A long standing plan to remove some of the silt from the Brook is about to go ahead. The last time this was done was in 2011. This will also provide an opportunity to develop some more bankside vegetation on the north side of The Brook, similar to the beds that were introduced on the south side in 2004. These three new beds will take the silt that will be dredged out, so it won’t have to be taken away and disposed of. They will also provide a more natural edge to The Brook and help to absorb water at times of high rain fall.

As the depth of The Brook will be increased the total volume of water it holds will be unchanged.

The work is currently scheduled to start on Monday 8^th March by South Cambs DC’s Drainage Team using materials funded by the Parish Council. It’s hoped that the work will be completed within that week, weather permitting.

After many weeks of planning, five of Tony Hillier’s statues have joined Truffle the pig in finding new homes around the villages.

As many of you will know, Truffle moved to his new location at the Community Orchard in Manor Field last weekend, and over the past two days the Camel, Andy Cap, Grandfather and Grandson, Man and Dog and the Spider have also been on their travels and arrived at their new locations.

Their new locations are as follows:

Camel – at the entrance to the village, next to the B1049 and the Coppice

Andy Cap – Clay Close Lane Pocket Park

Grandfather and Grandson – Cottenham Road and the B1049 junction

Man and Dog – Homefield Park

Spider – in a tree on the Village Green (see if you can find him!)

Some of the statues have temporary fencing around them while they settle in, and on the signs on each one you will find some links using the app What3Words to the next two nearest statues. This is a free app to download and maps the whole world into three metre squares using three random words – it is a very exact location tool, and currently being recommended by the emergency services.

Later in the year we are hoping to link these and other art installations together into an art trail, so you can wander round the villages finding the sites.

The Parish Council is pleased to remind everyone that we will once again be offering a Christmas Tree Chipping Service, kindly provided by Brookfield Groundcare, on Saturday 9^th January 2021 between 9 and 11 am. Trees can be left at the Village Green next to the pump, as tidily as possible, from January 6th onwards, or at the Villa Road/Crescent triangle from the same date. Please note the last call will be at 11 am on the Sarturday, please do not leave trees after this time.

In a lovely circular fashion, the chippings from the Christmas trees will be given to the HI Trees project, for mulching around the planted trees later in the New Year.

In 2018, our village Tree Warden, Pene Nudds, was inspired by the efforts of the Village Society in creating the poppies for the anniversary of World War One, alongside the commemorative flags that were produced by Impington Village College. As someone who is passionate about trees, she thought it would be appropriate to acknowledge the soldiers who had paid the ultimate price in the war with a more lasting tribute in the form of long living English Oak (Quercus robur) trees.

Her idea was presented to the Environment Committee at the Parish Council, who approved the project, and it was decided to locate the trees at The Copse on New Road, Impington. The trees were duly ordered and Acacia Tree Surgery chosen as the contractor to undertake the clearance work and planting of the trees.  Acacia were so keen to help with the commemorative project that they generously provided free of charge the stakes needed for the trees and suitable biodegradable fabric ties. A date was booked for the work to happen in March…..

And then the pandemic hit; the contractors all stopped work and we placed a hold on the delivery of the trees. As things started to return to normal, we replanned everything and settled for a delivery date of October 16^th with the preparation work taking place in the preceding days. The trees duly arrived, as show in this picture, and were unloaded, creating a temporary forest!

The trees themselves are quite large, so the planting has happened over several days. They are now all in place, awaiting their chipping dressing to keep the area weed and ivy free in the short term.  Now that they are in place, we intend to install markers for the trees using IVC’s flag design (with permission) and a number to identify each one.  We also intend to commission an information board to explain the story and show the spiral trail of these special trees. We hope this will prove to be not only a reminder of historic event, but will also become a much loved and respected trail. In this COVID-19 year Histon & Impington Parish Council are pleased that the WW1 Oaks are in place ahead of 2020 Remembrance Day.

We are pleased to let you know that the Parish Council have agreed to the adoption of five of the remaining Tony Hillier sculptures,  and we are in the process of arranging to install them around the villages. This will allow us to retain these much loved sculptures in Histon and Impington, with access for everyone to continue to experience and enjoy them.

Joan Hillier decided some time ago to find homes for these sculptures, and so some of the sculptures have already gone to schools and charitable organisations in Cambridgeshire. The Parish Council recognised the affection of the community for these art works and the desire to retain some of the pieces in the villages where they were made, and so we can now confirm that the Parish Council have agreed, with support from Joan, a plan to install the following pieces around the villages:

Camel (Dromedary)

• Verge of the B1049 and Cambridge Road, Impington
• https://what3words.com/best.switch.warm

Man and Dog:

• Homefield Park
• https://w3w.co/unique.raft.donor

Grandfather, Grandson and Dog:

• Clay Close Lane, Pocket Park
• https://w3w.co/events.kicks.tulip

Spider:

• The Green, in one of the trees
• https://w3w.co/handicaps.firmer.grub

Sewing (Andy Cap):

• https://what3words.com/helpless.awakes.stated
• We have an offer from Highways to locate this at the Junction of Parlour Close and Cottenham Road. However, we are open to suggestions of other locations? Any location must be accessible to the public. If you have a suggestion please contact us at: committee.clerk@hisimp.net

We hope everyone will enjoy seeing the pieces in their various new locations, and we look forward to your suggestions for the final location of the “Sewing” piece.

The red phone box on Milton Road, Impington, was purchased by the Parish Council in 2015, and is intended to be used to display some art screens that will be commissioned in the near future.

The box itself is what is known as a K6 type (kiosk number six), and these were first produced in 1936, designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott to commemorate the silver jubilee of King George V. It was consequently sometimes known as the “Jubilee” kiosk. The crown on the box is known as a Tudor Crown, and we know that these were replaced with a St Edwards’s Crown from 1955 onwards, which means that our box must date before then.

Getting hold of the correct paint and parts for the renovation of the box has been relatively simple, as there is a company who specialise in supplying everything, and who are recommended by BT – we found this out after talking to Girton Parish Council, who have three boxes that they have, or are going to, renovate. The box had previously been a combination of glass and plastic windows, so it is now all plastic to make it longer lasting and safer.

The following pictures show some of the stages of the renovation. This is the box before work started, looking quite sad for itself. It had been stripped ready for painting, and some parts had been welded, but it now needed a little TLC.

This is the box in its” pink phase”; it took the painters a whole day to prepare the surfaces, and this is the undercoat being applied. Again, it was the official primer that was being used.

Now the box is getting its top coat – this is officially “Currant Red” . It is already starting to look so much better, and they have dug out around the base of the box which was hidden by soil, so that you can see the box in its full glory.

And then this is the finished article! The crown has been picked out in gold, which became a tradition when people wanted to emphasise the historic nature of the boxes. And you can see the newly painted black base which has been uncovered from the soil. Our thanks to Pro-Serv for the work they did to renovate the box. Watch this space for more details about the art work to come!