Dear All,
Below is some information about our plans for the forthcoming season of Friday evening Open Meetings and details of the Heritage Open Days (HODS) later this month.
However, firstly I want to bring to your attention HDC’s recently issued Market Town Implementation Plans for St Ives, Ramsey and Huntingdon.
The plans are easily found at:
https://www.huntingdonshire.gov.uk/people-communities/market-towns-programme/draft-masterplans/
However, I’m afraid HDC’s chosen or accepted, platform to publish the document has made printing almost essential in order to really understand the proposals. I understand that John Souter of the Town Team has printed out a large copy of the St Ives document. He has put it in the Corn Exchange for anyone to read. I guess it’s for the price of a coffee in the upstairs Cafe. Please do not remove it from the cafe.
The Plan for St Ives, which builds on an earlier report, A Prospectus for Growth:
https://www.huntingdonshire.gov.uk/media/5029/st-ives-a-prospectus-for-growth.pdf
now concentrates on three areas of the town: The Quay, Market Hill, and the Cattle Market and Bus Station. Unfortunately, many of the proposals for an improved ‘Public Realm,’, which I understood to refer to improvements across the town centre, have gone. As it has better East-West connectivity, in some ways not a surprise as the Cam Autonomous Metro is now a distant memory.
So forget improved street lighting in e.g. Station Road, East Street and The Quadrant, ditto improved pavements and drainage. All things that would improve the good feelings people have about the town. Remaining from the Prospectus are the big expenditure items I mentioned above
Above is an illustration of the proposal for pontoons at The Quay, seemingly encouraging swimming in the river, but not worrying about the safety of the pontoons in a flood. There are no visualisations of the ideas for Market Hill but there are for the Cattle Market shown in the artist’s impression below
OPEN MEETING 2022-23
Turning now to our first meeting of the new season: Richard Carter will visit us to tell us about the New Acquisitions at the Norris, this is the talk we had planned for last February before the storm came in and we reluctantly cancelled the meeting. The date is Friday 16th September 2022 at 7.30pm in the Free Church, St Ives.
All open meetings are held in the Free Church, St Ives on Friday evenings at 7.30pm.
Non-members are always welcome a donation of £3 is requested to help cover costs
16th September 2022 Richard Carter – New Acquisitions at the Norris
21st October 2022 Dr Sue Oostuizen – The Emergence of the English
(did the Anglo-Saxons really come?)
Followed by Annual General Meeting
18th November 2022 Liz Davies – A Victorian Family Christmas in Peterborough
20th January 2023 Vic Lovell – Memories of Scotneys
17th February Keith Grimwade – 1,000 years of history; a walk along Thicket Path
Friday 17th March Adrian Moss – Mayflower 400 and Fenstanton
Friday 21st April Speaker and subject to be announced
Friday 19th May Alison Dickens – Finds from beneath the Choir Stalls,
Kings College Chapel
Visit our website https://www.stivescivic.org.uk/index.php/talks for any programme changes
For the second year in a row, we have been lucky with the dates for HODs. Our Committee member Jane Amaral has again volunteered to organise this event and has chosen the 17th September, the 3rd Saturday of the month, so that we benefit from our Farmers’ Market and Old Riverport Jazz & Blues Festival attracting even more people to St Ives.
We have also been lucky with the Town Hall, they are fully supportive and actively involved this year. The Mace-Bearer will be present in full regalia and Mace, the Civic Regalia will be on display, tricorn hat, gloves, jabot and robes and some of the items may be tried on! Definitely a photo op for children (and grandchildren).
We have the bonus of the Bridge Chapel being open, otherwise it is almost the same as last year, Farmers Market from 8am to 2pm, Old Riverport Jazz & Blues starting at 11am and at 3pm in All Saints Parish Church there is Gin ‘n’ Jazz, the music is free but the drinks are not.
Further details and a map showing the location of all the participating venues can be found on the Society’s website by closing this link:
https://www.stivescivic.org.uk/index.php/latest-news/98-news-update-september-2022-hod-special
We are looking forward to seeing you all at our next event
Kind regards
David Stewart
Chair: Civic Society of St Ives