Coronavirus - COVID-19
Need help or support? There are many in the village who have offered their services and are more than happy to help. Please see "What's On" or contact us now for further details, including contact names and phone numbers. You may also have had a leaflet posted through your door or seen a poster with more details. Please do get in touch.
"What's On" is back in paper copy and is also available here, please do sign up now to get your copy delivered to your email inbox.
The rules and advice are changing daily, please keep up with the latest via national and local news outlets.
Many if not all events in the village have unfortunately been cancelled as a result of the outbreak and subsequent social distancing measures. Find the very latest information on the calendar here.
Ollie's Shop & P.O.
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Visit the newly launched "Cotswold Room" at Ollie's Shop for a fantastic range of lovingly made local products and unique gifts from the Cotswolds such as scrumptious smoked fish from reknown Severn and Wye smokery, award winning jams and sauces, curious meats and Cotswold chorizos, Stroud handmade candles and Cotswold lavender lotions and much, much more!"
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Oakridge Village Shop and Post Office carries an extensive range of products from household essentials to award-winning organic foods and the very best local delicacies from all over the Cotswolds. Off road parking and a weekly order service and delivery are also available. Open 7 days a week.
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For more details click here
Email : olliesoakridge@gmail.com Tel : 01285 760239 Facebook : Ollie'sShop@OakridgeLynch Instagram: @ollies.oakridge |
Opening Hours:
Monday - Friday: 9am - 6pm Saturday: 9am - 1pm Sunday: 9am - 12 Noon Change of hours notice: In order to deal with an increasing number of orders, pick ups and deliveries efficiently, we will now be closed weekdays as from 3pm. Weekend hours remain the same. |
Oakridge Community Website
The Oakridge Community consists of five villages with a combined population of about five hundred and is situated on the edge of the Cotswolds, overlooking the magnificent Golden Valley; six miles from Stroud and seven miles from Cirencester.
The five villages form the ecclesiastical parish of Oakridge, within the Civic Parish of Bisley-with-Lipyatt. The Oakridge Parish Church, part of the Bisley Benefice, is dedicated to St Bartholomew and was built in 1837 with funds raised by Thomas Keble, the then vicar of Bisley.
Oakridge is a thriving and very active community with many groups and societies and extensive amenities, including a Village Shop & Post Office, Primary School, Pub, Recreation / Cricket Ground, Tennis Court, Allotments, Childrens Playground and Village Hall.
A Flower and Vegetable Show is held in July and a Village Show on the first Saturday in September. The School holds an annual May Revels on the village green.
Do You Offer Services to Oakridge Residents?
Do you live locally and offer services to Oakridge Residents - such as Plumbing, Decorating, Gardening, Odd Jobs, Dog Walking, Photography, Electrician, Walling, Bookkeeping etc. etc.
If you do we have added a new page 'Local Services' where you can advertise for free! Just contact me via the Contact Page with details of what you offer and how to contact you.
Latest!
For more detailed information on many of these items and much more, download the current edition of What's On
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Check out our new Village Gallery!
With thanks to Beth Hughes for this fabulous collection of local photographs, head over to the gallery....
Bisley-Eastcombe-OakridgeClimate Action Network (CAN)
extreme weather – rising sea levels – air pollution – loss of wildlife – food shortages
Together we CAN do something about it! Help to halt Climate Change in its tracks! We are a group of concerned residents of these villages, trying to find ways to create a safer world for ourselves, our children and grandchildren. This might involve planting a wildflower area in your garden, lobbying for safer cycling routes, shopping locally, deciding to drive less or finding ways to insulate your home. There are three groups working on different issues: Energy and Transport Food, Biodiversity and Nature Recovery Outreach and Education We hold regular Zoom meetings – next on Thursday April 15th at 6.30pm - and we are planning community events for the Summer. Everyone welcome - looking forward to hearing your ideas and seeing you soon! To find out more and get involved contact: Martin Brown 01452 770878 or Roger Budgeon 01452 770272 or e-mail bisleyeastcombeoakridgecan@gmail.com Oakridge Village Hall Reopens?
With Government restrictions easing, we are hopeful that from mid-May our doors may be open once again for exercise classes and some community bookings subject to social distancing. In the meantime, we are able to support childrens’ activities, and Ballyhoo Dance and Oakridge School will be operating from the Hall during the Summer Term.
As in previous years, the Local Elections will be held in the Hall on Thursday 6th May. The Butchers Arms
Please see our facebook page and new website for the latest opening hours, or call for the latest menu.
Impact of Lockdown on School Life
After many weeks of being in lockdown it has been so lovely for staff and children at Oakridge to be back in school and see each other (rather than on Zoom) and enjoy some normality. Both classes have quickly immersed themselves in learning with lots of outdoors activities wherever possible.
