BROAD TOWN NEWS MARCH 2026
Keeping everyone in touch with what is going on in and around our parish.
PARISH COUNCIL
The Parish Steward normally visits Broad Town once a month to clear drains, fill potholes etc but for the last two months (and probably for next month as well) the stewards have been prioritised to focus on fixing potholes. In his absence you can report any blocked gullies or potholes using the MyWilts app (on a phone) or else at https://www.wiltshire.gov.uk/mywilts-online-reporting
Next PC Meeting - Monday 9th March at 6.30pm in the village hall. All are welcome and the agenda will be posted on our website and on the notice boards in due course.
THE WILTSHIRE BOBBY VAN TRUST
Provides free home safety and online security services to vulnerable residents across Wiltshire. We are reaching out to Parish Councils to help us raise awareness of these services within your communities. Your support whether through local groups, village magazines, social media, e-notice boards, or simply word of mouth can make a real difference in keeping people safe.
Our Services:
Home Security:
Our team of Home Security Operators carries out home security and fire-risk assessments, installs essential safety devices, and supports those affected by domestic abuse, changing locks or creating safe spaces until Police assistance arrives.
Last year, we secured over 1,500 homes and delivered more than 200 awareness talks.
We also offer a Digital Doorbell Service, providing free installations for vulnerable residents.
Stay Safe Online:
Since 2017, our Stay Safe Online programme has helped Wiltshire residents particularly those over 60 or adults with registered disabilities protect themselves from online fraud and scams. We provide personalised guidance, and group talks to help residents:
• Protect themselves from online fraud
• Access essential services securely
• Stay connected with friends and family
• Shop and engage online confidently
In 2025, we received 154 referrals and helped 680 people gain confidence online. With fraud now accounting for over 40% of crime in the UK, prevention and education are essential.
Referrals & Contact:
We receive referrals from Wiltshire Police, partner agencies such as Victim Support and Age UK, and directly from community members. All our services are free, confidential, and tailored to everyone’s needs.
For more information, please visit our website or contact me directly:
Telephone: 07887474366
Email: rachel@wbvt.org
Website: www.wiltshirebobbyvan.org.uk
With your help in spreading the word, we can continue supporting residents to stay safe at home and online. On behalf of everyone at the Wiltshire Bobby Van Trust, I wish you a Happy New Year and look forward to working together in 2026.
WHAT OUR S.I.D. SAW LAST MONTH
In Summary 24,341 vehicles passed the SID located at the School monitoring Northbound traffic (heading to RWB) which equates to approx. 609 a day. 9% of vehicles were speeding.
SOCIAL CLUB
The social club is open every Friday from 8pm and members and their guests are all welcome. If you are not a member you can join for just £3.00 for the year - just ask Trevor behind the bar. Draught beers and lagers are for sale at just £3.50 a pint and there is a free pool table, so why not pop in and check us out. Find us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/FourWaysBroadTown
Food for Thought Evenings
Food for Thought will be selling their delicious Fish and Chips (and burgers, sausages, scampi etc) outside the Village Hall from 5 – 8pm on the last Friday in the month:
27th February
27th March
24th April
BROAD TOWN CHRIST CHURCH
Our upcoming services for March.
8th March 10.30am Morning Service
22nd March 10.30am Communion
Our upcoming services for April.
Easter Sunday 5th April 10.30am Communion
April 12th 10.30am Communion
26th April 10.30am Communion
COMMUNITY COFFEE MORNINGS
Charity Donations:
Thank you to everyone who attended our coffee morning on February 11th and made suggestions as to which charities they would like us to donate our surplus funds to. We had many great suggestions, and it was a difficult decision, but we eventually decided on the following donations:
£250 - Swindon & District Samaritans
£250 - Wiltshire Sight
Thank you again to everyone for continuing to support our village coffee mornings.
March Dates coffee mornings will be on Wednesdays March 11th and 25th. Community Coffee Mornings take place in the village hall on the second and fourth Wednesdays of each month. We would like to extend a warm welcome to everyone in the village, and especially to those who haven’t been to a coffee morning before, to join us from 10 - 12 noon. Make new friends, have a chat and enjoy a range of delicious homemade cakes, sausage rolls, and hot drinks. We operate on a donation basis, there is no fixed price for anything, please just donate as much as you feel able to.
We look forward to seeing you!
