March/April 1993             Issue 49

QUIZ
NIGHT

Saturday 27th March

Arrive 7.30 for 8.0 p.m. (first question)

Tickets £3 (includes the meal) from
Tim James, 25 Church Road, the Fox or the vicar.
Newcomers welcome to dislodge the reigning
champions who are too smug by half...

Funds raised for village organisations.

CHURCH NEWS

Mothering Sunday

Meeting Point

Lent and Holy Week

R.I.P.

Goodness fragile

And what can we do about it on our own small patch? We know very well some of the factors that encourage it - violence and pornography on screen. We may even recognize the germ of wickedness in ourselves, however well locked up and under control. We have been trained.

But what about the next generation? How much effort do we invest in making sure they have a moral framework in which to live? Schools do their work but are limited in what they can do. Teachers (even the best) have fewer chances than parent(s). And the rest of us fewer still. Pressured by doing two jobs, home and work, and grabbing what space is left for entertainment, it's hard for some to find time to build for their children's future in the ways that matter most: example and instruction.

So what is on offer locally for those who see the need to recover the motivation to live full and meaningful and unselfish lives? A few examples and notes:

1. Marriage preparation and renewal. Can't start too soon. Teenagers welcome. Deadline for renewal is when death do us part. Much to be shared - thinking through values and vision, building foundations for life together - or repairing and renewing them. (Renewal of vows on significant anniversaries, and/or celebrating landmarks). Rituals have their place. Develop expectations, find resources available. Love is the greatest gift of all.

2. Confirmation. As adults or as teenagers. Finding a new strength through accepting what is done for us at baptism. Instruction for young. Learning the value of others and life together through learning a language that puts God first and so gets other things into focus, a sense of proportion restored.

4. Weekly sermons. Weakly? Maybe. But things get said that can be taken up and built into our own lives. Instruction is only a small part of what happens in the hour set apart at 10 a.m. and not the most important. Being thankful, remembering, receiving the gift together is why we do this week by week. It once involved the whole, now fragmented, community. Now a deserted village as many of us work and play elsewhere and come home to lock the door behind us.

But we can do with meeting-points, so thank God for all four public houses discussed in the January Link, plus the village hail. In these places where people meet things get said that build up a community life, and in all of them it's sometimes a bit dogmatic. But we need a few dogmas too - clear expressions of right and wrong, meaning and truth, to provide guidance when young, encouragement when middle-aged, support when old. That's the shape of being human. We go (those who do) not because we are good but because we recognize the fragility of goodness and want to become better and be helped to build a better world.

5. At home, alone or in the smallest units of human community. Making space is important here too, not using TV to fill up every moment when we might look inward and deeper, not letting the rush of over-busy lives crowd out what is most important. Here too the media give us good food for thought as well as junk food. But the seed will not take root unless we do something about it in the world outside. Nobody is totally blind to the challenge.

What any individual can do for the future of the world is little enough, but unless many do their bit the future for Sandford, Britain, world, is bleak. Or so sayeth one of your local soothsayers: Israel come back to the Lord your God; your iniquity was the cause of your downfall. Provide yourself with words and come back to the Lord ... so that we may have happiness again ... I will heal their disloyalty, I will love them with all my heart (ASB p.495).

R.I.P.

All of us who appreciate having Mr and Mrs Tilt at the Lock extend our deepest sympathies to them in their tragic bereavement. Those who have endured such a loss know, the rest of us stand helpless by, in silent support.

Also to Mr and Mrs Addyman following the swimming tragedy in which one of their young students also lost his life. And thanks to hosts who helped support the rest of the group.

A memorial service for Alison Brown was also held in January in St Thomas' Hospital, where she had worked.

Rest eternal grant unto them. And let light perpetual shine on them.

Congratulations

Orchard House

Park Home Residents Association

Letter from Bosnia

'Things go from bad to worse here. We had heard that a ceasefire had been agreed, but they forgot to tell any of the armies and shelling and the killing go on worse than ever. On one convoy that we were on with the French and Danes a Dane was killed and a number of others injured - my truck took a bullet through the screen and four others hit the bodywork.

