Events Around the Village
2024
The New Year kicked off with a 70s Karaoke night at the Royal Oak. While the standard of singing was of varying quality, a good night was enjoyed by all.
On January 2nd, the road between Exford and Wheddon Cross closed for 19 weeks. Winsford was on the official diversion route which led to a large increase in traffic (and briefly a speed information board).
The Winn Club's January speaker was Paul Williams who fashions walking sticks from his workshop in Bridgetown.
In February, a Valentine's Bingo raised funds for the Exmoor Young Farmers.
The annual Lent Lunch took place, offering Soup, Rolls and Pudding to raise funds for St Mary Magdalene's
There was slightly more substantial Pre-Lambing Breakfast in the Village Hall run by the Exmoor Hill Farming Network which raised funds for the Farming Community Network and the Royal Agricultural Benevolent Institution.
In March the noble sport of Pickleball was introduced to the village, as weekly sessions in the Village Hall started up.
The Royal Oak experimented opening up as a Tea Room, while Bridge Cottage, having shut down in the previous December, was refurbished
April's Winn Club talk was given by Wildlife Photographer Stephen Powles.
The second Royal Oak Chess Championship was won by Bampton resident Mark Caunter, pictured here with the shield plus a cup kindly donated by Ueli Zellweger
Winsford was visited by traditional West Country folk singers the Cape Cornwall Singers, who gave a stirring rendition of many songs to a packed pub
The Village Green bridge was treated to a makeover, as Mike Hillier replaced the rotting slats
The daughter of Michael and Bridget Ryle travelled from Tasmania to present a bench on the Recreation Field in memory of her parents who live in Jasmine Cottage for 34 years.
The inscription reads
Remembering Michael and Bridget Ryle, Winsford Residents 1989-2023
Happy memories of village life, cricket, the fete, church, bridge and friendship
As a fundraiser for the Xmoor Rox festival, to be held at Coppleham Cross, there was a Big Breakfast in the Village hall with very tasty full Englishes flying out of the kitchen.
May's Winn Club talk was by Keith Hunt, the owner of the Minehead shop Our Precious Earth on how retailers can play an important role in reducing and removing single use plastics.
We were visited for the second year by the East Suffolk Morris Men who stayed at the Royal Oak and gave an exemplary demonstration outside on a sunny evening
Dave Green and a friend Richard Oliver attempted to kayak down the River Exe from Winsford to Exbridge to raise money for Sepsis research. The low water level proved too difficult an obstacle and after 6 hours they paused their efforts, which they aimed to continue when the river levels rise later in the year.
With local generosity though they raised £300 which has been gratefully received by the FEAT charity
Dave recorded an amusing video of their journey to date - only some of it spent in the boat
The cricket pavilion was renamed "The Chris How Memorial Pavilion" in honour of all the work Chris did for the club. Chris's widow Jenny and their son James unveiled a plaque.
The annual Sea Sunday service has held in June, in the village hall, raising £219 for the RNLI. Martin and Orla Jones preceded the service playing a selection of shanties.
The month also saw the Recreation Association organise a Race Night, again in the Village Hall. Spectators "invested" in being owners, jockeys, and simple betters across nine pre-filmed races featuring a mixture of flat and jump races, as well as greyhounds and even pigs! Over £500 was raised for Rec Association funds.
One table was inspired by Royal Ascot, which was running in parallel.
There was a good turnout at the annual Inter-hunt cricket tournament, held in honour of Timmy Gill
There was much controversy in the village as a client of the Royal Oak asked if it was possible to land a helicopter for future visits. The Recreation Field was identified as a suitable spot, and after initial consultations amongst the residents showed some resistance to the idea, the Recreation Association asked for the village to vote to allow three return flights per year.
There was a lot of interest, and 93 people bothered filling in their slips, with the final tally 62-31 in favour of allowing the helicopters. As of the time of writing it remains to be seen whether anyone is actually going to use this facility.
Winsford enjoyed an Open Gardens in July, with twelve different styles of garden open for the public to go and view. The very successful event was enjoyed by 180 visitors, and raised a staggering £2,121 for St Margaret's Hospice.
The Winn Club enjoyed a talk by Exmoor farmer and author Victoria Eveleigh.
A field in Coppleham was the venue for this year's Xmoor Rox, Bridgetown's annual festival. Early rain soon cleared and a good time was had by all
Winsford's annual fete arrived in August. The main marquees had been raised in the rain by dedicated volunteers, and weather on the morning of the fete was not much better, but by mid afternoon the sun was out and a good crowd sweltered
Photos by Martin & Orla Jones and Jane Orchiston
The section winners in the produce show were:
Photography Adult Section - James Cochrane
Photography Junior Section - Jemima Calvert
Flowers - Ann Laity
Decorative Flower Arrangement - Chris Barber
Domestic - Susan Hayes
Kitchen Garden - Michael Hayes
Men's Cookery - David Godsal
Handicrafts - Susan Hayes
Beccy Brown has written this thank you to everyone involved:
The Fete Team came together for the first time and at quite short notice this summer. However, everyone did a terrific job and pulled together to get everything ready on time under the guidance and expertise of Sue. Hats off the team – Sue, Ian, Penny, Ellen, Ian, Debbie, Annalise, Tom, Bryany, John, Derek, Josh, Jill, Wavell and Sarah for doing such a great job.
Winsford is a very generous village and so many people in the village have given a lot of their time and donated gifts, put up marquees and gazebos (in the rain), sold raffle and duck tickets, manned stalls, made cakes, put up tents, provided prizes all to help make the Winsford Village Fete a great success again this year.
