Cotswold News Page 3

Organisers of the Cotswolds’ much-loved Cornbury Festival are thrilled to bring a little joy to the end of 2020, with the announcement of Bryan Adams as headliner of the festival’s Friday night line-up on July 9 2021.

Yes, there will be a live Christmas show this year at the Roses Theatre Tewkesbury!
(Almost) a Christmas Carol – an adaptation of Dickens’s famous tale – will open on 12 th December, and tickets cost just £12 each.

The Good Grief Project and The Sub Rooms are collaborating to honour those who are experiencing grief during the pandemic by lighting up the historic venue at the heart of Stroud.
This evening (Tuesday, December 8) from 5pm Stroud Sub Rooms will be flooded with yellow light as part of National Grief Awareness Week (December 2-8) which will also see other historic buildings such as St Paul’s Cathedral in London and Blackpool Tower illuminated. There will be a minute’s silence at 6pm.

At the Queens Hotel in Cheltenham, it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas. The 1st December saw the launch of the Christmas advent projections on the hotel’s Georgian façade, running from 4.30pm to 10.30pm each evening.
In collaboration with local partnership project, No Child Left Behind (NCLB), that helps young people in the area thrive, the Queens Hotel team has partnered with 13 local schools* to create a Kindness at Christmas advent calendar that showcases artwork from 24 primary schoolchildren*.

Over the past 50 years, millions of people from across the globe have marvelled at the incredible aviation spectacles that have seen the Royal International Air Tattoo grow to become the world’s greatest airshow.
For the first time ever, the complete history of the Air Tattoo, from its birth in 1971 to the present day, has been captured in a beautifully illustrated book written by renowned aviation journalist Ben Dunnell and features hundreds of dramatic photos, many taken by some of the world’s leading aircraft photographers.

Four students from Chipping Campden School have helped raise several hundreds of pounds for Campden Home Nursing and the school’s new Performing Arts Campaign by designing Christmas cards which have sold like hotcakes!

Coldplay, one of the most famous rock bands in the world, has donated a signed Fender guitar to a small village school in the Cotswolds as a prize in its Christmas raffle.
Swell C of E Primary School, in the north Cotswolds, which has just 29 pupils, has opted to make 2020 a year to remember, not forget, by hosting the huge online raffle to raise vital funds.

Kobe, Blink and Dude, three rescue dogs from Gloucestershire, have been chosen as the tail-wagging stars to feature in the 2021 Kennel Club Breed Rescue calendar.
The calendar is made up of stories and pictures of seven rescue dogs striking their best ‘pawse’ after overcoming the odds, highlighting the work of the organisations that gave them a second chance and found them loving new homes. The sales of the calendar raise funds for The Kennel Club Charitable Trust, one of the largest charities dedicated to dog health and welfare in the UK.

Spoil from a canal near Stroud has been used to help repair a road in the Cotswolds – saving the county council £700,000.
The Old A40 near Northleach, also known as Prison Copse Wall, has been closed since autumn 2015 because of damage caused to the wall supporting the highway and cracks appearing in the carriageway. The cost of repairs was estimated at more than £800,000.

Bourton-on-the-Water Primary Academy has welcomed pupils into their new classrooms following the completion of a major programme to expand and improve facilities at the school.
The academy, which is situated in the picturesque Cotswold village, has now moved into its new Early Years and Reception classrooms in the final step of the £1.8m, three-phase construction programme, expanding the school so it can admit 45 children per year.

Three thousand Christmas meals for people in need, including those who are self-isolating, will be created this year thanks to the social enterprise The Long Table with support from the Stroud District Council.
The arrangement came about when SDC offered a licence to use the kitchen at the council-owned pub The Ship Inn in Brimscombe, when it became vacant and before the lease was remarketed.

Fairytale Farm, just outside Chipping Norton, has been named as England’s fastest-growing farm attraction, according to the Annual Survey of Visits to Visitor Attractions, just published by Visit England.
The results from this survey are reported annually, providing an overview of the visitor attraction sector. The newly-published figures, which are for the full 2019 season, show that Fairytale Farm’s visitors grew by 56% between 2018 and 2019, to 37,825.

Villagers in Ashton under Hill, near Evesham, have produced their own calendar to make up for the fact that the 42nd Ashton Open Gardens didn’t happen there this summer.
Resident Andy Cooke, who took some of the featured photographs, said: “This will be the first year that there will be an Ashton Open Gardens Calendar. The calendar features some lovely appropriately seasonal pictures of the village, useful monthly gardening tips and a voucher giving you one free entry to the 2021 Ashton Open Gardens. What more could anyone want?”
The price is £6 per calendar (in an envelope for posting if needed), £5 without the envelope. There will be an extra £2 charge per calendar to post.
Anyone interested in buying a first edition Ashton Open Gardens calendar should email contact@ashtonopengardens.co.uk

A Cotswold inn has been named among the UK’s best restaurants, receiving the coveted accolade of three AA Rosettes.
The Feathered Nest Country Inn at Nether Westcote, Gloucestershire, is among 26 British restaurants to have received three AA Rosettes, a record number for a single announcement, along with four restaurants to have been awarded four AA Rosettes.

The Duchess of Cornwall, Royal Patron of the Friends of Westonbirt Arboretum charity, visited Forestry England’s Westonbirt, The National Arboretum, yesterday (Monday).
The Duchess took in the spectacular autumn colour display and found out more about the arboretum’s work and activities in conservation, education and participation.

Madness will be playing at Westonbirt Arboretum, near Tetbury, as part of Forest Live 2021, the summer concert series presented by Forestry England.
Drawing on their musical roots in ska, Madness were responsible for some of the most credible pop compositions of their generation with the ability to write songs that sparkle with the spirit of British life.

A notice was served by the county council on Friday to stop the Stow Horse Fayre from going ahead this week.
Using its powers under Covid-19 regulations, the county council and Gloucestershire Police had jointly served the landowner with a ‘notice of concern’ last Monday, October 12, giving them 48 hours to address concerns raised by the county council, Police and Cotswold District Council (CDC).

A crucial phase of the development of the Performing Arts Centre in Chipping Campden has been completed this week, with the final section of the steel frame now finished.
Chipping Campden School (CCS) is creating a new performance centre that will transform arts education in the North Cotswolds and be a much-needed community asset. The project is set to be completed in time for the next academic year.

Volunteers on the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Steam Railway (GWSR) are celebrating two grants from the Cultural Recovery Fund for Heritage: £318,000 for the railway and £26,100 for the Dinmore Manor Locomotive Group based on the line.
Both grants are part of the first wave of grants under the ‘Here For Culture’ campaign, announced today (Friday, October 9).

Cotswolds Tourism has today announced it has received funding from VisitEngland for its successful ‘Uncover the Cotswolds’ project.
The project – encompassing the wider Cotswolds, Cheltenham, Gloucester, Forest of Dean and Wye Valley – is to benefit from Year 5 funding from the UK Government’s £40 million Discover England Fund, administered by VisitEngland.