The Parish Magazine September 2023

The Parish Magazine - September 2023 1 

The 

Parish 

Magazine 

The John King Trophy and Gold Award 

Best Magazine of the Year 2018 

National Parish Magazine Awards 

Best Overall 2015, 2020, 2022, 

Best Content 2016, 2021 

Best Editor 2019 

Best Print 2018 

Serving the communities of Charvil, Sonning & Sonning Eye since 1869 

September 2023 

Church of St Andrew 

Serving Sonning, Charvil & Sonning Eye 

the church of st andrew, SERVING THE COMMUNITIES OF 

CHARVIL, SONNING and sonning eye SINCE THE 7 th CENTURY

2 The Parish Magazine - September 2023 

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Serving the communities of Charvil, Sonning & Sonning Eye since 1869 




The John King Trophy and Gold Award 

Best Magazine of the Year 2018 

National Parish Magazine Awards 

Best Overall 2015, 2020, 2022, 

Best Content 2016, 2021 

Best Editor 2019 

Best Print 2018 

information — 1 

Contents September 2023 

THE VICAR'S LETTER, 5 

THE PARISH NOTICEBOARD 

— Vicar's 50th birthday, 7 

— FoStAC garden party, 7 

— Church Defibrillator, 7 

— For your prayers, 7 

— STAY, 8-9 

— Christian Community Action, 11 

— From the editor's desk, 11 

— The Persecuted Church, 13 

FEATURES 

— Mysterious Mary, 15 

— Macmillan Coffee, 17 

— Claude recalls the rain, 17 

— World Peace Day, 19 

— School grief, 21 

— What is an angel? 21 

— Charvil heritage, 22-23 

—around the villages 

— Sonning School, 25 

— Inner Wheel 100 years, 27 

— Sonning Scout camp, 27 

— Art group go 'en plein air', 27 

— Twyford and Ruscombe show, 27 

— SSES autumn programme, 27 

— Sonning Village Show, 27 

health 

— Dr Simon Ruffle headaches 2, 29 

THE ARTS 

— Jan Davidsz. de Heem, 31 

— Poetry Corner, 31 

HOME AND GARDEN 

— The Ripple Effect, 33 

— Recipe of the month, 33 

THE sciences 

— Archaeology and the Bible, 33 

— Suffering in the image of God, 33 

FASHION 

— The ethical answer, 35 

history, 37 

PUZZLE PAGES, 37 - 39 

children's page, 41 

information 

— Church services, 3 

— From the registers, 3 

— Local Trades and Services, 40 

— Parish contacts, 42 

— Advertisers' index, 42 

This ISSUE's FRONT COVER 


Parish 

Magazine 

September 2023 

the church of st andrew, SERVING THE COMMUNITIES OF 

CHARVIL, SONNING and sonning eye SINCE THE 7 th CENTURY 

Painting 'en plein air' (see page 27) 

Picture: Maggie Hollidge 

EDITORIAL DEADLINE 

The editorial deadline for every issue 

of The Parish Magazine is 12 noon on 

the sixth day of the month prior to the 

date of publication. 

The deadline for the October 

issue of The Parish Magazine is: 

Wednesday 6 September 

at 12 noon 

The Parish Magazine online 

The most recent issues can be viewed at: 

http://www.theparishmagazine.co.uk 

Earlier issues from 1869 onwards 

are stored in a secure online archive. 

If you wish to view these archives 

contact the editor: 

editor@theparishmagazine.co.uk 

From the Registers 


Services at 

St Andrew’s 

Sunday 3 September 

— 8.00am Holy Communion 

— 10.30am Family Service 

— 4pm Choral Evensong 

followed by tea in The Ark 



— 10.30am Parish Eucharist with 

STAY and Sunday Club 



— 10.30am Family Communion 

— 3.00pm Messy Church 



— 10.30am Parish Eucharist with 

STAY and Sunday Club 

— 5.45pm Sunday at Six in The Ark 

OTHER REGULAR SERVICES 

Morning Prayer is held in church 

every Tuesday at 9.30am. 

Mid-week Communion in The Ark is 

held every Wednesday at 10.00am. Tea 

and coffee follows the service. 

Home Communion at Sonning 

Lawns Care Home is held on the first 

Monday of each month at 11.00am. 

baptisms 

— Sunday 11 June, Lily Grace Loughlin Harvey; Jake Jeremy Loughlin Harvey; 

Henry Alexander Lamont Virgo; Miranda Sarah Longworth-Kraft 

— Sunday 9 July, Evan Joshua Hawkins; Darla Jane Christine Grant 

WEDDINGS 

— Friday 23 June, Kirk Andrew Williamson and Alexandra Dickinson 

— Saturday 24 June, Paul David Giles and Nicola Murray-Smith 

— Saturday 29 July, Christian Owain Rennison-Jones and Martina Leoncini 

— Sunday 6 August, Anthony James Green and Amy Krystyna Lewis 

funerals 

— Monday 12 June, Joan Elizabeth Pierce, funeral service in church followed 

by burial in churchyard 

— Thursday 29 June, Rosemary Stella Holt, interment of ashes in churchyard 

— Tuesday 18 July, Kathleen Betty Banks, service at Reading crematorium 

— Monday 20 July, Josephine Bodley-Scott – funeral service in church followed 

by cremation at Reading Crematorium 

— Wednesday 26 July, Kathleen Betty Banks, interment of ashes in churchyard 

— Monday 31 July, Andrew Kenneth Bell, funeral service in church followed 

by cremation at Reading Crematorium



10 August - 28 September 28 September - 18 November


The vicar's letter 

Dear Friends, 

We are witnessing an 'epidemic' of mental health problems among young 

people, to quote a GP I was recently speaking with. The reasons are manifold 

and complex, and I am sure will be the subject of research for years to come. 

Covid has certainly played a part, but the problems were evident before that 

extraordinary period, and one suspects that so many of the causes have 

stemmed from social media. I am aware of some of these problems as a parent 

of two teenagers but also from several local schools and because of our youth 

ministry in the parish. Social Services and the other agencies tasked with 

addressing this are utterly overwhelmed with huge waiting lists and even 

private clinics face similar pressures. 

One of the personal delights of my 15 years in this parish has been to have 

a hand in creating the facilities and recruiting the right people to start and 

grow a youth ministry. For this to get off the ground, the Church Council back 

in 2009 needed to take a large leap of faith, and this has been amply rewarded 

by God over the years. In July of this year, they took another significant step 

of faith and have committed to the creation of a second post, committed to 

youth and children’s work, focusing specifically on girls. We shall be advertising 

from this month (see page 9), and we have committed to providing housing in 

addition to a salary. We believe this to be a much-needed addition to our youth 

ministry and it will also be a wonderful opportunity for someone to work with, 

and learn from, our very experienced youth minister. One of their roles will 

be to provide mentoring support in local schools for young people suffering all 

kinds of difficulties, just as Westy does. This is behind the scenes work, yet a 

vital support that we as a church offer to the young people in this area. 

In order to resource this new work in the medium to long term, the PCC is 

creating a new charitable trust, designated to support all our work with young 

people and children in this locality. All those who wish to support this will be 

able to become a member/supporter for an annual fee and there will be one 

high quality fund raising event each year, providing an opportunity for people 

of good will, but with no church connections, to support this specific youth 

work, separate from parish finances. More details will follow in the coming 

months. 

While writing about our work with young people and our aspirations for 

developing it further, I feel it is important to state that rigorous safeguarding 

is uppermost in all our minds, and we take very seriously the need to protect all 

our young people and those who work with them. The PCC has recently thanked 

Rachel Argent for her excellent service as parish safeguarding officer as she has 

stepped down from the role, and we have been pleased to appoint Nichola Riley 

as her successor. Nichola is an experienced social worker and so is well placed to 

oversee this vital part of our ministry. I am most grateful to her and know we 

shall all benefit from her insights and expertise. 

We have come a long way and I am hugely grateful to all those who have 

been prepared to take risks with far sighted proposals and plans developed by 

successive PCC’s over the last 15 years. However, we take nothing for granted 

and will always strive to serve the children and young people of our parish, and 

beyond, to the very best of our capability. 

Warm wishes. 

Jamie 

A LEAP OF FAITH 

NEW CHARITABLE TRUST 

RIGOROUS SAFEGUARDING 

TAKING NOTHING FOR GRANTED

6 The Parish Magazine - September 2023 Please mention The Parish Magazine when responding to advertisements 

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the parish noticeboard — 1 

Happy 50th Birthday Jamie! 


There's nothing we, as a church, enjoy more than celebrating 

in a garden and we have had two opportunities to do so 

recently. On Sunday 23 July, following the morning service, 

we hurried to The Ark garden to celebrate Rev Jamie's 50th 

birthday. 

The toast was led by the Rt Hon Theresa May MP who 

reminded us of some of Jamie's many achievements in the 

15 years that he has served as the Vicar of Sonning. As well 

as the bubbly, we demolished two cakes — one for vegan 

and gluten free members and the other, for the others! 

Earlier in July the Friends of St Andrew’s Church held 

their annual Garden Tea Party hosted by Jill and Richard 

Brighton. Over 60 'friends' enjoyed a splendid four-course 

afternoon tea in radiant sunshine. The tickets and a raffle, 

raised over £1,000 towards FoSTAC's vicar’s vestry wall 

project. 

Pictures: top: Keith Hawkins, below left: Sally Wilson; below right: Keith Hawkins 

Please remember your 

donations for the Woodley Food 

Bank and place them in the box 

just inside St Andrew's Church. 

Thank you! 

Pictures by Julie Costis 

Defibrillator at the Parish Office 

A Defibrillator, donated and 

installed by Keith Nichols in 

memory of his wife, Daphne, is 

fully functioning and available 

24 hours a day from the yellow 

cabinet to the right of the 

Parish Office door. The letter 

box has been moved to the left. 

Keith Nichols 

The defibrillator is registered with the Ambulance Service 

so they can direct people to it. Access to the Defibrillator 

is via a combination lock on the cabinet door. In an 

emergency phone 999 and the ambulance service will 

provide the combination number that will enable you to 

open it and follow the instructions to use it. 

