Author: Webmaster

Streetlife, the local social network, has a simple aim: to help people make the most of where they live by connecting with their neighbours.

The website provides a free and easy place to share local news, views, recommendations and resources, enabling people with busy routines or reduced mobility to keep in touch with their community.

Conversations started on Streetlife have helped unite lost pets with owners, expose doorstep scammers, save threatened public services and recall local history.  The site is also encouraging real-world friendships, with neighbours sharing gardening equipment, IT advice and dentist recommendations, organising craft groups, street parties and book clubs.

Streetlife has just launched across Cotswold, and everyone – residents, groups, local government representatives and businesses – is invited to share their knowledge, discuss the local issues they care about, and help build a stronger, better connected community.

Get involved!

• Sign up at www.streetlife.com with your postcode and email address
• You’ll automatically be linked to the people and conversations where you live
• You can post messages, events, polls and pictures, and locals will be able to respond
• You can customise your account so you control how often you receive local updates

Sign up and join the local conversation on streetlife.com.

You will have seen the notices in the village and letters that have been delivered advising that there are roadworks taking place next week between 0730h and 1730h on 2nd-6th February.

It has been confirmed that the roads on the attached map are the ones that are being repaired, so most villagers should be able to enter/exit the village via Hazlecote.

Regards,

Webmaster

kingscote highway works

Service Calendar for February 2015

The Little Angels mothers and toddlers group meets on Fridays at 9.45 am at Nailsworth. Refreshments served afterwards in the Parish Rooms.

The next PCC meeting will be on Tuesday 3 February at 8.00 pm in the Village Hall. 

Lent study groups

During Lent there will be study groups in Nailsworth commencing as follows:

Tuesday 24 Feb. 7.30 pm Christchurch, Wednesday 25 Feb. 2.00 pm St George’s.

With sufficient demand, the Vicar could run a group at Kingscote on Wednesday evenings.

Please indicate interest to Harry Tubbs or Georgina Harford.

     Diocesan News                 www.gloucester.anglican.org/news/publications

                                          www.gloucester.anglican.org/news/blog

     Nailsworth Benefice        www.stgeorgesnailsworth.org.uk

     Kingscote Community      www.kingscoteonline.co.uk

The Vicar’s Letter

Dear Friends,

As I sit to write this letter, the news channels and papers are full of the recent attacks in Paris on the offices of Charlie Hebo and the Jewish supermarket by extremist Jihadi fighters linked to Isis and al-Qaeda.

The death of anybody in such circumstances is a tragedy and we are all losers as members of the human race.

As tragic in the aftermath of these events has been some of the reaction. Peaceful God-fearing Muslims (as the vast majority are) have been targeted and persecuted as if somehow, all Muslims are the same. There are stories of French Jews leaving France to move to Israel, abandoning their birthplace, business and the like.

The deaths are the result of a warped view of the world and God’s teaching – to love our neighbour as ourselves.

The deaths are the result of a warped view of the world and God’s teaching – to love our neighbour as ourselves.

Prejudice in any form is a destructive and evil force. But it is present in all of us to a greater or lesser extent.

During February the Christian church enters the season of Lent. It begins on Wednesday 18th – Ash Wednesday – when Christians are urged to take part in an act of penitence for all that mars God’s image in them, and to begin a 40 day period out of their lives during which they try to draw closer to God and to know him better.

 It seems to me that the world would be a safer place and that evil would be diminished if more of us drew closer to the teaching of Jesus and began to live out that teaching more in our lives.

Mike Smith

Thank you

Thank you so much for the wonderful hamper I was given at the Carol Service on Friday 19 December, the contents of which I have been enjoying.

Rosemary Sims

Flower Rota

Lorna Reynolds

Cleaning Team

The next church cleaning session is at 2.30 pm on Monday 9 February. We are always delighted to welcome anyone who would like to join the team.

Teresa Day

Late Results

Bagpath Carol Singing on 22 December – Carol Paton and her team raised £56 which was donated to the Nelson Trust, to be added to the collection at the Church Carol Service. Thanks to all who sang and those who gave.     Georgina.

The Children’s Society – The 2014 House Box-holders collected £169-05 which goes to the same charity as the church Christmas Day collection.       Gill James.

Village Hall Programme

Film night – Tuesday 10 February Enchanted April with Joan Plowwright – guaranteed to cheer you up ! – 7.30 for 8.00 pm. Admission free, pay bar.

Coffee Morning – Tuesday 17 February, 10.30 to 11.30 am, all welcome £1-50 for coffee and cake.

