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Last year we organised our usual Rescue weekend. You can see the report of what we did under the heading Things we have done- our events. Normally at this time of the year we would have got the Rescue 2021 event ready to go. However, unsurprisingly we are not doing Rescue this year in order to comply with the rules during lockdown.
We were reminded on the radio that the Keep Britain Tidy events over Britain are apparently going ahead. So this post is to remind people round Tilehurst that there is actually nothing to stop you collecting rubbish if you want to our local parks and woods to be tidy, but you should do it on your own and take any of the rubbish you collect back home with you.
Better than that, you shouldn't drop litter!! Of course you don't - but someone does and it really doesn't look nice and it harms the wildlife.
If you do pick up any litter - a big thank you.
You probably have walked past the Tilehurst Library and the Tilehurst Clinic lots of times and noticed that the cherry tree that had been there had sadly died.
We were approached by the Tree Wardens to see if we could think of somewhere in Tilehurst to plant two cherry trees. (You may have read in the news that Japan has donated loads of cherry trees to our country to cheer us all up (and probably to spur us to looking forward to the delayed Olympic Games!). And the answer was that we would love to replace the dead tree.
So keen people were involved in arranging for the new trees to be planted.
The work went ahead on a Tuesday morning. And if you look carefully at the photo, in the distance you will see that all the daffodils that we planted some years ago are out and they look great.
So we are hoping that these two new cherry trees will blossom in the spring to give us a bit of cheer. Thank you Japan and thank you the Tree Wardens.
Carol as usual oganized things so that we could put up the lights at the Triangle. Well done Carol and everyone who helped - it should bring a bit of cheer.
It was a foggy day, when they went up. But people passing by looked pleased when the lights were being put on the tree - and even more pleased when the lights were switched on a bit later on in the day.
It may not look brilliant in the picture, but we can assure you that if you go and have a look, it is twinklingly pretty.
If you have kept up with our news you will know that we were hoping to arrange a meeting in the near future. However, after working really hard to try and organize a meeting for a date in October, we now find that we have to cancel the idea of a face to face meeting until further notice.
During the course of trying to organize the meeting people kept saying that other organizations are running digital meetings and that we ought to do the same. Given the difficulty of being able to organize a normal meeting we think that is perhaps what we should do.
So saying we would be grateful if any of you know how to set up a Zoom meeting, please let us know. We would love you to help us out.
And if you have any issues you would like to bring to our attention, just let us know.
As you know, we normally have our AGM at our September meeting. It should have been on the 16th September. However, it will come as no surprise that this year we were unable to hold our September meeting. We hadn't managed to agree the risk assessment requirements that are needed for our insurance and for us to be able to rent the Tilehurst Methodist Church Hall that we normally use for our meetings.
Given this situation, you can see the accounts for Tilehurst Globe that we would have presented at the September meeting here. And thank you Carol for continuing to undertake this necessary task. If you have any comments to make about the accounts please do not hesitate to let us know.
What we would like to do is for YOU and/or YOU AND YOUR FAMILY to decide where you would like to see some crocuses come up in the spring. It would have to be in a public place and somewhere where they would be very visible. The sort of places that are suitable would be along a bus route or in a verge and it would have to be in Tilehurst! You would then need to tell us where your site is. And then, if your special site is chosen for planting, we would give you some bulbs for YOU to plant in your special place, and make arrangements so the grass-cutting team know about them.
What do you think? If you have children we are sure they would love to pick a place to do the planting.
So, in short
If you would like to plant some crocuses this October:
Den Malham used to live in Armour Road. In 2000 he told his recollections of growing up in Tilehurst and these are posted on the Tilehurst Memories website under the Armour section.
During the war Den was sent to Japan as part of his service. He also posted some photos of the barracks where he lived in Ichijiwa and some photos of Hiroshima too.
You can read about his time there. It is all a bit grim.
Guess you want the answers to the quiz - especially since the pubs are now open.Make sure you look after them and yourselves and use them responsibly so that they stay open.