For your prayers in September 

— Children starting school, moving schools 

and returning to school 

— Teachers and the new academic year 

— Christian Community Action 

— Rev Kate as she prepares to join 

Earley St Peter's Church as their vicar 

— The recruitment of an additional 

youth minister 

Amarosy, dreamstime.com



St Andrew's Youth 

£100,000+ for 

fatherless boys 

A huge thanks to everyone who sponsored us for 

our big 100km in 24 hours walk on 17-18 June. I’ve 

never been in so much pain and I’m hoping to never 

do that again! However, despite my moaning the 

whole way, we actually raised £8,800 towards 

the grand total of £100,000 for fatherless boys in 

Reading. Chapter 2 use the money to recruit, train 

and provide mentors and positive activities for lads 

who need that little bit of extra support where a 

father figure is absent. In a recent interview with a 

trauma specialist a comment was made that while 

more formal styles of therapy help, it’s long term, 

positive and trusting relationships that will make 

the real difference! 

STAY on Sunday 

Reading Youth Event at KVFC16 

On 16 July we met with over 200 other Reading young people and youth workers 

and fun! We headed over to Kennet Valley Free Church in Calcot and had a great t 

when one of our youth looked over and saw a mate from school, they both pointe 

said; 'Hey, I didn’t know you went to church!' What a great event seeing young pe 

worshipping together and hearing about unity across our communities and churc 

STAY for Summer Holiday Activities 

For the Summer Holidays we organised some fun activities for the young 

Footgolf, paddleboarding, sports sessions in Charvil, a football match v 

Caversham, a Thorpe Park trip and a trip to 

the Waterpark at Caversham Lakes. 

p 

S 

We finished the parables series in July and took 

a break for the summer. We restart on Sunday 10 

September at 10.30am in The Ark. We meet on the 

2nd, 4th and 5th Sunday of each month. 

STAY on Monday 

We meet every two weeks in the young people's 

homes. Last term's series finished with our STIR 

cards and then took a summer break. 

The format for our meetings is: cake and 

questions one week; faith building one week; 

and games one week. Our first meeting after the 

summer break will be on Monday 18 September. 

Thank you to all the parents and volunteers who make STAY activities happen! email or text me for ideas, a


STAY and Emmanuel Church camp out 

at the Satellites Youth Festival 

for a night of worship 

ime! Best moment was 

d at each other and 

ople playing games, 

hes. 

eople to enjoy, including: 

YNC youth group in 

STAY on Friday 

Youth Club is in The 

Ark every Friday 

in term time from 

6.45pm-8.15pm for 

young people in years 

7-13 at school. On the 

4th Friday we welcome 

the year 6s to help 

with their transition to 

year 7. We have games, 

sports, consoles, 

baking, nail bar and a 

tuck shop which now 

takes card payments. 

STAY in Schools 

will be back this month 

after the summer 

holiday break! 

We joined with the youth from Emmanuel Church 

to spend a week camping at the Satellites Youth Festival this 

summer. We spent the week deepening our faith in Jesus through sung worship, 

Bible teaching, sports, cafes, games and seminars. The youth absolutely loved it! 

Dates for next year will be coming out soon! Watch this space. 

chat or to encourage what we are doing — Westy: youthminister@sonningparish.org.uk 0794 622 4306


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Christian 

Community 

support in 

Action 

Christian Community Action 

(CCA) thanks St Andrew's for its 

regular financial support and for 

its parishioners making frequent 

donations of goods to its shops. 

'Your support' they said, 'supports 

our mission to demonstrate God's 

love by providing practical support 

to those in need in Reading while 

encouraging environmental 

sustainability through reuse'. 

Many will be familiar with at least 

one of the charity shops in Sonning 

Common, Whitley, Southcote and 

Oxford Road and its furniture shop 

in Whitley. You may be less aware 

that CCA shops don't provide an 

income. They said: 

'We keep prices low so that 

people living in poverty in local 

communities can buy household 

essentials. Although we're supported 

in our shops by volunteers we still 

need some paid staff and we have to 

pay rent, electricity, waste collection 

and other overheads. Costs have 

risen significantly in the last few 

years particularly in Oxford Road.' 

CONTINUED SUPPORT 

CCA has put much effort into 

reviewing the costs of each shop and 

the needs of the community it serves. 

Its target is to ensure that overall the 

shops break even while recognising 

that in some locations the levels of 

deprivation in the community served 

means some won't. 

As a result of the review CCA has 

made several changes in the way it 

operates and asks that we continue 

to support them with donations and 

especially our prayers. 

You can find out more about 

CCA, its shops, and how to help by 

volunteering and making donations 

of furniture, household accessories, 

and money that will be used to help 

deprived families in the Reading area 

on its website at: 

https://www.ccam.org.uk 

Sad news 

and good 

news . . . 


From the 

editor's 

desk 

editor@theparishmagazine.co.uk 

I have some sad and some good news. Gordon Nutbrown who has played an 

essential part in the development and day-to-day running of The Parish 

Magazine has begun to hand over the responsibility of managing the 

'business' side of our publication to someone else. He feels that, now he is 

in his eighties, a younger person is needed. That's the sad news, of course, 

even though we have known for sometime that he would be stepping down. 

The good news is that our prayers have been answered and we have been 

able to start the hand-over. 

Gordon's role has not only been to manage and generate the revenue to 

enable us to create a magazine that has become recognised as one of the 

best of its kind in the country, it has also been to offer his knowledge of 

the printing and publishing world and his skill in using it to create a sound 

business model that has given us the freedom to do what we do today. He will 

not be dropping everything and walking away, our plan is for him to hand 

things over in a well-ordered fashion — which, if you know Gordon, is what 

you would expect! 

EXCITING CHALLENGE 

The first phase will be the handover of the management of the advertising, 

and the good news is that we have already started doing this. Harriet Nelson, 

who I and some other church members, have known since she was a baby, has 

offered to help us. Some years ago it was my privilege to lead a group of young 

people through the Confirmation preparation course and Harriet, with her 

twin sister, Ella, were two of the young people. Both of the twins sometimes 

help at the Rendezvous in The Ark lunch and at the Friday youth club. 

Recently, Harriet graduated from university with a degree in Fashion 

Marketing. Importantly, her main interest is in printed publications, 

rather than those designed for viewing on the internet — there are distinct 

differences in the two types. 

Harriet will begin by managing the day-to-day advertising which involves 

liaising with our advertisers, not only to sell them the space in the magazine, 

but to ensure the advertisements are kept up-to-date and of a quality that 

adds to the overall look and feel of our magazine. When you realise that 

we have over 65 regular advertisers you can see that it is a challenging task 

to look after them all, but I know it is a challenge that she is excited about 

taking on. 

While Harriet gets to grip with the advertising challenge, Gordon will 

continue for a short time with his other responsibilities of liaising with our 

printers and distributors and negotiating next year's contracts with them. 

KEEPING UP WITH THE FASHION 

And there is more good news concerning Harriet. As well as being 

interested in the marketing side of publishing printed magazines, Harriet is 

keen to develop her journalistic skills that were also part her degree studies. 

One of her great interests is in fashion journalism and strangely I have had 

in mind for sometime to include a family fashion page in our magazine, but I 

had no idea how or who could help me — and as I'm sure all those who know 

me, will also know that fashion is not my strong point! God has answered 

another of my prayers and in this issue I am pleased to announce that we 

have introduced a new, and I hope, regular page, written by Harriet, that will 

look at aspects of family fashion — see page 35. I hope you enjoy it!



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PARISH NOTICEBOARD — 4 


THE persecuted church by colin bailey 

Pray that a terrorist resurgence in Africa is not realised 

Public Domain Crown copyright 

Ekaterina Tsvetkova, dreamstime.com 

Ben Wallace, the longest serving Conservative Secretary of State for Defence 

is said to be resigning from the Cabinet at the next reshuffle — likely to be in 

this Autumn. He has also announced that he will not run for Parliament at the 

next General Election. In an article by Tim Shipman for 'The Sunday Times' on 

15 July, he points out that the three things that keep him awake at night are 

the continuing threat from Putin’s Russia, an ‘increasingly aggressive’ China, 

and terrorist groups. He is also cited as warning that Britain could be dragged 

into a shooting war in Africa where al-Qaeda and Isis (the ‘Islamic State’ group) 

threaten the future of nation states. 

He warns of a possible ‘resurgence’ 

of Isis, or al-Qaeda in Africa. The 

latter’s growth is because some 

governments are not able to withstand 

them. The biggest faction is Al-Shabaab 

in Somalia, who pose a threat also in 

north and west Africa — he mentions 

Mali and Burkina Faso. Isis, he reports, 

took over a town in Mozambique. 

In this column in January we noted 

Islamic extremism is on the rise in 

Mozambique, with 21 Christians killed 

by Islamists in the north of the country 

during 2022. In February we discussed 

the growing influence of Islamic 

extremist groups in Burkina Faso. The 

country went up nine places in the 

2023 Open Doors World Watch List of 

the top 50 countries that are the most 

dangerous to be a Christian in. 

MILLIONS OF REFUGEES 

Open Doors has reported how 

Sudan had re-entered the Top Ten in 

the World Watch List this year. African 

Commonwealth countries Cameroon, 

Mozambique and Nigeria feature in the 

2023 World Watch List at numbers 45, 

32 and six respectively. 

Barnabas Aid has launched an 

appeal, Bless Africa (helping suffering 

Christians in Africa - project PR1619). 

This is in the light of ‘rampant’ 

anti-Christian violence in much of 

sub-Saharan Africa, where there are 

millions of refugees in desperate need. 

Burkina Faso has also been particularly 

subject to jihadi attacks. At least 11,000 

Christians in northern and middle 

belt Nigeria have died due to violent 

persecution since 2015. Call 0179 374 

4557 or go to the Barnabas Aid Bless 

Africa Appeal web page (see references 

below) if you would like to learn more 

and/or support. 

CONCERNS 

Another country hitherto without 

the same incidence of persecution has 

recently made the news: a massacre 

claiming 42 lives took place at a 

Christian school in Kasese District, 

western Uganda. Even more recently, 

news has come in that soldiers in Niger 

who staged a coup which sparked 

international condemnation declared 

their leader the new head of state on 28 

July. There are concerns that this will 

hinder Niger’s fight against jihadists 

and also boost Russia’s influence 

in west Africa. According to NPR 

(National Public Radio of the US), Niger 

is seen as the last reliable partner for 

the West in efforts to battle jihadists 

linked to al-Qaeda and the ‘Islamic 

State’ group in Africa’s Sahel region. 

This is the area broadly between the 

Sahara and the Sudanian savanna, 

encompassing the countries of Burkina 

Faso, Cameroon, Chad, The Gambia, 

Hyotographics, dreamstime.com 

Guinea, Mauritania, Mali, Niger, 

Nigeria and Senegal. 

