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March 2015
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TOM LONG’S POST
The Monthly Newsletter of
Minchinhampton Parish Council
The council’s planned expenditure of £76,870 will be
offset by income from rents and the potential use of
money from reserves. The budget includes spending on
running the Vestry building and council office, providing
allotments and seats, and maintaining churchyards, play
areas and village greens. Full details will shortly be
published on the council’s website.
The Re-launch of Tom Long’s Post
Bus Shelter
Bus Shelters on the Move !
It was a classic case of now you see it, now you don’t
after the Cirencester Road bus shelter in Minchinhampton
suffered an accident. The damaged shelter (pictured
above) has now been removed by contractors after
Minchinhampton Parish Council feared for the safety of
passers-by.
Arrangements are, however, already in hand at the Parish
Council to provide a replacement shelter on the same
spot. Elsewhere the Hampton Fields and Horsfall House
bus shelters are both in the news as well.
Welcome to the first edition of the re-launched Tom
Long’s Post, the newsletter of Minchinhampton Parish
Council. This will appear monthly from March 2015 and
will remain free. It has been re-designed in full colour
over four pages by the council’s new assistant, Liz
Oakley. Tom Long’s Post will be available from the first
week of each month via our normal distributors and will
be on-line on the council website.
Marvellous Minchinhampton
Tom Long’s Post will have a monthly photographic
feature showing images from each of the five Parish
Wards of Amberley, Box, Brimscombe, and
Minchinhampton North and South.
Residents at Beeches Park, fed up with being splashed,
are hoping their bus shelter can be turned around, or a
screen added, to keep them dry. While across at Horsfall
investigations are underway to see if the bus shelter sides
can be removed, or windows inserted, to improve
motorists’ visibility.
Council Budget News
A standstill precept of £50,000 for 2015-16 has been
approved by Minchinhampton Parish Council. Chairman
of the council’s Finance Committee, Cllr Roy Nicholas,
said the precept had not been increased for many years,
and he hoped the committee’s prudence would be
welcome and appreciated by parishioners.
Holy Trinity Church, Minchinhampton
Minchinhampton Parish Council. Serving the Local Community
29th March 2015, Palm Sunday, is the exact date on which
250 years ago the Baptist Church was founded on its
original site in Chapel Lane.
“We’ve been part of the Baptist Church ever since we
moved to Minchinhampton,” say Peter and Liz, “so on
Palm Sunday we’ll be celebrating the 250th anniversary
along with all our friends at church – including three past
ministers who will be making a special return visit to
Minchinhampton.”
Baptist Chapel, Minchinhampton
Reverend Liam Eaglestone, the church’s current minister,
adds: “At the Baptist Church, we want to acknowledge
the past with gratitude – but our main focus will be on
‘250 acts of kindness’ to benefit today’s residents of
Minchinhampton. Look out for what’s coming at the end
of March!”
Peter Farley
Minchinhampton Baptist Church celebrates
a special birthday. Church members are
planning “250 acts of kindness”
Local Minchinhampton residents Peter and Liz Farley have
a big anniversary to celebrate this month. Not their
golden wedding – that’s coming up in six years’ time –
but the 250th anniversary of their house. The original
Minchinhampton Baptist Chapel which was founded in
1765.
Peter and Liz have lived in the Old Chapel (in Chapel Lane,
where else?) since buying it as a ruin in 1979. The
converted chapel made a spacious if somewhat
unorthodox family home for the couple and their three
children, all of whom went to school in Minchinhampton.
“There’s not much to see of the chapel’s original features
now,” say Peter and Liz. “The Victorians destroyed most
of the original bits – and all we have left today are the
gothic downstairs windows and front doorway. But if you
go into the 1834 Baptist Church building on Tetbury Street
you can also see part of its mosaic floor. This shows the
date when our house was built in 1765 – exactly 250
years ago.”
The Baptist congregation in Minchinhampton, which
began in Chapel Lane, moved in 1834 to new premises
on Tetbury Street – premises which after major internal
modifications in the 1970s are still used by the church
today.
Minchinhampton Baptist Church has outgrown both its
1765 and its 1834 premises and now meets on several
sites, including The Hub, next to Minchinhampton Youth
Centre.
Baptist Chapel 1765 Mosaic
Patient Participation Group
Minchinhampton Surgery has an active Patient
Participation Group (PPG) enabling patient’s voices to be
considered when new services are being planned or
developed for example. The PPG also raises funds for
equipment for the surgery and runs the Patient Transport
Service, (01453 887314).
The PPG Group is run by a committee which meets about
six times a year in the evening. Anyone wanting to learn
more about the work of the PPG, or become a member
of the committee, please contact: [email protected].
Alternatively, those without access to an email are asked
to leave a letter in the PPG box in the surgery reception
giving their contact details.
Working for Amberley, Box, Brimscombe and Minchinhampton
Have Your Say on Market House Plans
Major proposals are being launched to update the
ancient Minchinhampton Market House.
Members of the management committee trustees have
outlined to Minchinhampton Parish Council plans for a
Heritage Lottery Fund bid for money to continue to
improve the facilities at the Market House. The proposals
aim to revitalise this unique building and re-establish it
as the town’s social, cultural and architectural
centrepiece.
Minchinhampton Market House Management Committee
will be circulating a questionnaire to ask local people for
their views about the Market House and how they
consider it would best serve the community. Everyone
is invited to a consultation meeting with free wine and
nibbles to be held on March 25th, 2015 from 7.30 p.m.
-9 p.m. at the Market House where the proposals will
be discussed in more detail.
