Category Archives: Sparkle

28th March URC Jumble Sale cancelled

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URC Spring Jumble Sale OFF!

The sale scheduled for Saturday 28th March has been cancelled, for reasons that will be obvious.  Please do not bring donations for sale to the church on 27th March as previously requested but if possible keep them until we are able to resume our programme.  However, we have a limited amount of storage space, so if you have quality items that you are not able to keep please ring Richard Piper on 01895 634348 for possible collection.  Any shortfall in revenue that we have will not only be detrimental to the work of the church but also our external charities for the year: End Youth Homelessness, Dementia UK, Parkinson’s UK and Toybox.  Thank you for your continuing support!

Richard Piper

This year’s Festival cancelled

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This has been passed to me by Ickenham Residents’ Association:

 

The Ickenham Festival Team met today and we have made the decision to cancel this year’s Ickenham Festival (which was to be 6th June – 14th June 2020).

This is due to the ongoing coronavirus outbreak.

This decision has not been taken lightly, but we feel that the health of exhibitors, volunteers and the general public must come first.

The Government has prohibited large scale events, both indoor and outdoor.

If we now proceed, we feel that we could incur substantial losses that could jeopardise future Festival events.

It is also now impossible for the various Ickenham groups (Churches, School, Voluntary organisations etc.) to plan and commit to a June event.

Our business supporters have come under severe pressure, as their customer numbers and staff are reduced.

We intend to work towards the next Ickenham Festival and we appreciate all the support and help that we have received to date.

Any payments made to Ickenham Festival 2020 for pitches etc. will be refunded.

Starting in Autumn 2020 we will re-launch our series of traditional and new events to raise funds toward that aim.

Spring concert

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Hillingdon Philharmonic Orchestra Spring Concert

Sunday 8th March 2020 at 4.00pm

Winston Churchill Theatre, Manor Farm, Pinn Way, Ruislip, HA4 7QL

ANIMAL MAGIC
A concert of orchestral music for all the Family
Presented by Zena Wigram
Conductor: Peter Williams

Programme includes: Overture to Die Fledermaus, The Theme from the Pink Panther, Bright Eyes and excerpts from The Creation, The Carnival of the Animals and other animal favourites

Tickets at the Door Adults £8.00 under 16s £5 Family of 4 £22 from the Box Office: 01895 250615www.hillingdontheatres.uk or you can call 01895 674223

Save these dates for the next Concerts: Sunday 17th May, Saturday 20th June

Moon- and star-gazing next weekend

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A NEW WOLAS PUBLIC OBSERVING EVENT FOR 2020

The West of London Astronomical Society invites you to observe the Moon and stars from Ruislip Lido.
Friday 28th February – Sunday 1st March 2020 Time 7.00pm to 9.00pm.

If the sky is clear, a crescent moon will be visible, we may also be able to see objects including Venus, the Orion Nebula, the Seven Sisters star cluster, the Andromeda Galaxy and maybe the Crab Nebula.
Bring your family and friends. Members of WOLAS will be on hand using a variety of telescopes and will be able to answer any questions you may have.

Don’t forget to wear warm clothing and bring a torch. To prevent dazzling observers, please limit the brightness of your torch to your phone’s light or equivalent and point it down when on site.

On nights when observing is possible, the Turntable tea room will be open for refreshments, courtesy of the Lido Railway. Toilets are available.

Please visit our website for more information. A GO/NO GO call will be posted no later than 4pm each day.

Ruislip Lido is off Bury Street. Entry is via the gate adjacent to the car park at the end of Reservoir Road HA4 7TY

KEEP RIGHT ON ENTERING THE PUBLIC CAR PARK WHICH IS FREE FROM 6PM.

PLEASE AVOID THE PUB CAR PARK TO THE LEFT.

http://www.wolas.org.uk

Burns Night fun

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Ickenham Festival – Burns Night  – Sat 25th January 2020

 The Ickenham Festival Team will be holding their ever-popular “Burns Night” at Douay Martyrs School, Long Lane, Ickenham on Saturday 25th January 2020.

There will be a live Ceilidh Band with a caller for dancing, a Piper, a haggis supper (other meal options available) , dancing, and Burns poetry reading.  A great night out is promised for all.