Quiz Night – Friday 27 February, 8.00 pm start, with Martin the Postie. Always a fun event – bring a team of 4 or join a team on the night. £10 per table or £2-50 each. Pay bar.

We hope to see as many of you as possible during the month, with hopefully something for everyone. If there are events or talks etc you would like us to hold then let a member of the committee know – we always welcome ideas … and of course it is YOUR village hall so please use it for events of your own. Rates are very reasonable !

Carol Paton

Grumbolds Ash Group

On Tuesday 10 February we will visit the Court Barn Museum at Chipping Campden which is open from 10.00 am to 4.00 pm. This has a fine collection of exhibits referring to the Arts and Crafts movement which blossomed in the town and whose traditions of artistic handicraft are still maintained.

We meet at the Village Hall at 9.30 am. Car sharing is particularly advised as parking is always tight in Campden. The museum at GL55 6JE is close to the beautiful Parish Church.

Jutta Tubbs

Book Club at 8.00 pm

Wednesday 11 February – ‘Before I go to sleep’ by S J Watson at Viv’s.

New members always very welcome.

Angela Wooldridge

Free-range eggs for sale

Mrs Pat Cooksley of 2 The Windmill normally has some free-range eggs for sale at £1 for six. Best call afternoons.

Kingscote Parish Council

The date of the next meeting will be announced in the March issue of the magazine.

Planning applications

Calcot House Kingscote, Erection of garage and part change of equestrian land to domestic curtilage.

Car parking

In January the CDC announced some useful improvements in local parking charges.

West Street Tetbury – £2 all day tariff

Beeches Car Park Cirencester – £2 all day tariff continues

Brewery Car Park Cirencester – No charges between 6 pm and 8 am

Sunday parking charges limited to 10 am to 4 pm

Anna Davison, Tel. 860 244

Composting

There is a pressing need to reduce the amount of green waste being collected and processed for Gloucestershire, and the County Council wishes to promote more local composting. As many of us realise, composting is not as easy as it looks and problems can range from a failure to achieve decay, to rats moving in.

The Gloucestershire Joint Waste Team (GJWT) in conjunction with Garden Organic are looking to find dedicated volunteers who would like to become Master Composters, and are offering a free 2 day initial training course this Spring. The course covers everything a volunteer needs in order to be confident enough to promote local home and community composting as a method of diverting waste.

Further information can be obtained from: katherine.cole@gloucestershire.gov.uk (Tel. 01452 426 525). Low cost compost bins are for sale via the Recycle for Gloucestershire website: www.recycleforgloucestershire.com/article/113096/Home-composting.

The Editor

Weekly Recycling – Green food boxes and wheelie bins

All current collection points – from 7.30 am on Fridays.

Fortnightly Recycling – Black boxes, White Bags and Blue bags

All current collection points – from 7.30 am on Fridays 6 and 20 February.

Fortnightly Waste – Grey wheelie bins to landfill

All current collection points – from 7.30 am on Fridays 6 and 20 February.

Bus Timetable Enquiries -Ring traveline on 0871 200 2233.

Mobile Police Van

The Mobile Police Station will visit Kingscote on Saturday 14 February from 3.15 to 4.15 pm.

Mobile Library

The next visit will be on Friday 20 February when the van will park as usual in front of The Walled Garden from 9.30 to 11.30 am.

Magazine

Any materialwhich may be of interest for the next issue of the Forerunner should be sent by 18 February to H. Tubbs, 3 The Walled Garden, Tel. 860 194.

The Editor

Church attendance in Europe

Sandy Childress noticed the following data in a recent issue of The Wall Street Journal: Proportion of practising Christians attending at least weekly in 2012 –

Ireland 48% Italy 39% Netherlands 29% Spain 25% UK 21% Germany 11% France 10% Denmark 6%.

Green Grow the Rushes Oh !

This old English song was sung to considerable acclaim at the 2014 Christmas Carol Service in the Church by the Kingscote Village Choir. The meaning of some of the stanzas was not clear to all, so Sebastian Cooper has provided an interpretation which is summarised below:

Twelve for the twelve Apostles.                 The twelve first Apostles of Jesus.

Eleven for the eleven who went to heaven.  Following the betrayal by Judas.

Ten for the ten commandments.                The Commandments given to Moses.

Nine for the nine bright shiners.               Either prominent stars or angels 

Eight for the April Rainers.                     The Hyades star cluster seen in April.

Seven for the seven stars in the sky.           Probably one of several star clusters.

Six for the six proud walkers.                   Several possible biblical references.

Five for the symbols at your door.            Religious or spiritual warning signs.

Four for the Gospel makers.                    Matthew, Mark, Luke and John 

Three, three the rivals.                            Peter, James and John who argued as to which of them was the greatest.

