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June 2008
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June 2011
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September 2019
Ruishton Parish Council are keen for us to see information on the Local Plan. The following links are on the parish web site:
- The map (Page 34 of Appendix 2 mentioned below), on which you can see quite a few
areas marked for development of one sort or another (short cut -
click on it on the right).
- Link to Appendix 2. This is a hefty file but you can click here for Pages 3 to 6 only, which show some more details of individual sites in Ruishton and Stoke St Mary Parishes, highlighted in green.
- SWTI&O-
025 to SWTI&O- Henlade on page 3029 - SWTI&O-
049 to SWTI&O- Ruishton on page 4052 - SWTI&O-
057 and SWTI&O- Taunton” on page 5059 under “ - SWTI&O-
076 under “ Taunton” on page 6 - SWT Local Plan Review
The consultation has not yet begun but no doubt the PC will tell us when it starts.
Stoke St Mary Parish
There is also an alarmingly large swathe of land SWTI&O-
We weren’t expecting bowls to be easy, and so it proved, with woods veering off left right and -
The ladies showed their new found talents by beating the chaps fairly and squarely (or rather, roundly), and later we enjoyed a lovely spread of food -
For pictures from the events click here.
08 June 2012
Picnic & BBQ 2012
At such short notice we weren’t able to get Paul’s band, and fewer people were able to come, but we still had a great time in warm sunshine. The rain persisted down all the next day so we were glad we seized the moment!
And despite night closing in earlier (earlier than June, that is), we still didn’t finish until 10.30 pm, thanks to Steve’s brilliant home-
Left: 3 grandchildren who enjoyed the BBQ! Click on the picture for more photos
including some new ones added November 2012
Pub Games Evening 2013
Pub Games Night 2011
This was our third Pub Games evening and a good time was had by all.
No Shove Ha’penny this time but Roger’s Bagatelle board (found to have fresh woodworm, so it was fortunate we unearthed it) proved popular. It was good to see some folks who hadn’t been before, too.
Congratulations to overall winners Stepley Stud (Steve and Shirley), who were also Dominoes champs and scored a whopping 1210 at Bagatelle! They also took joint second place with the Sopranos (Jacqueline and Skye) at Skittles. Tops at Skittles and in overall joint third place were Doctor Evil and Mini Me (Steve and Solomon).
In overall joint second place were newcomers New Beginning (Alec and Amelia) and Wind and the Willows (Charlotte and Vicky) so hopefully they will want to return next year!
Joint third overall were Smarticle Particles (Arran and Josh) and Dr Evil and Mini Me (well done you Lodgers!).
Honourable mentions go to runners-
Whist champs were Smarticle Particles and Stroggy (Paul and Tracy) and the Smarticles also just pipped Wind and the Willows at the post to win the Quiz by getting an extra point for noticing my rather basic mistake of missing the “I” out of “QUIZ”. Arran has obviously learnt that cheeky requests often pay off! Clearly my attempts to make the quiz more accessible to the lower age groups was far too successful .....
Someone else could have got another bonus by pointing out that there were two question
5’s in the quiz but nobody noticed except the question-
Many thanks to all who took part and to those who lent equipment, and to Tom and all at the Nags for providing such a tasty and plentiful feast!
We had a very good turnout and started off under the expected overcast sky, but when we got to the top of Stoke Hill the sun came out to play and stayed for the rest of the day. It was GORGEOUS!
We enjoyed the view from Stoke Hill and another panorama from Henlade Wood, then down to the pond and up the other side for yet more magnificent vistas. Making our
A number of our party then made their way home the flat way, while a few enthusiasts took the long way round to Thornfalcon interchange, down the A378 for a short way (not
Next feature of note was the pretty Thornfalcon Church, then we made our way down quiet roads until we crossed the A358 and came home over the fields.
We had beautiful weather, almost no mud, great company and only one field of farm animals. The dogs certainly enjoyed themselves and so did we!
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Presidents (John and Angela) for Skittles
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Westies (Mike and Gloria) for Dominoes and Bagatelle
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Stroggy (Paul and Tracy) and Ron and Gillie for the Quiz
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Updated 01 July 2011
It was a little less peaceful when we were there, but our own Paul and his mates made a very good noise!
They did two great live sets (AND an encore AND a reprise!) of music from Beatles to Dandy Warhols to heavy metal and had us all rockin’ in our wellies!
They practised beforehand and it showed. They really impressed us all and it brought a whole new dimension to our annual event.
