Events Around the Village
Jump to June, July, August, September ,October , November, December, Santa's visit
2021
The necessary Covid restrictions meant there was little happening in the village life throughout early 2021.
Very welcome relief came at the end of March when the tennis courts opened during a gloriously sunny week.
About the village in April: Daffodils still blooming, lambs appearing, and the Ash tree on the Green being felled
May saw the return of cricket to the village. Our cricket correspondent reports:
It was a real joy to see the newly promoted Winsford Cricket Club open its account on Saturday against Churchinford, recently two divisions ahead. On a difficult wicket Winsford made 84, by all accounts 20 runs short of what was needed. The defence of a such a low score was always going to be tricky, but Winsford gave it a real good go. A flurry of wickets falling at the end meant the visitors were very worried. As it was they scraped home with 2 wickets to spare.
The sun was out and a lovely afternoon was had by all, especially the players after such a long lay-off.
May was pretty wet throughout, but went out in a blaze of glory.
Saturday 29th saw three events happen in the village sun.
A Plant Sale organised by Sue Hayes that raised £223 for the Recreation Association
Winsford Cricket team got its first victory of the season, a comprehensive 8 wicket victory against Stoodleigh
and finally, the return of Skittles on the Green. The Men's team overturned their recent run of poor form by beating the Ladies 108-91 .
Some even celebrated the summer weather by paddling in the Winn under the pretext of looking for a lost ball.
A combination of Exmoor rain and some bright sun saw an explosion of vegetation around the Wynn brook and the Green in June. Leading the fightback were Dave Mileham and Paul Sams
More rain persisted early July, but that then gave way to a heatwave. These members of the Recreation Committee took full advantage to weed, strim and clean the tennis courts
and in sweltering heat, even managed to replace a rotten fence around the car park
A huge amount of gratitude for all that work is due to Tom and Ros Dearing, Beverley and Gerry Flanagan, Mike and Sue Hayes, Martin Jones, David Luscott, Paul Sams and Jane Orchiston.
A damp day near the end of July saw hundreds of walkers pass through the village as part of the Coast 2 Coast challenge, a sponsored effort on behalf of various charities. The whole walk was 102k (63 miles) from Minehead to Dawlish in Devon. Altogether over £500,000 was raised for charities.
In August, Brenda Staples set herself the monumental task of playing a verse from all 829 hymns in the book, and as if that wasn't enough she played some more to bring to total up to a round 850. The marathon lasted from 9:00 to 6:15. Brenda was ably assisted by daughter Tracey, and there was a lovely selection of donated cakes available.
By the end a magnificent total of over £4,400 had been raised for church funds.
A message from Brenda:
The challenge, which was to play one verse of every hymn in the new hymn book (829 plus a few extra to make 850), took place on Saturday 14th August at the church of St. Mary Magdalene, Winsford.
I started playing at 9am, had a half-hour lunch break, a five minute break (for cake!) late afternoon and finished playing at 6.15pm. I was completely overwhelmed by the incredible support from everyone who came to listen, sing and generally enjoy the day. A team of ladies served refreshments all day and the bell-ringers rang during my lunch break. Tracey had made posters marking each session of 50 hymns, a poster saying ‘DO NOT FEED THE ORGANIST’ (!) and there was a display of little green knitted frogs around the organ. (I was given the box of frogs by a choir member who shall remain anonymous!)
My very grateful thanks to Tracey and her team of helpers, to those who made cakes, to the bell-ringers , the flower arrangers and to all who so generously donated by the various means available to the church funds. The amount raised is just over £3,000 – a totally unexpected amount – THANK YOU!
The greatest pleasure for me was hearing people laughing and chatting together and singing at the tops of their voices, almost drowning out the organ, even with the trumpet stop out! Their rendition of ‘Jerusalem’ was amazing – worthy of the Albert Hall! The whole day was truly a team effort.
Winsford is very fortunate in having such a beautiful organ, a Grade One listed instrument which is an absolute joy to play.
ALLELUIA! PRAISE THE LORD!
With love from Brenda.
At the end of August, Sue Hayes received her British Empire Medal
at the Bath & West Country, presented by the Lord Lieutenant of Somerset, Annie Maw.
BEM medals being presented by the Lord Lieutenant
Winsford's cricketers finished off a fine second half of the season by thrashing Wiviliscombe by 109 runs, with a century by Tom Wyatt. The result meant Winsford finished 7th in their first season in Division2.
