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, we showed the Black Legend again, at the end of October. 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. Also, Patricia Sears has researched the background to the film and is prepared to give a brief presentation of what really happened . We expect to have a history society meeting soon at which Patricia will give her presentation.

The November POP-IN CAFE

The Pop-In café continues to be well supported not just in terms of numbers attending but also in terms of helpers. Thank you all.

Some of us have got to thinking about what more we could do for our community. We think we would like to offer our services helping family carers to get a short break every so often. We offer to just sit, talk, read, play cards or whatever, with a family member that can’t be left alone and can’t easily get out either. This is just to allow you, the carer, to have a couple of hours to yourself, maybe once a fortnight, so that you can shut your eyes and nap, or go shopping, have a coffee, whatever you need. If you think that would be helpful for you, please email us at parishmatters@inkpenvillage.co.uk. Any introduction would need to be phased in so that you and your family member can get used to the idea. This is purely local.

Remember that there are other local services that are there to help if you need them. Chain a Hungerford based charity that can help you get to your appointments; Doctors, Dentists, Chiropodists, Hospital and more. They won’t rush you and they are used to helping with people with all kinds of difficulty. 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!

Do come and visit us if you can, at the Pop-In café. Help us to make a difference, come for a cuppa, some cake. You’ll find plenty of others to mix with. 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 November dates are the 5th and 19th and December dates are the 3rd and 17th. 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, share experiences and make friends. There’s plenty of car parking space available, and there’s a disabled toilet plus all of the other necessary facilities. This includes ramps to help with wheelchair access. Give us a try.

Some of you might be able to help us too. If you know of someone near to you that might potentially appreciate a bit of company, a friendly chat over a cuppa, then encourage them to visit us at 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.

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

INKPEN AND DISTRICT STARGAZERS

Come what may, we’re continuing 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 November 11th.

If you fancy a look into deep space, then do come and join us. Our Next meeting is on November, 11th, 7:30 at the Inkpen pavilion. From then on, it’s the second Wednesday of each month. Now for the stargazing bit:

The November 2026 night sky over the UK offers exceptionally long, dark autumn nights packed with rare planetary formations. The absolute standout highlight is a dramatic pre-dawn planetary parade alongside two steady meteor showers and a striking autumn supermoon.
The Rare Pre-Dawn Planet Parade From mid-November onwards, looking toward the southeast about 45 to 60 minutes before sunrise rewards you with a spectacular diagonal alignment of planets:
• The Mars-Jupiter Conjunction: The most brilliant sight in this lineup occurs overnight from November 15–16, when bright Jupiter and a distinctly reddish Mars bunch closely together, appearing almost like a double star.
• Mercury & Venus: Lower on the southeastern horizon, bright Venus dominates the early twilight. Near the end of the month (November 20), Mercury reaches its furthest point from the sun, making it uniquely visible to the naked eye just below Venus right before dawn.
• The Evening Options: If you prefer evening stargazing, Saturn is easily visible in the southern sky during the early night hours, and distant Uranus reaches its closest approach to Earth (opposition) on November 25, visible all night through binoculars.
November Meteor Showers
November hosts two notable shooting star displays:
• The Leonids (Peak: Night of November 17–18): Known for being some of the fastest meteors available, they travel at roughly 70 km/s. Under a dark sky away from light pollution, look east after midnight to catch around 10 to 15 meteors per hour.
• The Taurids (Peak: Early-to-Mid November): While a much slower shower (only about 5 meteors per hour), the Taurids are famous for producing remarkably bright, slow-moving fireballs that can outshine the stars.
The Beaver Supermoon
On November 24, the full Moon—traditionally called the Beaver Moon—reaches its peak. Because its orbit brings it exceptionally close to Earth, it will be an official supermoon, making it appear up to 15% brighter and noticeably larger than a standard full moon as it rises in the east at dusk.
Deep Sky Jewels
• The Pleiades (The Seven Sisters): November is widely considered the single best month of the year to view this dazzling open star cluster. Located in the Taurus constellation, it looks like a tiny, sparkling dipper of blue stars easily seen with the naked eye or binoculars.
• The Andromeda Galaxy: Positioned almost directly overhead during the late evening, this is the most distant object you can see with the naked eye (2.5 million light-years away), appearing as a faint, elongated smudge of light in a dark-sky location.

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.