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With a couple of very good friends staying with us in Wivenhoe over the Easter weekend, it must mean that it’s time to re-visit the Corner House Cafe for the finest tapas experience in North Essex and beyond.

Hurrah!

Actually you don’t need an excuse to indulge in the delights served up by the good Nigel and Lisa. There has been a bit of a change around however since our last visit - the cafe is now open exclusively in the evenings, with a focus on the restaurant business. There is a slight re-brand as well, with On the Corner the new name for the restaurant.

Welcome to the new boss - same as the old boss. Which is all rather reassuring when you find the smiling Maitre d’ welcoming you with the same genuine warmth that we welcomed our very good friends into our home.

This was my third tapas experience at On the Corner. The temptation still remains to ask for one of everything when presented with the menu. Choices had to be made however, and to suit the recent microclimate around these parts, we went mainly with the cold dishes.

The cured meat was delightfully salty, the artichokes rich in taste and the melted Camembert simply smooth and satisfying- so much so that @AnnaJCowen had the cheek to ask for a doggy bag, having failed to finish off the dozen or so dishes that we ordered with our eyes, and not our stomachs.

A meal for four for just over £60, booze included, has to be a bargain. Plus we were treated to the slightly naughty experience of a post-midnight trip across the road for a lock in at the veg shop to settle the bill with the PIN machine.

There’s talk of another On the Corner experience next month when the parents visit these parts for the first time. Conservative with a small c, and not fans of “that there foreign food,” I have a feeling that On the Corner is going to convert them.

To The Nottage once again on Wednesday evening for a committee meeting with the lovely WivSoc folk. With the smell of yacht varnish in the barn below being mixed up with the aroma of booze from the Rose and Crown along the Quay, this was something of a Wivenhoe moment.

There is always a sense of great history in entering the Nottage. You feel that you are truly experiencing something of Wivenhoe’s past - and hopefully the future, with WivSoc pushing forward a positive agenda for the town.

Of course you could always replicate the experience by brewing yacht beer and drinking it in your garden shed on a Wednesday evening once a month. But that would mean that you would miss the WivSoc stories. These blog posts don’t write themselves, y’know…

As ever, a varied agenda of the serious and trivial was in store. Off the Rails was up first. A request for assistance has been made by the local arts groups that is responsible for putting in place public art at Wivenhoe Station.

Off the Rails has been officially adopted by Network Rail as the organisation in which to promote art along the platforms. The potential problem is that Off the Rails may be ace at art, but has little experience of organising. WivSoc has been asked for advice.

Although not really coming under the WivSoc remit, it was agreed that conversations with Off the Rails should continue, with a view to helping the group become more self-sufficient. Another suggestion was to steer Off the Rails with the recent moves to re-start the legendary Wivenhoe Arts Club.

I’m not quite sure how this happened, but the debate then somehow let drop that the Station Master’s House has had something of a roof falling in on the world moment: THE ROOF REALLY HAS FALLEN IN, apparently, with the first floor coming crashing down.

Whoops.

Exactly where this leaves the fine Transition Town Wivenhoe and the ambitious (and ace) plans to turn the building into a sustainable community centre remains to be seen. TTW has a war chest of community goodwill, but sadly not a blank cheque to re-build Wivenhoe.

Sticking with matters fiscal, and it seems that WivSoc has saved the UK economy.

Cripes.

Recent changes in tax and insurance law means that the Chancellor has been presented with an extra £3.10 to help reduce the deficit.

We’re all in this together, Comrades.

Planning looked at the proposed development of nine new properties along Rectory Road. I still don’t quite get this ‘development’ terminology; it seems to suggest moving forward, an advancement, a development, if you will. But what if the development [urgh] is actually a step back?

They usually are…

Record Road has been previously submitted, and then withdrawn. It is now back in the hands of Colchester Borough Council. WivSoc has no formal objection, apart from a passing comment on the access road planned. A letter is being drawn up to put this point across. Town planning speak for re-wording of the phrase “jolly nasty design” were then discussed.

It is at this stage in the development (aha!) that it is perhaps worth reminding folk of the recent changes in the CBC planning application process. New applications will by-pass the Committee and go straight to council officers, UNLESS two formal objections are made. These need to be put in place through your local CBC ward councillor.

