Odell Village - April 2013

3 classes - Class One for 5-10 years, Class Two for 11-17 years, Class Three for 18 years and over - no upper limit!

Be as inventive as you like - please bring 3 cupcakes on a plate plus a small card with your name, age/over 18, and telephone number. If you do not wish your cakes to be sold afterwards please mark your card with a red star.

Also: watch out for Mandy's vintage stall .... items of bric-a-brac, decorative buttons, lace, etc. and nearly new clothing welcome. Please bring along on the morning of the Fete, before 11.30am.

Can you come along to the Fete Preparation Day at 10.00am on Bank Holiday Monday 6^th May? This will take place at Jim and Doreen Wheeler’s, Linden House, High Street, Odell. This is always a fun morning, when we clean and, re paint the banners, the signs for the stalls and side shows and prepare the roadside boards. Then there will be a B-B-Q for helpers; please bring your own meat and drink. Please let Doreen (720358) or Jane Smith (721214) know if you wish to stay for lunch and what you would like to provide in the way of salads and puddings.

We need your HELP to make the Fete and Dog show a great success. We need people to man stalls and side shows, run the raffle and sell tickets. We can always find a job for willing volunteers. This is a fun day and a great village event to which people come from all over to enjoy a family day out in our lovely village and surrounding North Bedfordshire countryside; BUT we do need your help.

We also ask for your help with setting up the Fete on the afternoon or evening of Friday, 7^th June. If you can manage to come anytime between 2.00 and 7.30pm to lend a hand, you will be most welcome. We shall need to collect tents, tables, chairs and stall signs and set up the field for the big day. We need muscle, a good sense of humour, wheels and trailers and tea and cake will be provided.

At least 10 nurseries: Alpines, Bedding, Clematis, Geraniums, Herbs, Lilies, Perennials and Shrubs, Sundries. Buy from the growers; high quality, unusual plants, keen prices & good advice!

Entrance Ł1.20, plenty of free parking, plant crčche, refreshments, tombola, children’s playground.

(In aid of the Friends of St Peter’s – keeping our church building in good repair – Charity no 802696)

Have you ever wondered where the words that we speak come from? They flow from our lips easily enough, but from where do they come? I do not mean, are they nouns or pronouns, but the place of their origin – the language from which they spring.

If you look in any half-decent dictionary you will find that, apart from the word definition, you will also find their land of origin and in some instances the original meaning. Not surprisingly, in many instances, the meanings have changed completely. In this dictionary you will also find that, whilst most words are termed Saxon or English, running it a pretty close second is French, followed by Latin.

Our early history involved wave after wave of invasion from Europe. The Romans came, the Saxons and the Vikings. They all came with the intention of staying and they all contributed to the language spoken by the resident people, especially the Saxons. By the time of the Norman invasion we were considered to be an Anglo Saxon race.

The Saxons had introduced so many words to the native language it is hard to separate them out. They included such words as king and kind, guest, beer and drink. Many of the words have a homely feel to them, such as mother, father, house and home, land and corn. They also include trade words such as baker and shop.

The arrival of the Norman invasion caused terrific upheaval to our language. The Normans intended to stamp a Norman footprint all across the land and it started with the subjugation of the rebellious native race and the easy way to do this, apart from imposing laws, is to change the language. The effects of this policy are clear to see, even to this day. Where to start – that is the question. Anything to do with good living usually has a French word to describe it. As most of the Normans had money and power perhaps this is not surprising. As most of the Saxons were bonded to their Norman masters they were little more than slaves. Most of the humble words associated with work and toil remained Saxon. So, grand words such as those relating to pomp and circumstance are French, such as royal and ambassador, realm and nation. Words relating to the Court of Law and most of the legal phrases associated with such matters are also French. The English language is littered with French words. For example, rendezvous, statue, stature, tableau, restaurant and raconteur. We have also retained complete phrases such as: pince-nez, piece-de-resistance, par-excellence, double-entendre to say nothing of carte-blanche.

When our navy and armies began to explore the world they brought back with them a whole raft of new words, many of them from the Indian sub-continent. A typical example of this is the word bungalow. This word sits comfortably in the English language now but the word came originally from the Bengal area and referred to a one-storey home of light and temporary build erected for European migrants. When this style of architecture reached England the weather conditions decreed a more substantial build and resulted in the popular construction that we know today. Another import from India is the word shampoo. This is a Hindi word for “press and knead” and came to mean “massage” in 18th century England.

If you leave aside these major incursions into our language you come to a group of words that appear to have reached our shores in a more random manner. Take, for example, the word marmalade. This was taken, in the 1400s, from the Portuguese word “marmelo” meaning quince. In the Middle Ages all marmalades were made from quince....oranges came along later!