At the time of writing it is Niger’s 

Independence Day and US President 

Joe Biden took the opportunity to say 

the US ‘stands with the people of Niger’ 

and called for President Bazoum and 

his family to be immediately released. 

Meanwhile, European countries have 

continued to evacuate foreign nationals 

from the country. The 15-nation bloc 

ECWAS (Economic Community of West 

African States) has threatened to use 

force to put down the coup. Defence 

heads from the bloc have said military 

intervention was ‘the last resort’. 

Let us pray that Ben Wallace’s 

warnings about resurgence of the 

terrorist forces are not realised, and 

that stable government and peace is 

established in the region. 

REFERENCES 

Sunday Times Ben Wallace article: https:// 

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/ben-wallaceim-resigning-from-politics-next-cabinetreshuffle-2023-k0x9st2rt 

Open Doors: https://www.opendoorsuk.org/ 

persecution/world-watch-list/ 

Barnabas Aid Bless Africa Appeal: https:// 

mailchi.mp/barnabasfund/bless-africanchristians-with-aid-in-the-midst-of-violentpersecution?e=a668ae9426 

Barnabas Aid on Ugandan Christian school 

massacre: https://www.barnabasaid.org/ 

gb/latest-needs/urgent-aid-for-ugandanchristians-after-school-massacre/ 

NPR article on Niger general declared head 

of state by soldiers following coup: https:// 

www.npr.org/2023/07/29/1190897332/ 

soldiers-declare-niger-general-head-ofstate-coup 

President Biden on Niger: https://www. 

whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statementsreleases/2023/08/03/statement-frompresident-biden-on-the-occasion-of-nigersindependence-day/ 

Guardian article on Niger: https://www. 

theguardian.com/world/2023/aug/02/ 

african-bloc-to-meet-to-discuss-niger-coupas-evacuations-continue



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feature — 1 


Mysterious 

Mary 

the 

virgin 

mother 

of 

Jesus 

The Blessed Virgin Mary , Vividaphoto, dreamstime.com 

On Friday 8 September Christians 

around the world celebrate the 

birthday of the Blessed Virgin 

Mary. While being the best known 

and much loved mother in history, 

she remains one of the greatest 

mysteries of all time. 

Most of what we know about Mary 

are the brief mentions of her in the 

New Testament concerned with the 

birth and early life of Jesus, and that 

she witnessed his death on the Cross. 

She said very little apart from telling 

the waiters at a wedding feast to do 

as Jesus told them, which is good 

advice for us all. 

HYMN OF PRAISE 

According to Sister M Danielle 

Peters, University of Dayton, there 

are four different occasions when 

Mary’s words are recorded in the 

Bible: 

Luke gives an account of the 

Mary's dialogue with the angel at the 

Annunciation when she was told that 

she would give birth to the Saviour 

(Luke 1:26-38); 

Her encounter with Elizabeth 

her cousin that prompted a hymn 

of praise known as the Magnificat, 

(Luke 1:46-56); 

When Jesus, aged 12 years old was 

found in the temple (Luke 2:41-52). 

And when Mary's words are 

recorded at a wedding at Cana (John 

2:1-11) when she tells the waiters 

to do as Jesus tells them, and this 

results in the first recorded miracle 

performed by Jesus when he turned 

water into wine 

However, we can also unravel 

the mystery of Mary a little more 

in Matthew's account of an angel 

visiting Joseph who was betrothed 

to her. We are told that when Joseph 

woke up, he did what the angel of the 

Lord had commanded him and took 

Mary home as his wife. 

FOUR BROTHERS 

However, in an unsubstantiated 

document called the Protoevangelium 

of James, there are some more details 

of Mary's early life. It is believed 

to have been written in the 2nd 

Century by James a brother of Jesus. 

According to Mark 6:3, Jesus had four 

brothers and two sisters: 'Is he not 

the carpenter, the son of Mary, and the 

brother of James and Joses and Judas 

and Simon?' 

The Protoevangelium reveals that 

Mary was born miraculously to a 

wealthy man and his wife who up 

until then had not been able to have 

children. Her story seems to reflect 

the Old Testament account of the 

The Protoevangelium of James, Public Domain 

birth of Samuel to Hannah and her 

husband Elkanah. 

Mary was then shielded from the 

world in a sanctuary where she was 

cared for by 'undefiled daughters of the 

Hebrews'. 

At 3 years of age, the child was 

moved to the Temple in Jerusalem 

where she is said to have been fed by 

an angel. 

As she grew to puberty at about 

12 years old, the strict temple rules 

meant she could no longer live there 

and so a safe home was found for 

her with Joseph, a village carpenter, 

who we are told was a member of the 

'House of David'. 

Following the immaculate 

conception, Joseph had a series of 

dreams that prompted him to marry 

Mary. And so when Jesus — a name 

chosen by God — was born he was a 

member of the House of David as had 

long been expected. 

THE REALITY 

Just as there are many legends 

about Mary and her life following 

the death of Jesus, there are many 

legends about Joseph. But legends 

fuel mysteries, and while they can be 

fun, they can't distract us from the 

reality of God's love for each of us 

and the world he created for us.



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feature — 2 

It's never too late to have a Macmillan 

Coffee Morning – just do it! 


C laude 

recalls ... 

It ain’t 

gonna 

rain no 

more! 

The official Macmillan Coffee Morning this year is on Friday 29 September, 

but you can, of course, host one anytime throughout the year. And it doesn't 

matter what form your event takes; the only common denominator is that 

the result of your fund raising goes towards supporting people living with 

cancer. 

The first Macmillan Coffee Morning 

was held 33 years ago in 1990 and 

since then they have raised over 

£290 million for Macmillan Cancer 

Research. The Macmillan Cancer 

Support organisation takes its 

name from a young man, Douglas 

Macmillan, who. after watching his 

father die from cancer, wanted to 

help others who faced the pain and 

suffering of this disease, and he 

wanted to help their families and 

loved ones who witness it. 

EVIDENCE 

In 1911, Douglas formed the 

Society for the Prevention and Relief 

of Cancer with the aim of enabling 

everyone with cancer to receive care 

in their own homes from voluntary 

nurses. The Society's first notable 

achievement was to publish The Blue 

Book which was heralded as a ground 

breaking study of cancer mortality in 

the UK. 

It's easy to underestimate the 

significance of Douglas Macmillan's 

achievements until you realise that 

humans and animals have suffered 

from cancer since time began. 

According to the American Cancer 

Society there is evidence of cancer 

in fossilized bone tumours, human 

mummies in ancient Egypt, and it is 

mentioned in ancient manuscripts. 

Growths suggestive of the bone 

cancer called osteosarcoma have 

been seen in mummies. Bony skull 

destruction as seen in cancer of the 

head and neck has also been found. 

The oldest description of cancer 

was discovered in Egypt and 

dates from about 3,000 BC, which 

interestingly is also about the time 

of Noah's flood in Bible. 

As well describing the disease, 

the Egyptian descriptions of cancer 

say that there is no treatment for 

it. These early reports did not call 

it cancer, this name is credited to 

Hippocrates (460-370 BC), who is 

known as the 'Father of Medicine'. 

Hippocrates used the terms carcinos 

and carcinoma to describe non-ulcer 

forming and ulcer-forming tumours. 

Douglas Macmillan helped 

to change the way the world had 

thought about, and treated, cancer, 

and as the organisation he founded 

says. 'Today much of Douglas's 

legacy lives on. We’ve continually 

adapted the support we offer to 

ensure it’s right for people today 

and will be right in the future too. 

Our determination to continually 

improve the experience of cancer is 

something that will never waver.' 

To find out more about how 

holding a coffee morning can raise 

funds for Macmillan Cancer Support, 

and the support materials and ideas 

that are available to help you, see: 

https://coffee.macmillan.org.uk/ 

Photographerlondon, 

dreamstime.com 

A very British habit is to talk 

continually about the weather. 

A family friend of mine from 

Hungary came to live in Britain 

for some years and wondered why 

the British were fixated about the 

weather. Within weeks she came 

to understand our ‘four seasons 

in a day climate’ and very quickly 

became as obsessed as the rest of 

us. 

I remember well the 1947 floods 

when the Thames burst its banks and 

our church — St John the Baptist 

Caversham — appeared as an island 

as the water crept up Donkin Hill. It 

benefited from being built on higher 

ground than the houses around it. 

I lost about 6 weeks of school due 

to the flooding and then came a coal 

shortage. It was at this time that the 

ditties below stuck in my mind and 

came to mean more to me. 

'It ain’t gonna rain no more no more. 

It ain’t gonna rain no more. How in the 

hell can the old folks tell that it ain’t 

gonna rain no more!’ 

And… 'We’ll weather the weather 

what ever the weather, whether we 

like it or not!' 

They came from my grandfather 

who I still remember. He was a 

printer by trade and lived with us 

from when I was born until he died 

in 1947. He was the most kind and 

generous man and became ‘Grandad’ 

to every kid on the street.


feature — 2 


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feature — 3 

United Nations International Day of Peace, Saturday 23 September 


Shlama l'kulhum — Shalom Aleichem — Peace be upon you! 

2,000 years ago, Jesus left God's 

peace in the world when he told his 

followers: Peace I leave with you; my 

peace I give to you. Not as the world 

gives do I give to you. (John 14:27). 

The Bible teaches us that God's peace 

is to be shared with everyone, yet 

today the opposite of peace — war 

and violent conflicts — still rank 

alongside climate change and hunger 

as one of the most serious issues 

facing our world. 

Indeed, the United Nations 

Secretary-General António Guterres 

said, 

'Peace is needed today more than 

ever. War and conflict are unleashing 

devastation, poverty, and hunger, 

and driving tens of millions of people 

from their homes. Climate chaos is all 

around. And even peaceful countries 

are gripped by gaping inequalities and 

political polarization.' 

An International Day of Peace 

was established in 1981 by the 

United Nations General Assembly 

to highlight this issue. Two decades 

later, in 2001, the General Assembly 

unanimously voted to designate it as 

a period of non-violence and ceasefire. 

EVERYDAY PEACE 

This year the UN International 

Day of Peace is on Saturday 23 

September. 

While a special day for the laying 

down of arms and to encourage 

people to think and act peacefully 

is an excellent idea and should be 

welcomed by all, to achieve the true, 

lasting peace that God had in mind 

when the world was created requires 

every person to accept the gift of 

peace that Jesus brought into it, and 

then share it with everyone they 

meet everyday of their life. 

