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The

Willow Lane Letter

November 2026 Willow Lane Community Hall, Ashbourne Green Issue 47

Harvest Supper 2026

Our lead story

The Harvest Supper fed 140 neighbours

Two long tables, thirty-two volunteers and one very busy tea urn: our biggest supper since the hall reopened.

On a wet Saturday in October, the doors opened at half past five and the queue already reached the gate. By seven, every chair was taken and Ken was fetching benches from the store.

We served 140 hot suppers, 18 homemade pies and more crumble than anyone could count. Full story, page 3 →

In this issue

1. 2Letter and noticeboard
2. 3Harvest Supper in pictures
3. 4What’s on in November
4. 5Meet Margaret, 82
5. 6Groups and clubs
6. 7Recipe, birthdays, puzzle
7. 8How to get involved

Large-print copies are by the hall door.

From the editor Issue 47 · November 2026

A letter to our members

Dear friends and neighbours,

What a month it has been. On Harvest Supper night I stood at the hatch and looked down those two long tables. I counted grandparents and toddlers, the choir still in their scarves, and three families new to Willow Lane this summer. That is what this hall is for.

Thank you to everyone who cooked, carried, washed up and stacked chairs, and for the flyers, photos and notes you pinned to the board. This issue is made from them.

November is a full month: Remembrance Sunday, the choir’s concert and the Craft Fair. As the evenings draw in, please look out for each other. If someone would enjoy Tuesday lunch but can’t get here, tell me. Our drivers will collect them.

With warm wishes, and see you at the urn,

June Whitaker

Volunteer editor, on behalf of the hall committee

This hall is where the whole lane comes to sit down together.

With thanksTo Hollis & Sons for the loan of the trestle tables, and to Green Street Bakery for 200 bread rolls.

Write to usPut your news in the red box by the kitchen, or email the editor. Copy for December by 20 November.

The noticeboard

pinned by you, this month

The heating is fixed

The new boiler is in and the main hall is warm again.

Lost property

A navy umbrella, glasses in a red case and one child’s welly. Ask in the kitchen.

Need a lift?

Our drivers bring members to lunch and Sunday service. Call Ken: 01632 960 418.

Christmas cards

£3 for ten, on sale after Sunday service. All money goes to the food bank.

Phone or tablet trouble?

Come to the tech help café on 26 November. Priya and Sam will help.

Raffle prizes wanted

For the Craft Fair. Bottles, bakes and gift sets to June by 19 November.

The Willow Lane Letter · November 2026 2

Harvest Supper Saturday 18 October

In pictures

A long table, and room for everyone

At the hatch: Arthur on the stew, Ellie on plates and Josh, 15, with the last tray of rolls from Green Street Bakery.

Pass the bread: Clarence and his grandson Malik, who came for the pie and stayed for the stories.

Second helpings at the far table.

The kitchen team started on Friday: forty kilos of potatoes and two great pots of beef and barley stew, with a vegetable pot too. Saturday brought the pies, the crumbles and a steady stream of helpers.

The children laid the tables with jars of autumn leaves. The choir sang grace in three parts. Not one plate came back with food on it.

“I came to wash up for an hour. I left at eleven with a full heart and very wrinkly hands.”

Ellie Brooks, first-time volunteer

140 suppers served

32 volunteers, aged 11–86

18 pies baked at home

£612 raised for the food bank

The Willow Lane Letter · November 2026 3

What’s on November 2026

Cut out and keep

What’s on in November

All events are at Willow Lane Community Hall unless we say so. Everyone is welcome. The hall has step-free access and a hearing loop.

Sat 8

10:00 – 12:00

Food bank collection and sort

Back room · bring tins, take a cuppa

Sun 9

10:45

Remembrance Sunday: two minutes’ silence

At the war memorial, then tea and soup in the hall

Wed 12

19:00

Hall committee meeting, all welcome

Small room · tea from 18:45

Sat 15

10:30

Under-11s v Hartfield Rovers (home)

Rec ground, Mill Road · come and cheer

Sat 15

19:30

Quiz night, teams of up to six

Main hall · £3 each, bring your own snacks

Thu 20

14:00 – 16:30

Flu jab clinic with Dr Shah’s surgery

Small room · book at the surgery first

Sat 22

10:00 – 13:00

Christmas Craft Fair and raffle

Main hall · stalls, mince pies, Father Christmas at 11

Sun 23

15:00

Choir autumn concert: “Songs from the Shows”

Main hall · free, retiring collection

Wed 26

14:00 – 15:30

Tech help café

Small room · phones, tablets and video calls

Sun 30

16:00

Advent lights on the hall tree

Front garden · carols and hot squash

Every week

Just turn up. No need to book.

Monday 10:00

Knitting circleSmall room

Monday 19:30

Choir rehearsalMain hall

Tuesday 12:30

Seniors’ lunch, £4Main hall · lifts available

Wednesday 10:00

Food bank openBack room · until 12:00

Thursday 10:30

Chair yogaMain hall · £2

Friday 17:30

Youth football trainingRec ground · ages 7 to 11

Sunday 10:30

Sunday service groupMain hall · coffee after

Dates in red

are the big events of the month. Please tell a neighbour, and offer a lift if you can.

The Willow Lane Letter · November 2026 4

Volunteer spotlight Meet the people behind the hall

Margaret Pennington, 82, at her post in the hall kitchen. The cups are laid out by half past nine, every time.

Margaret by numbers

Years at the tea urn 30

Cups poured (her guess) 150,000

Urns worn out 2

Sugars she will remember All

Ten minutes with

Thirty years at the tea urn

Margaret poured her first cup here in 1996. She has not missed a Tuesday lunch since, “apart from the hip”.

