Dickleburgh Village Community Web Site
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This real Village Style Summer Show held in the ancient Old Reading Room, with its walls covered with archive  photographs and historical details of the village tracking back to the 1860’s, grows in popularity every year, this year with a record breaking 153 entries from 39 exhibitors across a range of 63 categories.

Organised by Viki Hooper entailing a great deal of preparatory work, commitment – and resilience – assisted on the day by Tom & Mary Hicks acting as stewards and other committee members “pitching in”, the entries were judged by Lyn Kirk a food & textiles teacher and Wally Patterson a Dickleburgh man who in the past had won the silver Kepple trophy seventeen times to the extent it was given to him. He in turn gave it to the Village Society as their main award for the Best in Show.

With the large amount of entries, judging took some time with each of the six classes having several categories, finally resulting in the winners of the classes as follows:

Best in Show: Viki Hooper, Vegetable Class: Geoff Beaujeux, Fruit Class: Michael Hooper, Flower Class: Viki Hooper, Cookery Class: Bob Joy, Handicraft: Mike Tinsley, Children’s Class: Ben Filmer.

At 4.00pm, John Taylor, the Chairman of the Village Society expressed his thanks to Viki Hooper for all of her hard work in organising such a successful event, the judges, and the help given by other committee members. Finally he announced the winner of the Kepple Cup for the best entry in show, as Viki Hooper  who was quite overwhelmed – ecstatic – at receiving it!

He also reminded those present that the Village Society’s annual Cheese, Pate & Wine Lunch at Dickleburgh Hall was scheduled for August 10th  at 12 noon with tickets available from Raymond (Tel. 741394), Carl (Tel. 741517), Tom (Tel. 740531) and Beryl (Tel. 741259) – members £6.00 and non-members £7.00.

This month we are holding the very popular Cheese/Pate and Wine Lunch at the Old Barn, Dickleburgh Hall on Semere Green Lane.  This fund raiser will take place on Sunday 10^th August at noon.

Tickets are available from Raymond (Tel.741394), Carl (Tel. 741517), Tom (Tel. 740531) or Beryl (Tel. 741259)

Members £6.00 and non-members £7.00.

Come and join us at the beautiful Hall, have fun and enjoy some lovely food and wine and a great raffle.

Hoping the rains would hold off, an enthusiastic group of all ages, two-legged and four-legged, set off on 18th May for our Country Walk. Carl Roe led us along the footpath through fields and woodland to Shimpling and passed the church. Soon some of us were confronted with a herd of cows with their calves, who stampeded passed us, thankfully at a respectable distance. Winding our way back to Dickleburgh along meadows and hedgerows, we ended up at the Crown for well deserved refreshments.
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On 29 April the Old Reading Room was packed for a thoroughly interesting talk/slide show given by Patrick Marney, a specialist in the repair and restoration of barometers. Patrick, who lives in Dickleburgh, explained the basic mechanics of the barometer first and then led us through the history of this instrument.

It started in Florence in 1644, when an experiment by Torricelli showed the essentials for a functioning barometer (from baro = weight and metro = measure) to measure air pressure.  We saw first the stick barometers which used mercury which were then improved through Italian influence of glass blowing and the wheel barometers evolved – the ones we are most familiar with. This system hardly changed over the next 150 years except they became more elaborate with mirrors, clocks, thermometers and other decorations added. By 1850 the aneroid barometer was developed by Dent and Vidi. This did not use mercury any more but a diaphragm instead.

The first practical marine barometer was made for Captain James Cook for his second voyage in 1772-1775 by Edward Nairne. Over time more specific barometers were developed like the Storm Barometer (also known as the Admiral Fitzroy barometer) which was sited at ports and National Life Boat Stations for the use of seafarers. (more…)

On Sunday, 18th May, Carl Roe will lead us on our Country Walk around the Shimpling area.    This is a most enjoyable afternoon of about 5 miles and we usually end up at the Crown in Dickleburgh at 4.30-ish for a well deserved drink.  The walk is open to everyone (no membership necessary), so please join us – all ages welcome.  We meet at the village sign at 1.45pm ready to leave at 2.00pm.

Any new or outstanding membership fees for 2008 (still only £3.00) can be given to Carl on the walk or sent to him, together with details of your name and address.

A note for your diaries:  the Horticultural Show will be held on Saturday, 19th July in the Old Reading Room . . . .start sowing!!!!!

The Barometer is a beautiful, intricate and interesting instrument, so come to the Old Reading Room on Tuesday, 29th April, when the Village Society presents a talk by Patrick Marney, a barometer specialist, to learn more about them.  We will meet at 7pm (please note the time) and you will be able to get tickets in advance (£1 per person) from Ray Saunders, The Old Harness Shop, Tel. 741394, Mike Tinsley, Orchard Bungalow, Tel. 741467 or Mike Hooper, Moor View, Tel. 741401.

While you are making a note of this in your diary, pencil in our Country Walk on Sunday, 18th May.  This will be led by Carl Roe and we will meet at 1.45pm at the village sign.  Everybody is welcome.

When the nights draw in during November, there is no better place to go than the Reading Room for the Old Fashioned Film Night. This year the picture was ‘Hobson’s Choice’, a 1954 black and white comedy, set in Salford, Lancashire. We lived through the tribulations of a comfortably set-in-his-ways father with three ready to marry daughters and relished in the clever manipulations of his eldest daughter, who was well ahead of the expected behaviour of a lady in those days. The cast included Charles Laughton , John Mills, Hugh Laurie and a very young Prunella Scales. An excellent evening was rounded off with a very tasty hot supper – special thanks to Vikki, Mary and Liz.  Particular thanks go to Tom for organising the whole evening and Reg Snowling for projecting the film.

Our next meeting will be the AGM on Monday, 14th January 2008 at 7.30pm in the Old Reading Room. Please make a special effort to attend this meeting as there will be changes and we need your ideas for the next year.

In the meantime we wish you all a Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year.