After attending the opening of
Dauncey Gardens in Melksham yesterday (the whole world was invited ;-) ), I went on to the Poulshot Village Fete in the afternoon. I'll tell you why as you read on.
Poulshot is one of the smaller villages - nearer to Devizes than Melksham - with the largest village green for miles, and yesterday it was carefully cut (and going brown in the sun!) for the village fete.
There's so much tradition at village fetes - the White Elephant, the beer tent, the book stall, the tombola, the plant stall - and of course the stand selling home made cakes, manned by the friendly local ladies. The WI, perhaps?
There are miniature rides for miniature people - often very much the modern set amongst the ancient - note the lovely thatched cottage; Poulshot has some remarkable old building around the green.
St John's Ambulance, and the Community Support Officers from the local police were on hand - but very much in a community support role and for public relations, I suspect - I can't imagine that Poulshot Village Fete would be a hotbed of crime!
Races were arranged on the grass for local children, with mums and dads encouraging their offspring on - none of the political correctness of "it's more important to take place than to win" when it's your kid running!
Many of the stalls were outside - and the weather was as it should be for a village fete - so hot that protection was needed from the sun.
Poulshot is included withing the "Melksham Community Area" (
[details]) and as a member of the steering group partnership, I popped along to the Fete to see Tim Jalland, who lives in Poulshot, running a display on behalf of the partnership.
This is the first summer that the MCAP has been in existance - it's related to unitary setup we have in Wiltshire, with an independent role to listen to the community and provide feedback to area boards and councillors. So one of the big reasons for being at this Fete - and other local events this summer too - is to let people know that MCAP is around, and that it can provide a route in to county. Here's Tim telling some of the Poulshot residents about the partnership.
With cream teas in the garden of the village hall ... what a very traditional village fete ...
... and all rounded off by pony rides on the green!
A lovely couple of hours for Gypsy and me in Poulshot - and thank you, Tim, for manning the booth. MCAP is far from people's minds on a barmy summer Saturday, but these village fetes are very much the one time that the whole village comes out and an opportunity to do a little bit of marketing and listening - that listening being very much the role we are set up for.
See
http://www.wellho.net/share/poulshot.html too.
(written 2010-06-27, updated 2010-06-28)
Associated topics are indexed as below, or enter http://melksh.am/nnnn for individual articles
M205 - Well House Manor - Kennet District [670] Architectural Heritage - Devizes - (2006-04-04)
[809] What to do during a Linux build - (2006-07-20)
[824] Pictures of Avebury, Longleat and Dyrham - (2006-08-06)
[825] Pictures of the Vale of Pewsey - (2006-08-07)
[854] Morgans Hill - (2006-09-03)
[861] Ballooning from Devizes - (2006-09-10)
[865] Catching the slope - (2006-09-14)
[935] Autumn leaves in Wiltshire - Potterne - (2006-11-21)
[1070] Java Deployment course - lunch break - (2007-02-07)
[1071] Making a mountain out of a molehill - (2007-02-08)
[1346] Evening, Devizes and Sells Green - (2007-09-11)
[1635] Spring in Devizes - (2008-05-08)
[1640] Walking on The Wiltshire Downs - (2008-05-12)
[1830] Caen Hill and Olivers Castle - (2008-10-10)
[1842] Lua Course, and the Wiltshire Countryside too - (2008-10-16)
[1846] Old Piles of the South West - (2008-10-18)
[1916] Why I remember East Grafton - (2008-12-02)
[2146] An evening excursion to Devizes and Avebury - (2009-04-30)
[2362] Thornham Farm Shop, Seend Cleeve, nr Melksham - (2009-08-15)
[2443] Contrasting Cambridge, Bristol and Wiltshire - (2009-10-08)
[2687] A lovely spring afternoon - (2010-03-21)
[3284] What to do in the evening during a Tcl course - (2011-05-10)
[3376] Kennet and Avon - Walk from Bedwyn to Pewsey. TransWilts day out. - (2011-08-01)
[3382] What is the picture? - (2011-08-08)
[3482] Taking a boat down Caen Hill Locks - (2011-10-15)
[4233] Open for the new year - Imber - (2013-12-31)
[4653] Coats of arms - towns and authorities in Wiltshire - (2016-02-21)
Some other Articles
Teaching examples in Perl - third and final partFresh Perl Teaching Examples - part 2 of 3Are you learning Perl? Some more examples for you!Recording (a macro) in viPoulshot Village FeteDauncey Gardens, MelkshamSharing our programs - easy. Sharing our data - harder.Melksham - a gem in WiltshireRuby - training for automated testing usersPerl course - is it tailored to Linux, or Microsoft Windows?