Category Archives: News

Fabulous Fete Day

Yet again, we had a marvellous fete day in Compton Dando on 6th July, despite a heavy shower right on the dot of 3pm, when we all got a little wet. The sun soon came out again, though.
Thank you to everyone who came, we could tell that you were having a good time by the ambient noise. We had the fantastic South Bristol Ukes band playing several sessions during the afternoon, much to the delight of the crowd – we have booked them again for next year.
Our Master of Ceremonies, Jonathan Foyle commented as the excitement grew to fever pitch for the annual Duck Race. The torrent of water, helped by the previous night’s downpour, swept numbers 237, 224, and 127 to the finishing line. There were 8 lucky prize winners, as we sold over 700 tickets.
Amongst the other competition winners were: Fiona and Simon Gregg Smith for the Egg Catching; Jim and Oscar for top scores in the Skittles event; Julia Dalby who correctly named the Doll – Clara, Julia’s granddaughter’s name! and Ella McCarthy won the Best Bracelet competition. As usual we were fortunate to have some wonderful donated Raffle Prizes from local businesses and individuals and 7 village families were in the mix of 17 different prizes.
A huge thank you goes to Phillip Gentle, and his team of helpers, for organizing the fete. It takes a lot of background work for several months to put on an afternoon’s entertainment. An especial thank you to the set-up team who turned out in the pouring rain on the Friday evening to put up the marquees and gazebos. As you will see from one of the photos, the wind thwarted us overnight, so a bit of handiwork was required to put everything to rights in the morning.
As usual, next year’s fete will be on the first Saturday in July, that is the 5th. Put it in your diary now.

Open Gardens Event

Just a week to go till our village Open Gardens
Sunday June 9th Compton Dando Village: 2-6pm
Twelve very different gardens to visit in this pretty local village, plus plant sale, teas and cake!
£6 a ticket, kids go free, Free Parking
Details on Facebook: Compton Dando Community and Website http://compton-dando.org/

Christmas Wreath Making

A great time was had at the recent Christmas Wreath Making Workshop, despite the cold!!! They have raised a fabulous £200 for the CDCA.

Sarah thought all the wreaths looked amazing – and I shall be door watching as they all go up!

Results of Village Quiz Night

Thank you so much to everyone who booked for our annual village quiz. We had 9 teams in the end and the range of topics was good – Old Relics, Car Brands, Local History, It’s All in the Clue, Language of Song to mention some of them.

The team that won in the previous two years has been toppled by Hopeless of Hunstrete – well done to them and this year’s Wooden Spoons were The Outsiders.

As you can see from below we had a very good raffle as well – thank you for all your donations. As usual we had Fish & Chips from Seafoods Plus from Keynsham and they were delicious.

Thanks too to Alice, Katie and Laura for their help. Alison

Winner of fete bouquet making prize

Mel was delighted to spend a few hours recently with Sarah Wilson creating her own bouquet of late summer/early autumn flowers, having won this activity in this year’s fete. Put next year’s date in your diary now Saturday 6th July.

Compton Dando Craft Days

Harriette’s Craft Day in Compton Dando on 17th October, the first of this winter’s sessions, was well attended. It was a lovely collaborative, calm day doing everything from knitting and crochet to glass mosaic, wood block printing, card making and making charming book journals. Jenny supplied her delicious soup and Dawn kindly brought her chocolate cake to add to the other homemade foods. The next three dates are: Saturday 18th November, Tuesday 9th January 2024 and Saturday 3rd February 2024.

Please contact Harriette Dottridge if you would like to come, cost is £8. Bookings to be made before Wednesday 15th November please, for the following Saturday.

Looking forward to seeing what everyone is doing next month. Embroidery is one Alison began at last year’s sessions, she is now working on a new seedhead illustration.

Lovely film about rewilding part of the River Chew

Mossy Earth, in partnership with Bristol Avon River Trust, In this video we’re introducing our new project areas along the River Chew in south-west England, where we’ll be undertaking a variety of interventions to let the river run wild again.
⏱️TIMESTAMPS⏱️
0:00 Intro
1:20 Context
3:39 Beautiful habitat
6:28 The problems
7:51 Our project
🔎 ABOUT THIS PROJECT
===============================
The River Chew is a scenic watercourse that forms part of the Bristol Avon network of rivers, streams and lakes in the British countryside. Along stretches of the river, trees and vegetation provide food, shelter and spawning grounds for important migratory fish and invertebrates, including the protected Atlantic salmon. Where there is sufficient shade, trees help improve water temperatures, sediment levels and the riverbank. However, sections of the River Chew don’t have this delicate balance of vegetation cover and have been degraded by surrounding land use. Partnering with BART (Bristol Avon River Trust), we are focusing on river habitat restoration, riparian tree management, landowner engagement and habitat and fish spawning surveys to improve two key fish spawning tributaries.

You can read more about it here: https://www.mossy.earth/projects/spaw…

Annual Litter Pick

The annual litter pick made it to the pages of Keynsham Voice this month – here are the volunteers. Sarah Wilson commented: Luckily the weather was kind and we covered all the lanes including the one to Burnett. Big thank you to #KeynshamWombles for the equipment and #BANES cleansing team who pick up the litter we collect. Also thank you to those villagers who collect litter regularly throughout the year. All in all, it was a great effort to keep our beautiful village litter free.