Latest News

Keep up to date with the latest Newsbites from the Sutton Poyntz Society

21 May 2024 - Mission Hall building works

Dear all,

In our previous newsletter (12 April), we told you about our plans for a variety of improvements and maintenance works that the Mission Hall Committee are planning to do. As a first step, we have just put in a Planning Application for replacement windows for the main hall. This application can be viewed on the Dorset Council website (https://planning.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk/plandisp.aspx?recno=405424) or via the village website Planning page (https://suttonpoyntz.org.uk/index.php/our-village/environment/planning). We intend to replace the timber single-glazed windows with double-glazed UPVC windows, to the same format as the originals but with the upper panes top-hinged and opening outwards which will be a much more satisfactory arrangement. This will improve safety as well of course as making the building snugger and more energy-efficient.

We hope you will agree with us that this is a worthwhile improvement to the building. It is very much your Village Hall, so please feed comments, whether for or against what we are proposing, via the County planning system.

This is the first of a number of works that we have in mind. Since the last newsletter, we have been successful in winning another grant, meaning we can do more than we had expected; the next Committee meeting will look at priorities.

Can I remind you of the Mission Hall's AGM, on 26th June - an opportunity to hear more about these and other developments. We have vacancies on the Committee, so please get in touch if you want to learn more about what the Committee does.

Best wishes,

Bill

20 May 2024 - Forthcoming events

J is back from a little break and he'd like to give you some updates, clarifications and reminders about all the exciting events in and around the village in the next few weeks.

Road resurfacing

If you haven't seen the No Parking / 20mph signs on Sutton Road / Plaisters Lane you might not have noticed that there will be some "surface redressing" on Wednesday 22nd May. If you've grown to love any particular potholes make sure you say your fond goodbyes before Wednesday.

Barn Dance

The last few tickets (£10) are still available for this fun evening from Hilary and Sue or contact any other committee member.

Art Exhibition

Talented members of our village Art Group will be exhibiting their work at the Mission Hall on Saturday 25th and Sunday 26th from 11.00am until 4.30pm. I'm told that entry is free and there will be coffee and cake. That's probably free too - if you buy a painting...

D-Day Beacon lighting with fish&chips

Forgive me but I think a box of matches would work better. But as you know we're going to be remembering D-Day on June 6th with a fish supper at the Mission Hall - make sure you're there for the delivery at 7.30pm! This will be followed by a stroll up to the Beacon and a glass of prosecco. Tickets (£10) are available from Shirley and Sue or contact any other committee member.

Replacement bench at pond

You may have noticed the poor state of the bench outside the Springhead. Weymouth Council have responsibility for the safety of such things and have declared it to be unsafe and beyond economic repair - and they were proposing to remove it. So the Society and The Springhead have decided to replace it, sharing the cost, so look out for a shiny new one soon! And just because the Council can't repair it doesn't mean that we can't - and use it somewhere else (but off the public highway!)

Society Subscriptions

And if you missed the AGM due to another more exciting appointment (really?) then here below is a reminder of how your subscriptions get spent. (The level of subscriptions is set to ensure we cover all the running costs of the Society without having to put on fund-raising events - that means any surplus from events can be directed at specific projects aiming to enhance our lovely village surroundings - such as a new bench!)

That pre-amble was a sneaky way to remind you to cough-up your £2.50 each to cover those costs.

And of course you can find all this stuff on the website anyway. In fact I encourage you to get into the habit of looking at the website. We do what we can to send out Newsbites and put up posters about forthcoming events, but I know some of those Newsbite emails end up getting accidentally deleted (nobody would deliberately do such a thing, surely?). And some of you don't drive through the village slowly enough to read the posters. The result is that people miss exciting stuff that's happening :-(

Here are some useful website links:

J & S

16 May 2024 - Blue Welly licence application - reply

We have received the following clarification from Jo, Karen and Steve at the pub, about their licence application:

Blue Welly licence application

Hi, It's Jo here from The Springhead,

As you are aware from the last Newsbite we have applied for a licence for the field behind the pub. I thought it's best if we explain the licence application and reasons behind it.

