Hamble Conservation Volunteers Hamble Conservation Volunteers group are looking for people to get involved in wildlife monitoring, educational and community events and practical work.  You can join in with the programme of events and practical workdays at Hamble Common. Click here for more information and details. ‘AETHERIS AVIDI’ EAGER FOR THE AIR Wartime Britain, Hamble, October 1941, Alison King ATA pilot in the all female Hamble ATA Ferry Pool wrote: "It was cold and drizzly, we left the airfield and wandered through the village, suddenly we turned from the wide windy road round a corner and down a sloping lane into something that had been in a world of its own since the fourteenth century”. The Air Transport Auxiliary, or ATA, was formed at the outbreak of war in September 1939 to transport mail, dispatches and essential supplies. It quickly developed to ferry new, damaged and repaired aircraft between the aviation industry and the RAF and Fleet Air Arm airfields. The ATA delivered all types of newly built operational aircraft and flew others in need of repair. By 1941 the Hamble unit had become an all female unit. Between September 1939 and November 1945 the ATA flew 309,011 aircraft missions. Tragically 173 ATA personnel were killed on duty. At 1pm on the 10th July 2010, which is the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Britain, BP Oil UK Ltd (Hamble), GE Aviation (Hamble) and Hamble-le-Rice Parish Council will proudly unveil the Hamble-le-Rice ATA Memorial, which is to be placed on the corner of Aquila Way and Hamble Lane. The memorial will honour the courageous men and women of the air transport auxiliary. There will be a reception/exhibition directly after the unveiling in the Hamble Village Memorial Hall. Both the unveiling and reception/exhibition are open to all, free of charge. You can discover more information about the Memorial at www.atamemorial.org.uk Enquiries: BP (023) 8045 6028 or Hamble-le-Rice Parish Council (023) 8045 3422 or click here to view the event leaflet. Food and Wine Matching Evening. The Diversity of France’s Food and Wine Wine and Sign and The River Rat are teaming up on Bastille Day, Wednesday 14th July, to deliver an evening of wine exploration, including an opportunity to sample and learn more about the classic French wines and the regional food to match. The evening course includes an eight-course taster menu with tutored wine tasting . Click here for more details:     Hamble Aquatics Hamble Aquatics has been established since 1997 and has about 80 swimmers. The club are currently recruiting for new swimmers who wish to take part in swimming competitions in Hampshire and South East Region. Look out for their stand in Hamble Week. In the meantime you can viist their website bia the link below. Hamble Aquatics Swim Team

The Bugle Awarded AA Rosette The Bugle in Hamble has just been awarded a Rosette by the AA for its food, making it the first and only venue in Hamble to receive such an accolade.  The gastro pub has delighted locals and visitors to Hamble with its first class food, and now The Bugle team is delighted to be leading the way locally with its food and pub hospitality. The AA rosette recognises restaurants that, “Achieve standards that stand out in their local area, serving food prepared with care, understanding and skill, using good quality ingredients.”  Jim Hayward, Executive Chef said, “The team and I are over the moon and delighted that all the hard work, skilful cooking and careful selection of local ingredients has paid off.

Amazing Story of Hamble's Regattas

Photo of the 1932 Hamble Regatta

If you have an interest in boating or have lived in Hamble, this may be the opportunity for which you have been waiting, to enjoy looking back at Hamble Regattas of the past.  Hamble Local History Society and the Hamble Week Committee have combined to tell the story of Hamble Regattas in the week before this year’s Hamble Week.

Some of the highlights:

• Regattas at Hamble can be traced back to 1868.
• 1869 “Walking the greasy pole” for the prize at the end – a live pig!
• Royalty attended the regatta in the 1870s.
• 1890s race for old class sailing fishing boats, vessels over 100 years of age were not allowed to compete.
• Bull Fight on the Quay in 1939.
• First Drumaran World Championship in 1968.
• Hamble Week’s spectacular Soap Box Derby.

The talk by Ian Underdown will be illustrated by over a hundred pictures showing the activities of Hamble Regattas over the years.  If you have attended a Hamble Regatta, and want to find out more about what happened at the others, why not come along to the Hamble Memorial Hall on Tuesday 22nd June at 7.30pm?

The entry fee is just £1.  If you would like more information contact the History Society Secretary, Dave Wilde, telephone 8045 4741.

New Rowing Club for Hamble

Hamble River Rowing is a newly formed rowing club to encourage and develop traditional recreational, rowing on the Hamble River.

Their base is at Bursledon's famous Jolly Sailor pub, where they have two Bursledon Gigs available for club members to use.

Tuesday evenings during the summer will be the club rowing night. There are also many events planned at weekends including the Hamble River Raid, London Great River Race as well as day rowing with a picnic in the upper Hamble country park.

see here for their web link

Charity Walk Raises Funds

Even though the  weather was wet and dreary, the sponsored walk managed to raise over £600, enough to feed the whole orphanage for 3 months!

Here are a few words of thanks from Lama Pasang, the Monk in charge of the Orphanage in Nepal...

