Have you ever wondered if anyone checks how residential homes are run? How often have you thought there was room for improvement?
There are residential homes for elderly people, for children and for people with learning disabilities. They must all meet the legal requirements for care, health and safety and it is professionals who are qualified to check this.
But there is a place for ordinary people with eyes, ears (and noses) plus plenty of commonsense and a caring attitude to look at the welfare of the residents. This is the job of the Lay Assessor, a member of the public with a little training to know what to look for.
WHAT DO THEY DO?
After two days’ training they can accompany a professional from the Local Authority to one of the homes. They use eyes, ears and noses, and are free to talk to the staff, the residents and any visitors to seek their views on the quality of daily life there. This includes such obvious physical items as food, clothes, cleanliness, warmth and help. But it also means thinking about their personal dignity and privacy, recreational interests and outings, and spiritual needs. It is important, too, that they have a say in decisions about their lives and know how to complain if things go wrong.
I have recently completed my first inspection, an unannounced one, and found it both interesting and satisfying. I am asked to do an inspection about once a month. And no! - there is no reward for this voluntary job besides necessary expenses, except the knowledge that, if I were to be a resident, I should like to have someone caring about my welfare. How about you?
If you are interested in finding out more about this occasional job in Newcastle, please contact Jan Collis, Head of Inspection (0191 277 2566) who will send you an information pack.
Margaret Selman
The family would like to say ‘THANK YOU’ to the people of Heddon, friends and relatives who came to St. Andrew’s Church on 5th June. The support of so many people was very much appreciated.
The retiring collection amounted to £75.04 and this will be divided between Tynedale Community Hospice, Hexham, and the British Diabetic Association.
Olwen, John and Gareth Davison
Congratulations - over the last two months we have been having our Annual Club Competitions.
The Masonic Shield for the Singles Champion was won by Betty Campbell.
The Pairs played for the Les Reynolds Memorial Club (Les was our Club Captain for many years) and the winners were Margaret and Les Young.
The match with Wylam last month was a home game and Heddon were the winners. The Carpet Bowls Club now meets in the Knott Hall and every Thursday evening at 7.pm.
Come along and give it a try!
Audrey Browning.
It is becoming increasingly evident that the financial future of the church, especially local parish, is very insecure due to the reducing number of worshipers.
In an effort to allow our parish priests and the church total commitment to their duties a small Team began to research the problem of ensuring the continued maintenance of both the fabric and the Christian Heritage of our churches. It was also our desire to show the people of the Parish that these beautiful buildings - their buildings - were not only open for a few hours on a Sunday but available and useful to everyone on a daily basis. (If the blue sign is at the entrance the church is open)
For two years now, St. Andrew’s has been attracting hundreds of visitors from all parts of the world. An American visitor pointed out "the twenty minutes in your living, working church has been the highlight of my visit to England and you have a duty to continue to make this opportunity available to everyone".
We began to establish Ad Murum Historic Churches, to be run as either a Trust or a Company. Many visitors have called because Heddon on the Wall is in the unique position of being situated at the Twelfth Milecastle of the Roman Wall and at the beginning of the Military Road. As a result of direct contact with our many visitors during these past months, who were encouraged to visit the church by the management and staff of the Swan Inn, we have now established E-mail contact throughout the U.S.A., Canada, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand and, more recently, Norway and Denmark.
We hope to invite many of them to return and encourage their families, their fellow church associates and people from their areas to holiday in Northumbria.
Early this year we began to investigate the development of a world-wide e-mail connection for children, to be run through their schools and churches with obvious educational benefits but first and foremost to create a relationship of "Peace and Friendship" with children around the world, no matter what their religion or colour. This has now become the mission of the Team and we are delighted at receiving world-wide encouragement already resulting in connections being established with the children of Singapore, several individual contacts from Kentucky and a charity team involved with the children of Guatamala.
We will open every feasible avenue of interest which includes the evangelism of the present church and also heritage, architecture and documented history. The Team will produce and design literature, organise walks which would include at least one church and arrange special services of worship for visitors.
