Page 81 - BR December 2023

December 2023 December 2023

AFFPUDDLE ROTAS BRIANTSPUDDLE VILLAGE HALL

Wow so here we are at the last parish magazine of 2023, and as the village hall
starts to look to 2024 there’s still things to do this year. In November as well as the
regular weekly events taking place in the hall we’ve had an arts reach event and
an evenings entertainment with Nina Garcia. Both events were well supported
and it was good to see many people having a really enjoyable time out whilst
helping the finances of our village hall.
Looking forward to December our main event is the Christmas fair this week
Sunday 3 from 11am to 3pm with some new smallholders this year along with
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several of our regulars so a great opportunity to carry on with your Christmas
shopping. Enjoy a glass of mulled wine and a turkey and stuffing roll to get us into
the Christmas spirit. We look forward to seeing as many of you as possible on the
day.
In the new year we have Burns Night to cheer us through the dark winter nights
and looking to next summer we will be holding open gardens on 23 June 2024
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anyone happy to open their garden or help in any other way please contact me,
details below.

However, I wanted to use this opportunity to
celebrate the life of Mike Menzies who sadly
passed away recently. It’s almost impossible to live
in this parish and not either have known Mike or
been affected by the things he did. When we first
arrived in Briantspuddle and I joined the village hall
trustees Mike was a trustee and one of my earliest
memories is of Mike’s apologies being sent to our
monthly meeting as he had just fallen out of a tree
and had some severe bruising to his ribs and
needed to rest up.
Although Mike never rested up for long. Mike was
a seemingly never ending source of energy
enthusiasm and activity. Mike never said what
ought to be done without being prepared to do
the doing to achieve things. Mike was also a parish councillor and was on the
council when I joined that and again if something needed doing you’d find Mike
offering to do it. People also mattered to Mike and at the heart of every thought
and opinion he shared about issues were based upon how issues would benefit
others in the parish.

For a few years now Mike has organised the winter lectures in the hall finding
many varied and interesting people to come and share their passions with us from
dog training to a greener way of living. When it came to the diamond jubilee and

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