A BIG THANK YOU to everyone who supported The Full Monty it was fantastic to see 85 people having fun with family, friends & neighbours enjoying their Winter Whopper, Weanie or Green Goddess breakfasts while partaking in the special auction of luxury items
Your generosity & kindness raised £1,994.56 for The Prospect Hospice.
MADE IN BROAD TOWN CRAFTS & HOBBIES GROUP
Activities in February included making paper butterflies and hearts, and the 18th saw a very busy half-term session making collages and recycling magazines into beads for necklaces.
Our March sessions will be on Wednesdays March 4th and 18th.
On the 4th we will be making fabric bowls, and on the 18th Maggie B will be leading another of her very popular beginner’s watercolour sessions. Numbers are limited for the painting session, but we will be running our normal session alongside this, so please come along with your craft or hobby, or just for a chat over tea, coffee and biscuits. If you would like a place on the painting session, please email us and we will add your name to the list. All painting materials are provided.
Request for unwanted hanging baskets, garden planters or terracotta pots
We are already putting plans into place for our May 9th plant sale so please start gathering together any seeds or flowerpots that might be useful. We are very grateful for a selection of hanging baskets and planters which have been donated to us by a village resident. These will be planted up to be sold at the sale, and if anyone else has any unwanted hanging baskets, planters or terracotta flowerpots that they no longer want, we would love to have them. All proceeds from the plant sale will be going to charity so it’s for a very worthy cause, please email us to let us know about them or bring them to the village hall on any Wednesday morning.
March sessions
Our sessions run from 10-12 noon in the village hall on the first and third Wednesdays of the month and we would love to see you there. There is a voluntary £2 fee which goes towards hall hire, materials, and refreshment costs. Please just turn up or email us if you have any questions.
Helen or Linda, email: madeinbroadtown@gmail.com
Calling all gardeners following last year’s very successful charity plant sale, Made in Broad Town are having another one this year, on Saturday May 9th, 2 – 4pm.
Many of you in our village were kind enough to grow plants and seedlings for us to sell, and we would love you to do the same this year please – now is the time to start growing and propagating!
We can arrange collection of plants before the sale if necessary, and if you have any questions or would like to keep us updated on what you are growing, please email us at madeinbroadtown@gmail.com.
Thank you for your help.
BROAD TOWN VILLAGE HALL
The Broad Town Village Hall has now gone digital and all bookings and enquiries can be made "On-Line" at the following web address:- www.broadtownhall.com.
Look forward to seeing you at the hall.
BISHOP’S LETTER (DEAN OF SALISBURY)
“Lord, it is good for us to be here; if you wish, I will make three dwellings here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah”
(Matthew 17: 4)
John Hacket, seventeenth century Bishop of Lichfield, preached that offering to build dwellings for Jesus, Moses, and Elijah was “…the greatest error that St Peter committed”. Hacket’s verdict has always struck me as somewhat harsh. True, Peter does not respond to a scene of unearthly glory with a paean of awestruck wonder. But then Peter was a fisherman. He was good with his hands. He was used to mending boats, gutting fish, and patching up nets. Brought face to face with the light of Heaven he reverts to type. What can he do? Make some ‘dwellings’ – obviously! It's a relief to me that we read a Gospel account of the Transfiguration on the Sunday next before Lent, that we catch a glimpse of the divine before we descend to the wilderness and begin the weeks of penitence and fasting. It’s a relief to me because St Peter manifestly fails to rise to the occasion. He does not do what the circumstances seem to demand. He does not utter beautiful words that we still sing as a canticle in our worship. He does not leave the mountain-top with a serene countenance and a steadfast heart, forever a changed man. No. He reverts to type. He offers to get his chisel and plane out and knock something together.
And this is a relief because the weeks of Lent compel me to acknowledge that, like St Peter, I very rarely rise to the occasion. I make vows about abstinence and study, only to break them. I receive ash on my forehead and daub it on the foreheads of others, only to find myself thinking about my supper. I hear the gorgeous music of the Cathedral choir and walk in solemn procession behind them, only to obsess about impossible neighbours, unwritten sermons, and difficult colleagues. In short, I revert to type – gluttonous, distracted, and cross.
But perhaps the expectation that I might rise to God’s occasion or live up to God’s moment is just one more example of human vanity, one more instance in which I’m convinced it’s all about me. It’s not. Lent, however imperfectly observed, leads to Passiontide, when God in Jesus does not rise to the occasion. He descends to it. To the scourge, to the nails, to the crown of thorns. He comes down the mountain and joins us. And that’s why there is hope.
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