“Some sort of periodical is an essential life-line in a village such as ours”

Welcome to West Farleigh’s own

LIFELINE

Distributed freely in February 2021 Edition no 529 - Editors: Stephen Norman, Helen Swan and Jacky Taylor
Website: www.thefarleighs.co.uk Email: editor@thefarleighs.co.uk
Deadline for the next issue is 20 February 2021
Cover Photo Ed Boyd

Page 1 of 12
Advertise your product or service here!

6 mths: £140 (colour) £ 70 (mono)

12 mths: £224 (colour) £112 (mono)

space@thefarleighs.co.uk

Page 2 of 12
Pastoral letter February 2021

You don’t need me to tell you that we are in the midst of a global pandemic at
the moment. It’s everywhere you look, all the news, conversations with friends,
it pervades everything. Probably rightly so. It really is important that we do all
we can to stay safe and keep others safe. Yet, there are those who deny that the
pandemic is real, or it is a plot by the communists/right wing politicians/liberal
elite/big tech to infect the world with a virus/microchip/fake news in order to
supress/repress/remove the rights of/control the world’s population. Getting
accurate information is more challenging than ever in a world of instant online
social platforms and 24/7 news channels. Who do we believe? Do we trust our
governments? The scientists? The newspapers? The BBC?

One thing we can trust is our own experience. I’ve had COVID-19 and it is most unpleasant. As an
overweight, asthmatic, 65-year-old I was at risk of serious illness, but I am grateful that I am over it and
working off the after effects. I am still struggling with shortness of breath and my thinking capacity is
diminished. (Insert your own joke here 😊😊) Seriously, it is not be recommended, and my father died from it.
He had a weak heart and other underlying conditions, but it was the COVID which finally ended his life.

One exchange I had with a chap who described himself as an “Apostolic Pentecostal Christian” had him
saying that it was a severe lack of faith to wear a face covering and asked the question WWJD? (What
Would Jesus Do?) My response to that was that it was not a particularly helpful question because he was
God, and we’re not, but that Jesus taught us that the greatest commandments are to love your God with
all your heart and soul and mind and strength, and to love your neighbour as yourself. Wearing a face
covering, washing hands, staying home, keeping distance when out are not showing a lack of faith. They
are showing a love of neighbour. Isn’t that what Jesus would want us to do?

Stay safe and well.

Peter Callway
Rector

Current Church Services

All worship in our churches is suspended. We will continue to hold online (Zoom) services each Sunday at
10.30am: http://bit.ly/UnitedBenefice.

For other services, courses and events, see the benefice website: https://unitedbenefice.church/

Page 3 of 12
Parish Council Report
A site meeting was held to look at the planning application for land adjoining the Green. Several interested
parishioners came along to discuss the proposal. Some changes to the siting of the pair of bungalows was
suggested. It was unanimously agreed that a pond was not wanted. The Clerk spoke to the agent who
submitted a revised application to MBC which has been approved. Two small parcels of amenity land will
be handed over to the Parish.

There is to be a Zoom council meeting to set the budget etc.on Tuesday 26th at 3.30pm.

All other parish council work is being done by Email etc.

Laptop Appeal
A great big thank you to those who donated computers and tablets to East
Farleigh Primary School following a recent appeal for help from Diane Scott.

Your kindness has enabled children without access to relevant technology to

continue with their studies on-line. If you can help with this appeal please contact
the school directly.

Farewell to Jen and John Monticelli

Jen and John have been living in Peacehaven in Charlton Lane for the last few years, and have enjoyed the
view over the valley but not driving around our narrow lanes! They are moving to a bungalow in Tankerton,
five minutes walk to the sea. We wish them well and hope that they settle in well.

Page 4 of 12
 PAULA SINCLAIR (nee Haydon)
13th June, 1966 – 26th December 2020

It is with sadness that we report the death of Paula. Paula was born in St Mary’s Cray to Daphne and James
Haydon. She was known as the “wild one” by her school friends!

She had three children; Chris married with 2 children, Jayden and Danielle; Charlie, engaged with two
children, Oliver and Tommy and Kaylie with no children. Kaylie has been in the Navy for 10 years. Her
lovely partner John is also in the Navy. John kindly read, what Kaylie had written, at the funeral.

Paula moved to Oliver North and became a member of West Farleigh Church. She was a great cook and
was only too happy to bake for church teas and she made amazingly light scones! One of our editors,
Stephen Norman, said, the cupcakes Paula had made for the teas at Smiths Hall Open Day, were the best
he had ever tasted.

She was quite open about being a recovering alcoholic, with 11 years of sobriety. On this journey that she
found her faith. She was very proud of her achievement and went on to sponsor other people, going
through the AA course.

Paula met George in the fellowship and he quickly became a big part of the family. They were very happy
together.

Paula battled with and overcame breast cancer with a positive attitude. It was sad that cancer came to her
again, but she continued to fight it to the end, with that positive attitude, taking on day at a time. We shall
miss Paula in the village, she had many friends. We shall remember her with fondness. Our thoughts are
with George and her family.

