Colin Pool

Little Tykes runs every Monday morning between 10.00 am and 12.00 noon in the Methodist Church on Low Way for parents or carers and their pre-school children and babies.

We have a wide selection of toys. Every other week we try to provide a craft activity suitable for the toddlers with a little help. Half way through the session we have a tea and coffee break with drinks and biscuits for the little ones too. New mums, dads and grandparents are always welcome to come along and join us.

For further information please contact:

Bramham Under Fives “Pre-school” is situated within Bramham Primary School.

It provides a safe environment where your children can play and learn under the supervision of qualified staff. Nursery grants are available.

Our principals are based on learning through play and we run a happy, safe, small group that helps to develop our children’s personal and social skills.

We are open every morning during term time from 9.00 am to 1.00 pm, five mornings a week during term time and the four hour sessions cost £6 each.

We are OFSTED registered and you can view our latest excellent inspection at: -

.For more information ring

or call in during pre school opening hours.

A very heartfelt thank you to all the many helpers who sold poppies

and collected monies for the Royal British Legion Poppy Appeal

this year and to all who bought poppies.

This includes collecting boxes in the Church, the Post Office,

The Red Lion, The White Horse, The Swan, Doctor's Surgery,

The Hairdressers, Mr Ison and money collected door to door.

A further amount of £103.40 was collected at

Asda Supermarket, at Seacroft by Mrs Elizabeth Bustard.

(This amount is not included in the above total)

Additional amounts may have been collected

and handed in that are not included in the above figure.

The total last year for Bramham (2004) was £467.77

compared to £630.94 (2005)

The festive season is now over. Did you receive some nice gifts? I’ll bet some of them where expensive also.

CD Players, Ipod’s, Telephones or perhaps you are one of the lucky ones that found a satellite navigation system in your Christmas stocking!

Unfortunately the ‘Opportunist Thief’ is well prepared to have a good time looking out for them also.

Owners of these expensive gifts should be aware that it is not just the system that the thief is after. The holder AND the disc are also required so you should ALWAYS make sure these items are clearly marked with your post code and removed from sight whilst your vehicle is parked. If possible take them with you rather than leave them in the vehicle. 

You still need to set your timer switches so that your home is not left in complete darkness. Before going out remember to make sure that your windows, doors and gates are secure. If possible, also install ‘Dusk to Dawn’ lamps so that your outside has adequate lighting to deter the unwanted callers.

Require advice about Crime Prevention? The Panel Members are always available for talks and discussion. Simply contact the Chairman to make an appointment. Individual or as a group session.

Remember for URGENT Police attendance call 999. Non urgent then call 0845 60 60 606. Thank you.

Maureen Brewer,

Chairman.

Telephone 01937 582 44

Minister Rev’d Gary Ridley - Tel: 01937 842156

Sunday 1st January Shared service with Clifford or Boston Spa

Sunday 8th January Morning worship led by Mr Nick Payling

Sunday 15th January Morning worship led by Mrs Christine Bennett

Sunday 22nd January Morning worship at All Saints' led by Rev'd Gary Ridley (Covenant Service with The Lord's Supper)

Sunday 29th January Morning worship led by Mr Gerald Payling

Dear Friends,

May I wish you all a Happy New Year.

I was going to say "May all your wishes come true," but obviously that depends on your wishes! As I reflect upon the year that has passed, I recall some of the things I hoped and wished for. For example, that my beloved football team would win a significant trophy for the first time in nearly 40 years! That my wife would allow me to have a motorcycle again! Even the wish that my singing would actually improve! No doubt everyone in my congregation would long for that too!

Looking back, I have to confess that much of what I wish for is pretty trivial and some of my sporadic moments of anguish are produced by the inevitable wrecking of my castles in the air. The danger for us all is that we simply use the present to try to build the future on our own behalf. The lessons of the past are that when people or nations pursue their own ends, someone suffers in the long run. We are not only interdependent, but hopefully we are beginning to see more clearly what it involves. If we do make our personal hopes and aims sub-ordinate to the general good, everybody benefits. It can be a better year than last and if we are willing to learn the lessons of the past, it will be.

Reverend Gary Ridley

by Dorothy Menzies

Bramham Drama Group’s Pantomimes never fail to entertain full houses. This year’s production was Pinocchio, the moral tale of the wooden puppet’s wish to be a human boy.

The show opened on the border between good and evil. The Star Fairy (Gerry Taylor) and Old Nick (John Nichols) compete for Pinocchio’s future. Evil will tempt him into lying to get what he wants while Good is convinced that with the love of family and friends he will become kind and good. He is to be awarded points for good deeds and bad. Of course Old Nick always gives him double points so that evil will win. When he does this the audience spontaneously shouted out ‘Cheater’ over and over again at the top of their voices. Luckily the Village Hall roof is still on!

