A village in Leicestershire and in the heart of the National Forest, overlooking Thornton Reservoir.
Here’s hoping the Thornton Quiz nights will be able to resume in person later in the New Year.
To while away the time during the next ‘lockdown’ which is sure to come soon, here is a Christmas themed quiz to have a look at – with over 200 questions.
Sorry no prizes just a bit of fun,
On a bright, crisp December day the village of Thornton found the true meaning of Christmas was alive and well even in these very difficult times.
The annual Seniors’ Christmas lunch at the hall became another victim of Covid19 and had to be cancelled. However, Carla Gibbins decided that the ‘seniors’ deserved a little treat after months of isolation, and with the help of Delia Geary and a team of volunteers set out to provide Christmas hampers for them instead.
Appeals for donations went out and items for well over a hundred hampers were collected.
Many hours of work later, all the boxes and bags were beautifully and painstakingly decorated and filled with all sorts of ‘goodies’. Thornton school and the Playschool contributed 18 hampers between them, many of those hampers contained lovely cards made by the children.
The hampers and contents were collected over many days throughout December and stored in the Community Centre sports hall under strict Covid safe conditions, which included quarantining for 72 hours before distribution.
Volunteers arrived at the hall on Saturday morning and following strict guidelines delivered the hampers around the village. The many appreciative comments from the recipients made the whole event memorable for all involved.
As one who received a box of ‘goodies’ earlier I would like to add my thanks to all those who donated and made this wonderful gesture possible and all all the volunteers who worked tirelessly on our behalf especially Carla and Delia.
COMMUNITY groups in Hinckley and the parishes of Hinckley and Bosworth are encouraged to apply to the Borough Council’s Parish Community Initiative Fund and Hinckley Community Initiative Fund.
This year a total of £162,000 has been made available to support community projects, throughout the Borough. Grants are available for up to 50 per cent of the total project cost. These grants fund a wide variety of projects such as play areas, community building improvements, new pathways, heritage trails, and sports facilities, and this year the council is giving high priority to any schemes that help to improve the environment.
Grants for 2021/22 will be provided on the following basis:
Councillor Martin Cartwright, the Executive Member responsible for Rural Communities and Environment at the Borough Council, said:
As in previous years I would like to see these grants spread as widely as possible across the 24 parishes in Hinckley and Bosworth and a variety of different schemes, with special emphasis on the smaller organisations, charity groups as well as parish councils. As the Borough Council has declared a Climate Emergency additional points will be awarded in the scoring process for those schemes that address climate change or improvements to the environment. The dates for submission of applications has changed slightly from previous years so please pay attention to the scheme closing dates.
Applications are invited from now until the closing date of 12 February 2021. Application packs will automatically be sent to parish and town councils.
Further copies are available by contacting the Green Spaces team on Tel. 01455 255707 or by emailing greenspaces@hinckley-bosworth.gov.uk
Next Generation
Please note: we are currently working remotely from home. If your enquiry is urgent please call: 07719655927 between 9am – 5pm Monday to Friday.
T: 01455 632984
Web: http://www.nextgenhinckley.org/
Age UK’s Digital Champions scheme, assisting older people in the community to become more confident using technology. This will enable people to keep in touch with friends and family, learn how to shop online and also help pursue hobbies and interests.
For more information, please contact Age UK: 0116 2237371 or email: thinkdigital@ageukleics.org.uk
Louise Lock
Next Generation
Please note: we are currently working remotely from home. If your enquiry is urgent please call: 07719655927 between 9am – 5pm Monday to Friday.
T: 01455 632984
Web: http://www.nextgenhinckley.org/
The trustees of Thornton Community Centre would like to give huge thanks to all residents and visitors who have supported the various fund-raising events at the hall over the past couple of years.
These include regular quiz nights, scarecrow festival, art exhibition, carol singing, ceilidh, fashion show and much more.
The money raised has gone to assist the community centre make improvements and purchase new equipment for the hall.
The hall was erected in 1973 thanks mainly to the fund-raising efforts of residents Bill Welsh, Leonard Chaplin, Iris Gleeson and many others; but forty-seven years on and there is much to do to upgrade the hall.
Whilst many of the improvements can’t be seen by the public, they include a new kitchen, purchase of sports equipment, a portable public address system and microphones, new crockery, new interior noticeboards and more; culminating in the purchase and erection, at substantial cost, of two, new, large noticeboards at the entrance to the hall.
Another huge thanks here to resident, wildlife artist Alexia Swirkowski, who has given hours of her time to produce a beautiful village logo for us which has been used to great effect on the new noticeboards.
To find out more about this very talented artist – check out her website https://www.alexiaclaire.com/
Hopefully you will gradually see this logo appear around the village not just at the Community Centre.
Other ongoing projects to be financed at the hall include the purchase of a projector and screen, the refurbishment of the toilets, installing a hearing loop, construction of an area of decking off the patio doors at the hall, and doubling the size of the car park.
Would you like to offer your help for a few hours a month by becoming a Trustee at the community centre? Meetings are held once a month (Covid permitting) on a Thursday evening.
The Community Centre events sub-committee have worked tirelessly for months to bring ‘entertainment’ to the village, trying hard to find something for all age groups, whilst raising much needed funds.
But we had also become very aware that we really need to make improvements in other areas of the village too, which we can’t do under the ‘umbrella’ of the Community Centre (one charity is not allowed to help another financially), and we had just made the decision to form an independent group of village fundraisers that could help not just the Community Centre but also the church, and any cause that needed help locally; including raising funds for a seating area behind the hall, flower troughs, Christmas decorations, annual seniors Christmas party and more.
This has been discussed with the Parish Council and we have the full support of our local parish councillor Colin Harris.
Then Covid19 struck and brought all our plans to a halt.
We are hoping to start up again in the New Year once we can get together again in person.
If you would like to become involved and help the village in any way, whether it be to raise funds, or grow plants for the new planters the Parish council are purchasing for us (with a grant from Bardon Quarries), or to help fund raise in general/apply for grants or sponsorship, have any fresh ideas then email thorntonvillage@aol.com and with your permission I will keep a database of ‘helpers’ to call upon once we have beaten Covid and can begin to get back to normal.
To keep up to date with what is happening in an around the village check out and become a follower of the village website www.thorntonvillage.org.
If you have information relevant to Thornton or immediate surrounds don’t just put it on FB or Nextdoor remember to send it for inclusion on the website too.
Christmas lights are going up all round the village and it seems people are decorating for Christmas! How are your ‘Christmas carol’ windows going?
I posted a couple of week ago that the J22 benefice churches (Markfield, Thornton, Stanton-under-Bardon, Bagworth and Copt Oak) had an idea to brighten up our villages with a simple and fun idea – that as many people as possible decorate a window in their house in the theme of a Christmas Carol. Then as people walk by, they can look out for the decorated windows and guess the carols, maybe singing a few verses to help them on their way.
I have heard that a few have already been done in Markfield – have we any yet in Thornton?
The benefice will be having an online Carol service on Sunday 20th at 4pm and an online Christingle Service at 4pm on Christmas Eve on our Youtube channel. They can be watched at any time after that – to suit your plans.
Thornton 