We run our weddings, dog show, ska fest etc through our wedding company Blue Welly Events. The reason for the application is so we can use the field for some of the weddings, enabling us to move the music and bar into the field and if we change the layout of the festivals it would also allow us to move the music and bar for these
There is no intention to use the field for anything else other than what we currently do now. We are if anything just moving what we currently do further away from the village.

Within the application we have asked for Mon-Sun 10am-11pm as these are just standard premises timings and we regularly get enquiries for weddings for any day of the week hence the Mon-Sun.

We run a limited number of weddings and events a year and we have no intention on increasing this. We have seen an increase in people requesting to hold their wedding in the field, which this application will allow us to offer.

The reason the licence is not being applied for under The Springhead is because the pub is under Punch Taverns. We have applied for the licence under our own company to retain control of it and during the consultation meeting with The Police Licencing Officer (Kirsty Gatehouse) we personally requested that should we cease to lease the field in the future we want to be able to terminate the premises licence along with it.

Our family has lived in the village for over 20 years and we have run the pub for over a decade, during this time we have always taken into consideration the village into everything we do.

In conclusion : we are not doing anything different nor increasing anything that we do not already do. All we wish to do is have the opportunity to use the field when needed.

If you would like to talk to us or if you have any questions regarding the licence, we would be more than happy to discuss them with you.

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or Karen 07968299421

Thanks for reading.

Jo, Karen & Steve
The Springhead

Bill (on behalf of J & S)

15 May 2024 - Blue Welly licence application

The following information has been received from Cllr Louie O'Leary, our Dorset County Councillor and Cllr Peter Dickenson, our Weymouth Town and Dorset County Councillor:

Blue Welly licence application

An application has been made for Blue Welly events about a premise license in respect to the field adjoining the Springhead pub for live and recorded music to be played alongside the sale of alcohol between the hours of 10:00:23:00 Monday-Sunday.

If you would like to make a comment on the application then please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or send it in writing to Dorset council licensing County Hall Dorchester DT1 1XJ.

Please if objecting stick to material objections based on the 4 main licensing objectives:

Protection of children from harm
Prevention of public nuisance
Public safety
Prevention of crime and disorder.

Good advice I can give as well is to try offer possible compromises such as "We would support this on a once a month basis or one off events" as it carries weight.

We are hoping to get this application brought to committee in order for people to speak at the meeting.

Regards

Cllr Louie O'Leary and Cllr Peter Dickenson

Bill (on behalf of J & S)

15 May 2024 - Barn Dance - Last call!!!

There are a few tickets remaining for the Barn Dance on Saturday May 25th at Preston Village Hall

So contact either, Sue, 07183 267788 or Shirley, 07988 163121.
It's an evening of fun with a professional band and caller and no previous experience necessary (thank goodness).

Kick off or first steps at 7pm. Nibbles provided (but please bring your own drinks and glasses).

J & S

10 May 2024 - Barbara Harrison

Dear all,

Very sadly, another of our best loved villagers has died, and this Newsbite is to let you know the arrangements for Barbara's funeral and wake. The Funeral Service will be next Tuesday, 14th May, at St Andrew's Church, starting at 11 a.m. After the church service, the family will move on to a private farewell ceremony at Weymouth Crematorium, but while that is happening they invite all villagers to a Wake, at the Mission Hall. Barbara's family will join the rest of us at the Mission Hall as soon as they can.

It is the wish of Barbara's family that, rather than sending flowers, people should make donations to the Mission Hall Trust. Details of the Trust bank account can be found below.