Two, two, the lily-white boys                   Obscure reference possibly to Moses and Elijah at the Transfiguration.

clothed all in green, Ho.

One is one and all alone and                   This almost certainly refers to God.

evermore will be so.

If you would like a full copy of Sebastian’s analysis it can be supplied.

               The Editor, Tel. 860 194

 Science is now pointing towards the existence of God

Extracts from an article in The Times on Saturday 10 January by

Keith Ward, Regius Professor of Divinity Emeritus at Oxford and

Professional Research Fellow at Heythrop College, London.

It is remarkable how atheism is becoming fashionable. In Britain it has become almost compulsory to say that you do not believe in God. Very often the writings of well-known scientists such as Richard Dawkins are quoted in support of the opinion that science and belief in God are at odds. But there is much contemporary work in science that points in a very different direction. It could even be said that there is now a large amount of evidence for the existence of a spiritual dimension to the world. This is particularly so in quantum physics, which has turned the world of classical Newtonian physics upside down.

In the classical view, the world was made up of elementary lumps of matter (like billiard balls) which moved in accordance with absolute and unbreakable laws of nature, running along predetermined grooves in ways that could be predicted with certainty and excluded the possibility of any non-physical ‘interferences’ with the system.

Quantum physics has made that view of the physical world obsolete. Classical physics is not completely ‘wrong’, but it is totally inadequate. New quantum theories make belief in God entirely reasonable, and some quantum physicists even think that something like God is required to make sense of fundamental physics.

He continues at some length to discuss the philosophical and theological implications of these developments, but it seems that to make any deeper analysis one needs to consider Stephen Hawking’s equations ! He concludes …

The job of reason is to see that the evidence on all sides is fairly and accurately, critically and sympathetically, presented. So to present the evidence for God is to assemble those features of experience which point to a transcendent source of value and of intelligible order in the universe, and to integrate them into a framework which is theoretically elegant and pragmatically fruitful in practical and moral ways. That evidence will not, in the nature of the case, be universally compelling – just as the evidence for a scientifically based materialism will not. But quantum physics makes the case for a non-material mind-like basis of the physical universe pretty strong. Science and God may be more friendly than you think.

Richard Dawkins’ thrust seems to mainly involve ridiculing Biblical and Medieval images of God and creation. This article certainly weakens the temptation to ignore God as an important factor in our modern lives.

Harry Tubbs, Churchwarden.

Parish Directory

Vicar:                  Reverend Mike Smith, Nailsworth, Tel. 07840 260 182

Curate:               Reverend Sue Sobczak, Horsley, Tel. 01453 833 526

Reader                Sue White, Nailsworth, Tel: 01453 835 693

Churchwardens:   Harry Tubbs, 3 The Walled Garden, Kingscote, GL8 8YP   Tel: 860 194

                               Godfrey Ainsworth, Kingscote House, Kingscote, GL8 8XY Tel: 861683

Hon.Sec.PCC:   Georgina Harford, Ashcroft House, Kingscote, GL8 8YF Tel: 01453 860 227

Hon.Treas.PCC:  Jane Nichols, Asheldown, 3 Ashel Barn Cottages, Kingscote, GL8 8YB,

                               Tel. 01453 860 534

Members of PCC:     The Churchwardens, The Hon. Secretary, The Hon. Treasurer, Elin Tattersall,

                                 Zoe Nichols, Chris Alford.

Flower and Clean Team:      Teresa Day, Vivienne Ainsworth, Angela Wooldridge, Pauline McTear.

Nailsworth MU:Trissa Jones, Tel: 832 551

Editor of Forerunner: Harry Tubbs, 3 The Walled Garden, Kingscote, GL8 8YP Tel: 860 194

Gift Aid and Envelopes:   Jane Nichols, 3 Ashel Barn Cottages, Kingscote, Tel. 860 534.

Church Flowers Rota:  Lorna Reynolds, Tel. 860 231

Organist:           Rosemary Sims, 15 Badger’s Way, Forest Green, Nailsworth, GL6 0HE Tel: 832 446

Sidespersons:    Harry Tubbs, Rod Tibbert, Elin Tattersall, Godfrey Ainsworth, Jane Nichols.

Electoral Roll:   Elin Tattersall, 3 Boxwood Close, Tel.01453 860 182

Mowing Team:   Harry Tubbs, Sebastian Cooper, Rick Bond, Roger Lucy, Godfrey Ainsworth,

Ken Davies, Brian McTear, John Moore.

