Sibford Scene Archive

At the last count, there were 14 members of the Society, all armed with Wombling sticks (litterpickers). Now that spring is here and Summer nearly upon us, the members should be out of hibernation and if so, will be pleased to see the great success of the village Litter Blitzes which took place recently.

Womblers, we have a duty to keep our villages just as the litterblitzers left them so please brush down your Wombling sticks and take them with you whenever you go out for a walk. (Not recommended for those who run). New members welcome; the sticks cost about £15 and can be obtained through me (780980).

Whilst working, you can hum to yourself our friendly ditty to the original tune, the words of which go:

All round the villages, one, two and three
The Wombles of Ferris, Gower, Burdrop are we,
Picking up rubbish as hard as can be
And making us tidier — hope you’ll agree.

We’d rather be sitting down watching TV
So please take your litter home, leaving us free.

Uncle Bulgaria

Householder’s Survey: A big thank you to all those who have completed and returned their survey form. The early findings are showing some interesting and varied results but we would be very pleased to increase the number of returned forms to give us a greater sample and increase the validity of our survey.

From the first 100 forms we find that 40% are retired, 15% shop on-line, 82% use the internet at home, 70% produce some of their own food, and 9% have lived in the village for more than 50 years while 19% have lived in the village for less than 5 years. From a very wide range of leisure activities recorded so far the most popular was walking 41 %, with gardening at 32% and television at 21%.

ARE YOU INCLUDED IN THESE STATISTICS?
The returns to date represent just under 40% of the village households and we need to be over 50% to be a meaningful sample.

For our work to be of interest to the Oxfordshire Records Office and social history researchers in the future we would welcome a larger sample. Boxes for replies will be left in the Shop, Surgery and Primary School for a little longer.

“DOMESDAY” – Wednesday 16 June

Our final piece of work will be to see if we can capture a view on how we spend our time during the course of an ordinary day. This has changed so dramatically in the last 100 years and may change equally dramatically in the next 100 year period. With very few people writing diaries and journals today this is a way of recording a snapshot of one day in the life of villagers. The enclosed form (our final one!) gives an opportunity for adults over 18 and young people of 11 – 18 to record aspects of their day. Younger children attending Sibford Gower Endowed Primary School will be preparing and conducting their own survey at school. Part of this will be a direct comparison with previous surveys of school life in 1900, 1930 and 1971 carried out by lna Lamb.

We ask for a few more minutes of your time on 16 JUNE to tell us:

What did I do today?