Swaffham Newsletter

Swaffham Sheep Fair Success
The organisers of the inaugural Swaffham Sheep
Fair have hailed the event a spectacular success.
The Fair - which took place in the town on Saturday
May 26th - revived Swaffham’s traditional Sheep
Fairs which were held in the town up until 1942.
Money raised from a mock charity sheep auction will
be split between eight local charities, with Nelson’s
Joruney, The Merle Body Centre, The Royal British
Legion, Myers Field Trust, The Rare Breed Survival
Trust, The Magpie Riding Centre for the disabled,
The East of England Air Ambulance and Swaffham
Young Farmers. Colin Houghton, The town’s Mayor
was delighted with how the weekend went. “It was
a great weekend, I’m delighted with how it went
and how everyone has said they enjoyed it,” “It’s
great to have events like this which put Swaffham
on the map and it would be great to see people
returning to the town after coming to the Sheep
Fair.” The event was supported by the Rare Breed
Survival Trust and Swaffham’s County Councillor Ed
Colman said it was important that different types
of meat were promoted throughout the event. “It’s
really important we understand that there is not
just one just type of lamb, beef and pork; all the
different breeds have different flavours and textures
and this weekend was about showcasing that meat
that people don’t always think about.
“The local butchers, and local restaurants were
brilliant. They bought into what we were doing and
offered a range of native breed meat throughout
the weekend and that’s really helped highlight
some of the issues faced by rare breeds. “By raising
awareness we are helping to prevent those rare
breeds being lost and that’s something we can all
be proud of.”
Fellow county councillor Fabian Eagle, who serves
as auctioneer for the town's regular poultry
markets and conducted the day’s charity auction,
said attention has already turned to next year. “We
are already looking ahead to next year, we are really
pleased with how the first year went and we are
all confident of making this bigger and better going
forward. “Nearly every business in the market place
got behind the event not just those that could see the
immediate benefit such as butchers and restaurants
but also those shops that promote a vegan lifestyle
as they could see that it was a community effort
to increase footfall into the town. “Both Ed and I
were happy to support
this financially and
we have shown that
you can achieve goals
for your communities
with limited funds if
those funds are used
wisely.” The Town
Council organised a
shop window display
competition which was
won by Starlings.
Ed Colman
What’s on at Swaffham Library
Swaffham Library, The Pightle, Swaffham PE37 7DF
Tel: 01760 721513
Meet the Author event – Friday 6 July 7-8pm
Roy Baldwin, Swaffham based novelist will talking
about his approach to writing, book design and
publishing work. Tickets £3 in advance or £3.50 on
the door. A Swaffham Library Friends event.
Summer Reading Challenge Launch Day – Saturday
14 July 10am-4pm
Come along to get started on Mischief Makers
Summer Reading Challenge 2018 for children aged
5-11 and their families. There’s challenges for
everyone this year with a mini challenge for preschool
children and ImagiNation for young people
aged 10-18. Sign up on Launch Day or any time
after!
Walking Swaffham’s Past – Norfolk Day event –
Friday 27 July 2-3.30pm
Discover more about Swaffham’s fascinating past
by joining us on a guided history walk around the
town starting and finishing at the library. Led by
Dr Sue Gattuso, Swaffham Museum Manager.
Refreshments available after.
Children’s Drums and Percussion workshop –
Friday 3 August, 2-3pm
Fancy being loud in the library? Keep to the beat
and have a go at drumming at our fun Summer
Reading Challenge activity! Suitable for children
aged 5+. Event supported by the Swaffham Library
Friends. Booking essential, tickets £2 per child.
Wissey U3A
At the monthly meeting on
the 7th June Wissey U3A
members heard how the
Speaker, Ann Hobbs and
her husband, renovated an
ageing French Chateau. On the 13th June there was
another Archery Event at the Holme Hale playing
field when 13 members endeavoured to beat their
personal best scores and win prizes.
