The Rode Village Festival Village Day will take place on Saturday 17th July

Starting at 12:00 on the playing fields

Sarah Jane Honeywell of Cbeebies will be opening the fete and performing a short show

Produce Show

Stalls

Games

Food

Drink

Classic Cars

Chicken Splat

Please note – Dogs are not allowed to be bought onto the Playing Fields

An astonishing line up for this year’s Folk Night which kicks off the 2010 Rode Village Festival:

The Real Cheesemakers featuring the Revd. Philip Hawthorn – a mixture of traditional songs and ditties about trousers – defies description – just unbelievable!

Corryvrecken - A Mother and Daughter duo who have been singing traditional songs together for over 20 years – spellbinding!

Geoff Fry and Sue Walker - Acoustic Americana and Blues – They’ll take you deep into the heart of the U.S.

Captain Banana and his Selection of Vegetables – Raucous traditional irish tunes – expect foot-stomping and clapping!

Tickets are available in advance from Rode Post Office or £5 on the door – Bar and food – a great evening out.

The 150th anniversary of the infamous child murder at Road Hill House in the village of Rode is being recognised on Sunday, July 4th with a rare opportunity to see the gardens which are being opened to the public.

The murder at Road Hill House was a crime that gripped Victorian England. Recently it has again become infamous because of Kate Summerscale’s best seller, ‘The Suspicions of Mr Whicher. The Murder at Road Hill House’.

This perfect example of a country house murder has inspired novels by many writers including Dickens, Wilkie Collins and Mary Elizabeth Braddon. 

The murder in 1860 of a 4 year old boy discovered at the bottom of a garden privy has continued to capture the imagination of the public and turned everyone into amateur detectives.  Such is the interest in this murder that yet a further book, Paul Chambers’ ‘Murder Most Foul’ has recently been published about the Rode murder.

Thought to be only the third time in 150 years that the gardens at Road Hill House (now called Langham House) have been opened to the public, this is therefore a rare chance to see the magnificent gardens.  The gardens of Langham House will be open by kind permission of Chris & Stephanie Lyons. 

A second Rode garden, Rivermead, is also going to be open on July 4th as part of Rode’s Open Gardens.  Described as ‘one of the remarkable small gardens in Somerset’, this garden is a series of miniature tableaux and are full of exotic plants. It is the result of over 50 years work by owner Micheal Sparey. 



The Rode Open Gardens Event is in aid of the Heart of Rode Appeal, an Appeal tasked to raise £60,000 to fund improvements to Rode’s ancient village church of St Lawrence.

Both gardens are open from 14:00 through to 17:00 on Sunday July 4th. Tickets are available in advance at £4 each from Rode Post Office or £5 on the Gate on July 4th.

OPEN MORNING

Monday 10th May from 10am – 12pm

Come and enjoy a typical session at Rode Pre-School.  It will be a fun time for parents and children.

We are delighted to say that Ofsted inspected the pre-school in March and found that the children “benefit from accessing a stimulating play environment”  and that the “children are well cared for in a secure environment.”

Come and meet the staff and members of the committee

Refreshments will be available

NEARLY NEW SALE

Pre -School are also hosting a nearly new sale of childrens’ clothes, toys and equipment for all ages

Saturday 8th May,  10am – 12pm

Memorial Hall, High Street, Rode

£1 on the door

refreshments will be available

Why not book at table for £7 and have a clear out!

For further information regarding the open morning or the sale, please call Sarah Coumbe 831045

We’re told that The Link magazine is now to be printed on A3 and stapled through the centre from the April edition. This should make the magazine easier (and safer) to read and somewhat more durable. Perhaps more importantly, readers will now be able to lay the magazine down and keep the pages open. This is of vital importance for anyone following one of the recipes that the villagers send in for What’s cooking in Rode, (at the time of writing the featured recipe is Chocolate Brownies courtesy of Sally Pickett).

The Link is available from Rode village Post Office for 60p (there’s a stand on the windowsill), and while we’re on the subject of recipes, it’s worth remembering that every recipe featured in The Link wins the sender a bottle of Fussel’s rapeseed oil.

If you put Rode, Somerset into Google maps you can drag the little orange man on the toolbar into the map of Rode, and you will find yourself looking at Rode from summer 2009.

There were quite a few people out and about  in the village then, are you one of them?

On February 14th, St Valentine’s day,  the clergy and congregation of St. Lawrence’s church, Rode, are launching the Heart of Rode Appeal to ensure that St Lawrence’s church is kept in good heart for the future.

“The PCC has plans approved to convert the existing vestry area of the church to a small meeting room equipped with a loo and facilities to allow us to make and serve drinks and wash up afterwards. (At the moment someone takes the dirty cups home in a bucket). The plans are quite straightforward but as you would expect with a listed building it still comes to a considerable amount of money- £60,000. More information can be found here.” says Revd Nigel Done.

There is a very special Family Service on February 14th (Valentine’s Day) to celebrate and give thanks for the love in your life. It might be someone you have recently fallen for, or been married to for twenty years or an elderly parent you appreciate anew. At this service the congregation will be building a big heart to signify the love that is shared in our community and receive donations towards securing the future of the village church.

The service starts at 10:45am, Sunday 14th February.

The new look Link magazine is out and available from the Post Office in Rode, price 60p.

It’s packed with local news, reports on community activities and information, as well as being a great local directory for local businesses. It’s not just for Rode, it covers Tellisford, Woolverton and Farleigh Hungerford too. There’s even a puzzle page now.

Pop into the post office and pick up a copy, or even better, subscribe to the monthly magazine. email link@rodevillage.com for details of how to subscribe.

Did you spot the ‘deliberate’ mistake in this month’s Link?

Just in case you didn’t, here it is:

It was deliberate, honestly

If you are wanting tickets to see the eagerly anticipated village panto, my my I can’t believe it’s NOT Mamma Mia, then you are out of luck. All three nights have now sold out.

Reports abound of locals gnashing their teeth in despair after being told there are no tickets left.

As half the fun of the show is audience participation, three sell-out nights will make for a terrific evening of entertainment, no matter which night you attend if you are lucky enough to have a ticket.

If you are going to miss out through not having a ticket, you can at least console yourself by picking up a copy of the February edition of the Link, where pantoman Gary Holloway reveals the music that makes him tick in a desert island discs interview.

The village Panto, My my, I can’t believe it’s not Mamma Mia, runs from the 11th-13th of February in Rode Memorial Hall. If you want to see it (and you really should), you’ll need to get to Rode Post Office or the Cross Keys pretty quickly. The Friday and Saturday nights have sold out already! Some tickets remain for the Thursday, but at the time of typing only a few remain unsold, so eager is the village to see what could well be Pantoman, Gary Holloway’s magnum opus.

With plenty of audience participation required, and the prospect of your friends and neighbours belting out some Abba classics, you will be kicking yourself if you miss it.