Tomato comes from Mexico...we originally knew this vegetable as the “love apple”. Cider, surprising to me anyway, comes from the Middle East, whereas the word booze has just hopped across The Channel from Holland. It is from the mediaeval Dutch “busen” which means “to drink to excess” and was first used in England as the street language of beggars and thieves in the 1500s. Finally, the word scoundrel came to us from Italy.

Today these words are accepted as quintessentially English but we have absorbed words from around the world like a sponge and our language is the richer for it. Barbara Corley

In April we welcomed John Tusting who gave us a brief history of the Concerts he and Jane have organised for the past 25 years at The Barn, Hill House, Carlton. The Barn was built in 1792, the beams of which were cut from local elm trees and all hand sawn, but as we all know, sadly there are no elm trees anywhere now. The barn was not being used and the question they asked themselves was what to do with this big empty space. It was suggested holding concerts given by local musicians might be the answer and now between May and August outstanding musicians perform from all over the world. For more details please see www.thebarncarlton.co.uk

John then went on to talk about the development of the Leather Industry in Harrold that started in Odell about 200 years ago. Hides came from slaughterhouses in Bermondsey and eventually from local slaughterhouses. Shoes were made by hand in the villages alongside lace making. In 1861 shoe making reached its zenith with 40 people working in Harrold. Between 1880 and 1980 there were 6 leather factories with 400 employees and John included a brief background to his family business during this period. The industry relied on skins from India for processing but, in 1972, the Indian Government curtailed exports of skins, which lead to the decline of the industry. By 1990 there were no leather producers left in this area.

The AGM will be the next meeting in the Village Hall on Tuesday, 14^th May at 7.30pm. Hostesses will be Chris Devereux and Christine Clark

New members are always welcome and if you need any more information please ring Karen Boyes, 720952. Ladies, just come along to the Village Hall on the second Tuesday of each month and see what we do and how we enjoy ourselves. To find out more about the WI go to www.theWI.org.uk or the local Bedfordshire Federation website www.thewi.org,uk/bedfordshire Jane Eshelby

Flooding this year has been particularly bad with Horsefair Lane and Mill Lane badly affected. I shall be arranging for the Environment Agency to come to Odell one evening to talk to residents about its work in the region, how it manages the floods, the early warning system and in particular what can be done to protect peoples’ homes. I will be sending round a letter to Odell residents shortly advising of the date for this meeting.

A planning appeal against a decision of the Council’s Planning Committee to refuse a privately owned Gypsy and Traveller site at Roxton has been allowed, which means 4 pitches will be developed in the village. The Council is still looking to develop 14 pitches at Meadow Lane by 2017 and has submitted a further planning application for more required pitches on land it owns at Fairhills.

The planning application for the Riverside North development was approved at the Planning Committee’s meeting of the 25^th March. The site will consist of a new cinema, hotel, restaurants, and retail and residential property.

As of the 1^st April the Bedfordshire Primary Care Trust has been replaced by the Bedfordshire Clinical Commissioning Group, which is made up of clinicians who will be tasked with planning, organising and purchasing healthcare services. This is part of wide ranging reforms to the structure of the NHS.

On a related matter, the ‘Healthier Together’ review of hospital services in the South East Midlands area has been localised into three separate reviews. At its last meeting in March the Healthier Together Committee, which is made up of local councillors heard that the Bedfordshire and Milton Keynes Clinical Commissioning Groups are currently formulating proposals to share services between Bedford and Milton Keynes Hospitals. This is with the aim of securing efficiencies and improving service quality. This will be achieved by specialising certain services on one site whilst relocating other services into the community via GP surgeries. More information can be found at; http://www.healthiertogethersoutheastmidlands.nhs.uk/

In accordance with European Union State Aid rules, Bedford Borough, Central Bedfordshire and Milton Keynes Councils are currently undertaking a consultation on their plans to improve broadband connectivity. The consultation document is available at the following link and provides maps showing existing and planned broadband

The Allhallows Multi Storey Car Park and adjoining public conveniences are to be refurbished in a Ł2.7m scheme beginning in the spring. This will see major repairs undertaken to the structure of the car park while there will be refurbishments to the shop fronts of properties on Grenhill Street beneath the car park. This is part of a scheme to refurbish the wider bus station area.

The Higgins, formally the Cecil Higgins Art Gallery and Museum will open at dawn and close at dusk on the longest day of the year, the 21^st June following a Ł5.8m renovation.

If you have any issues or concerns you would like to raise with me directly I can be contacted on my mobile 07773371190 or by email on afield_foster@btinternet.com

Easter was one of the coldest I can remember and the growing season seems to be about 3 weeks behind at the moment. The continuous flooding we suffered over the last few months prevented us from carrying out much of the tree work we’d planned to do over the winter.

We did manage to lay a section of hedge alongside the bird hide. Not an easy job as it had been left too long and was over mature. The lakeside willows were also coppiced at the same time and will re-grow over the next 5yrs. The timber arising will be seasoned and sold next year for firewood.

