The Worplesdon Witness: Featuring Forthcoming Events, Wildlife, Merrist Wood College, Fairlands Community Centre And More

Published on: 14 Jan, 2020
Updated on: 15 Jan, 2020

Jan Messinger with her latest round-up of news from the parish of Worplesdon

Plenty going on in the local community

BBC Radio 4′ Gardeners’ Question Time is being held at Worplesdon Memorial Hall on Tuesday, February 18.

The panel for the evening will be Pippa Greenwood, Matt Biggs and Matthew Pottage with Peter Gibbs chairing the programme.

Hosted by Worplesdon Gardening club, tickets are available from its website, from January 15.

Jacobs Well Evening Women’s Institute has lots of plans for the coming year. It meets on the fourth Thursday of the month at Jacobs Well Village Hall, at 7.30pm. While Worplesdon WI meets at Worplesdon Memorial Hall on the first Wednesday of the month at 2.30pm.

The Sidney Sime Gallery at Worplesdon Memorial Hall is hosting a half-term children’s workshop on Thursday, February 20, from 2pm to 4pm.

This year’s artistic theme is titled Come with the Master of the Mysterious and Save Planet Sime. Children will be encouraged to think about how artist Sidney Sime used birds, animals and insects in his work and how we wish to preserve and conserve nature and our planet.

This year also sees an exciting calendar for the Jacobs Well Rendezvous club. Click on image below to enlarge with details.

The churches in the parish, St Mary’s and St Alban’s, are ready to host wedding services. Worplesdon Memorial Hall is available for receptions and Merrist Wood College offers a wedding venue both indoors and outdoors.

The Worplesdon Place also hosts weddings. It is a country pub and hotel with 29 bedrooms set in two acres of grounds and has two black swans with young on its lake.

Refurbishment is taking place soon of its dining room and private suite and it has applied for planning permission to build an outdoor burger shack to the rear of property and also new signage.

What does The Fairlands Medical Practice Patient Participation Group do?

The group works by engaging with patients to understand concerns or issues they have and feed these back to the practice and also to work with the practice to find solutions to any issues.

It arranges events to publicise available support, treatment and services for medical condition as agreed with the practice. In the past it has run events on Living Well with Dementia, Cancer Awareness and on Diabetes and is currently planning an event on mental health issues.

It carries out occasional surveys on a variety of topics and is currently conducting one on understanding the methods available for patients to obtain repeat prescriptions.

Information can be found on the Fairlands Medical Practice website , or email ppgfairlands@nhs.net

Worplesdon’s wildlife

Wildlife is an important part of rural life in Worplesdon.

Friendly pheasant!

A Perry Hill resident has a visiting pheasant who literally eats out of his hand!

As many as 30 pheasants are viewed in Wood Street Village by a resident from their home, and Jacobs Well has a project to help hedgehogs.

The project encourages residents to create a garden highway for hedgehogs to travel, find food and make homes.

In the 1950s there were 30 million hedgehogs in UK, yet in 2018 it was reported to be one million.

It is suggested that wildflower strips through fields to encourage insects may also benefit wildlife such as hedgehogs.

Hedgehogs like to eat wet cat and dog food and like wild areas to nest. Making holes in a garden fence enables them to move freely from garden to garden.

Contact Roger on 01483 833661, for details or search for JW hedgehogs on Facebook.

And…. you may have even seen the “beware of frogs” road sign in Salt Box Road!

Planning the way forward for Fairlands Community Centre

An informal meeting was held at Fairlands Community Centre on January 6 for residents to suggest ideas for the way forward for usage of the sports field alongside the centre.

Suggestions from the 40 residents who attended the meeting included using it for picnics, table tennis, a gym exercise route, a track for running, a nature trail, a summer fair, and a scooter track.

The centre’s management committee stressed the need for support for ideas.

New committee member Nick, who led the brainstorming, will feed ideas back to the committee along with uses for the hall, which included cinema nights, suggestions for family friendly times in the bar.

Attendees were encouraged to sign up to help with future events.

Climate change presentation

FLGCA (Fairlands, Liddington Hall and Gravetts Lane Community Association) is hosting another free climate change presentation at Fairlands Community Centre on Monday, January 27, at 7.30pm.

Last year FLGCA introduced a membership and community card scheme. The card gives access to the community centre’s bar, that contributes to running costs of the hall and field, with discounts for a number of local businesses. It is sponsored by Fairlands’ Special Occasions party shop and post office.

It’s only £15 per annum and you don’t have to a resident of Fairlands to join.

Contact the membership secretary Bob Willis on 01483 234667 for more details.

And if you wish to become a FLGCA community card partner, and benefit from free monthly listings in the FLGCA magazine, contact Laurie Edwards on 01483 853786.

900 copies of the magazine are distributed monthly.

Fairlands Community Centre hosted a quiz night, bingo, disco and a New Years’ Eve celebration over the festive season.

News from Merrist Wood College

The college’s Dog Day Care Centre has received a five-star rating following its latest inspection.

It is run by former animal degree student Vicky Campbell and is open Monday to Friday. Click here for more details.

New-born animals at the college in December included Poll Dorset lambs and baby Dutch guinea pigs.

Christmas is past, but not forgotten!

In between the seasonal activities of nativity plays at our local schools, pre-schools and nurseries, there was also carol singing at Worplesdon Place from the Laudamus chamber choir in the bar area.

The many carol singing events from the church choir raised £720 for The Children’s Society.

The choir sang at Worplesdon View care home, while carols on the green at the Wood Street Village were held in St Alban’s Church due to wet weather.

Hearty singing at the Royal Oak pub in Wood Street Village.

It was well attended by residents, along with some singing in the Royal Oak pub.

St Mary’s Church’s was packed for its nine lessons and carols on Sunday, December 22.

Worplesdon Guildford Borough Councillors, from left Ann McShee, Bob McShee and Ruth Brothwell in seasonal jumpers.

After the Christmas Eve and Christmas Day services, the rector, the Revd Alex Russell, emailed her parishioners thanking them for parish life over the past year.

Her thanks were extended to those who are officers of the church, and who had achieved a good deal for the community, and who did so much in preparation for Christmas, even clearing leaves on the approach path, as if by magic!

She also gave thanks for the two churches’ stewardship campaign, the celebration of Epiphany, and reminded people of a united service to be held at St Mary’s at 11am on Sunday, February 2 to celebrate Candlemas. The Suffragan Bishop of Dorking, the Rt Revd Jo Bailey-Wells, will be president and preacher.

Jacobs Well Social Club hosted a Christmas draw, bingo, a drink and a chat with friends for Christmas Eve, with Rockin’ Rob and Bill entertaining on New Year’s Eve.