Welcome to the Cuddington Village website

Welcome to the Cuddington website. There is lots of content to explore, and the site is constantly updated by editors in the village. Never miss out on village news and events that interest you by signing up in the Your Cuddington section.

The site has been created to be a hub of village activities and news and our ambition is that, as well as keeping everyone up to date, the website will become an interesting record of village life.

We would love to hear what you think of the website and any suggestions that you have on how we might improve it. Please drop us a note through the Contact Us section.

Street map of Cuddington Postcode of village centre: HP18 0AP

News

23/01/2012

Brendan Cole fills the Waterside Theatre

Local resident Brendan Cole played to a full auditorium on 22 January 2012 at the Waterside Theatre in Aylesbury. Cuddington was well represented with the Cricket Club to the fore.

Brendan was joined by five other professional dancers including his brother Scott, two singers and a lively twelve piece band. The programme was called ‘Live And Unjudged’ – with tango and rumba, cha cha and salsa in the first half; and the more classical waltzes and foxtrots in the second. Brendan had the audience itself standing to dance to the salsa – your correspondent managed the right foot movements, (though not necessarily in the right order).

The energy and stamina of the performers is amazing – especially as their UK tour takes them to twenty four venues from Aberdeen to Truro, Scunthorpe to Brighton in twenty seven days. Good luck and best wishes to them for the rest of the tour until the middle of February.

17/01/2012

W.I. – Summary of Annual Report 2011

This is an account of some of the activities of Cuddington WI in 2011.

We had a membership of nineteen with a committee of seven. Everyone was involved in fund raising, etc.

There were training days to keep the officers up to scratch and interesting resolution briefing meetings to ensure that members and delegates were well informed at the AGM, which was held in Liverpool. The resolution passed and put forward for action was against the closure of libraries. As individuals we have supported our local library in Haddenham.

Some of our members avail themselves of WI outings and holidays. These included The Weald and Downland Open Air Museum. Dutch bulb fields and Portsmouth.

A wall hanging which members had made was presented to the Cuddington and Dinton village school at a morning assembly. The head mistress, Mrs Price, there and then used it in a teaching project and the children joined in with enjoyment.

The programme of our monthly meetings is published in Village Voice. Speakers included in their talks such topics as work with the Samaritans, drug awareness when the talk was given by an officer from Springhill Prison and to our joy demonstrations by two dogs of drug detection, the Island of Jersey, policing the Newbury bye-pass and finally a little Zambian school, Tujatane, which is supported by a family in the village. In July we had a wonderfully tranquil boat trip on the Thames and on another occasion entertained ourselves with poetry reading.

Fundraising. The copper collection continued and enabled us to send a donation to Young Carers Bucks for the fifth year. This collection is also supported by non-members. By craft stalls we were able to donate to Stoke Mandeville Hospital, Cancer Care Haematology and their scan appeal.

We take an active part in village events and look forward to being involved in the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations this year.

Our WI warmly welcomes new members.

12/01/2012

Walks in or near Cuddington

For some ideas for walks nearby, please use the walk finder below:

Please let me have any comments you have on the walks and I will post them on the site in due course.

Also please don't forget to let us know of any footpath problems!

Happy walking in 2012

Alan and Stella Marsh

12/01/2012

OBE for Felicity Hilder

Congratulations to Felicity Hilder, who was awarded an OBE for services to charity by Her Majesty the Queen in the 2012 New Year Honours List.

More than 25 years ago Felicity, along with her late husband Tim, helped to resurrect a small organisation called the Hodgkin’s Disease Association, running a helpline for the charity from their home in Haddenham. Felicity has remained active with the charity, now known as the Lymphoma Association, ever since. These days the charity employs twenty staff who manage an annual income of more than £1 million.

Besides remaining a trustee of the charity, Felicity looks after the advertising for Village Voice and is a frequent contributor to the services in St. Nicholas’ Church.

10/01/2012

Unwanted or Faulty Christmas Gifts

At this time of the year, people often get gifts that they don't really want. If this happens to you, what are your rights if you want to return the gift to the shop where it was bought?

The shop may agree to give you a refund, but there is nothing in law which says they have to. However, many of the large high-street retailers do have ‘returns policies’ which give you more than just your basic legal rights. A shop which has a returns policy may offer you a refund, an exchange, a credit note or gift voucher if you have received a gift that you don't like. There may be a time limit within which you have to take the item back to the shop. If a shop has a returns policy, they must keep to it. Look for notices up in the shop telling you about the policy, or ask sales staff if the shop has one.

Even if a shop doesn’t have a returns policy, they may still offer to take the gift back as a goodwill gesture, particularly after Christmas. This is less likely to be the case with smaller shops which can’t afford to have returns policies or provide goodwill gestures.

If you want to return a gift, you should make sure that it’s in perfect condition and hasn’t been used. You should be able to produce a receipt, although some retailers will exchange items without one. If you don’t have a receipt, you could try using a bank or credit card statement from the person who bought the present instead. If the gift was bought using a credit or debit card, any refund will normally have to go back on the same card, so if you want to exchange your present for cash, you’ll probably have to get the person who bought it for you to arrange a refund.

What if there is something wrong with the gift?
Don’t forget that you have rights if there is something wrong with the gift, and the shop must do something about it. You may have to ask the person who bought it to make a complaint on your behalf. However, you can make a complaint yourself, as long as when the person bought it, they mentioned to the retailer that it was going to be given to you as a gift. It would be helpful to have something in writing which shows that the shop was aware of this at the time of sale.

To find out more about your rights go to the Citizens Advice website www.adviceguide.org.uk

07/01/2012

Clipper Round the World Race

A Cuddington villager is taking part in a long distance sailing race to raise money for an African school.

