St Margaret South Elmham Annual Village Barbecue

Councillor David Ritchie was invited to the 2018 St Margaret South Elmham Annual Village Barbecue held on Saturday 21st July to say a few words about the village hall committee raising sufficient funds to purchase a community defibrillator. He said that he was only too happy to help start the fund raising, putting up 50% of the cost with a grant from the locality budget.

He mentioned that the Village Hall committee was organising First Aid training in the autumn and those taking up the twelve available places would, on completion of the course, become qualified first aiders.

The photograph shows Councillor Ritchie standing next to local residents Bernard Duffield and Brenda Hadingham, both of whom made personal donations towards the fund raising. Mr Duffield is also a member of the village hall committee. Councillor Ritchie applauded the work of village hall committees in the villages in the area he represents as a councillor and mentioned the fact that St Margaret South Elmham only had 39 houses, yet like so many other villages in his area they ‘punched far above their weight’ when it came to organising great social events. He remarked on the fact that St Margaret South Elmham raised funds to ensure they kept the hire charges as low as possible, and so only charged £5 an hour for the use of their hall.

He had cycled to the village from the nearby village Ilketshall St Margaret where he had attended their annual produce show earlier in the afternoon.

He also made a presentation to Jan McCarthy who had volunteered for several years as Secretary to the village hall committee but had recently moved home to Northumbria

The annual barbecue was very well attended. As well as the barbecue itself, there was a licensed bar and several competitions. Daniel Page won the highest number of marbles in an upturned flower pot competition and was awarded a ladies pink gym towel, selected by the organisers in the dying minutes of the competition who were under the impression that his sister Claire (who had been in the lead), was going to be the winner. Their father David won the ‘Bowl for a Pig’ competition but rather than winning a pig, was satisfied with his prize of a selection box of beer from a well known local brewery. Similarly satisfied with his prize of a bottle of wine was Ian Wood who won the ‘Shove 2p’ competition.

The 2019 Barbecue will be held on St Margarets Village Green on Saturday 20th July - starting 6pm