31 March 2012

Vote for Forest Hill

Show your support by 'liking' our Portas Pilot video on YouTube.

The Forest Hill Society has been working with our bid partners to secure £100,000 funding for the Sydenham, Forest Hill and Kirkdale Town Team. This will help pull together the various traders' groups, civic societies, landlords and organisations in the area to drive improvement in our Town Centres.

The aim of the Portas Pilot is not to pay for all the improvements that we would like to see - it is much more about effecting change which will lead to those improvements through dynamic leadership.

We would love to get the street clutter removed, install better signage, let people know where the car parks are, link the Horniman Museum with Forest Hill, and fill our empty shops with quality independant offerings, but this is not going to happen unless we make it happen. We cannot just sit back and wait for TfL, the council or whoever to do it for us.

The Town Centre Team will work together to promote Forest Hill, Sydenham and Kirkdale, address the issues and effect change. It will benefit by sharing the many talents and enthusiasm that we have in the area and, by sharing the workload, will result in more changes for the better.

We look forwards to being active participants.

(The Forest Hill Society's bid partners include Lewisham Council, Sydenham Society, Kirkdale Village Traders, Sydenham Town Centre Steering Group and many other individuals.)

28 March 2012

Pools Update - July Opening?

At a recent meeting of the Stakeholders' group, presentations were made by Fusion Lifestyle and Willmott Dixon. The facility will be open 7am-10pm on weekdays and 7am-6pm at weekends and will include:

  • a 25m length swimming pool
  • a 16.7m length learner pool
  • a 54 piece, state-of-the-art fitness suite with 20% of the equipment being IFI accredited. The Inclusive Fitness Initiative (IFI) is a programme supporting the fitness industry to become more inclusive - catering for the needs of disabled and non-disabled people, as well as raising physical activity participation levels.
  • two studios
  • a café area. Fusion are currently tendering for the café operator. They have advertised through local and national press and received 14 expressions of interest, of those 8 have submitted pre-qualification questionnaires (the first phase of selection) and will be invited to submit a full tender brief on how they will manage the café. Fusion stated their desire to work with a partner who will actively engage with the local community.
  • a community room for hire
  • spectator viewing and
  • an exhibition area

Fusion's presentation included provisional schedules for the pools. These can be viewed on our Flickr account - Blogger refuses to display them correctly. Please feedback any comments to email@foresthillsociety.com.

The timetable for the main pool can be found here. One lane will usually available at all times during a general swim session for lane swimming.

The timetable for the Learner Pool can be found here. The community sessions are a new addition for Forest Hill Pools which have been created to allow community groups such as disabled groups a slot on the timetable to use their local leisure centre. These sessions will be open to the community and Fusion Lifestyle would like groups to come forward who are interested in using them. If you email us, we will forward your email to Fusion.

Fusion Lifestyle also asked for any opinions on how the studios should be used to be fedback

Two other items were also discussed. A specialist design company called Atelier has been commissioned by Lewisham to design a permanent exhibition or artwork reflecting the history of the old Forest Hill Pools which will be displayed in the new building. Stakeholders were encouraged to bring forward any old pictures/ photographs or information they may have of the building or the area that could be contributed to this work. Contact Tim Andrew for further details.

Finally, the Council wish to go out to tender for an organisation to take on Louise House. They are open to innovative ideas on how to feasibly develop the site whilst retaining a community focus to the site.

The Council are hoping to open the building by July 2012, with an official opening ceremony on 22nd September 2012. Photos of the current progress can be found on Lewisham's, Willmott Dixon's and Forest Hill Society's Flickr accounts.

27 March 2012

Planning Application - 49 Houston Road - DC/12/79665

There has been another planning application for 49 Houston Road following the rejection of the previous application.
The new planning application can be viewed on the Lewisham Council website. The Forest Hill Society have written to object to this application on the basis that the application includes poor internal layout, poor outlook and daylight, and will increase overlooking of neighbouring properties.

Horniman Licensing Application

Horniman Museum and Gardens have recently applied for a licence for entertainment and serving alcohol for up to 15,000 people. We contacted the Horniman to ask for more details about this application. Here's what they said:

The Horniman currently has a licence to provide what is termed “regulated entertainment” this means that we can show plays, films, have live music, dance and things of a similar description. The licence allows for “the provision of entertainment facilities” for making music, dancing, and entertainment of a similar description. Our current licence also allows for the sale of alcohol for consumption on the premises at certain times and we are applying to change these times to enable us to sell alcohol through the shop, cafe and at some events.