Page 5 of 12
Congratulations to Hugh and Valeria Grainger on their Diamond Wedding

Yes! This marvellous couple celebrated their 60th Wedding

Anniversary on New Year’s Eve. We wish them many more happy
years together. Here are a few highlights from the story so far…

Valeria was born in Portsmouth in 1938 but moved to Rosyth at

the beginning of WW2 when her father was posted to the
dockyard there. She & her mother stayed there after her father
was killed in 1941 until they moved back to Portsmouth in 1944,
and then she went to Bedford College London in 1957 to read
History.

Hugh was born in Wimbledon in 1931 but moved to Plymouth in

1938. He went to school in Cornwall and later in Canterbury
when the school returned there after the war. After National
Service he felt called to be ordained, but wanted more
experience of life first. He worked on a farm, and then went back
into the army for 3 years. He served in Malaysia during the
troubles there. After 18 months with the Church Army in
Stepney, he went to Kings College, London as an ordinand in 1957.

Valeria’s Hall of Residence in London held an annual Dance and sent invitations to men’s Halls of Residence
to find partners. In October 1958, Valeria – one of the organisers - opened the door to Hugh & a group of
theologs. He stayed with her the whole evening and they’ve been partners ever since. Ballroom dancing is
one of their favourite hobbies! Interestingly another 2 of the 12 students in her year married theologs and
are still happily married today!

Hugh came to feel that a dog collar would be a barrier in the kind of ministry he visualised. Instead, he
enrolled in a year-long social work course. As they were both in London, they decided to marry as soon as
possible rather than wait for him to finish his course. They were married at St Mary’s Church Portsea on
31st December 1960. Hugh worked as a Child Care officer in Hammersmith, then Reading, Abingdon &
Slough before moving to Kent as Director of Social Services for West Kent. He became a lay Reader in
1967.
Valeria became a teacher and taught in Lambeth, Slough and
finally at the Weald of Kent Grammar School in Tonbridge. They
have 3 children, 2 daughters and a son, 10 grandchildren and 5
great grandchildren. 3 great granddaughters were born within 4
months of each other last year and live in Maidstone.

A major family reunion was planned, but the pandemic has

made it hard to see even their new great grandchildren in
Maidstone. Their son works in Bermuda and their eldest
daughter lives in Turkey but neither could travel to the UK. They
settled for socially distanced meetings and a crazy Zoom call with
40 family members in different countries!

Hugh will be 90 on May Day. They hope for a small family reunion at Easter but nobody is too hopeful that
it will take place.

Page 6 of 12
Three tips for home working (or how to stay out of my surgery)
By Sascha Britton
Under the Health & Safety at Work Act, the employer must provide a safe working
environment and the employee must take reasonable care of their own health and safety.
In an office setting, most businesses are obliged to carry out desk assessments to meet, as
far as is practicable, the exacting standards of the image below.

When covid struck, many of us were sent to work from home. There was
little time to set up an appropriate work station. The line between who is
responsible for health and safety has been blurred.

It is our joint responsibility. We should take time to identify risks and

mitigate them with the help of our employers. When working from home a
suitable set up is vital for our skeletal health.

Prolonged poor posture inevitably results in skeletal damage.

Now, which figure represents you?

However, perfecting your set up is not enough. Prolonged good posture inevitably results in skeletal damage.
So here are my 3 top tips:

1. Move 2. Move 3. Move some more

When our bodies are static for any period of time our muscles relax. We hang on our ligaments. Movement reignites
our muscles and stimulates blood flow. A useful rule of thumb is to move every 20 minutes and change position
every 30-60 minutes. Don’t stay glued to your seat. Stand up, stretch, have a little shake out, maybe even a little
dance…..no one is watching.
++++++++++++

Page 7 of 12
Labouring into Spring
by Ray Morris

The thoughts of our local tawny owls are turning to courtship with the familiar
‘kee-wick’ call of the female answered by the ‘whoo’ of the male. Spring is on its
way.

When Shakespeare first rendered their call in Loves Labours Lost as

‘Then nightly sings the staring owl,

Tu-whit;
Tu-who, a merry note’

He also painted a, nowadays less familiar, picture of ‘icicles hanging from walls, and milk being frozen in
the pail’. But his line ‘When blood is nipp’d and ways be foul,’ can still be a daily occurrence as we take our
lockdown exercise around the local lanes.

Owls and other birds are generally impervious to the weather thanks
to the superb natural insulation they get from their feathers. The tiny,
hooked strands of keratin in their feathers (it’s what our fingernails are
made from too) can not only be zipped together to trap pockets of air
for insulation, but the angle at which they are held can also be subtly
changed to deflect wind and water. Feathers provide a superb
adaptation to the cold and wet – just think of Emperor penguins,
incubating their egg at sixty degrees below zero.

