BURNHAM GARDENING CLUB (From Maldon and Burnham Standard)

BURNHAM GARDENING CLUB

12:33pm Friday 2nd May 2008 in Burnham

The April meeting took the form of a visit to Mayflower Nursery and Garden Centre, where members were given an informative guided tour by Ian Unwin, who then gave a demonstration on the planting of hanging baskets.

The next meeting, at 8pm in the URC Hall on Monday 12 May, will be for a plant sale. Please bring along your surplus plants, named, and priced if possible. The competitions will be for a small table arrangement and a pot plant.

Visitors will be welcome.

BURNHAM WI

At the April meeting President Christine MacLean gave a warm welcome to two new members and our special guest Carole Noble, Mayor of Burnham-on-Crouch, who came along to hear our speaker Reverend Keith Lovell give us a very entertaining and knowledgeable talk about the history of Essex town and village signs. He spoke about the makeup of some of our neighbouring signs, with each one depicting symbols relevant to the locality, and said Burnham had an abundance of history and notabilia available to design an appropriate town sign.

A table laden with colourful and beautifully made nightdresses and jackets for premature babies provided a splendid display for the hall. They will all eventually be sent to the Medical Missionary Charity and one nightdress and a jacket made by Christine MacLean and Mary Hyde respectively were chosen for the Spring Group competition on April 30.

A letter has been received from a female Sergeant based in Afghanistan thanking us for one of the parcels we sent out at Easter.

A table-top sale will be held on Saturday May 10 at the Carnival Hall, from 10am to 12.30pm, there will be a raffle, refreshments and a cake stall.

The next meeting will be on Thursday, May 15 at the King's Hall, off Chapel Road, from 2.30pm, when pupils from Burnham- on-Crouch Primary School will entertain us with a display of country dancing. Contact Christine MacLean on Maldon 786405

TRY BOWLS

Burnham Hillside Bowls Club is inviting beginners to come along to their bowls club coaching evenings, which will be held every Tuesday evening in May, commencing May 6 at 6.15pm.

This is an ideal way to learn how bowls is played and to discover if you would like to join the bowls club. We have a comfortable club house and a licensed bar.

All equipment will be provided and there is no charge for the coaching. You just need a pair of flat shoes, please telephone Val on 782834 for more details.

BURNHAM TWINNING ASSN

The Burnham-on-Crouch and L'Aiguillon-sur-Mer Twinning Association will be holding its Annul General meeting on Wednesday, May 7, from 8pm in Burnham Council Offices, Chapel Road.

BRIDGE

The result of the duplicate bridge session held on Thursday 24th April at the Crouch Yacht Club was as follows: a win for the partnership of Len Wright and Helen Rouse with 59% and in second place were Janet Francis and Thelma Duce with 56%.

UNITED REFORMED CHURCH

Shirley Martin welcomed John Randall, chairman of the Burnham Carnival Committee, to the Women's Guild last Wednesday.

In this century year John brought back many happy memories to his audience of yesteryear carnivals.

By means of overhead projection he showed pictures of previous carnivals and carnival queens dating back to the 50s and 60s, and asked the ladies' help in identifying certain individuals.

He gave an insight into the amount of planning and work involved in making this popular charity event such a successful and far-reaching attraction.

John's talk was equally as interesting to members who were incomers to Burnham, and gave them a glance back to the past to show them what life was like in this village in the good old days.

Shirley thanked John for his interesting and descriptive talk in this hundredth year of, to quote John, the best carnival in Essex.

The Rev Allen Morton joined the ladies at the end of John's talk and bade them farewell before going on to new pastures at Bishop Stortford during May.

He was wished well in his new ministry.

MARGARET DUFFUS