Last month the village Women's Institute planted a selection of bulbs near the telephone box. Keep an eye out for them in spring!
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All the votes are in and have been counted and checked by the adjudicators, the results:

In joint first place were The Mad Hatter and Eeyore the Guard Donkey - both with 10 votes, and in third place was the Nautical Theme with 8 votes.

First prize was £50 and third prize was £25, well done and thank you to everyone who took part, helped out or supported the event.
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... thanks to those wonderful scarecrow makers (28 plus some extras) and all the visitors to the village who made the effort to come along and do the trail.

Ticket sales were brisk, around 260 sold, 140 maps were handed out and there were 70 maps returned after the trail, a fantastic effort, and thanks to the volunteers at the Scarecrow Cafe many of them left full of baked potatoes, quiche, cake and tea.
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We'll announce the winning scarecrow in the newsletter when the votes are all counted up.

There were some lovely comments on various social media sites:

"Great scarecrow hunt in Great Coxwell on Sunday. Thank you to the organisers. My children had a lovely time and spent the majority of the day looking for scarecrows. The jacket potato pit stop was also well received! Thanks!."

"My granddaughter loved it especially the live chickens & donkeys "

"There are some great ones. Some people have really made a good effort"

"All the scarecrows were brilliant! So pleased everyone had such a lovely day"

"Great job Hope it becomes an annual event !!"

Along with the well supported raffle, I think we can say it was a success.

Once again thanks to everyone who helped out or did the trail and to the whole village for hosting the event.

Until next time??

Regards
Great Coxwell WI Scarecrow Team
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This Sunday will see the inaugural Great Coxwell Scarecrow Trail - join the fun.

You can pick up a ticket and a map from Scarecrow HQ which will be set up on the grass in front of Manor Cottage (right next to the Phone Box Library), there's a raffle too so get your raffle tickets at the same time.

Use your map and follow the arrows in the village to find and identify all the scarecrows, then drop your completed map back at Scarecrow HQ Room for a chance to win one of the fantastic prizes listed below.

The Scarecrow Café will running in the Reading Room from 11am to 5pm serving food and drinks, so reward yourself after all your hard work hunting down the scarecrows.

The Great Coxwell Scarecrow Trail is rapidly approaching - put the date in your diary, Sunday October 24th 11am - 5pm and join in to support the event.

Thanks to all our fantastic scarecrow makers so far, you are brilliant - if anyone out there wants to join and make a scarecrow there is still time, email [email protected].

The Scarecrow Café @ the Reading Room will be serving lunches, cakes and teas to eat in or take away from 11 am.

Get your tickets in advance and get a discount by emailing coxwell-crows@outlook,com, or you can buy them on the day.

If you can display a poster to advertise the event you can either download the poster or email [email protected] and pick up a printed one.

Many thanks,
Worzel Coxwell

Save the Day: Sunday, 24th October 2021

Thanks to all those that have let us know they’ll be making scarecrows for the trail, we need some more to make the event worthwhile so if you would like to join in please let me know at [email protected] by 31st August 2021.

If you are not sure what to do or how it works there are some great ideas to be found on Google (https://www.google.com/search?q=scarecrow%20trails) – think about what you might make and where to put your scarecrow.

As this is the first of what we hope will become a regular event, we're suggesting a donation of £5 to cover admin and raise money for the WI.

More information on how to take part will follow soon.

Thanks,
Chief Scarer
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On your strolls around the village over Easter you may have noticed a colourful display of decorated Easter eggs hanging on some branches arranged inside the church porch. These were the entries to the first ever (as far as we know!) Great Coxwell Women's Institute Easter Egg Competition. The winner, chosen after much deliberation by the committee, was Rosie Hawkes with her Easter bunny. Well done Rosie, and thank you to everyone who took part in this ingenious activity which brought us together despite lockdown as well as providing some cheer for villagers and visitors.

Best wishes

Jacqueline

The Women's Institute was first set up in 1915 to give women a voice and be a force for good in the community. Today it remains a good place for women of all generations to share experiences and learn from each other. Our village WI will be celebrating its 75th anniversary next year - so now is a great time to join!

We have risen to the challenge of maintaining momentum during the pandemic, holding a picnic at the barn when it was allowed, and even managing to get together on Zoom to hear speakers, such as a representative from the Medical Detection Dogs charity. Over the next few months we have plans for further outdoor meetings as soon as it is possible - and eventually we hope to get back to our usual venue, the Reading Room, which is currently being repaired and refreshed. We are planning a talk on rewilding and trips to local attractions such as Aston Pottery - not to mention the famous village Christmas Party and many other exciting activities!

The annual membership subscription of £44 is due in April. Of this, £12.10 goes to the National Federation of Women's Institutes, £10.30 goes to the Oxfordshire Federation of WIs, and £21.60 goes to Great Coxwell WI. This money facilitates the wide range of speakers and activities that we include in the programme, as well as subsidising trips and meals out. You can pay in two ways:

• Make a cheque payable to Great Coxwell WI  and drop off to Jo Coleman at Danes House
• Pay online (please use your full name as the reference for the transfer and email [email protected] to let her know you have done the transfer) Account Name  - Great Coxwell WI, Sort Code –  30-93-18, Account Number   - 00077430
  

Contact Secretary Pam Holley on 07779653744 if you would like further information.

The Great Coxwell WI Committee (Pam Smith, Pam Holley, Jo Coleman, Sue Eames, Jenny Tipping, Sally Tipple and Jacqueline Pumphrey)
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