A hop, skip and a jump down Rectory Road, via an afternoon bender at the Rose and Crown (steady) and we’re at Cook’s. We’re also at the point that no WivSoc committee meeting would be complete without: the development [urgh, urgh] of the old shipyard.

A diligent spot on the CBC database by our esteemed Queen of Planning, and it seems that a variance in use has been put forward for the commercial developments along from the Quay.

The units were originally intended for commercial use for home workers as a business unit. The suggestion now is that they will be able to open up on Sundays and Bank Holidays, and also have the option to serve refreshments outdoors.

With On the Corner (nee the Corner House) now focussing on the evening economy, having one more place to purchase coffee in Wivenhoe during the daytime has to be seen as something worth welcoming.

Keeping with the public space theme, it seems that the old St John’s Ambulance building has become embroiled in a bit of a local tug of law. Time to repeat my personal mantra of not commenting in public on private planning applications. Still holding out for that nightclub at the bottom of the garden…

With Moving Image finding funding problems for the long-term purchase of the building, a local artist is interested in taking over St John’s for studio space. This includes the possibility of opening up for exhibitions.

*Some* members of Wivenhoe Town Council though are unhappy with this move. They see the building as one of the few remaining possibilities to keep it as a shared community resource. Booking a public venue in Wivenhoe is becoming increasingly difficult. *Some* members of WTC would like to keep all options open.

I wouldn’t stretch it out as far as calling it a rival bid, but a second group is in the running to try and restore the building for community use. A figure of £25,000 has been quoted to carry out repairs. It appears that the second group already has this capital.

I’m not ruling out a *ahem* THIRD bid, should my application for the nightclub in the back garden be turned down.

Keeping it social and the WivSoc is genuinely overjoyed with the tremendous success of the recent riverbank clean up. This was the most successful yet, with 80 volunteers turning up on a Sunday morning to help make the Colne a little bit cleaner.

The results are there to see - a tidal litter free stretch, all the way down to the Hythe. WivSoc was particularly happy to see young volunteers from the Hub and the Scouts and Guides coming out to help.

Cleaning up the Colne has become something of uniting community issue (or maybe not…) with some lovely plans to stretch out across the other side and involve our friends from Rowhedge.

It has been suggested that WivSoc twins future clean ups with the Rowhedge lot. We can even wave to one another from the other side. I know which half of the great divide I’d wager has the greater amount of mess to clean up.

Other social news includes a welcome return of the WivSoc wine tasting evening, taking place this year on the 18th November at the Congregational Hall. Our friends from the Co-op are once again very kindly providing the booze.

Chin chin.

But try and keep it sober - here comes that nice Mr Mayor with his formal report from the recent WTC meeting. I say formal, but the Dress Down Wednesday and affable approach of our civic leader, kept it all rather light-hearted.

A fair few serious issues however:

The proposed new Health Centre behind the Fire Station has seen considerable movement in recent weeks. As previously reported, Mr Mayor has held a meeting with the PCT, leaving Councillor Sinclair:

“More positive than at any stage before.”

Basically the PTC wants a decision imminently, ahead of the proposed national government shake-up of the NHS. A meeting of the Executive is being held next month, where a final decision is expected to be made.

Mr Mayor reported that the site itself is now ready for construction. The last remaining planning hurdle (a stray tree root) has now been resolved. Slight cynicism though from some sections of WivSoc, with mumblings of we’ve been here before…

Mr Mayor then spoke of his personal quest to:

“Bang a few heads together to try and get some co-operation from our local councillors.”

Cripes.

Not in the literal sense of course, but with currently two LibDems, One Tory and one Labour councillor, Mr Mayor is concerned that possible Section 106 funds coming out of the Knowledge Gateway might get lost in the political fog of tribal party politics.

The Cross ward has been singled out as being in most urgent need of new funds. A hit list of possible projects has been drawn up by WTC. I’d personally like to see a tag team-wrestling contest featuring all four councillors.

