All Saints Church

United in Faith Welcoming All

The services have been planned for April  as follows:

Sunday 6th April 11.00am

Morning Praise Robert Heley

Sunday 13th April 11.00 am

Holy Communion Fr Steve Marsh

Tuesday 15th April 6.30pm

Holy Week Communion  Fr P Messam

Good Friday 18th April 2.00pm

Music and Meditation Helen H Applegarth

Sunday  20th April 11.00 am

Holy Communion Fr Steve Marsh

EASTER DAY

Sunday  27th April 11.00 am

Holy Communion Rev Mike Stephens

Easter is coming and our services reflect that fact. Please try to attend the extra services.

The Easter Coffee Morning is on Wednesday 16th April with a visit from an Easter Lamb, an Easter Egg Hunt and raffle with an Easter Theme. Children are invited.

If anyone still has a Children's Society collecting box from when Jane Wooding used to organise them, please can you pass it on to Janet Brooks  who will send any monies to the Children's Society  thank you.

Robert Heley

Wilstead Bowls Club

We start to play on the green at the end of the month, the exact date depending on the weather. Matches against other clubs begin Sunday 27th April with the first game away to Woburn Sands. Our first home game is on Tuesday evening 29th April against Ampthill.

In preparation for the start of the season, we will have a series of working parties commencing 24th March to ensure that the green and the surrounding area are ready. There is a lot of mowing, bench painting and gardening to do!

If there is anyone in the village who has some spare time and would like to help, the club would be very grateful. Please get in touch.

This year we are inviting anyone who would like to try bowling to come along for free on Friday evenings from 6pm onwards. You only need flat soled shoes; bowls will be provided and you can join us afterwards in the bar.

Up and Coming Events:

Easter themed Coffee Morning.

Wednesday 16th April 10.30am -12 noon

£3. All welcome.

Fish & Chip Spoon Drive

Friday 16th May. 5.30pm start.

£7 non-players & £10 players (including spider).

Afternoon tea

Friday 23rd May  2.30pm. £10 per person.

Need tobook in advance.

Open Day/Bowls Big Weekend

Sunday 25th May. 2pm – 5pm.

All ages and abilities welcome.

Please keep a look out on the Wilstead Community Facebook page for more club news and activities or join us on Facebook -  WILSTEAD BOWLS CLUB  or visit our website.

www.wilsteadbowlsclub.co.uk.

If you need any club information please use the contact details below:

Sue Marchant - Club Secretary

07716 676383  sue@marchantonline.com

Or visit our website.

www.wilsteadbowlsclub.co.uk

Coffee, Tea, Cola, Sugar, Rice, Baking Soda, Fizzy Water, Aspirin!

No, not a shopping list for the supermarket but suggestions for curing house plants that are not looking their best? Before you finally kill your plant with a double espresso, why don't you visit the Wilstead Garden Club on Tuesday 15th April at 2.30pm.

We will be welcoming our house plant expert Susie Lickman who has saved many orchids since her orchid masterclass last year. This year she will be talking about the hacks for reviving ailing other plants. We are sure to be surprised with the ideas. Susie usually brings reasonably priced plants for sale. Entry is £3 as usual with an optional raffle at £1 per ticket.

In March we welcomed our horticultural vicar, Mike Stewart, who gave us a comprehensive and entertaining talk about making new and free plants in a variety of ways.

He started with an amusing blessing for the compost heap. Although we might not be trying to create new species by pretending to be bees and collect pollen, experimenting with grafting looks fun but splitting up large perennials and revitalising our flower beds could be our limit. Very useful, given the current prices of plants to buy.

May is our Plant Swap meeting. If anyone is splitting up plants and has extras they can't use, please take care of them and bring them to the meeting.

Plants can be in pots, other suitable containers or even wrapped well in waterproof coverings. Labelling would be handy too.

We hope to see you at our meetings. Happy gardening.

Wilstead Garden Club Committee

wilsteadgardenclub@hotmail.com

Wilstead WI

Our February meeting was held in the afternoon at the Bowls Club with a speaker Alex Prior who talked about all the items he collected, with Rocks from Mars to 1st edition books. He was very interesting and we were amazed at the amount of items he has collected over the years.