The true, everlasting peace that 

we all long for can only become a 

reality if it begins to be shared by 

individuals and spreads upwards 

and outwards into the world, rather 

than from the top down. There's 

an excellent example of how this 

'bottom-to-top' peace spreading idea 

works in the Old Testament book of 

Ezekiel (47). 

Pointing the way to peace in three languages 

Ezekiel writes about a vision 

he saw of the Temple in Jerusalem 

(below). The water he sees coming 

out of the Temple contains the Holy 

Spirit that had been poured over 

the altar. Instead of soaking away 

into the dry ground as water would 

usually do, the Holy Spirit makes 

it grow into a stream, then a river 

that gets deeper and stronger. It 

eventually travels from one of the 

highest places in the world — the 

site of the Temple — to the deepest, 

deadliest place, the Dead Sea, where 

it brings new life and abundant food. 

This is how we can expect the 

Holy Spirit to work within us when 

Ezekiel 47: The River of Life 

Ilia Torlin, dreamstime.com 

we share God's love and peace with 

others and encourage them to 

share it with their families, friends, 

neighbours colleagues and everyone 

they meet. 

This bottom-to-top process is 

what the UN's World Peace Day is all 

about. We can't all initiate ceasefires 

in our neighbourhood, but by doing 

peaceful acts of kindness and love to 

all whom we meet we can help peace 

spread into the world — and don't 

forget, there are 364 more days in 

the year that we can start spreading 

some peace or Shalom, which is 

Hebrew for all the good things in life 

that God wants for each of us. 

The man brought me back to the entrance to the temple, and I saw water coming out from 

under the threshold of the temple toward the east (for the temple faced east). The water 

was coming down from under the south side of the temple, south of the altar. He then 

brought me out through the north gate and led me around the outside to the outer gate 

facing east, and the water was trickling from the south side. 

As the man went eastward with a measuring line in his hand, he measured off a 

thousand cubits and then led me through water that was ankle-deep. He measured off 

another thousand cubits and led me through water that was knee-deep. He measured off 

another thousand and led me through water that was up to the waist. He measured off 

another thousand, but now it was a river that I could not cross, because the water had risen 

and was deep enough to swim in — a river that no one could cross. He asked me, 'Son of 

man, do you see this?' 

Then he led me back to the bank of the river. When I arrived there, I saw a great number 

of trees on each side of the river. He said to me, 'This water flows toward the eastern region 

and goes down into the Arabah, where it enters the Dead Sea. When it empties into the sea, 

the salty water there becomes fresh. Swarms of living creatures will live wherever the river 

flows. There will be large numbers of fish, because this water flows there and makes the 

salt water fresh; so where the river flows everything will live. Fishermen will stand along 

the shore; from En Gedi to En Eglaim there will be places for spreading nets. The fish will be 

of many kinds — like the fish of the Mediterranean Sea. But the swamps and marshes will 

not become fresh; they will be left for salt. Fruit trees of all kinds will grow on both banks of 

the river. Their leaves will not wither, nor will their fruit fail. Every month they will bear fruit, 

because the water from the sanctuary flows to them. Their fruit will serve for food and their 

leaves for healing.' 

Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal. (Martin Luther King Jr)



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feature — 4 

Editor: As part of her English language course work, 

our granddaughter, Angel (right) aged 14 years and 

who does not attend a school in our parish, had 

to research and present a short speech about any 

subject of her choice. She chose . . . 

How education 

responds to grief 

Hello! I will be speaking about 

something very personal to me — 

education's response to grief. 

Grief affects many people in 

different ways but it is how the 

people around you support you that 

counts the most. 

There are five stages of grief: 

denial, anger, bargaining, depression 

and acceptance. None of these are 

easy, especially when you are a 

student — and I should know. 

MY FAULT? 

My father died in early December 

2022 and the next day I was forced to 

go into school as it was not permitted 

for me to have time off to grieve, and 

this is the case for many people. 

A few days after my father passed 

away some other students were 

causing trouble about it and made 

fun of my father. 

When I took it to the school they 

blamed me for the problem, as if it 

was my own fault that my dad had 

died? It was certainly not the case. 

Many schools around the world do 

this and it certainly isn't the fault of 

the grieving student. 

Sue Peters 

After the bullying had continued 

for a few months the school 

eventually changed my tutor group 

because they didn't have any other 

way to resolve the problem. 

Again, they were punishing me 

for something that was not my fault! 

Grieving can be a very long 

process but education seems to think 

it only takes a few days. 

It would be easier if they provided 

support such as counselling, safe 

spaces or even just an adult to talk 

to, but, in my experience, they don't 

consider the pupil's feelings and 

constantly upset grieving students 

by shouting, or getting angry with 

them for simply grieving, which 

is something that doesn't hurt 

anybody. 

Through the tears and everlasting 

fear, I carry on day by day without 

further words spoken nor heard. I 

had to get over it to meet the school's 

requirements, not mine. 

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29 September: St Michael and All Angels 

What is an 

angel? 

By Rev Canon David Winter 

A shining figure with glorious wings 

who appears from time to time to do 

mighty work for God or bring a very 

special message from him? 

That’s right in a sense, apart from the 

wings, which we owe more to stained 

glass windows than the Bible. But 

the fact that not all ‘angels’ in the 

Bible are ‘glorious’ or ‘shining’ should 

make us hesitate to categorise them in 

this spectacular way. After all, three 

apparently ordinary men who visited 

Abraham and Sarah to say she would 

have a son even though she was long 

past child-bearing. Nevertheless, 

Abraham recognised them as divine 

messengers. 

WHO ARE ANGELS? 

The Bible is full of angels who have a 

key role in crucial events. It seems that 

Michael was their leader, an ’archangel’. 

In many stained glass windows he has a 

sword, because in a vision in Revelation 

he led the angelic host who defeated 

Satan and his army. 

In the Gospels, an angel appeared to 

Zechariah, to tell him that his elderly 

wife was to have a son, the forerunner 

of the Messiah, John the Baptist. The 

angel Gabriel – appeared to Mary to 

say she would be the mother of the 

Messiah. An angel appeared to Joseph, 

the carpenter, to tell him to marry 

Mary, and, in another dream, warned 

him not to go back to Bethlehem. 

A ‘young man’, another angel, was 

waiting in the empty tomb on Easter 

morning, to tell the startled women 

that Jesus had risen. 

These, and others, show the word 

angel covers an enormous diversity of 

experience. Some recognised angels 

for who they were, and some didn’t. 

Angels, quite simply, are God’s agents or 

messengers and ministers of God's will. 

Sometimes they are human; sometimes 

spiritual beings. 

Perhaps we could say that anyone, 

in any situation, who is at that moment 

God’s ‘messenger’ to us, or serves us 

graciously, is an ‘angel’. So, when we say, 

‘Be an angel and pop up to the chemist 

for my prescription’, we may be nearer 

the heart of the matter than we think!


feature — 5 

DELVING INTO C 

Old Bath Road 

Railway Line 

Park View Drive 

Park Lane 

Waingels Road 

Milestone Avenue 

New Bath Road 

Old Bath Road 

Wee Waif 

Charvil Lane 

6 JUNE 1942 

English Heritage (NMR) Photography 

September is now well established as the month when the UK celebrates its unique 

heritage, so this year we thought we would delve a little into Charvil's heritage, but you 

may ask, where can you delve? writes Bob Peters. 

The answer is, there are three places to 

start: the English Heritage National 

Monuments Record, an excellent little 

book called A Walk around Charvil by Bill 

Crane, and, of course, The Parish Magazine 

archives which date from 1869 (see page 3). 

English Heritage is a charity that 

looks after a public archive containing 

10 million photographs, plans, database 

records and other information on 

England's architecture and archaeology, 

and my experience of using their 

service recently is excellent. One of our 

churchwardens has in his possession a 

set of aerial photographs of part of our 

parish. They date from 1942 to the 1970s 

and include the two aerial photographs 

published above. They clearly show that 

Charvil's heritage is primarily agricultural 

like many English villages. 

In 1942 wartime Britain, there 

were only a few isolated homesteads in 

Charvil, while 25 years later it had begun 

to be developed into a more residential 

community. Since then, of course, it has 

probably doubled in size to the Charvil 

we know today to include a good variety 

of housing, a much-used village hall, a 

A Parish Landmark: The Wee Waif at Charvil by Stev


HARVIL'S HERITAGE 

Railway Line 

Old Bath Road 

Park View Drive 

Park Lane 

Waingels Road 

Old Bath Road 

New Bath Road 

Milestone Avenue 

Wee Waif 

Charvil Lane 

13 JUNE 1967 

English Heritage (NMR) Photography 

e Daniels 

wikimedia commons 

primary school, well-used recreation fields 

with tennis courts and other facilities. 

The photographs were taken by the 

RAF and were originally restricted for 

obvious reasons of national security. They 

are now part of the National Monuments 

Record and we therefore had to seek 

permission to publish them. To my 

surprise the charity's service was very 

efficient especially as I tend to do things 

at the last minute! 

I also delved into Bill Crane's book, 

which was published in 1994 by the 

Twyford and Ruscombe Local History 

Society, to check when Charvil's 

'landmark', the Wee Waif hotel, garage 

and shop complex, was established. Bill 

dates it from the 1920s and writes 'in the 

1930s many well known people, including 

Royalty, are said to have stopped regularly 

at the Wee Waif for lunch or tea.' 

The name, Wee Waif, came from a 

fund raising event held there for Sir 

Alfred Fripp's East End Charities that 

benefitted his 'wee waifs'. 

By the start of the 190os Charvil 

had about 20 homes, but this has 

steadily grown as can be seen in our two 

photographs above. Since 1967 further 

development has seen even greater 

growth which means this magazine 

is delivered to over 3,000 people 

in Charvil. In terms of population, 

Charvil, which had a handful of people 

is now the largest part of the parochial 

church parish of St Andrew's.

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around the villages — 1 

around the villages — 1 SONNING E 


Carrying kindness, respect 

and support into a new year 

Sonning CofE Primary School headteacher, Phil Sherwood, reflects on the 

previous year as the new academic year is about to start . . . 

The summer holiday has been 

very busy, with lots of projects 

and improvements taking place. 

However, just like New Year’s Day, 

the beginning of a new academic year 

allows for a time of reflection and 

thoughts of a 'fresh start'. 

Looking back to last term, we 

enjoyed a brilliant sports day and 

saw some excellent kindness, respect 

and support for others from our 

pupils and the crowd. 

