The Mobile Library will now visit the villages every 3rd Thursday of each month.
Books can be renewd by telephone on 0345 045 5225.
Location: Chapel End, Great Gidding
Start Time: 12:40,
End Time: 13:00
Welcome to The Great Gidding Close up Quiz.
If you lived in the village at the time of the Golden Jubilee celebration in 2002 you will recall that we offered a paper based quiz that asked you to identify close up photographs of certain locations around the Parish of Great Gidding. This is an updated version to accommodate the computer and smart phone generation. You may be able to guess some locations from the comfort of your seat in front of the computer but a walk round the village will nail the difficult locations and keep your eyes open when travelling out towards the parish boundaries. All the photographs are taken from public areas. Google Street View may help in some cases.
How to enter – Identify where or what the photograph is, either by house number or descriptive location. The closer the better. When you have identified as many locations as you can fill in the comments box at the foot of this page using a 1,2,3 order and send it in.
The quiz will run until 1pm on Saturday the 23rd June. The winner will be announced at the Mid Summer Picnic on the following day. A wider view photograph will also be posted with location text after this date.
A modest prize will be awarded to the most accurate entry.
Good luck
Click on right hand picture to reveal location
1 
2 
3 
4 
5. 
6 
7 
8 
9 
10 
11 
12 
13 
14 
15 
16 
17 
18 
19 
20 
21 
22 
23 
24 
25 
For the Queens Jubilee the Parish Council had applied for a Fields in Trust grant to safeguard the village recreation ground.
So all of the legal paperwork has been done (for free) and now the recreation field can officially be called a Queen Elizabeth II Field (www.qe2fields.com).
As part of the celebration The Parish Council have replaced the chain link fence at the front, and there will also be a metal plaque that will be put at the entrance.
Fields in Trust is about encouraging young people to get fit and enjoy the outdoors by protecting the precious spaces available for outdoor activity and to ensure future generations can benefit too.
See www.fieldsintrust.org/ for more information.
After a very wet Sunday (see Michael’s Jubilee Wood report) we were all glad to see a glimmer of blue sky for the Diamond Jubilee Big Lunch and village rounders match on the Recreation Field.
With a marquee to shelter from the predicted showers the villagers tucked into their picnics, washed down with FREE beer (a very nice Nene Valley Brewery ale) and wine from the bar.
Rounders – old ‘uns v young ‘uns
No sooner had we finished our first courses then the rounders match began. With two teams – oldies v young ‘uns – there was a wide range of ages (and batting styles) evident and much cheering. In between rounds (and showers) the wellie chucking event took place further along the field, with some spectacular throws and some near misses!
The event was rounded off with a prize giving ceremony most of which seemed to go to the young ‘uns!
Fields in Trust
Another reason to celebrate this weekend was the confirmation that the Great Gidding Recreation Field was now under the ‘Fields in Trust’ scheme which means that the facility is protected for future generations and can no longer be sold for development. More about the ‘Fields in Trust’ project.
Many thanks
Thanks to Michael and Julie Trolove (and many others) for organising the event, installing the marquee, arranging parking, sorting the drinks and the hundred other things that no doubt needed doing that made the event such a success.
A few more photos of the Diamond Jubilee Dinner Dance kindly supplied by Michelle Woodley.
Celebrating the Diamond Jubilee with a special tree planting ceremony
It seemed a good idea at the time, a coffee morning in the Jubilee Wood with a special tree to be planted in recognition of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebration. Oh how it rained, the ground waterlogged, the long grass sopping wet but we are made of stern stuff in the Giddings and we didn’t let a major weather event dampen our fortitude (42mm of rain over Saturday night and all day Sunday)
To help us celebrate, our special guest Mr Neil McKittrick, a deputy Lord Lieutenant of Cambridgeshire planted a tree, a Cratageus Prunifolia. This is an attractive Hawthorn that has good autumn colours and long lasting red berries that the birds will enjoy. The tree will remind all those who attended of the atrocious conditions and the absurdity of drinking coffee in the temporary visitor centre.
