Dan the marathon man

Dan the marathon man

Well done Dan for completing the London Marathon

Dan says:

Amazing!!!!!!!!!! No more marathons!!!!!!!!!! Your turn!

I’m over the moon about my time (3hrs 54mins) let alone finishing. Thanks to everyone for the kind words of encouragement and support, but more importantly the amazing generosity with sponsorship, which goes towards helping young people with problems most of us can’t imagine. I’ve had an amazing experience.

Thanks for your support. Beer and bath!

Last call for online donations! Visit Dan’s Just Giving page

Aerial video and photos of Great Gidding School

Aerial video and photos of Great Gidding School

Short video of the C.E. Primary School in Great Gidding shot by Catalyst Video Services. The video footage was shot on Friday 25th March at the request of the school governors. Catalyst also produced a video survey of the school bell tower to check it’s structure.

Video

Aerial video of Great Gidding School

Photos

Great Gidding School aerial view 1

Great Gidding Primary School

Great Gidding Primary School

Dan’s marathon for Barnardo’s

Dan's marathon for Barnardo's

Great Gidding resident Dan Valderas is less than 3 weeks away from taking part in the London Marathon on behalf of Barnardo’s children’s charity.

Dan would like to let the people of Great Gidding and surroundings know what he is doing, as the few people who are aware have been extremely generous in their donations towards Dan’s target of £1800. Currently Dan has raised just over £750 via Facebook, friends and family.

Dan needs your donations!

If you would like to read more about Dan’s story and to help Dan reach his target amount of £1,800 for Barnardos visit his Just Giving page

The Virgin London Marathon 2016 takes place on on 24th April

Jubilee Wood maintenance morning

Jubilee Wood maintenance morning

An excellent turnout for the annual trim and tidy of the pathways and hedges around the Jubilee Wood. Another is planned for next week, 30th January from 9.30 am.

Tour Of Cambridegshire (Gran Fondo)

Tour Of Cambridegshire (Gran Fondo)

The first cycling Tour Of Cambridgeshire took place in June 2015 The route on public roads that were closed specifically for the race to happen. Around 5000 cyclists were reported to have signed up to take part. So on a stunningly glorious day we watched and waited to see what 5000 cyclists looked like speeding through the village. What a spectacle apart from the heads down first few hundred who were on a mission to win the great mass of riders responded in kind to the roadside cheering and reserved clapping that Brits do so well. It was a grand spectacle and is to be repeated in 2016 on the same route. A Gran Fondo is a cycling event on closed roads for mass participation.

It should be noted that there were a few grumbles and the notification process before hand could have been more robust. The idea of the roads closed for 12 hours was a nonsense and should never have been allowed to be displayed, despite rectification the die had been cast. Hopefully the organisers will take this on board and make bigger efforts to contact affected buisnesses on route and make it clear that nobody is trapped in their homes.

The plus side of all this is Gidding is on the map and not some backwater beyond Sawtry and Stilton. It provided grand entertaiment on the roadside at no cost and no doubt charities were the biggest winners.

Parish Council looking to appoint a new Clerk and RFO

PARISH CLERK AND RESPONSIBLE FINANCIAL OFFICER (RFO) VACANCY

GREAT & LITTLE GIDDING PARISH COUNCIL

The Parish Council are looking to appoint a new Clerk and RFO.
This paid role is for 6.5hrs per week which includes 1 evening meeting per month.

If you are interested and would like some more information, or even an informal chat about the role, please contact:

The Parish Clerk, giddingspc1@btinternet.com or call 01832 293068.

Closing date: 17th December 2015

Download GG Clerk RFO Job description (PDF)

Download GG Application form for Clerk RFO role (PDF)

Great Gidding History night – report and photos

Great Gidding History night - report and photos

On 30th September 2015 two talks were given to an audience of more than 60 people in Great Gidding Village Hall.

History and extent of the Fitzwilliam Estate

Mr Robert Dalgliesh – Chief Agent to the Fitzwilliam Estate – began by describing the history and extent of the Fitzwilliam Estate and later concentrated on that part based upon Milton Hall and the Milton Estates near Peterborough.

He finally zoomed in upon the Fitzwilliam history and interests in Great Gidding, and some of the slides that he used to illustrate the latter part of his talk are shown below.

Mr Dalgliesh also brought some very interesting historical documents, maps and charts from the Milton Hall archive, including the Deed dated 1827 whereby Great Gidding was part of a sale of property by the Watsons of Rockingham Castle to the Fitzwilliam Estate. Also included were maps and associated lists from 1869 and 1889 showing the occupiers and owners of the village property which warrant further study.

More Great Gidding History

During the second part of the evening Patrick Ellis, who has been researching the history of Great Gidding for more than 15 years, described two results of this research :

Firstly the history of how the village was laid out and organised and the duties of the village officials was included in a book jointly compiled with David Shepherd entitled A Millennium History of Great Gidding. This was first published in 2001 and reprinted last year.

All Great Gidding History booksA Millennium History of Great Gidding (left) and More Great Gidding History (right)

Secondly a new book, concentrating on the people who lived in the village and answering the question “Who lived Where ?”. This new book is called More Great Gidding History and also includes a number of photos, and especially some aerial photos and maps which have come to light since the first book was compiled.

Both the reprint of the 2001 book and the New Book may be obtained from the Village Stores.

Patrick Ellis. October 2015

Village Show grows and grows…

Village Show grows and grows...

The weather was certainly ‘autumnal’ as members of the committee got the hall ready for the annual village show but fears that it would affect the entry numbers were soon allayed as a steady trickle of people arrived (culminating in the inevitable rush just before midday) with their vegetables, fruit and baking. It was wonderful to see and we were particularly pleased that we had so many children’s entries this year, with wonderful creations made from junk as well as weird and creative animals made from vegetables…

Excellent standard

Considering how difficult a growing year it’s been [yes, I know, gardeners always say that] the entries were prolific and of a really high standard. As always, the bakers excelled themselves and the judges were very impressed by the entries in the new class sponsored by the Fox and Hounds pub who kindly donated a meal for two as a prize. The tables were a riot of colour and shapes, strange shapes in the case of the’ biggest growing disaster’! Flowers, vegetables and fruit were the perfect decoration for our village hall and to complement the traditional inside, we had some modern attractions outside including delicious pulled pork rolls, a bouncy castle and face painting.

The wonderful smell of the pork cooking all morning had been torturing several members of the committee for hours but it was worth it as they tucked in once the awards had been given out to the successful entrants. The vegetarians amongst us really appreciated the delicious veggie option which was so full of flavour that we nearly felt sorry for the meat eaters!

We were very grateful for the generous response we had to both the brown envelope auction and the silent auction for the fascinating and colourful whirligig weathervane which was expertly made and donated by Bruce Jordan.

A big thank you to participants and visitors

Thank you to everyone who participated and those who just came along on the day, it was such a great community event and lovely to see so many people having the chance to catch up with each other. We hope to see you again next year.

And the winners were…

Overall winner: Tilly Warren
Vegetable cup: Michael Mc Arthur
Baking cup: Brenda Williams
Craft cup: Carol Warren
Children’s cup: Tilly Warren
Flower cup: Sue Shepherd
Fox and Hounds voucher for best chicken pie: Tilly Warren

The Village Show Committee – 7th September 2015

Village Show Schedule 2015