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Hello UpARA members,
Please Support our Next Fundraiser
Please support us on our next fundraiser Quiz Night… It is on Friday evening, November 11th. Teams of up to 8, bring your own drink and nibbles, £5 per person. Please book by Email at uparaupchurch@gmail.com If you want to come but haven’t a team, or if you have a team but need extras, please let us know and we will organise it. All proceeds to the Bell Tower Fund. It will be a good night!
Thank You
Thank you for attending and making the Race Afternoon Fundraiser at Upchurch Village Hall so much fun and such a success.
I would like to thank all those who gave their time, contributed cakes and sponsored/donated to some of the races.
Also, a big thank you to the local businesses who sponsored us:
Rainham
Upchurch
Professional Property Renovation & Maintenance - Upchurch
We are pleased to say that, after deducting the hall costs, we raised the terrific sum of £720.15.
This will be added to our running total towards the St Mary's Bell Tower Restoration Fund.
The Thoughts of Chairman John
Hi everyone,
The end of another hectic month, I can't believe how many activities we've undertaken over the last few weeks. This included the Badminton trial which was well subscribed albeit a bit too much on the same day as the Tennis! We will look to have another trial on a different day, early in the New Year.
The least publicised of our activities is the Monday Kurling, run by Ann Rolfe. How many of our members have thought of trying out an afternoon session of Kurling? As the name suggests, it's based on the actual "Curling" that we can watch at the Winter Olympic Games, where the participants all wear winter clothing and skim massive lumps of Granite, sweeping the ice to ensure it is guided to the winning position on the target! UpARA's version needs only to be pushed by means of a custom-made "Stick" hence a more leisurely game. Our Kurling equipment was one of our very first purchases when we first started as an ‘ARA’ back in 2014 - Why not give it a go - on the first Monday afternoon of the month, you will be pleasantly surprised, refreshments and chat included.
Our latest Friday Speaker Bob Ogley’s (Mr Kent) talk about the Great Storm was really well received. Being a great fan of Bob's, I took two books for him to sign and only returned with one, (did anyone pick up my Doodlebug one, by mistake?).
Regards
John W
Christmas Party
We still have a few tickets available for our Christmas Party on the evening of the 16th of December. Doors open at 6:45pm, with a 3-course meal being served from 7:15pm, and entertainment from the very talented ‘Leyton’ to follow; it promises to be a great festive evening as in previous years. Please Email us at uparaupchurch@gmail.com for more information.
London Walk - Soho
We are going to take our next London Walk on November 25th to Soho, which was going to be our next London Walk before we were curtailed back in March 2020. We will time this in order that we can also take in the Regents Street Christmas Lights. It will also be a chance to experience the new Elizabeth Line if you haven’t before. Please Email us at uparaupchurch@gmail.com if you are interested in joining us.
Lunch Club
The next Lunch Club will be on Tuesday the 8th of November in The Crown pub, no Lunch Club during December or January, please see Brenda for more details.
Please Note
Please Note: There are no activities in the Village Hall on the week beginning 27th November as the Upchurch Players are holding their performance of this year’s Pantomime, ‘Pinocchio’… Oh yes, they are!… Also, note that Petanque has reverted to its Winter start time of 1:00pm… And finally, for those on the Tinsel & Turkey Trip - Have a great Xmas & New Year!
November Calendar
Tuesday, November 1st at 9:30am - Coffee Morning and Art
Tuesday, November 1st at 2:00pm - Table Tennis
Wednesdays November 2nd, 9th, 16th, 23rd at 10:15am - Line Dancing
Friday, November 4th at 10:00am - Village Walk
Mondays November 7th, 14th, 21st at 10:00am - Short Tennis
Monday, November 7th at 2:00pm - Kurling
Tuesday, November 8th at 10:00pm - Ten Pin Bowling
Tuesday, November 8th at 12:30pm - Lunch Club at The Crown pub
Friday, November 11th at 2:00pm - Monthly Meeting
Carol Ann Wells, ‘Travels with my Piano’
Friday, November 11th at 7:00pm - Fundraiser Quiz Night
Monday 14th to Friday 18th - Tinsel & Turkey trip to Paignton, Devon
Tuesday, November 15th at 1:00pm - Petanque
Note Winter start time
Friday, November 18th at 10:00am - Village Walk
Tuesday, November 22nd at 9:30am - Coffee Morning and Art
Tuesday, November 22nd at 2:00pm - Table Tennis
Friday, November 25th - London Walk Soho
Good luck to our 3, 10 Pin Bowling teams at the KentARA competition on November 3rd.
Hopefully, see you all soon - your UpARA Committee.