Gepetto (Nigel Hussey) was played in a convincing gentle and dignified manner whilst his wife the charming Rosetta (Matthew Suddaby) was superbly confident and highly entertaining. One member of the audience was overheard saying that Matthew looked like Lily Savage but I had Johnny Depp in mind.

Pinocchio’s conscience, Jimmy Cricket was the role of Christine Suddaby who performs well in whatever part she is given.

Another member of the Suddaby family was Patrick who was a quite endearing Pinocchio. Not only does he act well but his singing voice is strong and tuneful. in fact the music in the panto was really good. I found myself singing quietly along with Marietta (Lynda Simpson) and Toni (Bev Gomerson) as they sang ‘Every time you walk in the room’ and when the cast burst into ‘Show me the way to Amarillo’ the house erupted.

Usually a panto has one baddie but this one had an additional in the part of the scary Stromboli Circus Master played by a really big and powerful Kerr Mackie wearing a very flamboyant costume. His sidekicks were the brilliantly funny Macaroni (Ian Gomerson) and Spaghetti (Tony Scullion).

There was a fifteen strong junior chorus playing such diverse roles such as fairies, jugglers stilt walker and not forgetting Stringbean the ‘strong’man.

Behind this successful production was a strong team including:-

Stewart Gibson as Director,

assisted by Jillian Lawson and

James Rodgers the Musical Director.

Dorothy Menzies

Working in a garden at Whitkirk the owner drew my attention to a large Hebe next to the kitchen window. It helped form a screen to next door and had been pruned in that fashion. The problem was that part of the shrub was dying off and hung with dead, brown foliage; a bit disfiguring. The start of the winter had arrived with the same good old fashioned frosts and the soft growth produced during the summer was now suffering. That foliage closest to the house was still fit and green and was surviving nicely thank you.

This is an interesting point to bear in mind for two reasons: 1) Don’t be too quick off the mark to prune off the dead branches, they may just produce some fresh growth in the spring and 2) take this bit of practical experience under your wing and use it to protect your own containerised plants. Just as the lady who delivered the parish magazine in South Milford when she pulls her potted Mandevilla (Dipladenia) climber (a native of the Argentine) under cover closer to the house, do the same with your own containerised shrubs. This keeps away those few degrees of frost; with the heat radiation from the house walls. If they are in a dry spot, make sure they are watered and large leaved plants like the Japanese Fatsias keep out of the draught!

It’s not all gloom and doom for the nursery trade during a hard winter. Part of their sales will be put down to the losses which we get in our own gardens through frost and drying winds.

Slow release fertiliser granules can be used at this time and if you don’t re-pot (although you should), remove loose compost and top up with some fresh. Small containers are prone to drying out quickly, especially those pot or root bound. Choose a larger pot by a few inches, thoroughly wet the root ball by soaking in a bucket of water and re-pot. If you can gently ease away some of the old soil from the root-ball, so much the better. Evergreens are always losing moisture and so wilt in winter when they dry out. Soil based composts are best when re-potting as they hold nutrient and moisture far better than peat composts and wet more quickly when they dry out.

Make sure container drain holes are unblocked and raise them slightly off the ground with bricks, tiles or ‘pot feet’. Now there’s a welcome gift for someone.

In readiness for fighting off the slugs and snails later in the year, have a thought for a couple of products, both are eco-friendly! ‘Nemaslug’ (www.greengardener.co.uk) a product that you water on containing millions of microscopic nematodes (eelworm). They are best used in the spring and autumn with temperatures above 5 degrees C and when slug and snail numbers are at their most abundant.

Another recent addition in 2005 was ‘Growing Success Advanced Slug Killer’ (Ferramol). A pelleted product like your normal slug pellet, without your nasties, but containing harmless iron and phosphate which the plant can use as a foodstuff later. The ferric phosphate acts on the gut of the mollusc causing them to stop feeding immediately. You will find them available at Hayes and Strikes.

Now is the time to cut down herbaceous stems, tidying away the arisings. Where you have bulbs in the border leaving this job for the spring risks damage to the growing bulbs as you walk across the borders.

There is plenty going on at Harlow Carr, the RHS gardens, in Harrogate this February. The 11^th and the 16^th see ‘Renovating Old Fruit trees’, the 17^th ‘A new Look at Alpines’ with Mike Mitchell and ‘Clematis’ on the 24^th with John Taylor. Ring Harlow Carr for details on Tel: 01423 565418.

For your annual Snowdrop Spectacular, Hodsock Priory Gardens (off the B6045 at Blyth, Nr. Worksop) open their doors on the 28^th January until the 5^th March. Avoid half-term week! There are some great plants besides Snowdrops. Sweeps of purple, blue and yellow Crocus, yellow Eranthus and Hellebores in all shades from white to almost black. You might even be lucky and see the massed yellow flowering tree Cornus mas and one of my favourites Ulmus glabra (wych elm); but you need to have a sharp eye.