Village Hall:         Bookings: Pauline McTear, Kingscote, Tel. 861 311

                            Secretary: Carol Paton, Bagpath, Tel. 860 649

Parish Council Chairman:             Graham Nichols, Asheldown, 3 Ashel Barn Cottages, Kingscote,

                                 Tel: 01453 860 534

Parish Council Clerk: Anna Davison, Bagpath Court, GL8 8YG, Tel. 860 244

Village Agent:   Aileen Bendall, Tel. 07810 630 156 or 01452 426 868

Printer of Forerunner: Godfrey Ainsworth, Kingscote House, Tel. 861 683                                              

The Forerunner is published by the P.C.C. who are usually most willing to accept copy from village groups and individuals. However, please note that the opinions and views expressed by the contributors within the Forerunner are not necessarily those of the Church, P.C.C. or Editor.

Friday 27 February, 8.00 pm start, with Martin the Postie as your Quizmeister.

Always a fun event – bring a team of 4 or join a team on the night.

Cost: £10 per table or £2-50 each. Pay bar.

Where: Village Hall

We are a 6 strong Steel Band, blokes and lassies, looking for a couple of extra players – we meet every Wednesday at 7pm for a couple of hours in Kingscote Village Hall.

A good sense of rhythm would be helpful but no previous experience of playing steel pans (or anything else) is necessary as we are taught by  a professional music teacher and pans are available.

Just turn up at the Village Hall after 7pm on a Wednesday.  Give Gill Holmes a ring on 01453 860229 or email g.s.holmes@sky.com for more details.

Improved car parking tariffs take effect on 12 January

Release date: 8 January 2015

Following approval at the Cotswold District Council Cabinet meeting in December 2014, the following improved tariffs will take effect from Monday 12 January:

– removal of overnight parking charges (between 6pm and 8am) at the Brewery Car Park, Cirencester;

– introduction of a new off peak ‘plus’ ticket – allowing parking for both off peak periods and all day on weekends in any car park – at a proposed charge of £50 per year;

– introduction of a £2 all day tariff at the car parks in Old Market Way, Moreton-in-Marsh and West Street, Tetbury;

– at car parks where Sunday charges apply, the 8 am to 6 pm charging period will reduce to a 10am to 4pm period, to better reflect retail activity.

Commenting on the changes, the Cabinet Member for parking issues Cllr Chris Hancock said:

“We are always looking to improve our car parking services, and feedback from residents has shown that they are concerned about the availability of on-street parking overnight in the centre of Cirencester. We felt that removing parking charges at the Brewery Car Park from 6 pm until 8 am would help resolve the situation. We also think that the £50 per year off peak ‘plus’ ticket will be welcomed by residents faced with no resident parking zones or in streets with high parking demand – as well as bringing benefits to regular shoppers and those who only work on weekends.

Council Leader Cllr Lynden Stowe will be giving his full support to the proposals next week:

“We are mindful of the need to keep down costs for car park users and have already pledged to freeze all car parking charges until at least 2016, as well as introducing several price reductions and offers over the last few years, including weekly off-peak season tickets and the popular £2 all day parking fee at the Beeches car park in Cirencester. I believe that these latest proposals will bring even more benefits for residents, businesses, working people and shoppers across the district. We are also hoping that the new measures will enhance the visitor experience and increase the time spent in our market towns.”

Garden Organic, in conjunction with the Gloucestershire Joint Waste Team (GJWT) are looking to find volunteers who would like to become Master Composters, and are offering a free 2 day Master Composter initial training course this Spring. The course covers everything a volunteer needs in order to be confident enough to promote home and community composting within their community as a method of diverting waste. Following the training, there will be on-going support from both Garden Organic and the GJWT officers.

The sale of compost bins is one of the main ways the GWT can judge the take-up rate of home composting in Gloucestershire, and Master Composters are vital in helping us spread the word about the very reasonable compost bins that are for sale via the Recycle for Gloucestershire website: 

http://www.recycleforgloucestershire.com/article/113096/Home-composting 

Master Composters are also expert trouble-shooters, and have helped many residents who have come across issues when beginning to compost at home.

The promotion of composting, compost bins, and other systems can be done in a variety of ways – from writing articles for local journals, having a stall at local fetes or even just talking to neighbours. Two of the existing Master Composters even have demonstration bins available for people to look at. There is also a variety of resources that people can borrow to enhance any Master Composter stalls that they may organise, such as leaflets, tablecloths, cut-away compost bins etc. From time to time there is also the opportunity to support the Gloucestershire Joint Waste Team officers at roadshows and events throughout the county, though the most successful Master Composters are usually people who proactively look for ways to promote composting themselves.

Further information can be obtained from Katherine.cole@gloucestershire.gov.uk 01452 426525.