Parish News

Good afternoon all,

Play equipment installation updates
Thank you for your patience so far for those who have been using the car park with the play equipment works going on. We have further deliveries expected tomorrow and so have put barriers up on another couple of spaces. Works will continue next week, when we hope it will be completed. Some photos of the works so far.  Please keep out of the area for the next week and we will soon announce when you can go and play. We will get some table tennis bats and balls and they will be available in the shop to borrow, otherwise please do bring your own down and have a game.

Other news:
A Councillor was informed by a resident that their dog had been bitten by an adder in the orchard. Please do take care in the area, but also do look at this link about adders for information: Adder | The Wildlife Trusts

Changes to the way Gloucestershire Councils are organised – information from Stroud District Council:

Dear Resident,
The government plans to change the way local councils in England work. Currently in Gloucestershire there is one County Council which is responsible for things like education, social care and our roads, and six district, borough and city councils, including Stroud District Council. We look after your bins, recycling and planning and we work with communities on proactive schemes like the restoration of the canals and our Healthy Lifestyle scheme including Choose2Move and Mummy & Me.
The government plans would see fewer, larger councils that look after all services. These are called unitary authorities, and they already exist in places like Cornwall and Somerset.
Your Gloucestershire councils are working on a series of proposals to create one, two or even three unitary authorities to cover our county. These must be submitted to government by the end of the year. The government will then have the final decision on what happens next.
As part of that submission, we want to include the thoughts, opinions and voices of our communities. We believe you are best placed to tell us what services you value most and why. This week, we have launched a survey giving you the chance to make your voice heard, and it’s important you do, as we are building a future Gloucestershire through this work. The survey doesn’t take too long and can be completed by clicking on the button below.
Please take the time to let us know your thoughts and together we can build a bright future for Stroud district and for Gloucestershire.
Best wishes
Kathy O’Leary
Chief Executive, Stroud District Council
County-wide local government reorganisation survey | Have Your Say Gloucestershire

Parish News

Good morning all,

It was an amazing Party in the Park last weekend with lots of fun and activities going on. A big thanks to Cllr Nickie Webster and the team of volunteers for organising a great day.

Play area works
The new play equipment for the play area and field is due to be installed over the next two weeks. The play area will therefore be closed off after this weekend. Signs will go up, but please do stay out of the area whilst the works takes place. Car parking will also be restricted, so please don’t park in the areas barriered off from this Sunday. The summer holidays will then be full of new activities for everyone to take part in. I will send out progress as it is happening.

Daisy Day – 12th July
We’re going Daisy Crazy at St Paul’s on Saturday 12^th July. It’s fun, it’s different and it’s going to look amazing.
So what is Daisy Day all about?
For one day only there will be decorated paper plates, now transformed into colourful daisies, hanging from a chain going all around the church. To achieve the number of daisies needed, has been a fantastic community effort with over 500 paper plates distributed between local schools, village groups, clubs, organisations and many more taking part.
To give everyone a chance to decorate a daisy and hang it onto the chain there will be a FREE daisy-decorating workshop in the church that morning between 10.30am to 12.00. All materials will be provided and if you need help, Carol with all her creative skills, will be there to give you some ideas.
During the day from 2.00pm – 4.30pm St Paul’s is holding an Information Afternoon. This is an opportunity to hear about the future plans for the church including ideas to open up the nave for the community once the pews have been removed. The first step towards improving the church will be the upgrading of the Lady Chapel to install heating which should make it more attractive as a small space for meetings and similar …more about that on the 12^th. Yes, there’s a lot going on at St Paul’s behind the scenes so do come along to find out more. Your ideas and questions regarding the proposed plans are important to us.
Teas will be served throughout the afternoon and there’s a Family Quiz Trail where clues can be found inside the church and in the churchyard.
Please join us at St Pauls’ on Saturday 12^th July and if you have decorated a daisy, maybe you will be able to find it on the enormous daisy chain.
Maggie Booth.

