Winter 2021 Edition of Community News
I can’t believe how quickly the year is going! It must be time to catch up with what’s happening in Badger Farm and Oliver’s Battery in the Winter 2021 edition of Community News.
Our Winter 2021 Headline
Our Community Centre is run by a group of trustees. But why? And what do they do? I asked long-standing trustee Lesley Nguyen to tell us more.
News from the Community Centre

Rock Choir
Rock Choir announce that they will be holding weekly rehearsals at Badger Farm Community Centre every Tuesday at 10.30am from January 2022.
Christmas chess camp
Winchester Junior Chess Class is organising a Christmas chess camp for children from 6 to 14 years old. Christmas chess camp runs from 20th to 24th December from 10am to 2pm.
Chess Club
If the Queen’s Gambit television series rekindled your interest in chess, why not check out your current skills.
After a Covid-driven eighteen month absence, the Winchester Chess Club has reopened at the Community Centre. The Club meets on Wednesday evenings (7.15–10.15pm) from the beginning of September until the end of May.
Parish and Government News
Parish Councils
Badger Farm Parish Council updates us on speed cameras, maintenance of overgrown areas, their photograph competition and the parish council meetings.
Oliver’s Battery Parish Council introduced new councillor Lucia Bright. They report on the recreation ground, Yew Hill Butterfly Reserve, the Green Picnic and this year’s Christmas tree. They invite our views on picnic benches on the Battery as well as on the Queen’s Jubilee in 2022. And finally, they share the winner entries of the 2021 Scarecrow Competition.


Winchester City Council
WCC has issued £5,000 in fly-tipping fines in three months. They have “Top tips for dealing with fly-tipping in your area”. The council are working with Southern Water on their Water for Life plan. WCC hosted an Archaeology day on the Central Winchester Regeneration site, offering local residents the chance to see some of the tools used in the investigations that have been undertaken so far, as well as some of the items that have been found, including animal bones and pottery fragments.
Hampshire County Council
Hampshire County Council shares ways they have been reducing their carbon footprint. We can get involved too: join the Greening Campaign or Swap One to Local.
Member of Parliament
Steve Brine, MP, welcomed the extremely busy cancer services team back to RHCH. He attended a service to celebrate the opening of and dedicate Winchester’s first ever adult hospice. He attended a number of events, and spoke at several, at COP2 where he also met with several indigenous peoples and representatives from Brazil in the wake of the landmark agreement which saw 100 world leaders sign a new agreement to stop and reverse deforestation in places such as the Amazon.

Our Local Schools
Badger Farm Pre-school Playgroup
The Pre-School launched a new website. Here you can find out about what’s on offer, opening times, costs, the staff and general information. On their new Facebook page you can also see what Mr Badger is doing!

St. Peter’s Primary School and Little Fishes Pre-school
St Peter’s Primary School is almost back to normal, enjoying whole school assemblies and Mass, sporting events, after-school clubs and school trips. Year 3 visited Hillier Gardens to learn more about the Stone Age. The Year 4 children had an amazing time at Butser Ancient Farm where they immersed themselves in Anglo-Saxon life. Year 5 were so excited to visit the Living Rainforest in Newbury.
I liked the way that they made it feel like a real rainforest
Anna
They had such exotic plants and I liked seeing the armadillo and the snakes
Nicholas
I learnt that a gummibor was an animal that eats the sap from trees. We saw the Pygmy Marmosets they were the smallest monkey in the world and they are gummibors
Esmee



For some of the children at Little Fishes Pre-School, it is the first time they have experienced time away from home. To support them to settle, feel confident and safe, the school have been talking about how “I am Unique”.
John Keble CofE Primary School
At John Keble CofE Primary School it was a joy to see the children playing together and being back in the hall for Collective Worship. They share with us how their Collective Worship works.

Oliver’s Battery Primary and Nursery School
The school continues to develop the school grounds – the chickens are a firm favourite of both staff and children! Children at school are continuing to develop their understanding of the Rights Respecting Curriculum. The Nursery class is fully embedded into school life.

Stanmore Primary School
Earlier this term Stanmore Primary School was proud to receive a tree as part of the “Plant a tree for the Jubilee” initiative. Throughout the county seventy trees will be planted creating the Queen’s Green Canopy (QGC) for her Majesty’s Platinum Jubilee.

Local Organisations and Clubs
Support and Advice
Citizens Advice
If you’re on a low income, over 60 and live in Hampshire, you could get a grant of £100 to help stay warm this winter from Citizens Advice Surviving Winter fund. If you think you might be eligible, please contact Citizens Advice Winchester District, and one of their advisers will support you with an application. They’ll also check if there are any other benefits you might be entitled to. Call for free on 0808 278 7861 or email advice@cawinchesterdistrict.org.uk. Phone lines are open 10am to 4pm, Monday to Friday.
Chat-Tea Café
The Chat-Tea Café, run by a small number of amazing volunteers, re-opened its doors in September for the residents of Badger Farm, Oliver’s Battery and the surrounding Winchester areas. They welcomed back some ‘regulars’ and also some new ‘guests’ both for the September and the October Café openings. For further information or if you would like to be involved as a volunteer please contact us via info@chat-tea.co.uk, 01962 868830 or the Chat-Tea Café website. Find the latest Café opening dates on a poster on the Badger Farm Sainsbury’s notice board.