We were back in the Village Hall for our March meeting where we had a speaker Kay Goddard who talked to us about the meaning of quilting and how it started way back.  A most interesting history lesson.

We had three new members join us and most welcome they are too.  Anyone can join the WI and come to the meetings to learn about a variety of subjects or just come along and meet friends for a cuppa and biscuits.

Visitors are welcome for a fee of £3.00 if we have no speaker or £5.00,  if we do have a speaker however this concession ceases after the 3rd visit whereupon membership is available.

We will be holding our AGM next month in the Village Hall and participating in some Hot Cross Buns with our tea.

Our speaker will be Mark Harris who is the Chief Officer for Adult Operational Services for older people, this could be very interesting.

Our trip to Stratford upon Avon is now fully booked, fingers crossed for good weather.

The next meeting will be Thursday 1st May in the Village Hall where we will be having a members evening.

Further details are available from

Karen Cook – President

01234 403936 – karencook3@btinternet.com

P3 Footpath Group

Meetings

The next bi-monthly meetings are on Saturday 5th April and Saturday 14th June in the Village Hall (small hall).

There will be a report on each of the 17 public footpaths and bridleways around the village including their current ease of use. If problems are identified then plans to address these will be discussed. If any of these problems are too large for the Group to address then Bedford Borough will be advised of the problem(s)

Come along if you are interested in helping to keep the paths around the village usable and see what this entails. This could be doing a visual survey every couple of months to identify any problems and / or help resolve the problem with other members of the group

All are welcome.

Future meetings are planned for Saturday 2nd August and Saturday 4th October 10.00am.

Working Parties

Working Parties to address issues raised at the meetings that the Group can tackle will be arranged. Any material needed to resolve these problems, e.g. new waymark posts, will be requested from the Borough Council or purchased by the Group.

If you find any problems when going along the paths and bridleways around the village please contact me, see contact details below.

Walks

The March walk was along paths around Chicksands, both through the woods and through where the 'Birdcage' was. This was a large (100+ metres across) aerial  for listening to foreign communications.

The weather was fine and the walk was over firm ground (i.e. no avoiding large puddles). The optional post walk refreshment was found in the Greyhoud in Haynes.

Keep an eye on the posters on the village noticeboards for details of future walks.

The next walks will be on Sunday 13th April 2.00pm and Friday 9th May 6.30pm.  Meet in the village car park off Whitworth Way.

Come along if you fancy a wander (4-5 miles) through nearby Bedfordshire countryside

Nigel Jacobs

Wilstead Footpath Group

01234 400733

Spring Lamb Day Thank you

On behalf of all the children, staff and parents at Cotton End Forest School, we would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to David and Barbara Seamark, for your incredible generosity in opening your farm and home on our Spring Lamb Day.

Your warm welcome to everyone and your hospitality, provided a truly memorable experience for everyone involved. The day provided a wonderful opportunity for the children and parents to connect with nature, and we truly appreciate all the time and effort you put in to making the day so special.

We would also like to thank the following companies for their kind donations to support our event:

Empire Cars – Wilstead, Gordon and Alison Redman – Frank Redman and Sons, Friendly Nettle Café – Shortstown, Bedford Town Football Club, Hair by Vincenzo – Bedford, Tesco Cardington Road – Bedford, Tick Education, ASG Roofing Specialists, HCL Catering, The parents of Cotton End Forest School.

Additional thanks goes to the volunteers who gave up their time for free, Mike and Amy Catchpole, to complete the preparations in order the for event to go ahead.

Wilstead Pre School News

Well spring has made a very welcome arrival !

It's so lovely to see the children running around outside enjoying the warmer weather.

This half term we have been very busy learning all about springtime and we have had some lovely walks to our allotment to do some planting and watering the fruit and vegetables we have growing there.

A huge thanks to Richard and Matt who have put in all the hard work so our children can enjoy this experience. The children really love learning all about how we grow our food. We picked some purple sprouting broccoli, took it back to pre school, cooked it and the children tried it.

It was very smelly they said !

They have also enjoyed seeing all the daffodil's and crocus's growing around the village whilst out on our walks too.