Our current licence is complex in terms of the different hours for which different activities are licensed, and we now need to update it to include our new ‘Gardens Pavilion’ which will sometimes be used for the licensable activities referred to above.

We plan to base our programme around the traditional size of event we have been running for many years. Typically over the last decade our larger events have attracted 5,000-10,000 people over the course of the day. This year we have World City Music Village planned for June (5-10,000 people), the Big Dance Picnic planned for 8 July (2-5,000 people) and a community launch for the Gardens planned for 31 May (approximately 2,000
people).

We have had experience of one very large scale event in the summer of 2009 (attended by
approximately 20,000 people) which we believe was too large for our site and facilities. We have no intention of staging such very large scale events in the future.

We are not planning events attracting over 10,000 in the course of the day, but we have applied for up to 14,999 on site ( licence bands go up in units of 5,000) to ensure that just a few people over this target do not put us in breach of our licence.

We very much hope that local people will enjoy and participate in our summer programme this year.

22 March 2012

Be a star!

We want you to make a 20-30 second video for our Portas Pilot bid.

Each bid needs to include a video which shows how much the local community cares about their Town Centre and how they would improve it. We would like to include locals' views about the area in a way that will make our bid unique and personal. Your video should therefore include a high and low about either Sydenham, Forest Hill or Kirkdale shopping areas. It can be as simple or complicated as you like, with or without commentary - use your imagination! But it needs to be done quickly. We must have your video by 6pm on Sunday (March 25).

We need the actual file for editing purposes, so please use www.sendspace.com to email your video to myfilm@foresthillsociety.com. If you post your video to YouTube as well, please add the tags se23, se26, forest hill, sydenham and portas.

The legal bit.
You will keep the copyright to your video in its raw format. By sending the video to us using sendspace.com, you will grant Forest Hill Society full rights to include the video in our Portas Pilot bid. Forest Hill Society and its bid partners will have full copyright of the bid video.

19 March 2012

St George's Food Fair

On Sunday 22 April,10 until 4, we are holding a Food Fair in the forecourt of Forest Hill Station.
We are busy putting together a group of the finest local food producers and retailers to bring real quality food right into the heart of Forest Hill.
Alongside On THe Hoof's coffee stall, we'll have hot food and great drinks from Fleisch, Forest Hill's newest caterers.

Honor Oak's recent newcomer Hills & Parkes will be selling their delicious home baked pies and a range of superb English cheeses. Their new chef is cooking tartlets filled with lemon/rhubarb and custard/choc/strawberry and savoury flavours too.

Mridula Baljekar's Kitchen will be selling their Pure & Fresh range of spiced fruit chutneys. Using no artificial additives or colours they have an unmistakably delicious Eastern quality.

The fruit and vegetables are supplied by Perry Court Farm in Kent and the recipes are then developed and cooked by Jacqueline Evans & Mridula Baljekar in Mridula Baljekar's Kitchen. Sean 'Egg Boss' Lawson will be selling his six flavours of Scotch Egg, to eat on the day or to take home for a delicious lunchtime treat and Pimento Hill will be bringing the Caribbean to Forest Hill with their sauces, seasonings and jellies. Let's hope they bring the sunshine too!

Local Dulwich favourites Franklins will be offering wonderful deli produce, both local and from around the world and there will also be stalls from artisan bakers BreadBread and the Forest Hill Cake Company to round off our list of quality food merchants.

There will be music and entertainment throughout the day, so mark the date in your diary and come and experience 'all the fun of the fair!'
With thanks to the Station Operators LOROL.

12 March 2012

Events

SPRING WOODLAND WALK, SUNDAY, 25 MARCH, 11.00am

Join us on our Woodland Walk. Starting from London Road, Horniman Gardens lower entrance, bottom of Sydenham Hill (not Sydenham Rise). A guided walk will take us through Sydenham Woods looking at the disused railway line and spring flowers. 'Pissarro's bridge' is shown to the right.

