Summer 2024 edition of Community News
The sun hasn’t exactly got his hat on this summer, but that doesn’t mean we can’t make our own sunshine with the Summer 2024 edition of Community News. Read on for a taste of what’s in the magazine or click to button to download the full magazine.
Our Summer 2024 Headline
The application for the proposed development at Bushfield Camp is still ongoing as National Highways has requested another extension until 28 August to respond to the developer’s application. The Save Bushfield campaign team update us on what steps have recently been taken to protect this incredible green space right on our doorstep!

News from the Community Centre

Farewell Charlie. Many of you who have visited the Centre will have known Charlie, Merv’s Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. Charlie was a fixture at the Centre for almost 13 years. Sadly he passed away peacefully in the Spring.
Are you curious about the happenings at local Community Centre? From art enthusiasts to fitness fanatics, we have something for everyone! Keep up with the latest updates and information from some of our groups and activities including our Art Group, Chat-Tea Café, Move with Mel and Legs, Buns & Tums.
Parish and Government News
Parish Councils
The Oliver’s Battery Annual Parish Meeting is the ideal opportunity for Oliver’s Battery Parish Council to let local residents know what they have been doing over the past year. The Chair lets us know what this year’s meeting covered. Oliver’s Battery will soon be brighted up as wildflowers will be planted on the SGN compound area when the gas replacement works are completed. The parish council has arranged for a member of the Hampshire South-East Cyber Policing Team to come to provide a cyber and cyber fraud (colloquially described as scams) awareness session to members of our local community. The parish council has booked St Mark’s Hall on Wednesday 6 November from 7.00pm until 8.30pm. Further information will be published nearer the time.
Following the success of the Oliver’s Battery ‘Easter Egg Hunt’, the Events group will make the phone app courses available until next April – details on oliversbattery.info/events. Also for the family over the summer holidays, Southampton Orienteering Club are hosting a family/beginner ‘Introduction to Orienteering’ 4-session course. You can read about how to get involved.
Badger Farm Parish Council has taken over responsibility for the maintenance of the bus shelters in Badger Farm and have already made some big improvements. One of their next projects will be to improve the early years section of the play area on the Central Kick About area. Later in the year, the Parish Council hope to have an open evening at the Community Centre. All will be welcome to have a drink and meet your Councillors. More information will follow.
Winchester City Council
One of the key principles that underpins how Winchester City Council delivers services is our commitment to recognise and listen to the diverse interests, needs and wishes of different people in our community. This not only delivers better performance but also ensures an open, transparent and inclusive council. Councillor Adrian Brophy look at some of the consultations you can currently get involved with.
Hampshire County Council
Councillor Jan Warwick shares many updates that are of interest to all our readers. Among them:
- Hampshire residents can now borrow blood pressure monitors from their local library, alongside books and magazines.
- Hampshire roads will be given a new lease of life this summer as the County Council’s annual programme of road surface strengthening gets underway at 400 locations.
- The Department for Education (DfE) will fund a new special school for 125 children in Hampshire, providing vital support to more children with special educational needs.
- Hampshire County Council has announced plans for £7.1 million of extra funding to help local households struggling with the cost of food and energy prices.
Do read the article for full details with lots of links!
News from Westminster
Written on his first day heading into Parliament to represent the people of Winchester, Danny Chambers tells us about his background and his path to becoming our new MP.
Whether you voted for me or not, I’ll always do my best to help you, I’ll have your back and I will not let you down. We can make Winchester a happier and healthier place to live.

Local Schools
Badger Farm Pre-school Playgroup
Weather has dominated this term with the activities that the children have undertaken. They have managed a lovely few walks to the local park, including a sit on the new bench to commemorate the Queen’s 70 years! This sparked a conversation with the children about Kings and Queens, influenced their role play and led them to ask ‘how long is 70 years’.
Oliver’s Battery Primary and Nursery School
New Headteacher, Miss Sarah Vittle, joined the school after the Easter Holidays and is now a familiar face to parents and children at the school gate.
The school is currently planning an Open Afternoon for Friday 27 September starting at 2.30pm. Past, present and future parents as well as local residents will be invited – as will the Mayor. Please do come along and explore the edible playground, forest schools, nursery school and beautiful grounds.
