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The Coffee Morning’s Fifth Birthday - 27 December 2007

The weekly Coffee Morning has been running for five years and to mark this “birthday”, a cake was cut by Ruby Peck with helpers Sam and Sophie. The Coffee Morning originated from an idea from Sue Etheridge and Jackie Rice (see photos left and below) and has been running without a break.

Sue and Jackie continue to run things with help at times from Rick, Pam, Trish and Helen. Tony does all the heavy work - moving the tables and chairs - and every Christmas, Peter and Trish provide delicious mulled wine.

Around thirty people attend each week to socialise and purchase bread and free range eggs. Surplus garden produce and preserves are donated when in season and there is always a stock of second hand books.

For the last two years, Sue Howarth from Aldeburgh Post Office has attended offering all Post Office services and supplies of stationery.

During school holidays, some young families come along so all ages are represented.

In addition to the social advantages of these weekly gatherings, nearly £5000 has been raised for village hall funds.

(Photos: Nick Hayward)

Click Here for more photos.

Christmas Carols at the Queen - 19 December 2007

The annual carol service at the Queen took place on Wednesday, 19 December with the bar full of singers getting ready for Christmas. Led for the first time by Rev Robin Alderson, families and friends enjoyed an hour of traditional carols. Alan Randall, landlord of the Queen, provided some tasty hot nibbles and the evening raised over £150 for a children’s hospice.

   (Photos Peter Thurlow)

Christmas Fair - 8 December 2007

People visiting the village’s annual Christmas Fair were met with a lovely festive spectacle as they entered the village hall last Saturday. It was a miserable day outside but a table of seasonal candles and decorations alongside the Christmas tree cheered everyone up.

A packed hall enjoyed the various stalls along with the  tea, coffee and cakes that were available. A surprise visitor was Father Christmas, right, who set up home in the store room during the afternoon and worked tirelessly with his assistant elves. It’s not clear whether his presence is a boost to village house prices or not. The council is concerned about the potential noise and nuisance likely to be caused by his workshop and animals.

The general view was that the Fair went really well and that people enjoyed it; it’s not known at the time of writing exactly how much was made but the event was said to be very successful.

Click here for more photos from the Faire.

Brandeston Community Lunch - 4 December 2007

Eve Crane

The community lunch has been up and running for over two years and this was our third Christmas party. The lunches are organised by Eve Crane and Mary Mitson-Woods, below, who are supported by a hearty bunch of volunteers who do most of the washing up. Sue and Tony Etheridge are the stalwarts who set up and lay the tables, organise the raffle and take the bookings.

The average attendance is 35, with most of these numbers made up of people from the village of Brandeston.  After each lunch there is entertainment which is organised by Sue Etheridge.  Examples of this are talks, picture shows and singing.

A good time is always had by all and it’s also an opportunity to catch up on village gossip. The next lunch will be on 8 January, 2008. Click here for more photos.

Annual Southwold Trip - 1 December 2007

The day out in Southwold usually marks the start of the Christmas events for villagers although this year for the first time, there were more outsiders than Brandeston people. Nevertheless, people enjoyed the shops, the crisp walks on the cliff top or on the promenade and, of course, the cafes and pubs in the town.

For some of us, our time in Southwold starts with the comfortable armchairs in the Swan Hotel and the increasing frustration because of the poor coffee service. We go there every year and every year we complain ... but it’s become a tradition. The shortbread biscuits are good but an hour is far too long when you have to complete your shopping, look at the rough sea, walk on the sea front and be in the Back Bar of the Crown by 12:30. This year, there was only enough time for one drink in the Crown before we went back to the Swan for its extremely good value lunch. We really didn’t notice that it took an hour for the first course to arrive. The rest of the lunch seemed to pass quickly as, all of a sudden, it was time to get back on the bus for the trip home and the raffle.

The raffle is the annual shifting about of unwanted gifts plus the odd bottle of wine and decent prize. John (right), our coach driver from Soames, enjoyed last year’s day out so much that he specifically asked to drive us this year. He even stopped the coach at one point so that he could listen to Happy Birthday being played (badly, it has to be said) on kazoos and maracas for another regular, Sandra Smith (above, looking appropriately embarrassed).

With seven people pulling out at the last moment, we didn’t manage to cover the cost of the coach this year from fares alone but thanks to the generosity of trippers in the raffle we managed to give £37 to village hall funds.

Photos MP&D

Melodeon Magic and More - 3 November, 2007

Arranged by Valerie and Trevor Follows and Mary Moore, this evening of traditional music was a runaway success with a first-class line-up of entertainers who played to a capacity audience at Brandeston village hall.

