Winner of Upchurch’s Co-op - Picnic Summer Raffle - Amount Raised and Thank You

Congratulations to Louise, winner of Upchurch’s Co-op - Picnic Summer Raffle.

Thanks to everyone who bought tickets ☺️

You helped us raise £100 for our chosen charity this year, MIND - the mental health and support charity.

Please keep a lookout for future raffles and events to come, both instore and online.

Read more about MIND at: www.mind.org.uk

Thank you 

Sally Butcher - Upchurch’s Co-op

Changes to Upchurch Surgery Times on Wednesday 19th August

Dr Supriya Das & Dr Lakshmi Subbiah

Upchurch Surgery will be closed on the afternoon of Wednesday 19th August but will be open between 10:00am until 1:00pm instead.

Surgery opening times on Thursday 20th August remain 3:00pm until 6:00pm as advertised.

Sorry for any inconvenience.

Please call NHS 111 if you require urgent medical care.

Ray Kemsley

Chair - Surgery Patient Participation Group - Upchurch & Rainham

Emergency Road Closure - Poot Lane, Upchurch

It will be necessary to close Poot Lane, Upchurch from Thursday 13th August 2020 for up to 5 days.

The road will be closed at Ham Green Farm House, Poot Lane.

The alternative route is via Poot Lane and The Street.

This is to enable water pipe repairs to be carried out by Southern Water.

For information regarding this closure, please contact Kent County Council on:

03000 418181 (9:00am - 5:00pm)

03000 419191 (5:00pm - 9:00am)

For details of roadworks see: https://one.network

Kent County Council - Highways, Transportation & Waste

Iconic Upchurch Phone Box is Now Fully Restored, Ready for VJ Day 75

A neglected phone box at the end of Crosier Court has been sympathetically restored and is now worthy of this great British icon again.

Stood in the same spot for 30 years, it has become the most photographed landmark in Upchurch other than St. Mary's Church, and has prompted many a small child to ask their parents “what is it and why is it there?”

This type K6 phone box was designed to commemorate the silver jubilee of King George V in 1935 and was sometimes known as the “Jubilee Kiosk” when it went into production in 1936.

The K6 was the first red telephone kiosk to be extensively used outside of London, and many thousands were eventually commissioned in nearly every town and city across Britain, replacing most of the existing kiosks and establishing thousands of new sites.

In 1935 there were 19,000 public telephones across Britain, by 1940, thanks to the K6, there were 35,000. They survived the bombing during WW2 and served as a focal point in many towns and villages. Alas due to mobile phones only a few remain in place today.

Thanks to Kent Trade Frames for donating the new glass and everybody for their encouraging compliments on how smart the phone box looks now my restoration is complete.

If you'd like to take a look for yourself and maybe pose for a photo, please come and see me over the VJ Day 75 commemoration weekend.

Jim McAlpin

Upchurch Village Hall - AGM

As you are aware, the village hall has been closed since the start of the Covid-19 lockdown last March. In line with the Governments guidelines, the Trustees are now planning to re-open it again in October and prior to doing so, to hold their AGM as required by the village hall’s Trust Deeds. The date set for this meeting is Wednesday 9th September.

Unfortunately, because of the risk to public health due to COVID-19 and following Government guidelines to minimise social contact through public gatherings the Trustees have decided to hold this meeting without the public being in attendance.

However, notwithstanding this, the village hall Trustees are now inviting members of the public to submit any questions or comments that they have in respect of the village hall. These will then be dealt with at the AGM and a response made back direct to the Initiator. Following the meeting, Trustees plan to issue the minutes of the AGM on Upchurch Matters Facebook page and in the Gabriel village magazine if back in publication, along with details of any questions or issues raised by the general public along with the Trustees responses.

Please submit any questions, queries or comments you may have in respect of the village hall through the contact page on the village hall website at upchurchvillagehall.weebly.com to be received by Tuesday 8th September at the latest.

Thank you

The Upchurch Village Hall Management Committee

Making Miracles - COVID-19 Family Support

Making Miracles, a local Kent and Medway registered charity established over 6 years ago, has responded to the Coronavirus pandemic and is now also able to offer free bereavement and trauma counselling and other support services to residents in your local area.

We usually provide this counselling for families who have suffered miscarriage/baby loss but given that many people’s mental health will be severely affected by the loss of a loved one and probably not being able to visit them in hospital, say goodbye or attend a funeral, we felt that we needed to use our professionally qualified team of counsellors with experience of loss to help people through this pandemic.

In addition for anyone who has suffered a miscarriage or baby loss, please also remember that we continue to provide 6 free professional counselling sessions to both the mother, father, couple, grandparent or siblings (through play therapy) by our professionally qualified team of counsellors, and should you wish to refer anyone for this service please contact the team.

If you would like to know more or have any questions, please feel free to come back to me or visit our website: www.makingmiracles.org.uk

Thank you

Hayley Spooner