We’ll have to ask them back next year, but meanwhile they tell me they are available for gigs at very reasonable rates .....
Contact Paul Stroner on 01823 444174 or p.stroner@btinternet.com.
THANKS go to Derek Rainey for the use of his field and his electricity; to Paul and his pals for the music; to Jacqueline for the face painting and for adding a new dimension to the Bingo(!); to Skye for her song; to Summerfield for the loan of the gazebo; to Sam and Simon for the auction prize; to Wendy, Mike and Gloria for their donations; To Sarah for donating her Bingo winnings; to Mike for his usual mastery of the BBQ; to all who helped putting up and taking down -
Roll on next year!
Click here or on either of the photos for more pics. We’d love to see yours -
Jacqueline made dainty cucumber sandwiches and Arran and Skye excelled with their tea cake and stollen. Oh, and the mince pies were jolly good, too!
With constant refills of pretty tea cups we were well looked after by the whole family, and at a bargain price of only £1.50 per person.
Many thanks, Jacqueline, Steve, Arran, Skye and Solomon for hosting our annual event this year
05 December 2011
Christmas Tea and Cakes
It’s here! And it’s already full!
Our thanks go to Steve Cozens for all his hard work putting it up, and to our Somerset County Councillor David Fothergill for the grant of £350 from his community fund and to Ruishton Parish Council who agreed to meet all the other costs. The Parish Council have adopted the notice board (so we don’t have the bother or expense of insuring it).
News/events -
Picnic and Barbecue 2010
Picnic and Barbecue 2010
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Paul V-
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Steve Cozens for mowing it;
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The putter-
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Tim, Sharon, Will, Abbie and Harriet for lending and putting up the second marquee – what a team!
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Mike for being barbie meister again;
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Solomon and Ed for selling the raffle tickets;
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Raffle prize donations from Jan and Derrick, Wendy, Jean, Café Nero, Costa, Esporta and the Mount Somerset (brilliant first prize!). There were a couple of others that appeared when I wasn’t looking – thank you, anonymous donors.
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Jacqueline for persuading the local businesses to donate prizes and for the face painting;
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Paul S for the live music (even though it encouraged the terrible singing!)
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Everyone who came, for bringing lovely food, drink, games and themselves and for truly entering into the spirit of the event!
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Picnic & Barbecue 2009
We had such a great time last year we just had to do it again! And weren’t we blessed with the weather! (Exactly the same as in 2008: strong sun and strong wind.)
We didn’t quite deliver all we promised -
It was great to see new faces, too.
There were some super prizes in the raffle, the table top sale was a complete flop
and Paul was great on the guitar. However, to anyone who heard the singing -
THANKS go to Jacqueline for the ideas, the shopping, the loan of the cups and her
powers of persuasion in getting Taunton businesses to donate some cracking prizes!
to Mike for doing a grand job with the hot coals; to Paul V-
Above all, thanks to all who came along and participated -
Click here for some more photos.
Walk In and Around Thurlbear Woods
Sunday 08 November 2009
Starting and finishing at the Farmers Inn, West Hatch, we took a route weaving within the lovely Thurlbear Woods and the open fields around it, taking in Thurbear church and school and with some splendid views across to Stoke Hill.
All came well prepared -
Two well-
At the end we all found a cosy spot round the fire at the Farmers in which to quench our thirst.
“The walk was great fun and good to find new beautiful routes around these lovely woods that we are so lucky to have on our doorstep. Lively company and a well earned drink at the end of it!"
Sunday 20 December ‘09
Fewer people attended than last year but we had some new faces and some truly delicious cakes!
It was a great way to start off Christmas week.
Xmas Tea -
Pub Games Night at the Nags Head
All games were optional this time and there
Ace (John & Lisa) were runaway winners with 6 points.
Joint second with 4 points each were the Fothergills (David and Liz), the Naggers (Rupert and Roger) and the Platt Pair (Derrick & Jan).
Ace also scored highest in Skittles and Whist, so their win wasn’t just a fluke! Naggers were Quiz winners and, with the Platt Pair, came top at Shove Ha’penny. Naggers were also Domino champs.
