February 2010

Local links…

Dear Editor
I am researching my family name of ‘Bellars’ and have traced it back to Helpstone where they lived for over a hundred years. On visiting the village last year I was pleased to see so many plaques in their memory in the church and believe they were a fairly prominent family in the area. There are records that connect them to Woodcroft castle (I presume in a working capacity rather than ownership). I read in your link with Woodcroft castle and in John Clares’ autobiography “In 1805 he was employed at Woodcroft castle by a Mrs Bellairs (Bellars)”. Do your readers have any information on the Bellars family or their connection with Woodcroft Castle and John Clare? or could they advise me on where I could go to find out more? Thank you in anticipation
sallyabarnfather@hotmail.co.uk

Huge ‘thanks’…

Dear Editor
Could you please pass on a big, BIG ‘thank you’ to all the Tribune readers who sent Abi gifts, cards and messages of good luck in advance of her ‘adventure’ in New York, (Village Tribune, front page, Issue 60).
Annie Robinson, Etton

Four for charity…

Dear Editor
We are raring to go for the year 2010. Our first year in operation has been very encouraging and our charities are delighted with the funds we have been able to raise. We have had a very sociable year making it happen and are quite sure that the venture is well worthwhile. On sale days we have had many keen visitors and buyers. The young folk all seem to enjoy a browse too. Our next sale will be held on Saturday 20th February at 10am until 1pm. By then we can hope for some weather that helps the event along and look forward to your support. Because we have had a successful year selling on a great deal of the wonderful donations we were given, we now need a new influx of items for sale to replenish our stocks.

Please have a good look around and see if you have any unwanted saleable items that you would like to donate. All you have to do is contact us and we will receive any items at the Manor House, Glinton. Oh! And there is always room for volunteer helpers prior to sale days when we need to sort out our shop and make ready for the event, don’t be shy come along and lend a hand. Please Contact any of these numbers for donations and helping out. Betty Whitton, 01733 252347; Mick Brabbins, 01733 253833; and Gay Swan, 01733 252052.
Kind regards, Mick Brabbins

Building local history…

Dear Editor
Clare Cottage is trying to build up the history of the cottage so that we can produce a more complete presentation of the building. If anyone has any information or pictures of the cottage and that area of Helpston and is willing to help, please contact me at Clare Cottage - 01733 253330. We will take care of anything loaned and simply take copies so that the originals are not damaged. Any help will be much appreciated.
David Dykes, Clare Cottage, Helpston

Festival ‘for all’…

Dear Editor
Although the John Clare Society is a national society with members from all over the world, the heart is in Helpston and the surrounding area. So, it is important for residents to know that the Annual Festival will be held over the weekend 9th-11th July. Once again we shall be working in partnership with the school, the church, the Cottage Trust, the Langdyke Countryside Trust, Botolph’s Barn, the Blue Bell and the Exeter Arms and many others! We are always grateful for the support locally and I hope that you will make a note of the dates – the Festival is open to all.
Revd. Ron Ingamells (Festival Co-ordinator)

Webster-watch…

Dear Editor
I have noticed that the Botolph Barn website has a wedding photograph of a Webster. Do Tribune readers happen to know if they were the local photographers or had an amateur interest in it? The reason I ask is that my great, great grandparents, John and Harriet Hill, lived at the Bainton Green Gatehouse and we have what is assumed to be a wedding photo and on the reverse is the name Webster. I am led to believe that a Webster lived at Bainton Green Gatehouse (above) at one point and the reason I assume it might be the Helpston Webster’s is because I have a photo of my great grandmother’s brother at his house in Helpston. As they would not have owned a camera, I assume it was taken by someone he knew. Shortly after the picture was taken, his second wife died and he was killed on the railway at Helpston, we believe in the shunting area. I have for sometime, although to date unsuccessfully, tried to obtain a photo of Bainton Green Gatehouse. The photo we have only shows a small portion of it. Do any Tribune readers know of one, or can point me in the right direction?
Regards, Keith Hansell (Stamford)
Gardenshed@talktalk.net

Northborough evacuees…

Dear Editor
Further to your letter in the last edition – I don’t remember ‘Fighting Fred’, but I can remember the evacuees coming to Northborough in 1939. I have enclosed a photograph of Miss Clark, who was an evacuee teacher from Hanover School, Islington, London and taught the evacuee children at Northborough School. The Peterborough Advertiser reported that there were 60 evacuees sent to Northborough and a further 72 to Glinton. Miss Clark continued to live in Northborough, with Mr & Mrs A Crowson on Lincoln Road. We had half-day schooling, morning for the evacuees and afternoons for the local children, however, Northborough evacuees were moved to Glinton and Peakirk – Northborough was classed as an ‘unsafe’ place to live, due to the close proximity of the mock aerodrome nearby.It even had dummy aeroplanes and was manned by RAF personnel at night. When there was an air raid, all the lights in the fields were switched on - to make it look like an airfield, hence, Northborough was bombed on more than one occasion. Lots of evacuees went home for Christmas in 1939 – and never returned. Some of the parents who came to visit their children did not like the conditions they were living in, and didn’t allow them to come back.
Robert CO Layen Northborough

Still a good year…

Dear Editor
I would like to start the year with a big ‘thank you’ to the Tribune for your help and support for the Northern Footpath Forum. Our year has not been as startlingly successful as 2008 – when we managed to open a new path and help plant up Korea Wood thanks to the generous support of Mrs Betty Whitton, but we have been working hard behind the scenes reminding people that we all love to walk in the countryside and need a safe way to do this with our families and pets. I would like to thank all our hard working members from seven local communities but especially Jeff Noble. Jeff deserves the ‘Hero of the Decade’ Award for his constant enthusiasm. We all do our individual bits, but it is Jeff who nurtures the trees in Korea Wood on a weekly basis, pulls together events like the Bygones Weekend and other projects too numerous to mention and has done this for so many years and I would like to nominate him for a Village Tribune ‘Community Award’. Thank you Jeff.
Sally Jackson Northern Footpath Forum

The Editor replies… Many thanks for your kind words Sally and I agree that Jeff is a very ‘worthy’ nominee for one of our up-and-coming Tribune ‘Community Awards’. I hope in the next edition, to be able to give more details about the awards, but in the meantime, I would be delighted to receive other nominations from Tribune readers for individuals in our community who ‘go that extra mile’ to make our villages better places in which to live. Readers can either send me email nominations, or perhaps a short letter – just give me your nominated persons name and a few words about WHY they should receive a Tribune Community Award.

DebRA support…

Dear Editor
Last year I gave birth to a beautiful baby daughter, Phoebe, and readers may well know me ‘by association’ as the arson attack on our house in Pilsgate was widely reported in the local press. Phoebe was born with the rare condition Epidermolysis Bullosa (EB) which causes her skin to blister with the slightest amount of friction and a few days ago, I was contacted by a young girl called Claire Burcham who is going to be running the 2010 London Marathon in aid of DebRA – the charity which supports people affected by EB. DebRA has, over the past 4 months, given a great deal of support and comfort to me and my partner, Nick and as they receive no government funding, rely totally on donations. Claire is looking for lots of sponsors to donate just £2 to help reach her target of around £26,385. If any Tribune readers would like to help, please log in to: www.justgiving.com/claires26385challenge
Many Thanks
Zoe Doyle, Pilsgate

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