Your Langford Village Community Association is now joined with the Cherwell Lottery. The top prize is £25,000 and for every £1 ticket purchased we get 50p of that £1. It’s an easy and cheap way for residents to support Langford Village Hall and help us continue with the improvements. Please do click here to learn more and sign up online now.
Best wishes and Good Luck!
Carole, LVCA Chairman
We promised to publish a list of winning tickets from our raffle that was held at the special celebration event held at the Langford Village Community Centre on Sunday 5 May 2019.
Thanks to everyone who came along to support the event and to make it a great day!
To see the results please now click here.
We’re delighted, and might even say ‘floored’, that funds needed for major improvement work at Langford Village Community Hall have been secured more quickly than we’d dared hope. Thanks to some fantastic support a brand new Karndean surface has now been laid, replacing the twenty-five-year-old original flooring that had served us well since the Hall first opened in early 1994.
The Langford Village Community Association (LVCA) had appealed to supporters at the beginning of 2018 knowing that it would take a major effort to raise the large amount that was needed. Excitingly, and in just over six months, a total of £12,000 was made ready to ensure the work could go ahead and the new floor was installed in September.
Now the many local groups and organisations that use Langford Village Community Hall are reporting how much they’re enjoying using the improved facility and passing on their thanks that the improvement has been made possible.The funds needed were raised in a number of ways. For example, the support of local residents who put tokens in the Tesco ‘Bags of Help’ boxes helped secure a £2,000 donation from the supermarket. Donations were also made by the Doris Field Trust, Bicester Parkrun and via the Nightingale pub, which backed a special quiz night to help.
Both Cherwell District Council and Bicester Town Council gave financial grants and the LVCA used some of the funds it had built up through hiring out the hall.
Carole Hetherington, the chair of the LVCA, says, “It was really terrific to see our appeal getting such a fast and positive response and we’d like to give a big thanks to all who’ve supported us. We’re very proud of the new floor and will be taking great care to ensure this one also serves local residents for a good quarter of a century”.
The LVCA also wishes to thank Manor Flooring for their help and professionalism in laying the floor and for giving a discount, which also helped ensure the work could go ahead swiftly.
Earlier this year, Bicester Round Table received a request from 1st Langford Village Scout Group to help support them in raising funds to replace their old tents. We put it to the vote of our members, and our Community Services Officer, Dan Cooper, was pleased to offer the scouts our full support. Dan said, “It was fantastic to be able to support the scout group who do so much great work with young people.” Members of the Round Table met with the cubs to hand over six tents and, of course, have our photograph taken.
Scout Leader Simon Thompson said, “Our existing tents are nearing the end of their natural lives, and these six new tents, generously donated by Bicester Round Table, will allow us to continue offering our Beavers, Cubs and Scouts the opportunity to enjoy the outdoors. Camping teaches our youngsters independence, self-reliance and skills they never knew they had – skills they can utilise well into their adult life and within the wider community.”
Bicester Round Table is a voluntary organisation for men aged 18–45 who get involved in community support and charity work, and we always welcome new members. The organisation was set up in Bicester in 1959 and is still going strong, with 14 members from a variety of backgrounds, all of whom live in Bicester – though we currently only have three members from Langford Village itself. We meet on Monday evenings, twice a month for social meetings which include a variety of activities, from brewery tours to riot training with Northants Police!
We have raised money this year by running the Party in the Park, and are now looking forward to our bonfire and fireworks night on Saturday 4th November. We also take Santa around the streets of Bicester every Christmas (although it’s actually Bicester Lions who help Santa when he visits Langford Village, rather than us). Proceeds from all donations to Bicester Round Table are used to support local people. None of the work we do would be possible without the generosity of the local community.
If you are interested in becoming a member of Bicester Round Table or simply want to know more, please look for us on Facebook, visit bicester.roundtable.co.uk or contact us direct by email on bicester@roundtable.org.uk.
Steve Johns
Bicester Round Table
Over the last century 97% of lowland wildflower meadows, similar to Meadow Farm, have disappeared from the English countryside. They’ve been lost under the concrete and tarmac of houses and roads, or drained and ploughed for intensive farming.
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