Honourable mentions for second places go to Gaga (Jacqueline and Skye) in Skittles, Bombardiers (Mike and Gloria) in Whist, the Fothergills in Dominoes and the Quiz and Bombardiers and Stroggies (Paul and Tracy) in Shove Ha’penny
Since some people had to leave before the bitter end, we have agreed to stage “prize giving” at the BBQ, so that’s a good excuse not to miss it! (Saturday 19th June -
Pub Games Night 2010
Walk to Ruishton
What a scorcher! Lovely warm sunshine, no mud, good company and a welcome stop at the Ruishton Inn in the middle!
© 2021 Lower Henlade and Stoke Road Residents’ Association
We had such a great time at our first ever Picnic and Barbecue. The weather was kinder to us than we had any right to expect but even so, it was great to have a sturdy marquee to get out of the wind and retreat to in the evening.
People brought families, friends, picnic furniture and food! It was generally agreed
there had NEVER been anything like this here before and that it was a good idea!
Everyone was happy to meet their neighbours in a relaxed atmosphere and there was
plenty of room for the children to run about -
The face painting, as you can see from the photos, was not limited to the children! We had wellie wanging for children and adults and a prize draw.
THE PHOTOS: Click here for 20 photos if you’re in a hurry and here for the other 60 photos if you have the time....
THANKS go to Jacqueline for the ideas, shopping and face painting, Mike for being
barbecue supremo, Paul V-
Here are some comments from the participants:
We thought the barbecue was such a friendly do even if we were late getting there!! Lovely to talk to neighbours and get to know some of them. Well done Roger and Gill for putting on a worthwhile event. Steve and Shirley of Stepley
Judy and I thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and were very impressed with the way that the organisers/helpers had worked so hard to make it such a good afternoon. We would like to have been able to stay longer to get to know more of our neighbours – Judy and Rupert, The Nook
Thankyou for a really enjoyable day. We met so many lovely new neighbours we didn't even know we had. Can we do it again next year? From Tim and Julia at Potman's.
We all had a brilliant time. The children were overjoyed to discover other small people in the neighbourhood as they thought they were the only ones. Everyone was so relaxed and it gave us a real sense of community spirit, you know going to live in the country, participating in wellie throwing and sharing some of the local brew (well we did get the wine from our local Sainsbury's). We would like to thank you Gill for initiating the Residents Association (I know you are not looking for personal praise) but if you hadn't taken the initiative then we still would be in the dark about all the lovely people we have on our own doorsteps. Thank you and well done.
On the subject of the Bar-
Picnic and Barbecue 2008
Saturday 15 March 2008
turned out to be a real rubbish day for picking up rubbish! It hardly stopped raining! And the week after wasn’t too great, either.
There seems to be less litter where people actually live but it collects in the long gaps between houses. Then there was a whole bagful spread up Haydon Lane ...... (just the same again now, in October!)
Sunday 26 October 2008
The day of our first ever group walk dawned ominously grey and wet, but it had stopped
raining at noon when a hardy group of 9 humans kitted out in wellies and waterproofs,
along with 3 friendly canines, set out via road and fields for Stoke St Mary. We
enjoyed amiable company and arrived reasonably un-
After suitable refreshment the rest of us returned over the top of Stoke Hill and
down the footpath -
Walk to Stoke St Mary and Drinks at Half Moon Pub
Sunday 14 December 2008
More than 40 of us met for Christmas tea and mince pies at The Mount Somerset. All enjoyed meeting their neighbours and agreed it was a lovely way to get the
Season
going!
Pub Games Night 2009
mix with all
the other
teams so it
was a really
sociable occasion.
The games were completely new to some, nearly forgotten by others, but each team was given guidance notes on playing and scoring.
prize money to
charity, and a big
thank you to the
rest of the prize
winners, who will have to make do with their limited edition (though possibly not sought after) winners’ badges!
Everyone!
The day started off unpromisingly with a couple of heavy showers but things rapidly started to improve.....
Our new marquee went up for the first time and we were incredibly pleased with it.
It was bigger and easier to put up than the one we used to hire and the ground bars
gave it extra stability. We certainly needed a bit of stability in the near-
The tables groaned with food and Mike did his usual great job as barbie-
Jacqueline’s face painting proved popular as ever and she kept us entertained when she agreed to be bingo mistress once again (unmissable!).
As always, though, we particularly enjoyed the good company and the ‘craic’. It is great to see neighbours in such a relaxed and unhurried atmosphere and some of us were still there, gathered around Steve’s chiminea, late into the evening (even without the marquee, which we took down before dark because the weathermen correctly predicted rain all the next day).