An essential part of this promotion will be to invite schools for educational visits. Our ultimate aim would be to develop a "Church Heritage Centre". We intend the Centre to offer information on all our churches, church records, family and parish histories. We will have items more suited to children, e.g., cartoon type programmes depicting historic and religious events. It is hoped we can produce these ourselves.
Ideal premises for our Heritage Centre would be the Heddon Library, thus also having the advantage of ensuring the future of the Library.
Discussions with Northumberland County Council and Morpeth District Council indicate this to be a feasible project. St. Andrew’s would benefit by a path directly from the Library to the Church giving level wheelchair access and the problem of toilet facilities could also be overcome.
The Team would encourage employment of young people from the parish in its running and obviously create employment and income by developing tourism throughout Northumbria.
This has been the successful work of the Team, to date, and a brief outline of their hopes and plans for the future. More research will be carried out over the coming months and your support is needed. Help to put Heddon on the ‘tourist map’ and help in the evangelism of the church. As tourists who visit St. Andrew’s only have a very short time but want to learn as much of the history and friendship of our ancient historical church as possible the Team would like to hear from anyone in the village who has time to spare and is willing to learn the history of St. Andrew’s in order to talk to them and answer their questions. If you would like to be involved please contact Eddie Tingate, Tel No. 0191 2678502, or Freda Phillipson, Tel. No. 01661 85
Email from Mike Armstrong, First Baptist Church of Winter Park, Florida
This past Sunday a dear couple in our church shared with me their experience in you church while they were travelling abroad. They were so impressed I could sense their enthusiasm as they told me all about their visit.
I am writing to say 2thank you2 for ministering to our loved ones. We would welcome the privilege of reciprocating should anyone find their way to Winter Park, Florida, USA.
Email from USA
I am a member of the American group that you were so kind to open the doors of St. Andrew’s on 27th May, 2000. I am writing on behalf of Rev. Hyacinth J. Mordey who is not yet familiar with email. Would you send details of the As Murum Historic Churches project. Thank you.
A number of children in Heddon have been matched with email friends in Louisville, Kentucky, and Columbia, South Carolina.
As this is the last News I will be giving I would like to thank everyone for the support given to me during my time as Chairperson of the PTA at Heddon 1st School. I wish whoever takes over GOOD LUCK and I hope they get continued support. Thank you.
The TALENT SHOW was a huge success and enjoyed by everyone involved. It raised £265 for the school.
The C to C Bike Ride was undertaken by 14 fathers and 2 children. Everyone finished and had a great weekend. WELL DONE to all and many thanks to the sponsors. The total is not yet avilable but it is expected to be in excess of £2,000.
The children in Year 4 had a day at Whickham Thornes as a treat from the PTA. It was an outdoor activity day and was enjoyed by all. I wish Year 4 the best of luck in their new school and in the future. Good Luck also to those who are leaving for ‘pastures new’.
The Walkers Tokens are coming to an end and we have collected in excess of 14,000. Many thanks to Gail Hindmarsh who has sorted and cut the majority of tokens.
8,000 ‘Maths for Schools’ vouchers and 4,000 Tesco vouchers have been collected and used for computer equipment.
We look forward to next term when we will hold the Family Fun Day on the school field on 23rd September. We have candy floss, motor bikes, face painting, assault cause, birds of prey, a grand raffle and much more.
Once again, THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT
Linda Paterson, PTA Chairperson
As usual, Heddon W.I. has been busy! At the June meeting Mrs. E. Bramwell from Horsley brought some very interesting things ‘out of her attic’. In July Mrs. E. Hetherington delighted and inspired us with her silk painting, mainly on scarges
The President attended the W.I. Triannual General Meeting at Wembley on 7th June. This was the ‘famous’ meeting at which Tony Blair spoke!!
On 22nd June the W.I. President’s Coffee Morning raised £123 for C.L.I.M.B. This is a Research Trust for Matabolic Diseases in Children.
