Portrait Of Pembride Blog 3

There’s a lot happening in Pembridge this month. To make sure you don’t miss out we have compiled a “Dates for your Diary” feature. Key events include:- the launch of the Autumn Exhibition at the Old Chapel Gallery; the return of Film Nights at the New Inn with a showing of “Barbie”; and an Afternoon Tea at the King’s House in aid of Breast Cancer Now. These are just a few of the many things happening in Pembridge in September.
If you know of events taking place in October, please get in touch now ingramkay3@gmail.com.
We’d love to include them in next month’s diary. 
Pembridge and Shobdon RBL are visiting Bletchley Park, home of the WWII code breakers, we preview their visit, on which there are a few places left. 
We look back at the Pembridge Players and their staging of “Cinderella” which will mark its 20th anniversary in January. Were you part of the cast and crew? Would you like to see the DVD of the performance at a reunion in the New Year? What are your memories of taking part or being in the audience? 
We continue our series on the Leominster to Kington Railway with an aerial view of the route through Pembridge, and recount how some locals and American servicemen walked and drove along the line. 
We are launching a new series of articles researched and written by Rory MacColl. They tell the stories of the men commemorated on our War Memorial, and those of their fallen comrades whose names were not included. 
Local farmer, Tony Norman, resumes his Leen Times series of articles, telling of his introduction to farming in Gloucestershire. 
In our news section there’s a plea from Pembridge C E School for a new Foundation Governor. Could this be you? We also detail changes to bus timetables starting in September.

Kay Ingram

Portrait Of Pembridge Blog 2

D-Day Remembered

Writing this on 6th June, the 79th anniversary of D Day, we are reporting on  the recent trip of  Pembridge and Shobdon branch of the Royal British Legion to the sites of the D Day landings. https://www.portraitofpembridge.co.uk/groups-and-clubs

 The group learned first-hand from a  WWII survivor of the liberation of France led by glider pilots, some of whom trained at RAF Shobdon. As a six-year-old she’d experienced the Nazi occupation which ended on that day, and at 87, is still telling visitors of the day les planeurs rescued her family. See our picture gallery which shows replicas of the gliders and RBL members on their trip.

Bats in the Belfry

We visited the Bats in Churches event at Pembridge church and interviewed Dr Alison Barnett, a bat ecologist.  She  explained why bats are an important part of our food chain, why they love to live in churches and what we can do to protect these endangered creatures. 

Pembridge Church is bat heaven, with 7 species of bat living in the church and churchyard.  Each is identified by its distinct call and flight pattern. These days ecologists use high tech drones and apps to track their movements. Drones will be over the church in the early hours of 9th June using thermal imaging to detect the roosts. https://www.portraitofpembridge.co.uk/new-page

Pembridge Railway Quiz for under 12s

Our social history section outlines  the history of Pembridge station and the railway running between Leominster and Kington.  We’ve devised a quiz about the railway for under 12s. Entries must be submitted by midnight on 15th July. A prize will be awarded for the correct answers and if more than one is received  the winner will be drawn from a hat.  https://www.portraitofpembridge.co.uk/children-and-young-people

History of Pembridge School

We’re adding the material displayed at our May exhibition on Pembridge school to the website. The children of the late Victorian period had a much shorter education than today. The curriculum was quite restricted and the condition of the school buildings unimaginable to today’s pupils. https://www.portraitofpembridge.co.uk/social-history

If you have memories about your time at Pembridge school, or photos, please send them to us at portratiofpembridge@yahoo.co.uk or call 07711 406306.  We aim to complete the history of the school from 1966 to the present. 

Pembridge People

We’ve interviewed Pembridge resident, Dr Shirley Evans. Shirley  had a busy month in May. She was invited to a Buckingham Palace Garden Party and has been filming a documentary in the Netherlands. We caught up with her  to talk about her work as Director of the Association for Dementia Studies, at the University of Worcester, and the charity Dementia Matters.

Picture Gallery

The Coronation Tea on the church lawn was a great success, with cake and sunshine aplenty. Do send us your photos of this for our picture gallery. If you have photos of the Nature Walk and BatWatch we’d like to share those too.  Please send your photos to portraitofpembridge@yahoo.co.uk.

Welcome to the Portrait of Pembridge Online Blog

Welcome to the Portrait of Pembridge blog. Following the success of our exhibition on Pembridge station and school we are now launching online. We’ll aim to post once a week and to cover a wide range of news, events, information and features about Pembridge parish and its people. That includes the hamlets of Bearwood, Broxwood, Weston, Marston and the part of Staunton in Pembridge.

Events

Our website is designed to be a one stop shop for all things Pembridge.  Everything from Auctions to Zumba is on the agenda. Whether you are interested in knowing what Films will be shown at the New Inn,  when the next Darts match will be at the Red Lion, Folk Music night at the King’s House, or what’s going on at the Church, www.portraitofpembridge.co.uk  will be the first place to look. 

If you are running an event in Pembridge, please let us know what you have coming up and we’ll add it to our events calendar.  Click here to find our events form.

Photo Gallery

They say a picture paints a thousand words. Look at our picture gallery to see what’s been happening in Pembridge.  If you’ve attended a village  event, do send us your photos. We aim to build up a library of village life, to show future generations what life in Pembridge was like in the 2020s.   We’d love to see your pictures of  the Coronation Tea on the church lawn, please send them to www.portraitofpembridge@yahoo.com or text to 07711 406306.

Pembridge school kindly lent us some of their photos, from  the 1920s to the present day. We’ll be featuring them on our Facebook page and website and asking you to identify the people in them. We hope to help the school create a pictorial  record of all the pupils educated there.

People

There are many interesting people in Pembridge today and there certainly have been in the past. Our People column tells their stories. Do share your memories and news. 

 Did you know that Pembridge has produced not one, but two leading  jockeys, a world champion ploughman, two published authors, two bishops who both met untimely deaths, more artists than you can shake a stick at, and a Paralympian. A centenarian former WAAF and a 90-year-old former WREN still piloting her aircraft feature in our People section. 

 We are  telling the stories of the men whose names appear on our war memorial. They were just ordinary Pembridge folk, who showed enormous courage, and paid the ultimate price for their bravery. This week we feature brothers Charles and Joseph Dykes.

Farming

We live in a rural community and farming remains a key employer. We know that many of you, who are not farmers, would  like to know more about what goes into producing your food. We’ve persuaded a panel of local farmers to write a regular column and to answer some of your questions.

Social History

The medieval history of Pembridge has been well documented. The  medieval history group have done a great job, www.mediaeval-pembridge.com The story has been retold in the Pembridge tapestries.  Others, such as Duncan James and Peter Klein, have researched the story of our many medieval buildings. In 1966 the Women’s Institute produced a history of Pembridge. It’s their source material which inspired our recent exhibition. 

Portrait of Pembridge aims to build on the work that has gone before, to create a social history of the parish.   We aim to stir memories of yesterday, record the present day, for the villagers of the future.  

For this to be a success we need your help. The exhibition lit the spark of interest. Visitors shared their memories of travelling on the railway, and as pupils at Pembridge school. We will include their recollections  in our social history series.  The first of these is  on the Leominster to Kington railway  line which connected Pembridge with the rest of the world.