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As we slowly emerge from the lockdown, it’s great to see Spring at last – even if temperatures have dipped over the last few days. 

We’ve been very busy continuing to liaise with our stakeholder groups, authorities and our architect. We also had a very productive meeting with members of the Aldbourne Parish Council and showed them our latest plans. We’ll be meeting with them again within the next couple of months and giving them more details of our proposals. We hope that we will then be able to present our plans to the wider community shortly after the restrictions on indoor public meetings have been lifted at the end of June. 

Football Back in Aldbourne

Now that sport can resume, it’s great to see that Ramsbury Football Club has been able to return to the Southward Lane Pitch for training on Saturday mornings and some matches on Sunday mornings. 

This will continue until the end of May and we are very grateful for the support of Aldbourne Parish Council. 

Ramsbury Football Club draws players from all the villages around – and especially from Aldbourne. It’s really good to see that many of them are walking and cycling to the field as well.

You can help…and it won’t cost you a penny…

As the project on Palmers Field gathers momentum, the need to raise funds gets greater. We have been looking at wide variety of ways of raising money, including many different funding sources and private donations.

We’ll be launching a friends and members proposals soon, but in the meantime, you’ll be delighted to hear you can help us now and it won’t cost you a penny. This is through two initiatives we’ve set up with Amazon Smile and Easy Funding. You can find out more details on the fundraising page of this website.  

Although this won’t raise huge amounts of money, as a leading supermarket would say – “Every little helps”!

Another way you can really help us is to encourage as many local people as you can to sign up for this newsletter and complete our short questionnaire, as the more feedback we get the better. As always, if you have any questions or suggestions, please do get in contact with us at: 

info@ARC-Aldbourne.org.uk 

Many thanks again for your continued support 

Malcolm Pryce, Chairman, Aldbourne Recreation Centre 

Firstly, on behalf of all of us at ARC I’d like to wish you and your families and very Happy New Year and here’s hoping it’ll be a much better one for everyone. 

Despite all the challenges that we are all experiencing with the current situation we are looking forward to making some exciting progress on the development on Palmers Field this year. 

We really hope you can join us for our AGM which will be at 11am on Saturday the 16^th of January. Because of the latest restrictions it will be held online using Zoom, and we’ll send you another email in a couple of weeks with the agenda and Zoom login details. In the meantime, please put this time and date in your diary.

Then later this month we will be updating members of the Aldbourne Parish Council with our latest plans following further discussions with our stakeholders as well as the community engagement that has been taking place over the last 18 months.  

Football Back In Aldbourne

If you’ve passed Southward Football field recently you may have noticed that there has been more football training taking place. This is because Aldbourne Parish Council has agreed to allow us to invite Ramsbury Football Club to use the Southward Lane Pitch occasionally for training on Saturday mornings. 

Ramsbury Football Club has expanded considerably over the past few seasons, drawing players from all the villages around – and especially from Aldbourne. In fact as well as footballers, some of Ramsbury FC accredited minis football coaches are also from Aldbourne. It’s great to see football being played again in Aldbourne and will set us up in a very strong position ahead of our proposed development of Palmers Field.

Palmers Field Trees

You may have noticed that over the last couple of months some maintenance work has taken place along the brook (bourne) and on a couple of trees by the main entrance to Palmers Field. This was as a result of working in conjunction with the Parish Council and Southern Electricity to ensure all the overhead cables are kept safe. 

Community Engagement

We are hoping that following a further meeting with the Parish Council in early spring with more detailed plans of our proposed development of Palmer’s Field, we will be able to hold the first of our public consultation meetings, subject to Covid restrictions being lifted sometime in early summer. 

We will of course keep you updated but in the meantime, we are still encouraging everyone to continue giving us feedback  by completing our online questionnaire. It really is very useful for us so if you haven’t managed to do it yet, it’ll only take a few minutes:

Your views on future plans for Aldbourne Recreation Centre and Palmer’s Field

Also please encourage as many local people as you can to complete the form as the more feedback we get the better. As always, if you have any questions or suggestions, please do get in contact with us at:

info@ARC-Aldbourne.org.uk 

Many thanks again for your continued support and again my very warm wishes for 2021


Malcolm Pryce, 
Chairman, Aldbourne Recreation Centre 

After some beautiful weather, it seems Autumn is definitely upon us with lower temperatures and leaves changing colour. 

It was great to see the field being used so much throughout the summer, although we are sadly finding more litter, particularly around the shelter at the top of the field. We are very grateful to Tim Beatie who empties the bicycle bin and our trustees conduct regular checks and do our best to keep the area tidy. 

