I've always had a strong sense of duty – both civic and to family. Both my grandfathers, who lived well into my forties, fought in the Second World War. My father was a police officer and my mother a secretary for the probation service. Civic duty was always strong for me.

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1998 - Village Website

When I moved back to Great Bedwyn in 1998 I, wishing to put my IT skills to use, set up the first web site for the village. However, the local Parish Magazine later backed a new site and I retired mine.

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2000 – 2012 Malmesbury Film Society

From 2000 to 2006 I was a general helper at the monthly Sunday evening screenings – setting up equipment and running the door. From 2006 I was the membership’s secretary. I left this role after starting to feel too tired on the long drives home late on a Sunday evening. During my time the society was short of volunteers which is why I helped out, even though it was a long drive each month. I probably contributed somewhere in the region of 1000 ‘man’ hours (including the driving)!

 

2001 - Fundraising for the National Asthma Campaign

While climbing my last 100 Munros I raised a shade under £3000 for the National Asthma Campaign.

 

2003 - Village Broadband

In 2003 I plodded the streets of my village, delivering leaflets asking people to register interest in broadband. We got the requisite number signing up BT installed broadband.

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2003 - 2019 Open Gardens

I first got involved with this for its inception in 2003. Then it was a fund raiser for Hospice Africa (including an additional car boot sale). I produced the maps, posters and tickets.

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Other then opening my own garden one year, since then I've only helped out serving teas, coffees and cake.

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2005 - Fundraising Revue for DEC Tsunami Earthquake Appeal

In January 2005 I co-ran a revue, held in Great Bedwyn Village Hall, to raise money for the DEC Tsunami Earthquake Appeal. We raised £3100.

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2006 – Bomb Scare in Great Bedwyn

When a suspect package was found on a train I voluntarily rescued two dogs from a garage adjacent to where the siding where the train was parked.

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2006 – to date - Bedwyn Trains Passenger Group

See Rail Campaigning page. As of March 2023, I've sent well in excess of 10,000 emails, nearly 300 newsletters, attended numerous meetings with MPs, GWR, Councils and Network Rail.

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2007 - Fundraising Revue for UNICEF and Great Bedwyn Swings and Slides project

On Saturday 6th October 2007 I co-ran a revue, held in Great Bedwyn Village Hall, to raise money for the children of Darfur (UNICEF) and the Great Bedwyn Swings and Slides project. We raised around £1000.

 

2007 – 2012 Wexcombe Pumping Station

In early 2007 I drove by the Victorian pumping station at Wexcombe ( http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/402476 ) and found it in a sorry state - hawthorn trees growing out of the roof, large cracks etc and a door set to rot if not painted. I contacted Wiltshire Council who confirmed it was listed and said they had no money to pursue it. However, they did track down the owner for me who agreed I could restore it.

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The work involved bolster chiselling out all of the hawthorn trees from the roof, raking out the pointing and re-pointing using lime mortar and preparing and painting the door. It took a lot of hours (about 100 in all) and, due to being temporarily incapacitated by a serious car crash, was spread over ten months. The owner paid me back for the mortar but my time and travel costs I gave for free.

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Over the next few years I visited regularly to clear off new vegetation. However, I stopped in 2012 when a change of car meant I was no longer able to transport my ladder.

 

2008-2009 Saving Great Bedwyn’s Post Office

In the summer of 2008 it was suddenly announced that the village Post Office was to close permanently the next day. I phoned somebody on the parish council and between the two of us we formed a rescue committee. The initial problem was finding a qualified postmaster/mistress. I offered to pay an existing employee to stay on. She said she couldn’t take my money but then agreed to stay on until we found somebody. The Post Office couldn’t offer anybody so I scoured the Internet and found, on a Parish Council website, a good wishes message to a retiring postmistress some twenty-five miles away. She agreed to step in and took over the account with Post Office.

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A local wealthy benefactor then bought the building off a developer. The post office is still running to this day. This was very important to me as in a rural community a post office is an essential service - both in terms of the direct service it provides and the community factor where events are advertised and people bump into one another.

 

Since then I’ve written in the Parish News and leafleted the entire village twice, appealing to residents to use the Post Office and the separate shop, The Stores. I've also paid for and erected signage, advertising the shops. I care deeply about local provision of services as a binding factor in the community.

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2010 – date Hill and Mountain Walking Club

In 2010 the web developer for www.hmwc.org.uk resigned from the role. He'd created a great website but it was done in raw HTML and therefore difficult for anybody else to pick up. I created a new site that was easy for the committee members of the club to maintain. I continue to offer ad hoc support.

In November 2007 I lead the club's AGM walk up Skiddaw. This involved planning and pre-walking the route then leading on the day.

In April 2013 I lead the club's Brecon Beacons walk. Again this involved planning and pre-walking the route then leading on the day.

In all I've volunteered around fifteen days to the club.
 

2011 – Taking in a homeless person

I took in a receptionist from a gym I attend. She’d lost her job, lost her accommodation and found herself homeless. She then attempted suicide. So I collected her from hospital and gave her my spare bedroom. In all she stayed with me for a couple of months until we could sort out the right accommodation and specialist help she needed.

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2014 - Flooding in Great Bedwyn

In 2014 flooding hit Great Bedwyn. I immediately organised and worked on bailing out (one flooded property (an elderly lady’s) and one property about to flood in my road). I then organised dealing with cleaning up the flooded house. What was clear to me was what needed to be done right now, while others were more prone to standing, shocked and unsure what to do. I’ve always been good in a crisis – have handled three car crashes before the emergency services have arrived – making sure people are safe and securing the scene. This skill has come from my working life when I’ve had to rapidly sort out crashed or hanging live police IT systems. “What needs to be done this minute” has always been clear and obvious to me.

