The Bulletin
Get your copy of the latest Bulletin, click here.

Updates from West Berkshire Council
As you will know, the government requires the abolition of district councils and their re-organisation into larger councils. The proposal for West Berkshire Council is laid out here. Also, the new Local Plan Review Adoption Statement is viewable here and the Sustainability Appraisal / Strategic Environmental Assessment relating to the Local Plan is here.

Switching off your Outside Lights
The North Wessex Downs NL ask people to switch off their outside lights when they’re not absolutely necessary. Wildlife groups ask the same. Neighbours living next to someone that keep their outside lights on at night want the lights to go off and the police tactfully suggest that leaving outside lights on simply helps burglars. Switching off your outside lights helps the environment and saves money.

Any suggestions about how to incentivise people to switch off unnecessary outside lights would be gratefully received. Email inkpen-climate@outlook.com.

INKPEN HISTORY SOCIETY


Our dig continues with lots of interesting finds. We’re looking for evidence of buildings associated with Inkpen’s 13th century manor house. Maybe there was a gate house. So far, most of the finds look much more recent but slowly, bit by bit, we’re getting an impression of the people and activities that used the site. We’ll probably give an update on this years dig some time in November. At the same time we’ll present our findings for St. Michael’s church, above and below the floor level.

On a lighter note, plans are afoot to show the Black Legend again. This film was made during 1948 and was first shown in the House of Commons that same year, then shown at Kintbury and in Inkpen.


The version that we have now is probably the most complete having passed from an initial acetate film to video tape, then DVD and now HD. It’s the amalgamation of 4 different original acetate edits of the film.

Patricia Sears has researched the background to the film and will give a brief presentation of what really happened. We’ll also be showing a short film of the 1979 re-erection of the gibbet featuring Simon Bastable amongst other locals.

The Crown and Garter will be hosting the showing of the films.

YOUR POP-IN CAFE

Chain is a Hungerford based charity that can help you get to your appointments; Doctors, Dentists, Chiropodists, Hospital and more. It seems that many in our area still don’t know about Chain, but when they get to hear of it, it becomes very important to them.

There’s another charity just like that. It’s called Hungerford Men’s shed. It’s somewhere women and men can go and do voluntary work, making things, repairing things, painting things. It’s primarily aimed at retired people. If you need a purpose in your retired life, then give this a try.

Hungerford Men’s Shed is our next cafe fund raiser. They’re all set to serve the surrounding community, just like Chain. Go and find out more at https://menssheds.org.uk/

And come visit us, the Pop-In cafe, help us to make a difference, come for a cuppa, some cake. You’ll find plenty of others happy to have a chat. That’s what community is all about, just like during covid when people tried to help one another. We’re at the Inkpen playing field pavilion on the first and third Thursdays of each month and open between 10 and 12:30. The October dates are 1st and 15th and in November we open on the 5th and 19th. Please support us at the Pop-In Café so that we can continue to support you.

The Café is a great place to meet, greet and make friends. There’s plenty of car parking space available, and there’s a disabled toilet and all of the usual facilities.

You can help us too. If you know of someone near to you that might appreciate a bit of company, a friendly chat over a cuppa, then bring them to the Pop-In Café. Apart from the obvious need to choose between tea, coffee, cake etc., there are no demands. We all need to socialise, it’s what humans do.

If you’re a carer or someone being cared for, you are most welcome. Stay as long as you like. We look forward to seeing you.

By the way, the CHAIN office is open Monday Tuesday Thursday and Friday, from 9 to 11am, and office volunteers are there to help you with any bookings or other queries. The phone number is 01488 683727. There’s an answerphone when the office is closed. The Chain drivers will collect you from your home and take you to the appropriate clinic, stay with you and then take you back home afterwards. How brilliant is that!

INKPEN AND DISTRICT STARGAZERS

If you fancy a look into deep space, why don’t you come and join us. Our website is http://stargazers.inkpenvillage.co.uk . Our Next meeting is on October, 14th, 7:30 at the Inkpen pavilion. From then on, it’s the second Wednesday of each month.

Come what may, we’ve continued our sky quality measurement work. The readings we take are fed into an international database which tracks pollution, including light pollution. It is just one way in which our little group can make a real difference, helping with the measurement of, and tracking of, climate change. This autumn/winter, we’ll hopefully be installing a static light quality meter in Inkpen. If you can help with the building of a concrete base, please get in touch.

Perhaps it’s now obvious to everyone that our climate is changing - want to come and help us with our work on climate change? Email us at climate.inkpen@outlook.com or just come along to our next meeting on October 14th.

Now for the stargazing bit:
October 2026 brings rare viewing geometry and dark moonless windows that are perfect for your telescopes, binoculars and even your naked eye. The most outstanding targets to focus your optics on this October include:

Telescope Targets
• Saturn at Opposition (4 October 2026): On this night, Saturn is directly opposite the Sun from Earth, making it the brightest and largest it will appear all year. However, 2026 features a rare orbital quirk: Saturn's rings are tilted nearly edge-on relative to Earth. Through your telescope, instead of wide rings, you will see a fascinating, razor-thin line slicing straight through the planet's disk.
• The Hercules Globular Cluster (M13): High in the western sky after sunset, locate the "Keystone" shape of Hercules. While binoculars reveal a brilliant fuzzy ball, a telescope with decent magnification will allow you to individually resolve thousands of ancient stars swarming around its core.
• The Moon's Golden Handle (21 October 2026): Point your telescope at the waxing gibbous Moon. Sunlight will hit the high peaks of the Montes Jura mountain range while the adjacent basin (Sinus Iridium) is still in shadow, creating a beautiful "Jewelled Handle" effect that seems to float off the dark side of the lunar limb.

