Syston Town News » Regular Features

SYSTON FEAST

admin — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 04:06:59 +0000

Feast Sunday falls on the first Sunday after 10th July although the church is dedicated to St Peter, whose day is on 29th June. The discrepancy is said to be due to the change of calendar in September 1752 when 11 days were added, but Syston continued to observe the Feast according to the old calendar. The feast was commonly called the Wake. Its origin is with the Church. In olden times the Saturday was kept as ‘awake night’ watching and preparing to come to the Lord’s Table on the Sunday morning. It was a family occasion, boys and girls on farms or in service would come home for the feast.
Along with the services came booths with sweetmeats etc and dancing in the churchyard and on the village green!
The dancing was replaced with a funfair on the Recreation Ground (Central Park) and Feast Monday was a half day holiday and the Church held a Feast Tea, usually in the vicarage garden often combined with a sale of work.
The traditional meal for the feast was roast duck and green peas, washed down with homemade cowslip or parsnip wine.
For many years Holland’s was the fair to visit Syston and in later years the fair was set up in High Street in the field between Turn Street and the railway line, on the St Peters football ground (now Millers Close) and also on East Avenue on the Dog Track field.
We have now come full circle as the fair is now back on the Central Park but in September, not July.
The picture above of about a hundred years ago shows Syston ladies on the Recreation Ground, the nearest sign on the marquee reads ‘Ye ancient rite of ye pastrie cookes’ and the legible part of the other sign reads Syston Feast… The Symphony… Wednesday…

This Month in the Garden (July) with Derek Cox.

admin — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 04:04:53 +0000

A question, which seems to crop up at regular intervals on Radio Leicester’s ‘Down to Earth’ gardening program, is how to control weeds without the use of chemicals. The only non-chemical way of controlling weeds is by using a hoe in flower borders and a weed widger in the lawn. I feed my lawn during late April and this year I had to wait until we had rain during early June before I applied Verdone lawn weed killer. A lawn weed killer is only formulated to use on a lawn, if used in a border it will probably kill perennials and soft stemmed shrubs. I must admit that I rarely use a hoe, as I much prefer to go through the border on my hands and knees to pull, or dig out weeds with a trowel. Many of you will consider this to be tedious and a waste of time, but weeding by hand, I can see if any unusual tree, shrub, or perennial seedlings have appeared amongst the numerous plants I grow in my garden. So far this year I have come across the seedlings of nine Japanese Maples, five Walnut trees (no doubt from walnuts that squirrels have buried) and three Dactylorhiza hybrids (hardy orchids). My most interesting find so far this year has been a native violet whose leaves had a broad cream edge. There are no variegated forms of our native violet in the RHS Plant Finder, so I shall have to see if it is prone to reversion, if not, I shall introduce it to the trade. I have a group of Lupin ‘Polar Princess’ in a sunlit border and this year it has produce 23 outstanding spires of pure white flowers. Last year ‘Polar Princess’ became infested with black fly, to remedy this, during late April I sprayed the plants with Provado Ultimate Bug Killer and so far there is no sign of black fly, or slug damage. During a visit to Helen Osborn at Churchview Nursery in Barkby I spotted a super nonstop Begonia, which had bright orange flowers, I purchased a dozen to plant in my snowdrop bed to contrast with the yellow and cream foliage of the shrubs behind them. I had better point out that I plant snowdrops 6 inches (15cm) below ground level, so after pulling off their dead foliage, I spread fresh compost over the bed and it is then ready for planting. During late April, as soon as the weather turned warmer, all the nine varieties of Pieris I grow in my garden produced a wonderful display of red new growth. The most outstanding of these being the cream variegated forms ‘Flaming Silver’, ‘Carnival’ and ‘Havilla’. Then disaster stuck, we had a late frost, which turned all the new growth brown, I pruned the plants to remove the frosted growth and as soon as it rained during the second week in June, the Pieris produced a second spurt of new growth and once more look magnificent. In my garden, there are four plants of Clematis Montana, which flower during May and June. Two of these are outstanding and worth mentioning. The first is ‘Freda’ a bicolor pink, which grows up and into a 20 feet (6m) tall American thorn; this is left to do its own thing. The other and my favorite is ‘Mayleen’, which I grow on a 4-foot (1.2m) chain link fence where it forms a 20 feet (6m) long curtain of large, pale pink flowers. Montana Clematis should, if they get out of hand, be pruned as soon as they have finished flowering during late June, or early July.

