Mendham and Withersdale

... two villages in the Waveney Valley on the boarder of Suffolk and Norfolk in England

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Village hall opening ceremony

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A date is now set for the ceremonial opening of the new village hall, 17th April 2010. Rebecca Knight, one of the Operababes will perform the actual ceremony during a day when we also hope that the whole community can come and view the new facilities. People outside of the community who have contributed to the hall in many ways will be invited and the whole of the Mendham parish community are welcome to come a see their new village hall. The event is being planned in detail now. The gates will be open at about 11:30 and Rebecca will cut a ceremonial ribbon at the main door at about 12:00 with the event ending at about 15:00 in the afternoon. Light refreshments will be available and we hope to get various organisations in the community involved. Please put the date in your diaries now!

 

Ever thought about Petanque?

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Following the completion of their successful second season, the Suffolk Coastal Petanque League are already setting their sights on the 2010 season. Having started in 2008 with 9 teams, which then rose to 17 in 2009, the sport is benefitting from a revival in interest and is currently one of the 5 fastest growing sports in the country.

The sport itself has virtually no age or gender restrictions and people normally take around 10 to 15 minutes to be shown the basics of the game. Several factors help in making it a great leisure activity to be involved with, especially that you do not have to be of Olympian-athletic ability to play and also, in these difficult economic times, it is an incredibly inexpensive pastime.

Many of our new teams manage to find and persuade their local pubs and such like to temporarily give up a section of a gravelled car park or similar, which can make a suitable playing surface and therefore avoid the need to build a purpose-made playing area or ‘piste’ as we call it. Obviously if interest and funds allow, we prefer a ‘proper’ piste but realise that this is not always possible, and basically our principles are that we just want to get as many people playing in a variety of locations.

Our league itself allows players to enter in teams of a minimum of 4 players, up to a maximum of 8 and the registration fee is a ‘credit-busting’ £12 per team for the entire season. Matches are played approximately once every 3 weeks, starting in April and culminating in our Grand Finals during the final week of September. Another innovation of our league is that leagues are based upon geographical location rather than ability and are limited to a maximum of 6 teams per division. This means a team will have, at the most, 5 home and 5 away matches to play over a 6 month period. This allows for matches being re-arranged easily to avoid holidays etc and teams are provided with all the other teams contact details at the start of the season to allow easy communication between captains.

Late Sunday mornings are the preferred ‘kick-off’ times, and with matches lasting around 90 minutes to complete, venues are then usually open by 12 o’clock, allowing after-match refreshments and the chance for the socialising aspect of our sport.

Teams can be made up of family members, social friends, pubs and club teams or even teams that we manage to ‘mould together’ from isolated persons who just want to get involved, such as the Deben Vikings team did in 2009, where we got 6 strangers together playing on the Council funded piste at Woodbridge. So much did they enjoy their first season, they were one of the first teams to signal their commitment for the fast approaching 2010 league programme.

If you are at all interested, please don’t hesitate in contacting the League Co-Ordinator, Mr Simon Fletcher at 18 Melville Road, Ipswich, IP4 1PN or e-mail him at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Registration closes at the end of February 2010, so please, please get in touch.

 

 

New village hall construction

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After several years of planning for a new community building to replace the aging village hall in Withersdale Street and the long gone village hall in Mendham, a sub-committee of the villages' Community Council developed a Feasibility Study for a new village hall in 1995.  A public meeting in May of that year voted in favour of the new hall being in Withersdale Street.  Fundraising commenced and grants from the Parish Council, Community Council, Village Hall Committee and the Youth & Football Club enabled the playing field in Withersdale Street and a building plot to the east to be purchased in 2000. In September 2001 a Trust Deed brought a Charity called Mendham and Withersdale Village Hall into existence as Management Trustees for the new hall, Mendham Parish Council being Custodian Trustees for the land and proposed new property.  Work then commenced on raising funds for construction. 

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New Village Hall opens

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We are open!  At long, long last we hear you say.  It has been a slog and a few people doubted we would ever succeed, but we have made it!!!  Many, many thanks are due to a great number of supporters, far too numerous to be listed here.  If you helped in any way, however small, please consider yourself thanked.  We plan to have our formal opening celebration in early Spring 2010 and details will appear in the January edition of Five Alive.

Meanwhile the new hall is open for business. Contact me, Julie Herbert, the Hall Manager on 01379 588202 or 07967 480484 and I will help with information and take your bookings. Now it’s here, why not use it!

 

Mendham & Metfield WI

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Hello and Welcome to the WI Page!

I'm Kate Peacher, President of Mendham & Metfield WI, which belongs to the Suffolk East Federation.

Our WI meets on the first Tuesday in the month at 7:30pm at either Metfield Village Hall, Mendham School or the New Village Hall in Withersdale.

Our programme offers a variety of speakers on all sorts of topics, planned events and outings, as well as taking part in Federation events, where we have the opportunity to meet and make new friends with like minded members.

New members are always welcome.... so why not give me a call and join us!  01379 854670

 

Take a look at our Programme for 2010 or click to see the website of the National Federation of Women's Institutes...... don't miss out on all the fun!

 

 

Golden Cross

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February 2007 by e.mail

"Yes, I had a very nice birthday last Sunday - sorry I'm so slow in thanking you for the card.

Derek treated us to Sunday lunch in the OXO tower overlooking the Thames - that is Liz and Tom and Liz's boyfriend Rudyard.  We walked from their flat in Kennington and afterwards had a walk back along the Embankment via Foyles bookshop and passed girls holding up banners stating FREE HUGS. I'm afraid none of us took advantage of them but they were very amusing.

Liz had made a cake for me so it rounded off a good day.

A rather strange coincidence - hanging on their wall was a framed receipt from The Golden Cross pub in Withersdale Street, Mendham stating that Rudyard's late father had caught a 2½ lb pike from the River Waveney in 1963 and had eaten it, presumably in the pub that night.

I wonder if the pub is still there."

 

Welcome pack

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 Welcome to the parish of Mendham and the villages of Mendham and Withersdale. As a new member of our community we thought the following information may be of use to you. Feel free to print it out and keep it handy. We hope it helps. 

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Notice board

Denis Pye

Denis Pye is adding some of his writings to the website starting with his tribute to the new bells in All Saints in 2002. Click on 'People'.

All Saints dates

Sue Olver has put some dates on the website of events at All Saints church, Mendham.

Women's Institute

Kate Peacher has started to put some information on the website about the WI. Click on 'Organisations'.

Parish council minutes

Have a look at the latest parish council agendas and minutes. Click on 'Organisations'.

Operababes!

Rebecca Knight, one of the Operababes, is to open the new village hall on 17th April 2010

Village hall

Its taken some time but the village hall is now open and ready for business. Contact Julie Herbert 01379 588202.

All Saints monuments

Drawings made by Kathleen Hadingham of the burial monuments in All Saints churchyard are now on the website - click on 'Churches'.

Metfield.org.uk

Metfield are establishing a website as well. Take a look at metfield.org.uk

Some gallery pics

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MW_Flood havoc at Mendham Bridge
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