The next Bear pub quiz will be on Sunday August 11 (they're always on the second Sunday of the month, unless England fluke their way to a football final which happens to be held on the same evening).
July's event was sold out, with various teams having to be turned away, so it's a good idea to book your table early. It's only £2 per person to enter, with all the money collected going to a village charity*. As well as a lot of fun, you also get a delicious steak pie and peas supper free of charge, courtesy of Stefan and Lou. As the poster says, reserve your table at the bar, or by calling 01453 702353. *July's quiz raised £89 for All Saints Church; August's will raise money for the Community Speedwatch project. If you know of a good cause in the village which could do with a (small) boost, please email the webmaster.
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Last night's meeting was well-attended, and lots of people had their say about the issue of parking and speeding in High Street.
Most of the discussion focused on speeding (echoing the results of a survey undertaken by the Parish Council, which found that very few respondents were bothered by the parking situation). Opinions differed among villagers as to how serious an issue the speeding actually is. Some said that they didn't really think it was an issue, though they tended to live further down the street towards the Wells. One villager who lives near to the Post Office was particularly exercised about cars diverting off Cheltenham Road into High Street at The Stirrup Cup, and it does seem that whatever problem there is is mostly at that point. Martin Brown provided data compiled by Highways which showed that the vast majority of drivers using High Street are either at or below the 20mph limit. However, a small number of drivers do exceed the speed limit, if not by much, particularly in the mornings and afternoons. For obvious reasons, it's hard to ascertain why these particular people are speeding at those particular times, but the consensus appears to be that they're probably rushing through Bisley to work after dropping off at a school outside the village, or rushing back to the village to pick up from our school. In either case, it seems at least possible that the small number of drivers who are causing whatever issue there is are not even Bisley residents. That does leave open the question of what to do about them. One suggestion put forward by the Parish Council was to close High Street at the Stirrup Cup junction. This was decisively and nearly unanimously rejected on a show of hands, with people making various objections, including that it would inconvenience law-abiding residents and other drivers, and would also only shift the traffic elsewhere. It would also make the snarl-ups opposite The Stirrup Cup worse than they already are. A further ground for rejection was that of cost: it would cost in the region of £25,000 to seek and gain permission to close the road there and carry out whatever works were needed, and this would have to come mostly (perhaps entirely) from village fundraising. A woman who pointed out that there was little chance of getting the village to fundraise for something designed to inconvenience villagers received a fairly rousing cheer. The possibility was discussed of introducing into High Street a Speed Watch camera similar to that now installed on Cheltenham Road; leaving aside that these do not produce enforceable evidence, High Street is apparently unsuitable for such cameras because there isn't the necessary line of sight. A number of people wanted proper Gatso-style speed cameras placed at various points around the village but it was made very clear by Martin and Roger Utley, who co-chaired the meeting, that they are simply too expensive and will not be approved. Other suggestions included: - making the Stirrup Cup junction one-way - installing a stop sign there - closing High Street at the cemetery junction - making High Street accessible to residents only with surveillance cameras to enforce - installing more and different signage - introducing a 10mph limit in High Street - and introducing traffic calming measures such as sleeping policemen. This onlooker got the feeling that they would all be controversial, and probably impossible (for reasons of funding, if nothing else). This is a personal opinion, and made by someone who doesn't live in High Street (though I use it regularly), but it did feel to me as though this is not a terribly serious problem, and insofar as it is a problem it is probably insoluble by any means that would make everyone (and perhaps anyone) happy. One woman made the point that she has lived in the village for many years (she may have said all her life) and that she didn't want its streets despoiled by garish signs, road calming measures, cameras, and the like. This was a position with which I sympathised; you can get all this in cities, and one of the reasons people moved here, or grew up here and didn't leave, is because of the character of the place. My family and I certainly feel immensely privileged to live here, and we love it the way it is! It seems to me that we need to find a way to persuade anti-social drivers, who may not live in the village, to adhere to the speed limit. This is not easy, or else everyone would be doing it everywhere. We ended not much further forward, but at least the meeting was held and people had the opportunity to comment. The Parish Council will circulate its own minutes in due course, and will think further about what, if anything, is to be done. - DC Note from the Parish Council: An open meeting to discuss problems with traffic and parking in Bisley High Street – and to come up with possible solutions– will be held at the Village Hall on Tuesday June 25. It starts at 7pm, and all residents of the village are invited to attend and participate. Next two pub quizzes at The Butchers Arms - Monday June 24 and Monday July 8.
Bisley teams should get over there and show them how it's done! Fresh from hosting the Flower Show summer wine and canapés evening last Friday (a fantastic event which looks to have raised close to £1,000 towards the cost of the Flower Show marquee), John and Elizabeth Cowen once again throw open the doors to their lovely house this coming Saturday (June 22nd) for the Bisley Local History Group.
