Deadline for the April 2024 newsletter is 25 March
Parish Council Meeting: Thursday 7 March
The next Parish Council meeting will be held on Thursday 7 March at 8pm in the village hall. Any member of the public who would like to raise an issue to be discussed at this meeting should contact the Clerk.
Members of the public who would like to attend this meeting should register with the Clerk prior to the meeting.
Contact details are: Lisa Lathane, Clerk to the Parish Council:
At this meeting, the Parish Council will be considering its next steps on the Working Group’s proposal to build a new Community Hub on the old tennis court at PHC. This will be informed by the Working Group’s Business Plan and the Parish Council’s Due Diligence Report which will be published on the Proposed Community Facilities section of the village website on Thursday 29 February.
Preston residents are welcome to send any comments they have about these items to Margaret Trinder, Chairman of Preston Parish Council at:
by the end of the day on Wednesday 6 March. All comments will be noted in preparation for the Parish Council meeting on Thursday 7 March.
St Martin’s Church and All Saints’ Church Services
| Sunday 3rd March
|
9.30am
11.00am |
St Martin’s All Age Communion
1 Corinthians 1: 18 – 25 John 2: 13 – 22 All Saints All Age Communion |
| Sunday 10th March
Mothering Sunday |
8.00am
9.30am
11.00am |
All Saints Holy Communion (BCP)
St Martin’s Holy Communion Colossians 3: 12 – 17 Luke 2: 33 – 35 All Saints Sunday Praise |
| Sunday 17th March | 9.30am
11.00am |
St Martin’s Family Service
All Saints Holy Communion Hebrews 5: 5 – 10 John 12: 20 – 33 |
| Sunday 24th March
Palm Sunday |
9.30am
11.00am |
St Martin’s Holy Communion
Philippians 2: 5 – 11 Mark 11: 1 – 11 All Saints Holy Communion |
| Wednesday 27th March | 12 noon | All Saints service of reflection for Holy Week with
Taize chants. Followed by Soup Lunch in the annexe |
| Thursday 28th March
Maundy Thursday |
7.30pm | All Saints Holy Communion |
| Friday 29th March
Good Friday |
10.00am – 12.00pm
2.00pm – 3.00pm |
St Martin’s Joint Children’s Activity Morning
All Saints Last hour on the Cross |
| Sunday 31st March
Easter Day |
9.30am
11.00am |
St Martin’s Holy Communion
Acts 10: 34 – 43 Matthew 16: 1 – 8 All Saints Holy Communion |
Team Vicar of St Paul’s Walden with Preston:
Letter From The Vicar
Right at the end of this month, we will celebrate the great Christian festival of Easter. Leading up to it, by way of preparation, is the season of Lent – so named because the days are ‘lengthening’. I view Lent as a sort of rehearsal or getting ready, like ‘net practice’ for a cricketer or choir practice for a concert.
Easter is all about new life, God’s new world that results from the resurrection of Jesus. When Jesus died, we read that there was ‘darkness over the whole land’. The crucifixion of Jesus was indeed a dark moment. And what God raising Jesus from death showed was that in moments of extreme darkness God acts. He makes of it something new.
The season of Lent running right up until Sunday 31st March is our chance to invite God to do something new in our own lives, to lighten our darkness, to be the light for someone else.
Do look at the calendar to see the services in March, the soup lunch at All Saints on the Wednesday before Easter and join us at St Martin’s on Easter Day in celebration of God’s new created world.
With every blessing,
Stephen
St Martin’s Church 150 Club 2023/2024
The winners in the February draw in the 2023/24 150 Club (£30 each) were:
No. 30 Mr & Mrs RGM Young
No. 160. Mrs D Hayhurst
This is the final draw of the 2023/24 year. Tickets for the 2024/25 150 Club are now being raised automatically for those participants who have taken standing orders, others are being distributed to past participants for renewal. We welcome any new participants – tickets cost £20 for the year, with at least 25 prizes of £30. This is an important source of income for St Martin’s church to help maintain the building and churchyard. If you would like to join please email
St Martin’s Prayer Meetings
5 and 19 March at 09.40
Neighbourhood Watch
The number to contact at North Herts Police for all non-emergencies (including witnessing of fly-tipping) is 101 or 01707 354000.
For removal of fly tipping which has already occurred, call NHDC 01462 474000 or online at www.north-herts.gov.uk, then follow the links to Transport and Streets, Street Cleaning and Fly Tipping where there is a form to complete to report the details. If you use the What3Words app, please include the three words for the location of the fly tipping.
PCSO Heather Burrows can be contacted regarding local community issues.
Contact details are as follows:
PCSO Heather Burrows: 07740 745168 or 01438 757604 or heather.burrows@herts.pnn.police.uk
In the event of an emergency or if you witness a crime taking place please call 999.
Reporting suspicious activity
Please report any suspicious activity or vehicles you may witness in the locality.
Call the police on the non-emergency number 101 or report it online by using the website www.herts.police.uk/report and follow the links.
