Deadline for the October 2024 newsletter is 25 September

Parish Council Meeting: Thursday 5 September

The next Parish Council meeting will be held on Thursday 5 September 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 speak to the Parish Council in person should register with the Clerk prior to the meeting.

Contact details are: Lisa Lathane, Clerk to the Parish Council:

Preston Parish Council Bottle Tombola

The Parish Council is organising a bottle tombola on Village Day on Saturday 7 September and will be grateful for any donations of unopened and in date bottles. Contributions can be either left with Jane Clark at Castle Farm where a suitable container will be provided or brought to The Green on the day.

Harvest Supper: Friday 20 September

This year the Harvest Supper will be held on Friday 20 September in the Village Hall at 7.00 pm. Tickets, priced £15.00, cash only, include a welcome drink and a two-course meal and can be obtained from Ita Leaver:

Numbers are limited to 40, so please call by Monday 16 September.

If you have a vegetarian preference, just let Ita know well in advance. Please bring your own bottle. There will be a Raffle. Families who have moved into the Parish recently are especially welcome, but anyone living in the village is warmly invited so do come and join us.

Village Hall Update

Preston Village Pre-School will start operation in the village hall in January 2025 on Mondays to Fridays from 9am to 3pm, with 2 three-hour sessions each day. It will take children from the age of 2 until they start school in the September after their fourth birthday.

Jacqui Fairey, who is an experienced pre-school provider, will run the pre-school. She will be arranging a coffee morning in October to promote the pre-school and will be on The Green near the Parish Council Bottle Tombola on Village Day.

Anyone interested in securing a place for their child prior to these events is welcome to contact Jacqui by email:

The Village Hall will be available for other activities from about 4pm every day and at weekends. The Committee has considered the outcome of the questionnaire and will gradually start facilitating some of the suggested activities in the next few weeks and months.

A Strength and Balance Class will be held on Tuesdays at 4.30pm. Those interested in attending, both men and women, should contact Parviz Allidina who will supply details of the class, including the cost. Numbers are limited to 10 but if there is demand another class will be held at 5.45pm on Tuesdays. Places will be allocated on a first come first served basis. Classes will start in late September. Parviz will be in the village hall on Tuesday 3 September from 4.30 to 5.30pm to answer face to face any questions anyone might have

Contact details:

Anyone wishing to book the village hall should do so online:

https://hallbookingonline.com/preston/

The booking fees are: Preston residents and regular bookings – £10 per hour. Non-residents – £15 per hour

Beds & Herts Bike ‘n’ Hike – 14th September 2024

I will be taking part in the annual Bike ‘n Hike again this year to raise funds for the Beds and Herts Historic Churches Trust. Any sponsorship will be greatly appreciated. Half of the money raised will be donated to St. Martin’s Preston and the remainder to needy church projects in the diocese.

Sponsorship can be made via my JustGiving page on the link:

www.justgiving.com/page/ita-leaver-bikeride-2024

If you are a tax payer please remember to tick the gift aid box.

Many thanks, Ita

The Preston News Service

The Preston News Service (PNS) is free and can be used by anyone in, or connected to, the parish. It is used for messages including: offering surplus items for sale or free to a new home, promoting village events, asking for help, lost and found, public information from parish organisations as well as from individuals to share warnings about local hazards or issues.

The PNS is run by the Preston Trust who moderate message requests. We may occasionally refuse to send a message, add a disclaimer, ask for or suggest modifications.

Last year we sent out 350+ messages on your behalf (based on a quick search of the “sent folder”). Some days there were none and others several messages. In addition to these, there were message requests we forwarded to the right people or resolved without needing to send a “PNS”.

To find out more or to subscribe please visit https://www.prestonvillageherts.com/contact-us-preston-news-service/

St Martin’s Church and All Saints’ Church Services

Team Vicar of St Paul’s Walden with Preston:

Our Vicar, Stephen, is making good progress as he is recovering from heart surgery.

We remember him in our prayers and look forward to welcoming him back in due course.

In the meantime, here is a letter from the church warden of All Saints, St Paul’s Walden with news of the works that are going on in that beautiful old church and some dates of events to come in the Autumn.

News from All Saints church

It is a year since the tower restoration was completed and with the other works, the outside of the church is in considerably better state. This was achieved through a hugely successful Appeal raising over £100,000. It also generated a lot of support and interest from across the community in the events we ran, so we set up the Friends of All Saints to continue these events to enjoy our beautiful church. Hopefully you will have been to one of these over the last year – the Arts show and Village Voices Concert was in May, we are repeating the Autumn Concert (Oct 12th ) and the flower festival (Sept 13th -15th).

As with all old buildings, especially when over 800 years, it needs ongoing work. The inside has noticeably deteriorated over the last few years with the plaster coming off in many places throughout the church and porch, also the painted wooden chancel walls (East end of the church) are in very poor condition. The longer we leave it the more it will cost to repair.

We are fortunate to have been left a generous legacy that allows us to progress some of this work and we hope that the events we have planned over the year will help raise the remaining funds, so please do come along and if you would like to join the Friends of All Saints to get updates and be involved then please just send us an email at ajandbid@btinternet.com

Tim Liddell

Churchwarden All Saints

St Martin’s Church 150 Club 2024/2025

The winners in the August draw in the 2024/25 150 Club (£30 each) were:

No. 83 Mrs H Marsh
No. 138 Mrs A Kendall Freeman

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 

Village Day and Scarecrow Trail Take 2

In case you haven’t noticed the Village Day and Scarecrow Trail Take 2 posters, it is on Saturday 7th September. Lots of information was in the August newsletter so please take a look at that. If you don’t have a copy, it is available on the village website – www.prestonvillageherts.com.

