Shirenewton & Newchurch Parish Magazine December 2011 January 2012 Sketch by Barbara Davies Dec 11/Jan 12 PPargice e1: 50p Dear Friends, Every successful event is usually due to good preparation and many of you are, I expect, already on with your planning and preparations for Christmas. For Christians we are also preparing for one of the greatest event in the Christian calendar, Christmas Day or otherwise known as the Mass of Christ. Our preparations begin in earnest on Sunday 27th November which is Advent Sunday when we will light the first candle in our Advent Wreath which has four red (or blue) candles in a ring around a white (or gold) candle. One candle is lit during the service each Sunday until Christmas Day. There are several traditions about the meaning or theme of each candle. The scheme that accords best with our Bible readings for the Advent Season is: Advent Sunday 1 The Patriachs Advent Sunday 2 The Prophets Advent Sunday 3 John the Baptist Advent Sunday 4 The Virgin Mary Christmas Day The Christ Each of the four Sundays then remind us of those who prepared for the coming of Christ. ‘The Patriachs’ can focus on Abraham, our father in faith and King David, Jesus’ ancestor in whose city he was born, Bethlehem. The ‘Prophets’ gives us the opportunity to reflect on the way the birth of the Messiah was ‘foretold’ in the Old Testament of the Bible. ‘John the Baptist’ who proclaimed the Saviour when he baptised Jesus. The fourth candle is to remind us of ‘Mary’ the mother of Jesus and this completes our progress and preparations ready to light the final candle at the centre of our wreath during the Midnight Service on Christmas Eve. Before we reach the great celebration there will be a number of events in the parish including singing carols around the Christmas tree, Carols and Nine Lessons, and Christingle which is so loved by many. During all the preparations and mounting excitement as we draw closer to Christmas Day we need to remember those who will not be able to celebrate at this time and these are not only those across the world who are in great need and in desperate circumstances, but those in our own neighbourhood. There might be someone near you who will be in some need and if you cannot help please let me or one of our Parish Visitors, or any member of the Parochial Church Council, know so that we can come alongside to help in whatever way we can. I hope many of you will join in the events which have become traditional in Shirenewton at this time of year - some mentioned elsewhere in this magazine – and come and join us in worship and praise as we give thanks for God’s greatest gift to us, His Son Jesus Christ. I wish you all a very happy and joyful Christmas. Nansi Davies Parish Priest. Page 2 SHIRENEWTON PARISH MAGAZINE Regarding deliveries to subscribers in the Earlswood area. Sadly Mr Peter Jones feels he is no longer able deliver magazines over this area, we would therefore welcome the offer of an individual or individuals who could deliver a number of copies to neighbours. If you have not received your copy, copies are available in the Church on the table by the lady chapel Bob O’Keefe SHIRENEWTON CHURCH PCC The PCC would like to thank Terry Walters who edits the magazine, Bob O,Keefe who now distributes the magazines and to the kind folk who deliver it to our homes. However if you do not get it delivered there are always magazines in the church, on the table by the lady chapel. The church is open daily. Please note the new Child Protection Office is Dr. Kerry Baker (01291 641925) ST PETER’S CHURCH NEWCHURCH Reminder: Our Carol Service will be held on the 18th of December at 2.30 PM. Please come, all will be welcome Christmas Day Service: 11.15 am GAERLLWYD BAPTIST CHAPEL December 5th at 7.30 pm. Carol Service Soup and Rolls afterwards, all welcome. December 11th at 6.30pm. Service conducted by Newport Male Voice Choir Refreshments afterwards, Al welcome EARLSWOOD AND NEWCHURCH WEST MEMORIAL HALL Remembrance service was led by Mr John Waters. The accompanist was Mr Keith Simcock. Mrs Susan Lenthall read the Role of Honour. A poppy wreath was laid by Mr. Raymond Jeremiah. Thank you all for your support Dec 11/Jan 12 Page 3 MOTHER’S UNION SHIRENEWTON / CAERWENT Much has been going on in Monmouth Diocese on behalf of families here and in other countries. Last year MU members raised over £12,000 that was sent to benefit communities in several African countries. On 9 November we welcomed Lynn Waters who spoke about her experiences of four months earlier this year working in Kampala, Uganda. She was working with an organisation that aimed to place orphaned children with adoptive parents in stable family units. On 13 December we have been invited to join MU members at St Arvans in a pre-Christmas celebration. Our first meeting next year, weather permitting, will be our