Saying Goodbye to Faces of The Village
Gwen Gant, who died peacefully in hospital recently, aged 91 years.
Gwen had lived in the village all her life. She was born in Hope Cottages, Straight Road, and the family moved to a bungalow in Dedham Road after her mother suffered a heart attack. Both were council houses at the time. She started school at the Methodist Schoolroom (now the Methodist Church hall) from the age of 4 years and later progressed to St Peter’s school (when it was based next to St Peter’s Church) until leaving at the age of 14 years. She worked behind the counter at Percy King’s Haberdashery store in Crouch Street for 27 years until the shop closed. Gwen cycled there for 4 years until Went’s bus service started from the village. When it snowed she walked to Mile End and picked up the corporation bus. The rest of her working life was in administration with the DHSS in Colchester. Gwen had always been involved with aspects of village life. She was in the church choir for 55 years of which she recalls there were 30 members at one time. Gwen was an active member of the women’s section of the Boxted British Legion from 1946 until it closed and collected for the Poppy Fund for 44 years. She was Treasurer for 37 years and Standard Bearer for 35 years. Chairman of Evergreen Club for 20 years. On the parochial church council for 49 years but didn’t make 50 years because of a disagreement with the then vicar over the Remembrance Sunday service.
It is thought that Gwen was the oldest person living in the village who was also born and bred in Boxted. Does anyone know who would now fit that role?
Editor’s note: Gwen reeled off all the numbers quoted above without hesitation when she was interviewed for this piece just over a year ago, Brilliant for 90 years as she was then. No wonder she held the post of treasurer of the women’s section of the British Legion!
Withdrawal of Essex County Council Contracted Bus Service SB39 Boxted to Colchester:
7.45 am from Boxted to Colchester.
17.30 pm from Colchester to Boxted
This has been run by Colchester Community Voluntary services with an annual cost to ECC of £31,265.
After consultation the service has been withdrawn from 1 January 2018 as the ECC has concluded after studying past usage statistics that it is not commercially viable.
Church Services
Sunday January 7
9.30 am sung Eucharist: St Mary’s Langham
Mrs Jo Jeffery, a new Families Worker, will be commissioned in this special 3 parishes service. All are welcome and there will be coffee and cake afterwards. Jo will be helping to provide faith based teaching and support to families in the 3 parishes of Langham with Boxted, Great Horkesley and West Bergholt.
11 am service at Boxted Methodist Church
Mobile Library
Tuesday 9 and 16 January
10.55 – 11.30 am
Boxted Playing Field car park
Read a review of the book, The Lady from Zagreb here:
Evergreen Club
Bring and Buy Sale
Thursday 11 Jan from 2.30 in the village hall.
History Group
Life as a Tudor Housekeeper. by Eleanor Jenkins.
Wednesday 17 January 7.30 for 8 pm
Boxted Village Hall
Help Your Village Hall Thrive
Boxted Parish Council invites village residents to contribute some of their time to help oversee the running of the village hall.
The hall has been exceptionally well looked after by previous volunteer trustees. The Parish Council needs a fresh team of village residents to work in association with parish council members to maintain this tradition whilst adapting the hall to changing or new trends, and keep the hall financially viable.
The time spent could equate to one meeting per month plus a few hours in between.
Anyone who can contribute skills and experience in finance, administration or business, or just has an active interest in the village please contact any of your parish councillors for further information:
Cheryl Damen, Chairman: chairboxtedpc
Lucy Carpenter
Val Banwell
James Collit
Angela McLauchlan
Mark Parratt
Will Petersen
Gene Pugh
Contact details for all parish councillors can be found on the parish council website:
https://www.essexinfo.net/boxted-parish-council/local-councillor-contact-detai/
The River Stour Festival 2018
A celebration of the river, its landscapes, its culture and its people including a wide range of events taking place along the whole length of the river; from its source in Cambridgeshire to the North Sea.
Inspired by a walks and film project, ‘The River Runs Through Us’, by local artists, Ruth Philo and Stuart Bowditch, the Festival showcases so much of what they discovered during that experience -and a lot more! The website is
https://www.riverstourfestival.com
Events will be added to the website during the year.
A leaflet detailing all the planned events can be found here:
Boxted Village Website 