The W.I. Wall-Hanging is now finished!! It shows all the activities which are associated with the W.I. Hall. It was displayed along with other Millennium tapestries in Hexham Abbey at the beginning of July.
The W.I. Craft Group, which co-ordinated its making should feel very proud of their finished work.
We held our first Strawberry Lunch on 8th July - open sandwiches, strawberries and cream and homemade biscuits were on the menu. The event proved to be very popular.
Our 4th of September meeting takes the form of a talk by Mrs. M. Lambert entitled "6 years in the WAAF".
Please watch the village notice boards for forthcoming Saturday lunches.
Aileen Rand, President
Charity Concert Raises £500 for St. Oswald’s Hospice Jigsaw Appeal
On behalf of the Ad Murum Singers may I offer a sincere THANK YOU to all who supported our Annual Charity Concert on 10th June in the Knott Hall.
To all those friends who sold tickets, supplied raffle prizes, sold raffle tickets, provided and served refreshments or helped in any way to make the event such a resounding success. THANK YOU.
Special thanks to our guest artiste LEXI DALZIEL for her polished performance. To Audrey Harrison, our accompanist and Dr. J. Douglas Hunter our Musical Director
The proceeds of the evening amounted to £479 to which the choir were happy to add £21 to make the grant total of £500.
Stan Hall
TO ALL AD MURUM MEMBERS
The new term starts Tuesday, 19th September at 7.30pm in the Methodist Church Hall.
HEDDON SHOW .... 2 September.
By now you should have received a copy of the Show Schedule. If you have been missed schedules are available from Heddon Post Office or Heddon Library.
I trust that all your entries for the Show are well under way and that you are paying special attention to the items for the Flower & Vegetable Section despite the changeable weather!
The winners of the Best Garden Competition and the Best Business Competition will be announced at the Show.
Heddon Show is a family day, please try to enter at least one class ... the more entries the keener the competition.
If you want to see what the old meadows of England used to look like before intensive farming left no room for them just take the short walk to the butterfly haven and see the fantastic display of wild flowers which now cover much of the site. In my humble opinion it is the loveliest corner of the village at the moment and a tribute to all the people who have given so much of their time and effort over the last few months. The lovely thing about this display of colour is that this is only the first year and we can look forward to it getting better and better with each succeeding year as the flowers set seeds themselves. Oh yea of little faith who thought it was all such a waste of money!!
Incidentally if you are not sure where the butterfly haven is there are several ways to find it. If you take the path along the northern edge of the Common by going through the gate at the top corner of the Welfare Field and turn downhill where the last of the houses are on your left, the haven is about 100 yards ( I still deal in old money ) on your right, but if you want a more civilised route go up Trajan Walk from Heddon Banks and then up Aquila Drive and just beyond the corner at the top you will see a narrow cut which leads straight onto the haven.
The great news is that we have just secured a further grant to continue the work, with money from the Northumberland Environmental Partnership landfill tax which will alow us to complete the work on the haven site and also to start other work elsewher on the Common. The members of the Butterfly team will be getting a newsletter shortly giving more details and dates for the next round of works but in the meantime can you make a note for August 11 in your diaries which will be particularly aimed at the youngsters with a mini-beast hunt and more banner making.
Go on give yourselves a treat and see what the glory of a wildflower meadow can do for you.
Ian ArmstrongI
The Brownies have had some fun meetings over the past few weeks.Believe it or not there has been at least one sunny Wednesday evening. We took the girls to the park where they collected leaves and then made nature collages. We were invited to a local farm where a Brownie mum showed the girls how to take care of a pony. A very patient pony accepted 21 pieces of apple and numerous pats! Snowy Owl persuaded some friends to show the girls the basics of salsa dancing - we all had fun trying out the steps. We have made Pokemon's from balloons and had an American Theme evening, we have also had a party in honour of our last meeting of the summer. We meet again the first week in September with any luck we will be basking in the heat of an Indian summer and the Brownies wil have their wish of some more trips to the park.
