Bill Clarke is starting up his cathedral trips with a visit to Bristol Cathedral on 29th October.

Bristol is a good city to start my Cathedral trips again. Some of you may know Bristol better than I do with its Museums, (www.bristolmuseums.org.uk), Clifton Suspension Bridge and docks with SS Great Britain (www.ssgreatbritain.org). Once we are at Bristol, the day is yours to do and see whatever you wish. Please remember the cathedral closes at 3.30 for evensong and will not open again that day. (www.bristol-cathedral.co.uk)

I plan to leave Bristol at 5.00 pm so we should be back at Oxford at about 7.00 pm.

There is no entry fee to the cathedral, but they do take donations. The cost of the trip is £30.00 per person, to cover the cost of the coach and a tip for the driver.

You can download the application form here

Tickets available here

Some tickets are still available for the Oxlip Theatre performance of Midsummer Night’s Dream in Wytham Woods on the 3rd and 4th of September. Here is a taster of what to expect…

We are sorry to report that some of the community orchard trees have recently been stripped. With this year’s drought significantly reducing overall yields, we have decided to protect the remaining crop for Apple Day by locking the gate to the general public with immediate effect. We’re sorry for the inconvenience. Tree Group members may still access the orchard

After rave reviews following last year’s show during the Wolvercote and Wytham Summer Festival, the Oxlip Theatre Company, an ensemble of 17-21 year olds, returns to the magical and mysterious Wytham Woods in early September 2022 to deliver their latest interpretation of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream under the guidance of Oxford-based director and film maker Ruth Platt. This time promises more bite and more music (and more mushrooms!) in this heady lovers’ quarrel, with the same wonderful, professional delivery that the cast provided last year.

This year we’re also offering a matinée to enable more families to come. Open air performances take place on Saturday 3rd September at 2 pm, and 7.30 pm, and Sunday 4th September at 7.30 pm. The location is behind the Swiss Chalet, about a 20 minute walk into Wytham Woods.

Link to tickets and further information

Make your own Footprints by taking part in these free walks and talks lead by some eminent guides. Please note that Thursdays Singing Way walk followed by tea and tour at Christchurch Cathedral must be pre-booked with Bill Clarke on 01865 510109

We have some amazing prizes to be won with our festival raffle. Tickets are £1 each and are available from the White Hart, Wolvercote and at the Community Market from 29th May. The raffle will be drawn in the order below on Friday 24th June in the interval of Music Night. Prize winners will be notified by phone or email if not at the show. Big thanks to all our sponsors and Teresa Hall for organising on behalf of the Festival Committee.

Your mission is to identify the eighteen numbered locations of these images of inscriptions and memorials, all of which are accessible on foot via public rights of way or common land in Wolvercote and Wytham.

A map can be found here on which you can mark the numbers of the images in the location you have chosen. All the locations can be found on this map

If you would like a further challenge you may answer a question associated with each image, which you can download here. The questions also appear under the photo when you click or tap the image.

The locations of the images and the answers to the questions will be posted on the Festival Website later in the summer.

Good luck and enjoy exploring our villages on foot. Many thanks to Amanda Saville for putting this together on behalf of the Festival Committee.

JOIN OUR FOOTPRINT TRAIL

This year the Wolvercote and Wytham Midsummer Festival will be running another village trail of house displays to be discovered during the festival week and we would love you all to join in.  The theme this year is Footprints and we invite you to decorate your front window, garden or gate with a fanciful footprint display.

It could be animal footprints, dinosaur footprints, your own decorated footprint, footprints turned into other creatures, boots filled with flowers, our global footprint – the interpretation is all yours!

HOW TO JOIN IN

Simply email footprints@wolvercote.org to register your entry with your name and street name – we don’t need the number as we are just going to publish the streets that have displays.  We will then send you the festival Footprint Trail flag (pdf) which you can cut out and put in your window or on your gate so that the trail wanderers can find your display.

Your display will need to be completed and ready by the beginning of the festival week – Friday 17^th June. 

Once you have created your display, please take a picture of it and post it to a public Instagram account with the hashtag #WFPTrail. If your account is private,  (or you don’t use Instagram), please send your photo to footprints@wolvercote.org and we will post it on Instagram for you. Please include your name if you want a credit.

We are looking forward to starting rehearsals with Kate Binnie and Jacqui Ibbotson for the Pop Up Choir on Mondays in the Baptist Church Hall in Lower Wolvercote 7.30 – 9.00 pm starting on 9th May, with a view to performing at the Wolvercote and Wytham Midsummer Festival at All Saints Church, Wytham on Tuesday 21st June. As always, the repertoire will be wide-ranging and fun, and all are welcome to join (no requirement to read music), so please let your family, friends and neighbours know about it (if you have a street WhatsApp maybe you could also contact them that way). Deep voices are especially welcome! As before there is no joining fee, but we do ask for a donation of £1 per adult per session towards hall hire fees.

We are thinking forward to the summer and the 2022 Wolvercote and Wytham Midsummer Festival, to be held 18–25 June, with the Festival theme being Footprints. One of the popular Festival events is the Poetry & Music Evening. 

We are looking for local poets. Would you like to contribute one or two poems and join us for a convivial evening of readings, music, and wine in a lovely setting?

This year the Poetry & Music Evening is to be held on Monday 20th June.  

Time:     7.30-9.30
Venue:  St. Peter’s Church Rooms

We have chosen this venue as it has access to a very pleasant outdoor courtyard, which will work well if the sun shines on us.

Ros Bleach and Phillipa Hardman are planning and hosting the evening. Please let us know straight away if you would like to take part. 

Please send by June 1^st one or two of your poems on this year’s theme to: 

Ros Bleach at bleachfamily@hotmail.com and Phillipa Hardman at phillipa.hardman@virginmedia.com.

Ideally, we would include every poem we receive, but this depends on time constraints. All the poems, including those that are not read on the night, will be posted onto the Wolvercote and Wytham website Poetry Corner, with your agreement, of course. If you’re unable to be there in person, your submitted poems can be read by someone else.

Much looking forward to hearing from you and reading your poems.

Ros and Phillipa