Our thanks to Reading Cricket 

and Hockey Club for allowing us to 

use their car park to ease parking 

congestion on the roads. 

RESULTS 

Our year culminated with goodbyes 

to our wonderful Oak class and 

celebrations for our Year 6 end of key 

stage assessment results, which were 

some of our best ever. 

Our results can be viewed at: 

https://www.sonning.wokingham.sch.uk/ 

page/?title=Performance+Data&pid=31 

We are now looking forward to 

continuing the excellent work of the 

previous 12 months and providing 

even more for our pupils. 

It is also an opportunity for 

us to say thank you to our local 

community for all their support — 

we are always so grateful for the 

connections we have in the area. 

GARDEN HELP 

A summer project has been 

moving our growing beds and areas 

to our courtyard area to create a new 

growing area. We are always looking 

for volunteers to help with gardening 

and outdoor projects, so if you would 

be able and willing to offer your time 

to run a gardening club with our 

pupils at a lunchtime or after school, 

please get in touch via the school 

office: 0118 969 3399 or spsadmin@ 

sonning.wokingham.sch.uk 

We will do all relevant 

safeguarding checks such as a DBS 

check. 

CAREER ADVICE 

One event occurring later in the 

year is a careers day for pupils. If 

there are any local residents who 

have a profession they would be 

willing to share with us, please get in 

touch. We would be very excited to 

hear from you. 

We hope to build a list of people 

willing to share their job and career 

with the pupils in school. 

Volunteers would need to be 

available in early July 2024, and 

be prepared to speak to different 

classes, and possibly the whole 

school as part of an assembly. 

If you are able to volunteer your 

time, please contact us via the school 

office on 0118 969 3399 or 

spsadmin@sonning.wokingham.sch.uk


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around the villages — 2 


1st Sonning-on-Thames Scout Group Family Camp June 2023: Beavers, cubs, scouts and their families met at Phasels Wood 

Activity Centre near Hemel Hempstead to enjoy a wide range of fun and adventurous activities, as well as top-notch food 

produced by the hard-working camp committee and adult helpers. The weekend was a great group send-off for the outgoing 

Group Scout Leader, Mike Moore, before he moves out of the area later this year. At the same time, they said goodbye to Group 

Chair, Oli Stickley, after five years’ dedicated service to Sonning Scouts. 

Inner Wheel 

celebrates 100 

years worldwide 

The Association of Inner Wheel 

Clubs in Great Britain & Ireland 

is celebrating its 100th birthday 

all over the world. Although it is 

now an international organisation 

with around 108,000 members in 

104 countries, it was founded in 

Manchester, England in January 

1924 (the Inner Wheel year runs 

from July to June). 

In the UK members support refuge 

centres for abused women, child 

centres and drop-in centres, school 

breakfast clubs and much more. 

The local Inner Wheel Club of 

Reading Maiden Erlegh, which meets 

on the third Thursday of every month 

in Sonning Golf Club at 7.15pm, has 

given support in many other ways. 

This coming year will include a 

Black Tie Gala Dinner Dance, Bridge 

Drives, an Art Cafe at the Rotary 

Charity Art and Craft Fair and 

supporting Santa as his elves in his 

Christmas Grotto. 

The Association's president's 

theme for this special year is '100 for 

100' when members will try to find 

100 ways to make a difference. 

For more information visit: 

https://innerwheel.co.uk/district-9/ 

readingmaidenerlegh/ 

Painting inside and 'en plein air' 

Sonning Art Group's busy summer began with a very enjoyable 

workshop in watercolours from Jonathan Newey a talented 

artist (right) who generously gave many tips and useful advice 

suitable for all artists from beginners to experienced He runs 

classes and workshops monthly and it is well worth looking 

at https://jonathannewey.com for details of his classes in 

many mediums. 

The group had a perfect summer's day at 

Sonning Mill for an afternoon of sketching and 

painting 'en plein air' — outside. (See front cover) 

The group was extremely sad to learn of 

the death of Andy Bell, the husband of its 

chair, Sue. Although not officially a member 

of the club he was a great support for Sue and the 

group and did sterling work behind the scenes to 

ensure the smooth running of the club. 

Autumn show entries open to everyone 

Twyford and Ruscombe Horticultural Association is busy planning its Autumn 

Show, which will be held in Loddon Hall, Twyford, on Saturday 9 September. 

It will be an 'Open' competition so see the Schedule of Classes on their website 

if you want to exhibit. The association is looking forward to seeing the junior 

members who will be bringing their runner beans to be measured. 

Visitors are welcome and refreshments with homemade cakes will be available. 

The association's website is at http://www.trha.org.uk for details of all activities 

or, if you wish to take advantage of all the benefits of TRHA you can apply for 

membership by emailing Jenny Wager at trhamembership@gmail.com or visit their 

store in Loddon Hall Road, Twyford on Sunday mornings 9.30am to 11.00am. 

Sonning & Sonning Eye Society autumn programme 

29 September at 7.30pm: Lionel Williams, a talk on the history of the Reading 

Hospitals and how they evolved. 

27 October at 7.30pm: Neil Pitts, explorer and adventurer, entertains with the 

challenges he faced while attempting to ski across Norway. 

18 November: AGM and dinner 

All the above events are held in Pearson Hall. 

Tickets can be obtained from the society's website or from Penny Feathers on 

penny.feathers@btinternet.com 0118 934 3193 

Sonning Village Show is being held on Saturday 16 September at Sonning C of E Primary School. 

If you have not received a schedule, pick one up from St Andrew's Church porch and enter as many classes as 

possible. Entries must be submitted on the day between 10am and 12 noon. The Fete opens at 2pm.



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HEALTH 

Dr Simon Ruffle writes . . . Another headache? 

Kiosea39, dreamstime.com 

In the last issue (July/August) we talked about headaches, mainly migraine, 

but we skipped over one of the commonest — tension headache. 

My previous article discussed the importance of the history of the headache in 

making an accurate diagnosis. The same goes for tension headache. It has its 

own diagnosis and specific way of treating it. It is a primary headache disorder, 

which means that it has no other illness causing it 

Tension headache can last between 

30 minutes and 7 days. It has a 

pressing, or vice like nature. 

It is not associated with nausea 

and vomiting. It is not pulsatile; 

this symptom is more common 

with headache associated with viral 

illnesses, although when ‘chronic’ mild 

nausea and occasional vomiting can 

occur. We will explore this further. 

It is on both sides of the head 

but can come with light and sound 

sensitivity. Activity and normal life 

may be uncomfortable because of 

the headache but it doesn’t make it 

worse. The pain often spreads beyond 

the head and is common in the neck 

muscles. 

Most of us will experience a tension 

headache in a year. We would not make 

a diagnosis of a tension headache 

disorder. 

CATEGORIES 

Categories of tension headache can 

help with managing them. 

Patients can be categorised with 

infrequent episodic, frequent episodic 

and chronic tension headache disorder. 

To standardise diagnosis, 

treatment, and research, there is 

the International Classification of 

Headaches Disorders (ICHD). We are 

currently on version 3. 

Essentially, taking the correct 

history can match a patient to 

a diagnosis and the best way of 

treatment. It also allows us to 

recognise where the diagnosis may not 

fit or if there is treatment failure, we 

can understand why. 

The ICHD-3 describes tension 

headaches as 

Infrequent episodic — at least 10 

episodes of headache occurring on 

less than 1 day per month on average 

(fewer than 12 days per year). 

Frequent episodic — at least 10 

episodes of headache occurring on 

fewer than 15 days per month on 

average, for more than 3 months. 

Chronic — evolves from frequent 

episodic tension-type headache, 

headache occurring on 15 days or more 

per month on average, for more than 3 

months and: 

— Lasting hours to days, or 

unremitting. 

— At least two of bilateral location; 

pressing or tightening (non-pulsating) 

quality; mild or moderate intensity; 

and not aggravated by routine physical 

activity such as walking. 

— Neither moderate or severe nausea 

nor vomiting and no more than one 

of photophobia, phonophobia, or mild 

nausea. 

— Not better accounted for by another 

cause, such as medication overuse. 

MEDICATION OVERUSE 

Medication overuse headache 

(MOH) is useful as this is probably 

more common than we think. Use 

of daily paracetamol, ibuprofen and 

codeine can lead to a tension type 

headache because of treatment. MOH 

is more common but not exclusive to 

patients with other headache types 

such as migraine. Care is needed to 

ask patients, who don’t often admit, to 

using ‘pills’ daily. 

Infrequent headache can be 

managed by paracetamol or ibuprofen. 

If associated with neck pain, ice pack 

or heat packs can help. 

Frequent and chronic headaches 

need a different strategy. Finding out 

individual triggers may be beneficial 

— caffeine, alcohol, and stress being 

the common factors. Yoga, exercise, 

massage, and acupuncture may help. 

Painkillers may precipitate MOH so 

if the impact of the headache is severe 

then some antidepressants and antiepilepsy 

medication may be used but 

these have their own side effects. 

LIFE THREATENING? 

In the last two articles we have 

not mentioned anything that is lifethreatening 

because this is rare. Life 

threatening headaches have specific 

onsets and headaches associated with 

cancer in the brain come with other 

symptoms. 

A headache that feels like being 

struck in the back of the head with 

a bat is a 999 emergency. Headaches 

associated with brain tumours do not 

fit the ICHD categories and have other 

symptoms that are too numerous 

to list but a change in personality or 

fitting is worrying. 

If you are suffering with headaches 

keep a detailed diary and maybe 

send this to your doctor before an 

appointment. 

Like most conditions, a history is 

the key, a phone call is adequate for 

this; investigations, examinations and 

follow up can then be arranged. 

Brain scans are reassuring but 

rarely add anything to the diagnosis. 

Blood test may help in looking for 

secondary causes of headaches. 

Opiate medications, such as 

codeine, morphine, oxycodone, 

buprenorphine have no place in 

managing primary headache disorders.



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THE ARTS 

All things bright and beautiful 

By Rev Canon Michael Burgess 

In September, we give thanks for God’s blessings 

in all that the earth yields us. Those blessings 

are focused in this wonderful painting 'A Vase of 

Flowers' by Jan Davidsz. de Heem. 

He was born in Utrecht, Holland in 1606 and 

studied art under his father’s guidance. De Heem 

then moved to Antwerp, where for the rest of his 

life he created paintings of such beauty and depth 

that one of them — a portrait of Prince William III 

surrounded by blossoms and fruits — received the 

highest price ever paid for a painting at that time. 

