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Coleshill
Village News
Welcome to news pages of the Coleshill Website - keeping you up to
date with all that is going on, in and around Coleshill. If you have
any events or information that you would like included on these
pages,
please
click here to contact us.
Latest News:

Village Show
The Village Show is on Saturday 6th September 2008
Click here for an Entry
Form and Show Schedule
Parish Council Meeting
The Parish Council Meeting was be held on Thursday 10th
July 2008
Click here for the agenda
Click here for
the draft minutes of the 22nd May 2008 meeting
Police Open Day

Village Fete

The Village Fete was a splendid event - the best ever - many thanks
to Marion Davies and Kim Richardson and all of the many helpers.
Click here to see images of the 2008 Fete
Coleshill Mobile Library
Did you know that the mobile library visits Coleshill every
other Friday? It stops beside the pond – very picturesque – and is
there from 2.20 to 2.35pm. It’s only a short window of time but is
WELL worth a visit.
It’s stocked with a wide range of books, including large print, and
has a special children’s section with little seats – two year old
Molly O’Boyle is a regular visitor. There are videos, DVDs, talking
books – and the librarian can even sell you stamps!
Although most of us can get to the main library in Amersham, this
one is
so special. Unlike the main library you’re not overwhelmed with
choice, but the selection of books changes from visit to visit.
Somehow there’s always one you never thought you wanted yet there it
is in front of you and is just the thing! Books etc taken out from
the mobile library can be returned to the main library and vice
versa and/or renewed online – all very convenient.
Currently it’s woefully under-used by villagers – so if we don’t use
it we shall lose it! Come and have a look – you will not be
disappointed.
Next visits are on Fridays 11th July and 25th July (and fortnightly
thereafter). The dates will be on the village notice board to remind
you.
Please support this new initiative for the village.
Click here to see the full timetable for the mobile library
Coleshill is on
Route 25.
Planning News - Latest info
Click here to see the latest planning news
Coleshill Common Working Party
New dates have been set for the work parties starting in
Spring 2008.
Click here for details
Neighbourhood Policing
I
am PC 1701 Gavin McVeigh, I am the neighbourhood officer for the
parish council areas of Coleshill, Seer Green and Penn. One of my
responsibilities is to engage with the local communities I police.
Due to this there is attached a police survey form in this
newsletter.
click here to
download a survey form
This survey allows the local
residents to inform the local police of issues/problems that are
affecting the area.
There is also a version on the website which can be completed and
These forms are voluntary, but I will not be able to deal with
issues if the problems are not known to the local police. The forms
will be confidential and will used to look at areas where problems
exist.
Please do complete the enclosed survey form, and take it to the
following locations for collection. Place it into the box below the
parish information board, outside the village hall or the village
school. Rr it can be e-mailed or faxed to me.
I will collect the forms from the locations on Wednesday 5th
December 2007. Thank you! Gavin McVeigh
Email Gavin.McVeigh@Thamesvalley.pnn.police.uk
Fax. 01753884253 Tel. 07800703188 or 08458505505
Village Hall - availability
Monday and Tuesday mornings are available for hire this summer. It is not often that vacancies arise.
Village Newsletter - Summer 2008
Click here to download a copy of the latest Village Newsletter
(Warning large file broad band users ony)
Morris Men at the Red Lion

