A village in Leicestershire and in the heart of the National Forest, overlooking Thornton Reservoir.
If you receive a hard copy, you should have received it by now – or will do very soon. There is also an online version available for downloading at https://www.j22churches.org.uk/
Please let us know if you would like a copy delivered to your home each month.
It is with regret that I announce that Friends of St Peter’s, Thornton has decided that it will not be possible to hold its scheduled Open Gardens event this year. Despite the progress of the Vaccination programme, we feel that the Open Gardens in a village such as ours cannot be held in a socially-distanced way and so will not be practical this year.
Building on the success of last year’s ’virtual’ open gardens on YouTube (which was viewed 854 times), there will be something similar again this year. The format may differ, depending on the number of participants. As Open Gardens usually serves as both a social and fundraising event, this year we plan to link to an optional ‘JustGiving’ page so that people can donate if they wish to.
The deadline for submitting photos or a short video will be 20th June and the Virtual Open Gardens will be available to view in early July. If you think you may be interested in displaying your garden in this way, please let me know on thornton.opengardens@outlook.com.
We are hopeful that we will be able to hold this event in June 2022, as it should be – for real, outdoors and welcoming everyone into our beautiful and unusual gardens.
Lis Muller
Check out Andy Smith’s February update for the wildlife around the reservoir on the ‘Nature Notes’ page, together with more photographs.
If you go into the village today, you’re in for a big surprise.
If you go into the village today, you’ll never believe your eyes.
For hiding there in cranny and creek,
Are Teddy bears for you to seek,
For this is the start of Thornton Teddy bear hunt week.
A lovely idea developed by some of the parents in our village to keep the young amused during a lockdown half term!
(Thank to Carla for organising – Verse and photo by Colin Melvyn Harris)
https://www.leicestershirecommunities.org.uk/transport-for-vaccinations.html
Please share this information.
The February edition of the magazine is now ready and can be accessed on http://www.j22churches.org.uk/
We are really sorry and sad that there will be no hard copies of the magazine for February. Our regular printer, ‘TeamPrint’, has been closed since April 2020 because of Covid-19. Printing the magazine ourselves has become very costly even though we were printing fewer copies.
As soon as ‘TeamPrint’ are up and running again, we will be back in business.Meanwhile there will continue to be monthly editions of the magazine available online on the Benefice website.
We don’t yet know what will happen for March’s edition but will keep you informed.
When we do eventually start to print the magazine again everyone should receive a hard copy as in previous years.
For further information please contact me on 01530 230422. Thank you.
Shirley Garlick
on behalf of The Village Link sub committee
| Leicestershire police are issuing a warning following a number of elderly people being duped out of large sums of money after being contacted by bogus police officers. Since 10 December last year, they have received 17 reports of courier fraud. Seven of those victims suffered losses of more than £135,000. During the incidents the victims have received a call from someone claiming to be a police officer who’s investigating counterfeit currency or fraudulent use of the victim’s bank card. One such recent report was received from an Oadby woman in her 80s who was initially contacted in December last year by someone claiming he was a police officer from London who was investigating counterfeit currency. Over a period of time the suspect gained the victim’s trust and subsequently told the victim to withdraw a large sum of money and purchase gold so they can check the money isn’t counterfeit. A courier was then sent to the victim’s home address to collect the gold. The victim lost more than £30,000. In another incident a Knighton man in his 80s was contacted over a period of two weeks in December by someone claiming he was a police officer from London, he said he was investigating fraudulent transactions on the victim’s wife’s bank card. The suspect claimed the bank card was used in a department store to purchase two high value watches. He was told to withdraw a large sum of money from his bank and purchase some gold bars from a local jewellers. Gold bars to the value of £40,000 were purchased and subsequently picked up by a courier. Paul Wenlock from the economic crime unit, said: “We are growing increasingly concerned about these types of offences. Suspects are gaining the victim’s trust over a period of a few weeks and ensuring they don’t speak to anyone about the calls. They sound genuine and victims feel they have no choice but to do as they are told. “These types of offences are borderless crimes, those responsible target victims not necessarily in their own area but across the country. Leics police work closely with forces across the country to ensure any intelligence identified during investigations is shared. “A number of warnings have been issued about these crimes but they know not everyone accesses social media or the internet, so they are asking the public to help us by informing their neighbours or relatives about these offences. “They should be advised that police officers would never contact them in this way. If they are called they should disconnect the call straightaway and report the incident to the police using another telephone, as on some occasions calls can remain connected. “On some occasions suspects will use local taxi or courier companies, who unknowingly accept the job. They ask that people remain vigilant and if they are contacted to collect packages be mindful of who they are collecting these from if they have any suspicions to report them to the police immediately.” Please share this advice with friends, family and neighbours. Further advice about these offences can be found on https://www.actionfraud.police.uk/a-z-of-fraud/courier-fraud |
| Message Sent By Corporate Communications (Communications, Public Engagement, Force HQ) |
Local tradespeople – Thornton & Merrylees
Some of our more senior residents have asked if it would be possible to create a list of local tradespeople.
It can be quite daunting to find reliable, trustworthy people to carry out work, especially in these very uncertain times.
They were asking if we could organise a ‘go to’ list that could include plumbers, electricians, decorators, builders, architects, gardeners, IT experts, dressmakers, cleaners, artists, taxis, chimney sweeps, podiatrists, beauticians, hairdressers and much more, but keep it ‘in house’ using the services (where possible) of other residents in Thornton and Merrylees.
It was agreed that the ideal platform to advertise and list such services locally is on the existing Thornton village website. www.thorntonvillage.org
If you would like to advertise your business, whether you are part of a company or a sole trader and live in Thornton or Merrylees; then please contact me and I will enter your details on a new page to be created on the website. Email: – thorntonvillage@aol.com
By return email I will ask you to complete a short proforma, listing your contact details, services offered and any professional qualifications etc.
There is no charge for advertising, the website is not for commercial gain, but was set up purely for the benefit of the residents. (However, we may make a very small charge or ask for donations in the future to help pay for the annual costs of website hosting and domain name renewal).
If you know of anyone who has their own business who may be interested, and is not on Nextdoor or Facebook then please let them know.
Following on from this we are looking into creating a Good Neighbours scheme – similar to the one in Desford – www.desfordgns.org.uk
If we feel this is a possibility more information and a request for volunteers will be published at a later date.
For those Nextdoor members residing in Thornton – don’t forget to join the separate ‘Thornton Community’ group on Nextdoor.
Hinckley and Bosworth Community Transport have been given some funding from the HBBC/VCS partnership to provide community transportation to residents of Hinckley & Bosworth. This transport will be free for those who do not have any way of getting to the centre safely themselves.
See poster attached.
Please pass on this information to anyone whom you think would benefit from this service. We want to ensure that everyone can get to have their vaccines as soon as possible.
There are volunteer drivers available to help provide this service and if we can get 6 people at similar times going for vaccines we can use our 16 seater minibus which we can take people safely distanced and meeting Covid guidelines for safety.
Lindsey Short (Hinckley & Bosworth Community Transport)