Purchasing the old police station houses is also a current priority for Mr Mayor:

“Most town councillors are on board with the concept. There is a feeling that this is a one-off opportunity to keep these under public use. We dare not let go of them.”

The police apparently quoted a figure of £400,000 four years ago, although WTC holds strong that this was never put forward in writing. It is expected that a similar figure will remain the market value today.

Which is slightly steep for a local town council that has just had a significant funding cut from the paymasters of CBC. The plan is to approach the Municipal Loan Board, and then rent out the properties to service the loan.

We finished off with My Mayor updating on the #hyperlocal political process:

“We have four new councillors, and four retiring councillors - which leaves us two short of our quota. I would have LOVED for this to have gone to election - it would have done WTC a world of good.”

I still reckon mud wrestling is the way to go, Comrades.

See ya next month…

Wivsoc - Disclaimer: I am a member of the Wivenhoe Society, although not a committee member. All views expressed within this blog post are mine alone, and not that of the committee, or the Society in general.

You may remember the wonderful story of the downtown NY State couple that came “on vacation” to Wivenhoe towards the end of last year. Eager to find out more about the North Essex estuary rural way of life, the lovely Chris and Heather came to stay in Wivenhoe and mix with some of the locals.

Following some online dialogue during the planning for the trip, I was then lucky enough to be able to meet up with our special relationship friends for a coffee one morning down at the Corner House.

Stories were exchanged, bonds were made and even a brief podcast was recorded.

Blimey.

Here’s where the story all starts to get slightly interesting. Intrigued by the story, the Editor of *cough*@Colchester101 then commissioned me to write a short piece about the rather unlikely meeting of American and Wivenhoe minds.

A quick OK with Heather and Chris, and then the piece then appeared in the January edition of Colchester 101. You can even read the tale of the Rochester folk in rural Essex on p.2 over here.

But this wasn’t to be the end of the transatlantic story. Taking the tale to its logical conclusion, it would only be right if a little bit of Wivenhoe then found its way over to NY State. An early Saturday morning trip to the Wivenhoe Post Office, and then soon a copy of 101 was USA bound.

And so to conclude this highly improbable tale involving a love of Wivenhoe, Martin Newell and the Station cat (cripes) - here comes the photographic evidence of Chris and Heather, very happy to be reunited with Wivenhoe back in their hometown. The descriptions are kindly provided by our American friends.

“Colchester 101 is hanging out on the Broad Street Bridge overlooking the river. In the background, you can see the Main St. Bridge (center) and a nice riverside hotel (right) that keeps changing management.”

“There we are in Aqueduct Park! This little park is part of the campus where I work (so we got free parking!) and it’s really kind of pretty. It’s right on the water and, when the weather’s nice, the city puts on free concerts some Wednesday afternoons.”

“Colchester 101 is featured with the Broad St. Bridge in the background (center). It’s a deep bridge because it used to be open and it housed the old Rochester Aqueduct that brought the Erie Canal into the city and across the river. Once the canal was diverted, they built the bridge and converted the aqueduct into a subway tunnel. The subways are long gone and the tunnel isn’t used for anything but graffiti now.”

“We took Colchester 101 farther down the river to to the High Falls district. I’d never actually seen the High Falls themselves but Chris knew of a terrifying pedestrian bridge across the gorge. We couldn’t get far enough out on the bridge to get a shot of the falls due to extreme wind and my fear of bridges but we did get this shot of Colchester 101 posing with the Genesee Brewing Company!”

Welcome to Wivenhoe. Please drive carefully and please look after our cats.

Meowww.

This was all rather weird, but then equally just as lovely. I first exchanged emails with Heather around a month or so go. Along with her partner Chris, Heather was planning a holiday of sorts in Wivenhoe - hurrah!

Being fans of Martin Newell, the pop genius of this parish, Heather and Chris googled around to see what the town has to offer. Somewhere along the line they stumbled across m’blog.

Our online conversation developed, and I offered a few suggestions as to what they might like to do whilst over here, drawing upon my own very short and limited knowledge of the town to date.

And then sometime towards the end of November, I was cycling along the Trail and I had a moment of clarity. Hey - I bet I bump into a couple of Americans around the town, and then an awkward moment may follow when we both um and ah about coming over to say hello.

