80th Anniversary of VE Day
Afternoon Tea & Drinks at the Barnack Sports Pavilion & Beacon Lighting Thursday 8th May
On Thursday 8th May 2025, the nation will mark the historic 80th anniversary of VE Day, with communities being encouraged to come together to unite and celebrate 80 years of peace since the end of Word War II in Europe.
Barnack Parish Council has been in discussions with Barnack Community Association to agree a suitable way to commemorate this event for the residents of Barnack and Pilsgate.
Full details still need to be finalised, but the intention is to serve afternoon tea and cake up at the Sports Pavilion at Barnack cricket ground from 3pm – weather permitting. It’s hoped families will join after school and others after work from 5pm. The licensed bar will also be open at the pavilion!
We are hoping the Barnack Church bells will be rung at 6.30 pm, in united celebration throughout the nation with other churches and cathedrals, as well as Barnack’s beacon being lit in the evening.
Over a thousand beacons and hundreds of Lamp Lights of Peace will shine throughout the UK, Channel Islands and the Isle of Man, with the flames from them both, representing the ‘light of peace’ that emerged from the dreadful darkness of war.
Full finalised details will be shared via : Coffee Stop every Wednesday (millstone pub), village noticeboards, BCA Barnack facebook page, Barnack Parish Council facebook page, Barnack School comms and you can contact the BCA on 07795 565658 or email: barnackca@gmail.com
Further national details: www.veday80.org.uk
Replica Shroud of Turin
The Turin Shroud has been a object of interest and controversy for centuries. Today it is kept safely in Turin cathedral, only being exhibited in a temperature-controlled case every five years. Some believe it’s a forgery – some that it is the true burial cloth of Jesus, miraculously marked at his Resurrection. Personally, I think it is an amazing piece of art, and a reminder of the agonies of Jesus in his death. And successive Popes have tended to agree with me.
The Templar’s Today group have a replica, which they are exhibiting on Saturday 24th and Sunday 25th May, from 10.30 am to 5 pm each day in St John’s Church, Barnack.
Come along to see, to have a think and a chat, and to wonder at the story that the Shroud tells.
IN MEMORIAM
The names of five local men who gave their lives in World War 2 are commemorated on our war memorial. On the eightieth anniversary of VE Day, Thursday May 8th, it is fitting that we remember them.
Arthur Dearden was the son of James and Ellen Dearden of Walcot Hall. After graduating from Cambridge University he joined the RAF and became a Pilot Officer on Bristol Beaufort aircraft under Coastal Command. On 2nd December 1941, aged 24, he was killed when his plane was shot down over Quiberon Bay during an attack on a factory near Nantes in Brittany. He is buried in Quiberon cemetery with five other British airmen.
Richard Pollard was a Rifleman in the Rifle Brigade. He died on April 26th 1942 at the age of 20 during training in the UK. His death from meningitis occurred at Alton Military Hospital in Hampshire. He is buried in Barnack cemetery where his mother Blanche also lies.
Hugh Nesbitt was a Squadron Leader in the RAF. He died when his Lancaster bomber was shot down when returning from a raid over Berlin on 22nd November 1943. He was aged 26, the son of Rev. Eric Nesbitt, the Rector of Barnack from 1937 to 1944. Hugh is buried in the British War Cemetery in Hanover.
Thomas Charity MC was a Major in the 6th Battalion, Royal Lincolnshire Regiment. Before the war he lived in the Square in Barnack. His Battalion was in continual action as part of the 8th Army in North Africa. In 1943 Thomas was awarded the Military Cross for his leadership in the action near the town of Bou Aradah, Tunisia. His battalion later fought its way up the Italian peninsula where he was killed on 10th September 1944 at the Battle of Coriano Ridge near Rimini. Major Charity is buried in the Coriano Ridge War Cemetery, which contains 2000 British and Canadian war casualties.
Frank Goodliffe was a farmworker before the war and lived with his wife in Barnack. He was a Sapper in the Royal Engineers. His unit was a Mechanical Equipment Platoon. He died on 9th October 1944 from burns received when his tank transporter overturned on the Belgian Dutch border. He had been in action continuously from D Day. He was aged 31 when he died. He is commemorated on the war memorial at Groesbeek near Nijmegen.
Brian Palmer
With acknowledgments to Charles Clark in ‘Were you there? 1939-1945’ ed. Adrienne Collins 2011 and to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website.
Buttercross meeting held on 2nd April 2025
Clair Wordsworth, a writer and radio producer acclaimed for her series “Forgotten Musical Masterpieces” entertained us with a fascinating presentation of the Ivy Benson Band. With extracts from the radio programme’s interviews with some of Ivy’s self proclaimed BOGs (Benson’s Old Girls) and Ivy herself as well as an array of large scale photos of the band, we were gradually drawn a picture of a remarkable woman who, from humble beginnings in Leeds, became a towering figure during the war and postwar, male dominated, big band era and a forerunner of girl power as embodied later by the Spice Girls.
Born in 1913, Ivy was encouraged by her father to take up the piano but as a young teenager, heavily influenced by her love of the Benny Goodman sound, she mastered the saxophone and then the clarinet. She played in a string of small four piece bands, recruiting girls from her own background and training them to her own exacting standards of musicianship.
Ivy Benson and her 18 girl band were given their big break by Jack Hylton who was especially impressed that Ivy alone among the band leaders played her instrument as well as conducted. They were contracted to play as the resident dance band on the BBC in the early war years. They were then invited to join ENSA ( an acronym they changed to Every Night Something Awful) and spent time entertaining the troops in France, Italy and finally Germany where Montgomery invited them to the end of war celebrations in 1945 in Berlin. At this time they were as well known and popular as Vera Lynne.
