Published and distributed by Stambourne Parish Council No 201

Parish Council Meeting – Thursday 20th January 2011

The first meeting of 2011 took place on Thursday 20 January 2011 at 7.30pm in the Village Hall, Stambourne. All were present.

Before the meeting began a presentation was made to members of the public and the Parish Council by Steeple Bumpstead First Responders who are hoping to recruit more people to cover Stambourne and Toppesfield. Several members of the public attended and have expressed interest in undertaking the training.

Pavilion - The water is turned off. The pipes in the roof have not yet been lagged and will need to be check before the water is turned back on in the spring. Some posts on the veranda require replacement. Oscar will carry out this work.

Playing field – A quote has been received for the supply of a “No Dogs” sign for the entrance gates. Another quote is awaited.

Highways – A large number of potholes and various other issues have been reported to Essex County Council Highways Department for attention.

Gritting – As you will no doubt be aware, gritting during spells of snowy/icy weather continues to be a problem. Dyers End and the Yeldham Road are gritted regularly but the rest of the village is not, despite our requests for Chapel End Way to be gritted. We will continue to lobby Essex County Council about this. In the meantime we would ask everybody to take some responsibility for our roads and request that wherever possible we all use the yellow salt bins and spread some of this supply on the untreated areas.

Newsletter – It is with regret that Mrs Songhurst, the editor of this newsletter, is stepping down after several years in the role. The Parish Council would like to pass on its thanks and gratitude to Mrs Songhurst for all her hard work over the years. We will be sorry to see her go. Mr Stephen Platt of Chapel End Way has volunteered to take over as editor and we look forward to working with him. Mr Platt is also responsible for the Stambourne website on www.Stambourne.com

The next meeting will take place on Thursday 17 March 2011 at 7.30pm in the village hall. There being no other business to discuss the meeting closed at 9.00pm.

Debbie Hilliard - Parish Clerk
Tel: 01440 785629

Letter from the Church Warden
Richard Day
01440 785580

The new Vicar, the Reverend Barbara Dennis for the village of Stambourne and our neighbouring villages of the Benefice will be licensed by the Bishop of Colchester and installed by the Archdeacon on Sunday, 6th March at 3pm in the Church of St Andrew, Great Yeldham.

All the villages of Stambourne are invited to the Service and to refreshments afterwards at the Village School.


Some features of the Service have their origins in the middle ages; others are comparatively new. In this it reminds us that Christian Ministry has been offered in our Church at Stambourne for over 900 years.

When we know the date of her first Service in our church, a flyer will be distributed so that as many as would like to come to it and meet her, will be aware of it.

Richard Day - Church Warden

Stambourne Congregational Church Adrian Burr
07983 656166

From the Chapel ....
Just looking at my notes for last year we were thinking of the earthquake that hit Haiti. And a year on they still have temporary shelters and collapsed buildings that have not been moved, and lack of water and hygiene and ... well the list goes on. We have just enjoyed Christmas with all that the season means to us, but we still think of those people on the other side of the world who have nothing. How can we share with them?

And through January we have seen floods in Australia, mud slides in Brazil, and flooding in various other places. You may be right to ask “what is happening to our world?”

It is so difficult to understand the bigger picture. We have seen seasons like this before but they have slipped from popular memory, and newspapers tell us of the “worst ever...” but do they check to see if there has ever been a worse situation?

But we are told in the Bible that the world isn’t ever going to be the perfect place that we would like it to be. We are told that “when we are low...”, or “when going through difficult times..” then we should turn to God. It is interesting looking through history and discovering the times when the churches were full. Certainly in Stambourne the chapel was started by the vicar of the Church of England “losing his living” and continuing to worship anyway, and the chapel continued to use the 1662 prayer book for over 100 years after that event and the original building held 200 people. Harmony existed between Chapel and Church. In “Memories of Stambourne” this was seen as the reason that the poor and the rich continued to look after one another, unlike in some parishes where animosity came between the two denominations. So we are delighted that the Church will be welcoming Barbara Dennis as their new priest in charge, to lead them forward, and we add our warm welcome too. We look forward to continuing the warm relationship that always seems to have been a feature of the Stambourne churches.
And as we lead up to Easter we look forward to what God has for us all in the coming months...

We are here to help at times of need and to help you at times of Funerals, Weddings, Christenings and Baptisms, and all life event needs.
Sunday Club for children will run on alternate Sundays see diary below. All children between 2 and 15 years old are welcome! We are organising activities such as arts and crafts, stories, and games on the theme of the week.

Preachers for February and March

6th February Dianne Thomson includes Sunday Club
13th February Adrian Burr Communion
20th February Mark Inman
27th February Adrian Burr includes Sunday Club
6th March to be announced Communion
13th March Adrian Burr Mothers Day
- includes Sunday Club
20th March Dianne Thomson
27th March Adrian Burr includes Sunday Club

Events at Chapel for Spring 2011 :

19th March – Coffee morning 10-12am

8th March – 12th April every Thursday 10-12am at the Chapel.
A Weekly Bible Study for Lent on the Freedom that we can have in Christ

Easter Services will be at 10am on Good Friday and 10:45 am on Easter Sunday in the Chapel. All are warmly welcome.