FOREST HILL PLANTING, 28 APRIL
Join us for Forest Hill in Bloom 2012!
Meet at 2.30pm, Sat 28 April, at the station forecourt. Bring gardening gloves, trowel and a plastic bag.
We will be holding a similar event in Honor Oak Park (timing to be confirmed)

Development News

Recently there have been several planning applications for high street developments to which the Society has objected. This may seem at odds with our intention of championing the local shopping areas, so we thought we should explain why we have taken this position.
In Dartmouth Road there were applications to change the use of three separate retail units into a financial service, an office, and a bar. Although they have been empty for years and it is great news that new businesses want to open here, we were concerned about the loss of units for retail. Lewisham has guidelines about maintaining a mix of uses in town centres to encourage shopping. We expect that the new swimming pools will increase passing trade and help to revitalise Dartmouth Road, so we don't want too many retail units to disappear.

In Honor Oak Park we objected to two applications on the shopping parade. The first was Domino's Pizza wanting to open a pizza delivery outlet in the former Old Bank restaurant. There was a lot of local opposition and we took the view that it was poor use of a prime location, and there were concerns about parking and noise from the delivery bikes. Lewisham refused the application on those grounds. The applicant appealed against the decision. This was dismissed on the basis of unsatisfactory parking for the delivery bikes.

The second application on the HOP parade was for three units to be combined into one unit for a supermarket (thought to be a chain) with flats above. Local opinion was divided: some feared a supermarket would be detrimental to existing shops, while others thought it would benefit the parade by encouraging more people to shop there. We came to the conclusion that the new unit would probably be good for the area, but some of the flats above had poor layouts and we therefore submitted an objection setting out our concerns about that. Lewisham are yet to decide whether to grant the application.

Contact planning@foresthillsociety.com.
See www.foresthillsociety.com/search/label/Planning for all applications in which we have been involved.

Neighbourhood Planning

Over the past few months things have been moving forward on the proposals for the SE23 and SE26 Neighbourhood Plan. Now that the Localism Act has become law (November 2011), we have a better view of what is required and the regulations that will control the process of creating a Neighbourhood Plan.
The exciting thing about Neighbourhood Planning is that it has the potential to give real control to communities in helping shape their area. It also places a responsibility on Local Authorities to support communities in producing neighbourhood plans.

We have been meeting with Lewisham Planning Officers to discuss ideas for the area the plan will cover and how we can work closer in the future on this and other planning policy documents.

Our next steps include presenting our ideas to each Ward Assemblies in SE23 and SE26; identifying areas of funding to support our work with the wider community on the plan; and building up our database of people who are keen to help. We are keen to progress work on Forest Hill town centre, to gain a better understanding of what gives the area its special character, and how we can try and make sure that future development proposals support and reinforce what makes the area special.

If you can offer your time or skills to the Neighbourhood Planning process we'd love to hear from you. We will continue to keep you informed as work progresses over the coming months. Please email your details to Hilary@foresthillsociety.com with details of your interests, how you are able to help, or the issues we should be covering.

ST AUGUSTINE'S - URGENT APPEAL

St Augustine's church in Honor Oak urgently needs £300,000 for essential repairs, or we may face losing this landmark building. Please go to www.augustineonetreehill.org.uk/donations.htm
The deadline for donations is March, so please act fast!

Future of Police

Doubts have been raised by the Safer Neighbourhood Ward Panel about the future of Sydenham Police Station on Dartmouth Road. The Mayor's Office for Policing and Crime (which took over from the MPA in January) are reviewing the entire property portfolio as part of a London-wide review of Police station provision.

The Metropolitan Police (MPS) may want to sell off the building to raise much needed cash and relocate the Forest Hill, Sydenham and Perry Vale Safer Neighbourhood Teams (SNT) and the Rapid Response Team to Catford.

The Station may open only Part time to the public, but is home to our SNT. Relocating the SNT to Catford will result in them spending less time policing the very streets they are supposed to protect and is contrary to the idea of local policing. We feel that this is far from ideal and are calling on the MPS to review the situation.

Borough Commander, Detective Chief Supt Burton, will 'neither confirm nor deny' the rumours and will only say that there is a review of Police Stations happening across London that will look at counter provision across Lewisham.