Overcourt is an ancient manor house built in a delightful mixture of styles - part 14th century (and famously once the property of the successive wives of Henry VIII, with additions made throughout the centuries. It's obviously steeped in history. John and Elizabeth have kindly agreed to give tours of the house, and tea and cake will be available in the gardens. TIME: 2pm to 5pm. PARKING: school car park. ENTRY: £10 (payable at the gate) to include tea and cakes. Numbers will be limited, so please reserve your place or places as soon as possible by emailing [email protected]. For any further information please ring Ashley Dickenson 07899 878926. Note from Bisley Community Speedwatch:
The village now has a permanently-installed camera to detect speeding vehicles. More than 50% of vehicles on the Cheltenham Road exceed the speed limit, with at least 10% over 40mph in a 30mph zone. Registration numbers of offenders will be reported to the police. Please help to keep our villages safe by obeying speed limits. Note from webmaster: We're investigating the possibility of installing another camera on Bisley Road (leading from the village past The Bear and out through Stancombe and down to Stroud). Going on both the naked eye and the occasionally-installed speed sign, people routinely break the 20mph limit in the village, and the 30mph limit when it begins by Little Close; neither Cheltenham Road nor Bisley Road have footpaths in places, and drivers seem to think they can put their foot down once they get the the allotments. Our cat Monty was run over outside our house (we saved him and his leg - at significant cost - never mind the pain and distress he suffered), and people have come close to being hit, as well. It's extremely anti-social and irritating, not least because it's often deliberate; while it's very easy to hit 35mph in a 30mph without really noticing, no-one hits 50mph and doesn't know it. Slow down for Monty! Note from Bisley-with-Lypiatt Parish Council:
An open meeting to discuss problems with traffic and parking in Bisley High Street - and to come up with possible solutions –will be held at the Village Hall on Tuesday June 25. It starts at 7pm, and all residents of the village are invited to attend and participate. ++CLOSE TO 100 TICKETS SOLD ALREADY - MORE AVAILABLE!++
++NB - if, as seems possible, the weather is on the damp side, the house will be open and the action will move indoors ++ The annual Bisley Flower Show summer drinks and canapés evening is coming up. It's always great fun, and a great way to meet old friends and make new ones in the grounds of one of Bisley's most beautiful houses, Over Court (near the church). Lots of great home-made nibbles, lashings of vino (including your first glass free), and lots of good chat - it's the best £8 you'll spend in June! Tickets from Lou or Ollie on the numbers below, or via this link. Truculent Manc popstar and Britpop enfant terrible Liam Gallagher was apparently spotted in Bisley recently, though we can rest easy - it seems he has moved to the area, but to Selsley, which, for non-locals, is four or five miles away near Stroud. Far enough. (For older villagers, Gallagher was the lead singer of the 1990s Beatles tribute act and musical beat combo, Oasis, m'lud, best known for the feud between Liam and his guitarist brother Noel and a few admittedly good songs.) The rumour is Liam is now renting Stanley Park, which was built in the 1800s for Sir Samuel Stephens Marling - the cloth magnate and Liberal MP for Stroud who lent his name to the boys' grammar school in the town.
The main reason for sharing this non-story though is to link to this interesting site showing the state the place was in in 2014, and, conversely, what it's like now. Some renovation job, that! The Saint Cecilia Singers - the very highly-regarded chamber choir of Gloucester cathedral - are in Bisley this coming weekend to perform ‘The Bisley Boy'.
For the uninitiated, apocryphal local legend has it that the ‘virgin queen', Elizabeth I, was actually a man from Bisley, having as a child replaced the-then nine year old Princess Elizabeth after she drowned in a well at Overcourt House. There is some grounding in fact: in 1542 she was indeed staying at Overcourt, her father Henry VIII having ordered that she be removed to the countryside to escape an outbreak of plague in London. Fearful of Henry's wrath at the death of his daughter, her guardians found a small boy from Bisley who could be passed off as the young Elizabeth, and Henry never noticed. The legend has been dramatised in music and song and will be staged at All Saints Church at 7.30pm on Saturday May 11. Tickets are available priced £20 (admission is free for under-16s) via this link or by cash and card on the day. Tomorrow (Thursday May 9) will see the 161st Ascension Day Well Dressing.
Started in 1863 by the village's then vicar, Rev Thomas Keble, it was organised as a way to give thanks for Bisley's fabulous, gushing, and, importantly, clean spring water - an interesting reminder of a time before the days of tap water and antibiotics, when death in childhood was commonplace. It's also interesting in that this is a much more common practice in the Derbyshire Peaks - as far as we know, we are the only village in Gloucestershire which has this tradition. As ever, it will be led by the children of Bisley Blue Coat Church of England Primary School. The flowers will be available to see in the school playground before the church service, which starts next door at 1.30pm, and will be followed by the procession to the wells for the dressing at 2pm, and then tea and cakes in the village hall courtesy of the WI. Here's a link to some photos from last year's event. |
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