Local News  

This week  includes football updates, planning issues go to court, satnavs, local council grants and some spectacularly bad driving and parking.

Local Events – see below

Local Activities

Guide to Local Courses in September includes a wide variety of art, craft, cookery, music, drama, dance, language, IT, fitness, sport, adventure, dog training, wellbeing activities in our local area. More have been added since we emailed the Guide on Thursday and the post will be updated as necessary in the future. Here are some highlights:

For Adults
• Spanish Learning Club in Wickham. New Courses  start w/c Mon 4 Sept for Complete Beginners, Beginners Plus and Intermediate. Also monthly Spanish Conversation Club. Contact Angela on [email protected] or 07557 226 541.  “Angela is a very knowledgeable teacher, friendly too! Highly recommended!”  Simon Lobo-Morell
• Sewing & Dressmaking Workshops with Silvia at Sewing Playground in Hungerford
• Ballroom, Latin & Sequence Dance Weekly Beginner classes in Boxford (start Mon 11 Sept), Lambourn (start Tues 12 Sept) . Contact Alison on 07780 624 784 or at [email protected] for more details.
• Ignition Tennis coaching for all ages & abilities in Chieveley, Hungerford, Kingsclere, Kintbury, Malmesbury, Newbury (at Park House School) Stockcross and Woodland (Tilehurst).
• Dog Training for Working Breeds Small, relaxed fortnightly classes on good manners, basic commands, steadiness and retrieving.  Starts Weds 13 Sept (1.30-4pm) or Weds 20 Sept (10am–12.30pm) in Marlborough.  Contact Jill on 07901 651 663 or [email protected].

For Kids 
• Music activities at Hogan Academy in Newbury next week: World Drumming, Guitar Maintenance, Drum Tuning. Term time: wide range of music tuition from inspiring teachers who are performers in their own right
• Matt Ward Karate for 4-7 years and 8-15 years in Swindon, Royal Wootton Bassett, Wroughton, Oare, Ashbury Chilton Foliat, Lambourn and Pewsey
• Youth Theatre for 4-19 years at the Corn Exchange Learning Centre in Newbury. No auditions. Various age groups.
• NYT (Newbury Youth Theatre) for 14-21 years who perform at the Edinburgh Fringe every summer to rave reviews. No audition. Rehearsals start Weds 13 Sept. Email [email protected] for an application form.
• Young Firefighter Programme for 12-16 years at Newbury Fire Station

Recommendations

• Roger recommends Butler Toll Financial Advice: “They explain everything carefully and demystify jargon for the lay person. I am glad to have found them.”

• Amanda recommends The Harrow in Little Bedwyn: “We have eaten at many Michelin-starred restaurants and I would rate this as one of the best.”

Items

• Outdoor party games for loan (including hooplah, deck quoits and a set of wooden nine-pins with three balls) by Lambourn Festival Committee

• Two framed and mounted maps, of Gloucestershire and Northumberland, reproductions of John Speed’s maps from 1610. Frame approx 55cm x 44cm. Donation to Penny Post requested. Email [email protected] or call 01488 648 110.

• Two tabby kittens wanted – please reply to this email.

Property

To Rent
• Hungerford: a three-bedroom family house with garage. See Nina Clark Lettings for more details
• Froxfield: a newly-refurbished three-bed semi-detached house with lovely rural views and driveway parking. Available now. Unfurnished. See Nye & Co. for more details
• Hungerford: a spacious two-bed first-floor maisonette a moment’s walk from the High Street. £725pcm. Available early September. See Nye & Co. for more details
• Kintbury: two-bed semi-detached house with garage, £875pcm available immediately. See Nye & Co for more details.
• Hungerford: recently refurbished house one double bedroom, occasional bedroom/study, residents parking. See Nina Clark Lettings for more details
• Kintbury: a double-bedroom annexe to let on the outskirts of Kintbury, available by the night or for longer periods. For more details, please click here.
• Hungerford: a newly built, immaculately presented, detached three-bedroom house situated a short walk from the town centre. See Nye & Co. for more details
• Hungerford: a two-bedroom first-floor flat situated a short walk from the town centre. See Nye & Co. for more details

For Sale
• Hungerford: Hopgrass Open Barn £595,000 with Nye & Co.