Honour Schram de Jong has joined the 16-strong crew of the yacht De Lage Landen for the fifth leg of the Clipper Round the World Race ’11-12. The 68-foot yacht, named after a Netherlands-based finance company, set sail from Southport in eastern Australia on Christmas Eve. This leg of the race will take the crews up the Gold Coast of Australia, through the islands of Papua New Guinea and Indonesia to Singapore and then on through the East China Sea to the Olympic sailing city of Qingdao – a total distance of 7,600 miles. The teams spent Christmas Day and New Year’s Eve afloat and the yachts are currently north of Papua New Guinea, heading west towards Malaysia.

Honour is raising money for the Tijutane primary school in Tongabezi, Zambia, and has currently raised just over half of her £3,000 target. To contribute, visit Honour’s Just Giving page and follow the progress of the race at www.clipperroundtheworld.com

13/12/2011

Manor House String Quartet – Christmas Concert

On Saturday Dec. 10th the Manor House String Quartet, who gave us such an impressive performance here in September, returned to St Nicholas Church to provide a concert of Christmas music.

The programme comprised primarily of carols imaginatively adapted for a string quartet.

The wide selection of carols from different countries was introduced by members of the quartet who provided the background to the carol which was to follow.

In addition the programme was varied by pieces from Handel’s Messiah and even included an unusual setting of Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer, as well as other modern offerings.

The instrumentalists combined beautifully to enthral us with a highly accomplished performance of well-known seasonal music, which did not fail to impress.

Over 80 people enjoyed the evening which included an interval where wine and delicious canapés were served.

Donations of £142 were given on the evening to help fund the Kampala Music School which has been set up by people in the village to enable young Ugandans to acquire outstanding musical skills.

See opposite for a number of photographs.

07/12/2011

Step forward the snow saviours – Bucks

The search is on by Buckinghamshire County Council for this year’s snow saviours – volunteers with four-wheel-drive (4WD) vehicles to help reach vulnerable people during heavy snowfalls.

And the message is, even if you don't have a vehicle you can still be a snow saviour by volunteering to help clear paths at the homes of vulnerable people.

During last year’s heavy snow, despite superhuman effort by the County Council’s home carers, some had difficultly reaching vulnerable people, said Trevor Boyd, Head of Commissioning for Adult Social Care.

“Our staff thought nothing of walking when driving wasn’t possible to provide much-needed care and support to vulnerable people,” said Trevor. “But we could do so much more, and much more quickly if we had the help of volunteers with 4WD vehicles.”

Martin Phillips, Cabinet Member for Community Engagement, said: “We’re looking for the snow saviours of Buckinghamshire! It’s a Big Society ask, and we know our county has so many community-spirited people who’d be so willing to help our vulnerable people during the winter.”

Ch Insp Colin Seaton, Wycombe’s Deputy Area Commander, said: “Last year the county was affected badly by the snow and we want to make sure that we are as prepared as we can be this year.

“It is important for us to ensure that the more vulnerable people in our community are looked after during these times and I hope that anyone who is in a position to help, comes forward.”

If you can help please call the County Council's Localities Team on 01296 383409 or email locality-services@buckscc.gov.uk with your name, where you live, contact details and whether you can help with snow clearance or whether you have a 4WD vehicle.

This is a Community Message from Aylesbury Watch Office on Tuesday 6 December 2011.

17/10/2011

New Thermal Imaging Project In Cuddington

Cuddington residents who complete an application form (download form here) can have thermal images taken of their homes or property. These images show where heat is being lost and is costing the owner unnecessary expense on energy. These are useful if you are wondering how to reduce your heating bills, want to check how improvements are working, or want to know more about the efficiency of your home.

What Is Involved?

On receipt of your form, we will confirm that you are on our list and will be offered the service on one evening between January 15th and 21st 2012. Closer the time, the date will be confirmed with you and and approximate time. Two or three people will do the work, which involves checking the inside and outside temperatures, then taking up to 6 images of your property from all sides: you can join us or leave us to it as you wish.

A seminar will be arranged where the results of the project will be presented and your images will be given to you as JPEG files or else, subject to covering printing costs, a printed version can be made available.

In taking part, you are not giving anything away or open to any risk: it is simply providing you with information that could save you a lot of money through reducing your heating bills, or that can provide peace of mind.

This is a service carried out by volunteers for the good of the community, so if you take part, a donation towards Haddenham In Transition and Greener Cuddington will be much appreciated.

02/09/2011

New Bulletin Board Page

You’ll see that the menu on the left now contains a new option – the Bulletin Board. On this page you can discuss any matters of interest to the village, advertise items for sale, or arrange a car share.

There are four message Categories at the moment (although we can add new ones very easily if there is sufficient demand):

Discussion Forum
For Sale
Lift Offered / Required
Wanted

Please note that you need to sign in on the Your Cuddington page before you can post a new message, or reply to an existing one.

14/01/2011

Sign up for Website Membership!

To enrol as a member of Cuddington's new website takes just a couple of minutes, is completely free of charge, and brings you all these benefits:

Highlight all your own particular areas of interest in the village, and then be notified by email the moment there’s a new article or calendar event of interest to you
Create your own personal calendar, filtered to show only those events that interest you
Promote your local business in our Business Directory pages
Add your own entries to the village calendar, to let everyone know about forthcoming events in which you're involved

Don’t worry – you won’t be inundated with junk mail. Your personal details are held securely and will not be passed to a third party. You will only receive an email when the editor of one of your favourite pages posts a new article or calendar event, or has something important to communicate. And you can change your preferences as often as you like.

Make our website work for you – visit the Your Cuddington page and sign up as a member now!