The last meeting of 2011 took place on Thursday 17 November 2011 at 7.30pm in the Village Hall, Stambourne.

Pavilion - Everything is reasonably tidy and away. Mr Mick Dowling kindly offered to drain the water system ready for the winter. Thank you to Mick for doing this work.

Playing field – The ash tree has been trimmed. The annual safety inspection of the play equipment has been carried out. No major works are required.

Highways – A request will be made for the installation of another salt bin. The fingerpost sign for Stambourne at the junction of Cornish Hall End Road is missing. There are a number of potholes along the Yeldham Road and some overgrown hedging. These will be reported in.

Footpaths - The long awaited bridge on footpath 29 has finally been installed. A thank you letter will be sent.

Diamond Jubilee -The 4 day bank holiday is booked for the first weekend in June. A committee of local people has been formed to organise an event and the playing field and pavilion are booked.

Budgets 2012/13 – The budgets for the next financial year have been agreed.

The next meeting will take place on Thursday 19 January 2012 at 7.30pm in the Village Hall, Stambourne. Full minutes can be found on the website at www.stambourne.com

Debbie Hilliard
Parish Clerk
Tel: 01440 785629
Email: Debbie.Hilliard@duffields.co.uk

HIGH SPEED BROADBAND

I know that high speed broadband (or lack of it!) is an issue for many parishioners and this report has been put together by Mr S Rhenius of Birdbrook and may be of interest.

We live in an age of cutbacks and economisation. One of the consequences of this is central and local government are increasingly relying on electronic rather than paper means of communication. Many of us will have completed the recent Census form online and I notice that tax returns and other official documents are pressing strongly for residents to follow suit. You can already book library books, manage banking and pay bills online and this dependence on such facilities is likely to grow. This means that provision of a reliable fast and secure broadband facility will not only be desirable but will become an essential component of day to day life.

Internet access is currently provided using copper telephone cable linked to the exchange. These cables are not suitable for providing high speed broadband and much of the existing infrastructure is being replaced with light carrying fibre optic cable. In urban areas this means that the fibre optic broadband signal is carried to a cabinet at the end of your road and, in rare occasions, actually to your property. However, in rural areas this is not economical so there is a potential disadvantage to people living in the countryside.

Various alternatives exist for rural dwellers. These include satellite broadband, wireless broadband and communities joining together to raise funding to install their own fibre optic distribution as far as a local distribution point from which it is broadcast locally as a wireless signal. Satellite broadband is relatively expensive, whilst laying your own fibre optic cable requires a local champion to organise raising of funding, agreements with landowners to lay cable and use of a building (sometimes a church tower) to provide the local radio distribution point.

Uttlesford district (Saffron Walden, Dunmow, etc) has recently launched a wireless broadband service in conjunction with fibrewifi.com (website www.fibrewifi.com). This is a larger scale version of the community broadband mentioned above. The fibre optic signal is brought to Chelmsford where it is sent to the top of a high rise building then relayed as a wireless signal to three stations around the district. This enables a triangulated coverage around the district. Water towers are usually used as the water companies are keen to cooperate, seeing this as beneficial community engagement and charging consequentially low rents, which helps to keep costs down. The broadband ‘footprint’ for Uttlesford actually overlaps with other parishes so residents outside that immediate district can take advantage of the service. Fibre Wifi are currently negotiating to use the police mast just outside High Garrett outside Braintree to install another wireless transmitter to extend the coverage even further in this direction.

Now the best bit: the cost of a service providing broadband at 25 megabits a second is £12.50 a month plus around £130 to have a wireless receiver installed and set up at your house or business. For those that need a faster signal, 50 megabits per second is available at approximately £33 per month. For businesses that need to upload data using broadband it is significant that the signal is synchronous – that is the upload speed is the same as the download speed. Private users of other existing broadband systems based on copper wire in rural areas will be lucky to get more than 2 megabits per second. If you are interested in exploring this further then you can find out more at the fibrewifi.com website where you can register for the service.

