Village Blog

Presentation of Bird Boxes (January 2012)

Cubs and Scouts from the 1st Church Fenton Scout Group today handed over bird boxes they made with the Wildlife Habitat Protection Trust.

The bird boxes are part of 22 workshops the Scout Group is completing that will provide lasting community benefits for the community of Church Fenton.

They have been learning new skills in conservation and traditional craft ranging from building insect hotels, to making willow Christmas wreath's and have just handed over the 39 bird boxes to the Wildlife Habitat Protection Trust to be installed in their local woodland called the Old Park Plantation at Church Fenton.

These workshops are being funded by a grant from a small lottery fund called 'Awards for all' and are being delivered by the Wildlife Habitat Protection Trust.

They will also be building a sensory garden in a community park, a tree nursery, making hammocks and many more exciting activities in the near future.

These projects are building towards Scout Community Week between 14 and 20 May 2012, in addition to gaining their community challenge award.

Christmas Lights (December 2011)

This Christmas saw the area of the village near the primary school lit up for the first time by six festive lights.

Following a competition held last year for year six pupils, two of the lights have been made to the designs of winners, Ben Varley and Molly Mackenzie Ward.

It is hoped that the competition will become an annual event, with the winners' designs made up to be displayed the following Christmas, thus adding each year to the number of lights.

Supported and organised by ELF and the Parish Council, the lights are a welcome addition to the village during the festive season, bringing a cheerful display of colour to all who pass through Church Fenton.

Christmas Elf Trail (December 2011)

This year's Elf Trail in Church Fenton was even bigger and better than last year, it was truly awesome. What imaginative and talented people we have living in our village.

There were climbing elves, fishing elves, a cycling elf, an elf waiting for a bus and singing elves (Elvis might be gone but Elfis is most certainly alive and kicking out a tune!).

There were literary elves and a very cheeky elf, elves to save the euro and a naughty devil elf. There were wee elves and large elves, a very wee elf sitting on a bench and a scrooge elf created by many little helpers.

There were over 30 different individuals and groups throughout the village that had created an elf, you could even become an elf yourself.

ELF would like to thank to all our volunteers and to the support of our wonderful Hi Flyers W.I. ladies for the scrumptious buns. Also thank you to our Parish Council for supporting our trail and the village web site for promoting it. Church Fenton is certainly the place to be at Christmas and it is great to see the whole village coming together in this way.

The highlight, as always, was seeing the joy on the faces of our wonderful children. Surely there is nothing nicer at Christmas, than to see happy, smiley wee ones skip around our village just loving being there visiting all their elfie friends and knowing Santa will be calling soon.

For more pictures download the photo presentation compiled by Nina Watson. It is in PDF format.

Halloween Trail (October 2011)

The weekend of the 29th and 30th of October saw lots of wee ghosties and ghoulies visit the Wildlife Habitat Protection Trust's Woodland Project at the Old Plantation in Church Fenton, all hoping to scare and be scared. Proceeds from the event were for the Trust who is currently developing six sites close to Church Fenton. The key objectives for developing these schemes are to protect wildlife while educating all ages on wildlife and habitat preservation.

The event was organised by Lynne Kilburn from Branching Out who work in partnership with the Trust to raise funds through social events.

Lynne, who broke away from serving up Pumpkin Soup and Creepy Ghoulash in the cafe area, said that, "The event was a massive success especially as this is our first Halloween Trail and it is so rewarding when you get so many parents and children thanking you for such an enjoyable evening!"

Parents came along with their children, all of whom dressed up in scary outfits to follow the trail around the woods. On their walk they saw a very creepy cemetery with many skeletons trying to climb out of graves, the headstones of the rather unfortunate 'Eileen Dover...Too Far' and the infamous criminal 'Robin Banks'.

There was much more to come as every few yards there appeared gruesome werewolves, hovering ghosts, ghouls and worst of all a giant spider. The spider was wonderfully handcrafted from willow by the talented hands of the Trust's Grants and Marketing Coordinator, Leilah Vyner.

Just as everyone was getting over the shock of the enormous spider and then having been shocked, many times, by further blood curdling scenes, out, from nowhere, jumps a frightening ghoul. This ghoul scares the living daylights out of everyone. Surprisingly this young ghoul was a local schoolboy and future Hollywood horror actor, Ben/

At the end of the trail there were lots of delights waiting for all the trembling and excited ghosties and ghoulies, especially the hungry and thirsty ones. There was a very inventive menu of seasonal food and beverages. The temporary cafe was situated in a stunning setting, where giant white spirit-like globes surrounded the wildlife pond and reflected beautifully across the mirror-like water.

There was also a tent where visitors could learn more about what the Trust has achieved and what they hope to achieve in the future. Many visitors were amazed at how much has been done in just a few years and signed up for a newsletter service.

There was yet even more fun to partake in. Children were invited to make lots of Halloween goodies, from witches' hats, spiders and they could also create drawings of their scary experiences in yet another tent. Grandma 'witch' Brenda and grandson 'vampire' Max were there to greet visitors. Thank goodness there were only two members of this family present. Heaven knows what Grandpa looks like!

