Category: News

Reports on recent events related to the village, e.g. school closed, icy roads, etc

Demolition crew unearths key to forgotten thousands

Demolition work is under way at the 80-year-old cement works at Barrington, where owner Cemex closed its manufacturing plant five years ago. Workmen pulling down buildings on an industrial site have found an old briefcase containing documents that could mean a windfall for a local charity. Continue reading Demolition crew unearths key to forgotten thousands

Memories of a Haslingfield Childhood – III

Nora Cannell apparently travelled to school every day on a bicycle that she shared with two others. She also had to carry with her her packed lunch, because there were no school meals during the first quarter of the twentieth century. She recalls one family from Cantelupe who brought “a grey, anaemic-looking mass” every day. Tom, the boy, regularly threw this mass against a brick wall at the school, where it failed to disintegrate (mass and wall!).

Nora was a dab hand at marbles and the spinning top, and regularly trundled hoops down the streets of the village. On Shrove Tuesdays children met at a specially-erected sweet stall near Camping Close and Glebe Road. During the three-day Whitsun Feast swing boats, sideshows and sweet stalls were erected on the village green. There was also a dancing booth, with a roped-in platform. Harvest time was also one of great joy for local children, but more of that next month. Happy Christmas!