They will contact you 2 weeks beforehand to arrange a time for installation to confirm that you wish to go ahead and to set up monthly payment for the service. Uttlesford currently has over 1000 businesses and households who have registered so there may be a wait while they work through those who want to subscribe.

Mr S Rhenius
Birdbrook







Thanks to Mr Rhenius for that. Does anyone have any experience of wireless broadband such as this, particularly reaching as far as Stambourne? Certainly, a number of companies are starting to offer services like this in the area. Get in touch with me@stephenplatt.com and we can publish any thoughts.
St. Peter & St. Thomas Becket Parish Church Barbara DennisFirstly I would just like to say a big thanks everyone for their well wishes, cards and presents for our wedding day on the 6th October. Max and I had a perfect day and we felt very much blessed by God.
We then had the privilege of taking our honeymoon in the Lake District. I have never been there before and was blown away with how beautiful it is. Both Max and I like walking and the walks around there are fantastic.

I was talking to a lady of mature years in one of the villages the other day who doesn’t look her age at all and she told me her secret was that she walks every day sometimes two miles or more and that is what keeps her young.
There are lots of lovely walks I have found in the short time I have been here and if it keeps me young, so well and good. Certainly it keeps me fit. When I lived in the town I belonged to a Gym, but it was expensive and I found it boring. Walking on a treadmill is not a patch on a walk in the countryside, but I needed to keep fit somehow.

There is a lot of concern in our society about how obese some people have become and a healthy holistic lifestyle is something we should all aim for. One of the church’s roles is to look after peoples spirituality as part of that holistic approach and as Christmas approaches and all the frantic, preparations begin we are offering a time of reflection about the real meaning of Christmas during Advent. I will be holding a time of quiet reflection at the Rectory every Thursday evening at 7.30pm starting on the 1st of December and ending on the 22nd December. So if you feel like your ‘spirit’ needs a bit of TLC you are more than welcome to join me.
Please feel free also to join in any of our services around the benefice, you will be most welcome and may I take this opportunity to offer you all a joyful and blessed Christmas.

Reverend Barbara Hume nee Dennis.

01787 237138

revbarbara8@btinternet.comParish Church Service times
Sunday 27th November 9.30am Holy Communion
Sunday 4th December 9.30am Morning Prayer
Sunday 11th December 9.30am Holy Communion
Sunday 18th December 4.00pm Candlelit Carol Services
Sunday 25th December  9.30am Christmas Day Service Holy Communion
Stambourne Congregational Church Adrian Burr 07983 656166

Stambourne Chapel
Serving God in the community in word and deed

From The Chapel
Writing some 700 years before the event Isaiah wrote in chapter Nine and verse 6 of his book in the Bible:

For to us a Child is born, to us a Son is given; and the government shall be on His shoulder; and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

In the book of Acts we find the Philip talking and interpreting a later text of Isaiah (Acts 8:32) about the “sheep being led to the slaughter” and Philip interprets this ancient text as being about Jesus. And much of what Isaiah wrote those seven hundreds years earlier is about Jesus and what is to happen after Jesus came and after he had died and risen again.. So at this time of year we remember the birth of Jesus, the one who will have the government of the world on his shoulders, the one who we can call wonderful, the one who is our counsellor, the one who is both wholly man and wholly God (and that is a mystery to me!!), the one that all people in all times can call Abba which literally means “Daddy”, the one who is the prince of peace. An “official” birthday that we celebrate because He literally changed the course of history, changed the world as we now know it.

Ooops – I’m getting excited – Christmas does that to us doesn’t it? We get excited because of the expectation of what the day will bring. But for many the day brings little. It is just another day. They have lost the joy of their childhood, or perhaps never had joy of a childhood Christmas. But I can celebrate, because it is my fathers birthday (no not my earthly father), the one who is so special that it is worth celebrating, the one who helps me through life, the one who brought Good News that I don’t have to walk alone through this life, but have someone dependable, loving, caring who I can walk with every day of my life.

So its not all about glitter, snow, presents, food, drink etc. but celebrating the joy of a birthday... Come join us at Stambourne Chapel at 9:30am on Christmas morning. Bring a present that you received along, and celebrate the birthday with us for a short service. We look forward to sharing with you!!