As a result of everyone’s effort and the raffle donations from our great local business, the fete made a grand total of £5230 – bells and whistles here please!!
Thank you to all the stall holders:
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Richmond, Ian Brookes and Tony for providing crowd control on the gate
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Annalise and Helene for arranging the cake stall so artistically.
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Frazer and John for working the crowd so well, playing great music and getting people to the right place at the right time!
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Nicky, Shavonne and Dan for serving Pimms so professionally!
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Orla and Martin for arranging skittles for the first time – a great ‘hit’ with everyone.
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Beverley, Amanda, Bryce and James for doing such a magnificent job in coping with the stampede for teas and food in the pavilion.
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Jan and Tony for making sure all the stallholders had refreshments to keep them going all afternoon.
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John and Chris for managing the book stall
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Jill and Wavell and Zara for sorting and selling all the bric-a-brac
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Our expert fashionista’s Penny, Nigel, Bryany and Sharon in the clothes tent
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Special appearance by Pandora and Jo at Pandora’s box of delights
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Our resident comedians ‘Burnit and Singe’ otherwise known as Ian and Derek for working their talents on the barbecue (apparently there is talk of launching a franchise later this year so watch this space……!)
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Karen and Carol for running the dog show and judging so professionally
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Tim and Debbie for swapping to and fro between the ice creams and barbecue
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Sue for providing the wonderful treasure hunt
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Brilliant success on the Tombola by Roy and Teresa
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Auntie Josie and all her hard work on the poke a prize
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Applause for Sammie coping with pop the balloon, the toy stall AND looking after the children!
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Ian and Paul for breaking the china
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Anna and Catherine and their beautiful artwork on facepainting
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Mike, Charles and Colin on the tote for providing the ever-popular sheep racing event
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Katherine, John and David for being chucked in at the deep end and manning the raffle stall
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Ellen and Hilary for providing such great fun and laughs with the children’s races (maybe next year OAP egg and spoon race……?)
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Exford cricket club for being willing to get soaked for the duck race – a great success as always.
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Many thanks to Bernard and Richmond for their auctioning skills and to Tracey, Brenda and Jemima for hosting the Church flower and produce tent.
We would like to say a special thank you to Tom and Josh, Callum, John and Nigel for being such a huge help with all the heavy lifting and unloading and doing it all with a great sense of humour and big trailers and vans!
Beccy xx
There was the trditional Ducks & Skittles over the Bank Holiday weekend.
September's Winn Club talk was given by Brenda Staples on her trip to the Holy Land
At the end of the month there was the annual Macmillan Coffee Morning, run by Roy & Teresa. Normally held in the now defunct Bridge Cottage Tearoom, the event was moved to the Village Hall, and was just as enjoyable.
The event, raising £1,173.60. Apart from the usual selection of high quality cakes, punters also enjoyed live music entertainment from local band the Exmoor Horns
In a departure from the normal talks, the Winn Club held a very successful Barn Dance, with local ceilidh band Spinach For Norman. Photo and video by Martin Jones
As Autumn took hold, on the last day of British Summer Time, the Recreation Association once again held a Pumpkin Carving competition.
Judged by Frazer and Jo Lawrence, the deserved winner of the adults section was Teresa Thomson, while James Hayes fought off some stiff competition to win the juniors.
The winners list in full was:
Under 16 section
1st James Hayes
2nd Archie Scott
3rd= Emma Hayes
3rd= Emilia Forster
Adult section
1st Teresa Thomson
2nd Ian Chamberlain
3rd Graham Scott
The Village Hall bounced with a highly entertaining show with the New Jersey Boys performing music from Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons, Showaddywoddy and several more. There was even a surprise appearance from Tina Turner.
The event raise £950 for the Recreation Association
Photos by Ellen Chamberlain
Over 50 villagers attended Winsford's Act of Remembrance at the War Memorial. The service was conducted by Charlie Beeden, with wreaths laid by Anthony Milner-Brown and Parish Council chair Colin Wilkins.
Thre were big village celebrations on December 3rd as Captain Walter Godsal reached his 100th birthday.
Captain Godsal hosted the week's coffee morning, which was attended by about 60 people.
David Godsal read out the birthday card from King & Queen, and local Commodore Chris Richards from Luckwell Bridge read out the letter of congratulations from the First Sea Lord, Admiral Sir Ben Key KCB CBE ADC
Happy Birthday was played by Brenda, a special cake was baked by Sue Hayes, and Walter thanked everybody for coming.
Photos by Ellen Chamberlain, David Luscott, Tracey Staples and the Godsal family
On the weekend of December 7th, Storm Darrah rode into town bringing both high winds and heavy rain. Around 1pm on the Saturday, the village suffered a couple of brief powercuts, we paused for breath, and then the lights went out for over 36 hours.
With so many reliant on electricity help had to be provided to several who were unable to keep themselves warm or feed themselves. Events including the village Christmas lunch and a Bingo evening also had to be cancelled.
When electricity finally came back on in the early hours of Monday morning, the Royal Oak team swung into action to let the village Christmas lunch go ahead 24 hours late. Despite the short notice, the majority of this booked still made it and and piled their plates high with a great three course extravaganza featuring superb ribs of beef, lamb, turkey as well as a vegetarian wellington.
There were Christmas celebrations from the popular weekly Table Tennis sessions, the Coffee morning featured live music, Carols on the Green decamped to be Carols in the Pub due to adverse weather conditions. amd there was a Christmas quiz
Father Christmas visited Winsford again and met lots of local boys and girls. He received several interesting suggestions for presents, including a leaf blower, a strimmer and a chainsaw. Photos by Elf Ellen
