News from Maidwell – Feb 2025

Church Services

2   February             Family Service                         11:00am

16  February             Holy Communion                     11:00am

2   March                  Family Service                         11:00am

16  March                 Holy Communion                       11:00am

6   April                     Family Service                            11:00 am

Many thanks to all who helped and supported the events at the end of the year – Harvest supper (£1340), wreath making (£600), the Mosaic concert (£360), Christingle (£193.90, which goes to the Children’s Society) and the Christmas greeting list (£360). All of these events combined raised a considerable amount so thank you all again.

Thank you to all who have maintained the church yard over the last year and to those who helped with the inside clean-up. It is much appreciated.

Also, thank you to Ingrid for the beautiful floral decorations in the church at Christmas.

This year we will be having a Village Open Gardens Day, hopefully with a good number of gardens open. There will be refreshments (tea, coffee, wine, beer- maybe) and possibly activities and /or crafts. Please let Amanda (07707 530720) know if you are willing to open your garden. If we are lucky and get a beautiful sunny day, we will be able to show off our village and all enjoy a pleasant stroll through it. Don’t forget to invite family and friends too. Date to be confirmed soon.

The Loder Hall

We are pleased to announce that David Kent, Jo Romecin and Chloe Porter have agreed to join our committee.  David will take over as our new Chairman. Welcome to you all.

The Loder Hall AGM will take place on Saturday 26 April at 10:30am.  Do come along and share your thoughts.

A reminder that the Loder Hall is available for all your special events or if you need space to practise something.  A very reasonable charge of £10 for the first hour and £5 for additional hours. Heating is extra.

Please contact Ann on 07939 124521 or Colin 07771 806094 for more details or booking.

Parish Council

Happy new year to all residents from the Parish Council.

Our first meeting of 2025 was on 8 January.  At this meeting, the Council made two key decisions.

Firstly, we have decided to renew the speed indicator device at the top of the A508 as you come into the village from the A14.  We will be replacing it with a larger device which will hopefully capture the attention of more drivers and will also provide us with speed data – the current device does not do this.  All speed data is placed on the village website and is updated after each Council meeting. We are very conscious that speeding on the A508 is one of the biggest concerns for residents so anything we can do to reduce this is considered beneficial.

In addition, members of the Draughton Club Room Committee addressed the Council on the investment that is required to repair the roof – it is currently leaking badly and damaging the inside of the building. Around £10k is required to affect the repairs and add insulation. The Committee has applied for a grant and a decision on this is expected in February. In addition, residents of Draughton have been working hard to raise funds for the repairs.  After discussion, Councillors agreed to provide up to £7k to ensure that the repairs can go ahead as quickly as possible.  The actual sum provided will depend on the amount of any grant, if awarded.

Over the last few years, the Council has worked hard to create a small reserve fund which enables us to make investments such as the speed signs or the club room repairs.  Both of these investments are considered to be important matters that benefit residents of both villages.

Parish Council meetings take place on the second Wednesday of every second month.  Everyone is welcome to attend and there is an Open Forum is you wish to raise something with the Council.  Our next meeting will take place on Wednesday 12 March at 7.30pm in the Loder Hall.

Please note that the contact details for the Parish Council have now changed. The Parish Clerk’s e-mail address is clerk@maidwellwithdraughtonparishcouncil.gov.uk and the website address is now https://maidwellwithdraughtonparishcouncil.gov.uk

 

Maidwell-being coffee morning

After a year of activities aimed at improving the village environment (including the creation of the book exchange, providing recycling bins at the Loder Hall, the clearing of the verge on Draughton Road, apple-pressing and lots of tech support), the focus of this coming year will be to provide a community get-together once a month at the village hall. These will take place on the second Saturday morning of each month.

The first get-together took place on 11 January, with a lot of villagers dropping in for coffee, cake and a chat. The tech team were on also hand – thank you.  It was great to catch up with everyone.

The next date is Saturday 8 February between 10am-12noon, with further dates being 8 March and 12 April. Do come along, especially if you are (relatively) new to the village – it would be great to meet you.

There will be some one-off projects happening throughout the year, including clearing a couple more verges and planting some trees (more of which in due course).

Don’t forget the recycling bins just inside the gate at Loder Hall for medicine blister packs, contact lens cases, old pens, used make up and toothpaste tubes.

Contacts: Amanda (07707 530720), Lynne (07785 790265), Paul (07710 096590), Mary (07703 291169) and Fiona (07903 137219)

Maidwell Wombles – pick a date next year to help!

Last year several of you committed to join the Wombles for just one outing during the year and many thanks to you for doing so. The feedback was that everyone enjoyed it. Would you like to do it again in 2025 please? Here are the dates (weather permitting):

February                   Saturday 8     9:00am

March                       Saturday 8     9:00am

April                          Friday 4          10:00am

May                          Saturday 3     9:00am

June                         Saturday 7     9:00am

July                          Friday 4          10:00am

August                      Saturday 2     9:00am

September               Saturday 6     9:00am

October                    Friday 3          10:00am

November                Saturday 1     9:00am

December                Saturday 6     9:00a

Please contact Colin on 07771 806094 to put your name down for one of the dates.

Maidwell Primary School

We hope you have all had a wonderful Christmas break and the current cold weather isn’t being too harsh for you.  The children have returned to school fully refreshed and ready to continue with their learning. Before the break we had a fun packed last few Christmassy days including our Christmas Lunch and a trip to the Panto.  A number of children and their parents also enjoyed a trip to the Church for a lovely carol service – thank you Maidwell Church and all who made this possible.  I am sure that ‘in the blink of an eye’ we will be facing the start of Spring and a chance to get back outdoors more often.  In the meantime, the children are enjoying the frosty surfaces in the morning and the vague hope of some more snow so they can build a snowman or two!

 

Other Maidwell news

Carol singing

Thank you to all who came out and sang carols around the village on 19 December and to all those who supported the collection so generously – a huge £380 was donated to The Hope Centre in Northampton. Thank you too to those who kept us well supplied with warming food and drink!

All the Maidwell news above can also be viewed on the Maidwell with Draughton website:  https://maidwellwithdraughtonparishcouncil.gov.uk