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Selected highlights from the recently published Wivenhoe News…

With a front page made up of a 2012 Wivenhoe Torch Relay carrier, an invitation to Wivenhoe Town Council’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations on the KGV and a picture of the lovely, lovely Pet Shop Girls, y’know that you are on to a winner with Wivenhoe News.

So much so that a condensed blog post is called for.

Whaddya mean you wanna watch Eastenders and can’t be bothered to bash out the usual 2,000 words of twaddle (blog post, not the ACE Wivenhoe News.) Oh - just go and buy the forty-page publication. Priced at just £1 of Her Majesty’s s sterling, you won’t get better value for money from anywhere else in the town. And that includes the rather competitively priced jumbo saveloy down at Papa’s.

Outgoing (in more ways than one…) Mayor Bob Needham tells tales of his recent trip to @15QueenStreet in Sunny Colch to talk all about town crying at the creative hub. Back on the hyperlocal beat and Jane Hughes provides a well-researched piece on the history of Rectory Road.

Kissing gates along the old Brightlingsea railway embankment add an element of al fresco frisson, but you are brought back down to earth with the prior warning of the peeling of the bells of St Mary’s on the morning of 5th June from 9:30am until… midday.

DING DONG, etc.

Alison Kent’s ACE Workers of Wivenhoe series continues with the Pet Shop Girls from Wivenhoe Pets, down at the Business Centre. Cheesy smiles and adorable good looks - and that’s just Merlin the little cat that is also in the picture.

Helen Chambers reviews the G & S Society’s recent run of Ruddigore. The phrase “endowing the Knowledge Gateway” proves that there is humour in the hyperlocal.

Private Resistance at the William Loveless Hall [where else?] gets a thoughtful write up by Jane Valentine. Superb acting, equally so when considering that the good ‘ol Willy Loveless ‘aint exactly the London Palladium.

Wivenhoe’s Got Talent is covered by Brian Sinclair; equally engaging - but on a very different level - was the St Mary’s Passion Play, reviewed once again by Jane Valentine.

Wivenhoe in Bloom are seeing the benefits of their work up (or down) at the Ernest Road triangle. All of this volunteer work is of course always in need of extra help. An open call is made to joining the monthly working parties. Friday 1st June is the next green fingered gathering, meeting at 10am at the Eyecare / Jardine / Co-op Bermuda Triangle.

Preparations for the WAGA Show (8th September) are well underway. Just wait until you get to sniff my rhubarb, Madam.

Richard Moulson, the Borough Council Ranger explains more about his work along the Colne local nature reserve. The addition of a metallic bench in the picnic part of the woods may not be to everyone’s liking, but hopefully it is robust.

Anyone out early at the KGV the morning after May Fair would have seen Richard and the Working Woods Party putting in place a stag beetle habitat on the edges of the park.

“Wivenhoe is possibly the epicentre of the stag beetle Universe”

…I was reliably informed.

Well I never.

Wivenhoe artist Caroline Moiret has a charming piece penned by Jane Hughes, to match the high quality of the world-leading glass artefacts that are produced right here in Wivenhoe. If you were fortunate enough to visit Caroline during Open Gardens you would have been treated to a display of her own unique craft.

THREE pages of diary updates [ta!] fill the centre pages; John and Kathleen up (or down…) at The Flag explain how they manage to keep a hyperlocal boozer in business (beer and food.) Moving Image celebrate the *shhh* Big Society grant that will help the hyperlocal cinema to purchase a new high tech projector.

listen to ‘#Wivenhoe #Wittertainment with @wivmovingimage’ on Audioboo

Still waiting for Purple Rain, folks…

Obituaries are never easy to cover - certainly not in blog form, but equally so in a local village magazine. As ever the incredibly sensitive and celebratory handling of these by Wivenhoe News remain the perhaps the most important and valued work that is published.

Leila Berg, Sara Wilkinson and Anthony Coxon are all lovingly remembered.

An impressive season is looked back on for Wivenhoe Town Cricket Club, with optimism for the early weeks of the new campaign at Rectory Road. Wivenhoe Town Football Club meanwhile somehow manage to hang on to Premier League status (Ridgeons Premier League…) as well as achieving a great amount of positive work at the junior level. New season at Broad Lane kicks off on 4th August.

Both schools have been busy. VERY busy. Broomgrove Juniors update with news of a trip to the Natural History Museum, a concert at the Colne Community School and World Book Day events. The Infants have been occupied with celebrations for the Jubilee and the Olympics. A lovely, lovely piece of literacy from a Year 4 Millfields pupils is reproduced.

The Royal British Legion and WORC carry news of the £2,186 raised during the Boxing Day Walk, as well as the Laying Up Service at St Mary’s for the Normandy Veterans Standard.

And then we get on to the updates from the local politicos.

Whoops.

Bernie Boy bangs on about the hyperlocal issue of the Euro, although to be fair, he follows this up with the work he has been carrying out concerning drainage around the former port site.

Outgoing Mr Mayor Bob Needham could have penned an entire page on the activities and achievements during his Mayoral year. The purchase of the two police houses along the High Street remain the administrative high point; bringing an ex-Iron Maiden guitarist to the William Loveless Hall [where else] tops the social bill.

POTHOLES have been on the mind of the good Cllr Julie Young, as well as the University Car Park planning application - now passed, with a little brokerage from Cllr Young for the provision of a cycling path between Wivenhoe and campus.

Fifty years of the William Loveless Hall [um, where else?] are celebrated by Toni Stinson, whilst WivSoc thank all the volunteers who turned up for the March riverbank clean up. Committee members still needed…

A truly brilliant piece by Brian Sinclair is published, documenting the highs and lows of the building of the Lord Nelson at Wivenhoe. The story is much more than a simple one of construction. It encapsulates the social history of the town during the ’80′s and the demise of the shipbuilding industry. There is a happy ending however - buy Wivenhoe News blah blah blah to find out…

The adoption of the Wivenhoe Local List by Colchester Borough Council is explained by Sue Glasspool, News in Brief covers recent exhibitions at Curiosity, the Bookshop and Wivenhoe Gallery. A reminder that the annual Art at the Nottage summer exhibition is now open each Sunday from 2pm - 5pm, featuring Elizabeth Morris, Ken Kemperley and Robert Mowels.

Condensed sufficiently?

Wivenhoe News is sold at the Co-op, Crossways, the Post Office, Bryans Newsagents and the lovely Wivenhoe Bookshop.