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I subsequently purchased, at my own risk, over £300 of sandbags and distributed them, at cost price, to neighbours.

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2015 – date Bedwyn Footpaths Group

During this time I have given up approximately seven ‘man’ days to help maintain parish footpaths. This has included clearing vegetation, litter and resurfacing. However, since the pandemic I’m not so heavily involved as Bedwyn Trains Passenger Group has taken up so much of my time.

 

2016 – 2019 Village Hall Committee

I served on this committee from 2016 to 2019. As part of this I attended committee meetings and did a small amount of maintenance on the village hall. I also applied for and secured a grant for a defibrillator for the building. I also helped out at some fundraising events.

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I found the committee too bureaucratic to achieve much else.

 

2016 – Attempting to Save the Royal British Legion Building

Following the demise of the local British Legion club the Royal British Legion charity set about selling the building. This would have been a great loss to the village so I joined a committee to try and buy the building back.

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I managed recording and dealing with pledges along with the investigation as to who owned a separate piece of land adjacent to the building’s car park. We managed to find paperwork showing it was the club, and not the charity who originally bought this piece of land. I then contacted the former chair of the club who set in motion a process whereby this strip of land could be sold (to the same housing developer who eventually bought the building) and proceeds donated to the Village Hall. To enable this to happen I personally underwrote £1600 of legal fees to ensure the former club officers would not be liable of the sell fell through.

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2016 and 2019 - TGO Challenge Control Desk

The TGO Challenge is one of the world's largest back packing events. Backpackers pick their own route from the west to east coast of Scotland. The walks take about two weeks, typically covering over 200 miles.

I've done the crossing seven times. On two other occasions I've been a 'trail angel' – handing out hot drinks from my camper van.

In 2016 and 2019 I helped staff the Control Desk. This is handling people phoning in to report progress, helping with people who have got into difficulty and signing people in at the end.

In all I've volunteered around twelve days to the event.
 

2017 – 2018 Renovating The Old Bowls Club Clubhouse, Great Bedwyn

In 2017 UCL did an archaeological dig in the village. I gave five days voluntary ‘pot washing’ of the finds. The location for this was the old bowls club clubhouse. I’d never been in before and was sad to see how decrepit it had become. I also saw that after losing the British Legion building and The Cross Keys pub (with its function room) this clubhouse was one of only two remaining venues in the centre of the village – the other being the church. The village also has a village hall but that is over two narrow hump backed bridges with no pavements.

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At the time the Croquet Club were renting the clubhouse so I joined the club to allow me to work on the building. In all I put in about three man months of work including: (i) Re-fixing the roof and gutters (ii) removal of vegetation and overhanging trees (iii) removal of rotten / wet internal plaster (iv) removing of failed external rendering (v) replacement of facia boards (vi) removal of redundant wiring (vii) fixes to plumbing (viii) damp proofing (including relaying a patio that had breached the damp proof course) (ix) obtaining grants and overseeing the replacement of four windows (x) removal of redundant items attached to the external walls (including a flagpole) (xi) overseeing the re-rendering of the outside (xii) painting the outside (xiii) preparing the internal walls and ceilings for painting (xiv) replacement / priming of rotting skirting boards.

 

The croquet club folded during the pandemic and the building is now used as a community café – a public use which is what I had hoped for.

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2022 – Wiltshire Council Demand Responsive Transport Steering Group

Wiltshire Council won a multi-million pound grant to bring in a Demand Responsive Transport (DRT) bus service. As part of my role on Bedwyn Trains Passenger Group (and being passionate about bus and train connections) I was invited to sit on the steering group. This involved a series of meetings.
 

2023 – Clubs Organisations Groups and Societies (COGS) Day

I strongly believe in community engagement to build society and stem loneliness. Over the years I've noticed a number of local organisations close. So, to try and keep what we still have, off my own back I have organised an event at Great Bedwyn Village Hall on April 22nd 2023. Each village club, society or organisation will have a staffed table to advertise what they do. Members of the public will be able to come and see what is available and clubs, societies and organisations can share their ideas amongst one another. The aim is to increase community engagement, memberships, interest and fund raising.

To advertise it I'm using the Parish News. I'll also use the village noticeboards, an 'A' board and will hand deliver a leaflet to all of the houses in the village.

Over 90% of the organisations have signed up and the attendance list (as of 8th March 2023) is:

 

• Bedwyn Cinema

• Bedwyn Golfing Society

• Bedwyn History Society

• Bedwyn Trains Passenger Group

• Bell Ringers

• Bruce’s Trust

• Church (Parochial Church Council)

• Cricket Club

• Crofton Pumping Station

• Footpaths Group

• Friends of Great Bedwyn Church Trust

• Friendship & Mobility Group

• Great Bedwyn Memorial Hall and Playing Fields Charity

• Great Green Bedwyn

• Link Scheme

• Millennium Choir

• Music Society

• North Wessex Downs Landscape Trust.

• Pantomime Society

• Parish Council & Allotments

• Parish News

• Pewsey Community Area Partnership

• Pewsey Vale Tourism Partnership.

• Royal Observer Corps Heritage Group

• Stay and Play

• Surgery Patients Participation Group

• Tennis Club

• Thursday Club

• Wilton Windmill

• Wiltshire Health Walks

• Women's Institute

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2023 – Swindon Humanitarian Aid Partnership (SHAP) and Help Ukraine Group Support (HUGS)

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I volunteer around a half day a week to help get humanitarian aid to Ukraine. I'm also a committee member of HUGS.

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Ad hoc Volunteering

I regularly help out on ad hoc requests, e.g. helping to set up the village fete.