In last months Link I pointed out that the next Parish Council meeting would be the A.G.M. M. this is not correct. The next Parish Council Meeting which has now been changed to the 14th April will be the Parish meeting. A short council meeting will take place at 7.30 pm and at 8 pm the Annual Parish meeting will commence. Please note that anyone who put their name forward as prospective Parish Councillors are not allowed to attend the first part of the meeting.

There will be no election to replace Miss Burra, the new member will be co-opted on to the Council. A full election will take place about May next year when all the council will have to put themselves forward.



Parking

Now that some sport is taking place on Magdalen College Sports Ground a parking problem has arisen in Brick Kiln Lane. During the times when the sports field is in use Brick Kiln Lane is turned into a single lane road. Before any accidents occur, I hope the Parish Council along with S.O.D.C. will put pressure on the college to complete their car park, for which they already have planning permission.



Graffiti

By now most of you will have seen the results of the work of three boys on our walls and pavements and also the village hall, their graffiti in some cases is obscene. These individuals obviously think themselves "Jack the Lads" while the rest of us consider them vandals. If anyone spots them defacing our village, the best course of action is to phone the police and identify them, they will be doing the village a service.



Boundary Commission

It appears that the recommendation of the Boundary Commission has gone against our village, but the cause is not yet lost. On reading the Oxford Mail we still have hope in the Environment Secretary himself, Mr. Kenneth Baker.

He appears to want to keep the green belt and if we all stick together I feel he will see reason and leave us in S.O.D.C.

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I have been appointed local correspondent for the Oxford Times. If there is anything that concerns our village, you would like put into the column please phone me either at my office or at home or drop a note through my door. My telephone numbers and address are on the back page.



Village Carnival

The date for the Village Carnival has been changed due to unforeseen circumstances to June 7th, please tell your friends, and come along on that day.

We hope to have a Knockout Competition which will include other local villages. If you have any ideas or are prepared to help in the setting up of the Knockout please contact Gwen at the village shop.



Village Shop

With the closing of many village shops and post Offices. We must make sure that our shop does not go the same way. The store has an unusually large range of products for a village shop and also has the convenience of a local Post Office, normally without the frustrating long queues experienced at larger Post Offices. You also get a personal and friend- ly service. Also remember they sell DAILY AND SUNDAY NEWSPAPERS.



COOKERY CORNER

Bacon and Egg Cake

4 rashers bacon 1 dessertspoon cornflour 150ml(¼ pint) milk 4 eggs Salt black pepper 1 dessertspoon butter 1 dessertspoon chopped chives or parsley. Serves 4.

Remove the rind from the bacon, fry or grill it and keep hot. Meanwhile, slake the cornflour with a little milk and mix with the beaten eggs. Whisk in the remaining milk until the mixture is smooth and season to taste. Melt the butter in an omelette pan and when it is hot pour in the egg mixture. Cook quickly until nearly set, drawing the cooked mixture from the sides to the centre with a palette knife. Arrange the bacon on top, then put the pan under a hot grill for a few minutes until the surface of the cake browns and sets. Slide onto a hot dish, sprinkle with the chives or parsley and serve at once.

I thought you would like to know a few facts and figures about what is happening within the District Council during 1985/86.

On the Housing side, we have spent 2½ million pounds on building new homes. One million on modernising existing council houses and a further million has been spent on improvement grants. We have approximately 260 houses under construction within eight schemes during this year. We have built 55 homes fox' the elderly; 95 homes for general use and we have modernised 63 of our own council houses. We-have given out 350 improvement grants and have paid out £50,000 on improvement grants for the benefit of the disabled. Another £50,000 has been paid out in grants towards the Cost of providing roof insulation in privately owned homes. The average council house rent this year is £16 p.w. for a 2 bedroomed house; £19 p.w. for a 3 bedroomed house and £1.5 p.w. for a One bedroomed bungalow.

On the Environmental Health side, the Council has dealt with a wide variety of noise complaints including some relating to clay-pigeon shooting. Highway trading is now illegal in the laybys on the A 423 between Oxford and Henley, as this road now runs through predominately conservation areas.

We have tried to reduce problems with straw-stubble burning with the enforcement of bylaws which also include other crops such as oilseed rape etc. We are constantly trying to liaise with the T.W.A. who supply farmers with sewage sludge for their fields - stockpiling is illegal and it must be ploughed in with- in 24 hours of delivery, it has caused the most ghastly smells for miles around and is a. very real source of complaint from the general public quite understandably.

On the recreation side we have opened three new Sports Centres, they are Didcot, Holton near Wheatley and Peers School in Littlemore. Squash Courts are at Henley and Peers Sports Centres. £60,000 will have been approved in grant-aid for a wide variety of projects during this year.

Finally on the Technical Services side, we have built some new Public loos in Didcot in the 'Gateways' Car Park. It is hoped that these will be ready by Easter. We are allowing all parishes four free skips again this year and the Refuse Collection over the Easter holidays will be two days later than your normal collection. i.e. Friday 28th March will be on Tuesday 1st April. Monday 31st March will be Wednesday 2nd April. Tuesday 1st April, will be Thursday 3rd April etc. The following week after Easter, the collections will be one. day late i.e. w/c Monday 7th April will be collected on Tuesday 8th April etc., and normal collections will be resumed on w/c 14th April. During May Day Bank holiday and Whitsun t3ank holiday the refuse collections will again be one day late.

Please don't forget that I am always ready to help where and whenever I can, or listen to anyone with a problem relating to the District Council, so please don't hesitate to contact me.

A term we hear very little of today, is the reference to the two parts of the village as "up streeters and down streeters", the two parts consisting mainly of the houses and families living along the main London road and around the church, the other being the mill cottages and all those living down by the river. The term was very popular amongst the school children where rival goings were formed, and amongst the adult population, football matches were played, the downstreet teams made up mainly of mill workers. This was not just a phenomenon of the 1920's and 30's for its origins may be traced back to the 1830's of the last century.

Throughout the ages there had always been newcomers and in an agricultural area, every Michaelmas new families would appear, some to stay for many years, others moving on at the next Michaelmas hiring fair, our best local hiring fair was Abingdon, so it should not surprise us that a a great part of the pre 1900 villagers had their roots on the Berkshire side of the river. The few new families that arrived, could easily be absorbed, for most were agricultural workers and fitted in well.

The great change was to come in the early years of the nineteenth cent- ury when the old water flow mill was converted to undertake the man- ufacture of paper. Much new labour was required for this new industry, most of which had to be imported, as there was no tradition of paper making in the village, neither was there housing enough to accommodate them. Six new houses were built at the lower end of the village for the new families that arrived, probably from local Thames paper mills at first in the early days. But over the years, new mill managers brought in their own skilled workers, many drawn from the north of England and Scotland and from paper mills all over the country. Many speaking a strange dialect with different ways of living, all this, together with shift. work and long hours, tended to make the lower end of the village a separate. community.

Over the years this division was gradually broken down, and with a few generations going to school and growing up together any division soon disappeared.

Now perhaps with new villagers on the mill site and in the old mill cottages, perhaps we should not still be "up streeters" or "down streeters", but become true Sandfordonians, or should it be Sandfordites!

KING CUP.

[Kingcup - more info]

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200 Club

The March winning numbers were:
202
103
76
The April draw will contain two first prizes.

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