BOOK REVIEW

admin — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 04:04:47 +0000

The Help
By Kathryn Stockett
Published by Penguin
£7.99
Three ordinary women are about to take one extraordinary step.Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger. Skeeter would normally find solace with her beloved maid Constantine, the woman who raised her, but Constantine has disappeared and no one will tell Skeeter where she has gone.
Aibileen is a black maid, a wise, regal woman raising her seventeenth white child. Something has shifted inside her after the loss of her own son, who died while his bosses looked the other way. She is devoted to the little girl she looks after, though she knows both their hearts may be broken.
Minny, Aibileen’s best friend, is short, fat, and perhaps the sassiest woman in Mississippi. She can cook like nobody’s business, but she can’t mind her tongue, so she’s lost yet another job. Seemingly as different from one another as can be, these women will nonetheless come together for a clandestine project that will put them all at risk.
A deeply moving novel filled with poignancy, humour, and hope, The Help is a timeless and universal story about the lines we abide by, and the ones we don’t.

The Scarpetta Factor

By Patricia Cornwall
Published by Sphere
£7.99
Christmas is coming but the festive spirit is sorely missing in freezing, credit-crunch New York. Everyone feels bad: Kay Scarpetta, Benton Wesley, Pete Marino and Lucy Farinelli are haunted by their gruesome pasts.
The Title refers to a TV show which CNN hopes the forensic pathologist will host. Until now Scarpetta has, against her better judgment, only been a contributor to another crime show fronted by an unscrupulous bitch. The loss of her BlackBerry, a present from her niece, Lucy the lesbian loose cannon, at the TV station causes panic among her inner circle. Meanwhile, there is the murder of a young female runner and the disappearance of Hannah Starr a crooked financier, to investigate. Then someone delivers a bomb to Scarpetta’s apartment. The suspects include a wicked witch, a sleazy Hollywood heart-throb and an arch-enemy of Benton, Scarpetta’s husband, whose sudden return from the dead a few years ago is still causing problems.

Alone in Berlin
by Hans Fallada
Published by Penguin
£9.99
Berlin, 1940, and the city is filled with fear. At the house on 55 Jablonski Strasse, its various occupants try to live under Nazi rule in their different ways: the bullying Hitler loyalists the Persickes, the retired judge Fromm and the unassuming couple Otto and Anna Quangel. Then the Quangels receive the news that their beloved son has been killed fighting in France. Shocked out of their quiet existence, they begin a silent campaign of defiance, and a deadly game of cat and mouse develops between the Quangels and the ambitious Gestapo inspector Escherich. When petty criminals Kluge and Borkhausen also become involved, deception, betrayal and murder ensue, tightening the noose around the Quangels’ necks …

SYSTON WINDMILL

admin — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 04:03:56 +0000

According to William the Conqueror’s ‘Domesday Book’ of 1086, in the entry of Syston a mill is mentioned, this was probably a water mill.
There appears to have been a windmill in Syston from at least the early 17th century, as there is an entry in the Syston local parish register dated 1606, ‘that grinding was so scant by wind and water that at the feast of St Luke, 18th October, people came from Hinckley to Syston to grind their corn’. But whether that windmill was on the same site of the last windmill in Syston is not known.
The mill was situated at the end of a small track near to the Midland Railway Pub on Melton Road and was probably built in the 1740s, the sails were each 33 feet long and consisted of two common sails and two spring sails and a Mr Edward Cooper was the miller from 1895 to 1908, unfortunately it was blown down in a gale on 14th February 1910.
The Leicester Daily Mercury of 16th February 1910 quoted “that the windmill situated close to the station at Syston, was completely blown over during the storms in the early hours of Tuesday morning and now lies practically splintered to
matchwood”. The paper also reported “that the Mill up to a few months ago was about the only windmill in working order in the northern part of the county and Systonians will regret the destruction of the mill which was one of the landmarks in the district”.
Sadly the windmill was too severly damaged to be rebuilt and was never replaced.