Police report
A resident has reported the following to the police on the 1st July: It has been reported that there was a man with a bike who had dark brown skin, short Afro style hair at about 1615 today. He followed one of the children in the village down the hill towards her house. She got very spooked by it and ran home. If there is any information on this please report direct to the police with Incident no 508 of 1st July 2025

WaRbler deadline
We are currently looking for stimulating articles, appetizing recipes, impactful photographs, and advertising placements, for the Autumn Edition.
Deadline date Friday 25th July 2025
Where possible, please email your submission (or advertising order) in advance of the deadline date. This will greatly assist the editor.
Articles: Please email your article (max 450 words) or recipe, and accompanying photo if available, to Dilys Warren, Editor of The WaRbler: editwarbler@aol.com and Helen Dunn clerk@whiteshillandruscombe-pc.gov.uk
Photographs: High Resolution photographs wanted. Please email an attached jpg or pdf image and send to above addresses
Advertising: Please email details of your order to: Helen Dunn, Parish Clerk – clerk@whiteshillandruscombe-pc.gov.uk and attach a jpg or pdf layout of your artwork as per our specification size 65mm W X 85 mm H. Remember to include details of your “invoice address”. An invoice will then be sent to you detailing the charges that apply, together with information concerning payment via BACS made payable to Whiteshill & Ruscombe Parish Council.
Single Advert: 1/4 page size – (65mm W x 85 mm H) @ £25.00
2 X individual placements (65mm x 85 mm) block-booked and pre-paid @ £42.50
3 X individual placements (65mm x 85 mm) block-booked and pre-paid @ £60.00
4 X individual placements (65mm x 85 mm) block-booked and pre-paid @ £75.00
Many thanks for your continued support.

Party in the Park and Parish News

Good afternoon all,

Party in the Park
It looks like the weather is going to hold out for the Party in the Park at the weekend. There is so much going on including Chariot racing, Children’s colour run, various local community stalls with hook a duck, coconut shy to name a few.
If you are going to the event and think you could spare half an hour to also help out anywhere, you could sign up here: https://signup.com/go/tQaqssv or contact Cllr Nickie Webster to let her know (cllr.nickie.webster@whiteshillandruscombe-pc.gov.uk)
If entering the chariot race, the following disclaimer needs completing and returning to take part: Chariot Race waiver
And for all those children who enjoyed the colour run last year, we also need the attached form completed: Colour Run waiver
PLEASE REMEMBER THERE IS NO PARKING AT THIS EVENT. PLEASE EITHER WALK OR CATCH THE BUS. There is parking at Archway School where you can walk up from too.

New playing field benches
You may now have seen a couple of new benches in the playing field – one just below the shop which is dedicated in memory to Peter Hood who served the community on the Parish Council for 40years, and the second is a replacement in the orchard. We are due one more to arrive in the playing field soon to replace one just below the play area. Please do enjoy sitting on them and the views across the valley.

New play equipment in the play area and on the playing field
We are due to have the new playing equipment installed the week of 7th July lasting approx. 2 weeks. There will be some disruption during this time and the play area will be closed off. In the play area we are due to have a new roundabout and swings with pathways to access these. And on the playing field there is due a table tennis table and the basketball hoop will be relocated with a new surface.
We will need to cordon off 4 spaces on the car park for the contractors and one morning it is likely that the car park will be closed for a short period whilst the roundabout is delivered and lifted over the fence. Please bare with us and watch out for the signs of dates and times there may be closures etc. We are hoping this will all be in place for the summer holidays for everyone to enjoy.

Kind regards
Helen Dunn, Parish Clerk
07941 171805

Annual Parish Meeting and parish news

Good afternoon,

Annual Parish Meeting
The Annual Parish Meeting is taking place this Thursday evening at Whiteshill and Ruscombe Village Hall at 7pm. Maggie Booth will have some newly printed historical photos of the village on display, groups who have received grants are attending to say what they have spent their funding on, and you can listen to what the Parish Council has done over the past year and what the plans for the coming year are, including updates from the Biodiversity Action. Please join us for refreshments afterwards.
Annual Parish Agenda

Plans for Party in the Park
The plans are going ahead well for Saturday June 28th. Don’t forget to get your Chariot entries in soon, applications need to be in two weeks before the event please.

Parish News

Good morning

Road closures
Gloucestershire County Council, as traffic authority, has made an Order under the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 (as amended) to temporarily close part of Bread Street outside of the property known as ‘Torridon’ for a distance of approximately 50 metres. The reason for the said closure is for works on behalf of Severn Trent Water
The said road is expected to be closed from 08:00hrs on 19th May 2025 to 16:00hrs on 21st May 2025 or until the works have been completed.
For further information, please contact Gloucestershire Highways on 08000 514 514 or visit www.gloucestershire.gov.uk.
Alternative Route – as signed on site
Pedestrian access to premises on or next to the road, and emergency access, will be maintained.
Bread Street Closure

Annual Parish Meeting
Come along to the Parish Annual meeting on Thursday 22nd May at 7pm to hear what the council has been doing over the past year and the plans for the coming year. join us for refreshments afterwards.