Adrian Burr, Minister
07983 656166 or 01440 730211

Stambourne Chapel News
INDIA – Bethesda Gospel Ministries

Pastor John visited, came into the schools and joined us at the Silver Link meeting. I know a number of you got to meet him and enjoyed his company. He has returned home safe and well. We are continuing to raise the £8000 needed for the orphanage and we are offering some of the purses, mobile cases, handbags and other sewing items he brought over. If you would like to sponsor a child in the orphanage please call Adrian for details.

SERVICES
Services in October and November are at 10:45 and led by our minister unless otherwise stated

DECEMBER
4th Dianne Thomson - 2nd in Advent - Preparation
11th CAROLS and CANDLES – a celebration with our children
18th Adrian Burr – 4th Sunday of Advent
25th Christmas morning Service: NOTE 9:30am

JANUARY
1st NEWS YEARS DAY CELEBRATION – 350 YEARS of the Chapel
8th Anne Simpson-Phillipson
15th Dianne Thomson
22nd Adrian Burr
19th Ron Bentley

Children’s Church meets every week at 10.45am
EVENTS and activities at the chapel - ALL WELCOME
Every Tuesday Coffee ’n Chat in the Chapel - 10-12am
Sunday 11th December CAROLS AND CANDLES SERVICE at 10:45am
Friday 16th December SUNDAY CLUB PARTY 6-8pm call Adrian to book
Sunday 1st January Service to Start of our 350years Celebrations

You are always warmly welcomed at our Sunday services, coffee ‘n chat or just call us at any time. If you need a lift, a chat at home, communion at home, help with a form, do call! We are here to help!



Toppesfield Primary School Kim Hall, Headteacher

It has been a wonderful start to the new term at St Margaret’s.

The children have adapted well to their new year groups and classes. In particular, our new foundation children are a real credit to the school with the way they have slotted into Class 1. We are all really impressed with the progress they are making.

This time of year is incredibly busy. We have our Christmas Fayre, organised by the TSA, taking place on Friday 2nd December from 2.30 – 4.30pm, where there will be plenty of opportunity to purchase some extra Christmas gifts, including candles and jewellery. We would love to see you there.

The children are getting very excited about our Christmas production of ‘Baboushka.’ Based on the traditional Russian Nativity story, the children will take you through a great adventure for Baboushka, with plenty of acting, singing and cheesy lines!

As a Christian School, we think about children who are less privileged than ourselves, and for this reason, we decided once again to collect shoe boxes in aid of Operation Christmas Child, which ensures filled shoeboxes of various items including toiletries, writing equipment, sweets and toys are sent to children who would otherwise have nothing to open on Christmas Day.

This year the shoeboxes are being sent to Belarus. I was able to take three children to the warehouse to see the boxes being prepared for distribution and provide them with an opportunity to see how this work is coordinated as well as pay tribute to the hard work of all the volunteers at the warehouse.

It was wonderful to see Katie Landon, Scarlett Williams and Spencer Hume take such an active role at the warehouse, including help sort the boxes and fill them with gifts.

Due to the generosity of our children, parents and staff, we were able to deliver twenty six filled shoeboxes, thank you.

Our Christmas Service at St Margaret’s Church, Toppesfield will be taking place on Friday 16th December and all are welcome. The service starts at 1.30pm and we look forward to seeing you all share in the celebration of Christmas with the staff and children of St Margaret’s.
I would like to take this opportunity of thanking everyone who has been so generous with their words and acts of support during my first term as Headteacher.

At St Margaret’s, I am proud to say we have a fantastic group of children with such supportive parents; this really is important to the success of your children’s learning and happiness. Added to that a wonderful staff and Governing Body; it really is a privilege to be Headteacher of such a great school.

I would like to wish everyone in our community a wonderful Christmas and a safe and happy New Year.

