The Horningsea Residents Association are pleased to bring you our thirteenth Apple pressing 2024. The date is Saturday 28th September and will start at 14:00 on the village green.
Having had to cancel last year’s pressing due to lack of apples we are confident that we will have our usual pile of apples to prep and juice ready for you to take home and enjoy.
Come along, help press and get involved, bring your own apples if you have any and don’t forget some empty bottles ready to fill.
Bring your own drinks, nibbles and picnic blankets for when you take a well deserved rest.
8th September 16:00 – Village Service/Baby Thanksgiving service
15th Septemnber – 10:30 – Holy Communion
Baby Thanksgiving Service
Sunday 8th September at 16.00, St Peter’s Church
To celebrate the Horningsea Baby Boom – Eight little boys in the last year! – there will be a Thanksgiving Service at St Peter’s Horningsea on Sunday 8th September at 16.00. Everyone is welcome to come along – babies, parents, carers, grandparents, friends, older siblings, toddlers …. to join in the celebrations.
The service will be very short and family friendly. Tea and cakes after the service. See the attached poster for more details.
Ride & Stride and Heritage Open Day
Saturday 14th September
The National Ride & Stride to raise funds for Historic Churches takes place on Saturday 14 September. You can work out a route that suits you and do a sponsored ride or walk around all the local churches. St Peter’s Church Horningsea will be open all day and there will be a display about the history of the church. Pop in to have a look.
Dakin Estates put a proposal to develop Laney Meadow to the Parish Council during the open forum of the meeting on the 29th May, 2024.
This was then discussed by again in the open forum at the Parish Council meeting of the 24th July (Agenda item Item 32/24-25).
Update: 4 Sept 2024 – Horningsea Parish Council understands the concerns raised that have been raised by residents and encourages everyone to attend the Open Forum of the next Parish Council meeting (25th September) when this matter will be on the agenda.
Deadline: 9th September 2024 after which time results will be collated and reported back to Dakin Estates.
The proposal
Dakin Estates is the development representative for Quy Estates, who recently received planning permission for the development of Manor Farm. He is interested in the Parish Council’s opinions on the potential development of Laney Meadow if the current lease, which allows public access to Laney Meadow and River Meadow, ever expires.
A rough sketch has been provided (see below), illustrating two houses along with plans for a village tennis court. Pedestrian access is marked in pink, while continued access to River Meadow is designated in dark green. The proposed tennis court car park, capable of accommodating 6 vehicles, would be constructed using permeable pavers.
Before reporting back to Dakin Estates/Quy Estates on behalf of village residents, it is the Parish Council’s intention to ensure that all residents are consulted and given the opportunity to respond. The Parish Council sent the letter below to all residents and have posted on the Horningsea Residents Facebook group too.
This coming Sunday (11th) there’s “Craft for All” in the church followed by Fen Edge Voices singing Madrigals by the river’s edge.
Unfortunately Fen Ditton church have had ceiling issues and the Fen Ditton bell ringers will be practising on Mondays until the church is reopened (church and ringing times).
..and do not forget the Plough and Fleece’s Beer Festival on the 23rd to 25th August. A weekend full of food, drink & live music! Bands include – Run for Cover, Stone Cold Stumble & Jonno Stanford.
Finally if you take any photos of any village events would you share them. If you have lots of photos we can also put on the village website.
Large areas of plaster suddenly fell from the top of an archway onto the font in Fen Ditton church. The church is closed while investigations and repairs take place. For the next few weeks the church services have been moved to Horningsea and Teversham. The pattern is:
Sunday 4 August 10.30 Horningsea
Sunday 11 August 10.30 Teversham
Sunday 18 August 10.30 Teversham
Sunday 25 August 10.30 Horningsea.
It is hoped that Fen Ditton church may be safe to use by September.
Bell ringing in Horningsea Church during August
Fen Ditton bell ringers are going to have their weekly practice in Horningsea until FD church is repaired. They will be here on Monday evenings 7.30 – 9pm
Monday 5th August
Monday 19th August
Monday 26th August
We will review the situation at the beginning of September.
Horningsea & Landbeach bell ringers will be practising here on the second Wednesday of August (14 August), second Wednesday of September (11 September) etc 7 – 8.30pm as usual.
Craft for All in Horningsea Church
Sunday 11 August 14.00 -15.30
Come along and have a go at clay modelling, painting pebbles, making something with sea shells, decorating boxes …. Crafts suitable for everyone however old or young you are. The curate, Sharon Byrne is organising the afternoon which will include stories and snacks. No need to book – just turn up with your imagination and creative ideas.
The 68th Horticultural Show is on Saturday the 13th July. Please bring your produce, artwork and kitchen creations. Classes for everyone, from first timers to old hands.
