OVERTON WINS 2007 Nth WALES CALOR VILLAGE OF THE YEAR Overton has claimed the overall North Wales regional title in the prestigious Calor Village of the Year. The village won two category prizes for People and Business. It will now go head to head with the South Wales winner Lawrenny in Pembrokeshire for the title Calor Village of the Year for Wales, to be decided in October. Overton will receive £1.500 prize money, framed commemorative certificates and a cast iron plaque to be displayed at the approach to the village. If the village goes on to win the overall Wales title there will be an award of a further £1,500 towards community projects.

Judges said “ Overton is an inspirational example of best practice with businesses making use of existing local, rural skills and thus providing employment for local people. Most of the 50 businesses in Overton contribute to community life -15% of the community works within its industries. St Mary's School has secured funding to construct an outside teaching area, where vegetable plots, protected by surrounding willow trees, help develop green fingers. As part of a millennium initiative the Community Council developed a wildflower meadow within a tree lined avenue. The churchyard, with its ancient yew trees, creates a quiet haven, but village life is anything but sleepy.”

Judge Mrs Lewis said “Overton-on-Dee was the most complete characteristic village of all the entrants. It has a close community, lots of co-operation and it is a flourishing place. There was a good cross section of village life there.” The local County Councillor Lloyd Kenyon, said he was delighted with the village’s success. “A lot of hard work has been put in by people in the village and it is well deserved.”
Overton has claimed the overall North Wales regional title in the prestigious Calor Village of the Year. The village won two category prizes for People and Business. It will now go head to head with the South Wales winner Lawrenny in Pembrokeshire for the title Calor Village of the Year for Wales, to be decided in October.
Overton will receive £1.500 prize money, framed commemorative certificates and a cast iron plaque to be displayed at the approach to the village. If the village goes on to win the overall Wales title there will be an award of a further £1,500 towards community projects.

Judges said “ Overton is an inspirational example of best practice with businesses making use of existing local, rural skills and thus providing employment for local people. Most of the 50 businesses in Overton contribute to community life -15% of the community works within its industries. St Mary's School has secured funding to construct an outside teaching area, where vegetable plots, protected by surrounding willow trees, help develop green fingers. As part of a millennium initiative the Community Council developed a wildflower meadow within a tree lined avenue. The churchyard, with its ancient yew trees, creates a quiet haven, but village life is anything but sleepy.”

Judge Mrs Lewis said “Overton-on-Dee was the most complete characteristic village of all the entrants. It has a close community, lots of co-operation and it is a flourishing place. There was a good cross section of village life there.” The local County Councillor Lloyd Kenyon, said he was delighted with the village’s success. “A lot of hard work has been put in by people in the village and it is well deserved.”

The Calor judges meet members of the village.

Overton 15 years ago!
by Jill Burton

If there had been an Overton Oracle in August 1992 this picture might have been on the front page. Who was that lady walking down Overton High Street just passing Howard the butchers? She had just been welcomed by Alan Edwards, Chairman of the Community Council (2nd from left) and presented with a bouquet by Hannah Mason (bottom right) as the 10th July was Hannah’s birthday.

Does it seem 15 years since the Overton’s 700th Royal Charter Celebrations? For those of you who were not here for those memorable three days, there was the pageant of 700 years of our village’s history, the hand made flags decorating the street, the Royal Welch Fusiliers and their goat, the spectacular Flower Festivals in the three Churches, the Craft Fair and Historical Exhibition in the Village Hall, the Artist in Residence, the Saturday Medieval Street Market, the Sunday Archery Tournament and the final United Thanksgiving Service led by the Archbishop of Wales.
Oh - and the Queen popped in too!

Ramblings From the Rectory
by David Lewis

Dear Friends,

Engraved above the door of a church in Stafford is the quotation:

‘THIS IS THE GATE OF HEAVEN.
ENTER YOU ALL BY THIS DOOR.’

However a notice had been pinned to the door saying:
‘THIS DOOR IS KEPT LOCKED, BECAUSE OF DRAUGHTS.
PLEASE USE THE BACK ENTRANCE.’

That sign made me smile. But it also reminded me how important our church buildings are to so many people. They are places of beauty and quiet in a so often busy and hectic world.