The questionnaire will be available in most
Minchinhampton
shops
and
on-line
at:
www.minchinhamptonmarkethouse.co.uk from March
18th, 2015, and will have information as to where it
should be returned to. Completed forms will be entered
into a free prize draw.
Janet Payne, Chairman
Mobile Police Station Visits
The schedule for visits by the Gloucestershire Mobile
Police Station to the Minchinhampton area have been
announced.
The Stroud Local Policing Area will bring the mobile to
our parish on Friday March 20th when it will pull up at
Box Village Hall from 1.00 to 1.30 p.m. At The Glebe,
Minchinhampton 2.00 to 2.30 p.m and in Pines Road
Amberley between 4.00 and 4.30 p.m.
Box Swimming Club
Every Thursday evening 8-9
at Beaudesert Park School.
Contact Andrew 834766,
or [email protected]
Date: 6th March, Movie Night, Market House,
in HD and
Minchinhampton. 7.30 p.m. ”
surround sound. Tickets £5.00.
Contact: Alan Vaughan: [email protected]
Date: 9th March, Minchinhampton Ladies Club. Porch
Room, 7.30 p.m.
Sue Harris. Visitors £3.00
Date: 13th and 14th of March, Comedy Weekend,
Minchinhampton School Hall. Doors open 7.00 p.m. for
7.45 p.m. show. Tickets (for over 18s only): £12.50.
Contact: The School Office and M&B stores,
Minchinhampton.
Date: 15th March, Run in aid of Cotswold Care
Hospice. 10.00 a.m. Minchinhampton. 50 free places
available.
Contact: Jan Ryder, Events Manager: 01453 886868.
Date: 17th March, Talk on “
”, Charles Booth.
8.00 p.m, The Hub, Tobaconist Road, Minchinhampton.
Date: 21 March, Amberley Playgroup Nearly New
Sale
10.00 a.m. To 11.30 a.m. Amberley Parish Rooms
underneath the church. Teas and cakes also served.
Contact: Susie Hetherington: 01453 873874.
Date: 27th March, Literary Lunches Return to
Minchinhampton, Market House. Martin O’Brien talks
about his new novel. Lunch is followed by talk and
book signings.
Contact: Booking forms, £25, available from Market
Stores, Minchinhampton and Taylors Butchers.
Deadline for bookings: 20th March. Further details from
Sue Simmonds, 01453 889321.
As many local listings as possible will be included in
What’s On subject to space each month. Please confirm
if you would like your name, and phone number or email,
published with details of each event listed.
To Contact April What’s On Listings: email: [email protected]
Editorial, Advertising and Parish Council Contact Details
Text Banner for messages
Advertising in Tom Long’s Post
Editorial, Elizabeth Oakley, contact: email:
[email protected], Telephone: 01453
Ads are included from the second edition published in early
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April. The copy deadline is 12.00 p.m. Friday 20th March 2015.
Enquiries to: Elizabeth Oakley, Assistant to the Clerk, Please submit articles and photographic contributions by e.mail
email:[email protected] Telephone: 01453 or on disc with contact name and telephone number. Words up
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to a maximum of 200 per article. Views expressed are not
necessarily those of the editorial team. The editor reserves the
Advertising Rates Per Monthly Edition
right to edit or omit material. No liability is accepted for loss or
damage arising from any omission of copy or advertising.
A half page ad=£110. A quarter page ad=£58
A eighth page ad=£30, A Sixteenth page ad=£15
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Mobiles’ Black Hole Plugged
“If you are using O2 or EE I believe they offer very similar
Minchinhampton has become the first rural community in devices.” Further information from: Cllr Steve Hemmings/
the UK to have the black hole in its mobile phone coverage clerk Jo Barber, Minchinhampton Parish Council 01453
plugged by a new Vodafone initiative. The Parish Council 731186.
worked with Vodafone to bring the firm’s Rural Open Sure
Signal programme to the town.
Defibrillator Opening
Booster units are installed on four prominent buildings in
the middle of Minchinhampton to plug the “not spots” with A NEW defibrillator has been unveiled in Minchinhampton
the aim of supporting the rural economy by helping local by local resident and BBC “One Show” medic Dr Mark
Porter. The life-saving equipment is on the outside wall
business communications.
of the Bell Lane public toilets and was sponsored by
The boosters are being sited on the council’s own offices Severn Trent Water. In a medical emergency people
at The Trap House, and at the Baptist Church, Market should ring 999 as usual because the ambulance service
hold the defibrillator key code.
Stores and Youth Club.
Box councillor Steve Hemmings who led on the project,
said, “The business area around the High Street now
offers stronger Vodafone reception than I ever thought
possible in the town centre. I am very grateful to
Vodafone and to all those who so willingly offered their
premises to locate the equipment”.
Until now Minchinhampton had suffered from unreliable
mobile coverage and slow network speeds. Residents can
also gain improved signal from small domestic versions
of the Vodafone Sure Signal boxes. They cost around £100
and plug into a conventional router in people’s homes.
Cllr Hemmings said: “I have used one for about six years
and it is excellent giving me strong signals throughout my
house even though I’m surrounded by stone walls.”
Photo: Jo Barber
MINCHINHAMPTON PARISH COUNCIL
The Trap House, West End, Minchinhampton GL6 9JA
Office Opening Hours: 9.00 a.m. to 12. 00 p.m. Monday to Friday
Tel/Fax: 01453 731186 emails : [email protected]
Website: www.stroud.gov.uk/Minchinhampton
Clerk: Jo Barber Assistant to the Clerk: Elizabeth Oakley
Details of the 15 Councillors representing the 5 wards can be found on the Parish Council website