SPRING is obviously a little late this year, since the community has not fully sprung into action in their support of recent Martinstown village events.

The Valley Club had to cancel their barn dance due to a disappointing slump in ticket sales, for I gather only four were sold in the village shop.

All is not lost for plans are afoot to hold another ‘take your partners’ barn dance in the autumn, which hopefully will be a resounding success.

  • THERE will be encouragement to restructure one’s plots with a talk on garden design by James Foster- Pegg at 8pm in the village hall on Monday, March 16. Even more rewarding will be the 25 per cent discount evening for members on Monday, April 20 at 6.30 pm at the Poundbury Garden Centre.
  • LENTEN lunches are taking place each Friday in the village hall at 12.30pm. A nice ploughman’s lunch amidst good company is an easy, painless way of helping a good cause at the same time.
  • THE valley parishes have been found a new shepherd with the appointment of Rev Prebendary John Good as the Team Vicar. John and his wife, Rebecca, will be warmly welcomed when they take up residence in April. He will be licensed as priest- in-charge at a service in St Martin’s Church on Friday, May 22 at 7.30pm. No doubt there will be standing room only on this auspicious occasion.
  • WI MEMBERS were recently held spellbound by Chris Shaw when she spoke on her travels in Rajasthan and the Pushkar Camel Fair. Her excellent slides provided a wonderful backup to her fascinating talk about a world completely beyond our imagination. The next WI meeting tonight (9) will see Mrs N Arnold give a demonstration of Italian cookery at 7.45 in the village hall. Visitors are welcome to attend.
  • RECENTLY certain Martinstown residents held their breath and no doubt crossed their fingers as water levels rose in the village and valley fields. Thankfully no one was flooded although a small pool appeared in front of the village shop when some repair work was being carried out by one of the public facilities.

Some of the residents at the eastern end of the village became apprehensive as the stream levels rose to cover their storm water drain outlets. However all was well this time round.

  • BEST wishes from the community to those residents who have not been well. All are now home for some necessary TLC which is good news, as is the fact that Sheila is now mobile again thanks to a long awaited repair job on her buggy.