"Please say hello and thank you very much for your friend and those people who help to raise money for our orphanage children. We never  forget you and those kind people's great effort and compassionate for these poorest children.  Your  great support definitely to got beneficial for our children's daily activities. That helps will make successful. We hope you and your friends' continuous help make our children bright life,  like many water drops make ocean"

Yours... Lama Pasang

www.showyoucare.info

email  judy@showyoucare.info  tel - 02380 454 413

The Return of the Marathon Man

Only 2 days after completing the Marathon des Sables, the 151 mile/243km race across the Sahara desert John McKenzie was back behind the wheel of his BP Tanker. He finished in the fantastic 241st position; 90 people abandoned the race from the field of the original 1010 starters. Thanks to the generous contributions of his numerous sponsors John also managed to surpass his target of raising £2500 for ‘Help for Heroes’, which will be doubled by BP. You can still donate via www.justgiving.com/johnmckenzie all monies go to the charity.

To read the John McKenzie interview click here.

Hamble School - Off the Road in a Virtual World

Rob Farr travels the UK for BP teaching kids about all the different forms of energy we use and how they are produced. One of his distinctive workshops explores the science of powered flight explaining the way oil is produced and utilised as well as the development of renewable technologies. For his part in Science Week Rob is taking his road show off the road and plans to deliver his workshops to schools across the UK via a series of live interactive internet lectures. To involve the students and replicate the classroom experience Rob will deliver his scientific energy shows and respond to emails whilst broadcasting. The children will undertake various projects during the live webcasts and they will also be given some science and design projects to complete afterwards.

In order to give the children of Hamble Primary school a taste of both the real and virtual worlds of teaching BP arranged for Rob to visit the school just before science week and the same kids will be involved with his internet workshops too. Rob said, “There is presently nothing like hands-on workshops but I can only reach a maximum of 300 kids in a week; during science week I anticipate teaching 20 000”.

Photo shows Abigail Hughes and class 10 from Hamble Primary, Rob Farr, and BP’s Transport Supervisor Suzie Rickman

Team Work

Successful community projects are always the result of skilled planning combined with the hard work of volunteers, and BP is always interested in such local projects. Teams of volunteers and rangers from the Royal Victoria and Lepe Country Parks have just started the development of a dilapidated pond located next to the RVCP education buildings in Netley. The pond will be the focal point of an informal wild life garden which will prove to be a valuable educational resource for both schools and local youth groups. The paths, beds and pond dipping platform have been designed to accommodate people with various abilities. There is also a vegetable plot and composting area designed to allow youngsters to grow their own food and learn about compost and recycling.

Park gardener Michele Meek said, “Projects like our wildlife garden are great for the community. They are only made possible with the help of the Friends of the Royal Victoria Country Park group and the volunteers from Lepe, and the support from local businesses like BP”.

Photo shows Gardeners and the Friends groups from the Royal Victoria Country Park and Lepe Country Park
in the Pond site in the Royal Victoria Country Park Netley.

Left to right; Charlotte Crook, John Howard, AlexWojcik, John McKenzie, Caroline London, Duncan Knight, Suzie Rickman

John now has a personal best time of 3 hours and 15 minutes, but that wasn’t set in desert heat whilst carrying kit. However John spent nine years in the army before joining BP so he is fully aware of the challenges ahead. Apart from the personal sense of achievement which must drive all sports people John is running the Marathon des Sables to raise money for ‘Help for Heroes’. He’s already raised nearly £2000 of his £2500 target but would like to raise as much as possible for this very worthy charity. John said, “Unlike the young men and women in our armed forces today; my years as a soldier were fairly peaceful. I am continually humbled by their selfless acts of sacrifice and courage; they truly have earned the right to be called heroes”.

Recently some of John’s fan club showed their support by coming to work at BP wearing their sports kit; they all donated money to ‘Help for Heroes’ via www.justgiving.com/johnmckenzie All monies raised goes to the charity.

BP is in stitches!

When BP’s David Dawes and Mike Myden asked the St Andrew’s Church Sewing Circle to produce a tapestry depicting the 85 year history of BP in Hamble they had no idea exactly how much work would go in to such a project. The Tapestry took 19 people over one year and well in excess of one quarter of a million stitches to produce. It combines the use of traditional needlepoint techniques as well as some complex embroidery produced by Sandra Tyzack and her state of the art sewing machine.

The Tapestry consists of 16 panels which were copied from original designs and then individually crafted by members of the group. Each panel was subsequently joined together to create a single masterpiece. Each panel depicts important points in the history of the BP Terminal from it’s creation in 1924 through to 2009. It also features 2 people from the Hamble scene, PCSO Scott Weston who is depicted with his BP sponsored police bicycle, and BP’s Mike Myden.

Joan Clothier from the sewing circle said, “Working on the BP Tapestry has been a very positive experience for the group. We work together very effectively, however not everyone likes doing needlepoint, so we have now expanded our interests to include knitting, and other forms of needlework.”
BP’s David Dawes said, “There is no doubt about it, these very talented people have created a stunning work of art which will be enjoyed by many generations”.

Photo shows the St Andrew’s Church Sewing Circle & others, from Left to right; Rosemary Barton, Heather Smith, George Clothier, Joyce Hardy, Jan Haddock, Margaret Robinson, Bert Allwood, Gwen Cook, PCSO Scott Weston, Father John Travers, Nick Buxton, Joyce Travers, Joan Clothier, Sandra Tyzack, Beda Allwood, Sue Sefton, & BP’s Mike Myden.