Kim Hall

Community Events

The harvest supper which took place in the Village Hall was a great success with the hall full almost to capacity. Everyone seemed to enjoy Ashley Cooper’s entertaining talk. The supper was organised by the PCC partly for fundraising but also as a social occasion for the village.
 
We need to raise funds for the upkeep of our beautiful Church building but we also want to organise events which will be enjoyed by those who live in Stambourne.
 
Unfortunately this year, two of the three events organized by the PCC have had to be cancelled because of lack of interest.  We hate cancelling things, as apart from the planning and work put in by the committee, it means we got it wrong. 
 
The proposed cookery book will not be published and the concert in church did not take place. We were unable to sell enough tickets in advance to ensure that the concert could go ahead, but if we had been able to attract more people, it also would have been an enjoyable social evening.
 
The newsletter and excellent website “stambourne.com” are remaining community links that tell the village what is going on. We would be very happy to receive any ideas through the newsletter for events that would appeal, and perhaps open a discussion on the difficulties of retaining a community spirit in villages.

Sheila Harvey and Jane Waller

Samaritan’s Purse Shoe Box Packing day – A thank you

Thank you to all the people of Stambourne who have been amazing in the help of items to fill the boxes.  We also have received some lovely blankets, hand puppets and knitted toys. Our boxes will be going to Kyrgystan, Azerbaijan and Romania this year. The stories of the pleasure these boxes bring the children is wonderful. Any one can look on the web sight for more information and see pictures of the children at  www.samaritans-purse.org.uk and follow the links.

Thank you all from us at the chapel, Ron and Colleen and not forgetting the children who will receive these boxes.

Stambourne Ladies Group

The group meet on the second Wednesday of each month, usually in the Village Hall. We are a small and friendly group who are always looking for new members from Stambourne or nearby villages to come and chat. We often have talks given by a member of the local community on interesting subjects. 

Our meeting for 14th December at 7:30pm will be our Christmas meeting where we will have a fun evening with bingo, sing song and eat a buffet supper. Please bring some food and a raffle prize with you all money raised will go to East Anglia Children's Hospice

11th January with be about the life of the badger

A new year with lots of great talks coming up please come along  and join us.


If you would like more information, please contact Vanessa Young on 01440 785122

Jumble Sale – A thank you

A big Thank You to all the helpers, those who donated goods, cakes and raffle prizes for the Jumble Sale on the 5th November. And thanks, of course, to those who attended, making it a great success and raising £1,055 for the Essex Air Ambulance.





Olympic torch passes (almost) through Stambourne!

On Saturday 7th July 2012, day 50 of the Olympic Torch Relay, the Olympic Torch route will be between Saffron Walden and Haverhill.

Whilst the exact route hasn’t been published yet, it’s possible it will be through Steeple Bumpstead. The other route could be via Linton and Horseheath.

Whichever way, it will be a chance to be a part of something that will dominate much of summer next year!

Fireworks and bonfire night – what a success!KINDLY SPONSORED BY TOTAL BUTLER

What a successful night! The weather was kind and stayed dry, despite forecasts to the contrary and attendance was extremely good. Everyone seemed to enjoy the event and the food and refreshment team were kept busy all evening.

Thank you to everybody who volunteered to help at this busy event, it could not be run without you. Special thanks to:-

It’s great that Stambourne continues to have this annual tradition when so many other villages have had to stop theirs.

DIARY DATES

DECEMBER

Wednesday 14th, 11:15 - 12:15
Essex Police Mobile Police Station, Village Hall

Wednesday 14th, 7.30pm
Stambourne Ladies Group, Village Hall. Christmas meeting

Wednesday 14th
Essex Mobile Library, 4.35pm Chapel End Way, 4.55pm, Village Hall

Sunday 18th
Parish Church 4.00pm Candlelit Carol Services

Sunday 25th
Parish Church 9.30am Christmas Day Service Holy Communion


JANUARY

Wednesday 11th, 7.30pm
Stambourne Ladies Group, Village Hall. The Life of Badgers








Items for the next Newsletter by 17th January please
Steve Platt Tel : 01440 785638 Mobile : 07767 357016
email : me@stephenplatt.com