FOSC AGM »
The AGM of the Friends of Skipwith Common took place on Thursday 10 November in Skipwith Village Hall. The Committee...
News
November 2026:
AGM
The Friends of Skipwith Common AGM was held on Thursday 27 November 2025 at 7pm in Skipwith Village Hall. The main outcomes of the meeting were as follows:
- The Minutes of the previous AGM were approved by Members.
- The present Committee members were voted in for a further year. They are Beki Hagger, Terry Heselton, Susie Newton, Sue Thompson and Simon Willis. Beki acts as Treasurer. Other roles (Chair, Secretary) are handled on a rotating basis.
- Updated versions of the Friends’ Mission Statement and Constitution were approved by Members.
- The Financial Statement was approved by Members. The subscription fee will remain at £7 for 2025-26.
Following the AGM, Members heard a talk on Skipwith Now and Then by Janet Patrick and Sue Atkinson of the Skipwith Heritage Group.
Committee
The present Committee has signalled its willingness to serve for a further year but we desperately need new Committee members to ensure succession. Any member interested in joining the Committee is invited to email us at skipcomfriends@gmail.com for further information.
March 2025: Near the King Rudding Lane car park there is an area known as the harmonisation point. During the war, a large mound of earth was piled up to create a mini-mountain and this was used as a target for aeroplanes to align, or ‘harmonise’ their guns. Bullets could be fired into the mountain without risk of harm to anyone passing by within range of the guns.
In recent years the harmonisation point has been developed as a bike run, with steep slopes, jumps and ramps. Great fun and the Friends have no issues with its use in this way except….
…after every half term and school holiday, the area is covered in litter – crisp and sweet packets, glass and plastic bottles and tin cans. The Friends’ Task Group regularly visits to carry out a litter-pick. Last week we filled four huge dustbin bags with this rubbish and that was just what had built up since January when we did a post-Christmas holidays pick.
So, if you know anyone who enjoys biking at the harmonisation point, please talk to them about this and ask them to carry their litter away, not leave it behind for others to deal with!
23 July 2023: Despite the damp, our Summer Safari yesterday, lead by local insect expert Julian Small, was a great success and Julian gave us a fascinating insight into the huge variety of insect life to be found close to home. Starting with the astonishing revelation that there are likely to be more than double the number of insects on Skipwith Common alone than there are humans on the planet (yes, around 20 billion!), Julian lead us on a voyage of discovery, finding things we’d never normally take notice of. This included tiny clusters of baby spiders gathered in a fold of an oak leaf, several varieties of beetle hiding in a cowpat and hover flies which have cleverly evolved to look like wasps to keep predators at bay. Many thanks to Julian for an enjoyable and informative tour.
20 April 2023: We were treated to an excellent bird watching/listening walk led by expert guides Sue and Robin Perutz. The sun shone, the birds turned out in numbers and Sue and Robin taught us a lot about bird identification. Often it’s hard to see birds and song is perhaps the most obvious way to identify a species if you can’t see it but we learned to use other indicators such as habitat (goldcrests like pine trees, for example) and habit (some birds swoop in flight, others fly straight or dart about). Thanks to our excellent guides for an informative and enjoyable walk, which ended with coffee and cake in Skipwith Village Hall.
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