Full details of tickets and booking are on the Ickenham Festival website at www.IckenhamFestival.org.uk  http://www.IckenhamFestival.org.uk  or contact Doug Neilson on 07516 984514.  Tickets can be bought online, by post, or in person.

Also see Twitter.com/IckFest and  FB.com/IckenhamFestival

URC Late Summer forecourt sale – September 7th

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Keep that holiday feeling going at the URC!

Yes, even when the holidays are over and most people are back at work or school there’s the Late Summer Forecourt Sale at the URC to look forward to! It’s on Saturday 7th September from 10am to 12 Noon, admission is free and there will be a range of stalls including plants, bric-a-brac, boxed games, DVDs/CDs etc and our full range of books priced from 50p to £5.

As a break from browsing and buying there will be coffee, tea and lovely homemade cakes as well. Please get there if you can, and if you have items to donate bring them to the church between 3pm and 7pm on Friday 6th or ring Richard Piper on 01895 634348 for collection.

Should the sun stop shining most things will be inside, but it has been shining on us in another sense as we are currently running over £500 ahead of where we were at this time last year, so many thanks from us and “our” good causes for all the support.

Last but not least, make sure that you note the date of 5th October for our Autumn jumble sale. The one earlier in the year raised a four figure sum and represented a new record for us and it would be nice to do it again!

Richard Piper

O to be a road steward!

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The Ickenham Residents’ Association’s (largely unsung) heroes are the volunteer road stewards who deliver the Ickenham Calling newsletter to our members and collect the subs once a year. This activity keeps Association members informed on a range of issues including HS2 of course, road safety and traffic, the fight against crime, health, conservation and green spaces,

Every so often, the Committee organises a thank you knees up. Well, not quite a knees up, more a quiz evening with food and drink thrown in (not literally).

We get a sprinkling of emails after the event from some of the attendees. They always seem to have a good time and appreciate the Committee’s efforts. (Not me, this year, I was away sadly.)

Here are just some of the comments we received from our 26th July event. We have mixed them up and preserved the writers’ anonymities.

They opened with comments like these:
“A really happy event.” “Most enjoyable.” “Such fun.” “A good evening.” “Enjoyable and good fun.” “Appreciated by all.” “Warm and welcoming.”

In the middle, they said things like:
“A good way to meet and greet lots of good friends and acquaintances.” “The food was really delicious.” “The quizzes were challenging and fun.” “The quiz was excellent.” “Much laughter and giggling as we wracked our brains.”

And, at the end, apart from lots of “thank you”s their closing remarks included:
“I do applaud the hard work that must have gone in.” “A great job.” “Such a success.” “We happily went home.”

Hope that last one wasn’t provoked by relief.

 

PS (If you fancy becoming a road steward, after reading this, you’d be very welcome. If so, please send us an email. Thank you.)

Litter picking report

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Report from David Porter:

NINETEEN public-spirited citizens of Ickenham turned out for today’s litter picking event on Ickenham Green. Students Luke and Ben from Glebe School and Fearne, Leo, Indy and Pippa from Breakspear School came with their parents. Their schools should be proud of them.

In one place in the Ickenham Green culvert there was a disgusting collection of pink plastic bags. Volunteers suspected these were filled with dog mess. Responsible dog ownership? “That (action of disposal) is worse than just leaving it on the ground,” commented local allotmenteer and volunteer Stuart. “Those bags will never decompose.”

Collectively, the litter pickers speculated what the punishment should be for such irresponsibility.

Whoever you are, please stop it! Take the product of your dog’s bodily functions away with you and dispose of them where they are not a danger to wildlife or residents in our superb village.

A tent, a dumped load of asbestos, tins, bottles, plastic bags, a bus direction sign and other rubbish were collected and put into 29 bags for collection by the council’s disposal team.

Ickenham Village should thank Carol, Bob, Erica, Steve, Barbara, Simon, Justin, Stuart, Simon, Indy, Pippa, Jeff, Luke, Ben, Kirsty, Fearne, Kevin and Leo for their help in making Ickenham a litter free zone.

Look what a difference volunteer litter pickers can make. Here are “before” and “after” pictures of the culvert at Ickenham. The pink bags (in the “before” picture) may contain dog mess.

 

And here are some of the volunteers who took part in the litter picking exercise on Ickenham Green today alongside the full disposal bags.