The Parish Magazine
November '25
BERWICK ST JAMES
BERWICK GIRLGUIDING CENTRE
We thought it would be good to update you on another busy year at our Girlguiding Centre. During 2025, our volunteers have been continuing to maintain and upgrade the centre, funded by some kind bequests and income from Launch2Learning.
The area where the old wooden classroom was, has been levelled and sown with grass seed. We have the addition of a new covered outdoor washing up area with deep sinks and draining areas which has been officially opened this summer. Further work has been done to improve drainage across the site and complete the resurfacing of the car park and driveways, with special thanks to local farmer, Mike who has removed the old and unwanted materials, and repaired the entrance gate for us.
lt has been great to see old friends returning and new groups enjoying the facilities at the Girlguiding Centre. The summer bookings have been good, with local Guides and Brownies camping and staying in the house, some visiting from further afield, a couple of private events and Duke of Edinburgh Award camps. We have also welcomed hirers from the village, including the annual Harvest Supper evening.
Our volunteers have worked tirelessly to ensure that the centre is maintained to a high standard, we are now actively seeking people for a paid role, ideally from the local community. We are looking for a maintenance person for the centre. For further information please email [email protected] .
We would also welcome someone from the community to join our Berwick Management Committee. We hold 8 or 9 meetings each year which are usually held at the Centre with others being Zoom during the winter months. We thank the community for being our "extra pair of eyes", your support to the centre is very much appreciated, and we look forward to seeing some of you during 2026. If you would like to make a visit to the site, please email [email protected] .
CHURCH NEWS
We had a great time at the Harvest Supper, it was lovely to have so many children there. Many thanks to Jane, Janey, Wendy and all the cooks, thanks to the Raffle Ticket sellers, setters up and cleaners and everyone who came and helped, and, of course, thanks to Bill for the organization. The event made a surplus of £164 which has been divided between the Trussell Trust and our church.
In November we have our two regular services, Holy Communion at 9.30a.m. on Sunday 2nd and a Matins service at 11.00a.m. on Sunday 16th.
As mentioned in last month’s magazine, there will also be a Remembrance Sunday service at 10.50 a.m. on Sunday 9th November, when we will pay thanks to those who paid the ultimate sacrifice in the First and Second World wars. This service rotates around the five churches in the southern end of the Till Valley (South Newton, Great Wishford, Stapleford, Berwick St James and Winterbourne Stoke) so it is held in Berwick every five years.
Everyone is welcome.
THE READING ROOM CHRISTMAS FAYRE
We would like to invite you all to the Reading Room Christmas Fayre on
SATURDAY 22ND NOVEMBER starting at 10.30am.
FREE tea, coffee and soft drinks, and your first mince pie of the season! There will be a Great Raffle, Fabulous Tombola, lovely Christmas Stall, Tasty Cakes, Biscuits and other produce, Bargain Children gifts, also Cards and Gifts by Ellie O’Neill-Street, Pottery by Caroline Ainsworth, Cards by Jane Rowe. Also plant arrangements by Christine which will be sold in aid of Cancer Research.
Cash only please (the internet is still not sorted!)
The Reading Room will be open for donations on FRIDAY 21st from 3 – 4pm. We would very much welcome prizes for the Raffle and Tombola, Christmas items, and especially cakes, mince pies, biscuits, other produce…….
Or you can leave stuff at The Dairy House (in the garage by the eggs), or contact Nicky [email protected] 790309, or text or WhatsApp 07989 722112. I can collect if it helps!
TEA and CAKE and CHAT
The November Tea and Chat is on Tuesday 4th from 2.30 to 4pm. Everyone is very much welcome – there is no charge.
We will have tea cakes or crumpets in the cold weather – we have a toaster now. So come along and enjoy tasty and warm tea cakes in great company (especially if you are there!).
Cheese & Wine Village Get-together
Thursday 6 November: From 7.00pm-8.30pm at The Reading Room.
As winter sits just over the time horizon, we are organising an evening get-together. This is in place of a more formal meeting and is open not just to those who might attend the usual Village Meetings. We do not see the need to plan and prepare to hold a formal Village Meeting until January 2026, however this social evening with cheese and wine will give us the opportunity to catch up and chat about village matters.
