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Newbury Weekly News

Thursday, November 18, 2021

NEWBURY NEWS

Switch on for Christmas Newbury lights up for the festive season with a day of activities for all the family

EVENTS throughout the day will include: n Family Panto Workshop at Newbury Town Hall n Santa’s Grotto at Parkway n Festive papercraft and decopatch drop-in workshops at The Globe’s garden n Family Christmas songs workshop at Hogan Music n Alternative kitch Christmas wreath at The Dolphin pub n Christmas tree decoration workshop at The Ugly Duckling n Christmas cupcake and cookie decorating with Colline’s Kitchen at the Waterside Centre n Christmas bath bomb painting at House of Bubbles, Kennet Shopping n Make your own Christmas cards workshop at The Works, Kennet Shopping n The Great Cider Mull Off with local cider makers at The Catherine Wheel n The Great British Beer Off competition at The Spare Wheel n Jewellery making workshop at Kreationz, Kennet Shopping n Try out high score activity machine in Market Place n Try out fitness classes at bstFitness – free entry all day for gym, sauna and swimming pool n Try out Mario Kart fastest lap competition at CEX, Kennet Shopping n Teddy Bear treasure hunt at Bas 'n’ Books, Kennet Shopping n Christmas colouring competition at Boswell’s, Kennet Shopping n Name the cuddly puppy competition at Hallmark, Kennet Shopping n Meet the Grinch and a Frozen princess at Barry Forkin-Toomers between 3pm and 4.30pm

By SARAH BOSLEY sarah.bosley@newburynews.co.uk @newburytoday

bury’s first Victorian Christmas Fayre will come to town. The fair will include a wide range of market stalls with trad- ers dressed head-to-toe in typical Victorian attire, alongside Victo- rian-themed roving performers, a Victorian carousel, live music and entertainment and, of course, Fa- ther Christmas. The event will take place be- tween 10am and 8pm on Friday and Saturday, December 3 and 4, with an earlier finish time of 5pm on the final day of the Victorian-themed fair on the Sunday. n Other towns in West Berkshire will also be turning on their lights in the coming weeks. Hungerford’s lights will be switched on from 3pm on Sunday, November 28 – at the Town Hall – with the annual Victorian Extrav- aganza and fireworks returning on Friday, December 10. For more details see page 30. The following weekend That- cham will be illuminated from 5pm on Friday, December 3, in the Broadway. Hundreds of Santas will then be dashing around the town in the Thatcham Rotary Great Santa Fun Run on Sunday, December 5, with a Christmas market at the Thatcham Memorial Hall on the same day. For more details see page 32.

NEWBURY will be lighting up for the start of the Christmas festivities this weekend. The annual Christmas Lights Switch-On is being extended into a day-long festival on Saturday, including more than 20 free work- shops and extra entertainment for the first time this year. Between 10am and 5pm, visitors can enjoy a full programme of free festive activities at select venues across the town centre. And then from 5pm, live enter- tainment and performances will occupy a screened stage in Market Place in the lead-up to the high- ly anticipated Christmas Lights Switch-On. Frozen ice-queen sisters will be on stage to ‘let it go’ post switch-on and the live music and performanc- es will continue until 9pm. Newbury BID, the not-for-prof- it organisation behind the Visit Newbury brand, is confident that the day’s programme of free family activities, including cookie deco- rating, Christmas wreath-making, character meet and greets, and pop- up choirs, will help enhance New- bury’s festive offering more than ever before. Newbury Town Council will be also be offering tours of the town IF you thought you caught a glimpse of George, Zippy and Bungle racing around Newbury recently, you wer- en’t mistaken. Three fundraisers donned costumes of the colourful characters – from 1970s chil- dren’s TV show Rainbow – at the weekend in a bid to raise cash of a defibrillator. Donna Parkin, 47, from Thatcham, came up with the idea to boost the fundraising efforts of the Old London Ap- prentice pub. The pub is raising money to buy a defibrillator after land- lady Caroline Amor rushed to the aid of a customer who had collapsed, giving him CPR be- fore paramedics arrived. Luckily, the man was OK, but it kickstarted the fund- raising effort to purchase the lifesaving piece of kit. “I have run marathons be- fore that were easier than that,” Miss Parkin said after- wards. “It was so hot. “I had bought the costume for a fancy dress competition and so I said I would do a 10km run in it. Someone said we should get George and Bungle to do it too; so we did. “I thought we had to do something difficult. It had to be worth sponsoring. Every- one runs, but it’s not often you see George, Zippy and Bungle running a 10k.” She said the trio – which also included Newbury men George Brooksmith as George and Danny Stevens as Bungle – devised their own route for the event, starting and ending at the pub to much cheering

Newbury gets set for Christmas

council building throughout the day. Newbury BID operations man- ager Alison Drummond said: “Our Christmas Lights Switch-On Fes- tival is set to be the best Newbury has ever had and is yet another event we are delivering as part of a heightened festive offering for Newbury this year. “We are so excited to deliver this day-long event for local residents to enjoy and we encourage everyone to take full advantage of the shops

and eateries across town that will be open for business ready for you to continue the festive fun in-store on the day. “We are so thankful to all of the organisations providing their ser- vices to help create a truly special and jam-packed day in Newbury and would like to give a heartfelt shout-out to the businesses which are offering their venue on the day.” The festive merriment will con- tinue next month too, when New-

Rainbow fundraising trio run to help raise cash to buy defribillator for pub

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George Brooksmith (George), Danny Stevens (Bungle) and Donna Parkin (Bungle)

and applause. “We were very grateful to the people that stopped us to make donations and the people in the cars that also stopped to give us money,” Miss Parkin said. “People kept talking to us as we went and were donating money.” So far the run has raised £600, with more than £1,195 raised in total for the defibril-

lator. Miss Parkin, whose next event is the London Land- marks Half Marathon, said she was keen to do something to help buy something so im- portant. “None of us ever knowwhen we might need one,” she said. You can help support the fundraiser at www.justgiv- i ng . c om/ c r owd f und i ng / george-brooksmith-1

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