With a dry brook on the boundary of Palmers Field at the moment we were able to clear two carrier bags of rubbish to keep it clean before the water flows again. If you ever see anything that needs our attention please do let us know.

Meanwhile during the summer we’ve been having virtual meetings with stakeholders and have continued conversations with our architect and other organisations who’ve been a great source of advice and help. 

New Core Team Member

Many of you will know Eleanor Williamson for her wonderful work on our community engagement with Alex Lambert. I’m delighted to say that Eleanor has agreed to join our core team with a particular focus on the environmental aspects of the field and our project. She’ll be a huge asset and will be liaising with various organisations in the village who are involved in green issues such as the carbon neutral group. 

You’ll also notice that she is involved in this year’s Church Harvest Appeal featuring scarecrows around the village. You can find out more on the Whitton Team News Facebook page. 

Community Engagement

We are still encouraging everyone to give us some feedback by completing our online questionnaire. It’s proving to be really interesting and very helpful, so we’re very grateful to those who’ve already completed our online survey. If you haven’t manage to do it yet, it’ll only take a few minutes, so please do go ahead and click on this link:

Your views on future plans for Aldbourne Recreation Centre and Palmer’s Field

Also please encourage as many local people as you can to complete the form as the more feedback we get the better. As always, if you have any questions or suggestions, please do get in contact with us at:

info@ARC-Aldbourne.org.uk 

Please do let us know if there is anyone else who would like to receive this newsletter, and don’t forget we are active on social media, so please follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.  

Many thanks again


Malcolm Pryce, 
Chairman, Aldbourne Recreation Centre 

Firstly, I hope you and your families are staying well and safe in our continued lockdown. Like all of us in Aldbourne, I feel very fortunate to be in this wonderful village with all of its open spaces and long walks. 

Although we can’t open the exercise equipment or zip wire yet, it’s great to see so many people enjoying Palmer’s Field. 

We’ve deliberately left most of the field to nature, apart from the mown perimeter and around the young trees that were only planted a few years ago. 

Rosemary & Brian Buckler

Many of you will have known Brian and Rosemary, who both so sadly died last month. They were such enthusiastic supporters of so many aspects of Aldbourne life, and amongst many other organisations in the village, they were directly involved with ARC from the very beginning. They were keen to see the project progress and we were always very grateful to them. They will be sadly missed by everyone in our village and our thoughts are with their family at this time. 

Palmers Field Update

With the continued lockdown it has been a quiet couple of months but we are still attempting to continue discussions with the various key stakeholder groups in virtual meetings. We are also collating feedback we have received so far following the research by Alex Lambert and Eleanor Williamson, although a lot of their work has been hampered by the current situation. We are still encouraging people to complete our online questionnaire which you can find here.

Your views on future plans for Aldbourne Recreation Centre and Palmer’s Field

Please do pass this link to as many local people as you can as the more feedback we get the better.

info@ARC-Aldbourne.org.uk 

Please do let us know if there is anyone else who would like to receive this newsletter every month, and don’t forget we are active on social media, so please follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Many thanks again


Malcolm Pryce, 
Chairman, Aldbourne Recreation Centre 

 

Firstly I hope you and your loved ones are staying safe and well in these unprecedented times.

Despite the many concerns we all have, it’s been fantastic to see that as always, Aldbourne has risen to the challenge with so much help being available and offered. There is a huge amount of information on our local websites and on social media. I’d certainly recommend the Parish Council and Village websites, who have lots of local information and advice.

We are also incredibly lucky that both our local Aldbourne Stores and Coop remain open, and we’re very grateful to them for all the extra work they have done to look after us all. 

ARC Update

Needless to say, a lot of our plans have been put on hold at the moment, but I can assure you we are still doing a lot of work in the background.

Thanks to Alex Lambert and Eleanor Williamson, we have been conducting more formal community engagement over the last few months, to supplement the feedback we have gathered over the years. This is ongoing and although our face to face engagement has been curtailed, we would encourage you to complete our online questionnaire. This will really help us for future planning and fundraising. You can do it by clicking on this link:-

Your Views

Palmers Field

Following government guidance and discussions with the Parish Council, we have closed the equipment on Palmers Field and Southward Field. You may have seen this notice:

As you can see, although we have closed the zip wire and the exercise equipment, we are still encouraging people to use both fields for exercise, provided you observe social distancing. 

You are very welcome to exercise your dogs too, but please do clear up after them. 

