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Bard festival full of laughter and tears
A GOOD mix of comedy and tragedy will have audiences rolling in the aisles and shedding a tear during this year's Pendley Shakespeare Festival.
Organisers have announced the two plays to be staged at the open air festival this summer will be The Comedy of Errors and King Lear.
This August will mark the 57th year of the Shakespeare Festival, founded by Dorian Williams at his family home of Pendley Manor in 1947.
Now a four-star hotel, the festival is held in the beautiful grounds of the manor.
The Comedy of Errors will run nightly from Tuesday, August 1 to Saturday, August 5, starting at 8pm and King Lear will be staged from 8pm, Tuesday, August 8 to Saturday, August 12.
Bookings will be taken from July 3 by calling the box office on 01442 820060 or for group bookings call 01442 891891.
For more information visit www.pendleyshakespearefestival.co.uk
Road safety work starts
BUSY Western Road in Tring will be closed to motorists on Thursday (March 23) while workmen lay a special anti-skid surface.
The high friction surface will be laid either side of the road’s pedestrian crossing and is part of several road safety schemes being introduced in the town.
These include speed humps in Grove Road, zig zag lines outside Grove Road Primary School, Bishops Wood Junior School and Goldfields Infant School, crossing points and warning signs in Christchurch Road, parking bays in Miswell Lane and Henry Street and more warning and speed signs in Icknield Way.
Tring cricketers bowled over
TRING estate agent Nash Partnership has put its stamp on the town, three months after moving in, by sponsoring Tring Park Cricket Club.
Nash Partnership, which opened in the High Street at the start of January, will be sponsoring the club for the next three seasons.
To mark the major new sponsorship the Nash Partnership brand can be seen on the cricket club’s new main entrance signage and on pitch side hoarding.
Daniel Nash from Nash Partnership said: “We are delighted to be back in Tring and are always keen to support the community. The sponsorship with the cricket club helps us raise our profile in a very worthwhile way. It is particularly nice to be involved with a club that does so much to keep kids and young people active.”
Tring Park Cricket Club chairman Martin Abel has welcomed the support. He said: “We’re delighted to have Nash Partnership on board. As a community amateur sports club, sponsorship funding is vital to help us maintain the quality and breadth of cricketing opportunity we provide for local people. With the new season just a few weeks away we are looking forward to once again putting four sides out on a Saturday as well as three on a Sunday.”
Tring Park Cricket Club is keen to encourage new playing members for the coming season. For more information contact Graham Roper on 07789 464632.
Digging up footie pitch for artefacts
WORKS to level Long Marston’s bumpy football pitch will not start until the summer.
A special archaeological report to check if there are any Saxon remains hidden under the pitch needs to take place before the diggers move in.
Dawn Slade, clerk of Tring Rural Parish Council, said: “Work won’t start until we are in the closed season this year. We have still got an archaeological report to have done and they can’t do it until the summer.
“We have employed a firm to do the work, but it is not going to be until August or September time.”
A grant of £9,418 awarded to Tring Rural Parish Council by the Football Foundation will pay for the pitch improvements and enable the club to form junior teams.
Cash floods in for riders
A RIDING group for the disabled has been given a cash boost by Three Valleys Water.
The Rossway Riding for the Disabled Group based in Hastoe near Tring has been given £400 by the water company.
Pauline Field from the
riding group said: “The money will be very useful and will go towards running costs.
“Every penny we receive is put to good use.”
The RDA has more than 18,500 volunteers nationwide, who regularly give up their free time to ensure that the RDA gives around 500,000 rides and carriage drives each year.
Julia’s in charge
A NEW headteacher for Tring School has been chosen.
Julia Wynd, who is currently a headteacher in Beds, will take up the sought-after post in September.
Mrs Wynd, aged 50, said: “I’m really excited about helping to lead this very successful school into its next stage of development.”
She said that she had heard good things about Tring School before applying for the post of head teacher and during a visit was impressed by the school’s community involvement, caring atmosphere and team work.
Tring School governors offered Mrs Wynd the job about three weeks ago.
She said: “I’m really excited about it. At the moment I’m joint head teacher and I have been doing it for five years now and I feel I’m at the right stage to move into a solo leadership.”
Chairman of Tring governors Jane Nash, said: “We look forward to working with Mrs Wynd to lead Tring School into its next phase of development, building on the achievements gained under the strong leadership of Julia Trueman over recent years.”
Miss Trueman announced at the start of the year that she would leave Tring School this summer after 10 years as headteacher.
She plans to continue to work within education, but not on a full-time basis.
Tring School recently gained specialist status in humanities and opened a special learning centre for pupils, which also hosts evening and weekend classes for the community.