The Forest Hill and the Sydenham Societies held a protest at the Station on 18 February, which was supported by Mayoral candidate Brian Paddick and are calling on their members to sign the petition available in local shops or online at www.ipetitions.com/petition/save-sydenham-police-station/ and email Detective Chief Superintendent Jeremy Burton: Jeremy.burton@met.police.uk

Raising the Roof at the Devonshire Road Nature Reserve

The Nature Reserve is looking for volunteers to help build the new Green Oak Shelter.
Specialist green-oak carpenter and teacher Tom Trimmins (tomtrimmins.co.uk) is running carpentry workshops on Saturday March 3rd, 17th and 31st from 10.00 until 2.00 , cutting and shaping the green-oak frame for the building, making the mortice-joints and bracing pieces and forming the curved roof timbers. Work will carry on later into the afternoon for those with a passion and there will be other sessions on weekday evenings to continue the work learnt on the Saturday sessions.

Volunteers are also needed to clear the site and cast the pad-stones ready for the timber frame, so, if you don't see yourself as a carpenter but feel like some honest labouring, there's plenty to do.

The Oak frame will be erected on Sunday, 1 April. There will be a party to celebrate, so dig out your dancing clogs. There'll be hard work, music and food and drink. Families welcome to raise the barn!

There will be further hands-on workshops in May to build and plant the living roof (similar to the Horniman Museum). Guided by Dusty Gedge (dustygedge.com), one of the foremost experts in green roof technology, this is the opportunity to learn all about this environmentally friendly method. Contact jacob@foresthillsociety.com.




Sydenham Garden

Established for ten years, this community project provides gardening and art therapy to local people with physical or mental health issues.

The new resource centre was opened in 2010 and the Garden is looking to expand to serve other community needs. The Gardens are actually just in Forest Hill, on Wynell Road, next to the Forest Hill Bowls club on the site of a, wait for it ... a former market garden (used up to the middle of the last century. The Gardens were proud to win a Lewisham in Bloom prize last year.

The charity has ambitious plans to grow food commercially at the former allotments in De Frene Road. Rubbish and debris has been cleared to get the land ready. In coming years you will dine in local fashionable restaurants knowing your produce is both fresh, local and supports the community. See www.sydenhamgarden.org.uk for further details including how to get involved and open days.

New Community Orchard

The community orchard in Mayow Park was planted on Saturday 28th January 2012, after months of preparation that saw Friends of Mayow Park (FOMP) working with London Orchard Project (LOP) and Lewisham Council.

Numerous local adults and children helped, learning from LOP how to dig a square hole, mulch and stake the trees. Eleven trees were planted: ten trees were sponsored by local people and one was a gift. The Society sponsored the Brandy Pear tree, which is a medium sharp perry pear.

Six people volunteered to be orchard carers. They will receive basic training on care for the trees and will water them during the growing season for the first two years. A fruiting hedgerow was also planted. We look forward to autumn fruit harvesting and other celebrations annually. If you would like to be an orchard carer or would like to know more about the orchard. Contact FOMP on friendsofmayowpark@ymail.com

Wassail!

In January, as part of their 'Mummers, maypoles, and milkmaids’ series, the Horniman Museum and Gardens presented an event on the traditional Twelfth Night celebrations. Some of you may have seen this for real at London Bankside, where The Lions Part performed a few weeks ago.

Participants had their chance to join in, including a traditional Wassail to bless the coming year's apple harvest. Fruit is abundant at the One Tree Hill allotments, where they carry out their own Wassail, helped by cider (the product of the previous year - see photo to the left) every autumn. For further details including open days see www.othas.org.uk

Environment & Leisure

The Environment & Leisure Committee continues to work to promote SE23 as a green, clean and exciting place in which to live, work and play.

Volunteers worked with Lewisham's Nature's Gym to plant hedgerow whips and create a stag beetle loggery in the Horniman Triangle on Saturday 18 February and we ran our fourth Bring and Take Day on February 25, this time at Holy Trinity Church hall in Sydenham Road.

Following the success of the Christmas tree-lighting event in the station forecourt, we are working to use that space again on Sunday 22 April for a St George's Day themed food market featuring the 'best of English produce'.

Our gardening volunteers are hoping to improve on our 2011 In Bloom 'thriving' award by adding summer planting to brighten the station platform planters and, in the nearby town centre, new planters will be added and planted up on April 28th. New granite planters will also be installed at the entrance to Honor Oak Park station.

A joint trip is being planned with the Sydenham Society for a guided tour of Lullingstone Castle and its World Garden in Kent on Saturday, May 12th. Anyone wishing to help or join in with any of the above activities please contact Environment@foresthillsociety.com.

Swinging in Forest Hill

Five swings were recently installed in the Horniman Triangle Play Park as a result of our work; two for toddlers, two regular swings and a crows nest, which is suitable for children with disabilities. These will provide many years of enjoyment for younger generations.

