SANDFORD ON THAMES VILLAGE MAGAZINE ON LINE
	THE LINK MAGAZINE    LOCAL DIARY     PARISH COUNCIL     VILLAGE HALL     VILLAGE APPRAISAL        N H W       THE RIVER RUN    LOCAL LINKS     SITE MAP     SEARCH SITE     SITE INFO     COMMENTS        HOME				THE LINK   DECEMBER 1989   ISSUE 26    ISSUE 26 INDEX   ISSUES INDEX   SUBJECT INDEX  The Link Magazine COPYRIGHT © 1989 by The Link Committee. Reproduced with permission.

December 1989             Issue 26

As you all know December is the time for Christmas - December 25th, the day on which the birth of Christ is celebrated by Christians. Although the actual birth date is unknown the choice of a date near the winter solstice owed much to missionary desire to facilitate conversion of pagans, for example in Britain 25 December had been kept as a festival long before the introduction of Christianity.

Did you also know;
The Christmas tree was a symbol of fertility, originated in Germany where it was known from the 16th Century. It became fashionable in this country after Prince Albert introduced it into his family. Martin Luther is said to have decorated his tree with lights to imitate the sky filled with stars, and tinsel began in France where a maiden was rewarded for her goodness by a spider spinning a web that turned into silver.

The Christmas Box was traditionally a small money gift to less fortunate persons on the day after Christmas, hence Boxing Day. The term and custom is essentially English, now outdated.

Santa Claus/St Nicholas lived in the 4th Century. In the Christian Church he was the patron Saint of Russia, children, merchants and sailors. His legendary gifts of dowries to poor girls led to the custom of giving gifts to children on the eve of his feast day 6th December, which is still retained in some countries although elsewhere as we know, transferred to Christmas Day itself.

Happy Christmas!

CHURCH NEWS Priest-in-charge: Rev. Robert Morgan, xxx Iffley Road, Tel: xxxxxx

READY, STEADY, COME

Probably a gift to some charity - to recognise our part in the wider world and the needs of many less lucky than ourselves and the food and drink all things we can be thankful for. It can be quite meaningful without much attention to the religious dimension. That will be missed, but the spiritual impinges on our relationships wherever we are. It is there in everything that runs deeper than the surface of our lives. But here we have a chance to make that explicit and let it flow. Setting an hour or two aside, making space to let God into our lives by attending to the Christmas story in carols and readings helps give Christmas a structure and a focus that takes us out of ourselves and along the road to what we are becoming. We can do this in front of the TV in our slippers, but this is surely a time to get up, go out, celebrate with others, and worship with others.

The meaning of Christmas, focussed in the birth of a child at Bethlehem, is the gift of love. All our giving is an expression of our loving, and we are able to love because we ourselves have been loved - by parent, family, friends and others whose paths have crossed ours more briefly. At the bottom of it all, holding it all together, making it flow, protecting us, empowering us, occasionally even inspiring us, is God's love for the world whether we recognise it or not, whether we respond to it joyfully or prefer to stay wrapped up in ourselves, staving off the boredom in ways that don't cost us much in personal terms because they don't touch us at the deepest levels. May all for whom the material side of Christmas hasn't smothered the spiritual step out and come together: O come let us adore Him, Christ the Lord.

Christmas Mince Pies 175g/6oz plain white flour pinch salt 75g/3oz butter or margarine 225g/8oz Mincemeat 2 egg whites 75g/3oz caster sugar 125g/4oz ground almonds icing sugar to dust

1. Sieve together the flour and salt. Rub in the butter until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Stir in 30-45ml(2-3tbsp) water and knead lightly to form a smooth dough. Wrap and chill for about 15 minutes.

2. Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured surface to about 3mm( 1/8in) thick. Stamp out about 12 rounds with a 7.5 cm(3in) fluted cutter and line 6.5cm(2 1/2in) patty tins.

3. Line with greaseproof paper and bake blind until set and lightly browned. Cool in the tin and then fill the pastry cases with the mincemeat.

4. Whisk the egg whites until stiff but not dry. Whisk in the caster sugar, keeping the mixture stiff, then fold in the ground almonds. Divide the mixture among the pastry cases spreading it out to the edges of the pastry to completely cover the mincemeat.

5. Bake at 180°C(350°F) mark 4 for about 20 mins or until golden brown. Cool on a wire rack. Serve the mince pies warm or cold, dusted with a little icing sugar.

TIP
To freeze: Cool,pack and freeze before dusting with icing sugar. To use: Thaw overnight at cool room temperature. Refresh in a hot oven for 5 minutes before serving, dusted with icing sugar.
Enjoy!

BONFIRE NIGHT

CHRISTMAS BAZAAR RAFFLE PRIZE WINNERS

1st Prize	Food Hamper	P Tattersall Eastern House Littlemore
2nd Prize	Selection of Wines	Mavis Shepherd Rock Farm Lane
3rd Prize	Food Hamper	Mr Phipps Church Road
and to the many other winners of smaller prizes, congratulations.

PAUSE FOR THOUGHT DECEMBER

Linda Parrott

Sunday Market Trips Finmere, Enstone, or Blackbushe

PRIZE CROSSWORD WIN £5.00

Answers to xx Church Road
by the 17th December please.

FESTIVE FUN.