The Plough and Fleece will be hosting some regular events from now:
Monthly Supper Club – The first Wednesday of each month we will host an evening of food and drink from different cuisines.
Weekly Worker’s Wind Down – Every Friday from 12th July, join us in the bar for some complimentary food & snacks! Food is on us when you join us for a drink!
Let’s hope that sunshine comes back so we can all spend time in the beer gardens of our two lovely pubs!
Saturday 8th June, 14:00 – Village green The Horningsea Residents Association invite you to join them to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the Normandy Landings on Saturday 8th June, with a Tea party on the Village Green.
HRA Village Day
Saturday 29th June, 14:00 onwards, Village Green This yearly event kicks off at 14:00 with Vee’s Tea’s and home-made cakes. Enjoy stalls, classic cars, lawnmower racing and games, bouncy castle for the little ones, mega slide for the bigger ones and gladiator jousting! The evening’s entertainment will start at 18.30 with music and dancing to a band and the evening will end with a disco for all of those Dancing Queens still standing until they can’t stand anymore.
Horningsea CIC
The newsletter of the community owned company that owns The Plough and Fleece is below, This includes details of the AGM which will be held on June 25th at 19:30.
The Horningsea Residents Association invite you to join them to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the Normandy Landings on Saturday 8th June, with a Tea party on the Village Green, come and raise a glass to honour the memory of the men and women who came from all over the world to liberate us.
Join us 14:00-16:00 for a drink and enjoy 1940’s music and home-made cakes.
Normandy D-Day 80 year anniversary
John Wilson
Last week we returned from a trip to Normandy following in the footsteps of Ronald Hibbert, the father of Roma Wallis a close friend. Ronald landed on Juno Beach in the first wave of the landings at Berne Sur Mer Roma’s Dad commanded a flail tank of the 22 Dragoon Guards and on landing in the first wave flailed a path through the mine fields on the beach and then on into the town where a mine destroyed his tank, luckily the crew survived to collect a second tank and continue on their mission. By the end of the day the Canadian troops they assisted were several miles inland and the surviving tanks set up camp in the village of Cresseron.
Flail tanks were part of a collection of tanks invented by an unconventional army Major General named Percy Hobart, who overcame army resistance in creating what was to become known as the “Hobarts Funnies”. Sherman and Churchill tanks were modified to carry bridges, Flail tanks for mine clearance, flame throwers, swimming tanks, Fascine carriers, for filling in ditches and a host of other combinations to be used to help the troops to cross the beaches
Landing craft on the beach
Thirty years ago we made our first trip to the area along with her partner and later her husband Robert Daws who lived at the Priory on the high street, accompanied with her father’s original landing map. At that time the village was not developed and we were able to trace the route over the open ground behind the village to where the tank was destroyed in the then unfilled anti-tank ditch. Now the area has been developed and retracing his route is obscured. Last year we started to follow the route south to Cresserons where by chance we met the Mayor who took us to the town square, where a memorial had been set up to the 22nd Dragoons, adopted by the village. This intern led to an invitation to go back this year for the celebrations on the 7th June where a host of events were planned for the celebrations of the surviving veterans and families of the regiment. Sadly Roma could not attend, but we were put in contact with the organisers of the event who we met last week, both in their 80s and were able to hand over more information about the Dragoons stay in the area, researched by us. We were able to visit the site of the camp where the Dragoons were based, from where they sallied forth on their mine clearing missions across Normandy. It is now open fields but a small stone memorial stands in the hedge to mark the site.
Memorial at Ver sur Mey
From there we travelled west to the new British memorial at Ver sur Mer, the name of the 1475 British serviceman who died on D day are listed on a hill looking over the Gold landing beach on white stone pillars. In the fields below are the 1475 silhouettes made of steel, representing each of the men and women who fell that day. They are placed beneath the monument in a meadow above the beaches they landed upon.
Later on in the week we walked the Beaches of Omaha where thousands of Americans were killed on D Day .Had the Americans not rejected the offer of Hobarts Funnies the outcome may well have been different. Sadly now they all now lie in the cemetery above the bluffs.
I have walked this beach several times. Imagine Brancaster beach, miles of golden sand with holiday makers, and dog walkers. That is how it is today. The shifting sands still reveal traces of the horror that took place here. This year the bow ramp of a Higgins boat, which landed the soldiers was revealed .There will be many images over the next few days showing the soldiers packed behind a similar door about to land on this beach. Ronald went on flailing mines saving countless lives .in the course of the war he lost three more tanks before ending the war at Bremen. After the war he married and returned to the profession he was in before joining the army, one of the few that made it from the beaches of Normandy until the end
