A look back at event in Beer and Branscombe in 2011

JULY

Parishioners will never be caught short again as the Branscombe church finally has a toilet for the first time in its 1,000 year history.

Over the previous 18 months, the Parochial Church Council had been trying to raise the funds for a toilet at the Grade I Listed building, but finally have the cash to get it built.

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A lottery-funded play to educate children about the Jurassic Coast came to Branscombe Village Hall.

Performed by Devon troupe The Common Players, Smuggler’s Gold was described as a piece of ‘environmental theatre’, and was touring East Devon during the summer.

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Pupils from Branscombe Primary School took on a mini-Ten Tors challenge in Exeter to help them learn about the city’s countryside.

Three teams entered the Exe Valley Challenge, organised by the Isca College, which also raised money for charity.

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More than 4,000 people were treated to different displays at Branscombe Air Day and raised around �7,000 for charity.

It featured a fly-by from an RAF Dakota Aircraft, a display by the ‘Breitling Lady Wingwalkers’.

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AUGUST

A search was on to find the recipients of special pewter mugs given to servicemen after World War One from Branscombe.

Alan Rockey, whose grandfather was presented with one such mug, wanted to find out more about the distinctive mugs engraved with ‘Branscombe Contingent’ across them.

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Explorer scouts from Beer used kayaks to help herd up more than 700 swans on a visit to Abbotsbury Swannery.

Members of the Axe Air Explorers, a collective of boys aged 14 to 18, were on site to lend a hand in the bi-annual round up of Mute Swans, with 771 given a health check.

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An archaeological dig unlocked Beer Head’s coastal heritage in a Time Team-style event.

As part of the Festival of British Archaeology, the East Devon AONB explored the high ground at South Down Common.

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Beer was teeming with life, and that’s official.

With the help of an army of volunteers and members of the public, an amazing 177 species were logged at Beer’s ‘Bioblitz’ to discover just how many living things lived in the village and along the coast.

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SEPTEMBER

The Branscombe six-a-side tournament was a great success according to the club chairman despite the Bank Holiday weekend showers.

Branscombe Cricket Club chairman Paul Haines said: “It was not the weather one would have wished for but it was adequate. The pitch and field looked superb, due entirely to the work of the ground staff.”

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A Beer teenager dug up a huge fossil from the Jurassic Coast after he was told it couldn’t be done.

James Rushbrook, 17, set out with a couple of friends on a boat to go for breakfast in Lyme Regis but had to pull in to shore after bad weather and spotted a huge ammonite fossil, which he then spent hours, two boats and a tractor to get back home..

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Beer will be the guinea pig for a new recycling scheme as the district council seeks to expand its waste collection services.

Contractors working for EDDC were to pick up cardboard and plastic food containers for a trial period of 12 weeks in the village.

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A decades-old tradition was being kept alive in Branscombe and raising money for charity as the village’s Apple Pie Day took place.

Almost �200 was raised for Devon Air Ambulance as a result of the occasion.

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OCTOBER

The health of Branscombe Primary School was labelled ‘outstanding’ by the NHS and honoured at a ceremony at county hall.

The award was made under the Healthy Schools Plus programme.

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The Branscombe Project was putting on a season to uncover the secrets of life during World War Two in the village.

The group said it had been crawling round hedges, woods and fields finding out about secret organisations, the RAF base at Weston and the archaeology of war.

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A new name was to be added to the war memorial in Beer, 96 years after the death of the soldier concerned.

The engraving honoured Allan Newton, who was born in Beer in 1891, and was killed on the Western Front in 1915.

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The Beer Fishermen’s Harvest of the Sea service was due to take place at the Congregational Church.

The 60-year-old tradition, where fishing families along the coast from Lyme Regis to Brixham come together, was taken by the fishermen themselves and in aid of maritime charities

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NOVEMBER

Some new Scouts had a spooky investiture ceremony with a difference in Beer by candlelight.

The 1st Beer Scout Group kept up the Hallowe’en fun by accepting five new members into the group with only the light from the newly-carved pumpkins.

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Beer was making use of its old telephone box with a village ‘swap shop’ for residents to exchange unwanted goods.

The parish council had bought the one on Barline from BT and planned to use it to allow residents to swap unwanted seasonal items with others in the community.

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Beer Parish Council said it was disappointed to miss out on an award in the Best Kept Village in Devon competition this year.

Having picked up accolades in the competition before, the village had hoped to be in the awards again but the council said it could still find encouragement in the judges’ comments.

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The first in a new series of talks about Branscombe uncovers secrets about its church and how life was like in the village in medieval times.

John Torrance had dug up documents, dating back as far back as the 14th century.

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DECEMBER

It was all smiles from the Oakdown team after they clocked up another prestigious award.

The Branscombe holiday park picked up the silver prize from the Visit Devon Tourism Awards, beating off more than 300 entrants.

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A group of moustachioed men from Beer helped raise almost �1,000 for charity through the ‘Movember’ campaign.

Martin O’Mahony, headteacher at the village primary school, was spurred on to start raising money by the father of two of his pupils, who had a friend with terminal cancer.

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Police said they were encouraged by low crime levels in Beer and Branscombe, as statistics for the previous month were released.

There were no recorded incidents in Branscombe and only three minor crimes in Beer.

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Beer got into the festive spirit with the big Christmas light switch-on and late-night shopping in the village.

There was a Dickensian feel to the festivities as the theme for the Christmas fair in the Mariners Hall was Victorian, with stallholders dressing up for the occasion.