Saturday 19 August JAZZ AT THE HALL
Brian Carrick and his Heritage Hall Stompers
7.30pm start. Tickets £5 at the door or from Liz at the shop
Saturday 9 September
Heddon Local History Society is pleased to welcome back John Grundy who is giving an illustrated talk THE PARISH OF HEDDON - AN ARCHITECTURAL VIEW
7pm start. Tickets £2 (£1 for Local History Society members) available at the door.
Saturday 16 September
A SPANISH EVENING WITH ‘CAMARA FLAMENCO’ GUITARS AND DANCE FROM MADRID.
The audience will be invited to sample tapas and Spanish wines.
Raul Calderons will follow the performance with a flamenco workshop - details to follow.
Heddon Website (www.heddon.co.uk) is now one year old. It is constantly growing, has had over 5000 visitors, and currently consisting of over 500 computer files held on the Internet.
It contains:
A Web Site is different from any other form of publication:
How can you help to develop this resource:
Help is needed in the providing of suitable materials:
Pat Farnaby (852355)
At last Heddon is to have a jazz night. For those of you who are not conversant with the Heritage Hall Stompers, there name is not associated with Hadrian’s Wall! Some time ago the leader visited the mecca of jazz - NEW ORLEANS - he went into Heritage Hall which is one of the oldest Jazz Clubs situated on Bourbon Street in Downtown New Orleans.
In this Club Brian Carrick, the leader of the Stompers, played with the resident band. Brian asked the leader of the resident band if he could use Heritage Hall as the name of his band back in England .... and so the Heritage Hall Stompers came into being.
Brian Carrick leads his sextet on clarinet. The band do not play traditional or ‘trad’ jazz but purist New Orleans- style jazz which is always lovely to hear.
If you are not a jazz fan and/or know nothing about this type of music then this night with the Heritage Hall stompers will be one not to be missed. The band consists of clarinet, trumpet, trombone, string bass (also known as Bull fiddle), banjo and drum.
A 50 plus years jazz fan.
World’s Biggest Coffee Morning
10th Birthday Celebration
29th September, 2000
Please make a diary note of the date. A Coffee Morning is being organised in the Knott Hall, Heddon, from 10am to 12noon on 29th September. If you would like to help in any way - serving drinks, baking, donating a raffle prize, etc., contact Karen Quinn on 853359 or Ann Lockey on 852832.
Let’s make every effort to have a successful event and make a substantial contribution to the very worthwhile and much needed service offered by Macmillan Cancer Relief.
What a busy time it has been! During the Winter months the thoughts of preparing for Britain in Bloom seemed so far off, but as ever in life, future events have a consistent habit of coming round more quickly than you thought.
In the Spring the replanted displays made possible by the Swan and Three Tuns Leek Clubs brought an early, long lasting and eye catching beautiful aspect to the whole village. There were so many pleasing comments about the added colour and attraction they brought. Two display boxes were replaced with brand new boxes, home-made in the village. More new hand-made boxes later completed the spread of colour around the shopping area and Towne Gate, greatly enhanced by the shows of floral colour provided by the Post Office, Liz’s and Abacus Nursery. The Swan, Three Tuns and Home from Home Kennels also provided marvellous displays. A large display trough to the rear of the Knott Hall has been brought into full view.
All other displays have been planted and cared for by Heddon in Bloom volunteers. A particularly pleasing partnership with the Parish Council enabled a range of shrubs and Summer bedding to be planted in the Memorial Park.
The most significant developments this year are particularly pleasing following the concern last year about the level of support for Heddon in Bloom and its garden and business competitions. No less than ten new volunteers have become actively involved which has helped to share the workload.
Another group almost became a victim of their own success! The number of entrants in the garden competition more than doubled to almost 40. The judge certainly had her work cut out this year! Winners will be announced at Heddon Village Show on 2nd September.
