Hundreds or dogs live in Cropwell Bishop and when their owners take them for a walk, they take a plastic bag with them and collect any poo that it produces. They then dispose of the bag at home or in one of the dog poo bins in the village.

Stepping on dog poo on public paths has been eliminated: well not quite. This is what a Cropwell Bishop resident said yesterday:

“We were out for a walk along the footpaths to Cropwell Butler on Sunday and the paths were littered with dog mess. It seems people don’t think they need to remove it when on the footpaths by the fields!

Also, there is frequently a mess left on the pavements as well – particularly on St Giles Way which is right in the way of children walking to school.”

Dog owners have got used to collecting poo in bags, but some seem to think that their responsibility ends there. Here is another comment:

“Today, I was going up to the doctors and a bag of dog mess had been placed on the arm of the bench. I suppose at least they bagged it, but really what a place to leave it! Is this really the sort of village we won’t to live in?”

Are these problems being caused by just one person?
Is it a child who is not aware of their responsibilities?
I don’t know: maybe you do.

You can easily report sightings like these to Rushcliffe Borough Council: it only takes 2 minutes.

Click on the orange “Contacts” tab on the right, and you will find a link to click on. Select Cropwell Bishop, the street, add a few notes and you are done.

If we all do this, the Council may be able to identify the location and timing of instances and send someone out to investigate. The Council says:

“an on the spot fine of £50, or a fine of up to £1,000 on prosecution applies if you allow your dog to foul in a public place and you fail to clean it up straight away”.

Not so long ago, litter, smoking and drinking alcohol in public spaces were seen as acceptable – but times have changed. Can we work together to change the habits of one person, or possibly a few, and so make our local environment better?

Tony Jarrow

The Committee for the Cropwell Bishop Village Show has already finalised plans for this year's event.

It will take place on Sunday 1st September in the Old School and whilst the format is similar to that in recent years, the event categories have been updated.

One major change is the Childrens category. This year, instead of one category for all children, Category 9 is for Key Stage 1 children and Category 10 for Key Stage 2.

Printed copies of the leaflet and entry-form are not yet available from shops but you can view (and then download) them by clicking on the links below.

Show Leaflet

Entry Form

A poster for the event now appears on this website's Events page.

Tony Jarrow

Apparently, no one new is standing for election to Cropwell Bishop Parish Council next month, so the current 8 councillors (see article of 4th April) are elected unopposed.

Therefore, there will be no need to hold a Parish Council election on 2nd May – in fact, the Parish Council will be short of a councillor so it will be looking to fill the vacancy by co-option

Tony Jarrow

CT4N, who will be running the new 33 bus service through Cropwell Bishop, have asked to attend our Annual Parish Meeting to talk to parishioners about the new service.

The meeting starts at 7.30pm on Monday 15th April (see poster on Events page).

The format will now be:

• Presentation on Single Use Plastics (Q&A at end)
• Presentation on new 33 Bus Service (Q&A at end)
• Special Service Awards
• Parish Council Chairman’s Annual Report
• Questions to the Parish Council

All local residents are welcome to the meeting.

Janice Towndrow (Parish Clerk)

It is not what you expect, mid-week on a cold April morning, but there was no mistaking the roar of a gas burner overhead.

At 7.30am today a hot air balloon drifted low over Cropwell Bishop heading into the Vale of Belvoir. No shortage of hot air in Britain this Spring – and they don't know where they are going to land either!

Tony Jarrow

33 is the magic number as new bus service restores missing links in Nottinghamshire.

Nottingham Community Transport’s trading arm, CT4N is excited to introduce a new bus service between Nottingham, West Bridgford and Cropwell Bishop, to start following the Spring Bank Holiday on Tuesday 28 May, 2019.

The new service - the 33 - will serve passengers at the following main locations below and replaces the current 822 service operated by Yourbus for Nottinghamshire County Council – due to be withdrawn on Saturday 25 May, 2019:

· Cropwell Bishop
· Cropwell Butler
· Cotgrave
· Tollerton
· Gamston (Morrisons)
· West Bridgford and Nottingham (Friar Lane)

In addition, journeys which operate only in the morning and evening, will be extended during the day to serve Langar and Sutton Cum Granby.

Welcoming the new 33 service, Ian Combellack, General Manager of Nottingham Community Transport said: “It is extremely rewarding to be able to launch another new service.