Binocular Targets
• The Andromeda Galaxy (M31) & Triangulum Galaxy (M33) Look nearly straight up. Andromeda is so bright from a dark sky site that you can see it with your naked eye, but binoculars reveal its massive, elongated oval dust lane. Once you have found it, sweep slightly lower to look for the Triangulum Galaxy, a face-on spiral that is notoriously difficult to spot in light pollution but frames beautifully in dark-sky binoculars.
• The Pleiades (Seven Sisters - M45): Rising in the east by mid-evening, this star cluster easily overflows a telescope's field of view but is perfection in a pair of binoculars. You will effortlessly jump from seeing 6 naked-eye stars to more than 100 icy-blue, jewel-like stars clustered together.

Deep-Sky Windows & Meteor Showers
• The Draconid Meteor Shower (Peak: 9 October 2026): Unlike most showers, the Draconids are best viewed in the early evening. Even better, the peak coincides perfectly with a New Moon on 10 October. With the Moon completely out of the way, your dark skies will provide the absolute maximum contrast to catch these slow-moving meteors.
• Deep Space Week (4–11 October 2026): Use the moonless period surrounding the New Moon to aim your telescope at faint, deep-sky nebulae, like the Crab Nebula (M1) in Taurus, which are normally washed out by moonlight.

To help you find these objects, would you like to know how to "star-hop" to the Andromeda or Triangulum galaxies using the constellation Cassiopeia? Come and join us, October 14th.

From The Crown & Garter

The Black Legend comes home this Halloween A pop-up cinema night at The Crown & Garter, Inkpen Saturday 31 October, 7.30pm This Halloween, join us for a special screening of a film made right here in our village.

Filmed in Inkpen and neighbouring Combe in 1948, The Black Legend brings the chilling 17th-century tale behind Combe Gibbet to the screen. The directorial debut of Oscar-winning filmmaker John Schlesinger, it features local villagers alongside a young Robert Hardy.

For one night only, we’ll be showing the restored and remastered version, with narration recorded by Hardy himself.

Gather at The Crown & Garter for an atmospheric evening of local cinema, history and dark folklore. There’s something rather special about watching a story unfold in the very place it began.

Spaces are limited. Book your place using the QR code.

All proceeds from ticket sales will be split evenly in support of St Michael’s Church and Inkpen History Society.

Going for a walk
If you want a breath of fresh air and some exercise, check out the Inkpen walks, but keep your distance from others, that's at least 6 feet apart in old money. If you feel that you should wear a face mask when outdoors, then checkout the design given on the News page.

On the news page this month there are a number of updates including from the Inkpen Primary School and pre-school, from the Playing field trust and Village Hall, and there's this months Police Report .

Local Climate Group.
We have a newly formed climate group. The website is http://climate.inkpenvillage.co.uk. If you have a look, you’ll see that we have collected data on moths, trees, bird sightings and beetles, as well as data on the weather. This data enables us to see what changes are taking place locally and the pace of those changes. If you have any data, new or historic, on local climate related events or know of someone with an interest in this, then please get in touch with us. We want to bring all local data together in one place and make sure that it doesn’t get lost. Email us at inkpen-climate@outlook.com.

In the autumn, we’ll hold a meeting so that all of you that are concerned about climate change can meet and help us to get properly organised. Keep an eye on the website. Thank you.

THE NORTH WESSEX DOWNS
To see the latest news and events, click here.  Gill Haggarty, Chair of our Council of Partners, took Ben Prater from BBC Radio Wiltshire on a tour to help raise awareness of the North Wessex Downs National Landscape, and encourage more people to visit. This week features a light hearted introduction to Wilton Windmill with volunteer John Herbert - listen in at around 8.50, or catch previous episodes talking to farmer Josef Bowles near Chiseldon from March 9th at around 8.20.

Over the Christmas break, the Inkpen History Society put together a set of descriptions of the historic environment for each, and hopefully every, parish within the North Wessex Downs National Landscape. These are temporarily held at nwd.inkpenvillage.co.uk. Please have a look and if you find any errors, notify us at climate.inkpenvillage.co.uk. Your help in getting these historic environment descriptions right in every detail, is important and much appreciated.

Work continues to relate each parish to all the others, in terms of terrain and historic highlights etc. so that we can clearly see how the landscape influenced the different historic eras. This work will also be added to this website.

Please give us a hand – Oak Trees in Inkpen
We need your help to measure oak trees. Measuring tree girths helps us to evaluate changes that have taken place in Inkpen and enable future researchers to evaluate the effect of climate change on tree growth and distribution. This is work of real value, be part of it. Go to inkpenhistory.uk to find out more.