To compliment all this activity, Mrs. Johnston and her staff at Heddon First School helped the children produce some beautiful pictures of a very high standard which were judged by Mrs. Laws and are on display in Heddon Library. Prizes were awarded at the Heddon Show Strawberry Tea on 15th July.
Year 1 .. 1st - Jack Denham: 2nd - Rachel Ryan
Year 2 - 1st -Cara Large: 2nd - Bobby Walker
Year 3 - 1st - Elizabeth Greengrass: 2nd - Oliver Wood
Well done to them and all the children who took part.
So, yes, it certainly has been a busy year for Heddon in Bloom. A very big vote of thanks is offered to all who helped in any and every way. If you would like to join in please do - new faces are always welcome. Please contact the Co-ordinator, David Chambers on 852740; Tom & Terry Glenton, Joint Secretaries, on 854650; Gordon Stewart, Treasurer, on 853803, or any other member.
Heddon First School sponsored coast-to-coast cycle ride 2000 took place on 30th June - 2nd July. Fifteen riders plus Andy Avery (our driver) travelled across to Whitehaven on the Thursday evening and set off on our three day 140+ mile cycle ride to raise money for IT equipment in our school.
Amongst the riders was Louis Laing, a seven year old boy in Year 2 at Heddon (plus his dad) and Natalie Collard (aged 11) with her father too. All of the other riders (apart from Chris from Corbridge) were fathers of children at the school.
Our adventure started with an overnight stay in Whitehaven then a two mile ride into the town to "dip our wheels" in the sea before setting off. The weather was glorious and we all made the best of a brilliant day cycling in three groups through Whinlatter Forest, Keswick then eastward eventually passing under the M6 arriving in Penrith where we spent a second comfortable night in yet another friendly B&B.
Saturday was perhaps even hotter and we all covered ourselves in liberal amounts of suncream (and vaseline!) and sped off to tackle Hartside. The climb was tough but we replenished ourselves at the café with mugfulls of tea and chip butties. The day was not over however and despite a long descent (top speed recorded of 49 mph !!!), more climbs followed (e.g. Carrigill - Nenthead) before we at last arrived in Allendale where were most were to stay at the legendary Allendale Inn.
The night was disrupted somewhat as Andy, in attempting to do the right thing and allow another vehicle to pass, had got the van stuck in a field west of Nenthead. After a number of refreshments, the team sent help (thanks to Chris, his whole family and his Dads camper van) and relieved Andy from his isolation. A little later, Bell Trucks once again provided some welcome support (Many Thanks) and brought a tow truck out from Newcastle to rescue the support vehicle (and the unfortunate relief driver who had had nothing to eat except four bananas in nearly five hours and didn't realise their were two cans of beer under the drivers seat !).
Once the party had re-grouped - Sunday saw heavy rain greet us as we began our final days ride out of Allenheads across and down the Waskerley Way into Sunderland.
The mud and rain added to the challenge and more than a few riders took some spectacular tumbles across the tops. However, thanks to Simon, the support van had ample medical provision to cope with a couple of nasty grazes. In the afternoon, the weather turned pleasant once again for the final few miles - and strangely enough, it was the last 10 miles where most of the mechanical problems began (punctures, missing spokes, buckled wheels, etc). However, thanks to the availability of spares, willing fellow riders and a spare bike, riders all managed to cycle their way to the finish at Sunderland Marina.
The first riders finished at 2pm'ish, other family members and friends arrived and everyone waited until the last of the "Heddon Team" finished just after 5pm
I would personally like to record my thanks to all those who took part (especially those who purchased bikes especially to participate), also, many thanks to everyone who supported the event with their generous sponsorship of the riders. We are hoping that the final total raised may exceed £2,000.
Thanks to generous support from Bell Trucks (the support vehicle and the rescue !), Piranha Printing (Newcastle) Ltd. For the Heddon C2C 2000 T-shirts which we all wore with pride and Ponteland Cycles (spares etc).
Who knows - maybe next years ride may be even bigger and more successful ?
John Ryan (01661 853230)