AGM on Wednesday 10 January at 2.15 pm in Shirenewton Church Room. SHIRENEWTON WOMENS INSTITUTE November, long nights, short days, the gradual change to winter mode and preparations for Christmas. A strangely mild start to the month which with a few blips has continued. We met for our branch meeting in the Rec. Hall on the 10th, our formal business concluded with reminders for December Christmas dinner, the list passed round for choices to be made. Our speaker for the evening was Mrs Rosemary Scaddon, whom we welcome back, her talk this time titled ‘Bringing home the bacon’, an insight into how we used to shop. Rosemary illustrated her talk with slides of many shops and vendors from the Valleys and Newport, taken in the early years of the twentieth century. She reminded us how shopping for necessities was a daily routine since neither homes nor shops had refrigerators or freezers. There were even shops selling nothing but yeast, since it was needed fresh for everyday baking. Food arrived at the shops in large containers and was weighed, bagged and wrapped for the customers. There was no cellophane or plastic bags so bagging and wrapping was an art form, if the package was not to come undone or leak. There was no instant coffee, so beans were roasted and freshly ground to order each day. Service was good, but some shopkeepers indulged in various scams to get more money, such as displaying three lots of the same butter in different ways so that people would buy what they thought was a better butter paying more for it. Some places had ‘Pantry Shops’ where people would go and buy for each meal, morning popping in for a slice of bacon and an egg or dinner a chop and a couple of potatoes. People living in the country relied on deliveries by cart or bicycle and many shops worked very long hours to provide for all their customers. We may get nostalgic about the loss of individual service, but we wouldn’t want the often long queues waiting to be served and very little choice if you weren’t the early bird. It’s still nice to have small shops and personnel service, but it’s good to have stuff in the fridge and freezers especially when the snow is down. Page 4 FAI RTRADE NEWS 'Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat Please put a penny in the old man's hat If you haven't got a penny, a ha'penny will do If you haven't got a ha'penny, then God bless you' Most of us do not doubt that whilst a very few (people, not geese!) are getting very fat, the proportion of those without the metaphorical ha'penny is very much on the increase. Buying fairly traded products is a very simple way of ensuring that at least some of the people doing the work are treated more reasonably. It's not a charity, it's simply trade, conducted in a fair way! Look out for the Fairtrade logo! www.fairtrade.org.net Marion McAdam 641 316 msm316@gmail P.S.Congratulations to Mrs Jane Eickhoff and the pupils of Shirenewton Primary School which is well on the way to becoming an accredited Fairtrade school! SHIRENEWTON COMMUNITY COUNCIL Curry Supper Approximately sixty people attended the Recreation Hall in Shirenewton on Thursday 17th November for a presentation about the Caerwent MoD site by the Army Commander. This was a very interesting presentation with some surprising facts, for example, last year there were 92,000 training days at Caerwent! The presentation reinforced in our minds the important job that is carried out in Caerwent before soldiers have to go to war. There was another short presentation from CADW on the listed buildings on the site and these had previously been unknown to most of those present. Prior to the presentations there was a joint Community Council/MoD meeting with both Shirenewton and Caerwent Cllrs. These joint meetings have become regular events so if you have any questions or concerns about the activities at Caerwent and pass them on to your local Community Cllr then they can possibly be included in the meetings. Following the presentations was what many people had been looking forward to the most! The curry supper cooked and served by Army personnel. From the comments that were made afterwards it would ap- pear that everyone really enjoyed it. Obviously not everyone affected by the ’bumps and bangs’ coming out of Caerwent could be invited. The Community Council took the decision to ask local organisations to send two representatives so if you weren’t lucky enough to be asked to attend this time maybe you will next time! Dec 11/Jan 12 Page 5 SHIRENEWTON COMMUNITY COUNCIL MEETING, MONDAY 7TH NOVEMBER 2011 Public Speaking Three teenagers came along to talk about ‘Facilities for Skateboards, Scooters and Bikes in Shirenewton’ and were wondering about the possibility of having a skateboard park up at the Rec. They put forward some good points e.g. young people need safe places for recreation, that