Founders of the Trust, Martin and Craig Blakey, were thrilled at the hundreds of visitors that visited the woods for the Halloween Trail and the brothers were even more thrilled that children and parents alike had such a wonderful time.

There are more events planned for the future so keep visiting the Church Fenton Community Web Site for details.

Banardos Big Toddle (June 2011)

In June 2011 Jigsaws staff, parents and children got involved in The Banardos Big Toddle.

Heading off from Jigsaws Childcare on the Main Street in Church Fenton, over 20 children aged from three months to four years took to prams or walking shoes to the Sandwath nature area.

The morning toddle raised over £150 for the Barnardos charity.

Christmas Elf Trail (December 2010)

This took place over the 18th and 19th of December and was organised by ELF (Everyone Loves Fenton). Many Church Fenton residents volunteered to create and place Elves of various sizes and styles in the front of houses or front gardens and at key sites around the village.

This was a bit like the village scarecrow trails organised in the summer by other nearby villages. However, for Church Fenton, the theme was Elves and there was lots for children and adults alike to see and enjoy throughout the village.

Apart from displaying Elves all over the village, the theme was also a play on the word 'elf' and so we saw displays entitled "Watch your speed or ELF! and "Elf and Fitness" amongst many others."

Volunteers manned a stand in the school grounds, handing out maps of the trail and providing hot drinks and mince pies and cookies to eat. A big thankyou to all those who manned the tent in the cold weather.

The photos shown here give a flavour of the Elves on display and the considerable work that many people put into making the weekend a success. There were many more on display than are shown here. Hopefully, this will become a regular event in the Church Fenton village calendar.

So, from the Prince of the Elves, see you all again in 2011.

WI Craft and Produce Show (September 2010)

The Women's Institute has always associated with crafts and home produce, so it's fitting that the Church Fenton High Flyers WI, which was formed less than a year ago, organized a Craft and Produce Show in the village hall on Saturday 25th September.

With over 20 classes, including vegetables, jam, chutney, home baking, photography and children's classes of decorated buns, pasta pictures and vegetable animals, there was something for almost everyone.

Home produce was judged by a WI judge, looking very official in a white coat, armed with sharp knives and 100's of plastic teaspoons, for cutting and tasting.

Home produce entries, of apple pies, bread and cakes filled the tables and with abundant entries in the jam and chutney classes, obviously not only WI members are enthusiastic about pickling and preserving!

Church Fenton Brownies also participated in the event, with produce grown in their own allotment winning prizes in several classes.

Vegetable entries ranged in size from cherry tomatoes to "marrow sized" courgettes! Experienced vegetable show judges gave tips for future shows, advising root vegetables should be the size of a tennis ball, onions should be "dressed" - in other words they should have their tops tied and be presented in a bed of sand or saw dust.

There was a lovely community feel to the day, with two of the exhibits aimed at raising the profile of the ELF (Everyone Loves Fenton) - a miniature garden, complete with shed made from ice lolly sticks and chairs from champagne corks, and a fascinator spelling ELF.

Visitors filled the village hall to view the entries, enjoy home baked WI refreshments and buy from the cake stall. At the end of the afternoon exhibits were auctioned off with enthusiastic bids for everything from vegetables to cakes.

The exhibition class included paintings, quilts, knit wear and crocheted necklaces.

The ladies of the High Flyers WI were delighted that the money raised at the show covered their costs and that they are in a position to make a donation to a community charity or project, a decision which will be made at their forthcoming AGM.

ELF Tidy-up Day (May 2010)

A big thankyou to all those who turned up to the ELF tidy-up day on the 8th of May. The whole of Station Road and Main Street was weeded and tidied. The arrival of the beast of a mower (Now belonging to ELF) cut all the uncut green patches which now really helps. Families mainly concentrated on tidying up around the school and planted some sunflowers! They did a stirling job.

We were able to plant lots of lovely lavender plants, kindly grown by and donated by Val Marshall, to the sides of some of the benches and on flower beds which will offer a lovely aroma and be adored by our friends the butterflies and the bees.

However, a brilliant job well done! The village looks so much better for it and our flower beds are looking much more enhanced.

Many others who could not attend on the actual day have been working away privately during the days previous.

Thank you to the Parish Council for covering the costs of the Village Hall. Community cohesion at it's best!

Nostalgia Weekend (July 2006)

This took place over the 14th, 15th and 16th of July and allowed residents and all those interested the chance to see documents and deeds in the care of the Parish Council dating back to the 1700s.

Village residents, past and present, were asked to provide old photos and other pieces of information depicting how the village had looked in times gone by.

The response was fanstastic and a wealth of old photographs, documents and letters were made available to be examined by vistors to the event.

The school also got involved, with the children studying local history and investigating how life in the village fitted in the wider scheme of what was happening in the country.

It provided pupils a chance to research how their village had changed over the years and to interview some of the older residents, allowing them to get a more personal view of how things had changed.

The whole event attracted a lot of interest and was extremely well attended over the three days it was on. All those attending agreed that it had been a really worthwhile event and a great opportunity to reminisce about times gone by.