First post … to last post
When using the website, posts may be written containing all sorts of stuff
Local History Post no 1
Parish Council Minutes 26th November 2014
Minutes of a Meeting of Bergh Apton Parish Council
On Wednesday 26th November 2014 at 7.30pm In The
Village Hall
Members Present
Parish Members
Present
Derek Blake (Chair), Bob Kerry, Jacqueline Byford, Richard Herring,
Karen Myhill, Chris Mewton
In attendance: Clerk
Apologies
- Apologies For Absence and Declarations of Interest
There were no apologies for absence. Derek Blake declared an interest in the planning section as he
is a member of the Planning Committee at South Norfolk Council. - Minutes of Meeting Held on 9th September 2014
The minutes of the last meeting on 9th September 2014 were approved. - Matters Arising
There were no matters arising. - Public Meeting to discuss the village website
Chris Mewton has kindly volunteered to relaunch the village website. There was a lot of discussion
from members of the public who are very supportive of the project. It was decided that Chris
Mewton would meet with representatives from all the various organisations and businesses in the
village who wish to be represented on the website so that they can be ‘trained’ to add their own
content to their own section on the website. Derek Blake reported that there are 53 small
businesses in Bergh Apton! - Public Consultation
The Parish Council was addressed by the applicant from West Five, 1 Mill Road who is seeking
retrospective permission for use of one room in her house as a hairdressing salon. They were also
addressed by the neighbour who is opposing this application, on the grounds of the noise and her
loss of privacy and her residential amenity being affected by the change of use from residential to
retail business. - The Chairman re-opened the Parish Council Meeting.
- Planning Applications
6.1 West Five, 1 Mill Road – retrospective permission for use of one room in house as hairdressing
salon 2014/2117
The following was the response from the Parish Council to the planning department. Bergh Apton
Parish Council was unable to reach a consensus over the balance between the increasing intensity
of the business and its impact on the neighbour. There clearly is an adverse impact on the
neighbour but the Parish Council felt unable to suggest appropriate conditions should the District
Council wish to approve it. This application will now be heard at the main planning committee on
10th December. - Site BER 1 Cookes Road
Julian Wells from FW properties addressed the Parish Council meeting with an update about the
site opposite the Village Hall. A planning application has not yet been submitted but he anticipated
one would be in the Spring. If this proposal was to go ahead it would be for 10 or 11 new homes
including some affordable homes. They would plan to start building late Summer 2015. He explained there were technical ways to deal with the surface water drainage issue of that land
which would help all the residents along Cookes Road. The inspectors final report is expected early
2015 and there will be an open meeting for all to attend.
- Planning Applications
- Planning Approvals
- Finance
- Grant for football posts
Jacqueline Byford will meet with Maggie Smith, Chairman Village Hall Committee to agree the site
for the football posts at the Village Hall. The Parish Council agreed to look after the grass cutting
around the posts and any upkeep needed. The small neighbourhoods grant from South Norfolk
District Council will be available in the Spring for this project to go ahead.
- Grant for football posts
- Defibrillator – Derek Blake
Derek Blake agreed to look at possible grants for the funding of a defibrillator in Bergh Apton site to
confirmed – possibly in the phone box at Sunnyside or most likely at the Village Hall. - Events and Correspondence
- Items for Future Agenda
- Dates of future Meetings:
18 March, 22 April, 20 May (AGM/APM), 15 July, 16 September, 18 November
The corner of his eye
THE CORNER OF HIS EYE
A day cold as sea shells, his breath smokes and the silence sings in his ears. It is the Winter Solstice, one of the hinges of the year. It is foggy and frosty and the day, young as yet, seems to hold its breath. Winter is bolting and barring the door to the coming of the Oak King. The lane is flanked by high banks and the winter weary tussocks of grass lie long and lank. The hedgerow at the top of the bank is a huddle of black shadows. Late autumn had buttered the field maple leaves and, alone of all the trees in the hedge, it held stubbornly on to them. Now and then a stir of air brings two or three floating down and he catches them, a handful of fairy gold and, like those deceitful coins, they will soon shrivel and turn to dust. Rain runnels lace the high banks and knuckled roots have elbowed through. The little Holly King, the robin, perches among them singing his wistful ritual song to the Solstice. The banks and lane are like a suburb of the wood, they know different changes of light, lives briefly lived, seasons which keep the balance of the year, changes of weather, they are a constant in continual change. The wood keeps its secrets to itself, fox, deer and mouse know, sparrow hawk and pigeon know but they too stay mum. Scrambling to the top of the bank he looks out over the field. Rain has filled ruts and hollows, furrows and folds and it reflects the light, calligraphic swirls over the skin of the land telling of more secrets. Out of the corner of his eye he catches a movement in a big sprawl of brambles and there is a wren, quick and quiet as a thought it moves. Then, there is another, a pair of cutty* wrens. They search the thorned stems moving deeper inside, living up to their name ‘Troglodytidae’, a cave dweller. In a few days time he thinks it will be St. Stephen’s Day and for generations it was traditionally the day when a wren was hunted and killed. Its body was fixed to the top of a pole and a great wreath of holly and ivy surrounded it. The Wren Boys went from door to door singing their song:
The wren, the wren, the king of all birds,
St. Stephen’s Day was caught in a furse,
Although he is little, his family’s great
I pray you good lady, give us a treat.
The story tells that Stephen had been preaching and he was running for his life from those who would kill him because of this and he hid. A wren near where he was hiding from his pursuers began to sing very loudly and attracted their attention, Stephen was discovered and stoned to death. Hence the hunting of the Cutty Wren. In the song he is referred to as the king of the birds, another story in which the birds held a competition to see who could fly the highest and be given the title of King. Up they all flew and away the eagle soared, high as a giant can hurl and just as the birds were going to call him the winner, above him who should be flying but the wren! He had held onto the eagle’s back, not just cutty but canny as well! Hunting the Cutty Wren died out in the early 1900’s, other days, other ways. However at Middleton in Suffolk a similar tradition was born and the wren this time is a carved from wood and is honoured and celebrated by song, dance and story by a side of Molly Dancers, ‘The Old Glory’.
‘Cutty’ means small or short. You will doubtless have heard of the ‘Cutty Sark’, she is the last of the tea clippers and is preserved in dry dock in London. The name comes from a poem by Robert Burns which tells of a witch, Nannie, who wore a ‘cutty sark’, a short shirt. The clipper’s figurehead is the witch.
Pat Mlejnecky