Last June, bids were requested for the Forest Hill ward's Assembly Fund. Various people suggested on local forums that the Horniman Triangle could do with some swings, especially for the younger children.

Following some procedural 'hiccups' we were permitted to make a bid, and therefore visited play parks throughout London and researched suppliers. This was successful and £9,500 was allocated from a combination of the Assembly Fund and Localities Fund. The Council agreed that they would deliver the project, which allowed the monies to go further as we would not have to pay VAT on the equipment.

A big thank you to all those involved in this project.

A further £4,000 has been allocated from the Assembly Fund to provide two all-weather table tennis tables which will be installed near the Cafe in April.
Together, these projects represent an investment of over £13,000 and are the most expensive projects delivered by the society so far.

Thameslink Extension - Good or Bad?

From 2019 the Thameslink extension will greatly improve services from London Bridge to Kings Cross and beyond. How will this affect us? Today developments can be seen above Borough Market where a new viaduct is being constructed to relieve congestion on this section of tracks.

In 2008 the South London Route Utilisation Strategy recommended that Thameslink services should stop at Honor Oak Park, Forest Hill and other stations on our line, replacing 4 out of 6 of our existing peak services. This gave us hope of a direct trains to Kings Cross, possibly all the way to Bedford.

However, Network Rail and the Department for Transport no longer appear to favour Thameslink services stopping at Forest Hill. Although no final decision has been made, all reference to stations between New Cross Gate and Norwood Junction has been removed from information about the Thameslink upgrade programme and renewing franchises. Without public consultation a decision may have been made.

Commuters and/or passengers would still be able to benefit from increased interchange opportunities at London Bridge after 2019, which should improve journey times to Kings Cross and other parts of the City. However we are not sure if there will continue to be any direct services to East Croydon, or if all the East Croydon trains will be fast to London Bridge, possibly with a stop at Norwood Junction. We already have some trains via East Croydon and these are very useful for passengers heading to Gatwick Airport, an additional change at Norwood Junction as well as East Croydon would increase the inconvenience for many people on our line.

In the short term there is a threat that services into London Bridge may be reduced in frequency, with more 10 carriage trains to partially compensate. The reason for this is the rebuild of London Bridge Station. As a result there will be fewer terminating platforms, particularly during the redevelopment. Previously the suggestion in the Route Utilisation Strategy was that the Forest Hill services should be extended to 12 carriages and reduced to four trains per hour (even in the morning peak). Since then some of our Southern trains have been extended to 10 carriages but many still run with 8 or less during peak times. Evening services have already been cut back to four p/h, although there are six p/h in the morning.

Perhaps we shouldn't complain too much... We have more trains to more destinations. This year we started to get longer trains - up to 10 carriages, and it seems increasingly likely that East London Line trains will be increased from four to five carriages. Our services are now slightly less crowded. Lifts are planned for Honor Oak Park.

But it does seem that ignoring Forest Hill from the Thameslink programme is a missed opportunity. Instead of increasing direct destinations for an area of South London, the Thameslink trains will only directly benefit the Home Counties. We should probably be thankful that the old Thameslink carriages (with little legroom) may be distributed to our line to increase the length of our trains.

THE SOCIETY’S VIEW
* We would like to see Thameslink trains serving our community directly;
* We value the direct connection to East Croydon;
* We strongly oppose any permanent loss of service and are concerned at any temporary loss of service, due to the inconvenience that this will cause;
* If Thameslink trains don't call at Forest Hill then there is even more reason for reinstating the late evening and weekend Charing Cross service;
* We would like to see more trains in peak hours extended to 10 carriages with further consideration to 12 carriage trains as demand dictates.

Changes to the 63 Bus Route?

The 63 could be extended along Forest Hill Road and Honor Oak Park to Brockley Rise, to allow residents on the Southwark side to use London Overground services from HOP (part of an election commitment by the Labour Party in the Mayoral elections).

This may cause additional traffic issues, with added delays by using Honor Oak Park which suffers from traffic jams during the rush hour, along with potential infrastructure issues at Brockley Rise which already has the 172 and P12 buses parked on the local roads. Honor Oak Park is currently served by single decker buses, although double decker Route 363 serves Wood Vale, which is less busy in comparison.