On 11th June members of the Science & Technology
group visited Langham Glass Works for a tour and
demonstration of glass blowing. In July there will
be a presentation about ‘Artificial Intelligence’
by Professor Richard Harvey at the Green Britain
Centre, Swaffham. Professor Harvey is from the
Department of Computer Sciences at the University
of East Anglia. The Science and Technology group
meet on the second Monday of each month. If
you are interested in tracing your family’s roots
then you could join the Family History group which
meets on the second Wednesday each month. The
waiting list for the table tennis group had grown so
long that a second group was formed last month.
The new group meets each Friday at 2.15pm in
the Swaffham Community Centre. The group has
vacancies for anyone to wishes to join the U3A. If
these activities interest you, or if you have a hobby
or pastime which you would like to share with
others why not make enquires about joining the
Wissey U3A. The U3A meets monthly at Holme
Hale’s Pavilion on the first Thursday at 09.45 until
12 midday. In July there will be a presentation
about Swaffham Museum which will be followed
by the conclusion of the Wissey U3A’s 23rd Annual
General Meeting.
The U3A is an international movement whose
aims are the education of retired members of the
community or those in their ‘Third Age' of life.
U3A membership is open to any individual who by
definition is not in full-time gainful employment,
so anyone working ‘part-time’ can also apply for
membership.
For more information about the U3A movement, go
to www.u3a.org.uk or visit the Wissey Homepage at
www.u3asites.org.uk/wissey. Annual membership
of the Wissey U3A normally costs £10 and renewals
are £7.
Swaffham Town Bowls Club
Coaching for beginners and improvers.
For more information or to join the club please
contact Geoff on 01760 722262
From the Mayor’s Parlour
This is my first article since taking over
from Cllr Jill Skinner in May 18. It is of
course an honour to be elected as Mayor
and thanks to my fellow councillors for
putting their faith in me. We have a great
team at the Town Hall and I look forward to working
more closely with them over my year in office.
By the time you read this I will have chaired two full
council meetings. I hope I did them both justice even
if I don’t always manage to keep them as short as
some would like. Why don’t you come along and see
first hand what is discussed at the monthly council
meetings – there is an opportunity for you to ask
questions and hear direct from your councillors, if
we cannot answer we will always investigate and get
back to you.
As you get to know me better - through articles,
meetings and personally - I hope you will find that
I am always prepared to listen to you, I can’t always
promise to agree with you though. Diary permitting,
I will always try to respond to any invites to come
and see you at any of our towns groups/clubs/
organisations etc. My colleagues are probably sick
of me saying how blessed we are in Swaffham to
have such a number and variety of groups etc for
people to become part of. We hear a lot nationally
about “Loneliness” and I would like to think that is
something that should not exist in our Town. Please
help where you can to ensure your neighbours get
involved in our community and get any support they
might need.
Our shops in town continually face challenges,
none more so than combating internet shopping.
Breckland Council have helped new business recently
through short term rate relief and this is welcomed.
We also have the ShopAppy initiative and I hope
many of you will use it as well as supporting our local
traders. It’s great to welcome two new businesses to
the town - Curry With Love, opposite Costa, and the
Co-op Funeralcare Services. D.A Seaman Opticians
have also relocated from Plowright Place to the old
William Hill shop on the Market Place. The Town
Council fought hard to try and get Barclays Bank to
change their mind about closure, talking with some
of their top people, sadly they stuck to their guns
and the closure will go ahead in July. Let’s hope we
get something nice into the vacant building!
Another passion of mine is to try and keep Swaffham
as a place of interest with events planned for our
local residents and visitors to the area. A lot is
already being done but we need more and working
with local community groups and organisations we
all want to get best value and make Swaffham an
even better and more interesting place to be. What
do you think?
Let me know how you think we could better promote
the town ... drop a line to me at the Town Hall on this
or any ideas on what realistically we could seek to do
to keep Swaffham “on the map”
Cllr Colin Houghton, Mayor 2018/2019
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