Guildford Lions’ ‘Firework Fiesta’ to go ahead again this year
We are delighted to confirm that our annual Firework Fiesta will be going ahead again this year on Saturday November 5th in Stoke Park, Guildford!
Guildford Lions are continuing the successful format of last year but with even better entertainment (including children’s rides etc) and a lot more food and drink options.
This remains a charitable event and ALL profits will be used to support the local community through the Guildford Lions club’s welfare fund and also the Prostate Project who are raising funds to provide a mobile screening unit service.
Times
Gates open 5.00pm. Music 6.00pm until 8.30pm. Fireworks from 8.30pm.
Entertainment
Live music this year will feature leading Mumford & Sons tribute act ‘Chasing Mumford’ plus local band 21st Century Riot performing covers of Kings of Leon, The Artic Monkeys, Blur and many more.
This year the Guildford Lions will be creating a specific Children’s Entertainment area which will include fairground rides, a face painter, an opportunity to buy glow in the dark toys, with more to come.
The fireworks display will again be provided by Pains Fireworks the largest fireworks company in the UK and the brilliant Peter Gordon will be returning as MC.
Ticket Prices
These are difficult times for all of us so despite a significant increase in our costs we have decided to maintain last year’s prices to allow as many people as possible to come along and enjoy a great and safe community event.
This will be an all ticket event again with NO sales on the night. Tickets will be priced at £10 (plus booking fee) for adults, children under 16 FREE (but these must be accompanied by their parents/adults). To buy tickets visit https://www.seetickets.com/tour/fireworks-fiesta
Food & Drink
A lot more catering options will be provided this year to reduce queues. These include American style food, Indian street food, Thai and Spanish plus vegan & vegetarian options.
We are delighted to confirm some outlets will be providing children’s portions. A wide variety of drinks will be provided by the Star at Godalming including a wine bar this year.
Parking
Free parking will be available at the Spectrum (to be confirmed), Guildford College, Allianz Insurance with disabled parking available at the Guildford High School.
Sponsors
We would like to thank all of our brilliant sponsors as without their support this wonderful community event would not be possible.
- RADical Systems (UK) Ltd
- Martin Grant Homes
- Guildford Borough Council
- Chapters Financial Ltd
- Big Yellow Self Storage Company
For more information please visit our website www.guildfordlions.com or our Facebook page www.facebook.com/GuildfordLionsClub/
Latest: Burpham Preschool Harvest Fair
Harvest Fair
Raising funds for your local community preschool!
- Auction & Raffle
- Cake Stall
- Games
- Family Fun
An AMAZING opportunity for one lucky person to own this highly sought after and limited PlayStation 5 Disc Edition kindly sponsored by Stellar Entertainment.
Biding starts from as little as £100! Don’t miss out!
Winner announced at 4.45pm at the Fair
https://app.galabid.com/burphampreschoolfair
RAFFLE TICKETS £5/book or £l/ticket on sale from Burpham Church office or burphampreschool.committee@gmail.com
For more information on Messy Church, Sunday Services and Community activities go to Burphamchurch.org.uk
Further details in our What’s On Directory.
Latest: The Fountain Centre Fashion Show 2022
Local charity, the Fountain Centre, are excited to finally be able to hold their amazing fashion show again.
Everyone who has been to our Fashion Show knows what a fabulously uplifting night it always is. We think this year will be EVEN BETTER! Come and support your local cancer charity on Saturday 15th October at the Mandolay Hotel, Guildford for what promises to be a fun night! As ever, all the models will be current and former cancer patients, and there will be firemen too!
Tickets are £20 purchased from www.thelittleboxoffice.com/fountaincentre
Further details in our What’s On Directory.
History of Abbotswood
By Niels Laub
Abbotswood was built in the early part of the 20th century on approximately 50 acres of arable farmland forming part of the Stoke Park Farm (originally part of the Onslow estate) on land previously known as Ganghill Common, an area of high ground overlooking the water meadows of the River Wey. The original farmhouse and outbuildings still survive and are included within the Conservation Area boundary.
