The Bulletin
Get your copy of the latest Bulletin, click here.

Updates from West Berkshire Council
As you will know, the government requires the abolition of district councils and their re-organisation into larger councils. The proposal for West Berkshire Council is laid out here. Also, the new Local Plan Review Adoption Statement is viewable here and the Sustainability Appraisal / Strategic Environmental Assessment relating to the Local Plan is here.

Switching off your Outside Lights
The North Wessex Downs NL ask people to switch off their outside lights when they’re not absolutely necessary. Wildlife groups ask the same. Neighbours living next to someone that keep their outside lights on at night want the lights to go off and the police tactfully suggest that leaving outside lights on simply helps burglars. Switching off your outside lights helps the environment and saves money.

Any suggestions about how to incentivise people to switch off unnecessary outside lights would be gratefully received. Email inkpen-climate@outlook.com.

INKPEN HISTORY SOCIETY


Inkpen’s St Michael’s church holds tantalising clues as to Inkpen’s past. At our April talk we revealed some of these clues, what the church might have looked like inside and out, and we put together the sarcophagi of the two crusaders that accompanied Sir Roger de Ingepene on his return from the crusades. The importance of Sir Roger’s links to Cornwall and Scotland cannot be under estimated. Hopefully our archaeological dig, not far from the church, will reveal more.

The dig will start on the 23rd May and is expected to last over the spring and summer months. It’s not too late to join the group, just email us at enquiries@inkpenhistory.uk. It’ll be fun!!! It’s worth remembering that every area of Inkpen that was scanned by archaeologists back in 2022/2023 showed buried archaeology.

Details about the dig, where and when we will meet, will be posted on history.inkpenvillage.co.uk by the 18th May.

If you would like to help us with our work on the Crusades, and specifically, Inkpen’s role, do get in touch at enquiries@inkpenhistory.uk.

So far, we have had responses from 8 people that are interested in digging. We need at least five more. If we don’t do this excavation now, the opportunity to do it in the future may be lost for ever.

POP-IN CAFE

If it’s sunny, dry and warm, you can sit outside and right now, just breath in the fragrant spring air.

You can help us too. If you know of someone near to you that might appreciate some company, a friendly chat, then bring them along to the Pop-In Café. Apart from the obvious need to choose between tea, coffee, cake etc., there are no demands.

If you’re a carer or someone being cared for, you will also be very welcome. Stay as long as you like. We look forward to seeing you.

INKPEN AND DISTRICT STARGAZERS

Each month a few of us from the Inkpen Stargazers, set out to record the sky quality, not just in Inkpen but also in Kintbury, Hungerford and Shalbourne. We use sky quality meters just like the one shown above, the same meters as other groups use.

The numbers that we record are fed into web based data collection system - just as other groups do, so that a global view of how the sky quality is changing can be created. This really is a global exercise involving tens of thousands of groups. The purpose is to show how much and how quickly our climate is changing. Want to come and help? Email us at climate.inkpen@outlook.com or just come along to our monthly meeting.

This isn’t all that we do. We also have fun searching out objects in the sky, like the Owl Nebula or the Beehive Cluster. On those seemingly rare evenings when the sky is clear, it’s simply magic.

Our group meets at the Inkpen pavilion on the second Wednesday of each month (except for July and August) from 7:30 pm. The next meeting is on May the 13th followed by our June meeting which is on the 10th. All are welcome, and you don’t have to have any previous knowledge or skill, just come and give it a try. It’s just £3 entry per session.

Going for a walk
If you want a breath of fresh air and some exercise, check out the Inkpen walks, but keep your distance from others, that's at least 6 feet apart in old money. If you feel that you should wear a face mask when outdoors, then checkout the design given on the News page.

On the news page this month there are a number of updates including from the Inkpen Primary School and pre-school, from the Playing field trust and Village Hall, and there's this months Police Report .

Local Climate Group.
We have a newly formed climate group. The website is http://climate.inkpenvillage.co.uk. If you have a look, you’ll see that we have collected data on moths, trees, bird sightings and beetles, as well as data on the weather. This data enables us to see what changes are taking place locally and the pace of those changes. If you have any data, new or historic, on local climate related events or know of someone with an interest in this, then please get in touch with us. We want to bring all local data together in one place and make sure that it doesn’t get lost. Email us at inkpen-climate@outlook.com.

In the autumn, we’ll hold a meeting so that all of you that are concerned about climate change can meet and help us to get properly organised. Keep an eye on the website. Thank you.

THE NORTH WESSEX DOWNS
To see the latest news and events, click here.  Gill Haggarty, Chair of our Council of Partners, took Ben Prater from BBC Radio Wiltshire on a tour to help raise awareness of the North Wessex Downs National Landscape, and encourage more people to visit. This week features a light hearted introduction to Wilton Windmill with volunteer John Herbert - listen in at around 8.50, or catch previous episodes talking to farmer Josef Bowles near Chiseldon from March 9th at around 8.20.

Over the Christmas break, the Inkpen History Society put together a set of descriptions of the historic environment for each, and hopefully every, parish within the North Wessex Downs National Landscape. These are temporarily held at nwd.inkpenvillage.co.uk. Please have a look and if you find any errors, notify us at climate.inkpenvillage.co.uk. Your help in getting these historic environment descriptions right in every detail, is important and much appreciated.

Work continues to relate each parish to all the others, in terms of terrain and historic highlights etc. so that we can clearly see how the landscape influenced the different historic eras. This work will also be added to this website.

Please give us a hand – Oak Trees in Inkpen
We need your help to measure oak trees. Measuring tree girths helps us to evaluate changes that have taken place in Inkpen and enable future researchers to evaluate the effect of climate change on tree growth and distribution. This is work of real value, be part of it. Go to inkpenhistory.uk to find out more.