Special Offers

• Great midweek specials at The Swan in Great Shefford

• Thinking of getting a puppy? Jill Thorpe from Develop Your Dog is offering free ½ hour telephone consultation during September to give advice on how to go about searching for the right puppy or breeder for people who have decided they want a puppy and book a home visit for once the puppy has arrived. Contact Jill on [email protected] 07901 651 663

Local Jobs

See the Penny Post website for local jobs including:
Restaurant Manager and Bar and Restaurant Staff, Great Shefford • Recreation Assistant, Hungerford • Skin Clinic Receptionist, near Aldermaston • Freelance Digital Marketing Manager• Chef, Wickham • Commis Chef, Hungerford • Gardener, Uffington • Domestic Housekeeping Staff, Hungerford • Care Assistants, Froxfield • Front of House Staff and Night Porter, both in Hungerford • Hair Stylist, Kintbury • Housekeeper, Hungerford • Part-time Bookkeeper, Hungerford • Part-time Audio Secretary, near Bedwyn • Full-time Bar and Waiting Staff, Shefford Woodlands • A range of catering and hospitality career opportunities, Chilton Foliat • Gardener/ Groundsman/ Maintenance Person, Wantage • Volunteer AONB Ambassadors, throughout the area • Nursing and Domiciliary Care Staff, Letcombe Regis

Local Businesses 

Animals & Agriculture • Automotive • Family Life •  Food & Drink •  Health, Beauty & Wellbeing • House & Garden • Legal & Professional • IT, Media & Web • Visual & Performing Arts • Retailers • Travel & Tourism • Tuition & Training

Charity Plugs

• on Saturday 2 October my sons and I are doing the Nuts Challenge assault course to raise the funds for our trip to Upper West Ghana in February with Action Through Enterprise. If you would like to support us please click link for details. Thank you!

• If you would like a table or want to donate any items to the Lambourn RDA (Riding for the Disabled) Tabletop sale in Lambourn Memorial Hall on Sat 16 Sept please contact Judy on 07984 450 935.

• “What better way,” Ray Collins of the Ray Collins Charitable Trust asks, “to spend a late summer evening than to be strolling through the beautiful Oxfordshire countryside in the company of family or friends?” Sounds good to me. Click here to see how this bucolic activity plans to raise at least £2,000 for his charity.

• The Rose of Hungerford canal boat is in urgent need of more .Boatmasters. The Kennet & Avon Canal Trust will pay for all training involved in exchange for Boatmasters skippering regular trips with the Trust for five years.  Although this would be voluntary work, qualified Boatmasters can also skipper other public trip boats so, this qualification could lead to paid employment.

• See this week’s Local News for a list of just some of the people who’ve helped to raise money for good causes recently (if you know of any person or organisation that deserves a mention in this way, let us know).

Four Wheeled Friends 

• Elite Garage Service on Turnpike Industrial Estate in Newbury now offers tyre replacement service so you can get everything you need done on your car in one place

• Drivers are urgently needed to take young carers from across West Berkshire to and from Newbury on Monday evenings. This could be in your own car or in West Berkshire’s Young Carers nine-seater mini bus. Please click here if you can help.

Green Fingers

• Cold Ash Horticultural Annual Summer Show, Plant and Produce Sale Sat 9 Sept at Acland Hall. Open to public 2-4.30pm. Free entry. Non members welcome to enter. Entry forms available from Cold Ash Post Office

• Don’t forget to keep harvesting those caterpillars off your cabbages! Haven’t found a recipe for them yet…and our chickens aren’t event interested in them

• Good luck to the judges of this year’s Newbury in Bloom competition which has had even more entries than last year – 42 to be precise – from local businesses, primary schools, places of worship, allotments, community projects and almshouses. The winners will be announced on 19 Sept.

Penny 
[email protected]