The Chapel is open for coffee, a chat, and prayer on Tuesdays from 10-12pm.

Harvest Ministries
Bible School Wethersfield
Rev 22:17 The Spirit and the bride say “come”, and let him that hears say “come”. Whoever is thirsty let him come and whoever wishes let him take the free gift of the water of life.

The vision of Harvest Ministries is to seek and impart the ancient paths of truth from God’s word in the power of the Holy Spirit for the building up of the bride of Christ.

Harvest Ministries runs an interdenominational series of free day teachings from the Word of God with practical application, on a monthly basis to which all are welcome to attend at the Wethersfield URC Hall. We open at 9:45am for coffee for a 10am start and continue until about 1pm. We run on the basis of faith that God will provide for our needs.

Our programme for 2011 includes:
Feb 12th Intercessionary Prayer with Judi Shaw, Deacon at Earls Colne Baptist Church. Judi is an enthusiastic woman of God with an aptitude for writing and sharing from the Word of God. She is on the board of Sudbury Aglow International and takes a full part in the prayer life of the church.
She will be teaching on the basics of intercession for individuals, families, churches, our nation and Israel.

March 12th Spiritual Warfare speaker to be announced. We will be looking at the principles of Spiritual Warfare, when it is to be used and how to go about it, all based on Biblical insight.

April 2nd Warfare and evangelism with Suzanne Pillans, who runs “Step Out In Faith Ministries” in conjunction with Derek Prince Ministries. Suzanne has an international ministry to build strong believers both in Eastern and Western Countries. She has seen many miraculous healings in her work. She will be at Stambourne Chapel on 3rd April at 10:45am.
David Noble will be leading us in June and July talking about Discipleship and the Jewishness of Jesus, and in September and October Daniel Couzens and team will be taking us through the teaching and practical application of evangelism.

Adrian Burr, Minister
Stambourne Chapel

Serving God in the community in word and deed

Text for 2011

Therefore we must pay greater attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away from it.

Hebrews 2:1 

St Margaret’s Primary School, Toppesfield

Christmas now seems a distant memory, but it was a hectic time for the staff and children with many special events in the school and the community; a well received production in which all the children participated, a visit to Hedingham Place to sing for the “senior citizens” that live there, Christmas lunch etc etc. Even the weather contrived to add to the excitement, but the school stayed open throughout the snowy periods.

This term there is a lot going on as each class has started a new topic.
Class 1 are investigating traditional tales and the children will have the chance to dress up as a character from their favourite story. They will also be making gingerbread men and pancakes.
Class 2 topic is the Gambia. Their learning includes performing African songs and rhythm work, studying patterns and paintings.
Class 3 are using their topic of The Tudors to learn about some of the personalities, achievements and arts of the period.

Strictly Come Dancing has inspired a new and well supported after school Dance Club being run by Sharon Dare and Jane Brazier. The children are learning a number of dances including the cha-cha-cha and the quickstep and we are looking forward to seeing their newly acquired skills later in the term.
The majority of our elder children took part in the local schools Cross Country Competition at Hedingham School on the 20th January. Many children achieved individual best times and two did particularly well and are through to the next round of the competition :
Spencer Hume representing Year 3 boys and Alex Rendall Year 6 girls.

Stambourne Ladies Group Vanessa
01440 785122

Please come to our Ladies Group. We meet every second Wednesday of the month at the Village Hall from 7.30pm onwards. Tea, coffee and refreshments are provided. Come and meet other like minded people from your village. Vanessa

Stambourne Newsletter
Susie Songhurst

I can’t believe I’ve been editing the Stambourne Newsletter now for 6 years. It’s true what they say – time speeds up the older you get!

I feel it’s now time to pass on the mantel of Editor to someone else and Steve Platt has very kindly offered his services to produce the Newsletter in future.

If you recall, his name was mentioned in the last

Newsletter as he is responsible for the Stambourne website (www.stambourne.com) – so he certainly knows all about Stambourne’s past and present.


I wish him all the very best – please remember to contact him in future with details of forthcoming events etc. You will find his contact details at the end of this Newsletter.
… and finally. I would like to say a really big ‘Thank You’ to those of you who help me distribute the Newsletter – namely, Carol Pyman, Jackie Pyman, Beryl & Don Newman and up until recently Nona Wright (Debbie Hilliard and her daughters have now taken on Nona’s deliveries). They have been a very loyal group and have been on board well before I took on the Newsletter. So I would like to wish them all the very best for the future.

Au revoir! Susie Songhurst

MOBILE POLICE STATION
WEDNESDAY - VISIT TIMES – 2011

FOR ENQUIRIES PLEASE CALL 07989 335719
Stambourne - Village Hall - 11:15am – 12:15pm

February 9
March 9
April 6
May 4
June 1& 29
July 27
August 24
September 21
October 19
November 16
December 14

DIARY DATES

Items for the next Newsletter by 17th March 2011 please
Steve Platt Tel : 01440 785638 Mobile : 07767 357016