Sibford Scene Archive

Broughton Castle

Last September we heard with great sadness that our Rector, Canon Timothy Wimbush, had died after a long battle with cancer. He had come to us in 1976 and was approaching retirement when he became ill; had he lived, there would have been a presentation made to him to mark his 35 years of selfless service to our community. Throughout that time and especially during his last illness, Timothy had the devoted support of his wife Erica, who must now leave Sibford Rectory to make way for the new incumbent. I am delighted to tell you that this appeal is being made in Timothy’s memory to help Erica.

After his ministry and his music, Timothy’s passion was for cricket. All at his funeral in St. Mary’s in Banbury will remember the theme tune of Test Match Special playing as his coffin was carried out of the church. So it seems right to continue that theme by calling the appeal “Timothy’s Testimonial” and I hope that you will give it your generous support. Details of how to make your donation are below and your gift will be most gratefully received.

Yours sincerely
Saye & Sele
Patron, Timothy’s Testimonial Appeal

Would your household benefit from Superfast Broadband’?

If you live in Tadmarton, Swalcliffe, Shutford, Epwell or The Sibfords your telephone exchange is Swalcliffe.

The Swalcliffe Exchange User Group, supported by Sibford Gower and Sibford Ferris PCs, is gathering information to put together a bid for funds to have our exchange area upgraded to Superfast Broadband. Our current service to many households is probably satisfactory by today’s standards but, as the services available on the internet get ever more varied and sophisticated, the bandwidth (broadband speed) required to access those services will increase beyond that available from our exchange. As an example, to stream HDTV (watch high definition TV on the internet) requires a bandwidth of approximately 3.5Mbps. Already the majority of our community cannot access this service because of the limitations of our exchange, many cannot even access SDTV (standard definition TV) as the bandwidth available to their household is less than 1.5Mbps. (See broadband map at thesibfords.org.uk/bbsurvey. Please contribute to the survey by clicking on “Contact Paul” and leaving me a message).

If we do not win funding for the exchange to be upgraded to Superfast broadband we will not be upgraded in any way for the foreseeable future. This means that our access to broadband services will diminish as more users try to access more services from our already out of date and overloaded exchange. Our bid may be made either through a scheme run by Oxon CC, or the Rural Community Broadband Fund (RCBF). in either case we need to begin by establishing the demand in three user categories: homes, businesses and public organisations. Your contribution is essential if we are to win the funding we need. Please register your interest by sending us your email address and user category.

Superfast Broadband (40Mbps) has already reached Broughton, don’t let our communities get left behind in the communications slow lane, please register now and encourage others to do so.

We have been thinking back to our childhoods in the 1930s and doing a rough count of the village of Sibford Ferris from Little London to Margaret Fell House, to the bend in Woodway Road and to the top of Mannings Hill. We reckon there were 48 dwellings with 58 children, 9 dogs, 8 cars and 1 riding horse. Since then there have been 89 more dwellings, plus the development at the Manor and the School houses, Penn, Lister, Margaret Fell, Feilding and the junior school. .

A village water supply and electricity both came to the Village in the 1930s but the sewage scheme was later. We had a good local bus service and a carrier (lorry).

It seems that the children have been replaced with dogs, horses and cars, reflecting the fact that house prices here are mostly beyond the pocket of those with younger families.

Now we’ll just sit for a bit.

Arnold and Ina Lamb