We conduct regular rounds to ensure the area is safe and tidy, but if you see anything we should be aware of please let us know straight away. We are so very grateful to Tim Beattie who made the wonderful yellow Bicycle Bin and voluntarily empties it regularly. Please think of Tim and remember, the bin is only for rubbish and not dog mess – please take that away with you. 

Stay in Touch

If you have any questions or suggestions, please do get in contact with us at:

info@ARC-Aldbourne.org.uk 

Also, please do let us know if there is anyone else who would like to receive our newsletter, and don’t forget we are active on social media, so please follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Again, we’d like to thank all our supporters for all their continued

Many Thanks

Malcolm Pryce, 
Chairman, Aldbourne Recreation Centre

Despite all the rain and terrible weather, ARC has had a great start to 2020 with lots going on. Firstly some very exciting news….

Aldbourne Lawn Tennis Club 

You may have heard that recently Aldbourne Lawn Tennis Club (ALTC) held an EGM to look at the possibility of joining the ARC project. We are very pleased to report that the ALTC members voted in favour of taking the first step towards this, with a second EGM later this year being planned to fully commit to the project. We’re very much looking forward to working with the Tennis Club over the next few months towards the next stage.

The Chairman of ALTC, Milly Goddard said: ”We are very excited to be participating with the ARC team to fulfil their dream of developing Palmers Field for the benefit of the village, and to be offering ALTC members the chance to play tennis at brand new facilities in the future”.

Meanwhile, our discussions with the other key stakeholder groups are still taking place and we’ll report on these as soon as we have any news. 

Curry and Quiz Night

We held a great fundraising evening a couple of weeks ago and I’m pleased to say it was a huge success. We raised nearly £700, so my thanks to all the ARC team who were involved especially to Simon and his kitchen team for producing such a delicious meal, and of course our quizmaster Alastair. Also a special thanks to Mark and Sue at the Post Office for giving up their valuable time to run the bar and for donating all the profits to ARC. 

The atmosphere was second to none it was great to hear how people really enjoyed the friendly ambience of the night. It looks like this will be an annual event!

Community Engagement

As we’ve mentioned in previous newsletters, we are busy gathering views and opinions from as many groups and individuals in the village and surrounding areas as we can. We have now launched our official questionnaire on our website, so we’d really appreciate you spending a few minutes completing it. 

Your Views

This feedback is essential for our planning and will also go in a report that we will present to the village and grant funders later in the year. 

Friends of ARC

We will be launching the Friends of ARC campaign in the next few weeks, where you’ll have the opportunity to donate to ARC on a regular basis from as little as £2 a month. This is an important aspect of our fundraising and we are grateful to everyone who has already expressed an interest in helping us raise much needed funds. 

Stay in Touch

As always if you have any questions or suggestions, please do get in contact with us at:

info@ARC-Aldbourne.org.uk 

Don’t forget we are active on social media, so please follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram by clicking on the links on the home page

Many thanks 


Malcolm Pryce, 
Chairman, Aldbourne Recreation Centre 

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It’s certainly autumnal outside and walking around Palmers Field and the great walks around the village it’s lovely to see the changing colours. This time of year also means it’s time for our AGM, which is happening on Wednesday the 30th of October at 7.30pm. 

Everyone is very welcome and after the formal business, there’ll be plenty of time to chat and answer any of your questions. 

Consultation

At the moment we’re busy in our consultation phase. This involves consultation with groups and organisations within the village and we’re continuing our research by looking at other projects which are similar to the vision we have for Palmers Field. We’re also having a series of meetings with key stakeholders to show them the initial designs we’ve had from our architects and get their feedback.  We’ll keep you fully informed of our progress. 

New Website

We’re delighted to say our website is going through a transformation with a new modern look and hopefully, you’ll find it easier to navigate and get the latest information. Although there’s more to do we’re really happy with the progress and incredibly grateful indeed to Simon Godfrey for all his help. Have a look:

www.ARC-Aldbourne.org.uk

As always if you have any questions or suggestions, please do get in contact with us at:

info@ARC-Aldbourne.org.uk 

We hope we’ll see you at the AGM next week and in the meantime, if you’re not already, please do follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram by clicking on the links below. 

Many thanks 


Malcolm Pryce, 
Chairman, Aldbourne Recreation Centre 

It was great to see so many of you at our Cheese and Wine evening last month, and although many were not able to make it, we were very grateful to receive so many kind messages of support. Thank you again to John and Marianne Adey for hosting the evening and to Mark and Sue from the Post Office Cafe for looking after us so well and subsidising the food and wine. We were also delighted to be joined by members of the Palmer family who we were able to thank publicly for donating the field in the first place, because without them, there would be no project. We’ve had a busy summer and with the lease signed for Palmers Field, we’re now in the middle of the next stage of our project. For those who were there you’ll be aware of what we are doing, but here’s a quick recap for those who were not able to make it. 