Master of Ceremonies, Trevor, introduced the performers who were: Phil O'Dwyer, John O'Connor, George Cook and Caroline Harvey, melodeons; Chris Harvey mandola, jig-dolls and special working stepping model; Andrew Stannard, songs and melodeon; Ray Hubbard, melodeon, songs, monologue and jokes; Reg Reader and Tom Knight, dulcimers; Doreen O'Connor, Percy West and Lennie Whiting, step-dancers. Audience members John Barker and Gus Kitson also contributed songs and jokes and Mary led the audience in some community singing.

All performers agreed it was a pleasure to entertain such a responsive audience who made no secret of their enjoyment. Proceeds were in aid of the Driving for the Disabled Association, whose members and local friends provided delicious food - much appreciated by entertainers and audience alike.

At the end, Valerie and Mary were each presented with a beautiful bouquet and all participants were thrilled to find the proceeds for the DDA reached the grand total of £860. This satisfying result was the crowning touch to a happy and successful evening which left everyone asking "When's the next?"

Runner-up Suffolk Coastal Village of the Year Presentation

14 November 2007

Yet another prize for Brandeston making it the third presented to the village over the last twelve months. At a brief presentation at last night’s Parish Council meeting, the chairman of Suffolk Coastal District Council, Cliff Cocker, presented David Risk, chairman of Brandeston Parish Council, with a certificate and a cheque for £125.

About ten people plus the full Parish Council found space in the committee room to hear Mr Cocker describe the criteria by which the winners are judged which included the general management of the village and the way the Parish Council communicated with the electors.

Suffolk Coastal alternate the competition between villages with greater and fewer than 500 electors. Larger villages judge the smaller ones and vice versa. Brandeston lost out to Nacton this year but hopes to do better in two years’ time.

David Risk said that Brandeston was a past Best Kept Village winner, the forerunner of the present competition. He put our success down to a revitalised Parish Council and the strong community spirit that the new village hall had generated.

The certificate (and the winning one from around 1960, if it can be found) will be framed and hung up at the village hall.

Bonfire Night - 3 November 2007

For a small village we didn't half light up the sky on Saturday! Brandeston's annual bonfire night, held in the grounds of the Old Vicarage, featured a 20 minute co-ordinated barrage of noise and colour managed by Martin Churchill and his team. (They are the ones in the picture in the Photo Gallery looking as though they have just successfully stormed the Iranian embassy.) Fred Mugleston and his helpers ran the barbeque, serving hotdogs and burgers. The event must have been well attended, because the entire 50 glasses of mulled wine ran out by the time the fire was lit - the only glitch in the evening, but which will be put right next year.

The best guy competition was won by Charlotte Long (pictured left), with an imaginative creation exhibiting just a hint of Garfield the cat! Then, for the next hour and more, John King's meadow played host to the kind of social mélange which, if it weren't for Brandeston, you could only otherwise meet by a long detour via the Cipriani, the Oktoberfest, Sloane Square and last orders in a Glasgow pub.

Click here for lots more photos

Harvest Horkey - 13 October 2007

Brandeston’s Harvest Horkey has been running for a lot longer than the thirty plus years that I’ve lived here. When we moved to the village, one of the local farmers provided the meat and baked potatoes and the organisers provided the puddings. I remember not having to pay for it but I also remember that the summers were hot and the winters cold, that films had happy endings, that we got splinters from the old village hall floor and that the road didn’t flood - but maybe I’m wrong. Anyway, it was an occasion that impressed a newcomer from Wickham Market - an occasion when, it seemed, that the whole village came out for dinner. Margaret Doe, no longer living in Brandeston, used to do a comedy turn where she told Suffolk-related jokes but only Suffolk-born people could understand the punch line. Then someone would start playing the piano and everyone, well almost everyone, would join in and sing really old songs. When the piano went because children from the toddler group posted sand between the keys, we just sang the songs anyway.

Not many people in the village now remember all the words to “It’s a long way to Tipperary” and absolutely nobody wants to sing “Yellow Submarine” so the entertainment has had to move on. This year’s Horkey was entertained by a Thurlow Quiz Special - a test of people’s knowledge of their own village. Questions on traitors’ links with Brandeston, photos from odd angles and lots of other interesting facts generated huge competition between the groups. Village expert Fred Mugleston and his team were the eventual winners.

The meal itself has reverted to the traditional (for the Brandeston Horkey, at least) vegetable soup and then cold meats with salad and pickles followed by apple pie and cream - ably prepared by Eve Crane and her team. All 65 people present enjoyed the evening and contributed £544 to village hall funds.