During the summer Mrs Wynd will be visiting the school to take part in community events and evenings for parents held at the school.
Another cracking good idea
PUPILS at Long Marston School have been careful not to put all of their eggs into one basket for a special charity fundraiser.
Specially made egg cars, houses and benches were used to keep hard-boiled eggs safe for the school’s Barnardos Egg Care Challenge.
The pupils, above, each decorated their own egg and were then sponsored to keep them safe.
It is the latest fun fundraising project by Long Marston School, which has recently received a glowing Ofsted report.
Headteacher Peter Dickenson said: "The two outstanding things were the behaviour of the children and their enjoyment of education. The inspectors picked that up from questionnaires both parents and pupils had returned to the school and from talking to the children."
Inspector Margaret Jones said in her report that teaching was good overall and often exciting teaching methods were used to capture the full attention of pupils.
Recently one class went on the London Eye for a geography project, while another class cooked wartime food to learn about rationing. Mr Dickenson said: "It is a very good report. It is a very accurate reflection of what we are told a lot by people that come to the school.”
Bridleway talks resolved April start
for Stocks makeover
A MULTI-MILLION pound project to transform Stocks Hotel into a lavish home for three times Derby winner Walter Swinburn and his family is expected to start next month.
Two years after horse trainer Peter Harris bought the Georgian mansion for his daughter Alison and jockey son-in-law, work is finally set to go ahead.
The massive project to restore the building and demolish dilapidated extensions added over the years was expected to begin sooner, but planning complications have held it up.
AKH Associates, the agents dealing with planning consent and Robert Adam Architects have been tied up in talks with Herts County Council and Dacorum Borough Council for months over a bridleway that crosses the land.
The first stage of works will involve setting up a temporary on-site base for builders and planners who will be working on the 18-month restoration.
Alan Halfpenny from AKH Associates said: "The building still remains vacant and it has started to fall into a bad state of repair. A very important listed building in the area is not getting the attention that my clients want to give it."
Built in 1773 as a home and later converted into a hotel, Stocks was shut to the public when Mr Harris bought it from Harlequins Rugby Club in 2004.
Now it will be transformed into a grand eight bedroom home with garage, stables large enough to hold eight ponies and extensive landscaping.
It will become a base for the Swinburns close to their racing stables split between sites in Aldbury and Tring.
Mr Swinburn took over the running of the famous Walter Swinburn Racing Stables when Mr Harris retired.
The future of Stocks Golf Course however, also owned by Mr Harris, is unknown.
Great choice for new eaterie
THE NAME for a new restaurant opening in Tring later this year has been chosen from suggestions put forward by residents.
David Metcalfe, who plans to open a vegetarian eaterie in the High Street, was inundated with ideas when The Gazette asked readers for their name suggestions.
Mr Metcalfe said: “I had a lot of responses - Aldbury Primary School even had a whole class do suggestions!”
The winning name - The Green House - was suggested by Justine Wetters, from Bunstrux in Tring.
Mr Metcalfe said: “The name just felt right. It is a green-coloured building and it is listed so it has to stay that colour.”
Mr Metcalfe purchased the New England House Antiques Shop at the beginning of the year and plans to turn it into his dream restaurant, using locally produced fruit and vegetables.
He plans to use special polytunnels at Metcalfe’s field in Station Road to help him grow tomatoes, herbs and peppers all year round.
Other vegetables that will be cultivated in the four acre field will include potatoes, beans, onions, garlic, carrots and parsnips, but some foods will have to be brought in from outside the area.
Getting spring underway
ROLL up roll up. All the fun of the circus marked the start of spring at a Tring school during the weekend.
Goldfield Infants School held its best ever Spring Fair on Saturday raising more than £4,000 for classroom computer equipment.
School mum Emma Bryan, who helped organise the event, said: “It was such a great day and everybody enjoyed themselves.
“We had stilt walkers and hundreds of helium balloons. Lots of people said it is one of the best spring fairs we have had.”
Despite the chilly weather so many people turned out that the school's kitchen ran out of food, forcing staff to make an emergency trip to the supermarket for extra supplies.
Mrs Bryan said: “We had bought more than enough food for the amount of people who came in previous years, but we ran out. It was unbelievable. We had such a great response.”
During the fun day little ones learnt circus tricks from entertainers and met with famous Gully the Mouse from children’s theme park, Gulliver’s Land.
A popular silent auction raised almost £1,000 and a tasty chocolate tombola collected £383 to boost the school’s funds. Morris dancers entertained crowds and Tring Mayor Mike James had fun with youngsters by joining in with football.
Tring fire and police officers were also on hand to give out safety advice.
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