How did you start?

My husband Don joined the choir and I came to listen. Somebody handed me a teapot at the interval and nobody ever took it back.

What has changed most in thirty years?

The faces. New families come from all over the world now, and the children teach me words in four languages. The tea is the same.

What is the secret of a good cup for a hundred people?

Warm the pot, never rush the urn, and learn everyone’s name. The name is more important than the tea.

Any advice for new volunteers?

Say yes to the first job you are offered. You will find your own corner soon enough. Mine just happened to have an urn in it.

And when you are not at the hall?

I knit for the hospice, I do the crossword in pen, and I bake. My crumble recipe is on page 7. Don’t tell the WI.

If someone comes in on their own, they don’t leave on their own. That’s the rule of the urn.

The Willow Lane Letter · November 2026 5

Groups and clubs The month in round-up

Willow Voices

Choir · Mondays 19:30

Twenty-four voices strong and rehearsing hard for “Songs from the Shows” on 23 November. Tenors are still wanted. No audition, just a love of singing, and tea at the interval.

Youth football

Under-11s · Fridays 17:30

Willow Lane 3 – 1 Abbotsford Juniors	Won
St Mary’s 2 – 2 Willow Lane	Drew
Willow Lane 1 – 4 Hartfield Rovers	Lost

The knitting circle

Mondays 10:00

Fourteen knitters and one very patient cat-sitter met every Monday this autumn. The blanket squares are now sewn together and on their way to St Clare’s Hospice.

212 squares knitted

9 blankets for St Clare’s

Next: hats and scarves for the food bank. Spare wool is welcome. Leave it in the basket by the door.

Food bank: what we need

Wednesdays 10:00

• Tinned meat and fish
• UHT milk
• Toothpaste and soap
• Tinned fruit and custard
• Rice and pasta sauce
• Tea and coffee
• Long-life juice
• Nappies, size 4 and 5

We have plenty of pasta and beans, thank you! Last month you helped 63 households.

Drop-off: Wednesdays 10:00 to 12:00, or the crate in the porch.

The Willow Lane Letter · November 2026 6

Community kitchen Recipes, birthdays and a puzzle

From Margaret’s kitchen

Margaret’s apple crumble

8serves

20 minprep

40 minbake

For the fruit

• 1 kgBramley apples, chopped
• 50 gsoft brown sugar
• 1 tspground cinnamon
• 1lemon, juice only

For the crumble

• 200 gplain flour
• 125 gcold butter, in cubes
• 100 gdemerara sugar
• 50 gporridge oats

Method

1. Heat the oven to 190°C (170°C fan, gas 5).
2. Mix the apples with the sugar, cinnamon and lemon. Put them in a large baking dish.
3. Rub the butter into the flour until it looks like breadcrumbs. Stir in the sugar and oats.
4. Scatter the crumble over the apples. Do not press it down.
5. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until golden and bubbling at the edges.

Margaret’s tip: a handful of blackberries, and custard. Always custard.

Happy birthday

• 3 NovDoris Kemp, who is 90! Cake at Tuesday lunch.
• 11 NovArthur Bell, our Saturday stew chef
• 19 NovAmara Osei, striker for the under-11s
• 27 NovRev. David Lowe, Sunday service group

A warm welcome to the Novak, Rahman and Hughes families, new on Willow Lane, and to baby Iris Taylor, born 2 October.

Autumn word search

K K N I T T I N G H I P Y L E A V E S F A R A A P P L E N G P R C C R U M B L E R U V H L E Y T S A I R M E O J V C E Y I G S P S I R L F A L H H U K T R A U T U M N B P I S S R K V R H U O P N G H M H G N R P U E L A A I P I G Y U R R L O L

• Harvest
• Supper
• Crumble
• Apple
• Pumpkin
• Autumn
• Leaves
• Choir
• Knitting
• Tea urn
• Neighbour

Words go across or down. Answers next month.

The Willow Lane Letter · November 2026 7

Get involved 8 · The Willow Lane Letter

There is a place for you here

How to get involved

The hall runs on volunteers. An hour a month helps, and you need no experience. This winter we need:

• Volunteer drivers Tuesday lunch and Sunday mornings
  Urgent
• Washing-up team After Tuesday lunch, one hour
  Urgent
• Choir tenors and basses Monday evenings, no audition
  Open
• Food bank sorters Saturday mornings, once a month
  Open

Who to call

Hall bookingsRita Fernandes	01632 960 211
Food bankTom Adeyemi	01632 960 532
ChoirHelen Marsh	01632 960 774
Knitting circleMargaret Pennington	01632 960 309
Youth footballCoach Dev Patel	01632 960 861
This newsletterJune Whitaker	01632 960 150

Hire the hall

£18 /hr Main hall, seats 120

£10 /hr Small room, seats 20

£8 /hr Kitchen, with urn

Charities and community groups pay half price. Parties, wakes, classes and meetings all welcome.

Find us

Willow Lane Community Hall
14 Willow Lane, Ashbourne Green

Step-free entrance, hearing loop and accessible toilet. Bus 22 stops at the door. Email: hello@willowlanehall.org.uk

Finished reading? Pass this copy on

Give it to a neighbour, leave it at the surgery or post it through a friend’s door. Someone on your street might be waiting for an invitation.

This copy is for you

To:Mrs Kemp, no. 22

From:Pat, next door

See you at:Tuesday lunch!

The Willow Lane Letter is written, photographed and delivered by volunteers. Registered charity no. 1100472. Next issue: December 2026