Click here to see the answers.
For ages we have taken a stall at the FOBH fete in June on Victoria Rec. One of the things we like to do is have a free quiz for people to have a bit of fun without it costing them any money. Local businesses usually donate great prizes. The quiz is usually about things close to our hearts. In 2011 we had a quiz called A Pub Crawl around Tilehurst. We asked for a tiebreaker because we thought that people would know the answers quite easily.
These are the tiebreakers that were submitted:
And look what has happened now.
We have had a nasty shock. The pubs are closed just when we need them for all the reasons given in the tiebreakers. So since we can't go to the pubs, here is another quiz about our local pubs. We are not giving prizes. It is just a bit of fun - to help you think about the pubs (as if you need any help) while we are still in lockdown and not able to visit them.
The pictures hint at the name of a pub past or present. You have to decide what the name of the pub is, and what the name of it is now - or at least what it is now.
And let us hope that after the pubs get back into the swing of things that we can keep them open to serve our community - just like the 2011 tiebreakers said.
Have fun.
Please note that due to the Covid-19 (Coronavirus) restrictions all monthly meetings have been suspended until further notice - but see the note at the top about helping us if you know how to organize a digital meeting.
Also we were planning a planting event, however under the current circumstances there is no alternative but to cancel this event and to cancel any other events for the time being.
However if you are so minded and were saving any wildflowers for us to plant, please keep them for a time when we will be able to plant them in the bund.
Thanks for your understanding and take care.
While you are sitting wondering what to do in these awkward weeks, why not take the opportunity of writing down your memories of what Tilehurst was like in the past.
You may have seen our webpage Tilehurst Memories. If not make sure you have a look. Go down this page a bit and you will find a link to it. There is lots there about what Tilehurst was like in days gone by as told by local people.
People love to write about the old days and people love to read about them too. Write it all down and send them in to us. You may even have some old photos of family and events from the past.
If you do send in your memories we will post it on our Tilehurst Memories site for everyone to enjoy.
Go on - get going. And even if you don't you could get you Mum and Dad or Gran and Grandad to tell you their memories and then you could send them in.
We look forward to seeing what you have to tell us.
We were shocked when the Tilehurst Village Butchers closed down. And now we are equally shocked to learn that the local newsagents is to close. We thought they would be here forever. But it seems that some of our local businesses are not in such good shape as perhaps we thought they were. We have always encouraged people to use our local services and businesses. These are difficult times and we should make sure that whenever possible we shop local. Our local businesses support us in many ways - now it is time to support them.
GLOBE stands for Go Local on a Better Environment.
Globe groups were set up across Reading in 1994 as part of Reading Borough Council's response to the Rio summit, where world leaders met to discuss global environment issues.
The Tilehurst Globe group takes action on a wide range of local environmental issues. These include the cleanliness and safety of Tilehurst's streets and open spaces and support for allotment holders.
One such project is a guide to exploring Tilehurst's woodlands and parks. The web site for this guide is www.walkontheweb.org.uk.
We have also been working on a project to collect local people's memories and recollections of Tilehurst when they were growing up. We have produced a small booklet called Memories of Tilehurst and we have also put together a website www.tilehurstmemories.org.uk.
Reading Borough Council announced that as from April 2007 they would no longer provide the same level of support and partnership for the Reading Globe groups. They have given us a small grant, and we now continue as an independent group. We are are proud of our achievements and are committed to continuing to work with the people of Tilehurst to provide a forum for their views and undertake projects for the benefit of everyone.
We continue to 'work to develop a community vision for Tilehurst', and to 'go local on a better environment'. We want to communicate with as many local residents and businesses as possible. So if you want to information about what we do, please take a little time to fill in the questionnaire to help us plan our future.
We have received fantastic support from local businesses. Many have become sponsors (see panel on left) and have pledged to help us. We are immensely grateful to them. If you are a local business and wish to help us, don't hold back!