TIME STANDS STILL 

In the ‘Vase of Flowers’ de Heem has gathered a 

bouquet of variegated flowers and plants for our 

delight. 

Time stands still in his painting in two ways. 

First, these 31 blooms could never have flowered 

at the same time, but through the magical touch 

of the artist, they do for us. Caught on canvas, 

they are as fresh and vibrant as the day they were 

painted in 1645. 

But there are signs that the gifts of nature do 

wither and die, as we look closely and see on the 

marble slab a snail. Nearby is a salamander eyeing 

his next meal as a spider hangs on a thread from 

one of the flowers. In the centre, another snail 

looks at his food, the beautiful and rare red and 

white tulips. 

NEW LIFE 

Yet we look again and see also signs of new life: 

the ears of wheat are symbols of the Eucharistic 

bread; the caterpillar and butterfly on the striking 

white poppy at the top are signs of resurrection; 

and the peas in their pod and the blackberries 

mark out the fruitfulness of creation. 

The artist shows us a glorious range of flowers 

— some well-known, others more exotic and 

brought back to Holland through the colonial 

expansion of the 16th century. 

Tulips and poppies dominate, but to the left are 

some small, scented roses. Each is a testimony to 

the beauty and goodness of the world we live in. 

THE BEAUTY OF THE LORD 

100 years later, Christopher Smart wrote in 

‘Jubilate Agno’: ‘For the flowers are great blessings 

… for the flower glorifies God … for the flowers are 

peculiarly the poetry of Christ. And 200 years later 

Gerard Manley Hopkins wrote: ‘I do not think I 

have ever seen anything more beautiful than the 

bluebell I have been looking at. I know the beauty 

of our Lord by it.’ 

And we, in our own century, can echo poet and 

painter as we praise God, the author of such flowers 

and plants that make up a world of ‘all things 

bright and beautiful.’ 

Poetry Corner 

Meditative Meandering by Steven Rolling 

Tune: Ravenshaw - ‘Lord, thy word abideth’ 

Forgive Lord, where I fret 

Of things past, not come yet 

Meditation disturbed 

Distracted from your word 

Search my heart, you know me 

All things of me you see 

All-seeing, All-knowing 

Ever my Lord and King 

Spirit e’er residing 

In sanctum abiding 

Of my heart, though fill me 

My whole being purely 

Jan Davidsz. de Heem, Wikimedia 

I may to you draw near 

Worship in lowly fear 

Your presence be dwelling 

In me, rule o’er each thing 

What I want or desire 

Your wisdom best by far 

Help me seek of those things 

Do what your glory brings 

Heart our central core be 

And too our mind you see 

E'en our whole life you know 

In Christ’s image we grow 

Romolo Tavani, dreamstime.com



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57732 AF Jones Parish Magazine Advert.indd 1 19/11/2014 10:43

HOME AND GARDEN 

In the Garden 

Yuri Arcurs, dreamstime.com 

Could you start a 

life-saving ripple 

in your garden? 

How much do you love your 

garden? Do you love it so much that 

would love to share that love with 

someone far less fortunate than 

you? And it does not matter how 

big or small you garden is. It can be 

several acres or it could a few pots 

of herbs on the window sill, you can 

still share your love of gardening by 

twinning it with one in Africa where 

having a garden is not just a hobby, 

it can be a life saver. 

The idea of twinning your garden 

is rooted in a venture that began 

in 1988 when a group of British 

Christian farmers devised a plan to 

help the starving people of Africa. 

Their solution was to club together 

and send cows to Africa. 

The quirky idea soon caught 

on with a remarkable success and 

desperate, starving families in 

Africa suddenly received a lifeline 

that not only gave them a source of 

nourishing food, it enabled them to 

become farmers and to help their 

neighbours who were in need. 

Recognising this ripple effect, 

a few years ago Send a Cow charity 

changed its name to Ripple Effect 

because its work had grown to be 

much more than sending cows. 

One of its new ideas was gardentwinning. 

For just £60, which is 

probably less than you spend on your 

garden every year, you can give a 

starving family a new life. 

Find out more at: 

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Recipe of the Month 

A Victoria sponge for every cake 

lover including gluten free and vegan 

The recipe comes from https://edibleethics.com and has proved to be very 

popular with everyone at church gatherings whatever their dietary needs. 

Ingredients for the Cake 

For the filling 

— 3 tbsp Maple syrup 

— 75 g Vegan butter (room temperature) 

— 1 tsp Vanilla bean paste 

— 200 g icing sugar 

— 175 g Golden caster sugar — 1 tsp vanilla essence 

— 1 tsp Bicarbonate of soda — Jam 

— 1 tbsp Lemon juice 

— 300 g Gluten-free self-raising flour 

— 300 ml Soya milk or Almond Milk 

— 150 g Vegan butter – Stork is ideal 

Method 

You will need two 20cm Springform cake tins. 

Preheat the oven to 160°C (fan oven). 

Grease two round cake tins and line with baking paper. 

Stir the lemon juice in with the vegan milk and set aside to curdle slightly. 

In a small saucepan, melt the butter together with the maple syrup and vanilla 

bean paste. Leave it to cool slightly. 

Sieve the flour, sugar, and bicarbonate of soda into a large mixing bowl. 

Gradually pour in and mix both the milk and the butter mixes. Stir until 

smooth. If it starts to clump, use a hand whisk to continue mixing. 

Pour out the cake mix equally into the two cake tins. 

Place the tins into the oven and bake for 30-35 minutes. Try not to open the 

oven! 

Check the cakes with a skewer, if the mix sticks to the skewer and looks a bit 

too wet, put back in for 5 more minutes and check again. 

Take out of the oven and leave to cool. 

While waiting for the cakes to cool, place your room temperature butter, icing 

sugar and vanilla essence in a stand mixer and beat it together for about 3-5 

minutes, until it is whipped and fluffy. If you don't have a stand mixer you can 

use your hand, but this may take a little longer to achieve similar results. If 

needed, add in some of the water to help mix. 

Once the cakes have cooled, take them out of the tin and place one half on to a 

serving plate. 

Spread over your jam of choice and then spread on the frosting 

Carefully place the second half on top. 

If you have spare icing sugar, sprinkle on top using a sieve. 

For special occasions, you can ice it. ENJOY! 

Ants in the pantry! 

A recent rare visitor to our 

garden in Charvil is a green 

woodpecker, it even returned 

with its young. They were 

feasting on an ants nest. Ant 

grubs, it seems, are a delicacy for 

them! — editor 

Chrismrabe, dreamstime.com 

Portion creepers 

Have you noticed that chocolate 

bars, Wagon Wheels, Penguins, 

bags of crisps etc, are all much 

smaller than we remember them 

in our younger days? But, we bet 

you haven’t noticed that dinner 

plates are bigger. In the 1950s, a 

dinner plate was 25cm across; now 

the usual size is 28cm. And look at 

those old wine glasses in the charity 

shops: our grandparents served 

wine in what looks like liqueur 

glasses now. Some wine glasses 

seem to hold nearly half a bottle!



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FASHION BY HARRIET NELSON 

Sustainable fashion is a term 

progressively being used — and 

possibly overused — these days, 

especially within the fashion world. 

As society's increased spending habits 

have evolved, we have become aware 

of the fashion industry's impact on the 

planet because of fast fashion. This 

overproduction of clothing is slowly 

killing our environment, and our 

clothes are the leading cause of this 

pollution. Today, anyone, anywhere, 

can purchase clothing faster, at a lower 

price, which is more convenient than 

ever before. So what's the issue? 

Buying fast fashion has been the new 

normal for online shoppers. This easy 

way of shopping online has rapidly 

increased over the past decade. We find 

ourselves continuously following the 

craze of purchasing trendy clothing sold 

at a low cost and designed to be worn 

just a few times. This widely popular 

trend will be around for a while as the 

mass desire for more clothes grows. I 

believe that we will need to completely 

rethink our purchasing habits and how 

we produce and purchase clothing, 

otherwise all these garments will end 

up in landfill and will not be recycled. 

However, sustainable fashion may be 

the solution! 

But what does sustainable fashion 

even mean? In short, it's a term used 

for clothing made and consumed in 

a way that has protected both the 

environment and those producing the 

garment. This sustainable business 

ensures that garment workers are paid a 

fair wage, have safe working conditions, 

and that the fabrics and materials used 

are made ethically. 

Fashion brands worldwide have 

started producing sustainable products 

that have become increasingly popular 

online in recent years. Designers such as 

Stella McCartney and Iris Van Herpen 

are current luxury runway designers 

beginning to show the world that 

fashion can be produced sustainably. 

These sustainable styles have started to 

appear more and more and are explicitly 

designed to look good, but also to be 

wearable and last a lifetime. 

From its early days, the fashion 

world has been in a never-ending cycle 

of finding new and innovative ways to 

make itself appealing to modern-day 

consumers. This goes from frantically 

testing out weird and wonderful 

materials to picking out the latest 

trends that activists and celebrities 

alike can't get enough of. The most 

recent development for this industry 

has been the use of natural materials 

to create fashion that will not only 

have people looking their best but will 

ensure that these garments will be 

biodegradable, which is why fabrics 

such as mycelium are being used to pave 

the way for sustainability in fashion. 

But what exactly is this material, and 

how can it possibly replace the harmful 

substances the industry is currently 

using? 

Mycelium is the root part of a 

mushroom and has been created to 

be a more eco-friendly material as it 

requires very little water to grow and 

contains no toxic chemicals, which is a 

great sustainable substitute for existing 

fashion materials cotton or nylon. This 

fully compostable material has been 

notably recognised by brands across 

the globe, with many famous fashion 

brands using Mylo — a leather material 

created from mycelium — which 

originated from the brand Bolt Threads, 

which is one of the leading technology 

companies in the production of 

mycelium. 

As this material is still at the start 

of being mass-produced, we have yet 

to see it on the market within our 

local high street stores. However, 

being sustainable doesn't just mean 

purchasing new eco-friendly fashions. 

You can be sustainable right now at 

home with your current clothing! 

Being sustainable sounds complex, 

but it really isn't! Whether purchasing 


Is sustainable fashion the ethical answer? 

WHAT IS IT? 

COMPOSTABLE 

Images: pexels.com 

or donating your old clothes in a charity 

shop, recycling and upcycling garments, 

or creating new pieces yourself, being 

sustainable at home can significantly 

help reduce our fast fashion habits. 

Every small step we can take can help 

ensure that our garments aren't thrown 

into landfill. 