I happened to be in St Hilary’s in Erbistock a few days ago when I met a couple who had come down from Newcastle. They had recently lost their daughter, and they told me they had been sitting quietly in church, enjoying the silence and peace. The lady told me:’ I really felt the peace of God touch me in this lovely church. Thank you.’

St Mary’s Church is open every day, so please come in and enjoy the peace and beauty of our church. Every Wednesday from July 11th coffee and tea will also be served in Church from 10am, so please come in for a drink and a chat or just for a time of quiet. You are most welcome.

The ministry of making our church buildings warm and welcoming, places where people can feel God’s presence, is I feel so important. For we don’t know how many lives we are touching with God’s wonderful light.

Your Friend and Rector
David.

COUNTRY BEAT
by Constable Luke Hughes

If you recall I informed you last month about the arrival of the new Police Support Officers and the last 5 weeks have consisted of lots of familiarisation and training. The result is that now both officers have been signed off for individual patrol and will be working from this week onwards.

I hope that you have had the opportunity to meet the new officers or have seen them out on patrol. We have been busy visiting schools, playgroups, local businesses and councils and if you haven’t yet seen us out and about I’m sure its only a matter of time.

Having conducted a significant amount of public consultation over recent months we have now identified a number of projects across the area which will be receiving our attention over the coming months, issues such as Dog Fouling, Littering, Speeding Vehicles and Anti Social Behaviour all appeared to be of concern. However each village has its own individual issues which will be tackled by myself, Jenna and Emily.

Its been a considerable amount of time; in fact around 30 years; since North Wales Police has had Cadets, however on Wednesday 11th July, 60 Cadets officially joined North Wales Police. Each division will have twenty cadets and they will parade once a week, receiving training in all aspects of police work. They are primarily volunteers and will have no specific powers of arrest, however they are issued with police uniform and will undertake many activities within the community.

I have offered my assistance as one of the Cadets Instructors in Eastern Division and you may well see the cadets at future community events, if you would like to view footage of the cadets’ welcome evening it can be found at this website. www.youtube.com/watch?v=wO8cmnILH6k

Those of you that have seen Overton Police Station recently will have seen the recent addition of some hanging baskets and containers, all carefully prepared by my own hand in my own time. However whilst standing back and admiring the growth of my nice new flowers I noticed something rather unexpected! It would appear that some kind individual has planted two sunflowers in one of the hanging baskets, these are now towering above the rest of the plants and looking some what out of place, I am at a loss as to how they came to arrive in my nice new hanging basket and can only think that some comedian has planted them without my knowledge. I have to admit it did make me giggle, but I think I had best remove them before things get too out of hand.

PC 1842 Luke Hughes
Bronington & Overton Community Beat Manager
Telephone: 0845 6071002

KID’S PAGE !
by the Overtinions and our mascot Lucy!

Hi everyone,
Schools over for another year !!! Hope you enjoyed it and that you have a great summer holidays.

Jen’s reviews
Hello everyone. This month my review will be on the concert that I went to see on the 13th July, featuring Hayley Westenra. She is a classical singer and if you join singing lessons in Penley High School, you may perform one of her pieces. It was held at the Eisteddfod in Llangollen and it also featured the winners of the music competitions which had been held recently.

In the first half we saw a mixed choir from the USA who were excellent at singing, followed by a performance from the winner of the Celtic Instrumental Solo. This included a young boy of 15 playing the violin and a young man in his early twenties playing the piano. They were both incredibly talented! Then followed the traditional music and dance from Ghana, which was by the African Footprint International, which rose to the occasion with enthusiasm and grace.

All of these performances were very impressive but everyone wanted to hear Hayley Westenra sing. When she entered the stage, everyone applauded, she smiled graciously and introduced her first song ‘Pokarekare Anna’, she sang all four songs beautifully! The interval came and went with Hayley opening the second half with another three songs. She left the stage and we were introduced to the Tower New Zealand Youth Choir, who were not as good as the choir from the USA, but still very entertaining.

Hayley then closed the evening with four other songs, including ‘Amazing Grace’ and ‘Hine E Hine’ featuring the New Zealand Choir. Once she had performed an encore, the crowds filed out of the exits into the wet muddy car park!

