At this coming Saturday's Morning Cafe at The Old School (see Events poster), Hilary will, as usual, have loads of books and jigsaws for you to exchange. However, she has also booked a further table.

Hilary will be selling a range of home-made craft items. Some have a Chirstmas theme but most have all-year appeal. To get a flavour of what to expect, take a look a the photos below.

Prices will range from just 50p to £10. Cash only please.

Don't tell Santa - he would, no doubt, buy them all!

See you Saturday; 10am – noon.

Tony Jarrow

The difference between the time of winner Lewis Marston and Dave Onion in 448th place was about 55 minutes in yesterday's Stilton Stumble but, more significant is the difference in their ages - around 66 years. How many of the runners will be able to match Dave's when they too are over 85 years old?

Both are an inspiration to all us - as are the other 446 who crossed the finish line after 10 kilometres, happy to collect their hard-earned lump of cheese, medal and drink. But, did they do it all for that? No, of course not, but for something far more life giving.

Those who took part are of every sort. At front of the field are the passionate runners who enjoy both training and racing, and love to knock a few seconds off their best time. They find ecstasy in being in peak fitness and having the ability to speed along country paths and roads for hours on end.

The others know their 'peak fitness days' are some way ahead of them or, more likely, well behind them but, nevertheless, gain an equal amount of satisfaction in keeping themselves in good physical condition and also greatly enjoy the social connection gained while trotting along at an easier pace. Note, we are talking about a real social connection, not the harmful artificial sort that exists online.

Take a look at these photos, do they inspire you to get up and go out for a walk - or even a run? Next year there will be another Stilton Stumble; could you be one of those on the start line?

To see photos of all the runners, click on:
Stilton Stumble Runners .

Tony Jarrow

Rushcliffe Borough Council are planning to deliver the new purple-lidded glass recycling bins to Cropwell Bishop residents this week.

For a list of frequently asked questions (and their answers) click: Purple Bin

Tony Jarrow

Hilary has packed her car with books and jigsaws for the Saturday Cafe at The Old School this Saturday (see poster in Events).

But her's is not the only stall, there will be "Treats" and "Merchandise" stalls too.

And, of course, there will be the legendary cakes and drinks for sale.

Can't wait, can you?

Tony Jarrow

And there will be items about the history of Cropwell Bishop for sale:

Chronical’s: £8

Memories: £7 (only 2 left)

Key rings and magnets: £1.50

These days. if you wanted a blacksmith to forge you an iron house number, sign, gate, or even a horse shoe, you would have to go well beyond Cropwell Bishop.

Yet, 80 years ago almost every village would have had its own blacksmith. Indeed, two current residents had a grandfather who, at different times, was a blacksmith at the forge on Church Street (see the Street Story for Church Street in the Heritage section of the website for more on this).

Last night members and visitors at the Garden Club meeting in The Old School were treated to the atmosphere and workings of a traditional blacksmith's workshop by John Robinson, of Cropwell Bishop.

John has a background in engineering and when he was given the opportunity to help out at a traditional workshop in a Lincolnshire village, he jumped at the chance. That was 17 years ago and now he is a weekly demonstrator in, what is now, a working museum.

He brought a range of tools (the anvil was far too heavy to bring!) and by means of slides and easy-going explanations, he allowed us to imagine the experience, and demands, of being a blacksmith a century ago. He did admit that whilst the metal working was enjoyable and satisfying, fitting horseshoes to a real horse would be a step too far for him!

A most enjoyable evening for all.

Tony Jarrow
(photos by Mel Stanley)

Friday 26th September at the Wheatsheaf, Cropwell Bshop: Save the Date!

You are invited to join:

THE OLD TIME SAILORS

for an immersive experience of foot stomping, dancing and singing as you join the motely crew and their plethora of eclectic instruments, hearty singing and amazing choreography.

You will be taken back to the time of clashing tankards and drunken mayhem!

Sing and dance like a drunken sailor to centuries old folk, shanty songs and seafaring music performed in a way you have never seen before.

Entry is free, but we will be asking for donations to a Leicester based charity, The Bodie Hodges Foundation.

This is a charity that supports families who have experienced the unimaginable grief of a child dying.

Hot cobs and burgers will be available from the NYCE café.

This will be a night that you, and Cropwell Bishop will never forget!!

Fancy dress is welcomed, so pull out your best seafaring garments and join the fun.

(see poster on Events page)

Sharon and Alan Gregory

You will soon be able to recycle your glass bottles and jars without having to walk or drive to the Memorial Hall recycling bins.

From 1st September Rushcliffe Borough Council will be delivering an additional recycling bin to your home. It will be like your grey and blue bins but a bit smaller - and it will have a purple lid. It will be for your glass bottles and jars - and not for any other items.

However, the bins will not be collected until some time after 1st December.

We will be informed of the collection date in Cropwell Bishop nearer the time, but it will be on one of our grey-bin collection days and from then onwards, it will be every 6th week. This service is free for residents.

You will be able to put clean and empty glass bottles and jars of any colour into your new bin, including food jars, drink bottles, toiletry jars, perfume bottles, and feed diffuser bottles. You don't need to remove labels from bottles.

