PLEASE DONATE TO SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL PARISH NEWS

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Donate by BACS directly into our bank: Barnack Magazine Fund.
Sort Code: 20-81-20 Acct: 70151505

We will still accept cash/cheque donations, if you are unable to use online payments. Cheques payable to Barnack Magazine Fund

Pop your cheque/cash in an envelope; put your name and donation amount on the front and give it to any of the following contacts:
Barnack – Rev’d Gary Alderson, StJohn Burkett, Michael Cunliffe-Lister
Ashton: Hilary Smith
Ufford: Sue Beamish
Southorpe: Paul Fieldhouse
Bainton: Anne Manse or Nigel Clough

If have any queries regarding any of these payment routes, please contact: TREASURER: Michael Cunliffe-Lister Tel: 740705 Mob: 07778 783276. michaelclister@aol.com

YOUR FEEDBACK – PLEASE ONLY RESPOND ONCE!

To help us make our decision on the future production of the Parish News – please respond ONLY ONCE to any of these feedback options:
WhatsApp – if you are a member of your village residents WhatsApp group, you will receive a message poll from a fellow resident, where you can vote.
Facebook/Website – a link to a quick Yes/No form will be shared across a number of community Facebook pages, as well as shared on the Parish News website:

parishnews-online.co.uk
Email – feel free to email our editor directly with your response to “Do you read me?” plus any comments.
editor@parishnews-online.co.uk
QR Code – scan this QR code for a quick Yes/No form
or this link: https://forms.gle/8u8uZyuvR2SGYUyn6 Please only respond using this form if you have NOT already voted via a WhatsApp message poll.
Phone the Treasurer – call or text your feedback to:
Michael Cunliffe-Lister: 740705 or 07778 783276

Other News & Events this month

GET INVOLVED WITH YOUR SUMMER FETE!

Saturday 27th June 2026 – 12 Noon Til 5
Party at the Pavilion (PAP) & Barnack Horticultural Show
Plans are taking shape for this year’s Party at the Pavilion, fondly known as PAP, and a big thank you to Haynes Horticulture for sponsoring the event this year. This is invaluable support for us, to help cover costs of inflatable hire, entertainment, equipment so we can put on the best show we can for you all. Hopefully you’ve spotted Haynes Hort’s advert on the back page?
If you have any ideas for a stall, game or activity we’d love to hear from you.
Calling all Community groups – if you’d like to bring an idea, own it and take the profit from it you are very welcome. Please share your idea via contact details below and we’ll check it’s feasible.
We will need a raft of volunteers – as always – to help with the Bar, BBQ and games rotas and thanks to those of you who we know always step up. Please get in touch if you’d like to be added to the volunteer list and we never expect anyone to be on a rota for more than an hour unless you’re enjoying yourself!
For all you crafters, bakers, growers, sewers the full Horticultural Show Class Schedule will be printed in the next edition of the Parish News along with entry details. This will all be shared across the community socials as well, so look out for it!
Contact: Sally Hullock – Barnack Community Association – 07795 565658 bookings.barnackca@gmail.com

UPDATE ON THE FUTURE OF BARNACK VILLAGE HALL

Thanks to everyone who has given us feedback on the future of Barnack Village Hall. We had over 70 responses to our questionnaire and the overwhelming majority was to renew the lease at the Village Hall, invest some money in refurbing the building, and at this stage leave the pavilion as it is.
We now know from the feedback that there is a smaller contingency who are keen to know more about what potentially could be done up at the cricket ground. To clarify – we are not talking about building on the pitch, all our ideas proposed it would be a dual facility with the Cricket Club, so that cricket could continue as normal.
We will continue to consider the options at the cricket ground, and continue conversations with those who are keen for potential development but our focus for now is on improving our Village Hall. The new lease will have a 5 yearly break clause – as has been with our current lease – and it seems prudent to review the position of the hall usage, in line with the timing of each break clause, and to keep the cricket ground as a consideration for a facility as the years progress and potentially the needs of the village change.

JOHN CLARE… IN AN HOUR

St Botolph’s Church Helpston Tuesday 12 May 2026, 7pm
You’ve seen the memorial, had a cuppa in the Cottage, maybe even laid Midsummer Cushions round his grave.
But do you know the life story of our local poet?
In one hour you can hear about the ups, the downs, the drink, the women, the illness and the poetry. Presented by Revd Gary Alderson, Rector of Helpston.
And all for £5 for St Botolph church funds. Payable on the door.