Can you find them

F A T H E R C H R I S T M A S A G H L Y Z E S R E K C A R C I P U D D I N G S S D V O S A R O B F S N O I T A R O C E D Y C A R D S Y N U T H J E P E L A O I Q T E H R E N R M U S I V A Y B S L W K A T Y O F L G I T S E A E T E W O B I S O H P A R S N I W Y C Y H I T R T H P A R T I E S W S O M R A S B E L T I N S E L E F P S C
TINSEL FAIRY LIGHTS FATHER CHRISTMAS   PUDDINGS CRACKERS TURKEY PARTIES	DECORATIONS PRESENTS CAROLS CRIB CARDS TREE TOYS

CHRISTMAS PUNCH

For those who like punches (and who doesn't at Christmas) here is an excellent recipe Rub eight pieces of lump sugar on two big lemons, collecting all the fragrant essential oils possible. Put the lumps in a bright sauce pan with 1/4 teaspoon of ground cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoon of grated nutmeg and ground cloves mixed, and a fair pinch of salt. Put in 8oz each of brandy and Jamaica rum and add 16 oz of boiling water.

Heat up the bowl, and strain into it the juice of two lemons. Heat up the mixture in the pan just to miss boiling point and strain it through muslin in a colander or sieve into the bowl. Now add one pint of a good white country wine - elderflower, gooseberry, rhubarb, or apple, preferably sparkling, and serve with a cube of pineapple in each cup.

What Am I? My first is in Christ but not in Lord My second is in holly but not the ivy My third you will find in reindeer but never in turkey My fourth is in the trimmings but not in presents My fifth is in crackers and fairy lights too My sixth is in Christmas Day and also in wreath My seventh is in families but not in friends My eighth is in angels and nativity too My last is in Happy Christmas Peace to you!

Bottoms.

Any number of players but the more the merrier.

One player is picked and everyone else fires questions at him, the only answer he is allowed to make is "Bottoms!!!". This applies equally to any question asked, for example...
"What is your favourite food?" He replies "Bottoms!" and so on... Anyone who laughs is out.

Again the more the merrier.

Everyone sits in a circle on chairs, except for one person who stands in the circle. He thens asks a question such as "Stand up if you are wearing glasses." All those that the question applies to must stand up and change places with someone else who has also stood up... the person who asked the question must try to get to one of the newly vacated chairs before it is occupied by someone else. If they do, the new person without the chair then takes a turn to ask a question, and so on. No winners/losers, just go on until you are tired out!!

A hundred years ago the immediate area was highly populated with no less than sixteen cottages (nearly a quarter of the total parish) between Peacock Cottage (no 3 Church Road) and the Catherine Wheel, housing a population of 69 souls and supplying a cross section of the village labour force - of which three were employed at the paper mill, seven were agricultural labourers and one each of a gardener, shepherd, wheelwright, barber, grocer, butcher, railway labourer and a plough boy.

In the main those cottages were of poor construction with walls of mud and stud, earthen floors, and thatched roofs; picturesque they may have been yet an eye witness says "we had.. earth floors, a ladder to get into the bedrooms which were without ceilings, just open to the thatch", and no proper fireplace, an exception was a little row of four stone built cottages probably dating from the 1830's then known as Herrings Row these lasted until circa 1950.

There was then no housing above the Fox Inn, or the east side of the London Road except a barn belonging to Sandford Farm. By the 1890's most of these picturesque cottages were so dilapidated that "There is nothing to note in the village itself, years ago it contained one pretty picture from the London Road which passes through part of it, but both the tumbledown thatched cottages and the well grown elms which overhang them are gone, and there is little for the artists sketch book".

Returning again to my opening paragraph, this piece of ground remained unbuilt upon, being garden and drying ground for the family wash for the nearby cottages, then of great necessity in the days before the spin and tumble dryer. By 1911 it had become unused due to the dispersal of the families and the demolition of the old cottages. In this year also we had a new Vicar, the Rev. Digby-Read who had built for himself and family a small cottage on this ground which he named St Andrew's Cottage; (the earlier parson's house Elms Lea having been sold to George Clapperton the mill owner) the cottage was further extended by the Cunliffe family and others and this is how it remained until the present time.

A possible explanation as to why so many cottages should have been built there is that this was one of the few pieces of land in the village that did not belong to the big landowners like the Duke of Marlborough or the Morrells whose aims at the time were to keep their rates down meaning the less poor villagers there were the less demand there would be on the "Poor Rate", so they built few cottages on their own land to reduce their number of dependents... And so our village and houses change, yet to the writer the loss of "well grown Elms which overhang them" has been the saddest loss of all.

KINGCUP           [Authors note]             [Kingcup - more info]

ANNOUNCEMENTS!

Festive Fun: Solutions: What Am I?       CHRISTMAS

CHEMISTS ROTA SERVICE

Closest to Sandford area only

The following Chemist will be open for dispensing
from 5.30pm - 6.30pm Mondays - Fridays
and 12 noon - 1 pm Sundays and Public Holidays.

Week commencing

December	3rd	W H Green (Chemists) Ltd 8 Rose Hill Parade
December	10th	M J Proctor 252 Cowley Road Oxford
December	17th	M J Proctor 158 Oxford Road Cowley
December	24th only	P L Jenner 236 Cowley Road Oxford
December	25th/26th	Emerald Pharmacy 34 Cowley Road Littlemore
December	27th	P L Jenner 236 Cowley Road Oxford
December	31st only	Kingswood Chemists 103 Pound Way Cowley Centre
January	1st only	M J Proctor 252 Cowley Road Oxford
January	2nd	Kingswood Chemists 103 Pound Way Cowley Centre