BROAD TOWN NEWS JUNE 2026
Keeping everyone in touch with what is going on in and around our parish.
CHRIST CHURCH
Dates
14th June – 10:30 Morning service
28th June – 10:30 Communion
A comment from a local churchgoer "After going to the Plant Fair I took the opportunity to show a friend, who hadn't been to Broad Town before, the church and churchyard. The churchyard looked immaculate and so very beautiful, and we sat for a long time enjoying the peace and tranquil atmosphere. So, a very big thank you to the Churchyard team for all their hard work which is much appreciated."
A VIP Date for your Diary! Cottage Garden Tea. Queen Elizabeth Cottage, Broad Town, Saturday 11th July, from 2pm to 4pm
Come and enjoy homemade cakes, scones and a cup of tea in a lovely garden setting, in aid of the church maintenance fund.
COMMUNITY COFFEE MORNINGS
June Dates: Wednesdays June 10th and 24th.
Julia’s House Children’s Hospices Donation: This month we were able to donate £250 to Julia’s House, thank you for your continuing support of our coffee mornings. 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. Any profits are regularly donated to local charities. We look forward to seeing you in the village hall.
BROAD TOWN WHITE HORSE RESTORATION GROUP
A busy period for the Restoration Group starting in April by assisting in the recovery and repositioning of the Goldborough Resting Stone. Little is known of the history of the stone, but it is believed to have been a seat for people walking to and from Royal Wootton Bassett. Older residents remember it being located beside the road outside Goldborough Kennels but for at least sixty years it has been pushed down into the side of the drainage ditch where it has lain out of sight. Led by Adrian Crocker and his teleporter, a small group picked up and recovered the stone and restored it to its original position where it can be seen as you drive past Goldborough on the way to Bassett. The next date in the diary was a presentation to the community of the work done on the survey project which was initiated in 2025 after landslips threatened the Horse. A presentation outlining the scope of the project was delivered last summer and the aim of this latest session was to explain the activities subsequently undertaken and the results achieved. The evening was led off with an introduction by Jemima Sellwood from the North Wessex Down National Landscape to whom we are indebted for providing funding for much of the work. Jemima was followed by guest speaker Brian Edwards, a published archaeologist and Visiting Research Fellow of the Regional History Centre, UWE Bristol. He gave an entertaining talk on the horse seen as an object seen on statues, coins, regalia etc and its possible connection to the White Horses that have appeared over the centuries on Wiltshire hillsides. The next two sessions were delivered by Andrew Law and Derek Greer who talked about the three main areas of investigation; the topographic survey, the assessment of land slip risk/ condition and lastly the historic review of the Broad Town White Horse. The evening was concluded by Judy Conybeare who demonstrated the Broad Town History website and in particular the element dealing with the White Horse. This had been kept under wraps until the day of the talk but went live to coincide with the evening. All of the reports from the study are available along with a whole host of information on Broad Town and its history. All readers are encouraged to visit https://www.broadtownhistory.com. Last but not least was the liming of the White Horse which took place on 10 May. A hardy group of 15 volunteers made their way to the top of the Horse and after weeding and trimming, they distributed 1250kg of lime over the figure. The weather was good; everyone enjoyed themselves and there can be no doubt that the Broad Town White Horse is probably the best maintained white horse in Wiltshire. The Restoration Group benefits from tremendous support from the Community and particular thanks are due to: • Jason and the Hop Chapel for providing the beer that we enjoyed. • Cockroost Farm for procuring and delivering the lime on our behalf. • The Broad Town Parish Council for enabling the funding that keeps us going. • The wonderful volunteers who turn up to weed and lime the horse and so keep the horse visible on the hillside.