'Tomorrow I go off to a front line village where no one has been for five months. They must be in a very bad way.

'Today we came back from Tumla over tracks and mountains On the top of one mountain we call Bon-Bon you get the most beautiful view, really breathtaking, and at the town near the bottom we were mortared. It made me wonder what the hell it is all about.'

AND A REQUEST FOR HELP:

There is at the moment still a desperate need for food and medical supplies for which funds are needed. Bosnia Aid have at their Oxford warehouse a considerable amount of donated resaleable clothing and bric a brac. Is there any possibility that a Bazaar or something similar could be arranged in the Sandford area at which these items could be sold and the funds used for the essential supplies.

If anyone would be willing to organize such an event it would be most helpful and of course the items for sale can be viewed whenever convenient'.

The Proposed Kings Arms Development

Church Building

Mothers and Toddlers

Refuse Skip

The Kings Arms

The Hill family were at one time 'lords of the Manor'. Undoubtedly this is an ancient site the earliest reference appears around 1170, when a grant to William the Miller included in part 'William's Croft of Tunston Inn'. What form an Inn would take at this time we can only speculate, but it was clearly in a good site to catch travellers taking the ferry between Oxfordshire and Berkshire.

In 1792 another traveller on a trip down the river Thames leaves us a good description of the Inn, which suggests that it was at the present site. 'Thence we come in due time to Sandford mill and lock, at the operation of raising the water we got out, where is a neat public house, frequented by the Oxonians. Our bread and cheese and cyder was handed to us by a gay dressed out lass'. The landlord at this time would have been William Beckley, who held the lease not only of the Inn but also the horse ferry and extensive fishery. The Malt-house which lay to the north of the Inn in the same block of buildings was let separately.

A poem written in 1793 gives us a good description of Beckley's activities, the food and rural games: 'Beckley rovides accustomed fair of eels and perch and brown beef steak dainties we oft taste twice a week'. The fish were undoubtedly caught in his bucks at the old flash lock.

As for the games and rustic pastimes 'A game of quites will oft our stay a while at Sandfords Inn delay or rustic ninepins ...'. Badger baiting also took place on the wharf adjoining the ferry boat landing place with living memory.

I do not find the name 'Kings Arms' used until 1804, when all these properties were sold. For many years a fine

During the 1840s, rowing was becoming a regular pastime, due no doubt to the influence of the university boat races. The Kings Arms became the outward turning point for the O.U.B.C., where a special Training Ale was provided for the rowing men, though whether this was brewed on the premises I do not know. In previous years 'eights' could always be seen moored at the Inn on the rafts by what we locals liked to call the 'Ferry lawn'.

The 1850s saw the foundation of the village friendly society with its registered club house at 'the Kings Arms, Sandford Ferry'. Their annual club feast was held there, together with a fun fair on their wharf with roundabouts, swing boats and booths, which in its heyday stretched from the millyard and up the village street.

Two other events that should be remembered are the floodings, and also the inquests that were held here on drowned persons taken from the river on the Oxfordshire bank. Of particular interest was that of the prize fighter who died in a fight that took place in one of the riverside meadows (see the Link, 1984, No.31).

Most years we have floods, usually in the Ferry lane, but occasionally these were exceptional, with water flooding the inn and paper mill, through the inn's front door and out the back. There was at one time a brass plate recording the depth of water at the Inn.

Kingcup         [Kingcup - more info]

Malt House - Inn - Mill Sandford-on-Thames

SANDFORD-ON-THAMES PARISH COUNCIL

1. Parking on footpath opposite garage by large vehicles
2. Joy riders on new access road to Science Park and through village
3. Contravention of Road Traffic Act - vehicles turning right onto A423 sliproad without using roundabout
4. Danger to cyclists riding without lights. The Chairman was requested to invite Inspector Tony Leake to next meeting of PC.

Carol Service