Rippingale Village News

Glut-busters.....
Let’s hear it for jam, chutneys
and pickles! Thanks to
prolific courgettes, beans
and cauliflower, I’ve already
made the first batch of my
favourite glut-buster – piccalilli.
The best thing about this pickle,
apart from it’s really easy to
make, is you can use a huge
range of seasonal stuff in it! If
you’d like a copy of the recipe,
send a stamped addressed
email to the newsletter address
and we’ll get it out to your in-
box, tout-suite.

In the meantime, if you ever find
yourself under attack by a mob
of clowns, go straight for the
juggler.

Editor
RIPPINGALE NEWS

rippingalenewsletter@outlook.com August 2025

Useful Contacts
Parish Clerk - Laura Davies
rippingalepc@gmail.com
Chairman - Barry Ross
chairmanrpc4@gmail.com
Vice Chair, Emergency team liaison,
Flood response team - Tony Creek
tonycreekrpc@gmail.com

Greetings from the Tower........
A welcome introduction to the team behind the unique
sound of the bells at St Andrew’s Church:
We are a band of ringers that meet weekly to practice our bell
ringing skills. We join ringers from Billingborough and
surrounding villages on a Wednesday evening between 7.30 –
9pm. You will hear us at Billingborough on the 1st and 3rd
Wednesdays of the month and at Rippingale, St. Andrew’s
Church on the 2nd and 4th.
There are 6 bells in the tower at St Andrew’s and 6 bell ringers
resident in Rippingale. We ring for services and weddings but
our most recent event was for the Rippingale Feast on July 12th
to signify the start of the Parade.
At least 5 of the bells in St Andrews hail from the 14th century
so it’s amazing that the same sounds (methods) we hear today
have been heard by the villagers of Rippingale for centuries.
Like most old equipment however, the bells need servicing
and this was done recently by Taylor’s of Loughborough to
make sure they sound clear and tuneful. Thankfully, they all
passed.
We are a friendly bunch, so if you ever would like to come and
meet us and see what we do, you are more than welcome.
We are always willing to ring for village events, just get in touch
but give us a little notice and we will do our best!

Brenda Donaldson 07951233119

The 200 Club draw results, for the month of July 2025
£30 ticket number 103 Mrs R Main
£20 ticket number 25 Mrs A Burtt
£15 ticket number 117 Mr T Redshaw
£15 ticket number 77 Mrs J Lister
£15 ticket number 63 Mrs C Bladon

Julia Lister

Rippingale.parish.lincolnshire.gov.uk 2
St. Andrews Church News....
Website: www.ringstonegroupchurches.org
Rector: Awaiting appointment
Churchwarden: Vacancy

For Weddings, Funerals, Baptisms please contact

the Group Administrator
Sue O’Riordan: ringstoneoffice@gmail.com
COMMUNITY COFFEE MORNING
Once again, the weather was against us for
sitting outside; this time it was too hot! A bit
like Goldilocks and the Three Bears, it is either
too hot or too cold (or too wet) and the
temperature cannot seem to be ‘just right’.
However, there was another great attendance
with not only Rippingale people, but others
from neighbouring villages. Very pleased to
welcome them. Thanks to Anne and Jane for
running this one.
TUESDAY 5th AUGUST is the date for the next
Coffee Morning with the usual fresh veg and
home-made cakes.
CAKE STALL & CHOCOLATE TOMBOLA
These stalls were a great success at the
FEAST. To all those who gave their time to
make cakes, donate chocolates and help on
the day and also to everybody who supported
us, thank you.
CHURCH NEWS
Appointment of a new Rector
The new incumbent has to cover the parishes
from Morton across to Bitchfield, a large area.
Unfortunately, the only applicant so far proved
unsuitable; the post is being re-advertised.
There is still a vacancy for a Churchwarden
at Rippingale
FUTURE EVENTS
Make a note of the date Saturday 13th
September as there will be a History Event in
the Church. More details in the next
Newsletter and on the Church Noticeboards.

Lunch and a visit by Rippingale &
District Women’s Institute.......
This month we treated ourselves to lunch in
Beanbags at The Angel in Bourne which we all
enjoyed. There was time to look at the
i n v i t at i o n s f ro m l o c a l W I ' s t o t h e i r
monthly meetings and to listen to their
speakers. These included a talk on the life of
Charles Worth, a comic monologue
performed by Nina Quilan and a talk on the
history of stained - glass windows. Something
for everyone!
We then made our way to the family firm of
Warners Printers for a guided tour of
the premises. We were bowled over by the
size, power and noise of the machines! We all
thought, naively, that the printing works were
h o u s e d i n t h a t o l d b r i c k b u i l d i n g
fronting West Street but we were totally
wrong! The buildings behind contain
magnificent machines turning out thousands
of sheets every minute (including this
Newsletter!).
Micheal Warner who is the 4th generation of
the family explained the printing process and
how pictures are actually made up of
thousands of tiny dots using only four
different colours. We also saw the plant that
takes all our waste paper, shreds it and sends
it off to Kings Lynn to be made into giant rolls
of paper
Our next meeting will be on the 7th August in
Rippingale Village Hall when Kenneth Moore
will be telling us about Lincoln Cathedral. If
you would like to join us please phone
Janet on 07552 699848 or go to our
website at radwi@btinternet.com

