Denning’s Bistro in the heart of the Whitchurch Conservation Area is a beautiful listed building with a long history stretching back 400 years. During lockdown, Aaron the owner has been busy completing renovations and he has kindly provided us with an update and news of a much awaited re-opening on the 20th May. “Initially, we will be opening Thursday – Saturday 9am-11pm, and Sunday lunchtime and cocktails will be available from 12pm every day”.  “Dear Customer We hope you’ve been keeping well through this latest lockdown. I wanted to share a short update on how things are progressing at Denning’s, and what our plans are for reopening over the next couple of months. You may have seen on Social Media, we are thrilled to announce that the kitchen is once again able to open! Since closing in November, we have focussed our efforts on relocating the WC to a new location, with all new fixtures, allowing us to expand the kitchen. This is now complete, giving us almost 3 times the kitchen space, which not only makes it a bit more comfortable for us, but will help us do more, with greater consistency. Throughout March and April, we will be offering Sunday lunches for collection, alongside finishing the redecorating upstairs, and getting ready for a big reopening in May! I think for all of us, that will be a huge relief to make it to that point, and we all look forward to celebrating that with you. Stay safe, and we all look forward to seeing you soon! Best wishes, Aaron & The Denning’s Team” Aaron has kindly shared a video filmed last December as they began the task of clearing the upstairs rooms https://fb.watch/45K_ZPivLC/ and photos from January showing renovations underway in the downstairs dining area.

https://www.facebook.com/DenningsofWhitchurch 

Website: Dennings of Whitchurch

Electricity finally comes to Parsonage Meadow + Junior Cricket plans for the forthcoming season. There’s some exciting changes underway at Whitchurch Cricket Club; to find out more, please click on this link  Whitchurch Cricket Club Newsletter

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Whitchurch Cricket Club – Junior Cricket Update

Chris Judge WCC Junior Cricket organiser

We are hoping to offer cricket for four age groups this coming outdoor season. If you think your child or children may be interested please read on.   

Whitchurch Wolverines Under 11s (max age school years 5 & 6*). Competitive cricket matches against other teams from early May and weekly training. Outdoors once the weather permits. Indoors otherwise, once CV-19 rules allow.

Whitchurch Wolverines Under 9s (max age of school year 4*). Competitive cricket matches against other teams from early May and weekly training. Outdoors once the weather permits. Indoors bi-weekly otherwise, once CV-19 rules allow.

Under 8s (school years 3 and mature year 2s). Once weekly first stage cricket training. Likely to run May – mid July our own version. TBC.

ECB Allstars (cricket based introductory activities for ages 5-8). Once weekly, May – mid July.

All Stars Cricket is a new initiative from the EWCB aimed at providing children aged five to eight with a great first experience in cricket.

The programme is delivered across England and Wales at over 2,000 fully accredited All Stars Cricket centres. It is a fun and active way to develop your child’s skills, and through our eight-week programme they will learn lots – as well as make new friends – in a safe and inclusive environment.

All girls and boys are welcome, and each registered child will receive a pack of cricket goodies including a cricket bat, ball, backpack, activity pack, personalised shirt and cap to keep so that they can continue their love of cricket when they go home.

Beginning in May we are running eight consecutive sessions. Each session is an hour long.

Enrolment to All Stars is through:  ecb.clubspark.uk/AllStars/Course.

It is our intention to make each session a family event and we would be very please if parents could volunteer to assist in these sessions

Venue: Parsonage Meadow Church St

* +2 additional years for girls, as set out under ECB rule.

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We would like to hear from you if you are interested in becoming a coach or helper for any of these programmes. We have vacancies at all levels, particularly for the AllStars programme, which is a fantastic opportunity to support the development of young children and to shape the future the cricket in Whitchurch. The current under 11s and under 9s teams are nearly all Allstars graduates.

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Whitchurch Cricket Club are competing in the following Leagues:

Saturday XI will be playing in the Hampshire Cricket League Div 4 North having gained promotion from Div 5 NorthMidweek XI playing in the North Hants Division 1 Midweek LeagueSunday XI playing a number of fixtures during the season.

We are a club who are both friendly and welcoming and are always looking for new players who want to play in competitive or social cricket.

Fixture List is available from the contact email address

For more information: wcc200yrs@outlook.com

Since the Whitchurch Folk Club has not been able to open during lockdown, I’ve had a lot of time on my hands. So I’ve recorded a new album in my home studio setup. It’s called Up the Cut, and it’s out on February 12th. Those with a folkie ear may have already heard some of it on Mark Radcliffe’s BBC2 Folk Show. The reviews have been great so far, so I thought I’d let you all know a bit more about it.

“Up The Cut is a beautiful album. Affecting, simple guitar, exquisitely accompanied by Wilks’ authentic, honest voice. A raw, but entirely seductive, performance. One for all lovers of traditional songs delivered with minimal frills.” – Folk Radio UK review

As with my last album, the songs on Up The Cut were collected in the Midlands (traditional songs are often referred to as being “collected”, referring to the time and place that they were first noted down), which is where I’m from (Solihull, if anyone’s asking). There are 10 in total, and quite a few of them have not been recorded before. Even the better-known songs are pretty rare, as far as the versions I’ve chosen go. At least one song is over 250 years old, and another has most likely remained unsung for 180 years.

The album is very rough and ready – a stripped-back affair in the style of Martin Carthy, Martin Simpson and Nic Jones. Just me, my voice and my fingerpicking acoustic guitar. That’s partly because lockdown has made it nearly impossible to play with other musicians, and partly because I wanted these songs to stand on their own two feet – I didn’t want big production to get in the way of them too much, if that makes sense.

The album comes out on February 12th, and it can be bought on CD or digital download from Bandcamp. If you’re a Spotify listener, you can follow my page by clicking here (which will alert you to the new release when it’s out).

If you’d like to buy the album on CD directly from me, which will save you postage and packaging, click here and drop me an email and I can arrange to put it through your letterbox (providing you live in Whitchurch itself).

Many thanks for reading. I hope you enjoy it. Here’s a little snippet (including very brief guitar lesson!) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFxEjFL50Vo

Once again, we find ourselves in lockdown but at Bere Mill, we are here to help.

After a break for Christmas, we will be opening our doors again every Friday, starting this week, from 12-7pm. We also feel it is important to support our local community during this challenging time as much as we can and so, we have decided to continue to open on Saturday from 10-2pm.

If you are staying at home and want us to do the hard work, we are still offering free delivery and for residents of Whitchurch, the minimum order is reduced from £35 to £20. Order by midnight on Wednesday and your order will be with you on Saturday morning between 7 and 11am. Our next delivery will be the 16th January.

To ensure we operate safely, we only allow one customer in to the shop at any time and we ask that a mask is worn at all times. You will rarely find yourself in a queue and we have big open doors to allow good ventilation. You can also take advantage of the opportunity for exercise and the beautiful walks around the Mill and stock up with our wonderful meat at the same time!

David (Bere Mill Butchery)