NEW BARKBY WI

admin — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 04:03:53 +0000

Shirley Franklin, vice president, chaired the meeting held on Wednesday 2nd June. Before the business part of the meeting, members sang Jerusalem, followed by a one minute silence in memory of the victims of a mass murder which occurred in Cumbria on that day.
The speaker for the evening was Natalie Thompson from Barrow-upon-Soar, who gave a power point presentation and talked about ‘Deaf Awareness and Sing Signing’. One in seven people in the U.K. Have some form of hearing loss and it is the most common disability after mobility problems. Any breed of dog may be considered as suitable to be a hearing dog and it costs approximately £4,000 to train each dog. Patients are admitted to a special residential home to learn how to become a hearing dog owner.
Afterwards members learned signing and accompanied Natalie as she sang two pop songs, it was both difficult and funny at the same time. Some gestures are very straight forward and somehow lay people can communicate with deaf people in some form or another.
Natalie was given a donation for the Hearing Dogs for Deaf People charity.
The vote of thanks was given by Mrs C Grant and the competition for a picture of a pet dog was won by Mrs C Hickling.
Mrs S Arthur won the raffle and Mrs J Brewerton and Mrs R Foster were tea hostesses.
The next meeting will be at Syston Community Centre at 7.30pm on Wednesday 7th July when Mr Neil Head will give a presentation entitled ‘How to be your own Bodyguard’ and the competition will be ‘a Security tip’.
Visitors are always welcome.

July Horoscope by Jeanne Douglas

admin — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 04:03:11 +0000

Aries (20 March – 19 April):
Recent changes have initially excited and ‘amazed’ you but this month brings a time of reckoning and reflection. Some confusion is evident, unsurprisingly! Yet your willingness to keep trying and ‘do your best’ certainly pays off. Home bring peace.

Taurus (20 April – 20 May):
Be prepared to review your long-term plans this month, although you certainly will feel as if you have enough on your plate with some work project coming to an end. A great new job offer takes you by surprise! Gradually, your charms wins through.

Gemini (21 May – 20 June):
Extra responsibilities put on you at work recently are weighing heavily upon you! Yes, they’re going to take a bit of getting used to and you’re going to have to adopt a whole new way of looking at things. New ways of making cash cheer you up.

Cancer (21 June – 21 July):
You almost overwhelm yourself this month with enthusiasm for a new project. Best to try and slow things down, taking one step at a time, until you can start to piece things together. Life then becomes pretty good fun! Working at home is successful.

Leo (22 July – 22 August):
A new idea takes you by storm, you know that you just have to try it out and give it your best shot! Making and spending cash occurs on a larger scale than you’re used to this month. You’re prepared to work hard, however, to re-balance the books.

Virgo (23 August – 22 September):
Treading on uncertain ground this month, you’re not sure who is there to help you and who is likely to ‘hinder’. You may have to get used to a new working environment and need time to allow the dust to settle. New friends are such fun!

Libra (23 September – 22 October):
Hard work and serious application are bound to exhaust you this month, but expect to make excellent progress. A loved one seems caught up with their own problems, despite promises of spending more time together. Never mind, give things time!

Scorpio (23 October – 21 November):
On the surface, life is quiet but ‘much’ is happening underneath your calm exterior! Exciting developments in your work however may leave you a little uncertain, despite wonderful promises of success. Powerful friends support and inspire you ‘on’.

Sagittarius (22 November – 20 December):
Major shifts and changes in your daily routine promise ‘new beginnings’, yet all this takes time to develop. New friends are fun and exciting, certainly wonderful, but it is early days and you simply cannot trust them yet. A sensible approach secures you!