Neighbourhood Watch
Neighbourhood Watch reminded us that from 15th October the spending limit for contactless cards increased from £45 to £100. The increase makes bank card theft more attractive to offenders. It will be easier for a thief to use a lost or stolen card to make larger purchases, especially if the victim has not noticed that the card is missing. You can limit the risk of contactless fraud with some simple steps. Sandie Vining, the fantastic Winchester Area Co-ordinator was hoping to retire after many years building this network up to what it is today, but sadly no-one has come forward to take over the role of Area Neighbourhood Watch Representative for Winchester City. There is an urgent plea from Sandie in the hope that someone can help …
‘Please can someone come forward to take on my role otherwise the wonderful network we have now got in Winchester City will not continue, communication will stop and many important, useful and news of developments will go unshared leaving our communities un-informed. Please contact me on 01962 865384 or sandievining@btinternet.com if you can help or perhaps two people could do it together?’
North Hampshire Prostate Cancer Support Group
The North Hampshire Prostate Cancer Support Group recently had a fascinating talk by David Cullum, a local resident who has spent his whole life working for the Met Office. His talk was titled The Air We Breathe. David started by posing the question, ‘Does air weigh anything?’, going on to explain its weight and then the typical gases of which it is composed and how they have been changing in recent years.
Nature and Environmental Groups
Sustainable Oliver’s Battery
Are you so concerned about our warming climate that you don’t know what to do? Yes, there are so many actions you could take, but which ones should you do? Sustainable Oliver’s Battery suggest that you start by just doing one thing that you know WILL make a difference and tell yourself you are a ‘happy hero’.
Winchester Action on Climate Change
The urgency to take action to tackle the climate crisis is very much at the forefront of everyone’s minds. November saw what has been described as ‘the most important conference on climate change ever’, COP26. So why is this one in particular so important? WinACC’s WeCAN – Winchester Climate Action Network explains.
Hampshire & IOW Wildlife Trust
We are in the middle of a climate and nature emergency, and the two are inextricably linked. The Wildlife Trusts want Nature Recovery Networks to be at the heart of the future planning systems to help address the crisis. Do visit the Trust’s website for more information on the work being done here in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight providing natural solutions for storing carbon both on the land and off our coast.
Winchester Horticultural Society
Winchester Horticultural Society’s Winter meetings will be on Charcoal: A wood collier’s story, Exploring the South Island of New Zealand and Dahlias. For further information call 01962 868862 or visit winhortsoc.weebly.com.
Other Groups
Oliver’s Battery Brownies
Oliver’s Battery Brownies made it to half term with only one meeting that had to be held online due to Covid! The girls continue to be resilient in dealing with whatever challenges have been thrown at them. Well done! to Bayley, Hope and Beth for their awesome fundraising activities over the summer. Between them they raised a wonderful £130 for the St Mark’s Church renovation fund.
Oliver’s Battery WI
Since September, Oliver’s Battery WI have been busy both in and out. They have marshalled the Winchester Half Marathon, entered Bea [Keeper] in the Scarecrow competition and proactively supported the inaugural Greening Project. Inside, graphic designer Alison Gardner and former Winchester Mayor, Sue Gentry, have entertained the group with insights into their lives.
General Articles for Winter 2021
Sophie’s Appeal
Badger Farm residents are cycling from London to Amsterdam to raise money for local children’s charity Sophie’s Appeal. The charity funds Sophie’s Place, a purpose designed area of Northbrook Children’s Ward for treating children for routine treatment, tests, referrals from GPs and more … helping hundreds of children every month. You can support Steve Hewlett, David Thomas and Corey Thomas in their fund-raising through justgiving.com/team/hewlett-thomas.

A walk on the bright side
Simon Lever celebrates Christmas in Winchester.
Wishing You Well
Local nutritionist Amanda Turner tells us that A stich in time saves nine, when it comes to health promotion and disease prevention. For free resources to help you make informed eating decisions, Public Health Collaboration offers free resources to help you make informed eating decisions.
Tech Talk
The last 18 months have been tough. Each family had their own challenges; for Ann Jury’s, it was the UCAS personal statement as her son applied for university. No college meant no after-college activities. Closed shops meant no weekend jobs. Closed charities meant no volunteering. How could he stand out from the crowd? The answer came with online learning and volunteering: a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) from Coursera and by taking part in “real cutting-edge research” on projects as diverse as classifying gravitational waves to counting penguins on Zooniverse.

Nature Notes
Due to circumstances beyond her control, Norma Goodwin took up her pen for one final time to share her Nature Notes with us.
In late September we stayed a week in a cottage at Winchelsea Beach overlooking Rye Harbour Nature Reserve. One of the largest and most important wildlife sites in England, it is an exceptional coastal and wetland landscape and home to more than 4,355 species of plants and animals including 300 that are rare or endangered. Covering over 1000 acres, it is managed by Sussex Wildlife Trust. The seaward side is bounded by high banks of shingle built up by tides and storms. Behind this is a patchwork of saltmarsh and lagoons, habitats for ducks, geese and other water birds varying from season to season. In the spring reed beds are noisy with nesting reed and sedge warblers. Sheep graze on the saltmarsh plants.
We hope you enjoyed reading the Winter 2021 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 4 March 2022.
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