Longparish, Hampshire

What's New

This is where we try to keep you up to date with news of what's happening and new stuff on the web site.

Village Hall Refurbishment - latest news

Building work has begun. Solar panels were installed at the end of February and we are now generating our own electricity. LST Projects have started on the major structural work.

In April we had gifts from individuals totalling £6,500, a provisional offer of a grant of £10,000 and £1,350 raised by the LCA Tuesday talks. In May we have had the good news that Raymond Brown will sponsor Much Ado. And donations to Jeremy Barber's Everest Marathon appeal are over £5,000 and rising. Thank you very much. In total, individual gifts have now passed £60,000, bringing the total raised so far to around £270,000. Thank you all very much. But we still need more. We anticipate that the total cost, including fitting out and VAT, will be approaching £300,000 so if you have not already given please dig deep. More information on the Village Hall pages.

Calling all Cribbage Champs

Graham Mottley is looking to get a team together to play cribbage at The Plough from September. If you are interested, please contact him at Test Cottage or on 07860 680847

Antiques Evening - Thursday 17 May

Antiques expert Clive Stewart-Lockhart presents Tales from behind the scenes at the BBC Antiques Roadshow & life in the world of antiques. Details here.

Open Gardens - Weds 23 May and Sun 27 May

The lovely gardens at Lower Mill and Longmead House will be open again on Weds 23 and Sun 27 May under the NGS in support of the Village Hall Refurbishment. There were lots of visitors for the first open day on Mothering Sunday. These are wonderful gardens and well worth a visit. Refreshments will be available and there will be plants for sale. Full details are here.

Concert - 25 and 26 May

Our wonderful village choir will be performing in a major concert in May. Tickets are available now for an evening of music from films and musicals performed by local musicians and including music from James Bond, Blues Brothers, Phantom of the Opera, Amadeus, Dambusters and many more. More information on this lovely poster.

Everest Marathon - Tuesday 29 May

Jeremy Barber is running a marathon from Everest Base Camp to Namche Bazaar to raise funds for the Village Hall Appeal. Please click here to find out more and sponsor him.

 

Jubilee Midsummer Fun Day - Saturday 2 June

This year the LCA is due to run the popular bi-annual Midsummer Fun Day. We are bringing it forward to Saturday 2 June to coincide with the Jubilee weekend. We want to make it extra special, so please let us know if you have:

• an idea for a special activity
• the time to help us with the planning beforehand
• time to help us run things on the day

Please contact Christine Beresford on 720421 or Christian Dryden on 720398. More information here

Golden Jubilee - 11 June 1887

Going back a bit further there was a huge celebration on 11 June 1887 for Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee. Details are recorded in a notebook belonging to John Woodcock. You can read a transcribed copy here.

Much Ado About Nothing - Friday 6 July

Advance tickets are now on sale for this exciting outdoor performance by Heartbreak Productions (a professional touring company). The production is set in the 1940s and includes some music.  Make up a party, bring a picnic, chairs & rugs and enjoy being entertained in the beautiful gardens of Lower Mill, Longparish (by kind permission of Karen-Marie Dinesen). A bar and tea & coffee will be available on the night. Tickets will be advertised outside the village nearer the time of the performance and on the website of Heartbreak Productions, so this is the chance for all villagers to get the date in their diaries & secure their tickets early. This is, of course, a fund raiser for the village hall refurbishment, so please support us and join us on the night when we are sure we will have a very entertaining evening.

Contact Ann Jennings on 01264 720367 or Gloria Goodliffe on 01264 720425 to buy your tickets.

Smooth Movers Ladies' Exercise Class - Thursdays 9.15 to 10.15am

Classes are led by Lauren Mildenberger, a fully qualified instructor. She teaches low impact short routines to music. This is kinder to your joints. It is not a fast pace class so is ideal for complete beginners and senior ladies. Each session includes gentle warm up, cardiovascular exercise to increase heart-rate (nothing major!!) and toning – concentrating on those problem areas (Arms, Bums, Tums).

Wear comfortable clothing and non-slip footwear. Everyone works at their own level, no pressure. Come along and give it a try. £5 per session. Free parking - so why travel to Andover for a class?

Need more information? Phone Gina on 01264 720128.

LCA - L2SOTM - The Longparish Second Sunday of the Month handicap running race

The L2SOTM is a race of about 3 miles (5km) held on the second Sunday of every month. The next race is on Sunday 10th June starting at 10am at the Cricket Ground. Runners of all standards are welcome as are brisk walkers. The handicap system means that the slowest have as much chance of winning the cups as the fastest. Hope you can come. There will be refreshments afterwards and supporters of all ages are very welcome. More details are available on the L2SOTM pages.

LCA - Recycled Teenagers

The Recycled Teenagers’ Club is open to all older members of our community and was started by Longparish Community Association in 2007.  We organise regular outings and other events using Test Valley Community Service’s minibus for transport.   We are very grateful to the Longparish Community Association for their continued support as that helps us to keep the cost to participants down.

If you’d liketo find out more please contact Corinne on 720643. 

Recent visits have included singing in Wherwell, Exbury Gardens, Birdworld in Farnham, a Morecombe and Wise tribute show in New Milton and an excellent garden centre near Eastleigh. We have also got together with KidzZone to raise over £400 by holding a cream tea in Forton.

Another trip was to the Hawk Conservancy.  Despite a very poor weather forecast the only rain was when we were indoors having lunch.  We saw three flying displays of birds of prey and Jim got a new parting in his hair from the talons of a low flying vulture. A mini bus load of us went to Winchester for "Get Hampshire Singing". We sang everything fromThe Happy Wanderer to Delilah and they gave us an excellent free lunch as well. Thanks very much to all concerned.

LCA Kidz Zone: Longparish Youth Club

Kidz Zone meets fortnightly on a Wednesday. It is open to people aged 11 to 18. More information here

Parent and Toddler Group

Our thriving Parent and Toddler group meets weekly in the village hall. Click here for more information.

Walks leaflet

Our Longparish walks leaflet was distributed to every household in Longparish and Hurstbourne Priors. They are in great demand from visitors and locals alike and are available from the pubs, the church and the shop. There's more information in our local walks area

Where is Longparish?

You can see some maps of the area at different scales by following the link 'How to find Longparish' in the menu. If you are still puzzled, "Southern England" (the first map) is the bottom quarter of that little island to the top left of Europe.

The Quick Tour

You can find out about Longparish in the Village Handbook's History and Environment sections.

Photo Gallery

We will gradually be adding photos to this part of the site. If anybody has any (new or old) that they could let us have, we'd be pleased to see them. Obviously digital is the easiest, but we can scan in prints as well.

Parish Council & Community Issues

This section explains the responsibilities of the Parish Council and gives you contact details for members, as well as dates, agendas and minutes of council meetings. You can also access items of general village interest such as the Design Statement and the Community Project, in this section.

Local Services and Organisations

In this part of the site you should be able to find a substantial amount of information on such things as local government, and how it impacts on Longparish, as well as details about the church, schooling, shops and pubs, and many organisations that operate in or around the village.

Village Handbook

The Village Handbook gives some of the history of the village, its landmarks, families & traditions. It also suggests sites of interest and wildlife you should look out for as you wander around the village.

Hill and Valley

Hill and Valley is our local community magazine. We have copies of the Longparish pages.

Contact us

We're delighted to receive any comments about either this site, or issues of interest in the village especially notice or reports of events that you would like us to publicise on the site. The webmaster will pass on comments to the appropriate people. Just use the Contact form, which is available on every page in the menu bar at the top.