On Saturday and Sunday, the 29th and 30th June 2019, the village will be hosting an Open Gardens event. This will be the third time the village has held this popular attraction with more than 10 gardens open to the public, of varying designs & sizes. They will all be endeavouring to be in tip-top order for the weekend, each with its own individual interest and character. Gardens will be open from 1pm to 5pm each day.

There will be something for everybody, from gardeners young and old, new and experienced. Quality home-made refreshments will be served at several locations around the tour and plant stalls brimming with plants to enhance your own garden will be available at some gardens.

Entry to all gardens for the entire weekend is £5 per person, accompanied children will be free. A map to all the gardens will be available with the tickets, which can be purchased from either St. Mary’s Church (SK11 0NX), Woodcroft (SK11 0PB) or Eastview (CW12 3QG).

Proceeds are in aid of the Church Improvements Project at St. Mary’s which is to provide modern facilities and improvements to enable the building to be used as a Community Hall for the village.

For more information contact:

Dorothy Gilman 01260 223293 or Jane Nixon 01260 226542

There is now a new page on the website all about better Broadband in the village

Lent starts on Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the forty days before Easter. This year it falls on March 6th and the Lent lunch will be at Wincle vicarage. The next week, March 13th it will be at Blaze Farm and on March 20th at Sutton church hall. There is a gap of a week and then the Bosley Lent lunch is on 3rd April at Hawkslee, the Wain’s up on Bosley Minn, and on the 10th April at Bosley Chapel. All these are for Christian Aid.

The Macclesfield Male Voice Choir are giving a concert on March 16th at 7.30pm at St. Mary’s Church. This is a much admired choir and will be an enjoyable evening. Tickets are £8 which includes refreshments, and can be obtained from church members, on the door or phone 01260 226542.

The Plough Service was held this year at St. Mary’s church with many farmers present and a good congregation for the blessing of the plough, and a new born lamb (see the photo) was brought up by the children to be blessed and the choir sang two anthems. We sang ‘Happy Birthday’ for Ava who was eleven that day.

The Electoral Roll is revised every six years and people have to renew their membership by filling in the required form. These are available in church or phone 01260 226131.

On the 31st March, Mothering Sunday, the service will be up at Wincle at 10.30. This will be Kim’s last service as she, Corniel, Ava and Amara leave for St. Albans where she has gained a prestigious post at the cathedral working with the youth. Many congratulations to her as we say our goodbyes to someone who has brought a breath of fresh air to us at Bosley with lots of fun and laughter as well as bringing a serious message in the services; we will sadly miss her and the family. Corniel has made a big contribution to the Peak Parishes with his editing the magazine and he now starts his study to be ordained. Good luck to all of them as they start their new life and new schools and hope they may visit sometime.

Church Improvement Project

Thanks to all those who continue to support us in our fund-raising efforts to improve and revitalise the church building; so that it may become a shared Community Hall for both community activities and for worship, whilst meeting the needs of the 21st century. Outline plans are available to view in the church at any time.

We have so far raised over £112,000 from pledges, donations & grants, but there is still a lot more required to reach our target of £215,000. Our aim is to start the build project this summer if funding is in place. Further grant funding applications have recently been submitted and we await their outcomes over the next few months.

Meanwhile we continue to seek your support of donations and attendance at forthcoming fund-raisers. We are currently organising a Race Night for the Spring and Open Gardens weekend in the Summer. Other activities suggested include a Casino night and a “Buy–a–Brick” campaign – so watch out for these developments!

If you would like to donate to the fund to build our Community Hall, donations can be handed to any church member,

or by cheque to “St. Mary’s Church”, Bosley, SK11 0NX,

or sent direct to the bank –

BARCLAYS Bank, Account No. 83966275, Sort Code 20-53-77

Youth Club

March 4th - Welsh Night

March 11th – Youth Club 5th Birthday Ceelbrations

March 18th – Irish Night

March 25th - Football Match.

April 1st - Treasure/Egg Hunt, Lakeside.

St. Mary’s Church Services at 9.30am; - unless stated otherwise

Preacher Sidesman Reading Flowers

Mar 3rd 9.30 Holy Communon

Revd. Ivan Whinton Dorothy Gilman Alison Tottle

Mar 6th 10.00 Praise and Play for carers and tots with Kim Q-W

Mar 10th 11.00 Joint Service at Chapel

Mar 17th 9.30 Family Service

Revd. Kim Q-W Jenny Ratcliffe Jane Nixon

Mar 24th 9.30 Holy Communion

Revd. Ivan Whinton Bill Dowse Joan Dowse

Mar 31st 10.30 Farewell Service for Kim at Wincle

Apr 7th 9.30 Holy Communion

Revd. John Harries Jane Wain Neil Wain

Chapel Services at 11.00

Preacher

Mar 3rd Revd. Tony Tagg – Holy Communion

Mar 10th Revd. Tony Tagg - Joint Service with St. Mary’s -

Mar 17th Mervyn Lovatt

Mar 24th Dennis Smith

Mar 31st Revd. Andrew Lindley

Christmas is over and our New Year Resolutions and we have the dark days of February to get through, however there are events and things to look forward to. Below is a request for individuals to get involved with the history and heritage of the village, a new web site for the church is being created, Bobkins have a Bingo evening and on February 10th the church celebrates Plough Sunday when the plough is blest and sometimes a lamb if we can get one, and we remember our farming community as the season progresses.