With second-hand and vintage 

clothing becoming trendy online, 

Generations Z and Alpha have made 

sustainable fashion the new norm. 

This young cohort uses pre-loved 

clothing items to create unique styles 

to add to their wardrobe and create 

individual pieces that no one else will 

have. This audience has been inspired 

by celebrities such as the singer Billie 

Eilish and model Bella Hadid, who are 

known to wear vintage and secondhand 

clothing. 

The fashion industry has 

continuously made substantial efforts 

in recent years to become more 

sustainable and environmentally 

friendly because of climate change. 

However, we can hope to see more 

changes made to help reduce fast 

fashion within the industry and tackle 

this worldwide issue. 

Could you see yourself and your 

favourite celebrities one-day wearing 

fashions made from mushrooms?

36 The Parish Magazine - September 2023 Please mention The Parish Magazine when responding to this advertisement 

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SIG_ADV_CAV_0523_SonningParishMag_02.indd 1

History PUZZLE PAGE — 1 

Was it really ? 

Vatican City 

Bernard Bialorucki, dreamstime.com 

. . . 125 YEARS AGO on 26 September 1898 that George 

Gershwin, American composer, was born. He is known for 

his operas, Broadway musicals and film scores. 

. . . 100 YEARS AGO on 4 September 1923 that Noel 

Coward’s musical revue London Calling! was first 

performed, in London. It was his first publicly produced 

musical work. 

. . . ALSO 100 YEARS AGO on 7 September 1923 that 

Interpol, the International Criminal Police Organisation, 

was founded. 

. . . AND ALSO 100 YEARS AGO on 29 September 1923 that 

the British mandate for Palestine came into effect. Britain 

took control of Mandatory Palestine (formerly part of 

the Turkish Empire) until 1948, when Israel became an 

independent state. 

. . . 80 YEARS AGO on 10 September 1943 that the 

Germans occupied Rome, Italy, and took over the 

protection of the Vatican City. 

. . . 75 YEARS AGO on 9 September 1948 that the People’s 

Democratic Republic of Korea (North Korea) was 

established, headed by Kim Il Sung. 

. . . 70 YEARS AGO on 10 September 1953 that the 

discovery of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep was 

published in the journal Science. It had been discovered in 

1952 by Eugene Aserinsky and Nathaniel Kleitman at the 

University of Chicogo. 

. . . 50 YEARS AGO on 2 September 1973 that JRR Tolkien, 

British fantasy writer, poet, scholar, and educator died. He 

is best known for his novels The Hobbit and The Lord of the 

Rings. 


Animal Verse Search by Ralph 

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Ralph Hewitt is a Sonning resident and a member of a local Baptist 

Church. He not only loves doing puzzles but he creates them for 

fun. The grid above contains the names of 34 creatures, including 

two eagles. They all have four letters or more in their name. Their 

initial letters are: 3A; 4C; 3D; 4E; 2H; 3L; 2M; 3N; O; P; 4R; 2T; 2W. 

See if you can find them! If you find all 34 animals you will 

find that the unused letters spell out a relevant verse from 

the New Testament (ESV). You might even manage to 

identify the verse. Answers in next month's issue. Good 

luck and God Bless! 

Planning Your 

Traditional Wedding? 

Then you might like to 

discuss the possibility of 

marriage in our ancient and 

beautiful parish church. 

If so, call the vicar, Jamie 

0118 969 3298 

He will be pleased to help! 

U 

E 

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K 

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. . . 25 YEARS AGO on 4 September 1998 that Google, 25 years 

ago, on 4th Sep 1998 that Google, the internet search company, 

was founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, both students at 

Stanford University in California. The company was originally 

based in a friend’s garage at Menlo Park. 

. . . 15 YEARS AGO on 7 September 2008 that the Financial 

Crisis erupted. The troubled US mortgage-financing giants, 

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, were put into government 

conservatorship under the Federal Housing Finance 

Agency. On 15 September 2008 the global investment 

company Lehman Brothers filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy. 

It was the largest bankruptcy filing in US history. 

In addition to the stunning and historic location in Sonning, 

we will work hard to provide you with a memorable and 

moving occasion. We can provide a choir, organ, peal of 

eight bells, beautiful flowers, over 100 lit candles set in 

ornate Victorian chandeliers and the use of our beautiful 

churchyard as a backdrop for your photographs. 



the church of st andrew SERVING CHARVIL, 

SONNING & sonning eye since the 7 th century

38 The Parish Magazine - September 2023 Please mention The Parish Magazine when responding to this advertisement

PUZZLE PAGE — 2 

CROSSWORD 

1 2 3 4 5 6 

7 8 

11 

13 

18 19 20 

22 23 

24 

9 10 

16 17 

Across 

1 - In unbroken sequence (11) 

In unbroken sequence (11) 

9 - Heavy iron tool (5) 

910 - Heavy - Small iron truck tool (5)(3) 

11 - Mythical unpleasant giants (5) 

10 Small truck (3) 

12 - Grasslike marsh plant (5) 

11 13 - Mythical Smiling unpleasant broadly giants (8) (5) 

12 

16 - 

Grasslike 

Expression 

marsh 

of 

plant 

gratitude 

(5) 

(5,3) 

18 - In a slow tempo (of music) (5) 

13 

21 - 

Smiling 

Select; 

broadly 

formally 

(8) 

approve (5) 

16 22 -- Expression Timid (3) of gratitude (5,3) 

23 - Work spirit (5) 

18 - In a slow tempo (of music) (5) 

24 - Daring (11) 

21 - Select; formally approve (5) 

CODEWORD 

12 

14 15 

22 - Timid (3) 

17 - Opposite of lower (6) 

8 12 7 4 12 16 4 20 19 12 17 1 14 

23 - Work spirit (5) 

19 - Type of verse (5) 

4 3 23 7 4 5 7 2 15 

24 - Daring (11) 

20 - Not concealed (5) 

11 9 22 13 5 14 22 11 23 5 3 16 

20 1 17 5 5 5 15 4 7 

19 12 11 10 16 4 12 15 25 

22 2 4 11 22 15 22 16 12 

11 22 15 21 24 11 

12 13 20 11 9 17 22 7 4 

4 9 4 5 11 16 12 4 20 

5 6 22 16 7 22 18 4 16 

25 12 25 4 11 9 16 4 22 12 

16 22 11 22 9 22 7 

12 3 26 5 9 11 7 15 22 7 4 

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 

O 

14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 

W 

Rev Kate's 

September 

Quiz 

21 

Down Down 

2 - Position on 2 - Position top of (7) on top of (7) 

3 - Eg spring and summer (7) 

3 - Eg spring and summer (7) 

4 - Collapse (4,2) 

5 - Leans at 4 an - Collapse angle (5) (4,2) 

6 - Brilliant and 

5 - Leans 

clear 

at 

(5) 

an angle (5) 

7 - Unthinking (11) 

8 - Caused to 6 - stop Brilliant (11) and clear (5) 

14 - Uncovers 7 -(7) 

Unthinking (11) 

15 - Word having similar meaning (7) 

8 - Caused to stop (11) 

17 - Opposite of lower (6) 

19 - Type of verse (5) 

20 - Not concealed (5) 

SUDOKU 

Each of the nine blocks has to contain all the 

numbers 1-9 within its squares. Each number 

can only appear once in a row, column or box. 

WORDSEARCH FOR ANGELS 

14 - Uncovers (7) 

For some reason, the Church gives thanks for angels 

15 - Word having a similar meaning September. (7) The 29th is the feast day of Michael 

and All Angels. Since the days of Genesis, these 

messengers of God have been sent many times 

to intervene for the good in human affairs. Angels 

guarded the Garden of Eden, they led Lot away from 

Gomorrah, they helped Gideon, they stopped Balaam, 

they closed the mouths of lions for Daniel, and, most 

4 17 

important, the archangel Gabriel was sent to tell Mary 

5 

O 

18 

W 

that she would mother the Messiah. Angels sat in the 

empty tomb of Jesus, and told of his resurrection. 

6 19 Revelation is teaming with angels, sent on all sorts 

of missions by God in the last times. Today, many 

7 20 

Christians in the world’s hot spots report having had 

angels help them when in mortal danger. 

8 

9 

10 

11 

12 

13 

U 

21 

22 

23 

23 

25 

26 

THANKS 

ANGELS 

CHURCH 

FEAST 

MICHAEL 

ALL 

GENESIS 

MESSENGERS 

GOD 

SENT 

INTERVENE 

GARDEN 

EDEN 

LOT 

GIDEON 

BALAAM 

MOUTHS 

LIONS 

1. Which U London station is the main terminus for the Great Western Railway? 

2. Who was Henry VIII 5th wife? 

3. Who won the 1998 football World Cup? 

4. What is the highest possible break in a game of snooker? 

5. Which Spice Girl was known as ‘Sporty Spice’? 

6. Who played Saruman in the film trilogy The Lord Of the Rings? 

7. Which Shakespeare play has the famous line ‘All the world’s a stage’? 

8. Who composed the Coronation anthem ‘Zadok the Priest’? 

9. In a standard netball match, how many players of one team are allowed in the centre third? 

10. What is the capital city of Venezuela? 

11. What number is directly opposite the number 1 on a dartboard? 

12. Which Disney film features the song ‘Be Prepared’? 

13. Which famous actor is the father-in-law of the actor David Tennant? 

14a. Who painted the ‘Girl with a Pearl earring?’ 