PARISH GIVING

I’m afraid that as well as prayer and the Holy Spirit, a church runs on money. For those occasional needs – major repairs, for instance – we publicise it and request money from the church members, the villages, and assorted charities and other bodies that can help us.
For our regular costs, it’s reasonable and Biblical to ask that our regular worshippers give a fair amount.
Only you can know what a fair amount is. The Biblical example is a “tithe”, (10%) but with income tax, housing costs and a war in the Gulf, this is not achievable for most.
Another way to look at it is that the Parish Share is of the order of £80,000 per annum for the whole benefice of four parishes. In sheer transactional terms, this just about pays for the stipend, housing, and pension contributions of a priest, plus a little for the administration at the Diocesan offices.
Contrary to popular opinion, none of our giving goes to the Cathedral! And the Diocesan office runs essential services such as legal advice, and we wouldn’t cope without them.
But additional generosity also helps. We currently run a large benefice without a Parish Administrator (who would make my life much easier, and enable me to do more of the things I’m actually called to do). And if we were doing more than just about making do, we could look seriously at hiring a Youth and Children Worker. These are all things that are easier to do when what we’re not doing is endlessly fundraising.
If you’d like to give, there are various options. Putting cash in the plate at the service is one, using the payment devices we have at some services is another. But putting in place a regular amount through Direct Debit, even if it’s a small amount, is the ideal. You can go to the Parish Giving Scheme and find your parish at https://www.parishgiving.org.uk/givers

Buttercross meeting held on 1st April

Our speaker, Tim Stubbs has had a varied and fascinating career as an auctioneer, an antiques dealer, the landlord of the Red Lion in Warmington and more besides,but his true passion is antiques. Before addressing us, Tim had laid out on a table in front of him an array of objects, mostly wooden, but some brass, and also silhouette portraits. He began by telling us about his childhood, how, from the age of 5, in a home where the family prided itself on everything new and modern, young Tim would dig up in the garden, bits of broken pottery to treasure. As the son of a baker in Thurlby, he would accompany his father delivering bread to the locals and be given old, unwanted “junk” such as a wooden dairy bowl covered in paint and grime. Once cleaned it turned out to be a beautifully shaped and tactile object that is still now a treasured possession.
Most of the artefacts on show did not come from fine mansions or country estates but from ordinary eighteenth century or earlier homes or farms. Among these was a beer scoop used on farms, where it was tipped from the large barrel into a costrel, a barrel shaped container in 3 sizes, large for the men, medium for women and small for children. Everyone drank beer, far healthier than the water.
Among some brass objects in the collection was a Brighton bun, a round hand sized container that turns into a travelling candlestick. There were also handsome drinking vessels made of horn and beautifully decorated, and one 1688 mug with the motto “bear in mind a faithful friend is hard to find”.
In an effort to interest his children in his love of antiques, Tim showed his son a picture frame sized piece of wood, inscribed with the date 1723 and the initials TS, and he invited him to guess what they stood for: Total Saddo came the reply! Tim is now concentrating all his efforts on converting his grandchildren to the cause.
What a superb raconteur Tim is. We all thoroughly enjoyed his anecdotes and found his passion for his subject infectious. We were then invited to handle the objects on the table and touching and feeling the wonderfully “patinaed”wooden bowls and goblets gave us a further understanding of this passion.
The Easter themed hall and table decorations together with the special refreshments were much appreciated by all and rounded off a most enjoyable evening.
The next Buttercross meeting on 6th May will feature a talk on lacemaking by Elspeth Baily.

A Night of Hitchcock Suspense in Bainton

On Saturday, 6th June, step back in time to the 1920s and experience ‘cinema as it used to be’ at Bainton Reading Room. ‘Blackmail’, directed by the now legendary film director Alfred Hitchcock, was originally released in 1929. It features many of Hitchcock’s trademark thrills and suspense techniques, as well as one of his earliest cameos!
‘Blackmail’ is a silent movie, but added thrills will be provided by live music performed by the award-winning Brief Encounter Duo (multi-instrumentalists Veronica and Chris Perrin). These talented musicians will perform their unique vintage jazz soundtrack to accompany this classic early Hitchcock film.
The plot of ‘Blackmail’ starts with a falling out between the alluring Alice White and her handsome boyfriend, the Scotland Yard detective, Frank Webber. Alice then goes to meet the sleazy Mr Crewe, whom she ultimately has to fight off in the worst way possible. As Alice flees the scene, Frank starts to investigate the grisly murder. Yet, all along, there’s been an eyewitness, who suddenly turns into a ruthless blackmailer!
Tickets are £15 in advance (including refreshments), but be quick, as this culturally thrilling evening at Bainton Reading Room on Saturday, 6th June (doors open 6.30pm, film starts 7pm) is sure to sell out. To reserve tickets, please telephone 07894448012 (over 15s only). There will be an interval halfway through, when refreshments will be provided

Barnack Hills & Holes National Nature Reserve – April Update.