I really enjoyed her concert, I thought she dressed and sang beautifully. There was a wonderful atmosphere despite the weather and I think everyone enjoyed themselves.
Rating: 9/10
Wonderful, despite the weather!

Agony Aunt
Hey! This month the topic is the summer holidays.

Q Hi, I am really looking forward to the summer holidays, but don’t know what to do for six weeks, I really don’t want to get bored. Do you have any ideas?

A: The summer holidays usually mean warm weather, so if it is a sunny day, get outside! There is plenty to do. You could go to the park with your friends or go on outings such as to Chester Zoo with your family. You could go to a local swimming pool or get in touch with sports complexes such a NEWI in Wrexham and see if they have any sports days for children. You could always play games with your friends.
If it is a rainy day then you could always go to the cinema and watch a film.
I hope this has helped you, have a great summer and remember to have fun!

Yr. 7 Review

Hey guys,
Hope you have had a good school year! This is going to be our last year 7 review, so we will tell you about two fantastic things that happen at the end of school! The first is the Charity Fair! The Charity Fair is on a day near the end of the summer term when every form thinks of a way to raise money for charity. Every form has a stall, some have two. On these stalls you can have cake stalls, apple bobbing, guess the teacher etc. which are all raising money for charities. You are allowed to wear non school uniform for this event. Most of the time we raise a lot of money. This day is special because it is a chance for everyone to do their bit for charity.

The other event is Activities Week. Activities Week is the last week of the school year, and the teachers decide on a list of activities that they are prepared to let you do. You can choose which you would like to take part in and then you pay for these activities. Most of the time the activities last the whole week. Most years the year eights get given the opportunity to go to France and experience WWI and WWII, and see where they actually happened. Also year nines and elevens are allowed to go to the south of France for a watersports holiday!
Both of these events are great fun and it is a really nice end to the year.
We hope you have all enjoyed our Year 7 review and hope it has helped make you more confident about leaving primary school and entering High School. We have enjoyed writing to you! See you all soon.

From Lucy and Rebeccs : )

SCHOOL NEWS
The Foundation Phase children were extremely lucky this term to have a visit from an exotic animal specialist. He brought in a variety of creatures to show the children and we also learnt some amazing and very interesting facts about them. Some of the animals were a bit scary, but all the children coped very well (not too sure about the teachers though!!).

Meeting a chameleon

Year 1 have had a new addition to the class and would like you all to meet Brian! Yes, Brian is a Rabbit! (A Netherlands Dwarf to be precise) Brian has been with the children for about 2 mths now, and they are enjoying helping Miss Evans to look after him (he’s a very spoilt rabbit).

Brian

This term Year 5 has been learning all about Conwy and its castle. So we ventured into Conwy to find out what it is really like. The children were fascinated to find out a plethora of interesting facts about Conwy and thoroughly enjoyed exploring every aspect of this topic. The children were able to look around the town, explore the castle itself, visit the smallest house in Britain, and of course, have time for an ice cream!

Climbing Conway Castle

OVERTON MEDICAL PRACTICE

We welcome two new doctors to the practice. Dr Mike Bloom, aged 40, is married with one young son and is an ex Lieutenant in the Royal Naval Reserve. Before becoming a doctor Mike worked in a wide variety of roles, including farming. He specialises in Minor Surgery, Palliative Care and A&E. Dr Gareth Bowdler, aged 33, is married with 2 daughters. (He is an ex Captain in the Royal Army Medical Corp). Specialising in Child Health, Minor Surgery and Mental Health, Dr Bowdler is a self-confessed computer buff and has been involved with medicine in one way or another for 15 years.

Julie Perkins is now running an Acupuncture Clinic at the practice with appointments on Thursday morning and all day Friday. This is a private facility with a charge of £30 per treatment session of 1 hour. Leaflets are available in reception. Several patients have volunteered for the pilot scheme for booking doctors appointments on line. Should anyone else wish to use this facility please let us know, application forms are in reception. If all goes well this facility will be extended to cover ordering repeat prescriptions.

For results ring the surgery between 11.30am and 4.30pm weekdays (Thursdays 11-12.00 noon).

OVERTON SCARECROWS

The contestants at the July Strawberry & Scarecrow event at St Mary’s Church. The winners were Georgie Davies & Alex Blake-Jones with “The Bride & Groom”.

