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


When it was built in the mid to late 13th century, Inkpen church, St Michael’s, certainly didn’t look like it does now. We, the Inkpen history society, are trying to work out just what it did look like. There are hints of previous restorations, but what the order of those changes was – well that’s something we’re trying to work out.

Our dig started on the 30th May. We’re looking for traces of, and the extent of, the Norman manor of Inkpen in the late 13th century. The dig is expected to last over the spring and summer months. It’s not too late to join the group, just email us at ihjarchaeology@gmail.com. Follow us at history.inkpenvillage.co.uk. Archaeology is fun. And 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. The Next Dig day is the 13th June but check out the history website for more dates and information.

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

POP-IN CAFE

Over the last two months or so, the huge rise in fuel costs have put some Air Ambulances services at risk. We live in a part of the country where this could so easily cost lives. It’s a service that any one of us could need. So, your Pop-In Café has donated a further £100 to try and help.

Please support the Pop-In Café so that we can continue to support you. The June dates are the 4th and 18th, the first and third Thursdays of each month. We’re at the Inkpen playing field pavilion and open between 10 and 12:30. Looking ahead to July, we’re open on the 2nd and 16th.

The Café is a place to meet, greet and make friends over a cuppa and cake. There’s plenty of car parking space available, and there’s a disabled toilet and all the usual facilities.

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

If you’re a carer or someone being cared for, you will also be most 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 June 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 £3 entry per session or £20 for the year. Our future talks will include how to use a sextant and how to read the clouds. Who doesn’t want to know that!

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.