Capricorn (21 December – 19 January):
Close relationships go well this month, with renewed enthusiasm for the future and some sensible thought being applied to practical matters. For single Capricorns, a new romance is a distinct possibility! Financial changes force a review.

Aquarius (20 January – 17 February):
It’s the end of certain practical arrangements, and you work hard to secure the situation. As a result, all jobs get completed and this brings a sense of satisfaction, as well as marking the end of an era! Loved ones support you through heavy concerns.

Pisces (18 February – 19 March):
Cash confusions are a nuisance, especially when so much is promised! A ‘life review’ is also likely, especially because ‘someone has moved the goalposts’. A loved one is certainly more amorous as well as intense, teach them to chill out.

World Cup Treat

admin — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 04:01:40 +0000

Coca-Cola World Cup Competition winner Damon and his father also Damon had an exciting trip to the World Cup between the 15th and 20th June. Their all inclusive trip was as a result of Damon junior winning one of the pairs of tickets in a Coca-Cola run competition. They started their journey from Heathrow to Cape Town, where they stayed in the Capetonain Hotel. They had a tour of the City on the Wednesday evening including a visit to Table top mountain. Thursday they had some time for themselves to relax or enjoy the festive mood in Cape Town before going off in the afternoon to a tour of Cape Winelands, although not Damon juniors idea of fun! On Friday they again had some free time and then had a pre-match meal before going to the Green Point stadium for the highlight of their visit to see England play Algeria although not the best performance!
Saturday morning gave them time to recover from the match, a visit to Canel Walk before they made their return journey home to Heathrow were they arrived on Sunday morning, tired but thoroughly pleased to have had such a fantastic adventure.
Damon plays for the under 14’s Thurmaston Magpies who also had reason to celebrate as they have again finished the season at the top of their division. Well done to them and to Damon who hopes to be able to play for his country in a future world cup event.

Syston Town Council May Report by Syston Town News

admin — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 04:01:17 +0000

Annual Town Meeting
The annual town meeting took place on Wednesday 26th May at 7.00pm with six members of the public in attendance. Councillor Howard Midgely gave his report for 2009/2010 with the aid of powerpoint illustrations linked to items in the report. He commenced by saying he had been privileged to serve as the Chairman over the last year and because he was working full-time had sometimes found it difficult to attend all events and so thanked Councillors K. Pacey and J. Branston for standing in when he couldn’t attend, in their role as vice-chairmen.
Following the retirement of Ian McDonald, Allan Clarke had been appointed as Town Manager and had settled in well. He was in the process of restructuring the staff due to the loss of the part-time Deputy Town Manager post but he has recruited a full-time Office Manager. He also praised the work that Barry Bedford had done as Estates Manager, giving a long period of faithful service and that he was sorry to lose him. He went on to say that he had tried to be more embracing with the community by encouraging the public to use their right of 15 minutes at the beginning of the full council meeting each month. He had also been active in meeting with local groups as he believes that the council is there to serve the people and not dictate to them. He has worked closely with the Chamber of Trade, Syston in Bloom and the Syston Twinning and had purchased a small gift which they took to Deville at the beginning of May in celebration of 30 years of Twinning. He recalled the events that he had attended throughout the year including the Remembrance Sunday parade, armed Forces Day service, Civic service and the ATC annual parade. The civic reception had been well attended with a general feeling that this should be an annual event. The Carnival and Christmas events were well supported by the residents of Syston and Councillors alike. He thanked the Syston Town News for the positive press it gives to the Town Council and its activities. He felt that they needed to promote themselves more and help improve the town further. He finished by thanking all the staff and councillors as without them none of the above would have been achieved. He said that it was down to their hard work, time given and care for the town that had enabled such a lot to have been achieved in the last year. He finished by saying how proud and privileged he felt for having worked with all of them.
The reports from the committees were given and all reviewed the year which showed how hard the councillors work for our town and perhaps we residents do not fully appreciate the time some of the councillors give to their roles. Each Chairman thanked their committee members and staff and voluntary groups for their help and loyalty.

