Easter 2003

The four churches in Bagshot (Church of England, Roman Catholic, Methodist and Evangelical) are once again delivering an Easter card to every house in the village. Your electronic copy is alongside.

Isn't spring such a lovely time of year with the early flowers already out and new leaves beginning to burst forth, as with the horse chestnut leaf seen here emerging from its sticky bud on the tree that adjoins my garden.  Mind you, come autumn and we won't be so pleased with all the fallen leaves we get!

This winter has been colder than last year, but has been a real mixed bag. We had heavy rain with some flooding immediately after Christmas. A couple of the houses on the banks of the Windle Brook that were flooded last summer were again innundated.  It must be such a heart-breaking experience, especially as one is getting back to normality after the last occasion.  Soon after that we had snow and lots of frost. And as if snow on the roads is not bad enough, a water main on the A30 Bagshot Bypass burst before the frost cleared  resulting in a sheet of ice and a road closure.  It is a good job it was a Sunday and there was not much traffic about.  

Towards the end of January temp we had a day-time temperature of 17 C, then to prove how fickle the weather is we had snow again before the week was out!  According to the weatherman, March has been the dryest for 40 years.  Then April started with very warm days and frosty nights, culminating on the 10th April with a dusting of snow as we drove to work.
 
You will have seen that I have a 'search engine' on several pages that will find words or phrases within the Bagshot web site.  Each month I get a list of what words and phrases people have searched for.  I have no way of knowing who has made the search request, but it helps me decide what needs adding to the site.  It was a visitor's interest that prompted me to add the page about transport links.

Some of the requests cause me to smile.   I must not be unkind, but I don't know how anyone can expect to find sensible responses to searches like these on a site that is dedicated to one village in Surrey: St Annes church Limehouse (London), Gatcombe Park residence of Princess Royal, Loch Ness hunting lodge, a specific road in Twickenham, a specific school in Bishopswood, various pubs and hotels situated in neighbouring towns & villages, Kensington Palace apartments, and Princess Caroline of Monaco. There also are numerous search requests for place names that are a long way away, for example: Yetley (presumably they actually wanted Yately, a village over 10 miles away), Weybridge (15 mile away), Pyrford (20 mile away), Ash (also about 20 mile away), Chalfont St Peter (about 30 mile away) and its neighbour Chalfont St Giles, Liverpool, Cambridgeshire, and even Scarborough (200 miles away).

It also gets lots of searches for people's names, and local businesses. Occasionally people come looking for personal information about the Earl or Countess of Wessex (who do live in the village, in Bagshot Park) - the simple answer is that I don't know, and even if I did I would not publish such details.

Rev Guy Armstrong 1918-2002 The Rev Guy Armstrong will be remembered by many parishioners.  He was vicar of St Anne's from 1965 to 1973. Guy Armstrong had had a distinguished 25 year career in the Army (retiring with the honorary rank of lieutenant-colonel) before preparing for ordination at Oxford.  Bagshot was his first position as vicar, following 4 years as a curate near Reading.  He moved from Bagshot to Ripley where he became chaplain to the local prison - the start of a passion ministering to prisoners, officers and their families which he continued into his 'retirement' on the Isle of Wight.   Rev Guy Armstrong returned to St Anne's to preach on the occasion of the Queen Mother's visit to the church in 1990.

Revisions to the website since the Christmas newsletter include:

• In the general enquiries area
  • Three Mariner's pub and connections with the sea.
  • The Duke of Connaught's Band and the Duke's connection with Malta
  • More correspondance about the Broadmoor sirens
  • The Institute and Princes Cinema, including pictures.
  • Information on the origin of "shot" in place names
  • A comprehensive answer about Pantiles Tennis Club
• In the family enquiries area:
  • John and Ellen Webster (late 1800's)
  • Accessing the Royal Archives
• Travel details have been added

ps: each time I do a mailing telling friends like yourself about one of these 'update' pages I get several bounce back as undeliverable because the intended recipient has changed their email address, and I have no way of knowing what it has changed to.  So if you change your email please remember to put me on the list of people to tell if you want to keep in touch.

The latest newsletter is here