We’ve been listening to feedback about the existing 822 service and we know that passengers in outlying villages served miss the direct link to Nottingham throughout the day, so we’re delighted to bring this valued connection back to communities in Nottinghamshire.”

The 33 will also provide direct links between Nottingham City Centre and the Spire Hospital at Tollerton as well as the new housing estate on Hollygate Park at Cotgrave.

“Service 33 has all the right ingredients to provide a real community bus service – not least core links for people going to school, college, work, shopping and leisure activities and one we hope that communities will use, enjoy and support.

We would encourage as many people as possible to use the service, to ensure its long term viability.”

CT4N has already stepped in to protect other lifeline bus services which were due to be withdrawn. Ian added: “This service will be provided by a community transport operator for the local community and any profits will be reinvested into vital transport services for the elderly and disabled rather than shareholders.”

A selection of single, return and weekly tickets will be available, as well as a monthly ticket which can be purchased through a mobile app.

Further details about the fares will be released in the next few weeks.

Commenting on the news, Nottinghamshire County Council’s, Group Manager for Highways & Transport, Gary Wood said: “The County Council welcomes the decision by CT4N to operate the new 33 bus service from the Vale of Belvoir to Nottingham. This replaces much of the current 822 route which is funded by the Council.

A new 833 service for the other villages on the current route, offering connections with the local services and to West Bridgford and Nottingham, will also be introduced.

We hope the new services will encourage more passengers to use the service to help reduce congestion and air pollution in the area.”

CT4N will also be accepting tickets from the county council’s service 833. Further details, including route and timetable information, can be found at www.ct4n.co.uk.

For a pdf version of timetable click: "Bus Timetable"

Last night, Cropwell Bishop Heritage Group's open meeting at the Old School was packed with villagers curious to discover who the Field Detectives are.

It turns out they are not a "MidSomers Murder" spin off, but in fact a team of Nottinghamshire enthusiasts with the skills and knowledge necessary to bring life to the history of our village.

Last summer, the Tour of Britain cycle race came through Cropwell Bishop and the world’s top riders, Chris Froome and Geraint Thomas pedalled down Church Street. We saw them, we have photographs of them, we can relate to them.

Nearly 2000 years ago, the Romans ruled Britain and they built a road nearby: the Fosse Way (A46). In school we studied maps of the straight roads they built and learnt their names and probably copied diagrams of road cross sections.

But visualising a band of Italian soldiers marching down a road that lies just over the hill takes a great deal of effort. And imagining a Roman wandering up the hill to Cropwell Bishop (well, its site) for a bite to eat is a step too far. However, following last night’s presentation, my view has changed.

In the fields around Cropwell Bishop lie the remains of Roman occupations: pottery, broaches, coins, wool spinning weights, etc. Hundreds of items have been found on the ground or just cm below the surface.

Last night we saw many of them on display and we were able to pick them up and examine them. Made from stone, lead, bronze – they looked like museum pieces, yet they were all found within a short walk of your home. Maybe you or your dog kicked or sniffed one on a morning walk.

The Field Detectives are not a couple of people with metal detectors. They are a team of around a dozen scientists, historians, geologists and the like, who share an enthusiasm for surveying fields to discover how our farming landscape evolved. They follow up their methodical, scientific surveys with freely available reports and community presentations.

Their finds, which are assembled as a Landowner Collection, are retained by the landowner but become available for further research and study. The objects generally have little monetary value but are of great value to everyone interested in past local life.

The presentation’s lead speaker was Richard Pincott. Richard has been a Field Detective for 20 years and he and his team have completed 7 projects in that time and another 3 are on going.

He emphasised the importance of getting the landowner’s permission for these projects and heaped praise on Russell Price of Cropwell Butler. Russell owns the fields surveyed by the team and has enthusiastically supported their efforts.

In his presentation, Richard described how random finds led to their theories of local habitations that, in turn, led to planned surveys to test their hypothesis. Metal detectors, hand digging and Google Earth all played a part in collecting evidence for what they now believe was happening here 2000 years ago.

A church of sorts on the edge of Cropwell Butler was a focal point of interest for local people. Many paths led to the church and, amazingly, these paths are still in use today even though the church disappeared long ago.

A few hundred metres away from the church, in Cropwell Bishop parish, there was probably a small settlement consisting of round buildings made of wood/willow. Springs, ponds, and streams will have influenced the choice of location. As the people of this time and later periods worked the fields, walked the paths and lived their lives, they dropped, discarded and buried the items that the Field Detectives found.