Class 1 have made visits to the allotment and have started growing such delights as tomatoes and sweetcorn. Being outside is good for our emotional well-being. Fridays are forest school afternoons where both classes come together; we are currently in the middle of making dream catchers (on the theme of hope) using available natural materials from the environment. They are looking amazing! Class 1 have enjoyed learning about and making fantastic volcanoes (in a creative way) as part of their geography and learning about Mary Anning, an English fossil collector, as part of their English and Rocks and Soils topic in science. Class 2 have just started Evolution and Inheritance in science and were palaeontologists for an afternoon collecting and studying fossils which they found locally. We have been reading two fantastic texts in class: Dragon Rider by Cornelia Funke and Darwin’s On the origins of Species by Sabina Radeva. Dragon Rider by Cornelia Funke is a fabulous book about dragons having to leave their valley and search for the Rim of Heaven in the Himalayas because humans are threatening their existence. We combined art and writing using charcoal and mark making to create large-scale beasts (outdoor art) in two’s and three’s which we then used as our villain in our writing. They were terribly scary! We are now preparing for Easter and will be making hot cross buns before breaking up for our holiday. Jonathan Preston Executive Headteacher Tree Planting?
Gill Wimperis has suggested that Oakridge should have a community tree planting project but where, what trees, how to go about it and why?
Where? To grow a number of trees within the village is problematical with shading, blocking views etc. Ideas received include planting an avenue starting from near the bus shelter and carrying on the road to Waterlane. Alternatively, plant them (say 80 trees in all) along the four roads radiating from the crossroads, so each road has 10 trees on each side of each road. What trees? Wide spreading or columner? Small or large? Ornamental or forest? Ideas have included Rowan (Mountain Ash), Whitebeam, Acers (Maples), types of Oak. How? As a community project funding would be needed from grants, village organisations and individual donations. Highways and adjoining landowners would need to be consulted. Why? This would be a positive village memorial to this terrible year and our small contribution towards combating climate change. It would enhance what can be a bleak part of our landscape and would, hopefully, be a project to look forward to. Please give us your opinions, comments and ideas. Phone Gill on 01285 760528 or Bizzie on 01285 760729 or email 19biz45@gmail.com Stop Press! Alex Davies has spoken to The Woodland Trust who will provide us with the trees free of charge if we choose from silver birch, rowan, wild cherry, common oak or crab apple. |
Oakridge Players
Oakridge Players are looking for a new Front of House Manager. We do two shows a year in normal times! The Front of House Manager looks after everything that goes on to market the show and prepare prior to the opening night. We need a creative person to join the Players, not necessarily to act, but to help us get the show up and running for audiences. From designing the posters to ensuring we have enough tickets printed - the Front of House person keeps an eye on things. You will have lots of help and coaching in this vital role.
Oakridge Players has been producing shows in the Village for over 100 years and we expect to bounce back after Covid19 restrictions are lifted. We do pantomimes, comedies, popular shows lifted from TV and the occasional more adventurous production. The Front of House Manager helps bring them to the stage with the rest of the team. We are an enthusiastic bunch who aim to have fun and enjoy entertaining our audiences. We would love to hear from you if you would like to get involved. Contact me, Tim Toghill Chair of The Players, at ttoghill@gmail.com or call me at 07904 096882. It's a great way to get involved and be creative. Visit our website for more information about the Players. Sign up for more information at www.oakridgeplayers.com Sapperton Railway Tunnel
It is interesting to speculate on the effect the construction of the railway tunnel had on the local community. In 1837 Charles Richardson, Brunel’s engineer, began surveying the line of the proposed tunnel by sinking trial shafts and erecting large staffs to assist the surveying on the surface. It was on the 27 April that the people became fully aware of the surveying activity as a large staff was raised. This is described in Richardson’s journal.