See the Red Lion page for more pictures
Coleshill Local History project
For latest news on the History project
click here
Members of the Coleshill History Project have now been meeting
for over a year. The group meets monthly at the Village Hall to
exchange information and to discuss new lines of enquiry. A huge
volume of information has been amassed and the themes which will
feature in the proposed history of the village are now emerging. The
group had a stall at the recent Village Fete where lots of locals
and visitors to the Coleshill enjoyed the display of maps,
power-point presentations and photographs of the village.
Two particular topics have recently assumed more importance within
the group than at first thought. The first topic is Coleshill’s
water supply. Two members of the group recently visited the water
tower and were impressed with its original construction and its
recent conversion to domestic use. The tower was built in 1915 by
German prisoners of war for the Amersham, Beaconsfield and District
Water Company, but the original scheme to supply water to the area
via a reservoir at Coleshill is older. The Company was formed in
1895 by shareholders including local tradesmen, professionals and
the leading gentry families. The engineer was E.A. Sandford Fawcett,
of Roughwood, Amersham, whose sisters, the Misses Jane and Annis
Fawcett lived at The Rosary, Coleshill. Fawcett’s scheme depended on
pumping water from a 300 ft well on Amersham’s London Road up to a
reservoir at Coleshill, high enough for water to be piped to houses
right across the district. Had it not been for the efficiency of the
scheme, completed in 1897, the new suburbs at Amersham on the Hill
and Beaconsfield New Town could not have been built.
The other fascinating topic was the hamlet of Larkins Green. There
appeared to be no early deeds to the two houses there, the Victorian
public house formerly called the Magpies and a timber-framed cottage
which is now the home of project member Peter Brock. The owners’
only title to them had been copies of the court rolls of the years
in which they had purchased or inherited the properties. Changes in
ownership were meticulously recorded in the Court Rolls of the Manor
of Stockbury, one of the Amersham manors belonging to the Drake
family of Shardeloes. When a copyhold house was sold, it was
‘surrendered’ to the lord of the manor and the new owner ‘admitted’
on payment of a fine at the manor court. If a copyhold tenant died,
the lord of the manor took a prized possession, usually a cow, as a
heriot and only admitted the heir on payment of a fine, usually a
year’s rent in advance.
There are entries for the Magpies and the nearby cottage in the
earliest surviving court book of the manor of Amersham which
commences in 1728. These early mentions to the houses describe them
as being at ‘Stockbury Beeches’, alias Larkins Green.
I am pleased to announce that ‘Awards for All’ have awarded
£5,000 to the project from the ‘Big Lottery Fund’. Our obligation
now is to commission and publish a book on the history of Coleshill
and to develop a web site to hold a major archive of all the
research material covering every aspect of the history of our
hilltop village and its people.
The project was launched at a meeting in May, attended by over 50
residents. It was agreed that members should meet each month to
exchange information, report on their individual research, and share
the documents, photographs and interviews for the village archive.
The members appointed Julian Hunt, author of several histories of
Buckinghamshire towns and a former manager of the Centre for
Buckinghamshire Studies in Aylesbury, to supervise the project.
Julian has attended each monthly meeting, introducing material
relevant to topics such as farms, cottages, industries, and
gentlemen’s houses.
In July, Project members visited the Centre for Buckinghamshire
Studies to see the old maps, property deeds, court rolls, voters’
lists, rentals and rare books in the County archives. It soon became
apparent that a great deal of information was still in local attics
and solicitors’ basements.
Already, some patterns are emerging from the work done so far:
1) The common land at Coleshill Green and Winchmore Hill were vital
to local farmers, not only for grazing cattle and sheep, but for
providing raw materials and fuel for making bricks, tiles and pots.
2) There was also domestic employment in chair-making and in
lace-making.
3) The enclosure of common land in the parish of Amersham provided
several building sites at Coleshill Green and Winchmore Hill.
I am pleased to acknowledge some good help provided to us by the
Buckinghamshire Family History Society. They have digitised the
whole 2000 pages of the daily log book of Coleshill School covering
all years from 1866 to date. This is now available to us on CD. In
addition they have provided an indexed version of the 1851 census
for Coleshill which is now entered electronically into our database.
Very many thanks to BFHS and thank you to Jenny Earp, Head of the
School for giving her kind permission.
Our future meetings are scheduled as follows:
15th July, 16th September, 14th October, 11th November and 9th
December 2008
All meetings start at 8.00pm on Tuesday in Coleshill Village Hall and conclude
by
10.00 pm. Newcomers are cordially invited. Any questions or queries
to
Peter Lawrence on 727207or tispml@tiscali.co.uk
Parish Council elections
Following the election on Thursday 3rd May 2007 the
following councillors have been elected to the Parish Council
Frank AUTON
Peter CLACKETT
David HALL
Colin LAMBERT
Kim RICHARDSON
David SMITH
Richard (Dick) WARE
As there were only seven places and eight candidates it was
inevitable that one of the candidates was not able to be elected and
we say thank you to Lee Parker for all his work on Planning during
his time on the parish council.
Village Pond - Consultation
The Parish Council recently commissioned an independent expert
study of the pond as a guide to planning what to do over the next
five to ten years to maintain the health and life of the pond.
The report is attached and all are requested to read it and send any
comments to the clerk of the Parish Council. the report will be
debated at the May Parish Council meeting
Attached - Village Pond Consultation document
Neighbourhood Action Group
Overall a quieter time of year as everyone is away on holidays
and there is perhaps a little less non-residential activity in or
through the village. School runs also stop for the best part of two
months.
Speeding remains one of the top issues being addressed by NAG and
there will be a further Speed Enforcement Day coming up shortly. Not
allowed to release the actual date, but it will be this year!
We had a fantastic response from the children at the Village School
who came up with some very lively and imaginative posters for a
speed safety campaign. These were exhibited at the Horticultural
show recently and many enthused over their presentation. The
intention overall is that we should bear in mind how vulnerable the
young and innocent are to any vehicle exceeding the speed limit. We
shall be examining the possibilities of placing the winning entries
in strategic positions throughout the village. A special vote of
thanks to Sarah Parker for seeing this through and also to Jenny
Earp for giving the programme wholesale support within the school.
Thanks also to Gavin McVeigh from Thames Valley Police for his
unstinting enthusiasm.
In the previous newsletter, it was said how lucky we are in terms of
rubbish and fly tipping in comparison to many, and this remains the
case overall. That said, small villages with fields and gates are
always attractive dumping grounds so we should be alert to such
traffic.
Please remember that NAG is a community imitative, instigated by the
residents or a good number of us anyway. Your support is welcome at
all times. The first anniversary of NAG is fast approaching and we
shall be holding a special meeting in the Coleshill Village Hall on
Thursday 4th October. As many as possible are welcome to hear what
has been achieved and to what we aspire. We want to hear from you
and would ask you to come along and join us. The meeting will start
at 19:00 hours and we shall have representatives from all quarters.
For more information please contact please contact Sarah Parker,
Dave Smith or Ian McCallum.
NAG details can be found on www.chiltern.gov.uk/neighbourhood.
Planning Applications
Click here to see planning applications
A memento of an Evening With Charles Pusey, Louie Edwards, Ruby May
and Syd Ware - Coleshill Branch of NSPCC
The attached document was prepared following an evening of oral
history with the above residents of Coleshill - some sadly no longer
with us.
Does anyone know who wrote this up and when the evening was?
The evening was a series of questions and answers with people who
had all lived in Coleshill for many years. This report illustrated
with many historical pictures of the area makes fascinating reading
for anyone interested in the local history of Coleshill.
Click here to view 'An
Evening With' Caution this is a large file and best suited
for broadband users
Coleshill Girl Guides
Thank you to Sylvia Dollemore for the following information on
this photo loaned to us by Bill Dean:-
The photograph supplied by Bill Dean in the Easter Newsletter was
taken in January 1940, and shows 'old' members of 1st Coleshill Girl
Guides celebrating the tenth anniversary of the Company. The venue
is the hut attached to the windmill, used as Guide H.Q. I am not
sure, but the nearest girl on the right may be Carter (her daughter
was Janet) and the nearest left one of three sisters whose surname
escapes me, but one was Louie, who was Kate Barber's mother. The
person standing on the left at the end of the table is Ruth Howard,
the Captain. She lived at Windmill House with her parents and two
brothers. She started the Company in 1930, her father having 'sold'
her the windmill for sixpence. The Company was very active for some
years, but in the late 1940' s the number of girls of Guide age in
the village dwindled. Ruth was invited by Mrs. Nancy Strode, the
District Commissioner, to take over 2nd Chesham Bois Guides, which
she did in 1948/9, taking the few remaining Coleshill Guides with
her each week. I was a member of 2nd CB at the time, sometimes
camped at the windmill, and as I grew up Ruth became a good friend.
She died in 1968 aged 64, and I took over 2nd CB. I have the
original logbooks of Coleshill Guides, with many photographs, and
would be happy to show these to anyone interested.