Town Council Meeting
This followed the annual town meeting at 7.30pm and commenced with the nominations and election of Chairman. Councillor Howard Midgley having stated that he would be willing to offer himself for a further term of office was re-elected by a large majority in favour.
He then began the formal meeting by asking for councillors and public to stand for the bidding and then the election of the vice -chairman when Councillor Josie Branston was
re-elected.

Chairman’s announcements and communications
Syston Twinning had written to thank the council for the engraved bowl which was presented on behalf of the council by Keith Gregory and received a Jug from the Mayor of Deville to Syston Twinning, which is now on display in the reception area. They also said that the Deville twinning association were looking forward to their visit to Syston next May.
Leicestershire County Council had written to say that they would be switching off lights on the A607 bypass between 12midnight and 5.00am from 28th May as part of their cost saving activities.

Police report for April 2010
PC Carly Adams reported that there had been two burglaries of dwellings, the same as the previous month. There was also two burglaries of non-residential properties, reduction on the previous month. There had been 10 thefts in the town which showed a doubling of the the previous month. One suspect had been arrested and three were still under investigation. Thefts from motor vehicles were four, down slightly on the previous month. Two of these thefts where from vehicles parked at the train station and so extra patrols will be put in this area. Store thefts reported was one and it is still under investigation. Criminal damage both to property and vehicles had reduced by over 50% on the previous month, which is excellent. Some of the crimes are still under investigation. Anti-social behaviour calls also down on the previous month to 33. The Friday and Saturday nights the
Anti-social van will continue to be around the town.

Public adjournment
Two points were raised. Firstly a request for an update on the car parking issue raised in January on central park, as the notice boards have as yet not been updated and also the codicil with the bowling club. The town manager said he was currently looking at the law before completing any amendments. The second related to the fact that Syston had not been suffering from any flood over the winter and no one had mentioned the Levelling lake that had been created by the construction companies as part of their planning for erected the houses on Barkby Road. The lake is situated behind Ruskin Avenue and although not accessible to the public, it can be viewed by the residents from their gardens and provides an excellent protection for properties in the town.

Community Speed Watch
It was hoped to bring this to the town and anyone who would like leaflets should contact the council office.

County and Borough Councillors report
Councillor Mike Preston said that he had been on Radio Leicester about the reflective bollards at the Hobby Horse roundabout. Changes to lighting levels will produce a saving of nearly £1 million. The change in government will bring about radical changes to local development building and so the proposed 5,000 houses may not proceed.
Councillor Dave Houseman gave congratulations to both Howard and Jose for their re-election and then gave a brief account of his annual report, see supplement with the July Syston Town News.
Councillor Tom Barkley related the results of the turn out of the election with over 70% in Charnwood voting and 94% returning their postal votes. Their is a new Mayor of Charnwood, Jill Vincent and Steve Hampson added that she is available to attend any voluntary group events. Tom continued that the waste survey showed that over 90% gave a positive response to the collection of garden waste, and 86% satisfied with household waste collection. He also reported about the Active together events over the summer, including the cycling featured in the What’s on.
Councillor Steve Hampson reported that the work near the police station is now completed and time restricting the parking could take another two years to gain approval.
Councillor Ken Pacey reported that an investigation panel had been set up to determine the effectiveness of ASBO’s. He also asked that the street patrols checked cars parked at 9.00am in the main car park on Melton Road in order to enforce the two hour restriction more effectively, as they can only monitor from the time they check and if they only check at 11.00am then there can be an abuse of the restriction.