Residents in Forest Hill Road already have a regular service to Peckham Rye station which will be connected to the East London line in December when the final phase of the extension opens between Surrey Quays and Clapham Junction, also a regular service on Route P12 which can be boarded in Brenchley Gardens or at the very end of Forest Hill Road for Honor Oak Park.

Exciting Times at the Horniman Gardens


Jenny Seymour, Development Officer at the Horniman Museum and Gardens, updates us on the redevelopment project.

The project is now in the final stages. New ramps and paving has improved access to the Sunken Garden, the bandstand has been restored to its elegant 1909 condition with new glass screens, and the Learning and Community building – the Gardens Pavilion - is complete.

We are now moving on to the planting stage and as the new areas take shape, we are able to offer items for 'naming' in return for a donation. You can donate a tree or picnic bench in memory of a loved one, in celebration of a marriage or simply to mark many happy years spent here!

There are a number of items and areas you can 'donate' (see the 'support us' section on www.horniman.ac.uk for the full list). Included in the cost of these items is a discreet plaque acknowledging your support.

There are 12 new picnic benches located on the Bandstand Terrace, costing £500 each. Eight plane trees are available on the Terrace, which will provide shade on hot summer days. They are £1200 each. A ‘Sound Corner‘ (see picture) beside the Bandstand Terrace features five sculptural musical instruments—costs to donate them is available on our website.

This is a wonderful way of helping, whilst you and your family enjoy a lasting record of your support. If interested, please speak to us at: 0208 291 8169 or development@horniman.ac.uk

08 March 2012

Lewisham selects Forest Hill for Portas Pilot

We are delighted to announce that Lewisham will be putting forward Forest Hill and Sydenham for funding from the Portas Pilots. Now all we have to do is beat the other 300 candidates.

07 March 2012

Get Pampered at Rockbourne

Treat yourself to one of the following treatments at Rockbourne Youth Club on Saturday, 10 March to help them raise funds.
Mini Manicure - Indian Head Massage - Executive chair Massage - Foot Massage - Ayurvedic Head Massage(With oil) - Eyebrow Shaping

Tickets cost £10

Please book your appointment in advance on (020) 8699 0163 or (07834) 491914. Ticket price includes a welcome drink with a tapas and a treatment of your choice. Also on sale will be Exotic ice cream and cakes.

06 March 2012

Woodland Walk and St George's Food Fair

Hopefully you are enjoying the new venues and swings which have opened up recently in the area. These are indeed exciting times for Forest Hill. Below are listed a few local events happening in the near future. Keep an eye on our calendar for the latest information.

The next Perry Vale Local Assembly will be held at 7pm on Tuesday, 20 March at the Forest Hill Methodist Church, Normanton Street, SE23 2DS

On Sunday, 25 March, why not meet at 11am outside the Horniman Gardens - at the Sydenham Hill entrance on London Road (the one nearest Dulwich, furthest from the museum) for a circular Spring Walk through Sydenham Woods exploring the nature and history of our local woodland. Steve Grindlay is promising to go along too to shed a little light on the history of the woods and disused railway too.


View Larger Map

Note: Sturdy shoes required and paths may not suitable for buggies or wheelchairs.

Next month, come along to Forest Hill Station Car Park from 10:00am to 4:00pm on Sunday, 22 April to sample the delights of local producers, with the finest local food and entertainment on offer at our St George's Food Fair.
There will be Hot Food by Fleisch, English Cheeses, Pies & Tartlets by Hills & Parkes, The Egg Boss's Handmade Scotch eggs, Award winning Chutneys from Mridula’s Kitchen, Caribbean Sauces and Spices from Pimento Hill, Fresh Delicacies by Franklins, Artisan Bread from BreadBread, The Forest Hill Cake Company's Delicious Cakes and Fresh Coffee from On the Hoof.

01 March 2012

Raise the Barn at Devonshire Road Nature Reserve

The Devonshire Road Nature Reserve is looking for volunteers to help build the new Green Oak Shelter.

Specialist green-oak carpenter and teacher Tom Trimmins is running free carpentry workshops on three Saturdays, March 3rd, 17th and 31st from 10.00am until 2.00pm. Contact infodevonshireroad@gmail.com for details.

The oak frame will be erected on April 1st; we’ll be throwing a party to celebrate, so dig out your dancing clogs. There’ll be hard work, music and food and drink. Families welcome to come and ‘raise the barn’!