On our way to the allotment we stood outside the church talking to the children about the building and counting the church clock bells.

A lovely gentleman must have seen us and came to ask if we would like to have a look inside.

I would like to say a big thank you to Ernest for opening up the church and letting the children, respectfully, explore the building. They thoroughly enjoyed this experience and gave the children lots to talk about when we returned to pre school. Thank you.

At pre school we have been learning about Ramadan what it involves and why it's celebrated.

Naz brought some Dates in for the children to try and also her prayer mat.

Let's just say the dates went down better than the broccoli.

We've been learning about pancake day, what it represents and how lent is celebrated. The children enjoyed the pancakes for their snack.

We held our Mother's Day celebration where we invited our lovely mums for a cup of tea and a slice of cake.

We also had our annual sponsored  Easter egg hunt which always goes down a storm with the children. If you have any sponsor money please send it into pre school.

Fundraising events coming up:

On Sunday 18th May 2.00-3.30pm we are hosting a family disco.  To be held at Wilstead village hall, this is open to all, not just those who attend the pre school.

Parents must stay with their children and it will suit children up to 7years. Entertainment, face painting, snacks and refreshments will be available. Children can dress in their party wear/fancy dress, if they wish.

This is a ticket only event.  £5per child. Adults free. Order your tickets by contacting committee@wilstead-preschool.co.uk.

Please order your tickets promptly so not to be disappointed!

Friday 27th June our fabulously fun quiz is back. Our lovely quiz master Sam is planning a fun evening. Tables of up to 8. £5 per person. Raffle and bar available.

Contact 07948565992 or the above email address to book a table.

We are also in the process of organising a family fun run. More details in the next edition.Dust off those trainers and get limbering up. The children are going to love it !

Once again can I thank all those who support our pre school. These are challenging times for the pre school sector so your support is more vital than ever. We really do appreciate all the support the village and beyond gives us. Thank you

Julia

Wilstead & Wixams Community Art Group

We are pleased to have welcomed several new members since January and hope that they will persevere and become budding artists. As an Art Group we meet just to enjoy painting or drawing together with others. It has a strong social element and those who come usually go away happier than when they came! If you're interested in art and would love to try out your talent, why not join us? Your first session is free and, if you decide to continue and become a member, it will be £3 a session when you're able to come. We usually meet in the Village Hall on Mondays from 2pm-4pm. We don't meet on Bank Holidays. Our group has members of all abilities, using a variety of mediums. You might like sketching in pencil, charcoal, pen and ink, whatever. You can also paint in watercolour, acrylic or even oil or a mixed media.

Enquiries: Michael Bradley: Mobile 07526 939164.

Email: revmichael14@outlook.com

Wilstead Village Hall Management Committee

Annual General Meeting

Thursday 22nd May 2025 at 7.30 in small hall

The position of Chairman, Secretary and Treasurer should be nominated at least 10 days prior to the meeting to the Secretary.

Secretary – Angela Fosbrook

fosbrookangela@gmail.com

PLEASE COME ALONG AND SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL FACILITY AND CONSIDER BECOMING A COMMITTEE MEMBER. NEW MEMBERS ARE NEEDED WITH NEW IDEAS ABOUT HOW TO KEEP THE HALL RUNNING.

Wilstead & Wixams Good Neighbours

April update

As many will already know, we lost another of our valued Cafe regulars this month, June Farminer. Her funeral is on April 4th  and as a mark of respect we will not be opening the Cafe that afternoon as many will want to attend the funeral. We will miss June.

We held our Good Neighbours AGM on the 20th and I am am pleased to say we had a good turnout and a good discussion on various issues, many of which we will incorporate into the smoother running of your group. The committee was unanimously re-elected after a resolution from the floor and we look forward to the following year.

Next Wilstead Cafe dates in the Village Hall are Friday April 18th (hot cross buns!) and Fridays May 2nd, 16th and 30th at the normal times 2 to 3:30pm. And don't forget Wixams, Lakeview Village hall every Tuesday 10:30 to 12 Noon.

ALL AGES WELCOME.

Regards to all.