St. Peter’s Primary School and Little Fishes Pre-school
This year the school has been presented with the national Schools of Sanctuary Award, something they have been working on as they continue to grow as a welcoming and inclusive community. Through this award scheme, the staff and children have been learning about why people become refugees and what that can be like.
Stanmore Primary School
Stanmore Primary is delighted to be part of the spectacular art trail taking place in Southampton and Cowes – Light the South. Also, as a Music Mark school they recognise the value of introducing high-quality music to all of the children. The youngest pupils had their first school trip to Turner Sims at Southampton University for a fantastic concert ‘Mendelssohn-and-the-moving-machines’. This term, everyone at Stanmore Primary School enjoyed their fourth annual ‘Reading’ Festival. This celebrates a love of reading at the school. The children arrived looking fantastic in all their colours and accessories.
Local Organisations and Clubs
Nature, Environmental and Sustainability Groups
Winchester Local Volunteers of the Hampshire and IOW Wildlife Trust
HIWWT return to the Community Centre with a series of talks. On Thursday 10 October find out about The Isle of Wight Beaver Recovery Project. Peter Ashburn from the Hardy Orchid Society (hardyorchidsociety.org.uk) will be sharing his stunning photographs of our beautiful native wild orchids on Thursday 14 November. Take a trip around the UK coastline on Thursday 13 February 2025 with a representative from ORCA, the marine conservation charity. Full details are on the Hampshire & Isle of Wight Trust website at hiwwt.org.uk/events.
Winchester Gardening Club
The joys of summer continue, with much colour in the garden and pleasing supplies of produce from the vegetable patch. There are, of course, still lots of jobs to be done, not least the regular mowing and weeding, but as the months go by there is some welcome easing off as the cooler weather arrives.
The programme for the next few months offers the following talks:
- 14 August – Genetic Engineering In Horticulture
- 11 September – Autumn Aspirations
- 9 October – The Gilbert’s Dahlia Year
- 13 November – The Answer Lies In The Soil
For further information please visit wingardenclub.weebly.com.
Oliver’s Battery Countryside Group
OBCG, which is responsible for the care of the Wildlife Area (to be found through the gate beyond the playing field), welcomes all OB residents to come and enjoy this tranquil patch in the Parish. In mid-July they’ll be going out on a few evenings to look for glowing Glow Worms, which are truly fascinating insects. If you’re interested in coming, look at the noticeboard on oliversbatterycountrysidegroup.org.uk for details of these and other forthcoming events.
Other Groups
Oliver’s Battery Brownies
Oliver’s Battery Brownies officially became 3rd Winchester City Rainbows and Brownies and have welcomed their first ever Rainbow. The girls have been working towards the Take Action and Know Myself parts of Girlguiding. With the help of John Keble School they have focussed on the Be Well and Skills for My Future sections of the programme. We hope that the girls and their families can Have Adventures over the summer holidays and return to Express Myself in September.
7th Winchester Scouts
The 7th Winchester Scouts Group is made up of three primary sections – Beavers (which has 9 leaders and 24 children), Cubs (which has 7 leaders and 30 children) and Scouts (which has 4 leaders and 18 children). While the Beavers and Cubs are based at St Faith’s Hall, the Scouts section meets and is based at Badger Farm Community Centre, using the main hall on Tuesday evenings. Although they aim to get out into the countryside as much as possible, we use the great space in the hall for a range of activities including first aid training, pioneering challenges, advancing our navigation skills, planning and filming short videos depicting patrol imagined scenarios, cookery competitions on a tight budget, sushi making night, and planning for hikes, camps and other activities.
Oliver’s Battery WI
Oliver’s Battery WI (OBWI) members travelled to the June National Conference in the Royal Albert Hall. Here they joined WIs from across the country to hear criminal prosecutor Nazir Afzal OBE, followed by Victoria Derbyshire and Mel B (of Spice Girls fame) in conversation on domestic abuse. The autumn programme begins again in September with a talk on Lacemaking; October offers an insight into The Rose Road Association and in November we have a practical demonstration from The House of Colour. And no meeting is complete without the raffle and homemade refreshments!