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Design Drawings
We’re delighted to have received initial drawings for a single multipurpose building. This was as a result of receiving use cases from all the stakeholders and working with our architects to produce the first set of drawings. We have now shown these to the stakeholders and over the next month, we’ll be having a series of meetings with them to get their feedback. We’ll then make any necessary revisions to the designs and show them to the parish council, our supporters and then the wider village.

Consultation
Meanwhile thanks to an Awards4All grant we have engaged Alex Lambert to undertake a formal community consultation. Alex will be helping the Trustees and Core Team put together a comprehensive report that will be used to present to Aldbourne Parish Council, the wider village, core grant funders as well as those offering private donations. On the subject of funding, we’re starting to work on a series of events starting with an ARC Curry and Quiz night in February and lots more to come, so look out for details soon. 

Core Team
I’m delighted to say that we’ve had many new offers of help since we signed the lease and have already welcomed Mike Rodd and Chris Davis to our core team. We’re thrilled that they will be able to add their talents to what is already a very strong team. Whatever your talent and regardless of how little time you think you may be able to offer, we’d love to hear from you.

Congratulations
We are thrilled that Aldbourne Band came 9th in the British Open Brass Band Championships in Birmingham last Saturday.  We are so lucky to have such an outstanding band in our village and how wonderful that they will hopefully be a part of our project with a fantastic rehearsal space. They rushed back to perform the last village Pond Concert on Saturday and here’s one of our core team members, Alan Watson, sharing the exciting news of their achievement. 

And Finally…..
We are so excited to be moving ahead and delighted with the current momentum of the project. We look forward to keeping you up to date every step of the way and as always if you have any questions or suggestions, please do get in touch with us at: info@ARC-Aldbourne.org.uk 

As always we’re keen to spread the word so if there is anyone else you’re aware of who may like to receive this newsletter, just ask them to email us or click the Sign Up To Our Newsletter Button on the website. Also please do follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram by clicking on the links below. 

Many thanks 

Malcolm Pryce,  Chairman, Aldbourne Recreation Centre 

As you’ll be aware we’re very excited to have officially signed the lease with Aldbourne Parish Council for Palmer’s Field. Although the lease was actually signed the week before, we held a short ceremony last Thursday evening to mark the occasion officially:Attending the ceremony were the Chair of Aldbourne Parish Council, Alison Edmonds, Parish Councillors, the Chair of ARC, Malcolm Pryce with ARC Trustees and supporters.

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Alison Edmonds said “On behalf of Aldbourne Parish Council it gives me great pleasure to sign the lease with the trustees for Aldbourne Recreation Centre for the development of sports and recreation facilities in our village. This an exciting project which will benefit the whole community. On behalf of the Parish Council, I wish the group every success”.

Malcolm Pryce, replied saying “We are very excited about having reached this stage and I’d like to thank, the Palmer family who donated the field in 2005, Aldbourne Parish Council, the sporting and recreational groups that we’ve been talking to over the last few years, as well as the ARC team of Trustees, volunteers and friends. We are also very grateful for the support, in the form of seed grants, from Medlock Trust, Marlborough Area Board, Wroughton Solar, Awards4All and Tesco. Our next steps for the proposed multi-use facility is to continue consultations, firm up design requirements, establish an operational management plan and of course raise the necessary funds.” 

We are planning to celebrate with a Wine and Cheese evening at the Malt House on South Street, (by kind permission of John and Marianne Adey), at 8pm on Friday 30th of August. Parish Councillors, ARC Trustees and Core Team members as well as all supporters and recipients of this newsletter are invited, so look out for your personal invitation which we’ll be posting to you before the end of the week.

It’ll be a celebration of how far we’ve come, and it’ll also be a great opportunity to tell you a little more about where we go from here. We’ll talk about our plans as well as outlining an estimated timeline for the project. 

We will also be a part of the Aldbourne Carnival again this year, so do look out for us on the Green on Saturday the 31st of August.

We really hope you’ll be able to make it to the Wine and Cheese Evening and in the meantime as always if you have any questions or suggestions, please do get in contact with us at:

info@ARC-Aldbourne.org.ukMany thanks 
Malcolm Pryce, Chairman, Aldbourne Recreation Centre