WHAT THEY THINK OF US
by Ken Farrell

I believe I can say with confidence that most of us are thoroughly happy living in Overton and I often enjoy reading guide books for this area to see how others see our village. Estate Agents talk in glowing terms about “This much sought-after village location” but I find they say things like that about almost everywhere.

Wrexham’s official guidebooks prior to re-organisation of the counties were fairly dismissive of us while we were still part of Flintshire Detached, saying merely “The yew trees in the churchyard are very fine”. By the time of the 1979 guidebook they had warmed to us somewhat with “The Maelor's largest village with a broad and handsome main street which was once the site of a regular market. Well preserved rows of cottages are a pleasing feature of this village” Black's Picturesque Guide to North Wales of 1858 likes us a lot - ”The Hundred of Maelor contains also the neat village of Overton with a venerable church overlooking the Dee, and surrounded by scenery delightfully picturesque”. The AA Book of British Villages 1980 reminds us that “Overton has several times won awards for best-kept village.” and describes the broad High Street and Dispensary Row in particularly glowing terms, calling the mixture of Classical and Gothic arches in the latter an “Architectural Pot-pourri”.

Finally I came to “Beautiful Britain (North Wales)” by Joseph E. Morris published in 1911 in which the author describes a journey going south from Holt and Bangor-on-Dee. He writes “South again is Overton, with another much restored church, and a churchyard that is reckoned, or used to be reckoned, one of the ‘Seven Wonders’ of Wales. This, however, lies a little off the route, and possibly is hardly worth to trouble of the diversion”
Ah well, perhaps we can’t win ‘em all!

ENVIROCOLUMN
by Nadine Leese

Summertime green ideas – please consider:

View from the Village Vets.

Ever since the life of one of my twin children was saved by a blood transfusion, I have tried to donate blood regularly and I would encourage as many of you to do the same if possible. An article in a recent edition of the National Blood Transfusion Service magazine ‘The Donor’ reminded me that blood transfusions are also carried out from time to time in animals and a national database for animals has recently been set up online at www.animalbloodregister.com

In our own practice we use blood transfusions in dogs a few times each year mainly in the treatment of a blood disorder called Autoimmune Haemolytic Anaemia (AIHA). In this strange illness, dogs suddenly react to their own red blood cells and attack them. They become weak, pale and jaundiced and we have to give blood transfusions to boost red blood cell numbers whilst the drugs we use to combat the disease take effect. My old Chocolate Labrador Cocoa was a regular donor – probably about 6 times in her life and would sit patiently on the table whilst we drew off a unit of blood from one of the jugular veins in her neck. Dogs have blood groups in the same way as humans, but they are less ‘strong’ meaning that it is usually possible to perform one transfusion without the need to cross match the blood first.

Blood transfusions can also be given in other species: cats (although the donor usually has to be sedated before blood is given!), foals occasionally suffer from anaemia in the first few days of life and have transfusions from their mothers, lambs can sometimes become anaemic as a result of a reaction to being fed cows milk and we have even on one occasion carried out a blood transfusion on a poorly calf.

Until my new Labrador is old enough and will sit quietly enough to give blood, we might ourselves need to contact the dog blood donor database if we need an emergency transfusion, so if you have a healthy and well behaved pet who would like to register why not visit the website. Whilst you are thinking of your pet why not look up the human blood donor site too at www.blood.co.uk or phone the donor helpline on 08457 711 711 – who knows you might both be able to save a life!

Mark Spurdens, Maelor Vet Centre. 01978 711975.

Overton Playgroup - 40 Years On

It seems really incredible
That forty years have gone
That from such small beginnings
The playgroup movement’s grown

The parish room proved not enough
But it was good starter
And funds were raised by several means
To replace a few years later

Determined playgroup members
Obtained the school canteen
Bright visions for the future
Emerged upon the scene

Optimism waned as time went on
When roof was leaking badly
The money needed for repair
Committee greeted sadly

With help from grants & social events
After much effort the money was found
New roof, kitchen, toilets were built
Friends and family all rallied round

The playgroup is still thriving
As Sunday’s event show
Space rockets, bouncy castles too
All organised by folks like you

To all who have helped in the 40 years gone
Sunday was a tribute to all you have done
Times they have changed from
‘Flower Power’ to ‘Space Age’
But the learning and laughter of children remains

by Margaret Evison


The 40th anniversary celebration playgroup party - July 15th

Award for Georgia

In July Georgia Mackay was presented with her gold award from the Children’s University by Wrexham’s Deputy Mayor.

