Beckley & Area Community Benefit society Limited (BACBS)

The Abingdon Arms

In line with the Government’s Covid-19 lockdown, The Abingdon Arms has been closed as a public house since March. However Suzy and Alex quickly seized the opportunity to offer takeaway food and drinks, and a pub shop. With all staff furloughed, they have worked very hard to keep their business ticking over and to keep us locals fed and watered. Alex maintains an extensive and varied takeaway meals menu – no junk food here! Suzy delights local beer drinkers, and local small breweries, by offering a continuing supply of draught ales to take away – one of very few pubs to do so. But although there have been hints from the Government, the end of lockdown for pubs is not yet in sight. So the message to local residents is please, let’s keep up our support for Alex and Suzy and The Abingdon Arms so that we all come through this difficult time together!

For customers from Beckley and the surrounding villages who cannot get to the pub to collect their takeway meals because of self-isolation, shielding or lack of transport, delivery may be possible – please ask at the time of ordering. Current menus and shop items can be viewed at https://www.theabingdonarms.co.uk/coronavirus-updates. Please order and pay (cards only) in advance, especially for Sunday lunches – 01865 655667.

Current opening hours:

Mondays & Tuesdays: closed

Wednesdays to Saturdays: shop 12 noon to 8pm, takeaways 5 to 8pm

Sundays: shop 11am-4pm, takeaways 12noon to 4pm

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Even more than a Pub

Closure of The Abingdon Arms has forced suspension of BACBS’s successful More than a Pub programme, designed to involve, support and entertain our community. But we have initiated a virtual Even More than a Pub programme to keep us all engaged and sane during lockdown. One significant benefit to arise from holding virtual events is that BACBS members and supporters from further afield have been able to participate – notably from Dorset and Germany! On offer are the following:

Women of Beckley & Men of Beckley lunches: Thanks to Sarah and Steve Smith, the popular monthly pub lunches have been transformed into weekly lunchtime Wobble and Mobster Zoom chats – respectively on Tuesdays at 12 noon or 12.30pm (to be confirmed) and Wednesdays from 12.30pm. All Beckley residents are invited: please contact Sarah at beckleysarah@gmail.com and Steve at barkbeetles@gmail.com. Would anyone like to arrange similar on-line chats in our other communities? BACBS may be able to help set this up.

Talks and poetry: Two fascinating and contrasting illustrated talks have been delivered very successfully to date, by local residents Andrew McMichael (Immunity in the time of coronavirus) and Crispin Branfoot (Shiva as the Dancing Lord, Nataraja: the travels of a Hindu icon from temple to museum). Recordings of both are available on request from info@bacbs.org.

On 31 May, BACBS, in conjunction with Oxford’s Next Step poetry group, hosted ‘An hour of Poetry’. Twelve poets, including two from far afield, read their own poems or poems close to their hearts for a moving, inspiring session which was very much appreciated by an additional audience of over twenty. Further poetry sessions are planned.

We have a varied forthcoming programme. For details, please see our website at https://bacbs.org/events:

Our next event is:

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Sunday 14th June, 6.30-7.30pm: Thriller author Lucy Atkins in conversation with thriller author J P Delaney (aka Tony Strong). Lucy Atkins lives in Oxford and, just after lockdown, published ‘Magpie Lane’, an exciting psychological thriller set in an Oxford college, described by The Times as “enthralling…creepy and compelling”. Her previous books include The Night Visitor, which is being developed for TV, and The Other Child. The session can be accessed here https://zoom.us/j/5841030100

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Sunday 5th July, 6.30-7.30pm: 'Searching for exoplanets and alien extra-terrestrial life' - Suzanne Aigrain, Professor of Astrophysics, University of Oxford.

Sunday 19 July, 6.30-7.30pm: “Preservation of the Monarch Butterfly: Saving a Symbol of Mexico” – Mantina Lopez-Portillo.

We welcome suggestions for future talks. Can you offer a talk, or suggest someone who might? – please contact mike.jd.hobbs@gmail.com

Walks: To encourage activity during lockdown and beyond, and thereby promote physical and mental health, we have developed a programme of short and longer local walks. Most start from The Abingdon Arms, but others from surrounding villages. All are best followed in conjunction with the small folding OS map commissioned by BACBS, which is available for sale (price £4.50) at the pub and both the Stanton St John and Islip Village Shops. We aim to produce a booklet of the routes, which can be seen on temporary display at The Abingdon Arms, and also online – where the routes are shown in more detail – at https://bacbs.org/local-information

Pub Quiz: Gabriel Brodetsky has so far prepared and compered The Abingdon Arms pub quiz twice via Zoom. Suzy has kindly provided a prize of a £25 Abingdon Arms voucher for the winner. The first two quizzes have been well attended and enjoyed by all, and details of any future Zoom quizzes will be posted on the BACBS Facebook page as well at https://bacbs.org/events

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BACBS Good Neighbour Scheme and Beckley Covid Support group

The GNS remains active, although at a low level, and the Beckley Covid support group has helped a number of local residents who are locked down or shielding. The evidence is that many vulnerable people are being well looked after by immediate neighbours and family, but there have been a number of requests for food, medicine and post office collections, as well as some take-away deliveries from The Abingdon Arms. If anyone is stuck at home, we are still happy to assist. The emergence of so many volunteers has powerfully strengthened our communities – let’s not lose this. We are starting to think how the many volunteers who came forward so willingly at the start of the Covid crisis might continue to support the community when all this is over. Do you have suggestions? Please contact: bacbsgoodneighbour@gmail.com or 07514791910.

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BACBS Management Committee

From time to time we are asked about the elected committee which manages BACBS, including who does what. So here goes, with official positions and practical roles:

• Adam Jeffrey (Financial Governance)

• Adrian Hampshire (Secretary, Communications)

• Dave Drew (Property, ‘More than a Pub’ programme)

• Gabriel Brodetsky (Treasurer, Financial Governance, Communications))

• John Stradling (Property, Community Engagement)

• Lise Traynor (Communications, Garden)

• Mike Hobbs (Chair, ‘More than a Pub’ programme, Tenant Liaison)

• Nin Kelay (Tenant Liaison)

• Sam Clarke (Financial Governance)

• Susy Jepson (Community Engagement, ‘More than a Pub’ programme)

Management Committee members are elected prior to the BACBS AGM in the autumn, and each serves for three years. The committee can also co-opt members for specific roles. We are all very willing to talk to members and others about the Society, our roles, and what practically we do to. Please contact Mike at mike.jd.hobbs@gmail.com

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