Barbara is the last member of the Harrison family who had lived in Sutton Poyntz for almost 150 years. Although not a native of Sutton Poyntz, she was always a warm and generous member of our village community since she came here on marrying John, who many of you will have had the joy of knowing. The first Harrison in the village was John's grandfather, William, who moved to Weymouth from East Coker, met and married a Sutton Poyntz girl, and was living here by 1881. The family lived for a time in Prospect Cottage, and were the village carpenters, wheelwrights, and later builders. The family built the house Springside for Walter and his wife Rose, and this is the house that their son John was born in and lived for his whole life, and that Barbara then lived in ever since she and John married.

John and Barbara's family lived and grew up in that cottage, and both John and Barbara were enthusiastic members of the Sutton Poyntz community. Barbara was a long-time member of the Village WI, and a member of their Committee for a number of years. She was an energetic member of the Mission Hall Committee for about 9 years, being the WI's representative, before retiring just 4 years ago. She and John were both members of the Sutton Poyntz Players who produced a number of Thomas Hardy dramatisations, and then of the Preston Pantomime Group. Finally, she was a very talented artist, a member of the village Art Group and a contributor to their annual Exhibitions; an exhibition of her art work is planned, at the Mission Hall at the very end of May. Barbara was a great asset over many years to the life of the village.

Bill (acting as stand-in for J & S)

Mission Hall bank details: Sort code 20-26-62 Account number 00739871 Account name Sutton Poyntz Mission Hall Management Trust

06 May 2024 - D-Day and Fish-&-Chips

In case you didn't know, Thursday June 6th will be the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings.

Weymouth played a very major role* in sending off the troops, and there will be a series of major commemorations and events across Weymouth, the UK and in France.

One of the stand-out events will be lighting beacons. From the official website:

"The heroism of those who landed on the shores of the Normandy beaches, represented a beacon of light for the world during a particularly dark period of war. It is therefore fitting that local communities ... and those along the shorelines of ... Normandy, France, should light Beacons on 6 June 2024, in 'tribute to the light of peace that they brought out from the misery of darkness during that dreadful campaign, of which many unfortunately did not return."

So we will of course be lighting our Sutton Poyntz beacon - at the same time as everyone else - 9.45pm on June 6th.

9.45 you say? Like me, you'll almost be ready for bed that late in the evening, So we're going to begin our event earlier and finish it off with the beacon lighting and a glass of something bubbly - to help us sleep.

As it happens, the association of fish-and-chip fryers have set their 2024 fish-and-chips celebration day to coincide with D-Day. So what else could we do than honour that other great tradition by having a fish supper at the Mission Hall first. Then I've heard that there might be a little quiz - I'm sure you can guess the topics the questions will address!! Finally we'll step outside just far enough to be able to see up the hill to the beacon, where some fit youngsters will have scaled the heights of West Hill to light the blue touch paper for us.

We've given Stracey's a provisional order, but now we need to confirm numbers of who is coming. For a tenner you're going to get a delicious portion of cod and chips (veggie option available on request) and we're going to provide the liquid refreshment. Please make contact with one of the committee members below for your tickets. Stracey's need to have the order confirmed in plenty of time so don't leave it too late - call, text or email now!

Shirley – This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. – 07988 163121

Sue – This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. – 07813 267788

J & S

04 May 2024 - Barn Dance

In case you read my previous Newsbite and immediately forgot about it, here's a reminder. We will be holding a Barn Dance on May 25th, starting at 7pm!

Remember now?

Due to the popularity of this event and the need for enough space to do-si your do, we will be holding it at the Preston Village Hall again.

We have the same great band and caller - The Black Sheep Band - so a fun evening is to be expected!

We're going to give you the chance of a breather half-way, and we'll be providing some nibbles - we invite you to bring your own drinks (and glasses too if you don't mind!)

Tickets are only £10, but we do need you to get your tickets before May 14th, from:

Shirley – This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. – 07988 163121

Sue – This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. – 07813 267788

J & S

p.s. A lot of you took the opportunity to renew your annual Society membership at the AGM - thank you - a mere £5/household (or £2.50 for singles). You can cross the palm of any committee member at any time, don't be shy...

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