Georgia has obtained her credits through attending the Bitesize Youth Theatre where she does Tap, Musical Theatre, Dance, Drama and Singing.

CONGRATULATIONS

Congratulations to EgoXcentric, Overton-on-Dee, its owner Robin Langley and his team who have won the Evening Leader ‘Salon of the Year’ competition.
Robin said “It is a tremendous achievement I would like to thank all the staff and clients for all their support during this competition. Winning is such a wonderful accolade for this salon.”

Your Letters...

Dear Editor,
In her letter in the June Oracle, Rafela Fitzhugh asked if Overton had been border-hopping between England and Wales following her discovery of letters bearing addresses suggesting this may have happened.
In the pre-postcode days it was necessary if you lived in a village to link your address with the nearest town. The old Bryn y Pys Estate Office letterhead shows the postal address as ‘Overton, Ellesmere, Salop’, the telegram address as ‘Overton, Flints’, and the telephone number as ‘No 5 Overton, Ellesmere’.
So the simple answer is that neither Overton nor the border budged an inch. It was just the postal address that gave it a gentle shove some 5 miles up the road. Ken Farrell

Dear Editor,
In her article on ‘Fire Safety in Overton’ in the July Oracle Cllr Jacky Maskall quoted Wrexham’s County Safety Manager, Mr Phil Owen, as saying “It is folly to gambol with your families’ lives.” While agreeing with this sentiment I would add that it is also total folly to gamble with these same lives. Ken Farrell

Dear Editor,
In your recent Oracle received this last week, it has been mentioned again, about the Surgery appointments not being kept. Last week I tried to make an appointment and couldn't get one with my doctor for 4 weeks, not the usual two weeks, but four weeks now.

For the people not keeping the appointments, wouldn't it be a good idea if the receptionist could phone the person the day before if it a morning appointment or morning of the appointment to remind that person that they have an appointment and if they still want it then they wouldn't have missed appointments. Is it the elderly or the younger people that miss the appointments I doubt very much it is the latter. Name & address supplied

THE TWINNING GROUP

It's Overton’s turn to go out to La Murette this year, so on July 24th a party of 11 villagers, 9 adults and 2 teenagers will be flying out to a programme of events that have been kept a secret. There will be a full report in the next edition of the Oracle. As a present from Overton they are taking with them a metal wall plaque of a Welsh Dragon with Croeso underneath it.

The evening of entertainment with the Male Tones that was arranged for the 29th June unfortunately had to be postponed but will be rearranged for later in the year. Anyone who wishes to join the Twinning group are more than welcome to join them as they are always looking for new members. If this sounds good to you then please contact: Glynnis Farley on 01978 710455.

INTERNATIONAL EISTEDDFOD

Our Eisteddfod visitors this year were a choir from Germany. The Liederkranz Zellhausen choir arrived on Thursday 12th July so unfortunately were unable to entertain the Overton village people. Some of them however managed to hear them sing either at rehearsals at the Church or before they boarded their coach outside the Chippie on Sunday morning on the 15th July as they set off back home to Germany. They did very well coming second in their competition being bettered only by another choir from Germany.

I would like to thank Rector David for the use of the Church for their rehearsals and all the Hosts and Hostesses for all their help and here’s hoping they will be there again for me next year. Once again thank you all very much.
Carol Dykes

OVERTON VILLAGE HALL

There will be changes in the caretaking and booking arrangements at the Village Hall from 1st August 2007. From that date until mid September any bookings can be made by phoning 01978 710413

FAMILY ANNOUNCEMENTS

August Birthdays:
Happy Birthday to Ben Jones of Bangor Road - a very happy 9th birthday.
Also to Seanie Clark 10yrs, Belinda Matthews 4yrs old, Gemma Purcell, Doreen Hamlington, Gladys Evans, Gill Evans, Gill Rogers and Carol Dykes.

Belated July Birthdays:
Happy birthday to Alice Foster 9yrs and Deborah McCusker.