St Paul’s Fundraising event
Maggie Booth is organising an event to raise money for St Paul’s. Last year’s talk about the beached boats at Purton raised over £800 and the church is hoping they can do the same this year. There’s already a lot of interest in this year’s topic as there are so many stories and so much history around our textile industry across the Five Valleys.
Two of the Trustees from the Stroudwater Textile Trust will be giving a slide show and are bringing samples of the cloth produced by some of the mills. They have a wealth of knowledge about the many mills around here and so we’ll leave time for a Q & A session at the end.
Tickets are available from the Ruscombe & Whiteshill Village Shop or on the door. They include a glass of wine or juice and to help raise funds there will be a raffle – we are grateful to everyone who has donated prizes. There will be a display of pictures which have been printed with permission from the Trustees which show a fascinating insight into the life of the working mills.
The attached poster give details of the event. Any enquiries, please contact Maggie on maggiebooth.photo@gmail.com
We hope to see you there.

Parish News

WaRbler
We are currently looking for stimulating articles, appetizing recipes, impactful photographs, and advertising placements, for the Summer Edition.
Deadline date Friday 25th April. Where possible, please email your submission (or advertising order) in advance of the deadline date. This will greatly assist the editor.
Articles: Please email your article (max 450 words) or recipe, and accompanying photo if available, to Dilys Warren, Editor of The WaRbler: editwarbler@aol.com and Helen Dunn clerk@whiteshillandruscombe-pc.gov.uk
Photographs: High Resolution photographs wanted. Please email an attached jpg or pdf image and send to above addresses
Advertising: Please email details of your order to: Helen Dunn, Parish Clerk – clerk@whiteshillandruscombe-pc.gov.uk and attach a jpg or pdf layout of your artwork as per our specification size 65mm W X 85 mm H. Remember to include details of your “invoice address”. An invoice will then be sent to you detailing the charges that apply, together with information concerning payment via BACS.
Single Advert: 1/4 page size – (65mm W x 85 mm H) @ £25.00
2 X individual placements (65mm x 85 mm) block-booked and pre-paid @ £42.50
3 X individual placements (65mm x 85 mm) block-booked and pre-paid @ £60.00
4 X individual placements (65mm x 85 mm) block-booked and pre-paid @ £75.00
Many thanks for your continued support.

Parish Events Calendar
The Parish Council is working with community organisations to be able to have all community events put on one calendar available on the Parish Council website. Go to Event Calendar – Whiteshill and Ruscombe Parish Council to see what is going on. Resident Maggie Booth is helping to co-ordinate this, so please get in touch if you have a community event that you would  like added.

Later this month, on Sunday 27th April, Whiteshill Playgroup are holding a fundraising quiz in The Star pub:

Sign up for Police alerts
Police are asking for people to sign up for police alerts via this link, to help them get information out to communities Home Page – Your Community Alerts

County Council Elections
Notice of election | Gloucestershire County Council
Election candidates for Haresfield and Upton St Leonards Division

Kind regards
Helen Dunn, Parish Clerk
07941 171805

Parish News

The Annual Parish Meeting this year will take place on Thursday 22nd May, so do come and join the Parish Council to hear about what has been done over the past year and what is aimed to be achieved in the coming year.
It is now looking like May for the play area works to begin, we will keep you all updated on progress.

Our new maintenance man Pete, is settling in well and doing a great job of litter picking, however it has been raised that at the same location each week on the car park, he has to pick up a number of cigarette butts and glass bottles which are dumped regularly. See photos below of this. We will be monitoring this to ask the person doing this to stop as it does create an eyesore to the location.

Advanced warning of a road closure:
Please be advised of the following closure:
•           Bread Street, Ruscombe
This road will be closed (as per the attached plan) from 19/05/2025 to 21/05/2025 to allow for pipe renewal work by Severn Trent Water.
Closure Plan
Emergency and pedestrian access will be maintained.
If you should require further information please email streetworks@gloucestershire.gov.uk

Parish Upcoming Roadworks

Good morning all,

I have received the following information with regards to upcoming roadworks. I have no further information other then this list at present.

Notice of Roadworks

Looking on the Street works website at Gloucestershire County Council, it says Netomnia have proposed works at Bread Street from 3rd – 9th March from outside Windmead to outside stables of Ruscombe farm on Bread Street, which will be a road closure.

