The recent weekend proved yet again that we are all so lucky to live in such a wonderful community.
As previously reported, the Village Fete on Saturday provided a great opportunity for people of all ages to relax and enjoy themselves while raising funds for the Church in Denton.
This was followed on Sunday by a superb celebration of the Centenary of the building that plays such an important part of our lives, the Village Hall. The lunch provided was excellent and, of course, supplies from the bar went down very well (even if beer is now £2.50 a pint and a bottle of wine £7.50!).
One highlight, after lunch, was the cutting of a Celebration Cake by Hilda Thomas. This was followed by a Speech covering the Hall’s development over the 100 years, by the Chairman of the Hall Management Committee, Terry Hanner. For longer-term residents the mention of important events, like the first Village Supper, brought back so many happy memories. It was great to see several former Dentonians return and join in the fun.
Finally, later in the day there was a good turn-out at the Hall to watch the final of the Euro football competition. OK, England lost to Spain, but it was yet another opportunity for residents to come together.
As several people have commented, a wonderful Denton weekend with wonderful people. Many thanks to the long list of residents who contributed so much and made it all possible.
It was Games, Games and more Games at this year's Village Fete, held at the Village Hall on Saturday July 13th.
All the usual stalls were there of course: Raffle, Tombola, Bric-a-Brac, etc, but visitors had the chance to show their skills at a vast range of Games including: Putting, Bowling and just "Throwing Things".
Most were staged inside the twin marquees erected in preparation for the Village Lunch event. Perhaps as a result, there was no rain, which cheered everybody.
It is hoped that the winners of each Game, and the proceeds of the event, in aid of the Church in Denton, will appear here in due course.
The first Marquee erection of the year last night presented a real challenge for those involved. There was a good turnout of helpers but - how to put the new marquees together?
The basic structure of interlinked metal poles was similar to the old marquees but there were several critical differences and the printed instructions which were provided by the manufacturers were very unhelpful in several important areas.
As a result it took much longer to put together the first marquee at the Village Hall and some "fudging" was needed to avoid taking it down and starting again. Eventually the team could move on to erect the second one at Pear Tree Farm. This went much more smoothly and suitable steps are being taken to make future constructions much simpler.
Thankfully, the weather was excellent and the liquid refreshment provided helped to reduce any frustrations caused along the way..
This year’s Open Gardens event, held in aid of the Church in Denton on Sunday 23rd June, was heralded as a great success by everybody who attended, The excellent weather helped, but it was the 14 gardens on display and their owners that were the real stars. And a wonderful set of Scarecrows was also on view.
A very nice guide to the gardens with a useful map showing their locations was available from the Village Hall where refreshments were served.
As several owners commented, the event provided them with a useful excuse to tidy up their properties but the results made it all worthwhile. A number of very productive vegetable plots were on view but it was the gorgeous flower displays that really caught the eye. The prize for the best Scarecrow, representing “Miss Havisham” it seems, went to Sally Barber.
Over £1,300 was raised fot the Church. Well done everybody involved.
Details have been announced of this year's Annual Parish Meeting to be held on Tuesday 14th May starting at 7 pm.
The Guest Speaker is Matt Newton-Jones who will be speaking about the work of the Norfolk Wildlife Trust. Another topic will be a report on Biodiversity from Cllr Matt Jones.
There will also be reports from village organisations.
Everyone welcome. Your chance to have your say.
The APM will be followed by the PC's Annual Meeting .
As in previous years, it was a most enjoyable evening at the Village Hall on Friday. The availability of Bella Ciao Pizza and the Bar obviously played their part but it was the hotly-contested Annual Table-tennis Championships that captured everyone's attention.
Ably organised as usual by Annie and Steve Whiteman, there were some very close matches in both the Ladies' and Gentlemen's competitions.
As they commented, "Table tennis has proved to be a game for all ages as players from six years old to the mid-eighties recently took to the tables. During the first hour of the evening up to ten juniors bounced, bumped and bobbled the ball from one end of the table to the other in all manners of ways. Hopefully, the outside table – which has bats and balls stored within it – will provide a place throughout the year for their enthusiasm to flourish; who knows, stars of the future?"
When the adults played there was the usual mixture of missed hits and masterly crafted points, alongside looks of despair and frustration as another point was gifted to a grateful opponent.
The eventual winners were Maureen Coe, regaining the trophy she last won in 2017, by beating runner-up Andrea Fitzgerald, and Gary McDonald, beating Bernard Coe in the final match and repeating his win of last year.
It was thus honours even as neighbouring villagers shared the spoils of the tournament.
A great night was had by all the players and by all the watchers. Thanks are due to all who played their part.
Did you know that Denton was on a Pilgrimage Route? It is now.
A new long-distance pilgrimage route has been created, running right across the country from St David’s Head in Pembrokeshire all the way to Ness Point in Lowestoft. Called the Via Beata, it uses footpaths and bridleways as much as possible. Further details can be seen
Here.
One stretch of the route runs along the by-way on the South side of Websdill Wood. Technically the by-way is designated Bedingham-RB7. This is because the path is on the boundary between Bedingham and Denton but, assuming the boundary runs down the middle of the path, surely we can claim to be on the Route.
Another location on the Route is the Norfolk & Waveney Emmaus Base at Ditchingham. Later in the year they are organising a fund-raising “Walk of Kindness” along the Route. We gather two local people, both called Chris, Messrs Brown and Hutton, have already signed-up to take part.
Further details can be seen
Here.
One of the many fun-moments enjoyed at the regular Thursday morning coffee gatherings at the Chapel Vestry is the celebration of attendees' birthdays. This week was really special with no less than three such milestones to be recorded.
Suitable cards were signed and presented and, as usual, a mini-birthday cake was provided for each celebrant as well. The fact that two of them bore the same name caused a bit of confusion. No problem with the third.
Another February Half-Term gone, another DVC production delivered.
Last week in Denton saw three performances of this year's Panto - "Space Wars", a loose, sometimes very loose, combination of several well-known themes from Star Wars, Star Trek etc.
A sell-out every night, it was much enjoyed by the audience and, possibly more important, the cast and crew had a whale of a time.
Everybody involved including: the orchestra, the set painters, the costume creators, the sound and lights operators, the Box Office Dolly, etc. should be congratulated on a great team effort. A special vote of thanks must go to the Director, Steve Barrett, for pulling it all together so well.
A Synopsis, full details of the Cast etc. and a Review, by Old Stager, together with some Photos, are available in the
DVC History Section.
The Village Hall was packed last night for the Annual Village Quiz.
It followed in the great tradition of these events, with a hotly contested Quiz, contested in the most civilised fashion of course, but in the normal Denton way, ensuring that everyone had a good time.
The winners, and now holders of the "Brain of Denton" trophy, were - "Tom's Team" with "Bobby's Dazzlers" in second place and "The Great 8" third.
Last place went to "Arty Facts", who therefore won the Wooden Spoon trophy.
Rather surprisingly, this year very few people argued with the Question-mistress over her answers to her questions. Most unusual. The "Bone of Contention" trophy was awarded to Rosemary Gibson but nobody on her team could work out why?
We all had a great time and thanks must be recorded to everyone involved in the event, obviously to Denise Grant and to her excellent assistant Peter, but also to the cooking team - who produced a great meal at half-time, the bar staff, and the organisers of the raffle.