After the war, Ivy and her band played the Palladium for months on end but Ivy rued the fact that she kept losing her girls to matrimony! She was therefore forever recruiting new talent.
Ivy Benson retired in 1982 but continued entertaining audiences in Clacton-on-Sea until her death in 1993.
It seems especially fitting in this the 80th anniversary of VE Day that we should remember Ivy Benson and her all girl band.
The next Buttercross meeting on May 7 will feature a talk on Lincolnshire by Nicola Sandall
Alex Bell
Come and meet your Bishop
Sunday 18th May, 4.30pm St Mary’s, Bainton: Our new Bishop, Debbie will be dropping in for a visit. We’ll be holding an informal “God In The Garden” type service to welcome Bishop Debbie to our village, something for everyone. Hope you can all join us.
Chair Yoga
A reminder that Marleni will start a new Chair Yoga class in the Reading Room, Bainton on Thursday, 8th May, 2025 at 11.00 a.m. These sessions are for both men and women to improve mobility and strength and your physical and mental well-being. Enjoyable too! SRB
Pilates Classes
Mondays 7-8pm
Tuesdays 1.45-2.45pm
Fridays 9.30 – 10.30am
in Bainton Reading Room
Contact Nichola Williams 07493338345
nichola.studio2@gmail.com
Messy Church
The next Messy Church at Barnack will be on Sunday 11th May at the normal time of 3.30-5.00pm. We’ll be hearing about one of the appearances of Jesus after his resurrection, on the road to Emmaus. As usual,, in addition to the story, we’ll be having crafts, songs, some prayer time and lots of fun (as well as refreshments!). If you’re new to Messy Church, you’ll be extremely welcome. If you are “regulars”, you know that you’re always welcome too! We hope to see you there then. Mike, Carol and the entire team.
Arts Society Peterborough
The Arts Society Peterborough’s monthly talk is at The Fleet, Community Centre, PE2 4 DL 8th May 2025
‘Architecture plus Photographs equals Art’, with Brian Stater. This talk introduces photographers who crystalised the architect’s vision in images that are both works of art in their own right and shape our opinion of the building they depict.
Doors open at 10-15am for coffee and a chat, the talk starts at 10-45am and lasts an hour, all are welcome, so why not come and join us? Parking free.
For more information and details of how to join the society, visit: www.the-arts-society-peterborough.org.uk
COFFEE STOP BARNACK
‘Coffee Stop’. is held in the Millstone Pub on Wednesday from 10.30 to 12 noon.
This provides an opportunity to catch up with friends – and make new ones if you are a newcomer to the village.
All welcome. Carol (740438)
Visitors to the Benefice
We’re pleased to welcome two bishops and an archdeacon to our benefice in May and June.
On Sunday 18 May at 4.30pm, the Bishop of Peterborough, Debbie Sellin, will join “God in the Garden” in Bainton as we consider “Living Water”.
On Sunday, 1 June at 9.30 am, the Bishop of Brixworth, John Holbrook, joins us at Barnack to give thanks for the replacement of the Lady Chapel Roof. This will be a Benefice service, so there will no other morning services that week in Bainton, Helpston, or Wittering.
Then on Trinity Sunday 15th June, the Archdeacon of Oakham, Alison Booker, will be at St Botolph’s Helpston at 10.45.
80th Anniversary of VE Day
Afternoon Tea & Drinks at the Barnack Sports Pavilion & Beacon Lighting Thursday 8th May
On Thursday 8th May 2025, the nation will mark the historic 80th anniversary of VE Day, with communities being encouraged to come together to unite and celebrate 80 years of peace since the end of Word War II in Europe.
Barnack Parish Council has been in discussions with Barnack Community Association to agree a suitable way to commemorate this event for the residents of Barnack and Pilsgate.
Full details still need to be finalised, but the intention is to serve afternoon tea and cake up at the Sports Pavilion at Barnack cricket ground from 3pm – weather permitting. It’s hoped families will join after school and others after work from 5pm. The licensed bar will also be open at the pavilion!
We are hoping the Barnack Church bells will be rung at 6.30 pm, in united celebration throughout the nation with other churches and cathedrals, as well as Barnack’s beacon being lit in the evening.
Over a thousand beacons and hundreds of Lamp Lights of Peace will shine throughout the UK, Channel Islands and the Isle of Man, with the flames from them both, representing the ‘light of peace’ that emerged from the dreadful darkness of war.
Full finalised details will be shared via : Coffee Stop every Wednesday (millstone pub), village noticeboards, BCA Barnack facebook page, Barnack Parish Council facebook page, Barnack School comms and you can contact the BCA on 07795 565658 or email: barnackca@gmail.com
Further national details: www.veday80.org.uk
Pilgrims’ Progress
Bainton and St Mary’s parishioners welcomed the pilgrims during Holy Week. The pilgrims were heading to Walsingham in Norfolk. Their walk of well over 100 miles will end on Good Friday when they reach the shrine of our lady of Walsingham.
The 30 intrepid walkers and a support team, called at St Mary’s church for refreshments, provided by several volunteers. They enjoyed the spring flowers in the churchyard and a chance sit inside the church to refresh their bodies and their souls, before continuing on to Crowland Abbey, which would be approximately halfway to Walsingham.
Good luck and God Bless our guests, on their annual pilgrimage.