the fritters for a couple of minutes on each side until
golden.
4. Transfer the fritters to a baking tray and finish in the oven
for 6 minutes.
Anne Wander
- 27 -
LANDLORDS & PROPERTY OWNERS - is your property vacant or about to become so?
Then ensure that it provides an income for you We will provide QUALITY TENANTS
for properties such as yours
Our efficient Letting & Management Service
includes the following:-
Telephone us now to discuss your requirements
or for a free information pack:
Tel/Fax 01363 866555 Mobile 07812441969
* FREE VALUATION & ADVICE
* PERSONAL SERVICE
* LEGAL DOCUMENTATION
* FULL TENANT REFERENCING
* CHOICE OF SERVICES
* INVENTORY PREPARATION
* REGULAR INSPECTIONS
* RENTAL COLLECTION
* COMPETITIVE FEES, NO VAT
* 10% MANAGEMENT FEE
- 28 -
Poughill Youth Club
The Youth Club will be open every Thursday as usual until
the end of term at the following times:
Juniors (7-8) 5.00-6.30 Seniors (9-16) 6.45-8.45
Everyone is welcome to come along and we are always on the look
out for extra adult volunteers to help run the sessions!
You can contact us during opening times on 0792 2268 542, or you
can call Richard Holmes any time on 01363 866 454.
Poughill Parent and Toddlers
Most sessions are Fridays 10.00 am – 11.45 am at Poughill Village
Hall. The cost is £3 per family (at the Hall). Please bring a drink
for your children. Tea and coffee is provided.
We spend some time outside whenever we can, so do bring
jumpers/coats etc for you & your children.
You are not expected to join in with any organised activities – there
is always a selection of toys (cars, cooking, dolls, farm animals,
dressing up….) available if your children prefer not to do the other
activities.
We’re always looking for new members, so if you do have any
children under 5, do come along and join us. More information at
http://www.middevon.gov.uk/poughill/ or call Sarah on 860151
Cheriton Fizpaine Playgroup also run a weekly
Baby & Toddler group
Tuesdays, 9.45am to 11.30 at the Methodist Hall,
Cheriton Fitzpaine.