Rick Baxter

Chairman

01234740854

WWGNS Phone 07807 408928

Wilshamstead Parish Council

Bedford Borough Council Local Plan Latest

At the time of writing there is no further update on Bedford Borough Council's Local Plan document. The Local Plan is the key strategic planning document for the local authority that sets out the allocations for development as well as the associated planning policies that will be applied in terms of supporting growth with suitable infrastructure.  The granted extension from the Inspector remains in place with no further information from the local authority at present on the work being done and needed to be completed in just a few months on showing where development is to go.

Update On Wilstead Planning Applications

There has been no change to any of the three large planning applications for new houses, to please remember that even though the consultation deadlines have passed please note the local authority can still accept planning comments from members of the public and will be able to take these into account. So there is still time to have your voice heard regarding:

24/01566/MAO

An outline planning application for the erection of up to 149 dwellings and associated works at land to the South East of Duck End Lane.

24/02231/MAO

Outline application demolition of existing buildings and erection of up to 95 residential dwellings at land at Village Farm, 85 Cotton End Road.

24/02463/MAO

375 houses proposed by Wates Development for l and south of Wixams which is within the parish boundary of Wilstead.

Please send your comments to planning@bedford.gov.uk.

Parish Council Update Regarding East West Rail

The Parish Council recently received an East West Rail communication regarding community engagement.  The Local Representatives Groups have been restructuring they have detailed to better reflect the section areas presented at the most recent consultation. As such, there are now Enhanced LRGs and LRG Communities.

The Enhanced LRGs are made up of those wards and parishes which have land that would need to be permanently acquired, and land that would be used temporarily for construction. The LRG Communities are those that were a part of the previous LRG structure but now fall outside of having land directly impacted but allows members to remain informed on the project and part of the conversation.  Renhold has been advised they are now part of the LRG Communities Group.  The first of two expected webinars this year for this group is scheduled to take place in late 26th March and feedback will be shared in a future article.

Highways Improvement Works Update

The Parish Council were pleased to see the work is underway for the footway works for Hampton Close, Phipps Close and Morgan Close carried out by the local authority as part of their capitals work programme improvement scheme.  There have been some snagging items noticed that have been followed up with Bedford Borough Council.

There has been continual engagement between the Parish Council, senior Highways Officer and Borough Councillors on the range of highways safety improvements within the village, looking to implemented.  There has been a further site meeting to keep the dialogue progressing whilst refinements are made to ensure the works have maximum benefit..  These include greater double yellow line coverage and a 20mph zone for the village centre as some of the items looking to be implemented.

Parish Council Vacancies

There remain vacancies on the Parish Council.

Do you have administration, IT, financial, planning, or communication skills?

Do you like getting things done?

Can you spare a couple of hours a week (or more if you have the time)?

If so, we could do with your help. Please get in touch as shown below or speak to any of the current Parish Councillors.

Bin Emptying And Dog Fouling

It has been noticed that some bins in the village have been overflowing recently.  The bin emptying is managed by the local authority who arrange the schedule, so if you spot an overflowing bin please do kindly report in, into the Borough Council so they can  follow it up, at

https://www.bedford.gov.uk/environmental-issues/keeping-bedford-borough-clean/littering-and-bins

If you see an irresponsible dog owner then please also do remember there are ways to report into the local authority this information so follow up action can be taken, there is lots of helpful information on the Borough Council website here:

https://www.bedford.gov.uk/environmental-issues/dog-control-and-welfare/other-dog-issues

Contacting The Parish Council

The best way to contact the Parish Council is to email Lizzie (the Parish Clerk) at: office@wilsteadparishcouncil.org.  

Alternatively, you can call 01234 743152 or write to PO Box 1548, Bedford, MK44 5AX.

Please note the Parish Office (at the rear of the Village Hall) is open most Mondays, 9am to midday. It is worth ringing in advance to ensure it is open.

It is always more interesting to attend a Parish Council meeting in person to see what goes on and understand the range of items covered in trying to move improvements for the Wilstead community forwards. Dates and the agenda are advertised on the village noticeboards, with meetings usually on a Monday starting at 7pm in the small hall at Wilstead Village Hall. (Head to the left-hand side of the main hall building and you will see the door open which is where the Parish Council will be).  Everyone is most welcome to join us .