Articles

As we celebrate this year’s Harvest Festival, we are reminded of the true meaning of community — coming together to share what we have and support one another. This season, the local food bank has been deeply moved by the generosity of our community.

Between the Church and the Grand Union canal you come across a field where the above three oak trees stand. They are now 20 years old. They were planted in late 2005 to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar on 21 October 1805.

Well what an amazing day we had. The sun shone and the people came. We completely smashed last year’s total, taking £1,600 on the day which was incredible. Through my JustGiving page an additional £838 was raised and with further donations the final total was £2,648.

We’ve got some exciting news to share with our readers. After three years of hard work, late nights, and plenty of cups of tea, the Kibworth & District Chronicle team has finally finished scanning our entire back catalogue! Every single issue, right back to the very first edition, is now available online for you to browse, search, and enjoy.

Starting at Uni or college means a lot more happens online – from managing your courses to sorting out your money and social life. With so much going digital, it’s super important to know how to stay safe and avoid the common online risks.

The Church of St. Wilfrid’s invites you to share an evening of Christmas Music with Salvo Brass on Friday 28 November, 7.30pm in St. Wilfrid’s Church Kibworth

We will be taking delivery of new chairs for both Church and School Room around the end of October. Many of the old chairs will be available for anyone wishing to take away between one and 50. They are free of charge (although a nominal donation to the Methodist Relief Charity “All We Can” would be welcome). They consist of a varied mixture of upright hard plastic and upholstered chairs.

Billesdon Drama Society are to present ‘Over the Top’, a revue of war time songs and sketches to celebrate 80 years since VE Day

We have, largely, predictable seasons and live on an island on the edge of a continent. These factors lead to large amounts of seasonal natural history and to our noticing ‘firsts’. There are letters to The Times from people hearing their first cuckoo or nightingale each year and Delius chose to compose “On hearing the first Cuckoo in spring”. In common parlance “one Swallow does not a summer make”. Botanically we notice the first snowdrops to flower and base weather lore around the behaviour of trees; “Oak before the ash we’ll only get a splash; ash before the oak we’re sure to get a soak”, a reference to the timing of leaves appearing.

With the departure of Dillon`s Opticians from the Square in Kibworth, through the ill health of Pratish Solanki, known to so many as ‘Tish’, the Kibworth and District Chronicle area and indeed wider afield has lost (in concise premises) a homely, welcoming, trusted atmosphere, often accompanied by a cup of tea, conversation and importantly, a vast experience and practical knowledge of the optic world; in touch with developments internationally, and always guided by the needs of the eye rather than seeing spectacles as a fashion accessory. So many in the Chronicle area offer not only to Tish but his wife and to his daughter (also a qualified optician), thanks for the past and very best wishes for this early retirement on health grounds. As circumstances allow, he hopes to maintain contact with those he knew.