Abbotswood was conceived as an early 20th Century Garden Suburb and is a fine representative of its period. It originally consisted of 46 houses built mainly before and after the First World War for the professional and more affluent residents of Guildford.
Abbotswood was conceived as an early 20th Century Garden Suburb and is a fine representative of its period.
The developer Alfred Taylor employed the services of a young architect called Alfred Claude Burlingham who was an enthusiastic disciple of Lutyens and Baillie Scott and had already designed houses in Sutton for Taylor in the Arts and Crafts style. He created several different designs for large and medium sized houses, in some cases with space for servants’ quarters.
The development commenced in 1912 and took place over two main periods. The first phase up to and including the war provided larger houses for the gentry.
The second phase, immediately following the war, offered smaller properties (including bungalows) resulting in a mix of properties, appealing to a varied community.
In recognition of its architectural quality, No 46 Abbotswood was listed by English Heritage in 1998. A further house designed by Burlingham, ‘St Martha’s Lodge’ on St Martha’s Hill near Guildford, was listed in 2009.
The Abbotswood Estate itself was designated a Conservation Area in 2011. A full history of the estate, complete with appraisals of each of the individual properties, can be found in ‘A History of Abbotswood’ by Michael Drakeford published by Phillimore & Co Ltd.
Alfred Claude Burlingham
Alfred Claude Burlingham, the architect of Abbotswood, was born in 1885. He attended the Birmingham Municipal School of Arts and Crafts and, as part of his tutelage, he travelled to Italy, visiting Milan, Venice and Verona.
From 1904 to 1908 he was articled to Mansell and Mansell in Birmingham. On completion of his architectural studies, he applied for membership of the Royal Institute of British Architects. At that time Burlingham lived in Evesham.
Moving south, he practiced with Alfred Taylor in Sutton from 1909. His earliest work included 24 private houses around Sutton, Purley and Wallington. He also designed a Memorial Home for nurses in Evesham and carried out work on Lord Falmouth’s estates in Kent.
Working in Guildford, it seems likely that the young Burlingham visited houses in the area designed by architects he much admired, such as Lutyens, Baillie Scott, Voysey and Norman Shaw, which clearly were to influence his designs for the houses on Abbotswood which he completed while still in his twenties.
Following the completion of Abbotswood, Burlingham and Taylor went on to develop other significant residential estates in Guildford at Fairway, Trodds Lane, Ganghill, Meads Road and Green Lane, and a number of charming cottages in Orchard Road, Burpham. Burlingham should not however be viewed solely as an architect for domestic properties. He designed a series of shops in Cheam which became a hallmark for the area; a series of flint fronted houses and a church, also in Cheam and the impressive clubhouse at Cuddington Golf Club built by Tarrant, the builder and developer of St Georges hill, Weybridge.
Later in his career he designed a very large office building for London & Manchester Insurance at Finsbury in the City of London, which was very similar in style to Lutyen’s building for the Midland Bank at Poultry. The office block was demolished in 1972, despite many objections at the time.
The launch of ‘999 BSL’
Connecting the Deaf community to the emergency services in BSL for the first time.
Sensory Services by Sight for Surrey hosted a party for the Surrey Deaf community last Friday 17 June to showcase and celebrate the launch of 999 BSL, the UK’s first ever Video Relay Service (VRS) connecting Deaf people to the emergency services (police, ambulance, fire and coastguard) via a remote British Sign Language (BSL) interpreter.
Standing shoulder to shoulder with Sight for Surrey staff were Surrey Police, Surrey Fire & Rescue & South East Coast Ambulance Service showcasing the new service and answering any questions or queries the local Deaf community have about downloading and using the app.
The new service, which will be provided by interpreting and communication support provider Sign Language Interactions, has launched as an app (iOS and Android) and web-based platform. The service, which will be funded by private telecoms companies, will be available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year and will be completely free of charge to Deaf users and is an important breakthrough in equality for the Deaf community.
While a text relay service already exists, video relay will enable Deaf callers across the UK to make video calls to the emergency services in their own language – British Sign Language – for the first time ever, without needing to use English or ask a hearing person to make a call to 999 on their behalf.