NCT Winchester
New and expectant parents were among the crowds who snapped up top-quality baby and toddler clothes, toys and equipment at the NCT Winchester & District Nearly New Sale at Badger Farm Community Centre on Sunday 21 April. NCT Nearly New Sales are not like other secondhand children’s sales: the items are of ‘nearly new’ quality and are carefully checked by volunteers on the day. The vast array of items are also arranged into accessible categories, enabling buyers to easily navigate through the sale while enjoying a hassle-free, department store-style shopping experience. The next sale is on Sunday 13 October 2024, 1.00–3.00pm, at Badger Farm Community Centre. NCT members have early access to the sale at 12.45pm. Seller registration opened in July for anyone interested in selling preloved items.
Winchester Radio
2024 is a special year for Winchester Radio as it marks 40 years of its volunteer service to the community. The charity started its hospital radio service on 24 September 1984, broadcasting to the wards of the Royal Hampshire County Hospital with volunteers visiting patients to have a chat and collect their music requests – something the charity still proudly does today. The station is run by an intergenerational team of volunteers aged from 22 to 85, all passionate about supporting those in need. Many have been committed volunteers with Winchester Radio for decades, including two who have been active volunteers since the charity’s inception in 1984!
General Articles for Summer 2024
Citizens Advice
Citizens Advice Winchester District is inviting new volunteers to join their adviser training programme starting this October. More details can be found at citizensadvicewinchester.org.uk/volunteer.
Wishing you well
As well as healthful food, we all know that regular exercise may well augment benefits both physically and mentally. Running and/or walking offer simple, effective and accessible routes to promoting health. Two Hampshire-based NHS Social Prescribers/Health Coaches have also dovetailed a real-food, healthy-eating community with Parkrun. Real Food Runners is an informal running club (walkers welcome too) for people fuelling their exercise with real foods who wish to improve their health through real-food lifestyles.
Nature now? … or never!!!!
How does nature make you feel? Do you care about it? Whether you do or not, we all need nature for our food, fresh air, clean water and to reduce the impacts of climate change. Local people joined the 350 charities, businesses and action groups who marched on 22 June to call for more space for nature, a right to a healthy environment, making polluters pay, a pay rise for nature and fair and effective climate action.
Climate change and food
We’ve been aware for a long time that rising levels of CO2 in the atmosphere cause changes in the climate, warming the sea and atmosphere, and more extreme weather. However, we in the UK have recently become more directly aware of the resulting impacts.
Brian Shorter talks about the impact of climate change on our food supply. The production levels of many crops have reduced in recent years, leading to price rises and shortages.
Echoes through time
In a new occasional series, Ann Jury explores the history of notable Winchester residents. Discover the inspiring story of Juliana de la Floude, the Winchester laundress who changed the course of human rights. She took her quest for clean, running water to the highest level, petitioning King Edward I who ruled that ‘water has always been common’. This landmark ruling in 1299 established water as a common right which to this day is enshrined in the United Nations Convention of Human Rights, ensuring that billions have access to this vital resource.
Tech Talk
Love it or loathe it, email has become an integral part of our daily lives. Whether we aim for ‘Inbox Zero’ (an eye-opening approach well-explained in asana.com/resources/inbox-zero) or have thousands of emails in the Inbox, the ways we access and manage our email change with new techniques and new technologies. And sometimes change is forced on us.
Ann Jury talks you through how to transition from the old Windows Mail app to the new Outlook for Windows.
Nature Notes
In the cracks and crevices of pavements and walls, along the base of fences, road verges and wasteland, wild flowers are a familiar sight. They are opportunists, some small and insignificant, some tall and imposing, and often central to our national and local culture and sense of place. They announce the seasons and evoke memories of childhood.
Wendy Brammall explores the enchanting world of opportunistic wildflowers and the legendary stag beetle. Often referred to as Billy-witches, Storm-bringer, Thunder beetle, or Horse-pincher, this mystical insect has captivated imaginations for centuries due to its purported magical abilities.
We hope you enjoyed reading the Summer 2024 edition of Community News. If you have a community contribution for the next edition or would like to advertise with us, please get in touch with Ann Jury, Community News Editor, at bfobrca.cnews@gmail.com. The editorial deadline for the next issue is Friday 1 November 2024.
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