“Got hauling pegs &c driven – got large sheer legs up and had some difficulty to get the hauling parts in the right place. The Staff had a violent shake when first lifted off the props. Raised it easily, steadily and without the slightest accident – large crowd of spectators many of whom lent a hand. Tried several ways of getting up the Staff but was forced to climb up by the main hauling rope. Tightened cross tree gyes and plumbed the head of the Staff thereby. Cast hauling tackle adrift and was lowered down. Tightened the gyes but was forced to put a sheepshank, about a yard long, in each.” The construction of the tunnel commenced in 1838 and was completed in 1845. A series of shafts were excavated, and miners were lowered down these shafts to dig out the tunnel and the spoil was hauled up these shafts. These railway miners came from all over the country and the 1841 census records many lodging at Sapperton, Frampton Mansell, Daneway, Far Oakridge and Oakridge Lynch. There was a total of 48 recorded and some miners had families with them, and they rented cottages. This activity must have brought in welcome business to the area where there was high unemployment due to the collapse of the woollen cloth industry in Chalford. Although, no doubt, many locals obtained casual labouring jobs, few were employed as miners but Amnon Bishop of The Frith the son of a local weaver is described in the census as a miner and brothers James and Henry Hayden of Oakridge became tunnel miners later working in many parts of England and Scotland. Following the opening of the railway many Oakridge men went to work on the railway both on track maintenance and on the trains. This of course was not the first time that “foreign” miners had come to the area as in 1784 work commenced on the Sapperton canal tunnel which was completed in 1789. Most of these miners were accommodated at Daneway and, according to Norman Jewson, in barracks on the road from Sapperton to Frampton Mansell. Head on over to the Oakridge History Website for more... Start here for more on transport services... John Loosley Dame Margaret Weston
Dame Margaret Weston, born in Oakridge in 1926, the daughter of Mr Weston, headteacher at Oakridge School in the 1940s (and remembered in several of the recent ‘Memories’ articles), has recently passed away at the age of 94. Following education at Stroud High School and Birmingham Municipal Technical School, she was one of only 3 women alongside 300 men, selected for a student apprenticeship at The General Electric Company, where she became a Chartered Electrical Engineer. Following qualification, she joined the Science Museum in London in 1955, rising to become the first female director of a national museum in 1973. Her aim there was to make the Science Museum more fun, more accessible to children, and more various in its contents, including making its galleries more interactive. She was also instrumental in creating a network of museums extending outside London, the nationwide Science Museum Group.
Appointed a Dame in 1979, she retired in 1986 and spent her last years back in Stroud, where she helped set up the Museum in the Park, and was a patron of the Stroudwater Textile Trust and Cotswold Canal Trust. Bisley-With-Lypiatt Parish Council
Please see the Parish Council website for Ward information and minutes of Council meetings. www.bisley-with-lypiatt.gov.uk.
The Parish Council (PC) is busy with the project to develop a Neighbourhood Development Plan (NDP) as an addition to Stroud District Council’s Local Plan to plan how the area will progress over the next 10 years. Consultations are under way with Village Hall meetings in the 3 constituent Wards to canvas opinion with ALL residents – so any ideas you have on the way YOU want YOUR area to develop would be happily received. Feel free to contact us if you want to share ideas about our future in Oakridge Ward. Ward Councillors - Tony Martin (brx44@ymail.com – 07710 800290), Mike Bell, Roger Budgeon, Dennis Robbins Clerk - Debbie Meredith 01452 771089 admin@bisley-withlypiatt.gov.uk From The Ground
Oakridge Parochial School Allotment Project
Read The February/March
Update Here ... OAT (Oakridge Allotment Team) Tel: 07983 65414 Email: info@fromtheground.co.uk |
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Did You Know? Siccaridge Wood
Siccaridge Wood is one of the few places in the Cotswolds in which the hazel dormouse makes its home, numbers of which are closely monitored as part of a national scheme, while wood ant nests can be found on the ground and silver washed fritillary and comma butterflies flit around the open rides. The Arts and Crafts Movement Oakridge was a hub of the Arts and Crafts Movement and famous painters, furniture makers, poets and other interesting people have lived here. Find out more at our Oakridge History Archive. Daneway Banks Just beyond Siccaridge Wood lies Daneway Banks, where the steep sides have almost lunar like bumps made by generations of yellow meadow ants. A classic example of limestone grassland, it is also home to the large blue butterfly which has been recently re-introduced after being extinct in the UK for several decades. |
Hire Our Village Hall Why not hire our Village hall?
Garden Club - Local Links Download the Gloucestershire Federation of Gardening Societies Spring Newsletter.
Visit the Generous Gardener Website for news of Gardening Lecture Days, Masterclasses and Specialist Plant Sales at The Coach House Garden, Ampney Crucis. Find out about the new Cafe and what's on at Miserden Nursery. |
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Oakridge Events Diary If you would you like us to add an event - please get in touch through the Contact Us page. Full calendar and "What's On" available here. |
"What's On" Newsletter We protect your information and privacy strictly in accordance with all legal requirements and we do not share your personal information with any third party.
What's On Editors: Victoria Beard Tel: 01285 760339 Email: vbeard51@gmail.com and Gill Davis Tel: 01285 760354 Email: gillaquarius@aol.com
Regulars
Out and About Chalford Sports & Social Club
From time to time events and courses at the Chalford Sports & Social Club are included in 'Whats On' which you can download above or visit their website at chalford-ssc.co.uk Bisley "Well Dressing"
Bisley's famous "Well Dressing" custom, dating from 1863, is held every Ascention day - Find out more. Useful Links |
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Artists and Artisans In Residence Find out about the Artists and Artisans who live and work in Oakridge, Including:
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Country and Wildlife |
From the Archive
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Delve into the Archive at oakridgearchives.omeka.net
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And buy the Book! 
You can buy this beautiful 175 page fully illustrated hardback 'Oakridge a History' for just £12 from Ollie's Shop or by mail from John Loosely, Email :
johnloosley40@gmail.com |
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