This Month in the Garden (June) with Derek Cox

admin — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 04:01:59 +0000

Many gardeners, especially those with gardens exposed to the north and east, have had plants die to the prolonged period of frost and snow during last winter. As my garden is very free draining I have had very few plants die in the open ground, but a number of my pot-grown plants have died. Two superb Phormiums, although seeming fine throughout the winter, suddenly collapsed during the first week in May the whole crown turning to mush, which I feel was due to a build up of frozen snow in the centre of the plants. I had a professional gardener in to spike my lawn during early May and having seen the Miracle Grow ‘Patch Magic’ on the television, I asked him to get some and spread it over the thin spots in the lawn. ‘Patch Magic’ is a mixture of grass seed, coir and feed, which when applied by a gardener on the tele’ seems to turn the whole of the lawn bright green. My lawn now has a number of bright green patches, but the rest of the lawn, despite having been fed, looks jaded in comparison. My ‘Lady Christl’ potatoes, which I planted in 25 litre containers during mid March, are now ready for lifting, yet ‘Rocket’ planted at the same time and which should only take 10 weeks to mature is much too small to lift. During mid May, much to my wife’s delight, we were enjoying the lettuce, spring onions and radish, which I sowed in my cold greenhouse during mid March. The spring onions and radish were sown in 15 litre pots and then grown on until ready to use, but the lettuce were first sown in cell trays and when they had two true leaves, were transplanted into tomato
grow bags. During early May, I was walking around Goscote Nurseries and came across a number of two feet tall (60cm) Viburnum carlesii massed with beautifully scented flowers. I mention this as I have an eight feet tall (2.4m) Viburnum carlesii in my garden, which has very few flowers, the reason for this is the tits, bullfinches and sparrows that perch in the bush and pick off the flower buds as soon as they appear.
You will need to prune Viburnums as soon as the flowers have faded. I pruned my eight feet (2.4m) tall Viburnum tinus in mid May, first making sure there were no bird’s nests in the bush. Pruning will keep a plant neat and compact, and if pruned in mid May and then fed with a couple of handfuls of Growmore, strong new growth will have time to form flower buds by September. Many of my Rhododendrons have now finished flowering, as where I can reach, I twist off the dead flower heads, this will prevent the plants from setting seed, if you leave the seed on you will find the shrub will not produce so many new shoots?and it is these which will form the following years flowers. I have two Ceanothus, which grow on a south facing fence and these gave me a superb display of blue flowers during May. During early June as soon as the flowers faded, I pruned the Ceanothus back by almost three quarters of their previous year’s growth. When you prune do ensure you only go back to where there are still a few green shoots, as they will often not produce new growth from old wood.
Gordon Hallam, who reads my column, rang me up to query my April 2010 article on the use of Sulphate of Iron to kill moss in a lawn. I did write two ounce to a gallon of water. Gordon has kept all of my articles and told me that previously I said one ounce to a gallon. I use two ounce in my two gallon watering can, so thank you Gordon for pointing out my mistake.

New Barkby WI May Meeting report

admin — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 04:01:46 +0000

New Barkby’s May meeting was to discuss the one resolution to be voted on at the W.I’s A.G.M. in June, to be held in Cardiff.
The resolution: This meeting urges HM Government to introduce clear and mandatory country of origin labelling on all meat, poultry and fish products sold in this country.
Mrs Janet Kirk, a W.I. Advisor, led members in discussion and at the end members voted ‘for’ the resolution by a majority vote.
Mrs Kirk was thanked by Mrs Shirley Franklin, acting president for the meeting. Also during the evening there was a publications and sales box from W.I. House and New Barkby’s own sales table.
Members very generously brought along items of cakes, biscuits and jams which were collected together, then taken to the Manorcroft Day Centre in Stoneygate for LOROS patients to enjoy when they visit the centre. This effort only occurs every few years, the previous occasion when New Barkby made a contribution was in 2005. Thank you to everyone who donated items.
The raffle prize was won by Mrs V Cobb and Mrs R Foster and Mrs K Sharp were tea hostesses.
The next meeting will be Wednesday 2nd June at 7.30pm in Syston Community Centre when the speaker will be Natalie Thompson on ‘Deaf Awareness and Sign Singing’. The competition will be a picture or photograph of a dog.
Visitors are always welcome.