Village News and Events
in Boxted and Langham
Welcome to the latest newsletter. If you wish to have an item included in this newsletter, please email us at newsandevents@boxted.org.uk by Thursday 5pm at the latest. Thank you.
Langham Film Nights
Saturday 28 January
Doors open 7.00 pm
Film starts 7.45 pm
Langham Community Centre
Next presentation will be “Elvis” (12A)Bar and other refreshments available. Tickets £5 each, £5.50 on the door, (card payments preferred) from Langham Community Shop or online at www.langhamcommunitycentre.org.uk
Church services
Sunday 29 January, 10am
The service this Sunday is a United Communion Service for the Six Parishes of Langham with Boxted, West Bergholt and Great Horkesley and Wormingford and Mount Bures with Little Horkesley held at St Mary’s West Bergholt.
https://www.stmaryswestbergholt.co.uk
What’s on at the RBL
(non-members welcome!).
Friday Night Supper Club:
Head on down around 6 pm (we kindly ask for a donation of £3 per head, which goes towards the Poppy Appeal and helps us keep this running for you!).
Fundraising bingo:
Sign up for the Bingo here
We hope to raise money for an “Unknown Tommy” metal soldier silhouette memorial, £10 for five games. Hot dogs, raffle and cash prizes! Head on down for an evening of fun and fund raising!
Pub quiz:
Join us for a pub quiz, £5 a head and teams of six. Cash prizes too! Sign up here!
Look forward to seeing you there!
Cosy Café
Wednesday 8 February, 10.00 am to 2.00 pm
Langham Community Centre
Run by the Community Shop. Free homemade soup and breads in a warm space from 12 noon. Mince pies, hot drinks and cakes available for sale. Those who wish to come along and have difficulty getting to the Centre please call 272431
Langham Parish Council meeting
Wednesday 8 February, 7.30 pm
Langham Community Centre
A date for the diary …
Jonathan Hunt’s drone flies underneath Boxted Bridge
With thanks to Jonathan Hunt’s drone footage which enables us to appreciate close up the heroic steel structure of the bridge. CLICK HERE to see the footage .
You might like to read Dan Cruickshank, historian, on Boxted bridge:
“Bridges – even those of simple and unadorned design – can capture the imagination, and can delight. Functional perfection and economy of design can possess a sublime quality that raises bridges from mere engineering to poetic works of art. And, perhaps paradoxically, even bridges of the most simple and most functional type do not – as a rule – harm the natural beauty of their setting. Rather, far more often than not, they enhance their setting because one can compliment the other. Bridges are, at one level, demonstrations of the forces of nature being harnessed, through engineering genius, to overcome the challenges of nature. This can make a bridge a wonder to behold and a create a unity between man-made structure of bold design and its complex natural setting. Not all bridges achieve this harmony or quality but – in their different ways – all the best do. Bridges are, by their nature, daring and heroic, often experimental and pioneering in their technology of construction – occasionally thrillingly minimal. This can make bridges tremendously popular – indeed far more so than most other modern made-made structures – and the most intensely romantic and fiercely guarded expressions of local pride and identity.
Boxted Bridge, to judge by the intensity of the campaign to save it, is such a bridge. Indeed even a cursory inspection reveals it to have the functional and to a degree abstracted perfection that distinguishes many of the best bridges. It was built in 1897 when the use of decorative historic references was finally, in bridge design at least, giving way to the conviction that the most fitting ornament for a functional structure is simply the honest expression of its means and materials of construction. As the building of Boxted Bridge got under way the Forth Bridge, in Scotland, had just been completed. It showed the brave future of bridge design – honest, even ruthless, in design and execution, denuded of all superfluous ornament, but glorious and beautiful. Boxted Bridge is of this heroic stamp.
Being in possession of this miniature engineering wonder, which is evidently – and most understandably – well loved by the public and those who use it, and that continues to fulfill functional demands, you would imagine that its guardian would protect it with jealous intensity. Instead Essex Highways not only refuses to acknowledge the historic importance and artistic power of Boxted Bridge but are actively pressing for its destruction. A larger bridge is being proposed, for reasons of safety and function. Better still, surely, is to heed the overwhelming local support for the bridge and find a solution that saves it while, with sensitivity, achieving some modernization. This is the civilized approach that would naturally be followed if the bridge were statutorily listed as a structure of special historic or architectural importance. It should be but it is not. However the bridge’s status as a key structure within a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and as a ‘non-designated Heritage Asset’ surely bestows upon it some of dignity and safeguards of a listed building. Its destruction would be an assault on local pride and an act of desecration that the people of Dedham Vale would not forgive and that future generations would simply not understand”.
Dan Cruickshank, historian, author of ‘Bridges: Heroic Designs that Changed the World.’
CLICK HERE for further information on the Save Boxted Bridge campaign.
Regulars in Boxted
Did you know there is an events calendar for Boxted Village Hall on the Boxted Village Website. Click here to view the calendar .
Open door drop-in cafe
Friday mornings in term-time, 8.45am – 10.15am
Boxted Village Hall
Boxted Royal British Legion
Check out the latest events on the RBL Facebook page .
