Sibford Scene Archive

Sibford Scene 087 June 1985

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The last cowslip

This Spring, Grange Lane possessed just one cowslip plant. It was thriving and beautiful with many flowers. On May 24th the plant was gone, and in its place there was only a trowel-dug hole, faintly disguised by a handful of hastily plucked grass.

So, next year, instead of a further spread of this lovely wild flower, there will be no cowslips at all in Grange Lane.

M.H. Franke

Domesday Project

During this term Primary School children all over Britain will be taking part in a mammoth project designed to update the Domesday Book of 1086.

Organised by the B.B.C., and under their guidance, our children will be collecting and collating information about their locality which will provide an invaluable piece of evidence for generations to come. When all the information has been collected the final data will be put onto our own school microcomputer. The B.B.C. will then collect individual cassettes and discs from all over the country and they will compile the final Domesday Project.

The task should provide great insight for the children into their own environment, and will also enable them to make records of how they see their own lives. We have been given two areas of 12 sq. km. to study. In all there will be four categories for information gathering:

  1. LAND USE The principal use of the land in our area residential, farmland etc.
  2. PRINCIPAL FEATURES Houses, shops, telephone boxes etc.
  3. WHAT LIFE IS LIKE TODAY Family, village, community life.
  4. PERIOD OF CHANGE A picture of how things have changed locally.

Could you offer help? We need information, contacts with interesting people , people who would talk about their life, work, house, interests with small groups of children or who could show them things of interest in the villages.

Please help if you can and share in this great project for the future. The school would love to hear from you.

The Quaker Meeting House

The Quaker Meeting House is very plain and simple. Inside there are no decorations. A table is placed in the middle of the room. On the table there are usually flowers. The windows are very high so you don’t look out when you are worshipping. The Quakers don’t believe in showieness and so they don’t have many things in the Meeting House. Here is a list of what they don’t have and what they don’t do.

They don’t have stained glass windows
They don’t have an altar
They don’t have decoration
They are not baptised
They don’t drink too much (and some don ‘t drink at all)
They don’t wear fancy clothes
They don’t have a Vicar
They don’t have a sermon
They don’t fight wars

When you go to a Quaker Meeting everybody just walks in and sits down. Nobody speaks except if somebody reads from the Bible or says something they want everybody to hear. When the Meeting is over, the Elders shake hands and everyone can go.

The Quakers, or Society of Friends as they are now called, were started in the 1650’s by George Fox. He started off as Church of England but didn’t agree with the showieness. The Quakers got their name because, when they first started, when they were speaking they used to get excited and start shaking, and so people teased them and called them Quakers. In the olden days you were not supposed to be a Quaker and if you were, you would be put in prison. The Quaker Meeting House is the oldest place of worship in Sibford.

Rebecca Key
(Pupil at the primary school)

Holy Trinity Church

Holy Trinity Church was built 145 years ago in 1840, that is, on the whole, quite young for a Church. If you were to go up in a helicopter you would be able to see that it was in the shape of a cross.

Inside it is very cold, but the air is still. The Church has very good acoustics, which means it echoes music or any noise very well.

On the east window there are lots of signs. There are four separate pictures each showing Matthew, Mark, Luke and John as animals. There is also a picture of Jesus on the cross and the dove of peace. Then come the signs Alpha and Omega, the Greek for A and Z, the beginning and the end. The east window has a mistake: Omega is upside down.

The font is always at the entrance to the Church, by the door. On the altar in Sibford Church are the letters I.H.S., Greek for the first three letters of JESUS.

Altogether the Church seats 400, though on average about 30 people go. At Easter and Christmas the Church can be full.

James Marcovitch
(Pupil at the primary school)
(adapted from James’ much longer account)

Above, you may see one or two items of historical interest from this edition. To see the whole edition, click on the front-page image to download it as a pdf.