14b. Who wrote the novel of the same name? 


answers in the next issue 

July/Aug Solutions 

DANIEL 

ARCHANGEL 

GABRIEL 

MARY 

MOTHER 

TEAMING 

REVELATION 

DANGER 

CROSSWORD 

B L C F A L C O N 

H A B I T U A L O E 

N M N O R A T 

M A N E N E U R O N T 

N R I R E L 

P A T I E N T K N A V E 

CODEWORD 

A M I D L A U D A B L E 

U C H S I A X 

T R I S E C T S E P I A 

O N N U C T G 

B I G C T O W I N G 

I E J E C T S E 

O D F H M R 

G I O Z O N E A 

R I V E R X Q B A T 

A E W Y U E E 

P A R K A G R E A S E D 

H G R E S T L 

Y I E L D I N G E S P Y 

SUDOKU 

C G T O 

T R E K S G R A N A R Y 

R X L I S E 

I T W E A K S E D G E 

F I R P E N I 

L A A C C U S T O M 

E R S A T Z T E N 

WORDSEARCH KING 

REV KATE'S SUMMER QUIZ 

1. Julius Caesar 

2. Augustus Caeser 

3a Wax, 3b Kaiser Chiefs 

4a. Nitrogen, 4b. 7 brothers 

5. Princess Eugenie 

6. Peter O’Toole 

7. Marge 

8. 23 September (29 October 

2023 is official end of BST) 

9. Pythagoras 

10. Nonagon 

11 Obtuse 

12. Pi 

13 2 

14. Euclid 

15. 1 (will accept 100%)


Local Trades and Services 


ACG SERVICES - LOCKSMITH 

Locks changed, fitted, repaired and opened 

Door and window locks fitted, UPVC door lock expert 

Checkatrade member - Which Trusted Trader 

Call Richard Homden: 0149 168 2050 / 0771 040 9216 

CHIROPODY AND PODIATRY 

Linda Frewin MInstChp, HCPC member 

General foot care and treatments 

25 Ashtrees Road, Woodley RG5 4LP 

0118 969 6978 - 0790 022 4999 

CLARK BICKNELL LTD - PLUMBING & HEATING 

Qualified Plumbing and Heating Engineers Gas Safe 

25 years experience - local family run company 

Office: 0118 961 8784 - Paul: 0776 887 4440 

paul@clarkbicknell.co.uk 

COMPUTER FRUSTRATIONS? 

For jargon free help with your computer problems 

PC & laptop repairs, upgrades, installations, virus removal 

Free advice, reasonable rates 

0798 012 9364 help@computerfrustrations.co.uk 

INTERSMART LIMITED 

Electrical Installation and Smart Home Automation 

intersmartuk@gmail.com 

Elliott — 0777 186 6696 

Nick — 0758 429 4986 

HANDYMAN & DECORATING SERVICES 

Reliable and affordable 

Small jobs a speciality! 

Call Andy on 0795 810 0128 

http://www.handyman-reading.co.uk 

JAMES AUTOS 

Car Servicing, Repairs and MOT 

Mole Road, Sindlesham, RG41 5DJ 

0118 977 0831 

http://www.jamesautos.co.uk 

ALL AERIALS 

A local business based in Sonning. TV - FM - DAB aerials etc. 

Sky dishes. Communal premises IRS systems, TV points. 

Free estimates - All work guaranteed 

0118 944 0000 

MC CLEANING 

We are a family business with excellent references 

and we are fully insured 

All cleaning materials provided 

For free quote call: Maria 0779 902 7901 

PROFESSIONAL HOME VISIT SERVICE 

Thames Valley Will Service 

Also Lasting Powers of Attorney and Probate Service 

We are still working during the pandemic period 

0134 464 1885 tvwills@yahoo.co.uk 

THAMES CHIMNEY SWEEPS 

0779 926 8123 0162 882 8130 

enquiries@thameschimneysweeps.co.uk 

http://www.thameschimneysweeps.co.uk 

Member of the Guild of Master Sweeps 

SMALLWOOD 

Landscaping, garden construction, 

patios, lawns, fencing, decking etc 

0118 969 8989 https://www.smallwoodlandscaping.co.uk/ 

office@smallwoodlandscaping.co.uk 

WANT HELP WITH AN ‘ODD JOB’? 

For local odd jobs please call Phil on 

0118 944 0000 

0797 950 3908 

Thames Street, Sonning 

BIG HEART TREE CARE 

Reliable and friendly service for all tree care 

NPTC qualified — Public Liability of £10million 

0118 937 1929 0786 172 4071 

bighearttreecare.co.uk info@bighearttreecare.co.uk 

BERKSHIRE STUMP REMOVALS 

Stump grinding and tree stump removal 

Latest narrow access machinery 

Contact: Mark 

0798 495 7334 http://www.berkshirestumpremoval 

CHLOE LEFROY COUNSELLING SONNING 

BACP Accredited Private Psychotherapy 

Online or in-person with over 10 years experience 

I offer you a confidential and emphatic space 

https//:www.chloelefroycounselling.com / 0758 731 0902 

Please mention The Parish Magazine when responding to advertisements

CHILDREN'S PAGE 

The Parish Magazine - September 2023 41

42 The Parish Magazine - September 2023 Please mention The Parish Magazine when replying to advertisements 

information — 2 

Parish contacts 

Ministry Team 

— The Vicar: Revd Jamie Taylor (Day off Friday) 

The Parish Office, Thames Street, Sonning, RG4 6UR 

vicar@sonningparish.org.uk / 0118 969 3298 

— Associate Vicar: Revd Kate Wakeman-Toogood 

revkate@sonningparish.org.uk / 0744 747 8048 

On duty Tuesday, Friday and Sunday 

— Youth Minister: Chris West (Westy) 

youthminister@sonningparish.org.uk / 0794 622 4106 

— Licensed Lay Minister: Bob Peters 

bob@sonningparish.org.uk / 0118 377 5887 

Children's Ministry 

— Alison Smyly office@sonningparish.org.uk / 0118 969 3298 

Churchwardens 

— Stuart Bowman sdbowman73@aol.com / 0118 978 8414 

— Liz Nelson liz.nelson1@ntlworld.com / 0779 194 4270 

Deputy Churchwardens 

— Simon Darvall sdarvall@businessmoves.com / 0793 928 2535 

— Terry Hunt terencehunt@me.com / 0773 470 7368 

— Sue Peters mail@susanjpeters.com / 0118 377 5887 

— Ruth Jeffrey, 0118 969 3298 

— Molly Woodley (deputy churchwarden emeritus) 

mollywoodley@live.co.uk / 0118 946 3667 

Parish Office Manager 

— Hilary Rennie 

office@sonningparish.org.uk / 0118 969 3298 

Parochial Church Council 

— Secretary: Hilary Rennie 0118 969 3298 

— Treasurer: Jerry Wood 0118 969 3298 

Director of Music, organist and choirmaster 

— Hannah Towndrow BA(Oxon), MA(RAM), LRAM 

music@sonningparish.org.uk 

Safeguarding Officer 

— Nicola Riley 0118 969 3298 

Sonning Bell Ringers 

— Tower Captain: Pam Elliston 

pam.elliston@talktalk.net / 0118 969 5967 

— Deputy Tower Captain: Rob Needham 

r06needham@gmail.com / 0118 926 7724 

Parish Website: http://www.sonningparish.org.uk 

The Parish Magazine: http://www.theparishmagazine.co.uk 

— Editor: Bob Peters 

editor@theparishmagazine.co.uk / 0118 377 5887 

— Advertising and Distribution: Gordon Nutbrown 

advertising@theparishmagazine.co.uk / 0118 969 3282 

— Treasurer: Pat Livesey pat.livesey@yahoo.co.uk / 0118 961 8017 

— The Parish Magazine is produced by St Andrew’s PCC and delivered 

free of charge to every home in Charvil, Sonning and Sonning Eye. 

— The Parish Magazine is printed in the United Kingdom by The Print 

Factory at Sarum Graphics Ltd, Old Sarum, Salisbury SP4 6QX 

— The Parish Magazine is distributed by Abracadabra Leaflet 

Distribution Ltd, Reading RG7 1AW 

— The Parish Magazine template was designed in 2012 by Roger 

Swindale rogerswindale@hotmail.co.uk and David Woodward 

david@designforprint.org 

Advertisers' index 

ABD Construction 6 

Abbey School 26 

Abbeyfield Wey Valley Society 20 

ACG Services Locksmith 40 

Active Security 26 

AJ Wealth Management 28 

All Aerials 40 

AMS Water Softeners 28 

Barn Store Henley 16 

Berkshire Stump Removals 40 

Big Heart Tree Care 40 

Blandy & Blandy Solicitors 14 

Blue Moose 30 

Bridge House 43 

Bridges Home Care 10 

Bull Inn 30 

Canon Tree Care 28 

CBLS consultants Architecture Design 18 

Chimney Sweep, Thames 40 

Chiropody, Linda Frewin 40 

Chloe Lefroy Counselling Sonning 40 

Clark Bicknell 40 

Computer Frustrations 40 

Design for Print 28 

Freebody Boatbuilders 6 

French Horn 44 

Gardiner’s Homecare 30 

Good Oaks Homecare 18 

Great House Sonning 10 

Handyman and Decorating Services 40 

Haslams Estate Agents 2 

Heathium Clinics 20 

Hicks Group 16 

Home Stair Lifts 28 

Intersmart Electrical Installations 40 

Innertonic 18 

James Autos 40 

Jones & Sheppard Stone Masons 32 

Kingfisher Bathrooms 12 

MC Cleaning 40 

Mill at Sonning 4 

M & L Healthcare Solutions 12 

Muck & Mulch 32 

Odd Jobs 40 

Pysiocare Body Management 38 

Queen Anne’s School 34 

Reading Blue Coat School 10 

Richfield Flooring 14 

Sabella Interior Design 24 

Seniors Helping Seniors 32 

Shiplake College 14 

Signature Care Homes 36 

Sonning Golf Club 34 

Sonning Scouts Marquees 32 

Smallwood Garden Services 40 

Style by Julie 6 

The Humble Tiffin 28 

Thames Valley Water Softeners 6 

Thames Valley Wills Service 40 

The 50 Plus Home Repairs 32 

Tomalin Funerals 16 

Walker Funerals 12 

Water Softener Salt 16 

Window Cleaner 16



A shared passion for 

the finest care 

At Bridge House we care passionately about enabling our residents to live their best lives. 

Every day is different, but our exemplary 

standards of care remain constant, delivered by 

a highly trained and dedicated team of clinical 

nursing and care staff that ensure our residents 

maintain their independence, dignity and enjoy 

a fulfilling day. 

Our welcoming, elegant Georgian country 

house on the edge of Twyford offers a timeless 

calm with stunning views across the grounds to the 

Visit bridgehouseoftwyford.co.uk 

river Loddon, whilst our newly built rehabilitation 

centre provides access to short 

term recovery and recuperation though the in 

house team of therapists. 

To discuss your nursing, residential or 

rehabilitation needs, or a visit, please contact 

our new Care Home Manager Rachel Stoneman 

at enquiries@bridgehouseoftwyford.co.uk or 

01189 340777 

A shared passion for later living 

BRIDGE HOUSE 

of Twyford

44 The Parish Magazine - September Please mention 2023The Parish Magazine when responding to this advertisement 

The French Horn, 

Sonning. Quality. 

A continuing commitment to 

wonderful food and wine. 

0118 969 2204 

www.thefrenchhorn.co.uk

The Parish Magazine September 2023

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