September saw the return after nearly two years of Winsford's own cinema club.
The first film shown was Oscar winner Nomadland, and was well attended. The cakes baked by Evelyn Connell, Lynne Davey and Orla Jones were very well received as well.
After a gap of more than three years, a wedding came to St Mary Magdalene's, the groom being the grandson of resident Keith Lindop.
The following week saw the wedding of Amy Winzer and Alex Cavill
October was warmer and drier (!) than normal. The bus service was suspended while roadworks were carried out, and to discourage use of the bus stop, this happened -
Beverley Flanagan writes:
Halloween Carving Competition
After last year’s outstanding success, the Village Green once again took on the appearance of a mysterious woodland glade, decorated with ghostly lights and bodies, skeletons and spiders. There were also many more scary characters prowling around the green this year awaiting the arrival of the unsuspecting contestants, with witches and ghouls and even a very fun loving pumpkin!!!
At 4pm ,with ghoulish sweets of teeth, fingers and eyeballs at the ready for consumption, the pumpkins started to arrive and as in the previous year the standard was exceptional, with amazing creative carvings in both both groups. However, strangely this year the adult contributions outnumbered the children by 3 to 1, so the event took on a more competitively spooky edge!!!
The winners in the under sixteen group were:
1st Matthew Herbert
2nd Ellie Stewart
3rd Katherine Herbert
…and in the adult group
1st Jane Orchiston
2nd Claire Sams
3rd Sara and Patrick Watts-Mabbot
Thank you once again to Sue Hayes and Colin Wilkins for being the judges, to everyone who took the time to produce some wonderful carvings and for making the event such a success.
On November 11th, the traditional rememberence service took place at the War Memorial. The service was held by the Rector, David Weir, the names of the Fallen were read by Richmond Harding and wreaths were laid on behalf of the parishioners, and by Capt Walter Godsal. Bernie Bettinson's cornet announced the end of the two minute silence.
More tree problems in December which saw the end of this specimen in the Recreation field after a particularly heavy storm
A county grant allowed the parish council to hold a well attended "Reconnecting event" tea party in the Village Hall.
The Annual Carols on the Green, led by Brenda Staples and Bernie Bettison took place in dry conditions and was attended by about 70 parishioners. The event raised £167.06 for Children’s Hospice South West.
There was also a Christmas card coffee morning and card delivery which raised a fantastic £564 for church funds. Congratulations must go to Brenda and Tracey Staples, Bernie, John Titcombe, Sue Hayes, Beverley Rule, Jill Urry, as well as Sue Hayes and helpers for the card delivery
Belfery the scribing elf writes:
Wednesday 22nd December was the Winter Solstice and the day started with the most amazing sunrise, with the skies aglow with reds and pinks all across Exmoor!
However the atmosphere was changing, foretelling of something exciting blowing in on the now increasing winds. By mid afternoon the weather had changed dramatically with a fierce snow storm hitting Winsford, mainly in the gardens of the Bridge Cottage Tea Rooms!!Anyone passing may have been slightly shocked and amused to see two elves and numerous little people frolicking in the unpredicted snow!
However all became clear as the sound of the familiar Ho ho ho bellowed from inside and there in the warmest corner, seated on his favourite rocking chair was Santa! More Elves were busying themselves bringing in the sacks of well travelled gifts and the room was alive with singing and laughter.
Then they came, from near and far, they walked, they ran, some were carried and some even arrived on horse back, all to meet the very special visitor. Over 30 children sat with Santa and without exception their faces were a picture of wonderment!
Santa chatted to all asking everyone what they would like to receive for Christmas. The gift requests varied from dolls and games to a Ferrari, with tractors being a favourite. However the best request was for a farting frog, apparently suggested by Grandma. So we hope Santa managed to find this unusual gift and you had fun in your house at Christmas!!!
After chatting to Santa all the children went to see the Elves, left with their gifts and were all seen happily heading home.
Then as if by magic Santa disappeared as quickly as he arrived, no doubt heading off to some other village full of excited, expectant children, waiting patiently and scanning the skies in anticipation of his arrival.
Click on any photo to expand it
The Christmas tree was delivered to the green by Mike Hillier, Dave Mileham and Paul Sams, and was beautifully decorated by Steve and Bernadette Hunt.