Tuesday 30 November 2010

Village Hall Craft Fayre

Saturday afternoon saw a very good turnout for the Village Hall Annual Christmas Craft Fayre. Some great stalls supporting many different village groups. There was even a suprise visitor......



Guess who ? .........

(Thanks to Sue Morris who noticed I had put the wrong day when I originally posted this.)

Forthcoming Meetings.

Wednesday 1st Dec, Nocton PCC meeting at Ruth Eagles House 7.30pm
Wednesday 1st Dec, Nocton Village Hall Management Committee 7.30pm
Tuesday 7th Dec, Parish Council Meeting, Public Questions at 7pm

A Request......

We need to find 8 stands for real Christmas trees for the Festival. If you have one that would support a 5' tree and won't be using it this Christmas we would be most grateful if you could lend it to us. We will obviously return it afterwards.

In addition I need to source 8 pieces of fairly thick ply or similar, of dimensions 32" x 32" (or say 32" X 28-36")if you have something in your garage you could donate please contact me ASAP.

Any help on either of these would be really appreciated. Thank you.

Thanks to 'Glew and Smith' our Sponsors.

Glew and Smith the Lincoln based firm of Architect and Surveyors have very generously offered to sponsor our Christmas Tree Festival by providing funding to purchase all the Christmas Trees and the Lights. We are extremely grateful for this very generous donation and send our thanks to David and Chris.

Tenderers last day.

All the tenders for the works on the church have to be sumbitted by tomorrow and our final costed submission to English heritage has to be with them by the 7th Dec. So its all hands to the pumps at the moment as David Glew and Matthew Stephens, our architects assemble the huge swathe of documentation we have to submit. I am meeting them Thursday evening so we can check it all through and sign it off. In the meantime as the figures are coming together I am drafting two further funding applications which had to wait until the final figures had been realised.

Saturday 20 November 2010

Tools for Self Reliance

In next months magazine there will be an article asking for your donation of old hand tools and haberdashery equipment. It is part of an appeal by the charity 'Tools for Self Reliance' (TFSR) who help support tradesmen in Africa. I am posting a You Tube video here by TFSR to give you a flavour of their organisation.

Christmas Tree Festival - Update

Our local bellringing band have also offered to decorate a themed tree. Thanks Guys.

Tuesday 16 November 2010

Christmas Tree Festival - 11/12/18/19 Dec 2010

Looks like its going to be a very festive couple of weekends.
To date we will have trees decorated by:

All Saints, Nocton
St Andrews, Potterhanworth
Nocton WI
Nocton Social Club
Nocton School Gardening Club
Nocton Art Group
Branston Community College
Nocton Cricket Club
The Cottage Residential Home

Thanks to all of those groups who have come forward so far. There are still a couple of spaces so if you are interested please let me know ASAP. If anyone would like to decorate one with the theme of the RAF and Nocton Hall Hospital I think it would complete the picture.

Remembrance Sunday

We had an excellent turn out for our Remembrance Sunday service at All Saints. In addition to the Eucharist we had the formal act of remembrance, 2 minutes silence and then all the congregation were invited to lay a poppy on the High Altar. Rev Les Whitfield presided and Canon Tim Thompson preached the sermon. Afterward Chris Hewitt and Liz Murray took a Remembrance home communion service at the Cottage Residential Home where nearly 20 residents and 8 guests joined us.

Tenderers Visiting the Church

The 4 construction and 2 conservation firms tendering for the restoration works are now in the process of visiting the church to finalise there tenders prior to the submission day of Wednesday 24th Nov. Unfortunately one of the firms tendering for the conservation works has pulled out so we will only receive the 2 in respect of the artwork restoration.

Wednesday 10 November 2010

Now the Echo runs with the War Memorial Story!

The Lincolnshire Echo have today picked up on the story of the War Memorial from the Sunday Star.

Click here to see article.

Tuesday 9 November 2010

Village Photographic Competition

Remember to get your entries in to Pete Askew or Philip Franklin before 23rd November.
This years subject: Activities in Nocton.
Pictures cost £1 each to enter and should be no bigger than A4,
For futher details check out our November newsletter. Click Here

Nocton Social Club AGM

Social Club AGM Thursday 11th Nov at 8pm in the Club. All members welcome to attend.

Diocese Response to the Sunday Star Article of 7th Nov 2010

Find attached a link to download the response from Lincoln Diocese in respect of the 'Poppy Wars' article.

Click here to download article

Monday 8 November 2010

Sunday Star and the War Memorial

An article appeared in yesterdays Sunday Star attacking the Lincoln Diocese and its decision not to allow us to install the WW2 memorial in the church. This article has not been sanctioned by the PCC of All Saints and the journalist had been asked previously not to write such an article. We respect the decision made by the DAC and the Diocesan Chancellor at that time. If the situation changes in the future we would welcome that, but at this time we accept the memorial can only be displayed in the church on a temporary basis.

Sunday 7 November 2010

Tenders for Roof Repairs and Conservation Works.

Things are moving quite rapidly on the repair front at the moment. A number of businesses have expressed interest in undertaking the reroofing work, of which 4 have been selected to tender in full for the works. In respect of the internal decorative conservation works 3 companies have been selected to tender for this work. After a visit from the heritage rep from Sandtoft tiles we now have a quote for the replacement tiles on the North faces of the Nave and Chancel roofs. They will be hand made tiles, to a mix specifically formulated to be the best match with the current tiles. Around 12,000 tiles are needed. Garfield Weston have also acknowledged my further grant application - so we wait in anticipation for the outcome of that.

Christmas Tree Festival - 11/12/18/19 Dec 2010

All Saints Church, Nocton is holding a ‘Christmas Tree Festival’ over the weekends of the 11/12th and 18/19th December 2010.

We are looking for organisations in our local communities, to sponsor a tree and to decorate it in a theme that represents their activities, giving visitors a flavour of Christmas and of the variety of organisations in our locale.

Trees and lighting will be provided, so your task is to setup and decorate the tree probably during the days of Thursday 9th and Friday 10th of December.

The event will be advertised widely in the local press and on the radio, giving all participants a way of promoting themselves. We would therefore like participating organisations to prepare some sort of display to go with their tree to give information about themselves. This may consist of photographs and/ or some printed materials.

We are looking for around twelve organisations to sponsor a tree.

All profits from the event are going to be split, with half going to our church roof restoration and the other half being donated to the Dunston Silver Sounds Brass Band, to support their work and the opportunities they give to young players. The Dunston Band will be performing on Saturday 11th 1.30-3pm, and Sunday 19th 1.30-3pm, bringing a real Christmas feel to the festival.

The church will be organising refreshments: coffees, teas, mince pies, plum loaf, mulled wine etc, which will be on sale throughout the day.

We hope you would be interested in taking part in the event, which we feel is a superb community event for the forthcoming  Christmas season.

As time is short I would appreciate it if you could let me know before Friday 12th of November as to whether you would be willing to take part. For any further information please phone or email me.

Monday 1 November 2010