Our condolences to the Done family on the death of Maureen Done, a long Bosley resident. Her funeral was on 21st January at St. Mary’s Church.

Easter is late this year on the 21st April so the weekly Lent lunches will start on 6th March at the vicarage in Wincle and on the 13th it will be at Blaze Farm. The one in Bosley and at the chapel will be later in the month, details next month.

BOSLEY SCHOOL NEWS

The windows have now been replaced at the front of our school, so the rebuilding the main gable end is now finished and the school should be good for another 160 years.

We had been concerned for sometime about the state of that gable end wall. It was bowed out, and there were cracks in the stone mullions. That wall carries the weight of the school bell tower, which added to our concern.

We called in a structural engineer for advice, who said the wall needed supporting with immediate effect! And it needed to be taken down to the floor and rebuilt!

A major job! As a listed building it had to be taken down brick by brick and rebuilt to look the same as it did before. We think "Maysands" the company that did the work, have done a really good job.

When taking the wall down and they got to the top of window they found the cause of the problem. The wooden beam over the window carrying the inner skin of the wall was perished and disintegrating. This allowed the inner skin of the wall to move which cracked the mullions carrying the outer skin.

As we know the wall had been like that for many years, and we, like many of you, wondered whether we should have "left well alone"!

Having seen the state of the beam that was taken out, the cracked mullions, and considered the weight of the bell tower they were carrying we feel we made the right decision.

Alec Needham.

School Governor

Bobkins are holding a Charity Bingo Evening

Thursday, 7th February, at The Knot Rushton

Eyes down at 7pm

All proceeds to Bosley Bobkins Preschool and Bosley Youth Club

For further details please contact 01260 222993

Youth Club

February 4th Volley Ball Tournament

February 11th Talent Show

February 18th Spring Break – no youth club.

Susanne is training for the London Marathon so volunteers may be needed to help occasionally when she is training.

Bosley's Millennium Project

As a millennium project, instigated by Richard & Christian Bass, Bosley raised money to build a school in Gambia. There were different fund raising events, I think we had a dinner and charity auction at the Boars Leigh restaurant, just one event that I remember. The building of the school was done in conjunction with "Schools For Gambia" a charity set up by Mae Winterton [Mae's family are local sawdust merchants]

On Sunday 13th Jan, Mae came to Bosley's united Church service which this month was at the Chapel and told us about the work of the charity. The Gambian school which we helped to build, is in the village of Madina Mannen is called "Bosley School". It was planned for around 90 pupils, but pupils came from neighbouring villages and they now have over 600 pupils [the government have put in money to build extra classrooms]

From the late 1990s, Gambia has gone through a period of political turmoil and it was difficult to keep lines of communication open, but 4 years ago democracy has been restored and things are much better. In this improved situation Bosley School in Gambia are keen to reconnect with the village who gave them their school.

Through that difficult time Mae and the charity have kept on working, they have now built over twenty village schools in Gambia, and dug or repaired even more wells to provide clean drinking water. Mae stressed that through it all they felt God's hand guiding them and helping them. The story she shared with us was truly inspirational.

Thank you Mae for coming to tell us about the wonderful work you and "Schools for Gambia" are doing.

St. Mary’s Church Services at 9.30am; - unless stated otherwise

Preacher Sidesman Reading Flowers

Feb 3rd 9.30 Holy Communon

Revd. Ivan Whinton Joy Collis Tom Collis

Feb 6th 10.00 Praise and Play for carers and tots with Kim Q-W

Feb 10th 10.30 Plough Sunday for all four parishes

Revd. Kim Q-W Bill Dowse Jane Gilman

Feb 17th 9.30 Family Service

Revd. Phil Williams Jenny Ratcliffe Jane Nixon

Feb 24th 9.30 Holy Communion

Revd. Ivan Whinton James Massey Rosemary Massey

Mar 3rd 9.30 Holy Communion

Revd. Ivan Whinton Dorothy Gilman Alison Tottle

Mar 6th 10.00 Praise and Play with Kim

Chapel Services at 11.00

Preacher

Feb 3rd Revd. Tony Tagg – Holy Communion

Feb 10th 10.30 @ Wellspring

Feb 17th Harold Mellor

Feb 24th Alec Needham

Mar 3rd Revd. Tony Tagg – Holy Communion

As part of the Church Improvements Project we would like to know whether members of our community are interested in learning about, researching, preserving, or archiving the heritage & history of Bosley village and the surrounding area. The church itself is a Grade II* Listed Building and contains many interesting artefacts & memorials, but what about the rest of the village?

Please take a moment to look at the list below and vote on which area(s) you might be interested in.

Which areas of village history/heritage are you interested in?

o 150-year-old School

o Local Industry and the Mills

o Church; including War Graves & Genealogy

o Canals & Reservoir

o Railways & the Viaduct

o Oral history of village life over the decades

o Other….. (please specify)

If you’d like to take part in any part of the project (e.g. talking about your history, writing down records, researching at the library or online, looking into heritage artefacts, or helping the schoolchildren with similar tasks) please let us know.

You can email your details to bosleystmaryschurch@gmail.com or telephone Jane on 226542