Preston Village Society
Our next meeting will take place on Thursday 28th March at the village hall at 7 30pm. Please bring along a favourite book, can be any subject, a novel, travel book, biography or recipe book and discuss, or just come along and listen. There might even be some Easter treats!!!
The Preston Trust – Litter Pick
The Preston Trust: Our first LITTER PICK of 2024, SATURDAY MARCH 9th, 10.00 – 12.00 noon
The PT committee and the Parish Council would like to invite you, once again, to lend a hand to pick up litter around the village and parish. The number of visiting ramblers and dog-walkers seems to continue throughout the parish – they appreciate our mostly quiet lanes, our litter free footpaths, and a possible destination of our Red Lion! We wish to demonstrate our clean and green rural environment.
Please wear appropriate clothing and footwear, and bring your gardening or DIY gloves. We have the Hi Vis jackets, the litter pick tools and sacks.
As usual, we will work in pairs along each lane and path, and bring the filled sacks back to St Martin’s Place in Chequers Lane. As a safety precaution there will be ‘Litter Pickers in Road’ signs along Hitchin Road. Please drive with extra care and attention, on this morning and always!
As there is still a fortnight to the Litter Pick a decision on whether to have a clearing of The Green, on the same day, will be posted on the PNS in the preceding week.
Do please just come along, and lend a hand! As you all know, many hands make light work! You are all very welcome.
Liz Hunter and Rae Reynolds, The PT committee members.
The Preston Trust Great Easter Egg Hunt and Trail 2024
Saturday 30th March 2.00pm – 5.00 pm (last entry 4.00 pm)
It’s nearly time; the Easter Bunny is on his way.
With Easter Eggs and lots of games to play.
Saturday March 30th will be the date
So, it’s really not that long to wait.
Arrive in the afternoon to have lots of fun.
Enjoy yourselves as you hop, skip and run!
The Preston Trust committee warmly invite you all, once again, to its Great Easter Egg Hunt and Trail. There will be some new games along the trail and different emoji puzzles to solve… We are asking for bookings so that we have enough eggs and so that anyone with dietary needs can still take part in the fun! Simply let us know any allergies or intolerances when you book.
Payment of £2 per egg hunter will be on the day (please bring cash). To book, or ask any questions, please e-mail
We are looking forward to welcoming you
The PT committee- Adrian, Jax, Liz, Rae, Vicky and Wal.
Giant Belgian Chocolate Easter Bunny Raffle
The Preston Trust has added a raffle to the Easter Egg Hunt. The prize, this year, is a 2ft (60cm) tall 3Kg Giant Milk Chocolate Easter Bunny made, from the finest Belgian chocolate, in Kent by the Stas family chocolatiers.
The tickets are £1 each, available from the Preston Trust Great Easter Egg Hunt and Trail welcome team on the Village Green from 2pm Saturday 30 March. Or in advance – please e-mail
to reserve tickets and arrange payment.
The winner will be drawn on the Green at the end of the Great Easter Egg Hunt and Trail at 5.00 pm.
If you are taking part in the Easter Egg Hunt, please do not feel you have to buy any raffle tickets, you really don’t.
Last year’s raffle proved very popular. The bunny was purchased from Costco who list it as suitable for vegetarians on their website.
All proceeds go to support the work of The Preston Trust, funding activities like the Easter Egg Hunt, Village Day, The Christmas Tree, running the PNS and the Preston Website.
Preston May Ball
You are cordially invited to join us at the 2024 Preston May Ball for an evening of fabulous food, magnificent music and fantastic fund-raising to help support your local primary school. We are offering a sparkling reception, hot fork buffet, raffle, auction and music by Confetti Junction.
When: Saturday 11th May @ 7 pm, carriages at midnight
Where: Preston Primary School Marquee
Cost: £70 per head
To buy tickets, please choose one of the options below;
Option 1 www.justgiving.com/campaign/mayballoption1
Type this into your browser to pay for your tickets in full now.
If using this option, please make sure you use the message function to say who the tickets are for, who you want to sit with and what, if any, food intolerances they have.
Option 2 Please print and complete this form and either deliver it to the School Office marked ‘Preston PSA’ or pop it through the door at Casa on Back Lane.
St Martin’s Church 150
We hope you agree that our church and churchyard are in good order and an important part of Preston, with the churchyard providing all important “green lungs” to the village as well as footpath access from Butchers Lane and Chequers Lane to Church Lane.
Maintenance of the church and churchyard falls on to the shoulders of the small church committee but the costs cannot be met entirely through weekly collections and donations from the congregation.
For several years now the church has run a lottery to raise additional funds to cover the general running costs and maintenance of the church and churchyard, supported by village residents past and present and friends of the church and village.
We currently have sales of 130 tickets mostly paid annually by standing order. To keep the income growing in line with inflation we need to increase ticket sales while keeping the ticket price unchanged. Each ticket costs £20 for the year, with 25 prizes of £30 notified in the village newsletter. We hope you will join us if you are not already a member, or perhaps decide to take an additional ticket. In either case, please let us know by emailing