This is another major milestone in improving access for the estimated 90,000 Deaf people in the UK, following the recent historic decision by Parliament to recognise British Sign Language as a language of Great Britain for the first time. The British Sign Language (BSL) Act passed into law on 28 April 2022 after decades of campaigning by the Deaf community. Susanna MacDonald from Sensory Services by Sight for Surrey said; “The launch of 999 BSL has been a long time coming. This service will make a huge difference for the Deaf community and how quickly we can connect to the emergency services rather than relying on a neighbour or waiting for the next hearing person to come along, especially when the situation is life-threatening. To be able to call directly and explain and communicate in our first language is fantastic and it also means full and accurate information can be translated. I believe this new service will be helpful to anyone with any degree of hearing loss, as a non BSL user would also find this useful to be able to speak to and lipread the interpreter. This is really great news.”
Abigail Gorman, from SignHealth said: “This is a breakthrough for Deaf people that will save lives and means one more step forward towards equality. We won’t be satisfied until Deaf people have full and equal access, particularly to life-saving health services.”
Sight for Surrey
Tel: 01372 377701
Mob: 07860 026269
facebook.com/SightforSurrey
@SightforSurrey
sightforsurrey.org.uk
Blooming Picnic Success for Jubilee Celebration
Guildford in Bloom’s Picnic in the Castle Grounds to celebrate the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee was a huge success with record crowds enjoying the entertainment from the bandstand and having a go at bowls.
There was live music all afternoon from Guildford Fringe Festival; Delicious Jubilee cakes from the Castle Green Bowls Club and lots of activities for children and families.
The picnic – now in its 6th year with an obvious covid break in the middle was Guildford in Bloom’s first opportunity to bring everyone together again, and the Queen’s Jubilee – this year’s gardening competition theme – was the perfect excuse.
From a glass of Pimm’s to Pin the Tail on the Corgi, to Royal Selfies – the afternoon buzzed with a great atmosphere and the weather was kind too; staying dry and even a little bit of sunshine. The event was attended by The Mayor and Mayoress of Guildford who took time to meet all the stall holders and talk with picnickers, as well as Guildford MP Angela Richardson.
The event was sponsored by Experience Guildford, Tunsgate Quarter and Guildford Pubwatch and could not have happened without the fantastic support of Guildford Fringe Festival.
Every stall holder pulled out all the stops with activities and games on their stands including Indigo Moon, The Home Club, drama performances and cucumber sandwiches from Pranksters Theatre Company; games from Guildford Book Festival; the most amazing Royal selfie opportunities from Reconnections Guildford and Waverley; rock painting from the Fountain Centre, and much more from Canterbury Care, Surrey Wildlife Trust, Experience Guildford, and art activities from Guildford Fringe as well as the extremely popular Pimm’s Tent from The Keep Pub.
Cllr Paul Spooner, Chairman of Guildford in Bloom says: “We are overwhelmed with the success of the event and the number of people who came throughout the afternoon. It was a fantastic atmos-phere as everyone enjoyed coming together to celebrate the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. We are extremely grateful to all the wonderful stall holders and our sponsors, Experience Guildford, Tunsgate Quarter and Guildford Pubwatch for helping us to make this happen. We are also grateful to Guildford Lions for providing marshalling and support at the event.”
Judging for this years Guildford in Bloom takes place between 27 June – 15 July. You can keep up with the competition on our social media pages – visit @guildfordnbloom on Twitter and Instagram and on Facebook here https://www.facebook.com/GuildfordInBloom.
The judges will be visiting all the Schools in Bloom in the next couple of weeks and the Guildford in Bloom team are looking forward to seeing all the themed entries the children have created.
Once this year’s competition is over, the team at Guildford in Bloom will start planning the 2023 Blooming Picnic so put the date in your diaries now of Saturday 3 June 2023.
The Yvonne Arnaud Theatre launch ‘Like a Chat?’
A weekly social club based in the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre riverside café.