it would provide the opportunities for healthy athletic outdoor activity, that it would be a ‘cool’ image for the village, that other villages like Woolaston have skate parks, etc The boys had come to canvass support from the Community Council before pursuing their project further. The council will put in on next month’s agenda to discuss it. The October Police Report from PC Louise Thorpe Sun 2nd There was a road accident on the B4235 when a motorcyclist slipped on a bend – luckily he wasn’t hurt and luckily nothing was coming the other way. I am presuming it was his bike that slipped rather than him walking along. Tues 11th Something was stolen from a field in Earlswood. The chained gate had been ‘bolt cropped’ and items nicked. The report didn’t say what they were – just that they were made of metal. Thur 20th Another traffic accident this time outside the TA which involved two vehicles. The road was blocked for a time, but luckily no-one was hurt. Mon 31st There was another road collision – again on the B4235 on one of the bends but once again, luckily, no-one was hurt. PC Thorpe was also looking into the possibility of ‘scammers’ involving cold calls about Dyson Cleaners (?) and also calls from ‘The Electricity Board’ offering, ‘40% off your electricity bills for life’. The latter seemed too good to be true and they were being looked into by the police. SCC have long been asking Highways to erect 40mph signs on the B4235 to persuade drivers and motorcyclists to slow down as they drive through our area. The good news is that some have been erected – but the bad news is – the signs are not where the council had asked them to be placed i.e. on the bends where the B4235 goes past our village… Sigh. But finally a good result. In days of yore, our local policeman would regularly walk around the village with a local councilor with the idea of meeting local residents to listen to their local concerns. Trouble was, they very rarely met anyone. The local residents were all … somewhere else. Page 6 Now there is a better plan. PC Thorpe and our councilors will regularly meet up with lots of local people. Where? Down at the local. When people pop in during the morning to…pick up their newspapers.. they can use the opportunity to discuss issues with their local community police officer! And also, as PC Thorpe sits conspicuously in the window seat of the Tredegar Arms it might deter speeding motorists hurtling through the village. Planning Applications There were none! Yippee!! I thought I’ll be home and dry before lights out. Oh dear no. In place of deep and meaningful discussions about planning, the councilors were asked to comment on the Draft Local Development Plan or LDP for short. And that is the only short thing about it, as the document runs to a fulsome 219 pages. I felt my life passing before me. Slowly. The clerk had emailed this monstrous piece of MCC consultative documentation to the councilors at the beginning of the month so that they could read it before hand and bring their comments to the meeting. So... There followed a numb silence. It wasn’t that it hadn’t been read – it had. In parts. It was universally acknowledged that this was a cure for insomnia. And this was where things started to liven up a little, as one councilor after another began to rant, rave and rail against the ridiculousness of suggesting this was a consultative document. Not only was this draft LDP overly long, it was factually inaccurate and included statements which were not supported by any evidence at all. And councilors voiced their suspicions that MCC had already made their decisions. It wasn’t consultative at all – it was statement of fact cunningly disguised as a consultative document! It was going through the legal motions. It was a waste of time. Gosh, it got quite animated and I think that if there had been buns on the table they would have been hurled at MCC The next exciting thing on the agenda was to discuss MCC’s ‘Review of Planning Procedures’. But as regular readers might guess, given MCC’s penchant for ignoring and overturning SCC’s recommendations, the feeling towards this document was one of complete skepticism. Indeed, it was suggested in the nicest possible way – well no it wasn’t really – it was just stated, that all the people working in the planning department are completely mad. The Cllrs then went on to consider a response to the draft ‘Wentwood Management Plan’ which had also been emailed to councilors earlier for them to have a little more bedtime reading. It was suggested that that the council might well have agreed with some of the conclusions but as the Plan ran to a generous 141 pages, most councilors had run out of printer-ink, paper, time, patience and indeed life. Continued on Page 8 Dec 11/Jan 12 Page 7 Continued from Page 7 Not only was the Plan lengthy beyond belief, it