Beckley & Area Community Benefit society Limited (BACBS)

BACBS business

BACBS held its annual Members Meeting in the village hall on Wednesday November 24th with over 40 members present. The reports and presentations from the chairman, secretary and treasurer were received, and copies will be posted on the BACBS website (https://bacbs.org/meetings), along with the minutes. We are pleased to welcome John Walsh and Rick Kealy onto the committee, but sad to lose Lise Estcourt who has come to the end of her term of office. Adam Jeffrey and Nin Kelay are continuing on the committee for their second term of office. The Q&A session was particularly useful, raising issues and suggesting potential solutions, particularly around the problem of visitor parking in the high street, and adequate space in the pub for locals as well as ‘destination’ diners.

At its committee meeting on 6th December these Q&A issues were discussed and appropriate actions initiated. The committee had already decided to purchase the pizza oven from the tenants to provide them with a cash injection. Also, at the meeting, there were some reassignment of roles. The new committee for 2021/22 is as follows:

An important new development will be the launch of an open share offer early in the new year. This is to help fund new projects and to rebuild our reserves, which were depleted during the pandemic and are needed to fund ongoing maintenance and improvement works on the pub building. This will allow us to continue looking after and improving The Abingdon Arms. As a listed building in a conservation area building works tend to be particularly expensive. We hope to launch this mid-January with extensive publicity!

The Abingdon Arms

Despite the difficulties of recovering from the COVID fallout, The Abingdon Arms is doing well through the hard work of Alex and Vicky. We were very sorry to see Suzy move onto pastures anew, especially after the enormously hard work she put into keeping the pub afloat during the lockdown and recovery periods. I am sure everyone wishes her well, and we look forward to her popping into the pub to say hello. There are concerns about new COVID issues, but at the moment there does not seem to be any need to hold back from Christmas festivities (if vaccinated). The committee will continue to monitor the financial health of the tenants and help where and when required.

Beckley Christmas Dinner at the Abingdon Arms

The Christmas Dinner at the pub this year will be on Thursday 16 December at 7pm. Please book directly with the pub: either through their website, or email theabingdonarmsoxford@gmail.com, or phone 01865 655667. There is an amazing Christmas menu for individual dining and Christmas party events, see https://www.theabingdonarms.co.uk/menus/christmas-2021.

More than a Pub Programme - https://bacbs.org/events

Monthly Community Walks

These usually take place on the third Sunday of the month. The October walk, led by Mary Stuck, took 15 happy walkers on a circuit from the Abingdon Arms to Stanton St John and back. The next walk will be on Sunday November 21st, 2 - 4pm, on a circuit via Noke and Otmoor, and the last walk of the year will be on 12 December – details tba. Note the exceptional December walk date.

Sunday evening talks

Tim Dixon’s excellent and highly topical talk in the pub, Carbon Capture and Storage, was timed to immediately precede COP26 and was very well attended both in person and online. Delicious food, provided by the pub, was an unexpected and very welcome surprise, thanks to Alex and team for this. Sue Burge’s talk on Plants, Magic and Medicine (Zoom only) was equally well received and provided a fascinating insight into just how many of the drugs we use today originate from plants. We encourage you to support our future events in person for the sake of the speakers, our social wellbeing, and of course because we want to support the pub in every way we can. For future Zoom access details to talks, please go to https://bacbs.org/events. If you would like to watch previous Sunday evening talks (including Tim’s and Sue’s), please email info@bacbs.org with your request.

In addition to the talks, on Sunday evening the 5th December, we were treated to a standing-room only performance by Anthea Dobry, based on her aunt’s anthology of short stories (Not Going Quietly). This was a hilarious rendering of Mabel Fawcett Dodds’ life in ‘far from superior accommodation’ (a care home!). Essentially a monologue but supported by various friends. This raised over £200 for two local care homes, St Andrew’s and Cleeve Lodge.

Upcoming talks

Sunday 12 December, 6.30 pm Otmoor, the Changing Year, a talk by Peter Barker. Peter is a passionate advocate for Otmoor and its wildlife and for open wild spaces, and author of “The Birds of Otmoor” which was published this autumn by the Oxford Ornithological Society and can be purchased from The Abingdon Arms. Peter is a volunteer bird surveyor for the RSPB, and convenor of the Otmoor Birding website http://otmoorbirding.blogspot.com. This talk will be on Zoom and in the pub.

Sunday January 22, 6.30 pm Surviving as a painter (www.jamesgemmill.com). James Gemmill hails from America and now lives in Beckley. His artistic career has been wide-ranging, and he has worked in film (including the well-known The Da Vinci Code, Star Wars, Beauty and the Beast and Mary Poppins Returns), television, and design as well as in the more traditional context of a gallery artist.

Sunday February 27, 6.30 pm Paul Newton on Public health research, life, and culture in Laos, https://www.tropicalmedicine.ox.ac.uk/team/paul-newton. Paul, a Beckley resident, is professor of tropical medicine at Oxford, and runs a research group, the Lao-Oxford-Mahosot Hospital-Wellcome Research Unit, based at Mahosot Hospital, Vientiane in Laos. The conditions they concentrate on include malaria, scrub typhus, murine typhus, melioidosis, typhoid, dengue, leptospirosis, and the causes of central nervous system infections.

Sunday March 27, 6.30 pm Dominic Holdsworth on Writing political satire including his two, fast-paced, sci-fi comedy satire novels, https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/20627517.D_A_Holdsworth. Dom Holdsworth’s comedy sci-fi, How to Buy a Planet, set in 2024, tells the story of the world recovering from a global pandemic while overwhelmed by debt, forcing the world’s leaders to sell the planet. There are mirrors between the real world and the novel: a deadly virus pandemic; social distancing; a Prime Minister ‘with famously floppy hair’ addressing the nation live from 10 Downing Street. There’s even an ‘overweight and slightly gormless’ US President in The White House.

Good Neighbour Scheme

Serving Beckley, Elsfield, Stanton, Forest Hill, Woodeaton. (Noke, Islip and Horton have their own schemes), this scheme is still operating, albeit at a low level, to give lifts to those with no other transport: taking people for their vaccinations, collecting items from surgeries, and Stanton village shop etc., as well as lifts to the Barton/Green Road roundabout where buses into Headington and central Oxford are frequent. To request a lift, ring either 07514 791919 (answerphone if no response) or email BACBSgoodneighbour@gmail.com. Given COVID issues, both driver and client need to be satisfied with both parties wearing masks and having open car windows. If you know of anyone who might need help, and perhaps does not know this service exists, please do let them know. The low level of activity probably indicates that most people have friends and neighbours who help them when required and there are now many ways to get things delivered to your door.

Second emergency defibrillator at the Village Hall

We would also like to point out that, as well as the unlocked emergency defibrillator on the side wall of the porch at the pub, there is now another unlocked one stored on the outside of the village hall, facing the playing field (with location signs strategically placed). It is expected that another training course will be organised soon although the device itself gives step by step instructions. To our knowledge there is not a ‘Community First Responder’ in Beckley. These are individuals who volunteer to train and be on-call for emergencies, working with the ambulance service. See https://www.scas.nhs.uk/our-services/community-and-co-responders/ for details if you are interested.