Denton a village in South Norfolk, England

Denton Village News Archive for January 2009

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Small is Beautiful

Strength in numbers proved to be not a very good idea at this year’s Village Quiz Night, held at the Village Hall on January 31st. Some teams, including one called the “Dirty Dozen”, tried the “multi-member” option this year but it was all to no avail. The winners turned out to be, “Just Six”, the smallest team competing so it was clearly a case of quality triumphing over quantity.

At half time an excellent “chilli supper” was consumed and everyone, there were nearly 150 taking part, had a most enjoyable evening. The large number of younger people taking part was particularly impressive. Thanks must go to everyone who contributed to the success of the evening but particularly to the Quizmistress, Denise “my ruling is final” Grant, and her able assistant Julie Oxley.

Panto Tickets Available

Tickets for this year’s DVC pantomime, ‘Cinderella’ — to be performed on 19th/20th/21st February, go on sale on Saturday 7th February.

STOP PRESS Friday and Saturday sold out.

Further information appears on the DVC page.

Tokens Please

Alburgh with Denton School are now collecting book tokens from the Times and Sunday Times newspapers.

The school would be most grateful if anyone taking these papers could donate their tokens. A collection box will be placed in the Village Hall.

In Anthony's Memory

Charity lunches at the Village Hall on Sundays are becoming a part of the scene in Denton. Good food, good company and raising money for a good cause. What more could one want?

The latest on January 25th was extra special as it was held in memory of Anthony Hill who had died so tragically eighteen months ago. It’s purpose was to raise money for a Heart Incident Monitor to be used by the Harleston Surgery. These new devices are an invaluable tool in checking people with potential heart conditions helping the doctors to decide what treatment is needed.

More that 130 people sat down to an excellent lunch in the Hall and raised more than £1,300. This exceeded everyone’s expectations and may be enough to purchase two monitors.

Speaking at the end of the meal, Peter Hill, Anthony’s father, thanked the people who had organised the event and everybody who had contributed. As he said, the large turnout reflected the fond regard with which the whole community remembered Anthony.

A Warm Evening in January

It really was a warm evening at the Blackhand Cyder Society’s annual Wassailing event held on January 18th. It was attended by nearly 150 people, Black Hand members and their guests.

A big effort to improve the heating of Great Green Farm’s barn certainly paid off — plastic sheeting insulation and poultry-shed gas heaters played their part in defeating the strong winds outside — and the band’s efforts ensured that all those venturing onto the dance-floor were thoroughly warmed up.

Last year’s band, “Trotter’s Bottom”, had been booked again but at the last minute they all went down with flu. Their replacements, “Dilligaf”, proved to be excellent substitutes with a very effective Caller who dragged several reluctant dancers into action. The traditional blessing of the tree by a “village maiden” etc. was very well organised by two strange looking individuals but their disguises did not fool many people.

As usual the food was outstanding — well done that pig — and much enjoyed by all. Thanks must be extended to everybody who contributed to the event but particularly to our hosts, Gill and Adrian Hipwell.

More information about the Society is available and new members welcome.

Christmas Fund Raising

The true spirit of Christmas was very much alive in Denton once again this year. Two activities raised over £500 for the Bwindi Orphanage in Western Uganda.

The Christmas Card board in the Village Hall, where people post up a single card addressed to all their friends in the village and and make a suitable donation instead of sending out lots of individual cards, raised £230 and the carol singers who went out on a very cold night in two teams on December 22nd raised another £275. Well done to everybody who contributed, particularly the organiser Jenny Crohill.

Affordable Housing Progress

There was good news on Denton’s Affordable Housing project at the latest meeting of Denton Parish Council on January 13th.

The council were expecting to receive a presentation from Mr. Alan Burden from the Saffron Housing Trust but, in his absence, Abi Dennington-Price a Housing Officer from South Norfolk Council provided the information the councillors wanted to hear. A rough sketch-plan showing the layout of the proposed development in Norwich Road was provided. The recent needs survey conducted in the village had demonstrated a need for five new units of affordable accommodation but the plan indicated that six might be provided. These comprise two one-bedroomed flats, two two-bedroomed semi-detached houses and two detached three-bedroomed houses.

Councillors were very keen on the prospect of an “extra” house and supported the idea that it should be made available on a shared equity basis, the rest being offered for rent. Various aspects of the proposed layout were discussed and the comments will be passed back to Saffron. The Council will be involved at every stage of the development and a public meeting would be organised when the scheme reached the planning permission stage, probably later in the year.

More information is available in the Features Section.

Affordable Housing at the Parish Council

Affordable Housing is on the agenda at the January meeting of Denton PC to be held at the village Hall on Tuesday 13th January starting at 8.00 p.m.

The council will hear a presentation from Mr. Alan Burden from Saffron Housing Trust.

The full agenda for the meeting is now available.

The Denton Treasure Quest

One of the most popular programmes on Radio Norfolk visited Denton on Sunday. It was the final edition for 2008 of “Treasure Quest”. The programme involves a reporter in the Radio Norfolk radio car solving a trail of clues to follow a route round the county. The car visits places of interest and seeks help from local residents. Having reached Hempnall the next clue was — “Del hunts the criminals here, like a weighty EastEnder, the Dixie holders of drink, sang of where the clue is”.

The answer, of course was Denton. One phone-in contributor was Heather Squirrell who told the story of Misery Corner. Arriving at the Chapel the car was met by a group of Dentonians, including Maureen and Nigel Seamons, who helped presenter Becky Betts solve the next clue — “Robbie and Frank have sung the way, sounds like a phonetic jump, you keep these at the board’s corner, not the old court, but inner”. The first line described the song ‘South of the Border’, so the team next travelled to Bungay Castle, having first checked that they were allowed to cross into Suffolk.

Further information about the programme is available from the Radio Norfolk Website.

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