Fifty years ago, the May 1976 edition of the Parish Mag had the Editorial and all three villages’ Parish notes all together on just one page, with the Waterstock quarter page being just twelve lines.
Within those twelve lines it was reported that one enterprising spring bird was seen removing wild clematis seed heads for its nest; that Mrs Moores – who lived at Park Cottage – had held a Pippa-Dee evening (a fashionable variant of Tupperware parties for clothes) which raised £20.50 for the church (£200 in today’s money); and that Carole and I had moved to Waterstock that April. Poor Carole was pregnant throughout what was, and remains, the hottest recorded summer ever, with Sarah arriving in September along with the desperately needed rain at last.
As you will see, these notes are considerably longer than 1976’s, but the themes are the same. Our environment, the weather, and supporting the church.
I am sure we all saw the totally engaging and magical Secret Gardens programme from Waterstock Mill which attracted rave reviews in the national papers (if you haven’t seen it, it remains on iPlayer). Particularly delightful was the way nature in the raw played out in the river and its wetlands, whilst human life continued in the Mill, and the garden was tended and mown, with little interaction between
the two worlds except for the anxious vole that lived in the lawn. We all cheered plucky Doris, the world’s bravest duck, who raised nine ducklings without losing any, and turned on a marauding otter to defend them. I asked Henry for a behind the scenes insider view on the filming.
Henry Reports:
Michael asked me to unlock some of the secrets of “Secret Garden”, such as why for several weeks every meal in the Manisty household tasted of ginger, or why my clothes were regularly drenched. Well, as those who have watched it will know, the River Garden episode opens with Sara chopping ginger in the kitchen and, about half-way through, sees me hurrying to the front door in monsoon conditions. Although these incidents barely last a second on screen, the filming of them, with multiple “takes”, took much longer. As a result, a pile of chopped ginger became available for Sara’s culinary creations, and
there was another pile-- of wet clothes-- for the drier. Another secret that can now be revealed is that the “monsoon” was filmed on a dry day using our garden hose.
It was in December 2023 that we were first sounded out about the possibility of Waterstock Mill featuring as the River Garden in a new wildlife series being developed for the BBC, through a friend of our son James, involved in the project, who had visited the Mill several years before. The “sounding
out” was shortly after SODC had turned down the Greystoke planning application when there was the prospect of an Appeal to a Planning Inspector. Participation in the project seemed to be an opportunity to publicise Waterstock’s wildlife credentials and the harms that the threatened development would cause. So, we agreed at once.
As first outlined to us, all the series’ emphasis would be on filming the wildlife, with minimal participation by us. It seemed a modest production and there was nothing to suggest David Attenborough would have anything to do with it.
Later, to our horror, the emphasis shifted towards greater focus on us: hence the ginger chopping, the wet clothes plus the appearances of Sara stocking the bird table, watering flowers and offering cups of tea to the crew, and me hosing, raking, log carrying and donning waders. The film crew team were so nice that it proved impossible to say “no” when they made more and more requests for us to be filmed doing various tasks. Many of these filmed tasks thankfully never made it into the final cut.
Although my wildlife camera clips helped direct them to the usual otter haunts, and to the kingfisher nest, it was a member of the camera crew who discovered Doris and made her the star that she has become. We remember the high excitement when they filmed Doris’ ducklings leaping from the tree nest, and just a few weeks later, being attacked by an otter.
In the intervals between their visits, we had to watch over the expensive camera equipment they left in the river to capture wildlife while they were way. This was quite a responsibility. On one occasion after a heavy storm, the river rose so fast that, on returning late from a dinner out, I had to put waders on to rescue the equipment, but only managed to retrieve three of four cameras. One had already been swept downstream.
It was certainly a shock to us to be told, only a few weeks ago, that David Attenborough was to narrate the series and that it is to form part of his 100th birthday celebrations.
So Waterstock wildlife is now famous. With luck, the episode should help deter future speculative development proposals, so that we will never again have to contend with the Greystoke’s of this world.
Meanwhile, and also excitingly, hedgehogs, once common, had disappeared from the village until they were recently re-introduced here gradually from Tiggywinkles renowned animal hospital in Haddenham by our own Gillywinkles (aka Gill Spencer).