Guildford’s Yvonne Arnaud Theatre were delighted to launch their weekly social club, Like a Chat?, on Thursday 9 June, featuring a special visit from George Verghis, Claire Dyson and Andrew McDonald, stars of best-selling crime novelist Hillary Bonner’s Dead Lies.
Like a Chat? runs from 10.00am to 12.30pm every Thursday in the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre café, so drop by for a chat, to read the paper, play a board game or a game of cards, or whatever else takes your fancy! This welcoming weekly session is a chance to catch up with old friends, meet new ones and enjoy a change of scenery.
Like a Chat? is hosted by the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre’s friendly volunteers and their riverside café will be open for drinks and snacks. The Yvonne Arnaud team are delighted to be able to offer a safe and welcoming place to meet, whether you are a regular playgoer or not!
Burpham Winter Lectures
The final Burpham Winter Lecture saw Andrew Plumridge, who also kicked off the postponed lectures with his ‘Gargoyles, Grotesques and Hunkypunks’, acquaint us with some very strange laws from around the world.
It seems that many quirky laws were put in place to defend monarchs from ridicule. Did you know that pigs in France may not be named Napoleon? And yet… George Orwell called his authoritarian pig in Animal Farm by this very name.
Some laws defy reality. For example, you cannot be termed ‘drunk’ if you attend the Oktober Fest in Munich, but you can be fined for reciting poetry whilst downhill skiiing in Switzerland. In Portugal it is illegal to urinate in the sea – fair enough! – but how on earth do the police enforce that rule?
Many laws have a basis in good sense. On paper, the city of Rome can fine a dog-owner up to 600 Euros for failing to walk the dog each day. And in Ohio, it is illegal to inebriate a fish. On reflection, these laws are humane if odd.
The Swiss have, in the past, been quite prudish in civil law. For example, people are forbidden from hiking naked there. The Swiss also banned Winnie the Pooh for his immodest lack of clothing, but it is only fair to mention that the Finns banned Donald Duck for the same reason.
By common acclaim, our favourite example was a law in Michigan which makes it illegal to throw an octopus onto the ice. It would be nice to say that this is an outdated practice, but octopus-chucking is still rife. Police are often called out but have trouble landing a conviction. In the 1950s they adopted a policy of ‘turning a blind eye’.
The Burpham Winter Lectures return in January 2023 when we will be circling back to Medieval Sex and Marriage, English Pyramids and Burpham Surnames among other topics. Keep your Fridays free!
The Hierarchy of Fat-loss
Christine Sciberras, Founder and Head Coach at Melita Fitness
When it comes to losing weight, or more specifically losing fat, exercise gets a lot of attention. It tends to be the first thing we do.
You’ll see it all over fitness magazine too: “5 exercises for fat loss” or “20 minutes to your bikini body”. As a personal trainer, you might be surprised to hear that exercise is not the first thing I recommend for women (or anyone really) wanting to lose fat. In fact it’s not even the second thing! So let me share with you my Hierarchy for Fat Loss.
The MOST important thing for fat loss is NUTRITION. It is absolutely fundamental because whichever way you look at it: you cannot out-exercise a poor diet.
Getting nutrition right is key: This means getting adequate portions of protein, fats, carbs and veg. It also means maintaining a calorie deficit. But not too much of a deficit that it causes us to overeat in 2, 5, 7 days’ time.
Think of it like this: if you only have one free hour, what should you do? The most effective thing that you can do, is sort out your nutrition for the next few days: plan your meals, get your food shop organised, or prep your food by, for example, cooking up a batch of protein and veggies.
How many of us do this consistently? Because in my experience, we are more likely to think a workout is more important. We carve out an extra hour and go to a class or run. But then we wing the nutrition bit, because we haven’t got enough time to prepare something nutritious. Well, that’s doing it backwards. Because let me say it again: you can’t ever out-exercise a bad diet.
The second most important aspect is SLEEP and recovery! Yes, sleep is more important than exercise. Why? Because lack of sleep messes up your hunger hormones causing you to want to eat more (and particularly making you want to eat more junk food). It also elevates your stress hormones, which makes it harder to lose weight!
