Brill Parish Council Newsletter

February 2023 (vol 3, issue 2)

The Brill Society Reborn

We hope you enjoyed the Brill History Day on February 11th. Nearly 100 people attended, to browse the stalls in the morning and/or to listen to the four excellent talks in the afternoon. The event was a joint project by The Brill Society (TBS) and Buckinghamshire Archeological Society, supported financially by Brill Parish Council and the interest and enthusiasm of local people exceeded all expectations. We will publish a short account of proceedings on the Brill Parish Council & Community website shortly.

In the meantime, now is the time to get involved with the rejuvenated Brill Society! Here’s how:

• become a member and be one of the first to receive the new membership package

• volunteer to help open the windmill on spring and summer weekends; no knowledge needed - just curiosity, resourcefulness and a cheerful face to welcome visitors

• share your skills and interests: minute-taking, fund-raising, grant-applying, event-organising (Brill History Day 2024?), photo-cataloguing, display-mounting, newsletter-writing, cheer-leading; whatever your forte, TBS has a job for you

Read more about the Society on the parish council website and the Brill Windmill & Brill Society website - and get in touch. Andy and the team look forward to hearing from you.

Filling the hungry gap for birds

Brill Parish Council, as owners of Brill Common, is now part of the Bernwood Forest and River Ray Living Landscape project. This inspirational project, managed by BBOWT, covers a huge swathe of countryside between Oxford, Bicester and Aylesbury; an area of ancient woodland, mixed farmland and nationally-important floodplain meadows ecologically linked by the River Ray. A central feature of the project is a detailed Nature Recovery Plan to protect and improve conditions for wildlife across the area.

As members of the Living Landscape project, the parish council have been offered two exciting opportunities: a free farmland bird survey and winter bird feeding equipment and seed. The seed is to be scattered on the common and along hedgerows (well away from houses) to help fill the “hungry gap” for birds. If you or your community group would like to be involved, please get in touch with Cllr Emi Slater as soon as possible.

Celebrating Brill Common

Beating the Bounds of Brill Common : Saturday May 20th 2023

Back in the 17th Century, an English priest called George Herbert listed the benefits of beating the parish bounds (boundaries):

First, a blessing of God for the fruits of the field; secondly, justice in the preservation of bounds; thirdly, charity in loving walking and neighbourly accompanying one another, with reconciling of differences at the time, if there be any…

Brill Parish Council has tweaked the date (Saturday May 20th instead of the traditional Rogation Sunday) and rationalised the process (Brill Common rather than the whole of Brill Parish) but the ambition remains analogous: celebration of our beautiful common and protection of her boundaries from encroachment. We also like George’s comment about “charity in loving walking…”

Encroachment is a structure or action that implies individual ownership of the common. It may be as obvious as building a new parking area or putting up a fence or an apparently innocuous as strimming a patch of nettles. Encroachment is a complicated and fraught topic (to put it mildly!) but it’s one the parish council is committed to tackling, firmly and fairly. We will publish our new Encroachment Policy on the parish council website shortly. In the meantime, the Brill Common & Walks Policy is a must-read for all parishioners!

Put Saturday May 20th in your diary and get ready to join the parish council in a gentle perambulation around the perimeter of Brill Common. We’ll announce more details nearer the time (someone mentioned a hog roast - but no promises!)

Read more about the history of beating the bounds in the April issue of the Bernwode News.

Brill News & Notes

(More on the BPC & Community website)

Our wonderful new playgrounds

Lucky, lucky children of Brill! The two playgrounds adjacent to Brill Playing Fields are now finished. Highlights of the Infants’ Playground are the Dexter Cow slides & tunnels, the trampoline, wheelchair accessible roundabout and the Windmill Towers climbing structure. The Junior area is even more exciting with a Triple Windmill Towers (photo above) incorporating tunnels, climbing wall, fireman’s pole, clickety bridge, monkey bars, climbing net and two slides. Both areas have new benches and picnic tables, some donated by local businesses, and all new equipment is made from sustainable wood.

What you see today is the result of much hard work, not only by the amazing 2020 Brill Playground Committee but parents and councillors in past decades, supported by the generosity of parishioners and local and national funding bodies. Thank you, everyone.

Brill Community Market

The community market is taking a short winter break. Handmade by Jane, Brill Coffee, Kind Hearts & Castaways and the other stalls will be back on Saturday April 15th (the third Sunday in the month).

The Parish Council want to help the market attract more stalls and customers in 2023 and are considering ways of doing this. If you have any ideas, expertise in the running of village markets - or know of anyone who might be able to help, please email Cllr Hannah Hulme Hunter.

And, finally…

Please tell others about this e-newsletter. Lots of people aren’t on Facebook or comfortable with social media, and we want to reach all parishioners equally. We also value the opportunity to give something extra to subscribers - longer explanations or different perspectives - than is possible on the website.

Tell friends, family or neighbours to email hello@brillparishcouncil.co.uk or fill in the newsletter form on the Brill Parish Council website. Alternatively, if they’d like a regular paper copy, suggest they drop us a note or call in to the office. We’ll even deliver if need be! There will also be copies of the newsletter in the pouch on the office door, and on the welcome table in All Saints Church.

All good wishes
Brill Parish Council