So the best time for planting snowdrops seems to be just as they finish flowering. Remove the soil from the bulb clumps and replant separately a few inches apart and 4-6inches deep. Planting dry bulbs is seldom satisfactory. Snowdrops like plenty of organic matter and leaf mould. The simple Galanthus nivalis is so elegant but there is no reason why you shouldn’t try the petticoat, edged in green and several layered Galanthus nivalis’ Flore Pleno’, a sort of big brother. Contrast that with the pink flowers and marked silver leaf of Cyclamen coum and the yellow carpet of Eranthus hyemalis. All go hand in hand. You even get a chance to buy some!

Yorkshire Landscape Gardens

dave@daviddmitchell.co.uk

Happy New Year to all our friends in the village. We all hope you have had a peaceful Christmas full of love and happiness. Joshua & Hannah will have hopefully come down from the ceiling be now!

Robbie Hampshaw is still collecting 2p' and p's to raise the £180 needed to sponsor Joas Antonio Melembe from Mozambique.

This term we are asking people to save 5p's for the "FULL STOP CAMPAIGN" led by the NSPCC. We intend to cut out lots of green full stops and place them on the floor with the intention of marking out the circumference with 5 p's with as many as possible on one day near the end of term. Please help if you can. I have a jam jar that is nearly full of the pesky things.

Extra curricular clubs will continue bringing added excitement to the lives of our children. Richard Widnall will be back in school on the 5th January to run a Tennis Club for 6 weeks. Mr Wilson will continue to run the Football Club and Mrs Haffenden the Netball Club. Mrs Goddard will continue her Krafty Kids Club and Mrs Inhester her Singing Club. French continues on Monday as usual and Mrs Phelps will maintain her Recorder Club. Drama will also continue for a second term.

The Fire Service will visit Class 4 to discuss safety in the home, so expect some serious questioning about fire routes and smoke alarms.

The "Sound Man" will visit Class 4 with his array of musical instruments all made from bits of rubbish. It is a most fascinating workshop with the children learning a great deal about the science topic of sound.

Having been to Lotherton Hall twice last year when they took part in a seed collection day and a design technology project making vases, Class 4 are paying this exciting educational resource centre a third visit when they will be involved in a further design project, this time designing and making slippers.

Class 1 and 2 are considering old toys in their historical topic. If any people out there have old toys they would like to share their knowledge of with the children, please give Mrs Payne a ring.

A new School Council will be elected in the New Year. We thank the past council for their hard work. I'm sure the children will enjoy using the new playground equipment they have managed to purchase.

Bramham Festival Fund have kick-started our Playground Fun with a generous contribution of £1020.00 and we thank them sincerely for that. Any other recommendations for sources of funding will be gratefully received.

Phil Robinson

Acting Head Teacher

The Diocesan Secretary is the senior lay administrative officer in the York Diocese, which extends from the Humber to the Tees and from the Yorkshire coast westwards to the A1. The Diocese of York includes Middlesbrough, Hull, York and Scarborough, and some 600 churches spread across urban and rural communities.

Peter Warry, 41, is currently Director of European Operations - Enterprise Planning, Research & Development for Cognos Ltd, a provider of Business Intelligence & Corporate Performance Management software. His appointment as Diocesan Secretary follows a thorough review of the post since the retirement of his predecessor, Colin Sheppard, and a national recruitment campaign which attracted eighty applications. Married to Helen, a doctor, he has lived in York for almost twenty years and worships at St Luke's church. He is a member of the York Diocesan Synod (the elected representative body in the Diocese) and the York Diocesan Board of Finance; Deanery Financial Adviser for the Deanery of York (comprising the Church of England parishes across the City); and Lay Vice-Chair of St Luke's Parochial Church Council.

Peter Warry said, "With Archbishop Sentamu's arrival in York, this is an exciting time to be joining the Diocesan staff. I'm looking forward to working alongside the team in Diocesan Office, learning more about the family of churches across the York Diocese, and to sharing with the Archbishop and many others in the task of enabling people to find and carry out the mission that God has in store for each one of us - whether as church members, clergy, support staff or simply friends of God."

In November, under the guidance of our own Mrs Gillian Young, we spent a happy evening making some very attractive Christmas arrangements, all of which were on display at our Christmas Party.

These arrangements were judged by the members themselves and the winner was Mrs Doreen Stang.

We also ran a very successful "Bathroom Stall" at the Church bazaar. The proceeds shared between the Church and the Yorkshire Air Ambulance Fund. Many thanks are due to our members who provided so many items for the stall.

Jean Dale