But our owls have problems on wet and windy nights. They have better
night vision than us, but they still have to hunt by sound; their facial
Tawny Owl disc concentrates the signal like your satellite TV dish. In their case it’s
to concentrate the sound of small animals moving about on the
ground. Noise created by wind and rain interferes with their ability to hear their prey.

Feathers on many species also undergo other subtle changes as the breeding season approaches. Take a
regular look over the next month or so at the house sparrows in your garden. The male’s black bib will
slowly expand, becoming increasingly black as the feathers’ grey tips slowly wear away, to impress the
females. Although made of keratin, plumage doesn’t keep growing like fingernails do – once a feather is
fully emerged from the bird’s skin, wear and tear begins to take its toll. As the black lower part of the
male’s bib feathers become more obvious, so it appears to spread and become blacker as the tips wear
away. His bill, also made of keratin, will slowly change from brown to black as well, but as a result of
increased testosterone.

Blue tits undergo subtle changes for the same reason. Ones with the brightest blue heads and richest
yellow breasts are likely to be the males, their rich colours demonstrating their ‘superior’ fitness as a mate
to prospective females.

These subtle changes hardly qualify as labour of course as they happen naturally with no effort on the
bird’s part. But where love is concerned their significance is clearly not lost on the birds around them!

Page 8 of 12
 Village in Bloom
Some West Farleigh in Bloom members took part in an online seminar “Kent’s Plan Bee
Summit” recently. We learned about the decline of bees and other pollinators and ways in
which we can help reverse this trend. This time of year is particularly difficult for bees as they
still need flowers, leaves, longer grass, water and hedges to provide shelter. Plan Bee involves
creating lines of trees, shrubs, areas of flower which will attract bees and other pollinators. We
wondered how we could contribute? Could we build our own bee line in West Farleigh?
In the cold and rain last week, we began clearing a patch of verge at the top of Kettle Lane
where we plan to create a lavender bank. Whilst we wait for warmer weather to plant the
lavender we have put in some comfrey which the bees will love.
We need your help to extend the bee line through the village.

Please let us know on bloom@thefarleighs.co.uk which bee attracting shrubs you have in
your garden, and where you are, we can start plotting this information on a map. If you can
think of any other areas of West Farleigh where we could plant some shrubs, please let us
know.

Evergreens
Christmas gifts were distributed to all the Evergreens and helpers. A box of biscuits, which I
suspect are long since gone! And a Christmas plant selection in a festive container. The gifts
were well received and I have it on good authority that the planters are still giving lots of
pleasure. Phone contact is being maintained by the leaders, which seems to be well received.
Everyone is looking forward to meeting again, but unfortunately it will not be soon. WE are
looking forward to an outing or two in the summer or autumn..

At last the Farleighs have caught up with technology by holding their first Zoom meeting
this week. We had a speaker, who is a member of our WI, talking about her travels when
she was younger and her own travel business. It was an interesting and enlightening
presentation, and we thank Lesley for her demonstration of how great travel can be. We
were all envious of her travels and we look forward to the time when we can all arrange
our own trips. We have now had new front doors installed at the WI Hall to not only
enhance the look of the building but to retain the heat and ensure access is safer and
easier. We have an exciting virtual speaker talking about chocolate in February and I
believe making some. Unfortunately, we will not be able to have samples. Perhaps when we are able to have a
meeting at our own hall, we will invite her back to try the products. Please everybody keep safe.

Sports Report
Not surprisingly, none of our football, cricket and netball teams have been in action since the latest lockdown.
Hopefully they are all doing personal fitness workouts in readiness for the day we can start playing again!

Happily our Ton Up Club is still ticking over. Our recent winners were:
–
DECEMBER: No 141 Alex Norman £30 – No 152 Caleb Allder £20 – No 97 Don Shilling £10

CHRISTMAS JACKPOT!! : No 147 Gabby King £50 – No 122 Linda Body £30

JANUARY: No 62 Yvonne Martin £30 – No 107 Nicholas Boseley £20 – No 2 Helen Swan £10

Yours in sport, Tel

Page 9 of 12
Page 10 of 12
LOCAL TRADES LISTINGS (neighbours who can help you)

Business Business service Contact

name (40 chars max) Website name phone no email
Firefly
Payroll Jason 01622
Services Payroll www.fireflypayroll.com Hart 934110 enquiries@fireflypayroll.com
Professional &
No Muck'in affordable Sarah 0788
About cleaning services Dunn 5634559 nomuckinabout@outlook.com
Electrical
Heathside Installation and Mr 07976
Electrical maintenance www.heathsideelectrical.co.uk Sephton 895001 enquiries@heathsideelectricals.co.uk
01622
842481 or
Richard 07758
Pest Purge Pest Control www.pestpurge.co.uk Lee 615101 richard@pestpurge.co.uk

It’s amazing how much talent there is just next door!

YOU TOO can list your product or service here for just £20 a year, that’s less than £2 a month.

Contact space@thefarleighs.co.uk for more details.

Page 11 of 12
Page 12 of 12