So prioritising sleep is super important. This means having a regular bedtime routine: avoid phones in the evening, avoid eating late, limit caffeine in the afternoon and so on.
The most effective thing that you can do, is sort out your nutrition for the next few days.
It’s only at the third level, that we finally get to EXERCISE, once we have nailed nutrition and sleep. Because if you’re not rested and recovered, then your workout will be sub-optimal.
It’s not just any exercise. It’s about Lifting Heavy Stuff. Workouts should be 3-4 times a week and ideally around 45 minutes long. Any longer and you’re probably not working out hard enough. Any more frequent and you’re probably not recovered between workouts.
At the next level up, it’s about Activity Levels. This is non-exercise activity like walking, gardening, hoovering… 10,000 steps is a good target for most of us!
Finally, right at the top, is everything else. All the things that confuse and obfuscate fat loss. And that many of us don’t need to worry about. Things like meal timings, supplements, which superfood is ‘the best’ or which 5 exercises are ‘the best’. Yes, ironically these are often the things you read most about in magazines!
But for most of us, these things don’t really matter. And focusing on the lower levels Nutrition, Sleep and Lifting Heavy Stuff consistently is what is really required.
If you’ve struggled with achieving consistent fat-loss and would like some help, please get in touch: chris@melitafitness.co.uk
Sutherland Memorial Hall – the community asset...
… the community can’t access
We’d heard some rumblings that organisations in Burpham who had historically used Sutherland Memorial Hall were now finding it difficult to renew their agreements or unable to book the hall. We spoke to one of these, Burpham Wellbeing, about the issues.
When Burpham Wellbeing put the first Burpham Wellfest together and asked GBC to hire the hall back in May 2021 they thought the reason the answer was ‘no’ was because it was undergoing a refit.
Following the refurbishment, 15 months of community patience and an estimated 6,080 unused hours of available hall hire later and the party line from GBC is that it ‘does not have the resources’ to hire the hall.
Representatives of Burpham Wellbeing, Burpham Church, Burpham Community Association, and Residents 4 Guildford & Villages have since formed an informal group which has had meetings with representatives of the council to pursue and progress the issue.
Leaders of the Council & the Lib Dems, additional Councillors with interests in community projects and Burpham’s local Councillor George Potter have all been alerted to the issue on numerous occasions – some have responded to express support however, to date, no action has been taken.
Burpham Neighbourhood Forum, Burpham Football Club, Burpham Cricket Club, the nurseries that operate in the hall and the cricket pavilion have, in various ways, been involved with the debate either directly with GBC, with Burpham Wellbeing or both.
The Hall is not the only asset in the Park that’s hard to access… Reports of issues trying to hire the tennis courts are on-going. Many cannot do so in a suitable timeframe and those that have an on-going booking are unable to pay GBC for the hire as there is no system in place. We’ve heard of outstanding fees in excess of £1K that can not be paid, despite continued efforts to do so.
In the last meeting with GBC we were told a short-term solution would be devised for rapid access and management of Sutherland Memorial Hall whilst a longer-term arrangement was organised.
After the meeting GBC reported back that the paperwork for the short-term solution would take as long to organise as that for the longer-term one, so as an option it was taken off the table. GBC did make efforts to ensure the hall was available for Burpham Wellfest 2022 in the interim and for that we are grateful.
The paperwork for the long-term solution was promised in August. It is now September and, as this article is being written, has yet to arrive.
A meeting of the informal group has been set for Tuesday 20 September 2022. Its agenda is to formulate a response to GBC either in response to the paperwork if it is received or without said paperwork if it is not.
Any member of the community that would like to contribute to the meeting with messages of support, ideas for on-going management or memories of when they have hired the hall and for what occasion should email burphamwellbeing@gmail.com. If they’d like copies of the meeting minutes they should do the same.
If high volumes of responses and requests are received a public meeting will be held at a larger venue – but one thing’s for sure, it won’t be at Sutherland Memorial Hall.