Special thanks.
A special thank you to Tony and Pat Scott for the suggestion of the tree and the link to our special guest. We know that Tony is not enjoying the best of health at the moment so we we wish him well for the future.
Thanks to all who supported the event and Rachel for coping with the coffee duties in trying conditions.
A new fence has been installed by the main entrance of the Recreation Field.
A tired wire link fence has been replaced by a smart wooden post and rail fence along with remedial work to the gate posts. Look out for another special addition on The Big Jubilee Lunch day which is the 4th of June 2012.
With an east wind howling down Main Street, villagers scurried along to the warmth of the Village Hall to do battle once again at the Quiz & Chip Night. Quiz supremo Lois Jordan set the tone of questions that would sort the wheat from the chaff. Fortified with liquid refreshment from the bar, the contestants sorted themselves into their respective teams. It was immediately obvious that this would be a two way scrap with the remainder fighting for the minor places. Our host and question master John Deval laid down the rules and the quiz commenced.
After three rounds of brain exertion we reached the midway point, time for fish and chips which were duly served up piping hot and very enjoyable. After another three rounds of yes, no, yes, that’s not right, put anything down, its errr… the quiz concluded. Its amazing how much you think you know when the answer has just been read out.
Thanks to all concerned for an entertaining evening.
-
- Lois and Bruce reflecting on their fiendish quiz questions
-
- John, running through the answer sheet
-
- Half time score board
-
- How not to have your pint poured
-
- Team – Courage but no brains, oh yeah!
-
- Team – All sorts
-
- Team – theoptimists
-
- Team – The Last Table
-
- Team – Comfortably Dumb
-
- A man and his fish and chips
-
- Half time scores
Every few years on a rolling programme most the roads in the parish receive a new surface coating of stone chippings, rather than explain the finer details of the process take a look at The Idiots Guide To Highway maintenance, a really excellent and detailed web site about how our roads are maintained.
This series of photographs were taken on 22nd July 2010 as the B660 was being resurfaced from the Lutton crossroads to Great Gidding.
We all know something is imminent when the signs appear and the road sweeper starts hoovering up beyond the village boundary. Above we see the convoy of vehicles proceeding down the hill. Traffic management is by stop/go boards and radio communication.
The bitumen or tar lorry as they were known is always a site to behold, clouds of water vapour emerging from the spray applicator as the hot bitumen meets the cooler atmosphere.
This is the crunch part of the operation, the bitumen emulsion being sprayed out on to the road surface quickly followed up the stone spreader with an 8 wheeler tipper keeping the spreader topped up. The rate of application of bitumen and the stone chippings will have been predetermined in the contract. The idiots guide to highway maintenance will inform you of these things in greater detail. Click the link and have a read.
The stone spreader operator has a commanding view of the operation, he has to judge forward speed and the width of spread whilst keeping an eye on the hopper load.
The job has several hazards, passing traffic, moving machinery, hot liquids and obstructions to deal with such as overhanging branches that get hooked up on the passing tipper lorry.
Immediately following the first stone spreader another one follows on putting a finer layer of chippings down.
To make sure that the chippings adhere to the bitumen base layer, road rollers are used to compress the two elements together. Road rollers have evolved from the first steam rollers, diesel powered rollers, multi tyred rollers and now site rollers. Another useful reference site is the Road Rollers Association
Finally as the convoy makes its way to Great Gidding we see some of the work force in a lighter moment. These chaps are the stop /go board operators for traffic approaching from behind. Now the road has been resurfaced it takes on the feel of a skid pan as loose stone chippings accumulate. This is where drivers always observe the speed limit signs and drive diligently according to the road conditions. A road sweeper will follow up this operation with two or three passes in the forthcoming weeks.
The Village History Group met on Wednesday 18th April and viewed the photographs that were “discovered” during the History Day, held in October 2011. The next occasion we meet will be Wednesday 19th September, when there will be a speaker on Local World War II airbases, everyone will be welcome to join us and, as details are still to be confirmed, there will be an update published in the July/August edition of the Parish News, and on this website.