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Village Walks
Meet at Boxted Village Hall, 10am
Sat 18 February
Sat 18 March
Sat 22 April
Sat 20 May
Sat 17 June
Contact: BoxtedWildlife@gmail.com
Boxted History Group
3rd Wednesday of each month
Boxted Village Hall
For further information call 01206 272774
Boxted WI
2nd Tuesday of each month 7.30 – 9,30
Boxted Village Hall
You can find us on Facebook
Art and Craft Club
1st and 3rd Thursdays of each month 2 – 4 pm
Boxted Village Hall
Bowls club
Every Friday 2 – 4 pm
Boxted Village Hall
Monthly Pencil Art
Contact willowsofdedham@gmail.com for more info
The Edge & The Zone
The Zone for 6-11 year olds 5.30pm-7pm and the Edge for 12-18 year olds 7.30pm-9.00pm. Fortnightly during term time at St Peter’s Church. Contact Dominic Sheil 01206 273324
Regulars in Langham
The Langham Community Centre hosts a wide range of regular clubs and unique activities. Many of these groups would welcome new members, so don’t hesitate to browse the ‘Activities’ page on the website or see the Facebook page to find out more.
If you have an idea for a new club or event, please contact Sue Armstrong by calling 07741 284132 or emailing LanghamCC@gmail.com to further discuss your idea.
Langham Ladies meets on the 2nd Thursday of each month, 7:30pm – 10:00pm at Langham Community Centre. Contact Gill Brown on 01206 273286 or Tricia Gooding on 01206 230510
Langham Community Cafe
Main Hall of the Community Centre on the last Friday of each month, from 10:30am until midday. All are welcome to join us for coffee/tea and cakes.
Beer and the Bible
The Shepherd and Dog, Langham
Second Monday of the month, 8pm
In the Community
Food bank donations
Food bank collection points are at Boxted British Legion Club, St Peter’s Church, Boxted, St Mary’s Church Langham and Langham Community Shop
. Items currently sought-after include:
- Long life fruit juice
- Long life milk
- Tinned meat/fish
- Fruit squash
- Pasta sauce
- Small boxes of tea *80*
- Tinned veg
- Tinned custard/rice pudding
- Jam/peanut butter
- Multipack snacks
- Small jars of coffee
- Nappies sizes 5,6,7 and 8
- Deodorant male/female
- Shampoo
- Small washing powder/liquid
- Washing up liquid
- Shaving gel/foam
For more information, please visit their website: https://colchester.foodbank.org.uk/
Thank you in advance for donations. The British Legion request that donations are not left outside the Club, BL Opening times are:
- Monday : Closed
- Tuesday : Closed
- Wednesday : 16.30 – 00.00
- Thursday : 16.30 – 21.30
- Friday : 16.30 – 00.00
- Saturday : 15.00 – 00.00
- Sunday : 13.00 – 21.00
Good Neighbours
For help with transport to an important appointment (hospital, dentist, flu/covid booster, collection of prescriptions or a visit for some company. Call so we can help, Monday to Friday, 8am – 7pm:
- Monday……….230525 or 272773
- Tuesday……….271813 or 273195
- Wednesday….272755 or 272013
- Thursday……..07842 034489 or 323007 or 07765 037892
- Friday………… 07510 504026
Please phone for the day on which you make your call, not the day of your appointment.
Green Energy Consultation
For further information on what’s going on with the National Grid Green Energy Project, please visit https://boxtedparishcouncil.org.uk/national-grid-green-energy-project/
A petition has been set up to ‘SAY NO TO 180km of Essex Suffolk Norfolk pylons’ and is asking the Government to look realistically to the green future and build a strategic offshore grid instead. You can find the petition at www.pylonseastanglia.co.uk or you can write to local MP Sir Bernard Jenkin – bernard.jenkin.mp@parliament.uk who is chair of OffSET (the Off-Shore Electricity Grid Task Force).
St Peter’s Markets Plants
Over 500 plants are for sale in aid of Langham with Boxted Church Funds. Most plants are £1.50 to £3.50 with quantity discounts. Perennials, English native trees, shrubs, herbs and climbers are available. First come first served but all will be done to fulfil requests. Contact Stephen Whybrow on 07801 749575 or email stephenwhybrow@msn.com to order or arrange viewing or visit https://stpetersmarketplace.org/ for more information.
Digital help at home
This service is available online. Michael Smith at Colchester Borough Council is still offering digital support via a remote service. See the Council’s webpage or, for further information.
- Colchester 01206 282 452/ Clacton 01255 686497
- Email: Digitalaccesssupport@colchester.gov.uk
Mobile library
10.10am to 10.40am
Boxted Village Hall car park
9 February
2 March
23 March
13 April
For all mobile library dates go to https://libraries.essex.gov.uk/mobile-library-service/boxted/boxted-village-hall/
Useful links:
Boxted Parish Council
Boxted Parish Council on Facebook
Boxted Village Hall
Boxted Village Website
Boxted Neighbourhood Plan
Boxted Primary School
Boxted British Legion
Boxted & Langham Churches
Little Owls Pre-School
Langham and Boxted Churches
Boxted Cricket Club
Mobile Library Service
Boxted Runners
Boxted 10K
Boxted WI on Facebook
Boxted WI on Twitter
Boxted Airfield Historical Group
Langham Community Centre
Langham Community Shop
Langham Village Website
Langham Parish Council
2nd Langham Scouts
Dedham Vale & Stour Valley ANOB
Essex County Council’s PROW Interactive map
Colchester District Neighbourhood Watch
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Newsletter editor: Angela McLauchlan : Design and layout: Shirley Szymanek
Boxted Village Website 