Many thanks to the merry band of helpers before, after and during the event and to everyone who came along. Special thanks to Derek for letting us use his field.
Click on the picture above for the photo gallery of the event.
There weren’t many of us but we enjoyed an easy, quiet and pretty walk from Ham via the River Tone to The Rising Sun at Lower Knapp. The weather was fine and the sandwiches at the Rising Sun were uniquely huge! We made our way back over the hill where we enjoyed splendid views. Jessie (the dog) definitely approved!
Fewer people than usual attended his year, as some ‘regulars’ had other commitments, but we again enjoyed good weather and good music from Paul and pals.
It wasn’t until the morning of the BBQ that we discovered a mouse had been nibbling at the marquee! Fortunately, the holes were in places that didn’t matter too much.
The mouse that ate the marquee
Stepley (Steve and Shirley) took the Skittles
Casablanca (John and Lisa) scored highest in the Quiz
Bella Vista (Andy and Karen) impressed with a magnificent score of 1015 in Bagatelle and won the Darts in only 10 goes
But newcomers Frank and Tim walked off with the Dominoes, Shove Ha’penny and Picture Quiz.
Overall joint winners with three wins each were
Stepley and Frank and Tim
Well done to all the winners and thank you all for coming.
Thanks also to Frank for the donation of the Shove Ha’penny Board and to Steve and Shirley for giving us a dart board.
Final thanks to the Nags Head for providing a lovely hot and cold buffet
The longest day of the year, and what a perfect one it was!
Warm sunshine and only gentle breezes enticed lots of people to attend,
We enjoyed good food and good company accompanied by great music from Paul and friends.
Later on we had a such a laugh with the wellie-
As usual, there was some disgraceful cheating in the potato and spoon race, but quality showed in the end with Karen winning in a flurry of skirts.
Our thanks to the band, to Mike for manning the barbie, to Derek for letting us use the field, to the merry band of helpers who put up and took down the marquee and to all who came and made it such a memorable occasion.
Well done everyone, too, for being so good with your litter. For the first time ever, when I walked the field the next day I found NOT A SINGLE THING!
The Ruishton Inn was a new venue for us, as the Nags Head no longer has a skittle alley.
We had lots of people this year, and there was a lot of chatting and not all that much game playing!
Baby Wes (Pete and Jane) were skittle champs, Tea Plant (Rich and Tzena)were best at dominoes and the Bella Vistians (Andy and Karen) really got a handle on the bagatelle. Stroggies (Paul and Tracy) took the darts and Thingmebobs (Mike and Gloria) shoved their ha’pennies well.
The picture quiz must have been a bit too easy as four teams tied on 17 out of 20
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Not only that, but it was Richard’s birthday and we were treated to a firework display from his bespoke cake! And the cake was delicious!
First up was an audio quiz of birdsong, at which the Bright Sparks (Tim, Julia, Steve and Jacqueline) excelled with 8 out of 10 correct.
Lola’s Pack (Andy, Karen, Matt and Rachel abetted by the lovely Lola) scored a magnificent 19 out of 20 on the mixed up celebrity faces.
A break for a great buffet followed. The Chili con Carne and the cold meats came in for a lot of praise and we were presented with a variety of other tempting platters. All in all highly recommended -
Then followed the General Knowledge Quiz which proved somewhat testing, with the Dutch Swimmers (Paul, Tracy, Bill and Avril) tying with the Threesome (Len, Karen and Roger) on 11 out of 15.
Finally, a round specially for dog lovers raised everyone’s scores, with the Threesome and the Sherlocks (Frank, Sara, Dominic and Yasmin) both identifying 13 out of 15
Overall winners with 63½ out of 80 were the Dutch Swimmers, just pipping the Threesome to the post by 1 point.
But it was the Dutch Swimmers who made off with the spoils (We hope they’re enjoyoing their broken biscuits and melted chocolate).
Being later in the year than usual, this event was not so well attended.
It was great, however, to wish Shirley C a very happy BIG birthday, with all her friends an family there.
We had good food and good chat, not to mention a few bevvies, in warm sunshine once again. It was great to relax with neighbours and good to see some new faces there this year.
Paul, Alison and Martin entertained us with their brand of get-
Our thanks go to the band, to Mike for manning the barbie, to Derek and Judith for letting us use the field, to the merry band of helpers who put up and took down the marquee and to all who came.
Click here or on the picture for some more photos.
The videos below don’t do the band justice, but play them anyway to get a flavour of the music!
