The Tintern Village Website

The Tintern Village Produce Association

2004

MINUTES OF THE 30TH ANNUAL MEETING OF THE TINTERN VILLAGE PRODUCE ASSOCIATION,
HELD AT THE VILLAGE HALL, TINTERN,
ON FRIDAY THE 16th JANUARY 2004 AT 7.30PM

PRESENT :
Mrs C Bradshaw- Chairman
Mr J Bathgate - Treasurer
Mrs J Bathgate - Minutes Secretary
Mr and Mrs Boast
Mr B Jones
Mrs J Dexter
Mr B Bradshaw
Mrs C Ostler
Mr and Mrs Langdon
Mr and Mrs Parsons
Mr and Mrs Mitchely
Mrs Van de Veere
Mrs J Martin
Mrs J Davey
Mrs J Sheldon
Ms J Rhodes
Mrs J Hutchison
Mrs C Heron
Mr K Haynes

APOLOGIES :
Miss J Bartholomew
Mr and Mrs Ager
Mr and Mrs Simmons
Mrs J Jones
Mr H Hutchison

The Chairman welcomed members to the 30th Annual General Meeting of the Tintern Village Produce Association.

1. Minutes of the last Annual General Meeting were agreed and signed. There were no matters arising.

2. The Chairman’s Report.

Welcome to the 30th AGM of Tintern VPA. Once again Judy, our ex Secretary, has put together a programme with something for everyone to enjoy.

We started the year with Steve Hunt describing how he developed his garden from scratch and in June we were made very welcome when we went to see the garden. It was a wonderful evening spent wandering round, admiring flowers and vegetables and finally drinking tea and eating cake.

Then we were taken further afield with Mike Foster describing foreign gardens and Christine and Mark showing the wilder places they have visited. Nearer to home Colin Titombe revealed how much wildlife is to be found in and nearby Churches, Andrew Nixon talked about the work of the AONB in the Wye Valley and David Cooksey showed us his wonderful owls.

Our other outing was to the Forest of Dean when despite the rain we enjoyed a guided walk through the sculpturettrail. The garden party in July was held at Tony and Di Parson's home and we thank them very much for their hospitality. We had a lovely evening. Also in July we ran a plant stall at Tintern Fete where we encouraged people to purchase plants by giving away a coleus to every customer; the strategy worked.

The Annual Show was a success thanks to all the hard work of many members but especially our Show Secretary Jean. I hope that we are all happy to continue putting effort into the Show.

The Harvest Festival at Llantilio Pertholey was attended by a few members and enjoyed. The Christmas party was back in the Village Hall and I must thank Jean and John for the quiz. Unfortunately we didn't have any visitors from Trellech as the date clashed with another event. It was a good evening and the spread of food was excellent.

We continue to keep the Village Hall gardens tidy but we do need a few more volunteers please in the Spring when we start again.

It was very sad and a shock to us all when Martin, our Vice Chairman, died in September and he will be much missed. He was due to take over as Chairman this year, so I have agreed to carry on as Chairman for one more year.

I would like to say a big thank you to Jean and John Bathgate for all the work they have done and the extra tasks they have taken on as we have been without a Secretary for the last year. Many thanks, also to members who have helped in various ways throughout the year. I hope that with your support that Tintern VPA continues to be a success.

3. Treasurer’s Report.

The year had gone from a balance of Ł42 to Ł262. Subscriptions had been raised to Ł4, the Show had been in profit by Ł65 and there had been donations of Ł30 from the Hall Committee and Ł100 from the Tintern Community Chest to help swell the balance.. The meeting agreed that the subscriptions should remain at Ł4 per person and that there should also be no charge for teas this year.

The discount facility at Millbrook Garden Centre was discussed as the present VPA cards would not be acceptable after February 1st. Millbrook are issuing their own cards at a cost of Ł1 per person. The meeting agreed that the Treasurer should advise Millbrook of members wanting a card and paying the card cost from the Association’s funds.

4. Election of Officers.

(1) Chairman - Christine Bradshaw volunteered to remain in the post for a further year
(2) Vice-Chairman - Jean Davey volunteered for this role
(3) Secretary - Jackie Langdon volunteered to take on this post.
(4) Treasurer - John Bathgate
(5) Show Secretary - Jean Bathgate
(6) Minutes Secretary - Jean Bathgate
(7) Village Hall Representative - Ken Haynes

5. Program.

Christine Bradshaw will provide the programme and rota at the February meeting. The Garden Party will be held at Jane Rhodes’ home at Beechwood in July.

The Show will be on August 21st. The Show Secretary will ask Mike Foster and Mrs Cook to be our Judges again. John and Jean Bathgate will again purchase geraniums for all members as Show entries. The Show Committee Meeting will be held on Friday, February 27th at 2.00pm at the Bathgate’s at 6 Parva Springs.

(6) Tea Rota and Competitions,

February : Carol Ostler and Diane Parsons : Marmalade
March : Joan Dexter and Jackie Hutchison : Spring Show
April : Jackie Langdon and Jean Davey : Easter Bonnet
September : Jane Rhodes and Jean Bathgate : Photograph - Transport
October : Wendy Boast : Autumn foliage, Pumpkin
November : Ken Haynes and Jean Martin : Christmas Cracker
January 2005 : Mina Van Der Veere

7 Any Other Business

(1) The competitions throughout the year had been won by John Bathgate. 14 Members had participated during the year.
(2)The February meeting will be a talk on the Late Winter Garden

The meeting closed at 8:00pm

20 Feb 2004

The February meeting was held on a chilly night at the Hall where we were surprised to find that we were sharing the venue with the Wye Valley Crafts group. We were given a talk on the "Late Winter Garden" by Cathy Williams of Cathy's Garden Services. She brought along a large selection of blooms available at this time of the year, to brighten up the room. Mostly her talk was giving advice on those garden jobs needing doing at the moment. During tea and coffee Cathy Williams was giving advice to our members.

The March meeting was to have been held on a night when there was snow on the ground and our speaker did not fancy the drive from Bristol. We look forward to seeing the "Magic Man" next year.

16 April 2004

Mr Collett came to talk to us about the "Working on the Wye Valley Railway" in April and was full of lovely anecdotes about his life on the Railways.

21 May 2004

Millend house, Coleford

Our May meeting was a visit to the garden at Millend House, near Coleford. A fine evening after a somewhat gloomy day, so we all enjoyed a wander round this garden set on quite a steep hillside.

18 June 2004

Our June visit was to the delightful water garden at Greenfields. This was a garden set way out in the country close to Abergavenny.

16 July 2004

Our Summer Garden Party was held at Jane Rhode's house on a fine evening where we could sit out on Jane's wall quite happily. We watched the planes crossing Tintern and leaving complex patterns in the sky. We only had sixteen members come to the party which was a little disappointing.

21 August 2004

The 2004 Annual VPA Show

This year's Show was most successful and was held on a day with very good weather and lots of visitors popping in to see us.
Mike Foster came to judge the flowers, fruit and vegetables and stayed to open the Show. Mrs Cook judged the cooking and handicrafts and commented about the high standard of cooking on display.
Our display of geraniums grown from plugs provided by the VPA was not of the quality of 2003, no doubt reflecting the poor weather we had this year.
We had over three hundred entries with all sections of the Show being well represented. We had worried that the poor weather may have reduced the number of entries, but in the event, we had a good turnout of high quality items.

Linda Simmon's Completely Edible Cake, judged Best in Section

Some shots from the Show

Prizewinners

Matthew Hewish was our youngest competitor and won the children's plaque for coming second in the (adult) biscuit category. We hope to see him back next year with more cooking.