New Playground Equipment Installed
The new playground equipment - much discussed - is now installed
and ready for use. Special mention must go to Councillor Jan
Atkinson for championing the new play equipment.
 
Planning in Coleshill
Click
here to read the Parish Council explanatory note on Planning
All Saints news
Click here to view the latest
news from All Saints
Rushymead bomb scare
pictures
Bill Dean, who grew up in Coleshill 80 years ago, has kindly
loaned some photographs showing a worrying time in Coleshill during
the last world war. (Bill went into the army in March 1941 and
returned home in September 1945, so missed all this drama at home).
The
staff of Price-Forbes, Lloyd's Underwriters, moved to Rushymead (the
home of Mr Forbes) at the outbreak of war in 1939. Most of the large
rooms downstairs were offices, the upstairs were bedrooms for the
young female staff and two huts were put up in the chicken run for
more offices. The buildings where the lawn mowers and other machines
were kept became a cook house and kitchen, and the large lawn in
front of the house was dug up to grow vegetables for the kitchens.
On the cricket field, an Army Searchlight Unit arrived. In October,
1940, a German plane was caught in the beam. It is thought to be on
its way to Slough but, instead, dropped several incendiary bombs
around Rushymead. Then, a month later, the same thing happened but
this time a large bomb was dropped in the grounds of Rushymead. With
good fortune it did not explode! You will see what a difficult task
it was to get the bomb up and remove the explosives to make it safe,
by some very brave men of the Bomb Disposal Unit.

The Bomb Disposal Unit worked for several weeks to reach the six
foot bomb, weighing 1400kgms, at the bottom of the 36 foot deep
shaft. On the crane was Spr. Hunt, and round the shaft, Sgt Kenna
MBE, Dvr. Webber, Spr Wood and Spr. Whitehead.

Many thanks to Lindsey Haubner and Bill Dean for this insight to
wartime Coleshill.
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