Rippingale.parish.lincolnshire.gov.uk 3
Parish Council News for August....
FEAST – What a great day it was!! Well done to the FEAST
Committee (all volunteers) who did a marvellous job in
their first year organising this traditional event, despite a
standing start:
“With the weather set fair we had a fabulous weekend
of celebrations in the village. The new landlord of the
Bull Inn welcomed our dogs, young and old, to an
evening of fun and competition in the beer garden on
Friday evening with many dogs taking home rosette
and treats. Thank you to Mutts Nutts Dog Charity for
judging. Saturday started with a parade of vintage
machines including tractors, Italian sports cars and
Honda Goldwings amongst others. A big thank you to
Eric Jessop our longest residing resident for opening
what turned out to be a popular and fun filled Feast.
The afternoon was jam packed with entertainment from
bands, singer soloist, choir, dance troops and judo
exhibition. A few good sports from the audience even
joined in with the belly dancers. The stalls, barbecue,
tea tent and 0% alcohol beer tent were also popular,
with the barbecue selling out 150 burgers thanks to
Tim, Kev and Ross. The Feast Day culminated with a
Ceilidh at the Village Hall thanks to the Black Dog
Ceilidh. A big thank you to all who contributed or
volunteered to make the day so special. If you want to
read more take a look at the pictures and article in
Lincsonline” https://www.lincsonline.co.uk/bourne/news/
another-memorable-day-for-village-9425343/
It was a shame that the marquees were interfered with over
the week before the event and afterwards. The volunteers
who had worked hard to prepare for the great event, had
even more work to do to repair the damage caused by
mindless people. If you have evidence of the perpetrators,
then please contact one of your Councillors or the Police
directly.
Lincolnshire Unitary re-organisation – You may be aware
that the Government has a plan to re-organise local
authorities across the UK, into larger Unitary Authorities.
There are many, varied suggestions as to how such future
arrangement may be set up, but none have, as yet, been
decided upon, as existing District & County councils
deliberate the many possible outcomes. Your Parish
Councillors have attended local briefings on this issue, but
as the date for implementation could be as late as 2028,
there is time for more detail to be obtained. Should you
wish to know more about this re-organisation, which will
affect everyone, please contact one of your Councillors,
South Kesteven District Council or Lincolnshire County
Council Leader, Cllr Ashley Baxter or the Chief Executive,
Karen Bradford at hello@greaterlincolnshireforall.org

National Grid – Pylon route – Weston Marsh to East
Leicestershire (WMEL)
National Grid (NG) says that it needs to route power from
the wind farms in the North Sea to supply electricity to the
South East of England and the present system is not
adequate to do this.
NG is proposing to run cables on pylons from the East
(Weston Marsh) to the existing north/south overhead
system in East Leicestershire – designated “WMEL”
There are many proposed routes for this electricity supply
project and presently the favoured route of National Grid is
to the north of Morton, very close to Haconby, and is likely
to be visible from Rippingale. NG states that this route has
the least effect on local woodland and wildlife.

There are alternatives to this route, which may be less cost-
effective, but would potentially have less impact on the

ecology around Rippingale and surrounding villages.
Unfortunately, there are other possible routes that would
be closer to Rippingale.
Please can residents do their own on-line research on
this issue and let your Parish Councillors know your
views. Please note that work is unlikely to start (if NG is
successful in getting permission for this route) until
2030.
There have been on-line webinars to inform residents and
further details can be found at the Library in the Corn
Exchange in Bourne.
The National Grid team can be contacted as follows:-
Weston Marsh to East Leicestershire (WMEL) team – 0800
567 7600
National Grid team - 0800 138 9191
Email: WMEL@nationalgrid.com
Freepost – Freepost WM TO EL
Haconby & Stainfield have set up an action group called
“Haconby and Stainfield Pylon Action Group” or
HASPAG, so that residents can combine their responses to
these proposals.
Please contact your councillors if you feel that we, in
Rippingale, should join with HASPAG to resist this potential
scar on our local environment.
A special, informal meeting can be set up by the Parish
Council if sufficient residents are willing to help in this.
Such a Group would not be managed by the Parish Council
directly so as not to be restrained by the processes it has to
follow, but it would be supported as needed by the Parish
Council in its statutory role.

(continued on back page)

Rippingale.parish.lincolnshire.gov.uk 4
(continued from page 3)
Dovecote Parking – Thank you goes to Mr
Kirk who has agreed to set down what the
residents wish to see regarding additional
parking areas on The Dovecote. RPC will
take the suggestions to SKDC which is
responsible for the area.
Hedges – Please will all residents, who
have hedges, arrange to have them
trimmed alongside public footpaths etc.
Please remember that you will need to
check that your hedge does not house
nesting birds prior to trimming them.
Regrettably, the Parish Council has had to
resort to involving Lincolnshire County
Council to remind residents of their
obligation to trim their hedges, as some of
the villagers appear not to have heeded
our reminder last month.
Additionally, we have contacted SKDC to
remind it of its responsibility for some
hedges in the village, particularly one
along the North side of Station Street to
the East of Pinfold Close.
Youth Engagement Team Initiative
(YETI) – Thanks to Richard Shuttlewood,
who spent most of the day at the FEAST
asking everyone who passed him for ideas
on how to get the young people of our
village involved in providing facilities that
they would use. He had quite a few
suggestions, but the printable ones
included:
• Basket ball net- on our radar but
repeated vandalism means the PC to put
installation on hold
• Trampoline and roundabout in play area
• Zip-line
• Static concrete table tennis table - also
on possibilities for future
• Football goal posts - orders already
placed for installation of new goals
• Shade around the tennis courts
• Repair tennis net - orders placed for
installation of new net and repair of
existing posts
Overall, we had a good response from
younger people and parents. We need
some person/people to come forward to
help us provide more activities in the
village. Please contact a councillor if you
can help