was apparently turgid, full of unexplained acronyms and very badly written. The clerk was requested to tell the author of the WMP that, it was, in a nutshell, incomprehensible. Other stuff • There had been a suggestion that we share electronic Slow Down Signs with Llangwm but Clr Down said that there was no funding to help local councils any more. • The date of the Shirenewton Church Fete has been moved forward a week (Sat 2nd June) to coincide with the Queen’s Jubilee as it was unlikely that HRH would move her celebrations back to coincide with our fete day. There are plans afoot to have a Jubilee Celebration on the Rec on the Bank Holiday and it was thought that the city of tents, marquees and gazebos could stay up there from the fete on the Saturday for the celebrations planned for the Monday. • And also Temporary Events Notices, which allow for the supply of the demon drink, last for 72 hours and therefore the one license would cover the two events. I expect HRH knew that too. • The Highways Department are going to fill in the humongous potholes in the road down towards the Cwm but not the holes in the roads up in Earlswood as they are not humongous enough. • The strange non appearance of the One Stop Shop is still unaccounted for because …actually I can’t remember…. • I could tell you about the OVW Annual Conference, Installation of Timetable Cases on Brick Bus Shelters, Traffic Surveys, New Maps for Electoral Wards and even the Reinstatement of a Hedge and but no – I shall leave you sitting on the edge of your seat waiting eagerly for next month’s installment of Shirenewton Community Council Notes. Next meeting Monday 5th December – Shirenewton Rec 7.30 Glynis PS Don’t forget, the meeting is open to the public. Come along to see democracy at work. It is marginally more fun than having your teeth pulled – but not much. PPS If you haven’t read the above notes you may be interested to hear that there may be a vacancy for a new councilor – so watch this space for more details or the village notice boards. It really is tremendously exciting, with lots to read, lots of discussion and a real chance to make a difference. Page 8 STARGAZING IN SEPTEMBER The very bright planet Jupiter is to the south-east in the evening sky. On 6th December the Moon is just above Jupiter. In the early morning sky the planet Saturn can be seen to the south-east on the left of the star called Spica. On 20th December they are joined by the crescent Moon. Mars is to the south in the morning sky below the constellation of Leo. The Moon is just below Saturn on 17th December. In the evening to the southeast, the constellation Orion is particularly impressive – three bright stars make up his belt; two stars are his shoulders, and two more make his legs. Orion was the great hunter of Greek Mythology who boasted that he could kill any creature on earth – but he met his match in the scorpion, which stung him in the heel and killed him. The bright blue-white star in Orion’s right leg is Rigel, an extremely powerful star but at great distance, it is at least 60,000 times more luminous than the Sun. The bright star at Orion’s left shoulder is Betelgeuse (pronounce it “beetle-juice” and you’ll be close enough). Betelgeuse has a reddish colour – it is a vast red super-giant star, large enough to contain the entire path of the Earth round the Sun. Hanging from Orion's belt is his sword. One of the stars in the sword appears fuzzy compared with other stars and is well worth looking at through binoculars. This is the Orion Nebula and is a huge cloud of gas and dust. It is one of the most intense regions of star formation visible in our galaxy. 22nd December is the Winter Solstice, our shortest day, often called mid-winter and a good time to take a trip to Australia where it is the longest day! Dave Thomas RNLI CONCERT The concert in the church by the Chepstow Male Voice Choir raised the magnificent sum of £992 for the Royal Lifeboat Institution. On behalf of the Institution very many thanks for this most generous contribution to its funds D B Robinson President Chepstow Branch Dec 11/Jan 12 Page 9 200 CLUB WINNERS SHIRENEWTON COMMUNITY OCTOBER LUNCHEON CLUB Mike Baker £40 Tredegar Arms Ann McLean £30 Shirenewton Wenche O’Keefe £20 01291 641274 Roy Waikes £10 Please book early to secure your place for lunch on NOVEMBER Wednesday : Diane Galliers £40 December 14th 2011 Kerry Edwards £30 January 25th 2012 Ann Nicholas £20 February 22nd 2012 Will Smith-Haddon £10 March 28th 2012 SHIRENEWTON SHIRENEWTON PARENT GAMING GROUP & TODDLER GROUP Do you enjoy playing games Every Thursday 1.30 to 3pm term time Drinks, Snacks, Crafts, Contact: & Songs. £2 Paul Owen on 01291 641483 or by email at Shirenewton Recreation Hall [email protected] Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/ groups/181560798590317 For more information Page 10