News

Mini Games 23 July

On Friday 23rd July almost 100 youngsters gathered at Great Waltham Recreation Ground for a day of fun, games and sporting activities organised as part of the Open Weekend to coincide with the opening of the Olympic Games in London in 2012. The event was organised by Great Waltham Parish Council following an award of a grant of £500 from the Essex Legacy Fund. It was an opportunity for parents and youngsters to get outdoors and enjoy the first day of the holidays. The day started with training, fun and games supervised by play leaders.
This was followed by a welcome break with parents joining their families for a picnic lunch on the field with refreshments provided by Molly Steel who was raising funds for her World Challenge.

Sports resumed at 2pm with competitions and races. At the end of the day each youngster attending left the event with a medal to commemorate their attendance at the Great Waltham Mini Olympics 2010.

Cycling day 24 July

On 24 July Great Waltham Parish Council hosted a Cycling Day to promote cycling in the Parish and to get bikes checked ready for the summer

Great Waltham's Parish Council and Community Network want to promote cycling because it is healthy and good for the environment. As part of this the Parish Council has been working with Essex County Council to get a safe cycling route between Great Waltham and Broomfield Hospital via Broads Green, that in particular will enable children to cycle to Chelmer Valley High School by avoiding the busy Broomfield Road.

To promote this and to celebrate it being only two years to the opening of the London 201 Games that has the mountain bike events taking place in Hadleigh, Essex, it seemed like a good idea to hold a cycling day to encourage new children and adults to start cycling and to get lapsed ones back on to their bikes.

So on a sunny Saturday in July a cycling day was held that started at Great Waltham School. Chelmsford Borough Council sent along one of its Bike Doctors, local bike repair company Spokes, that provided a fantastic service repairing a large number of bikes and getting them back into action ready for the summer holidays. Radical Bikes from Highwood gave BMX displays showing what could be done on a bike, including a bike high jump competition! The police gave advise on security, there was a chance to practise cycling skills and there was information available on local cycling.

To get old bikes reused rather than leaving them to rust in garages or taken for metal recycling, there was a jumble sale of bikes and bits collected from people in the preceding weeks and donated on the day. At the end of the morning 57 adult and children's bikes had been collected and £310 taken from sales. The money and bikes were given to Re~Cycle that is a charity in Colchester that collects bikes and bits and sends them in containers to Africa. It takes all sorts of bikes including children's ones that are particularly good because they enable children to cycle to school and get an education that they wouldn't other wise get if their school is too far to walk to. The money helps with transportation costs. Thanks go to Chatham Hall Estates and BSW Marquees for help in collecting and transporting the bikes.

To remind people that cycling isn't new there was a penny farthing and Great Waltham long term resident Rosemary Pitts lent us her bike that she bought in 1948 for £21 from the cycling shop that used to be in Little Waltham.

In the afternoon there was a very enjoyable led ride to The Compasses at Littley Green, that was so successful that similar rides are going to be organised.