If you are yet to let us know if you can attend, please email:[email protected]. We look forward to seeing as many of you as possible.
Julian, Bill and Carolyn.
ART APPRECIATION IN BERWICK-ST-JAMES
The last presentation of the year will take place in the Reading Room, opposite the Boot Inn on Thursday 4th December, commencing at 7.30, when the subject will be “The Art of the Fin de Siecle”, the period of the “Turn of the Century”; the last decade of the 19th century, when European society was in great flux, coinciding with an out pouring of ideas, literature and visual art.
From the Aesthetic Movement, Art Nouveau and the Vienna Secession to symbolism and Post Impressionism, the European capitals, especially Paris, Brussels, and Vienna, were a magnet for revolutionary and transformative artistic expression. Artists as diverse as Edward Burne Jones, Whistler, Gustav Moreau, Gauguin, Seurat, Munch, Odilon Redon, Klimt and Toulouse Lautrec, to name but a few, produced images of angst, mystery, beauty and decadence, the most iconic of which we will explore.
And, Just a minder that the second presentation, Mythology into Art, will take place on Thursday, 30th October in the Reading Room in Berwick-St-James, commencing 7.30 with entry available from 7.15pm; a donation of £5 for the Reding Room Fund at the door, to include a glass of wine, beer or soft drink.
For further information, please see the Berwick-St-James Village website, or email Brian Armstrong at [email protected]
PLANT PRODUCE and FLOWER TABLE supporting C.R.UK
Hello villagers and neighbouring villages.
Where did the growing season go..all too fast, its now put the garden to bed time. Oh well I suppose that gives us the time to start plotting and planning for the spring lets hope we don’t have the dry summer we have had this year.
I don’t often talk about wildlife in the mag but I will ask you caring gardeners to be vigilant when doing that tidy up as there are late litter hedgehogs about I have a few in my garden.
I look forward to tallying up our raised funds for 2025 but not quite finished yet, I will be having a table of plants at our annual Christmas Fayre on the 2nd November in the Reading Room. I hope you can pop in the support the wonderful crafts and other things that will be going on and of course have cake and a cuppa.
Yours Aye Christine.
THE LIFE OF SWANS ON THE RIVER TILL IN BERWICK ST JAMES
by Mark Geffryes
Over the last 30 years there have been lots of swans visiting our stretch of the River Till. Some have stayed for a few seasons; some have bred here, and some visited briefly before being encouraged to leave. From 2013 until last year, we had a dominant pair (easy to recognise from their Darvic rings – P2X and P3L).
Swans are said to “mate for life”. However, female P2X was first seen in spring 2011 with male P3D and stayed with him until autumn 2013 when she traded him in for younger male P3L. Each year this pair has nested on the island (at the north end of the village) and successfully raised many cygnets. They have also patrolled the river to keep other swans/geese away. In spring 2025 P2X paired up with a younger male (no identifying Darvic ring) and raised 7 cygnets. Identifying swans has become more difficult in the last 10 years as new swans haven’t been ringed.
In early summer 2025 a young pair (probably previous year’s cygnets) turned up. Mid-summer P3L returned on his own and also another (different) young pair arrived with 3 cygnets. By August P3L was accompanied by a female with 2 cygnets – probably the one first seen with a mate and 3 cygnets. Not sure what happened to her mate. Cygnets (especially the males) do tend to drift away from the family group from late summer as they reach adult size and gain white feathers.
This year, with the dry period reducing the river level and with the bridge repairs, the swans’ territory has been altered and possibly leading to more swans. Naturally with 4 distinct groups, on our short stretch of river, there have been “territory disputes” and swans are very territorial especially when with cygnets. In mid-summer P3L had moulted (annual process of renewing feathers when swans cannot fly or look impressive to competition) and was regularly attacked by P2X and her new mate. In September, once P3L had regrown a full set of feathers, the tables were turned and he could be seen chasing 9 swans (2 adults and 7 cygnets) up or down the river.
It is too early to know how these groups will interact in the long term.
WILDLIFE WATCH
A Great White Egret was seen in north Berwick on 25th September.
It has been a very good autumn for beech mast, acorns, conkers and berries. It is called a Mast Year. It typically happens when a warm, sunny spring and summer promotes good pollination and fruit development leading to a bumper crop.