Dear Reader

With this issue, Village Connect will be celebrating fifteen years of bringing local business to local villages.  The inaugural 36-pager was first distributed to 2,000 households in 16 villages in April 2005.  Circulation currently stands at 22,250 homes and businesses in 73 villages and growing, and I would like to thank you all for your continued loyalty over the years.

Village Connect is not the only company with special anniversaries this spring.  Pytchley Golf Lodge celebrates 25 years in business, see pages 10-11, and Funky Lil’ Feet has been providing children with fitted footwear for fifteen years in Thrapston, see page 22.  A rather bigger anniversary is being commemorated by Daventry Museum: 375 years since the Battle of Naseby, see pages 80-81.

The main purpose of Village Connect was and remains to encourage the support of local businesses, events and charities, many of whom have limited budgets and benefit from the free exposure.  It is a pleasure to be able to promote festivals such as Oundle International Festival, see page 16; Oundle Festival of Literature, see pages 68-69; and Raunds Music Festival, see pages 72-73.  There is also a ticket competition on page 14 for the Rock for Heroes event, great music raising funds for Help for Heroes.

In addition to the printed version, an online version of Village Connect is also available, complete with a full listing of advertisers and an archive of previous issues and articles.  The Facebook page is kept up to date with news and special offers in our community, so please ask your friends and followers to like the Village Connect page so they too can be kept in the know.

After stormy and dark times, spring is now well underway.  The days are getting longer and the birds are busy nesting while joyful reminders of new life pierce through the ground.  March will see the celebration of Mothering Sunday, and you can treat yours at Bosworth Garden Centre, see pages 52-53, or at Rockingham Castle with a gift experience, see page 42.  Easter openings will take place at Boughton House, see page 26; Delapré Abbey, see page 30; Deene Park, see page 38; and Rockingham Castle, see page 42.  Kelmarsh Hall will host an artisan fair and spring walk, see page 32, and like other local gardens hold an NGS open day, so get outside this springtime and enjoy some of the wonderful scenery we have right on our doorstep.

 

Vivi Sant Cole

Village Connect

Hillcrest House

Church Hill

Geddington

Northants

NN14 1AH

Tel: 01536 744700