It was a fascinating evening at the Old School and it will no doubt encourage the efforts of our Heritage Group to illustrate how our village forefathers (and mothers!) have affective our lives today.

I, for one, will look more carefully at the objects I usually toss aside as I dig my allotment plot at the top of Fern Road.

Could the Romans have walked over it on their way to Colson Bassett? Could they have built a home there? Looks like a job for the Allotment Detectives!

Tony Jarrow

We all make use of it many times each day yet we never give it a second thought. Thankfully, the engineers at Severn Trent think about it all the time and this morning they showed off the improvements they have made.

Cropwell Bishop's sewage treatment facilities have been updated and this morning some villagers were able to see the improvements for themselves.

It was a big engineering project and throughout the whole of 2018 lorries delivered big loads and workers got their hands dirty – but not once did they have to halt the flow from our toilets: amazing really.

Severn Trent say they have "rebuilt the sewage treatment works using new processes and added an additional stage of filtration to make sure that the final effluent discharged to the local watercourse meets stringent environmental standards".

Thanks to John Greenwood for taking the photos. John says; "it was a really enlightening and informative visit and villagers attending were most grateful to representatives of Severn Trent and the contractors, NMCN, for showing us the impressive new 'high tech' installation and processes which now treat our sewage, replacing the old filter beds."

Something to think about next time you are sitting on the toilet!

Tony Jarrow

A big thank you to everyone who attended or supported the recent "Curry and Quiz Night" at the Memorial Hall.

I was absolutely overwhelmed by interest and support for it and sold out with 95 people there (and more teams wanting to join that I couldn't fit in).

Manoj from More Restaurant in Leicester provided the very delicious curry and generous auction prizes and Richard Turner wrote and delivered an assorted but fun quiz.

Sara and Scott did a fabulous job on the bar, Keith helped with the raffle and games and many other people helped the evening to run smoothly.

Overall we raised a total of £2,253 for Cancer Research UK.

Once again. a huge thank you to everyone who attended or supported the evening.

Michelle Oldfield

We have had a defibrillator in Cropwell Bishop for about 5 years and it has been used on several occasions.

The problem with a resource like this is that whilst we rarely, if ever, want access to it, when we do, we need to get it quickly.

With this in mind, I have updated the Contacts page of the website where I have provided full details of how to access it. I have also made the Contacts tab stand out by making it orange.

Tony Jarrow

Ever wondered what kept the St Giles Church clock going before the age of electricity? No doubt it was the people of Cropwell Bishop who regularly (daily?) climbed the tower to wind it up—their names now lost in time.

However, the clock mechanism itself is not a mystery: in fact we can go and see it!

Thanks to Jonathan Good who took this photo of the clock on discovering it in the Industrial Museum at Wollaton Park. The card on it states:

Turret Clock

Oak framed clock with wrought-iron wheels. Thought to have been made by Richard Roe, Epperstone, Nottingham, 1694. It was used by St Giles Church, Cropwell Bishop, 1694 – 1906.

That's 212 years of ticking!

Tony Jarrow

Confused by the parking restrictions in the Co-op car park, or maybe you are not even aware of them? To try and clarify the situation ......

The Co-op rents the building and car park from Marston's Brewery. The original plan for the Co-op was rejected but, after going to Appeal, the Planning Inspectorate approved the plan and one of its conditions was;

"The car park shall be retained solely for use by the existing public house and the proposed retail unit hereby approved and shall not be subject to any time limited parking restrictions for patrons of the public house."

The parking signs reflect this condition and it is clear that pub patrons are not restricted to a time limit (unlike Co-op shoppers).

However, because the pub does not open until 4pm on weekdays (or 12 mid-day on Saturday and Sunday), the pub landlord has agreed to allow the parking spaces for pub patrons to be used by Co-op shoppers when the pub is closed.

So, during the week, Co-op customers can park anywhere up to 4pm and, at the weekend, up to mid-day (1 hour maximum).

Hope that helps.

Tony Jarrow

A Butchers shop has stood on the site of Gary Jowett’s shop on Nottingham Road for over a century but the range of food on sale has increased dramatically in recent years.

Fresh local meats and homemade meals remain the core of his business and a big range of handmade sausages including gluten-free varieties is on display.