It is wonderful to have them back. There is the occasional visitor at Camilla Cottage, who was rather riskily sitting in the middle of the lane the other evening right beside the warning sign to motorists.
By the Pond reports up to four visitors a night and even some squabbling between them and the possibility of at least one pregnancy. May is the beginning of the baby hedgehog season. Pippin Cottage, on the other hand, despite the provision of a hedgehog hotel with fresh catfood and drink provided, and special hedgehog access points in the wall between them and Holly Cottage, has so far not seen any visitors at all.
Meanwhile Gill reports a concerning incident recently:
A few weeks ago I found a young hedgehog in the garden during the day looking distressed. As this is unusual behaviour, I immediately became concerned and took it straight away to Tiggywinkles to be
assessed. I have no update on its condition as yet.
It’s thought that it went into hibernation underweight and emerged struggling. It’s being tested for Lung Worm which is very common and fatal if not treated. They get infected by eating slugs. I’ll
get a further update on the test results in a couple of weeks. The message here is, if you see a hedgehog large or small out during the day, it’s a bad sign, so please could you take it to Tiggywinkles or call me. Otherwise, I’m happy to say our hedgehogs are doing extremely well and I’m sure we’ll be seeing lots of
babies in the village during the summer. Thank you all for your enthusiastic help. Gill.
Following the torrential rainfall in September2015, and as reported in previous issues, the roadside drainage network has been improved by householders installing larger capacity pipes at Home Farm
Barn, Camilla Cottage and By the Pond. The ditches up the lane have been cleared out, the channel through the wall at High Wall has been cleared and widened, and a new pipe has been laid through the garden at Pippin Cottage to address the “backup” which was the likely proximate cause of the problems the torrents caused.
Work continues. Last month, Geoff and MichaelTalbot, assisted by our stalwart Chairman Rob Arthur, could be seen laying a new open concrete drain at a slant across Stockwell Lane just North of the White
House.
Geoff reports that at the last Parish Meeting there was a feeling that something needed to be done about the quantity of water generated by heavy rainfall running down Stockwell Lane and overwhelming the
gullies on the street. He says “the channel across the lane was my idea as a simple solution to divert the water into the ditch which was reinstated in anticipation a few years ago, reconnecting to the pipe I put down in the 60s beside the War Memorial. I try to be ahead of the game!”
On the environmental front, a major thrust is Keeping Waterstock Tidy and thanks to Jane Hanson and family who over Easter are reported to have single handedly collected two full bags of rubbish from their end of the village; and to Rodney Portman who has recently often been seen deep in the ditches up and down the lane collecting mainly copious numbers of jettisoned drinks cans thought to be thrown from car windows.
For those interested in marketing trends or holding shares in drinks companies, Rodney reports that whilst the “cans jettisoned in Waterstock” market has long been dominated by “Frosty Jack”, Stella Artois appears now to be gaining market share. Is Waterstock again setting a trend?
On the same theme of improving the village we live in, we are very lucky to have an active church restoration team consisting of Sini, Lorna, Rob, Jenny, Sara and Rosalind, which has already done a lot of
work in cleaning and brightening up the church and making it more user friendly.
On 17th and 18th April they organised a big hands-on cleaning and tidying event from pruning the trees and removing the ivy and weeds in the churchyard on the Friday to polishing the pews and removing the cobwebs in the church on the Saturday. Many of us turned out to assist and it was an enjoyable as well as useful event. The longer term objective is to improve the capacity of the church to accommodate social events and enlarge the scope of activities it can host.
Like Mrs Moores Pippa-Dee party fifty years ago the village was continuing to do its bit to keep Waterstock church viable and relevant.
Finally
A reminder that when you get this magazine we should be in Artweeks which last from May 2nd to 10th, so do look out for signs and pop in to Helen Macritchie’s and Jane Hanson’s studios in Waterstock which will be open, as will much-missed ex villager Lili’s at Waterperry.
Stop Press, Ali tells me that son Mo has been selected for his school, Shiplake College’s, rowing team for all national competitions, and what’s more as stroke, is responsible for the rhythm, rate
and timing of the crew. It all shows what a national reach our tiny village has.