So yeah - further emails were pinged back and forth across the Atlantic, and we arranged a rendez vous outside the Laurel and Hardy post boxes on Wednesday morning.

Charming coffee at the Corner House Cafe, matched by equally charming conversation, and just under an hour later I was back at base, grinning and generally feeling very warm about the whole experience.

Much of what I do is all about online connections that then transcend offline. All the better if they have a #hyperlocal angle. My mid-morning meeting with Heather and Chris encapsulated this form of friendship to perfection.

We talked about their brief stay here, their enjoyment of the Fisherman’s Cottage, the walk out to Alresford, meeting Martin Newell, meeting the station cat and the general slow pace of life that Wivenhoe has a habit of breeding into you.

Of course I had my iPhone with @audioboo fired up - hopeful, but not expectant of documenting our conversation digitally. I just knew that I was in the right company when Heather saw my iPhone, and raised me her own digital audio recorder.

What followed was a very post-modern experience of me recording our visitors, whilst they recorded me. I told you that this online / offline route to friendship is a winner.

A quick pose for a photo quayside, and a joke about how our friends from Rochester arrived in the North Essex estuary, looking forward to seeing the Qwwwaay…

Whoops.

Chris very kindly handed over me a copy of his latest CD, happy in the knowledge that there will always be something of Rochester filed away here in Wivenhoe. It came as no surprise to find out that both are active online with their own podcasts.

I wouldn’t go as far as saying that the Wivenhoe Tourist Board has been officially formed, but for such an isolated Essex town to generate interest online from the other side of the Atlantic, this really was rather special.

Travel safe, my friends, and please come back to see us again soon.

I’m never entirely sure about the merits of Liking things on Facebook - there are many things I have come across that I most certainly Dislike. But to waste away such negative feelings on sharing with your friends everything that makes you miserable, seems like a waste of a way to be using the modern interweb.

As a disclaimer, then of course I would have to add that Dislike and Wivenhoe don’t really go together. That was pretty much the whole reason why @AnnaJCowen and I moved out towards the estuary and away from the *very* Dislikeable aspects of the Rotten Borough.

But yeah - if you are the kind of Facebook fanatic that goes around actively Liking all that you see around you, then there’s a few local businesses that are worthy of a Wivenhoe click.

The Black Buoy has a Facebook page - blimey. I first found this out whilst boozing away our second Friday night down towards the front. An incredibly cheap blow up doll was propped up by the bar, gazing ahead at a Find us on Facebook sign.

Find I did, and then I started to Like the Black Buoy. I never really Disliked the Black Buoy to be honest, either online or offline. It’s a boozer; the surroundings are very special. A blow up doll adds a somewhat surreal touch.

Moving slowly up the High Street, as one always must, and you come to our old-ish new friends of Cansdale & Ross and the Corner House Cafe. I’ve blogged before about the brilliant local grocer business that Nigel and Lisa have recently opened. Across the road of course is their wonderful Corner House.

A Facebook Like is only a click away, something that I’m sure my East Midlands based sister would be doing, if she was of the Facebook generation. Her young family had a rather lovely morning in the Corner House when they came Wivenhoe visiting recently.

Moving slightly up towards the High Street and we have that other new kid on the block, Curiosity. I’m not sure what validates the old and the new, and given my relatively short time so far spent living in Wivenhoe, then much like the amazing stock within, Curiosity is positively ancient.

Much, much more to come later in the week about Wivenhoe’s latest secondhand goods shop. I briefly popped in today for a chat with Fiona, who has very kindly agreed to a video interview. I have my eye on a Victorian table, two birds with one stone ‘n all that…

My own Facebook usage is very much a dumping ground for m’blog and my Flickr photos. I don’t really engage and interact on Facebook, but I do find the news feeds of old and new friends quite useful.

From a #hyperlocal business point of view and I can see how Facebook has much to offer the local community. The Black Buoy, Cansdale & Ross, the Corner House and Curiosity, can all communicate instantly with local residents, and post up on their walls what is going on within.

I rather Like this.

*any other local businesses or organisations that would like a brief video interview, or a Facebook Like plug, then please do make contact*