Welcome to the March 2009 issue of Great Baddow Online Newsletter

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Introduction

For newcomers to the site, this newsletter is circulated monthly to registered site members and friends, to supplement information on the site itself. Please forward to colleagues and other interested individuals in order to publicise the site. If you are a recent newcomer to the site, welcome - your readership is appreciated.

Reviews of recent events

Musical Evening at St Mary's with Keith Cilvert and Friends

The musical evening held at St Mary's Church on Saturday 7^th February turned out to be a variety packed evening of music in many different styles - and instruments -  from classical pieces to folk to jazz, and the audience received fun packed entertainment which well justified the fiver cost in support of charity.

Keith is well known in Baddow as a folk musician and it was he who started the evening off playing a couple of folk tunes on his melodeon, switching to guitar for a Buddy Holly song, and as he reminded us, it's the 50th anniversary this month of Buddy's death. Thereafter we were treated to a showcase of local talent with a variety of instruments which included: guitars, recorders, drums, mandolin, piano, organ, flute and trumpet. Songs included Gilbert and Sullivan, choral items and various jazz vocals.

The proceeds from the concert will go towards supporting a visit to Kenya by young persons from the Chelmsford Diocese, and organised by the Coggeshall Prentice Youth Work Trust. After the interval, Hannah Cooper from the Trust outlined previous and present work of this Trust at the Kenya Street Children Rehabilitation Centre at Utugi, where the visitors will create a football pitch on scrubland. This project fully deserves the profits made from this concert of around £600 to enable local young people to do something for those less fortunate than ourselves. 

Congratulations to all the musicians involved for freely giving their time and effort to make this concert so enjoyable, and also to all those who worked behind the scenes to stage the show and provide refreshments.  

Please repeat soon!

More information about Coggeshall Prentice Youth Work Trust and Utugi.

U3A Annual meeting 

The AGM of the Baddow and Galleywood U3A was held on Wednesday 11^th February 2009, at which officers gave their annual reports.

The Chairman, Alan Sheahan, thanked everyone for their support; membership is now 340. He mentioned the range of successful events held during the past year including the coach outing to Highgrove House and the 10^th anniversary open day and display held last September.

Two new members of committee were appointed, Maggie Nutt and Pam Denny; Linda Knock is the new Secretary.

Following news about forthcoming events and outings, Linda Knock introduced Victoria Beckinsale, Community Fundraiser for the Little Havens Children's Hospice. Victoria provided a description of the hospice, its setting in 20 acres of grounds; its facilities including 8 beds for children and 54 for family members, and the services it provides to children suffering from life limiting conditions and their families, including respite and end of life care and bereavement services.

Pampered too - Pay What you think its worth day

Thank you to everyone who came along to their Pay What You Think It’s Worth Day held on 11^th February, for your generosity in helping to raise vital funds for Farleigh Hospice

A total of £443.26 was raised for the charity and they intend to hold another Pay What You Think It’s Worth Day next year.  If you have any comments that might help us to build a bigger and better event, they would be grateful for any feedback, either by telephoning 01245 471888 or by email to beauty@pamperedtoo.com.

Chelmsford Organ and Keyboard Club

Another evening of virtuoso entertainment was enjoyed by members of Chelmsford Organ and Keyboard Club on  Saturday 21^st February when Ryan Edwards visited, and delighted members once again with another talented display in his own particular style, specialising on orchestral themes and light classics.

Examples of the classics included  the Light Cavalry Overture (Suppé) and Zampa, the opera by the French composer Herold; both of which enabled him to demonstrate the versatility of his styles. In addition, he played many popular and a few less known pieces by Andrew Lloyd Webber, Glenn  Miller, Mike Oldfield, Scott Joplin and the Carpenters - to name but a few.

This was a very enjoyable evening and Ryan has a unique style, using the orchestral sounds and those of other instruments to great effect. In addition, the variety of pieces he played was rather different from the usual popular compositions and consequently we enjoyed a concert which was entertaining in a unique style.

U3A Church Visiting Group Lunch

On Friday, 27^th February, the U3A Church Visiting Group enjoyed a change from their usual outings to local churches and instead visited Seabrights Barn for lunch.  Many thanks to Maria Green for coordinating the visit and for providing information about the outing next month to the Essex Regimental Chapel at Warley.

Conjuring up Comedy - A magical Saturday night out

Congratulations to Essex County Council and our local Parish Council for organising the magic show held on Saturday evening 28^th February at the Parish Hall as part  of  "Essex on Tour".

About 100 people attended the one man show presented by Ian Keable, who mixed light comedy, humour and magic with a variety of props to provide an enjoyable evening's entertainment. Ian originally trained as an accountant and spent some time explaining with humorous anecdotes how in he had slowly developed his magic act until he became a full time entertainer. And entertain us he did!

During the first half of the show Ian performed a number of standard sleight of hand tricks including making objects appear or disappear, only to reappear elsewhere, for example in a locked box.

As we warmed to each other, he involved volunteers from the audience to participate in some of the magic and during the second half, he performed a number of classic magic tricks including the burning and restoration of  £20 notes and the classic stunt where a volunteer becomes stuck to his chair and unable to release himself.

Thank you to all involved in staging this show and for the provision of light refreshments during the interval.

And did anyone else notice the number of wristwatches he was wearing at one point in the show?

Other news

Whitehouse Farm

Last month I mentioned correspondence with a US resident seeking information about Whitehouse farm. Nobody recognised the picture I included, and although the Essex Record Office has some plans for buildings in the area, none of the house plans I found matched up.

Archive history updated

The index to the local archives held on this site has been updated with records corresponding to items of interest added to the archives over the last couple of years. There is also a downloadable spreadsheet version available which can be copied to a local PC. 

I occasionally receive enquiries concerning the location of the physical records and accesss to them.  A copy of the archive files is available for consultation in the reference section of Great Baddow library, and these are ordered in volumes, with the same system of indexing used on the computer spreadsheet and on the website summary records. The website index summarises the content of each record and provides a reference to the physical file which contains the original record. 

Live local information

When heavy snow fell on Great Baddow at the start of February I published details of local news sources which provide information on local travel conditions. 
This site itself  (ie Great Baddow Online) is unable to provide up to the minute updates on conditions across Essex and beyond, but the following sites are listed in order to help users find alternative, regularly updated information.

BBC Essex - Latest BBC News for the County
BBC Essex (radio)
        AM: 765 kHz (Chelmsford)
        FM: 103.5 MHz. - RDS name:  BBC_Essex (North Essex)

National Express East Anglia - Train services to/from Liverpool Street / Chelmsford and across the County

First Buses Essex - Travel news by local First Buses - Local news, timetables, route information.

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Chris Harvey
Site manager
2^nd March 2009
Email Chris Harvey