One of the important jobs on the nature reserve at this time of year is installing the temporary fencing, this is to protect some of the denser areas of rare wildflowers, such as pasqueflower, man orchid & fragrant orchid. Sometimes we add in extra areas of fencing, this year we have fenced an area in compartment 3 (nearest the pub). This is the only part of this compartment where we find man orchid, numbers have been low over the last few years. Less disturbance will hopefully help the orchid numbers.
If you walk through the reserve between now & September, you’ll see many different wildflowers, some very rare nationally, some very common. Some of the rarities, as well as other wildlife previously recorded on Hills & Holes are struggling, for various reasons. We decided we would close compartment 1 (furthest from both roads) for the summer to allow ground damage to recover. We used to have good records of ground nesting birds on the reserve, over the last 2 or 3 decades we have lost virtually all ground nesting birds. With much less disturbance, we hope to record them again in the closed compartment.
Prior to closing the compartment various surveys took place. They will be repeated at the end of the summer when we open the area again. During the summer we will be surveying a variety of species in this compartment, as well as our normal surveys around the NNR

Men’s Breakfast

Please join us for a talk on “Community Service” by Revd Mark Thomson, from 8.30-10am on Saturday 2nd May, in Barnack Village Hall.
He’ll cover a range of topics on Rural Ministry, Youth Work and Local Councils. As usual, there will also be a cooked breakfast!

Abbott’s Barn and Barnyard Flowers – from garden to flower farm

We moved to Southorpe 20 years ago, at a time when we were very keen to live in a village near to Stamford, and one of the provisos was a very large garden. Abbott’s Barn certainly fitted the bill in that regard (at about 2 acres), but it also came with an attached barn which provided independent living for my mum in her old age. Although she was 80 at the time, she specified that if the garden wasn’t VERY big indeed,she wouldn’t be joining us!
For some years after we moved in, in order to manage the workload we would have regular garden meetings to discuss the developments we wished to make, and assigning each of us jobs – the workers were myself Vanessa, my husband Carl, and Granny. We enlisted the help of Adam Frost on two occasions to design two areas because we all felt overwhelmed by the size of the project, but being experienced gardeners, we were able to do all the plant design ourselves.
Over the years as the gardens developed, we were happy when the National Garden Scheme deemed we were up to the standard they demanded, and we had some fabulous open days, welcoming thousands of visitors, and raising thousands of pounds for numerous charities. It always gave me great pleasure to share the garden and see others enjoying it alongside a slice of cake and a cup of coffee.
At the beginning of 2025 we decided to start a new venture. Over the years we had been experimenting with growing a large variety of flowers which are great for arranging, and we decided to form Barnyard Flowers. We now supply buckets of flowers to local florists, restaurants, and individuals including wedding flowers, as well as all sorts of bouquets, both direct to the customer and through Stamford Garden Centre and The Stalls Market on Stamford Meadows.
Many of our wonderful customers are from our own community, and the fact that the flowers are local, sustainable and naturally grown seems to be important to them.
Just as our lives have evolved during our time in the village, so has our garden, and it now provides a beautiful and serene space for us, our visitors, and a huge range of wildlife. We have regular visits from deer, rabbits, stoats, and numerous birds including a heron which I must admit is the least welcome visitor for he tries to go fishing in my goldfish pond! We garden without the use of pesticides and fungicides and are to all intents and purposes organic in every way. We believe in sharing this beautiful natural space with the animals and insects in order to have a healthy, diverse ecosystem.
If you want to find out more about our flowers, visit our website barnyardflowers.com.

The Arts Society Peterborough’s monthly talk

The Fleet, Community Centre, PE2 8DL. May 14th2026
‘Baiting the Bear’, withTim Stimpson
Thistalk deals with the long-standing Russification i.e. repression of ethnic differences in the Russian empire. The focus will be on 19th century Finland and the great artist Akseli Galen-Kallela and Ilya Repin who was once known as a Russian artist but now is associated with his homeland of Ukraine.
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