Choose your own chops, joints, steaks or burgers from the counter display.

Need advice on how much you need for a party or how to cook it—just ask Gary or one of his assistants.

The freezer contains a wide range of homemade ready-meals for an easy dinner (see Cropwell News for a long list with prices) or you can make a curry for yourself using one of the many handmade sauces available.

Meat pies, sausage rolls, tarts, cakes and pastries supplied by a nearby small bakery face you as you enter the shop. A few steps away, is a selection of breads such as Spelt, Corn and Tiger—all baked in Cropwell Bishop.

A selection of Belvoir cordials are stacked on a shelf and elsewhere are numerous other items and ingredients to help your cooking go smoothly.

Like in all Cropwell Bishop shops, there is a wide range of cheeses.

For a small village we have an amazing variety of shops, businesses and services available to us at its centre. Have you visited them recently?

Tony Jarrow

Nottinhamshire Police has launched an online newsletter with news of what is happening in our area and how the Police are responding.

What is particularly interesting is that it provides updates on the West Bridgford area and also 'Rushcliffe South'.

This latter one covers Cropwell Bishop and surrounding villages. It describes crimes in detail and action taken, but also happier events such as PCSO John Heaps' recent visit to Cropwell Bishop Youth Club.

It is an interesting and useful publication. This what Inspector Craig Berry says in his introduction ....

"Welcome to the first Rushcliffe Stakeholder fortnightly update. My name is Craig Berry and I am the Police Inspector responsible for Rushcliffe Borough.

In the coming weeks I will endeavour to bring you information and news that is relevant to Rushcliffe residents and communities.

There will be information and advice about crime and antisocial behaviour and updates including good news stories.

We will report on Neighbourhood Policing activity, engagement opportunities and also work with our Community Safety Partners including Rushcliffe Borough Council."

Download the whole newletter by clicking on: "Stakeholder Update"

Tony Jarrow

We have been notified by N.C.C. that Yourbus have requested early exit from their contract and wish to cease the 822 service in April 2019.

Notts County Council have come to an agreement that Yourbus will continue this service until the end of May 2019, to enable them to organise an alternative service for the 822 route.

Notts County Council, in conjunction with the local Parish Councils, are working on an alternative service.

We will advise our parishioners as soon as we are aware of who will be running the service going forward and what the timetable will be.

Janice Towndrow (CBPC Clerk)

Following the relocation of our new Co-op, Sandwich Shop, Nyce, finds itself firmly in the centre of Cropwell Bishop's hub of activity.

Providing freshly cooked food and drinks made to order, and warm seating, it is proving popular with local people and those passing throught the village.

In the early mornings a lot of its trade comes from work-people and delivery-drivers wanting a quick hot meal to set them up for the day.

Later on you are just as likely to see Cropwell Bishop folk calling in. It might be for a sit-down meal, cobs to take home, or to meet friends for coffee and cake.

Unfortunately, it wasn't the best start to the year for Nyce: an electrical fault started a fire in the supply box and would have started a major fire had it not been for the quick action of owner Lyn who, luckily, was in the shop at the time.

After a week's closure, Nyce was back in business and is once again serving all-comers from 8am from Tuesday to Saturday. It closes at 2pm each day except Saturday when it is 1pm.

Tony Jarrow

Have you been annoyed by dangerous pot-holes in the road or the sight of fly-tipping around Cropwell Bishop but then been unsure who to tell?

Well, now, all you have to do is click on the Contacts Tab (on the right of this web page). On the Contact page you fill find links for reporting both problems. It's all very easy to do: there is even a map for you to pin-point the exact location.

In my experience, the Council will sort out the problem within a few days.

Just the other week 9 upright freezers were dumped outside the entrance to the Allotment site. Within just 2 days, Rushcliffe Council had removed them.

So don't let these things upset you, click and report them.

Tony Jarrow

An outline planning application to build 85 dwellings in Cropwell Bishop has been submitted to Rushcliffe Borough Council.

When our village was first made aware of this project last year, the plan was for 70 dwellings and the road layout and school drop-off layout were different.

In the coming weeks I will post details of how you will be able to view the detailed plans and offer feedback.

Below is the new plan for 85 homes and also, for comparison, the plan published last year.

To see the full set of documents associated with this planning application, visit the Rushcliffe Borough Council Planning website by clicking:

Plans for 85 Houses

Tony Jarrow