All the glass collected is sent to a reprocessor where it is colour separated by machines and recycled back into glass bottles and jars.

If you are curious how the glass is sorted and recycled, then this is what Rushcliffe Bourough Council has to say:

The first stage of sorting once in the treatment plant is the removal of contaminations. The glass bottles and jars undergo a number of processes to remove unwanted items such as any other types of glass which are not bottle glass, this includes Pyrex and flat glass and lead crystal glass.

Bottle caps are also removed for recycling with magnets before the material passes into an enclosed chamber, where blown air is used to remove large lightweight objects such as paper, plastic bottles, and plastic jar lids.

The material is then fed into a vertical dryer, this draws hot air up though the glass as it enters the dryer, this flow of hot air will remove the moisture as well as glass dust and paper labels which have been freed from the bottles and jars during this process.

The now dry and clean glass passes over an Eddy Current separator to remove aluminium before it is transported to the sorting machines.

The material that is fed into the sorting machines is illuminated from below and above with different types of light, the high definition cameras inside the machines, scan the images of each colour of glass and detect the red, green and blue spectrum.

Where the computer detects a piece of contamination it then sends a signal to the high speed, high accuracy compressed air jets to fire and eject the contamination from the flow of glass.

The glass at this stage is now known as cullet, is free from contamination.

The final stage of the process is to crush the material to size before it is sampled and tested to ensure that it meets the required specifications. This material is then supplied to bottle and jar manufacturers who make new bottles and jars from the finished, high quality cullet.

This type of recycling is known as 'Closed Loop' system, where waste material is turned back into its original form. In the case of glass bottles and jars this loop can be repeated over and over again, forever!

Fascinating!

Tony Jarrow

It is Saturday Cafe at The Old School this weekend (see poster in Events) and Hilary is already getting together a super collection of both Books and Jigsaws for her Exchange Stall.

Maybe see you there?

Tony Jarrow

A skydiver is attempting two set two new world records today by running the distance of a marathon followed by skydiving the same distance - all in one day!

Tom Flavin has been running his marathon since 03:00 this morning and will arrive at Skydive Langar later today for the jump portion of his challenge.

Tom Flavin, 29, will aim to achieve a world-first when he runs a marathon and then skydives the equivalent of a marathon distance - all in one day.

He aims to raise £10,000 for charity through the challenge, which will see him run 42 kilometers and then jump out of a plane 13 times to fall the same distance on Friday 11th July 2025.

He will be raising money for BacZac - a charity launched in memory of a former Nottingham student who lost his life to cancer.

Speaking of the challenge, Tom said: “I used to run ultramarathons years ago and then I got into skydiving about five years ago, having completed almost 400 skydives, so I thought I'd merge the two together for this challenge.

“It will be one marathon of running and one marathon of free-fall, a total of 52.4 miles, half horizontally and half vertically. I do feel nervous; I don't know how my body's going to react when I get on the plane after the marathon as it's a confined space and I could get cramping. It's also dependent on weather conditions. Something like this has never been done before so it's hard to figure out how you can train for it."

He is raising money in memory of his friend Zac who was a journalism student at Nottingham Trent University when he died in March 2016, after being diagnosed with a germ cell tumour in his chest, as well as an aggressive form of leukaemia. BacZac was created by his dad Jason to support other young adults battling cancer.

Now, let me see, what have I got planned for today .....!

Tony Jarrow

The Parish Council are pleased to welcome to the Parish Council Cllr. Mark Barlow.

Cllr. Barlow was Co-opted to the Parish Council on the 1st July.

Here, he describes his life experiences and association with Cropwell Bishop over recent decades:

I left the Prison Service and became an AA recovery patrol and transferred into the AA’s manufacturer technical training division where I trained and became a technical trainer for Volkswagen Group at the AA College at Widmerpool. During this time, I became a Parish Councillor for the village.

My role was transferred to Milton Keynes to which I commuted daily and after doing this for 2 years I sought a career nearer to home and joined Leicestershire Police as a Police Officer. I served for 17 years and in my service performed a variety of roles some which included being a local beat officer both in the City and County. It was at this time I left the Parish Council due to a conflict of interest.

During this time, I left the village for 10 years moving approximately 5 miles away. Due to having family in the village, I had regular contact with things happening within the village.

I took over the running of the family farm in 2023 and the family and I are now living back in the village, and I am a volunteer with the RAFAC – The Royal Air Force Cadets.

I am keen to take an active part in the village and help the village where I can. If you see me when you are out and about, please come and chat to me.

cllr.barlow1@gmail.com
07763 925545

Janice Towndrow
Cropwell Bishop Parish Clerk

A lovely spot to pause and watch the world go by.

The Jubilee Garden beside the Church has its own seat in the shade where you can admire the shrubs and flowers. It all looks so natural, but of course it is not.

There is a team of village volunteers who plant, dead-head, weed and water all summer long.

People often express their appreciation for their efforts: David Glynne Jones did so only this morning.

So, thank you to those volunteers.

Tony Jarrow