EDUCATIONAL DAY OUT AT LOCAL FARM - 7th June 2026
Link to website: https://farmsunday.org/visit-a-farm/shareEvent/84579
Contact Tel - 07595027909 Email - gantlettinvoice@gmail.com
10am - 2pm Woodhill Park Farm SN4 7PU Come and see the cows being milked through our robotic milkers, and more robots scraping the yards. Meet the calves and see the grain store, and some of the tractors and machines we use. Gain an understanding of how the dairy, beef and arable parts of the farm all work together to conserve the soil health, maintain ecological biodiversity and produce a range of top quality organic produce.
10am - 12pm Wildflower Meadows Breach Lane Visit our neighbouring wildflower meadows to see the diverse blooms and the rare Marsh Fritillary butterflies. Weather dependent, there may be the opportunity to have a closer look at the beehives that feed off the meadows. Please email or book so we have an idea of numbers.
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 Fish & Chips
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:
29th May
26th June
The Village Hall bar will be open from 5pm on these Fridays so why not pop in and enjoy a drink while you are waiting for your supper!
MADE IN BROAD TOWN CRAFTS & HOBBIES GROUP
Request for your unwanted flowerpots etc… If you have any unwanted flowerpots after planting out your plant sale purchases, we would be grateful to have them back please! Similarly, if you don’t want to keep your hanging baskets or containers at the end of the summer, please consider donating them back to us so that we can re-use them next year. Please drop them off at the village hall on any Wednesday morning, or email us at: madeinbroadtown@gmail.com, and we will arrange to collect them from you, thank you.
June Sessions: will be on Wednesdays June 3rd and 17th. On the 3rd we will be continuing with a second macrame session and on the 20th, we will be having a goat flower pressing. All welcome! Broad Town 100 Project – free seeds!! The project was inspired by this year being Sir David Attenborough’s 100th birthday.
There is still time to request your free wildlife friendly flower seeds by emailing us at: madeinbroadtown@gmail.com, With the aim of involving the whole community to increase biodiversity by encouraging nature into your gardens and open spaces around our village, we are giving away free seeds to anyone in the village who requests them. As part of this project, at the end of April we spent an afternoon at our village school. The wooden planters that we had made from recycled pallets, were filled with seeds and plants by the children. We were lucky to have beautiful sunny weather for this event, and all the children set about their task with great enthusiasm to produce some lovely planters, which they will be looking after throughout the summer term. Made in Broad Town sessions run from 10am – 12 noon in the village hall, new people always welcome. If you have any questions, please email us: Helen or Linda, email: madeinbroadtown@gmail.com
PLANT SALE SUCCESS!
A big thank you to everyone who supported our village plant sale and tea on May 9th. Made in Broad Town raised £1,202.67 for Prospect Hospice, and our village church also raised £450 for their funds, making a grand total of £1652.67. Several months of hard work preparing plants for the sale were rewarded with a very busy and successful afternoon, with several people commenting on the lovely atmosphere in the village hall. Prospect Hospice, our village church and Made in Broad Town would all like to thank everybody involved in the organising of the event, and all those who came along to support us. Thank you very much!
PARISH COUNCIL
Keep up to date at https://www.broadtownparishcouncil.org.uk
Village Tidy-up Thanks to all the residents who volunteered to walk the village picking up litter. We had a very productive few hours and made a noticeable difference throughout the village. Grateful thanks also to those who provided refreshments and bacon baps afterwards, it was much appreciated.
The next Parish Council meeting will be at 6.30pm in the village hall on 8th June. All are welcome and the agenda will be posted on our website and on the notice boards in due course. Residents are also invited to raise any issues they want to bring to the attention of the Parish Council for future consideration by the Parish Council. Refreshments will be provided.
WHAT OUR S.I.D. SAW LAST MONTH
40,996 vehicles passed the SID located at Chapel Lane monitoring Northbound traffic (heading to RWB) which equates to approx. 911 a day. • 9% of vehicles were speeding.
PLEASE NOTE that all copy to be included in the next edition should be emailed to:
BroadTownNews@gmail.com by the 22nd of EVERY month. Any queries should also be sent to this address.