In the roadside shelter belt where we felled a lot of old conifers this winter new trees have been planted. These are all native species and will help to bring this bit of woodland into a new era. The Friends of the park have paid for 2000 native Bluebell bulbs and these have been now been planted in there by our volunteers.

We are shortly going to be fencing off the new play area near the café to keep out dogs. Signs have already been erected in strategic areas of the park to alert dog owners to the new Bedford Borough Council Dog Control Orders that are being brought in to combat problems resulting from irresponsible ownership.

Failure to clear up fouling will result in a Ł75 fixed penalty notice and Park staff may ask that dogs be put on leads in certain areas if circumstances require this. For example: When dogs are seen to be worrying our river meadow cattle or wildlife. This is a Borough-wide initiative. It is a shame that this is necessary but many of our incident reports have arisen through problem dogs and their owners.

The wildlife breeding season is well under way and we’re now seeing some of our spring migrant birds arriving in the park. The autumn ones like the Fieldfare, Waxwings and Redwings have now returned to Scandinavia. In exchange, we now have Chiffchaff, Black Caps and Whitethroats. Of course we will also be listening out for our old friend the Cuckoo and in May, the Nightingale.

Our resident grass snakes finally came out of hibernation in April when the warmer weather finally moved in. They can frequently be seen swimming along the edges of our ponds and lakes or sunbathing quietly on a log. They are completely harmless and prey chiefly on frogs, tadpoles and baby mice that they find hiding out in the reed beds.

Hopefully, if the weather keeps warm, this year’s Dragonflies and damselflies will be making an appearance. Look out for wild flowers too. In June we start to see orchids of various species mostly Common Spotted and Bee orchids if we’re lucky. They are such fickle plants though. Where you see them one year they may not come up at all but then sprout somewhere new. The blackboard outside the café entrance will give you an idea of what’s about.

My colleague Richard Dowsett is going to have another go with his beehives this year. The weather was so dreadful last year that any honey they made had to be left to feed the colony. They successfully over-wintered in a local orchard but will be returned to the park shortly to forage for nectar in the trees and wildflowers. Let’s hope they can make enough this year for us Humans to take advantage of?

Make use of our new bird hide and see what’s about. Here’s hoping we actually have a summer this year? The Friends Group have almost completed the new bird ID boards that will go inside.

Don’t forget, the Friends have paid for the park website and it has recently been revamped. We know there are a few type-o’s to sort out but it’s so much more lively than the old format. We will be developing it over the coming season and will add to the gallery. Log on to www.hocp.co.uk

Meet at the café entrance every other Thursday at 10.30am. We walk for an hour with the option for a coffee and a natter in Tea-zels café afterwards. Leader Janet Munro tel 01234 720016 or e-mail janet.munro@bedford.gov.uk

Monthly task day, usually the last Monday of the month (a week earlier if a bank holiday) looking at ways of conserving and enhancing the park. We start at 10am and you can participate as long as you like. Bring sturdy clothing, footwear and a packed lunch. We provide tools, refreshments and the chance to meet new people. For more information call 01234 720016 or e-mail Richard.dowsett@bedford.gov.uk : May 20^th

Art Exhibition & Sale: Bank holiday Monday May 27^th 10am – 5pm. Artists from the local area. Contact Olga Earl 01933 412848 Janet Munro Ranger

The famous story of Gypsy Rose Lee casts an affectionate eye on the hardships and triumphs of show business life. Arthur Laurents‘ book and Jule Styne’s seductive melodies combine with Stephen Sondheim’s crackling lyrics, including: ‘Everything’s coming up Roses’,

Sharnbrook Post Office (in person) or Bedford Central Box Office* –

*NB this has moved to *Tourist Information Centre in St Paul’s Sq. 718112 (NB new number)

2 wheelchair spaces, easier access seating Rows A – C: hearing loop Rows A –E.

Peter Quilter’s ‘gloriously’ funny, heart-warming comedy - the true story of Florence Foster Jenkins’ extraordinary operatic career.

Sellers– (strictly no Traders) 9.00am (-1 pm); Car Ł7, car + trailer/large van Ł10; Buyers from 10.00 am. Tea/coffee light refreshments; Bar 12 noon

Please send all entries for the June 2013 magazine to Tricia Hudson (ed at odellbeds.net) or Catherine Corkery by May 12^th at the latest. May we remind you that the editorial team exercises the right to edit, shorten or alter any items that are submitted. Also, the opinions expressed in the articles are those of the contributors and are not the responsibility of the editorial team.

Alex Stubbs Flooring

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07976 260572

01234 240954

Programme of Events

Attractions

Sharnbrook Post Office (in person) or Bedford Central Box Office* –

NB this has moved to Tourist Information Centre in St Paul’s Sq. 718112 (NB new number)

Last revised: April 27, 2013.