Thank you
Charity Registration No: 606311
Elspeth Baecke
“Jubilate”
Saturday 26th November 2022
7:30pm in St Mary’s Church, Upchurch
Entry £10, under 18s free.
Our concert will include Mozart’s Coronation Mass and other seasonal items.
In addition, our soloists for the evening will be Sonare, a group of four singers who recently gave a stunning concert in St Mary’s.
Please come and join us!
This concert will be dedicated to the late Frank Osborne, who sang with our choir for many years with a delightful Tenor voice.
Refreshments will be available at the interval, courtesy of The Friends of St Mary’s.
For more information, contact UCS Secretary Sue Rossiter.
Sue Rossiter
Sponsored by Upchurch River Valley Golf Course Ltd
We have now packed up our worldly possessions and left Upchurch for a new life in Suffolk and have moved into temporary accommodation while we wait to complete on a cottage. It turns out that we have ventured just across the border into the Norfolk village of Burgh St. Peter. To Suffolk people, this is the equivalent of being on the wrong side of the A2. We are in a Park Home on the Waveney River Centre on the edge of the Norfolk Broads National Park. It comes with a marina on the Waveney River, a pub, a restaurant and a swimming pool. If it wasn’t for the Land Registry, we would have been here back in the Summer!
Each Lodge has a parcel of land, which has been landscaped with shrubs and grasses in the past. Like so many organisations in the leisure industry, they are struggling with staff levels, so I have set about the age-old task of weeding and pruning to try and get the landscaping back under control. In earlier years, the sea inundated this area, which then slowly silted up until there were just a number of tidal rivers and shallow lakes (broads) remaining. The soil here is drained marshland and incredibly sandy. In fact, the Eastern coast is very sandy, including the cliffs, which are eroding rapidly. Suffolk Coastal Council has now abandoned attempts to prevent coastal erosion as there is very little that can be done. As you move away from the coast, the soil becomes a heavy thick clay which will not be easy to work.
A mix of shrubs and grasses with a lot of weed!
There is no lawn here to worry about, just clumps of various coastal grasses. As the weeds are cleared and shrubs pruned, I will divide the grasses and fill the empty spaces. The Duchess has brought all her pot plants along, including a rather striking black grass which can be divided to add a bit of contrast. Cotoneaster is doing well in this soil, so the long green stems of the ground cover variety have been trimmed back to show off the bright red berries. This can be done with a lot of shrubs that produce berries this time of year, especially Pyracantha, which produces a mass of either red or yellow berries.
Other than tidying up the plot, cleaning down the outside of the Lodge and treating the wooden decking, there isn’t much to do until we can move into the Cottage. Now is the time to start planning the new garden and to think about seeds for next year. A key part of the garden will be a vegetable patch, and being a bit of a survivalist this is becoming more important to me. Without trying to be gloomy, it is reasonable to say that energy and food inflation is becoming a serious problem. As far as food inflation is concerned, a kitchen garden can provide some of the answers. I am looking to develop a vegetable patch that can provide seasonal vegetables all year round, which can then be propagated from their own seed. Some vegetables are suitable for storage e.g. Potatoes, but with the introduction of a wider range of Winter/Spring plants, it should be possible to harvest fresh vegetables for 12 months of the year. Whether those hybrid plants will come good from their own seed I have yet to find out. Anyway, that’s the objective, I just need to decide on the seeds required for the first year.
I hope everybody is well in Upchurch and that UHS continues to thrive as life skills like gardening seem to be less popular among younger people these days. That may change in the future, and the experience and know-how of active growers may become an asset to local communities.
As I look out over the marshes towards the river, a thick mist has rolled in and dampened everything. Which reminds me that I need to put a few Ghost Ship beers in the fridge if I want a chilled one this evening… ONE!
UHS is always looking for new members and tries to encourage a fun attitude towards friendly competition. So if you want to grow your own fruit, vegetables, and flowers or even enter any of the shows we hold each year, please get in touch. We would be happy to hear from you.
Sean Barry - Upchurch Horticultural Society
From 8:30pm
Free Entry - Non-Members Welcome
Jenny Giles - Upchurch River Valley Golf Course
Telephone: 01634 360626
Hartlip, Newington & Upchurch Ward
Crime Number: 46/207006/22
Between 20:00 and 23:59 on Friday the 21st of October, somebody stole a phone from a residential property during a party in Frank Apps Close, Newington.
Crime Number: 46/208993/22
On Saturday the 29th of October at around 23:42, somebody damaged a Range Rover parked on the road in Oak Lane, Upchurch.
If you have any information that could help investigators, please contact Kent Police on telephone number 101 and quote the relevant crime number above.
For more information on crime prevention visit: www.kent.police.uk
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