Category: Community

I saw a flyer in the village hall last Tuesday for a “Wellness Trekking Initiative,” complete with high-vis vests and a spreadsheet for tracking heart rates. Honestly, it made me roll my eyes so hard I nearly lost my spectacles. You don’t need a mountain of expensive gear or a degree in kinesiology to figure […]

I remember sitting in the village hall back in ’94—the one with the draughty sash windows that haven’t been properly sealed since the late seventies—watching a committee try to plan a social gathering. They were obsessed with hiring professional caterers and sourcing linen tablecloths, as if a bit of fancy starch would somehow make people […]

I remember standing in the middle of the village green last autumn, watching a young fellow from the next parish try to run a local market using a fancy new smartphone app and a stack of glossy, laminated flyers. He spent more on the marketing than he did on the actual site hire, and by […]

I was sitting in the village hall last Tuesday, looking at a stack of notices that were so dry they practically crumbled in my hands. It struck me then that most people only pick up a community circular when they’re looking for a lost cat or a planning permission warning, which is a crying shame. […]

I remember sitting in the back of the St. Jude’s Parish Hall back in ’94—a building, I should note, constructed in 1872 with a roof that’s seen better days—watching a committee try to orchestrate a fundraiser that felt more like a military drill than a social evening. They had spent a small fortune on fancy […]

I saw a flyer the other day from some well-meaning charity suggesting that supporting elderly neighbours requires a dedicated volunteer schedule and a formalised system of check-ins. It’s absolute nonsense. If you wait for a committee meeting to decide how to help, the frost will have already settled on the windows and the milk will […]

I was sitting in the village hall last Tuesday, staring at a broken Grundig radio from 1974, when it hit me how much nonsense is floating around the internet regarding how to start a repair cafe. You’ll see all sorts of glossy, high-concept guides telling you that you need a dedicated community organiser, a complex […]

I was standing by the old stone wall near the cricket pavilion last Tuesday—the one we spent three weeks patching up after the autumn floods—when I saw a flyer for yet another “comprehensive safety initiative.” It’s the same old story: glossy brochures and jargon that makes a simple idea sound like a government white paper. […]

I remember sitting in the village hall last November, the smell of damp wool coats and lukewarm tea hanging heavy in the air, watching a debate about a new grit bin go on for forty-five minutes. It wasn’t the length of the talk that bothered me, but the fact that half the room looked like […]

I was out walking the bridleway towards the old mill—the one with the flintwork dating back to the mid-1800s—when I spotted a discarded crisp packet wedged deep in a hawthorn hedge. It’s a small thing, but it’s part of a growing nuisance that makes our lanes look neglected. Now, I’ve seen some people approach organising […]