Category: Community

I remember standing in the middle of the village green back in ’94, watching a committee spend three hours debating the precise shade of bunting for the marquee, while the actual tea tent was missing a kettle and the raffle prizes were sitting in the back of a damp van. It’s a common mistake, thinking […]

I was standing by the old pavilion last Tuesday—the one built in 1924, though the roof tiles have been a mess since the late eighties—and I watched a group of youngsters kick a ball against a fence that’s seen better decades. It struck me then that most people think reviving a village sports club requires […]

I remember sitting in the draughty village hall back in 2012, watching Arthur from the parish council struggle with a stack of forms that looked more like a tax audit than a request for a new bench. He’d spent three weeks trying to figure out how to apply for a community grant just to fix […]

I spent forty minutes yesterday walking down Mill Lane—the one with the drainage issues that always makes the footpath a bit of a bog in November—and I saw three teenagers sitting on a damp stone wall, staring at nothing in particular. It struck me then that we spend far too much time in parish meetings […]

I remember sitting in the village hall last autumn, watching a young man from the district council try to explain how to run a community survey using a fancy digital platform that required a login, a password, and a high-speed connection. He was talking about “data acquisition metrics” while Mrs. Higgins, who has lived in […]

I was sitting in the village hall last Tuesday, listening to a consultant from the county council drone on about “social cohesion frameworks” and “intergenerational synergy.” It was all very expensive-sounding, but it missed the point entirely. When people search for befriending schemes explained, they aren’t looking for a lecture on sociological theory or a […]

I was standing in the village hall last Tuesday, watching a young lad from the council try to explain a three-page digital spreadsheet for managing donations, and I thought, good grief, we’ve lost the plot. You don’t need a high-speed internet connection or a committee of six to figure out how to set up a […]

I was standing by the old stone bridge last Tuesday—the one built back in 1842, if memory serves—watching the wind whip through the empty branches of the oaks, and it struck me just how bleak the high street looks when it’s dark. Now, I’ve seen some people suggest that village christmas lights fundraising requires a […]

I remember sitting in the village hall back in ’98, watching a neighbor lose his temper and shout about “the principle of the thing” during a heated meeting about the old mill conversion. He thought his outrage was enough, but all he did was give the planning officer a reason to stop listening. Most people […]

I was sitting in the back room of the Old Post Office last Tuesday—a fine little flint building dating back to the mid-1800s, mind you—trying to upload a simple photo of the parish council minutes. The spinning circle on the screen just kept turning, mocking me, while the rain lashed against the window. It’s a […]