I have not received any information on diversions for these works. I have contacted the Highways manager and will keep you informed once I have further information.

Parish news

Good morning, hope everyone is settling into 2025

Play equipment project
The Parish Council ended the year with some good news, in that we have been successful in a National Lottery grant of just under £20,000 to do the play equipment on the playing area. The aim is for new toddler swings and a basket swing, an accessible roundabout, pathways to all of these, a new table tennis table on the playing field and hopefully re-siting the basketball hoop with a surface to bounce the ball on. It is likely that the works will take place just after Easter, so we will keep you updated on this exciting project.

RSPB bird watch
This weekend is the RSPB bird watch. It would be great if you could be involved. The Biodiversity Group are delivering count sheets to each household for you to be able to take part. The group also want to know the data to go towards our own Biodiversity projects and so if the sheets could be dropped off at the Village shop, they will then send on to the RSPB afterwards, so it all gets recorded. More information can be found at: Big Garden Birdwatch

WaRbler deadline.
The deadline is Friday 7th February. We’d love to hear your stories, recipes, see your photos to share with the community. If you would like to advertise please ask for information on cost.

Summer Party in the Playing Field
The date for the Summer party in the Playing Field has been set, so save the date of 28th June. If you are able and willing to volunteer just for a short amount of time to help the day run smoothly that would be fantastic, please do get in touch. The only way these events can be put on is if volunteers help out.

Helen Dunn, Parish Clerk
07941 171805

Parish News

A message from Maggie Booth on last nights ‘Carols Across the Valley’ which went very well last night. Fortunately the rain stopped an hour before we started. Leon Mustoe, helped by John Nicolle did a great job lighting up the car park and some of the trees, it all looked very Christmassy. Everyone was very generous and the shop was busy too selling mince pies and mulled wine. Both those sales and the bucket collections were up on last year with the event raising £436.50 for Longfield Hospice. We sang lots of carols accompanied by cornet players John Pownall and Bet King. Rev. Simon Howell compered the evening together with help from myself. It’s a lovely local event which includes that special moment when everyone turns towards the valley to sing ‘Silent Night’.

Festival of Light at St Paul’s Church – Thursday 19th December
This year’s Festival of Light is bigger, brighter and even more spectacular than last year.
Leon, the village’s lighting man will be giving the church a technicolour make-over with lights set up both inside and outside the church.  People coming through the church gates will be entertained to a Poi light display by local schoolchildren, Billy & James. At 6.00pm the lights in the Nave will be dimmed as the Festival begins with a procession of children and adults carrying candles and t. lights into the church, led by soloist Jenny Bell.
Our own Rev. Simon Howell will welcome everyone which will be followed by children singing the first verse of ‘Away in a Manger’ with everyone joining in with verses two and three.
The varied programme includes children from Whiteshill School singing a medley of lively songs including seasonal ones. Cainscross Community Choir are making their debut appearance singing a sea shanty and a medieval Christmas carol. The talented Pam Keevil is reading one of her poems and Sue Brown will be reprising everyone’s favourite song from ‘The Sound of Music’.
There are a few surprises along the way before the Festival ends with a Grand Finale!  No more details except to say …it will be ‘Amazing’!
The Festival of Light is free but the church needs your help so there will be an opportunity at the end to donate which you can do by zapping the QR code or the card reader or of course cash.
You’ll notice I haven’t mentioned so far that the church will be chilly and although our singing and all the entertainment including Leon’s lights will warm us up, please dress warmly and bring a blanket if you would like to. I can guarantee, the church will be full to bursting!
Maggie Booth

Boxing Day Village Walk
Join villagers and visitors for a sociable walk in our beautiful countryside on Boxing Day morning.  We’ll meet in the village car park near the shop at 10:20 for a 10:30 start.  All welcome – bring your visitors, children and dogs!  A great chance to get to know or catch up with friends and neighbours.  We aim to get back about 12:30 and this year will finish at the Star Inn.
Jeremy Riley

National Lottery Community Fund
The Parish Council have been successful in being awarded a grant of £19,959.00 towards the playground renovation project. This will be for an accessible roundabout, basket swing, pathways and a table tennis table. Look out for more information on when this project will begin in the new year.

The Parish Council will be closed from Friday 19th December until Thursday 2nd January. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone.

Kind regards
Helen Dunn, Parish Clerk
07941 171805