Page 16 - BR March 2024 - converted

March 2024 March 2024
BERE HEATH METHODIST spending the evenings or during the day if it was raining. In those days “Conkers”
CHAPEL was a game we spent many hours at the end of August playing. We collected
the ripe conkers left them in a warm sunny spot to harden, then with a meat
skewer, of which there were many available in those days, we would pierce a
We are in the season of Lent. We hope that anything you hole as neatly as possible through the centre of the nut. Then we would pass a
are doing as extra to what you normally do is good well or string through the hole and tie a knot at one end, which had to be bigger than
it may be that you have given something up for Lent that the hole and the remaining string was at least a foot long. We would then
you like to eat (chocolate is one of things that I am trying compete in pairs taking it in turns attempting to break the opposing person’s
not to eat during the week )
conker by swinging your conker at his which he had hanging to his side. You then
Here what’s on in March at Bere Heath Chapel . counted the number of times your conker had smashed other peoples before it
came to its own demise. So you had a twoer, threer. fourer or as many you
Sunday 3 March - Service with be Led by Rev Peter Clark who is a United succeeded in breaking depending on the hardness of weapon. There were all
rd
Reformed retired Minister in our Circuit . Service is at 2pm and tea/Coffee & sorts of “unfair” activities, such as putting your conker in the oven and roasting it,
Biscuits served after the service. All welcome. soaking it in vinegar or simply just making sure you could leave in the hot sunshine.
Lent Lunch – Tuesday 19 March - 12 noon to 1-15pm - Varity of Homemade Gosh, I have been sidelined and am now I must get back to writing. The past has
th
soup’s with nice bread , Tea & Coffee. Donations for the work of Christian Aid will caught up with me and I was only in my early teens then. Now I am going to
be gratefully received. Easter Cards will also be on sale. Do come along and move on to my late teens, when I had moved with my parents from the Buriton
support this worthy cause. and Petersfield to Blackmoor. I was still in Hampshire but just a little to the north.
We, that is my mother, father, two brothers, one of whom left shortly after our
Saturday 23 March – Craft and Kids – 2.30-3.45pm. Different things for children move to join the air force and a year later the second one left home to join the
rd
to do which Parents /Carers can join in too. Tea/Coffee & Juice and of course metropolitan police leaving just myself, younger sister and my parents in our new
some food. If you have not been with your children/grandchildren why not give it home on Blackmoor Estate in a cottage on the edge of a large wooded area, a
a try.
stone’s throw from my father’s carpenter’s workshop.
Have a lovely March and have a good Easter. Blessings and Best Wishes
I lived with my parents through to my late teens, while I attended Churchers
Peter Jenner – Lay Worker – Children and Families and Outreach. College in Petersfield, some eight miles away, A journey I made daily on the
number six bus, six days a week. We had normal subjective periods on Saturday
mornings, had lunch with cricket and rugby matches in the afternoon. This plus
daily homework of two or two and a half hours each evening was our grammar
school regime.
LOCAL CHOIR NEWS Having left school, I spent two years working on the Blackmoor Estate farm, a

huge size with a large dairy herd,
Choral Services and Musical Events at St Peter’s Church, cereals, hops and potatoes. This was
pre-emptive to the three years I spent
Dorchester, during March at Seale Hayne Agricultural College.
We launch our Lent and Holy Week Music Series at St Peter’s Church, Dorchester Three wonderful years where I not only
in March. There is a packed programme of choral services, concerts and events did a two year course in agriculture
to enjoy as we move towards Easter. and one year in farm management
and another thing I did was play
On Saturday 16 March between 12.30pm and 1.00pm, our monthly lunchtime rugby for Newton Abbot in a much
th
concert is a performance of Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater, performed by vocal higher echelon than I had previously
consort and a small instrumental ensemble. This is a free concert and all are played.
welcome.
Prior to my time at college as I
Our monthly service of Choral Eucharist takes place on Passion Sunday 17 March mentioned previously I worked on the
th

16 61