Some timings for you:

Friday	Some scarecrows will be on display, with all being up by 12.00 on Saturday
Saturday
10.00 am	Set Up – please feel to join us
12.00 noon	The Red Lion opens The Birds of Prey will be available to see in the Red Lion’s field
12.30 pm	The Scarecrow Trail Entries will be available on The Green The BBQ will be up and running on The Green
1.00 pm	Village Day with Stalls and Games begins on The Green
1.30 pm	The Bird of Prey Flying Display begins on the Red Lion’s field and will then stay as a static display until 4.00 pm
2.00 pm	The Dog Show will begin on The Green
4.30 pm	The Sporting Games for Adults and Children will begin on the Red Lion’s field
5.30 pm	SG4 begins in the Red Lion’s Garden

Village Day: Sound System And Power

The Preston Trust committee would like to say a huge thank you to Phil Leaver. He has organised and run the sound and power aspects of Village Day since before any of us, were on the committee.

For those of you who have met Phil, you will know he is one of the kindest, gentlest, most interesting people. You may not know that he travelled the world as a sound engineer and he was one of the original team at Autograph Sound (it’s well worth looking at their website.) We have all really appreciated Phil himself, his expertise and his help at Parish Events.

Sadly, Phil has made the decision that it is time to retire from this role.

It would be great if we could find at least one or two people who would like to shadow and help Phil on Village Day (alongside Dick and John, for part of the time, who have been such an appreciated help to Phil over the years.)

You will need to be with Phil from 9.00 am until 12.30 the 7th and then, if possible, go back at about 4.30pm to see how the equipment is taken down (and help please). The aim is for Phil to share his incredible knowledge, and how he sets up and takes down the sound and power for the event, with those volunteers. Then, to take over from him in 2025. If you are interested in being involved, please contact Phil –

Having a sound system and power on Village Day is invaluable. It enables us to announce the shows; emergencies, such as calling for our first aiders; information about the stalls and games, including what’s available on the refreshment stalls and BBQ, which of course can’t be run without being attached to a power supply! Please think about taking on this role and joining the team which makes Village Day the special day that it is.

Thank you so much again Phil – you are a star…

The Preston Trust committee – Adrian, Jax, Liz, Rae and Wal

July Scarecrow Trail

The Preston Trust committee warmly thank all of the scarecrow constructors for their incredible creations. Our thanks must go to the intrepid judges who dodged the torrential rain to wander around the Scarecrow Trail. Thank you so much too, for your donations towards the costs of the day. They are very much appreciated! It has been agreed that once the Scarecrow Trail Take 2 competition is completed the July entry forms will be added to them. This way the entry forms from both events will be included in the Judges’ Prize Draw. All of the scarecrows were wonderful and most of them will be out again for the Scarecrow Festival Take 2 on the 6th- 8th of September.

And the OSCARecrowS awards are

Best In Show	Shrektacular? — The Coles Family
Senior Judges
1st place	The Claw —The Johnson Family
2nd place	Mini Marvel Comes to Preston — the Hodgeson Family
3rd place	Storm Trooper on Leave — the Palmer Family
Junior Judges
1st place	The Claw — The Johnson Family
2nd place	Princess Jasmine — the Clark Family
3rd place	Olaf — the Preston Primary School

Our congratulations to you all !

The Preston Trust Committee- Adrian, Jax, Liz, Rae and Wal

Neighbourhood Watch

The Preston Trust – October Events

Actual dates have not yet been confirmed; however, they will be shared via the PNS and will be in the October Newsletter. We look forward to welcoming you all to at least one of the events. We apologise that the Boundary Walks for September had to be postponed, we hope to run them in the Spring.

1. The Autumn Litter Pick and The Green Clean
2. The first of our Autumn Talks for 2024 – Keith Fitzpatrick from Hitchin Museum.. The Knights Templar Connection with Preston
3) The Preston Trust AGM
Liz Hunter and Rae Reynolds – The Preston Trust committee members

Preston Village Society

Our next meeting will take place on Thursday 26th September at 7.30pm in the Village Hall. Our speaker will be Phillipa Parker and her subject is The Shaws in Hertfordshire, the lives and friends of George Bernard and Charlotte Shaw – 1904 – 1950. For any further information, please contact Gail Edwards

The Living Theatre Whitwell

will be performing Macbeth from 30th August until 15th. September. Performances will take place every Friday, Saturday and Sunday between those dates. Friday and Saturday commence at 7.00pm until 9.30pm and the Sunday performances at 4.00pm.until 6.30pm. Tickets cost £18. To book tickets and for further information please go to their website

www.thelivingtheatrewhitwell.org

The Red Lion Harvest Auction

The Harvest Auction will be held on Friday 27 September at 8.00pm in the Red Lion. Proceeds will be shared between St Martin’s Church, Preston Primary School and Preston Junior Cricket.

Produce for the auction should be brought to the pub in the afternoon, if possible after 3pm.