CONTENTS THIS ISSUE
· THE LATE FRED P STORRIE
· HOWWOOD VILLAGE NEEDS YOUR SUPPORT
· HOWWOOD COMMUNITY COUNCIL GRANTS
· BROADBAND – BETTER BROADBAND FOR HOWWOOD CAMPAIGN – UPDATE
· HOWWOOD WAR MEMORIAL
· HOWWOOD COMMUNITY RESILIENCE PLAN
· SENIOR CITIZENS SCOTTISH NIGHT SATURDAY 8 MARCH 2014
· VILLAGE SPRING CLEAN SATURDAY & SUNDAY 5 & 6 APRIL 2014
· HEALTH ADVICE PROVIDED BY REACH PHARMACY
· RHOMBUS GARDEN REFURBISHMENT
· HOWWOOD WILDLIFE & WOODLANDS WALKS 2014/15
· WILD BIRD FEEDING
· YOUR DOG AND THE LAW
· SAFE ROUTES TO SCHOOL
· HOWWOOD BEAVERS AND CUBS
· LOCAL AMENITY – CLOTHES BIN
· DAY EXCURSION FROM HOWWOOD
· USEFUL INFORMATION INCLUSIONS AND CHANGES
· USEFUL INFORMATION
THE LATE FRED P STORRIE
LAURA STORRIE AND THE STORRIE FAMILY WOULD LIKE TO GIVE AN UPDATE ON THE COLLECTION TAKEN AT THE FUNERAL.
“The collection taken at the funeral of the late Mr. Fred Storrie in August 2013 was taken on behalf of RNLI Scotland. The family requested that the money went to support an offshore lifeboat off the west of Scotland and the lifeboat stationed at Oban was chosen as it has an honourable history of spectacular service.
The family wishes to thank everyone who contributed.”
HOWWOOD VILLAGE NEEDS YOUR SUPPORT
FURTHER EROSION OF HOWWOOD INFRASTRUCTURE
Many of you may not be aware of the cancellation and withdrawal of the 317 Bus Service that operated between Johnstone, Howwood and Lochwinnoch. This is the second bus service we have lost in a period of less than a year, and if we consider the number of servicesthat Howwood has lost in the last two years it makes for extremely sad reading,
These services being the following:-
1) The X 36 Bus Service from 1 per hour to 1 per day in each direction
2) The X34, Peak Time Service to and from Glasgow now gone completely
3) The Johnstone to Howwood service that ended approx 10 months ago and serviced the
Carsewood area of Howwood.
4) The failure by BT to provide even a basic Broadband Service to Howwood Residents,
while Johnstone will be upgraded to speeds 3 X greater than National Average
5) The loss of Post Office facilities.
HOWWOOD VILLAGE NEEDS YOUR SUPPORT CONT.
The withdrawal of this Bus Service will create additional hardship for many senior citizens who, on closure of the Post Office, had to make arrangements with regard to pension and bill paying in Johnstone. That arrangement will now become more difficult to operate due to the greatly reduced transport opportunities to access Johnstone!!!
We, in Howwood Community Council, are working to improve and promote a Community Identity within the Village and this is becoming more and more difficult as these Services are lost to the Village.
We cannot stand by and accept the situation where services, key to the survival of a rural community are either eroded or blatantly neglected in comparison to services provided for urban communities!.
We need to take action now as this is a very important year for Scotland and the Scottish People.
ACT NOW. Fill in the slip below and either email to me at:- : or put it through my letterbox {Ivy Cottage, Main Street Howwood PA9 1BQ }
With Village support, the Community Council will immediately call a Public Meeting to which it will invite MP, MSP, Elected Councillors, SPT Etc
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HOWWOOD COMMUNITY COUNCIL GRANTS
ANY LOCAL GROUP MAY ASK HOWWOOD COMMUNITY COUNCIL FOR ASSISTANCE WITH FUNDING FOR EQUIPMENT OR ACTIVITIES.
Many local groups have benefited from funding provided by the Community Council. The main source of fund raising by the Community Council to support this was the annual Fete however there has been no Fete since 2011 and there are no plans for a Fete in 2014. This being the case the Community Council wish to advise that future funding requests will be met if possible but that available funding is now very limited.
Contact Bill David 01505 703500 – or any Community Councilor.
BROADBAND – BETTER BROADBAND FOR HOWWOOD CAMPAIGN – UPDATE
In November 2013 many of you will have received an update on the campaign from Douglas Alexander MP. For those who did not the latest information is that Douglas Alexander is continuing to campaign on our behalf and has been in touch with both BT’s Chief Executive and the Scottish Government. Following this meeting a BT specialist was sent out to look at the network in the local area to see what could be done in the short term. Mr Alexander is urging BT to deliver on this commitment.
Following on from the November update Mr Alexander wanted to let the village know that the awaited news for the Superfast Fibre Broadband project should be available in the next week or so.
You may recall at the September public meeting, BT & the Scottish Government representative presented this public/private partnership project as the only real solution to finally give Howwood the first class internet access they deserve. The Highlands and Islands project (2014-2016) had already been announced in early 2013, and the 2nd part of the project would be the Rest Of Scotland (ROS).
The ROS project will have 15 phases going through from early 2015 to 2017. This campaigning has been aimed at Howwood being firmly at the top of the list to win the first available installation phase. There has been success in highlighting Howwood as a priority contender.
You may wish to view the superfast broadband website which explains details of the project currently. It is to be updated regularly in the coming weeks to include all exchange announcements, and a postcode search facility to provide the most up to date information on any particular area is planned. For the moment you can view the overview when and where page, and you may wish to sign up for more information via the Keep me in the Loop page.
Contact Bill David 01505 703500 – or any Community Councilor.
HOWWOOD WAR MEMORIAL
2014 IS THE REMEMBRANCE OF THE CENTENARY OF THE OUTBREAK OF THE FIRST WORD WAR – THE GREAT WAR. ACROSS THE COMMONWEALTH MANY YOUNG MEN ANSWERED THE CALL TO ARMS AND WENT TO FIGHT A WAR THAT THE WORLD WAS UNPREPARED FOR.
From Peer to miner, from Soldier to recruit, from places of work to football teams and from city to small village they came. Howwood was one such village.
In the aftermath of grief and shock of the numbers of wounded and dead from battles such as, the Somme, Ypres, Passchendale, Jutland and Gallipoli there became a need for communities to remember the fallen. Memorials began to appear across the landscape, in village greens, churches, places of work and city squares, no matter the shape, size or design they had one thing in common, the names of the fallen.
Howwood Memorial was an unusual Memorial as it was decided to build a cottage, for the use of the district nurse. Later it was demolished and a small cairn was built on the spot of the cottage on the Bowfield Rd, Howwood.
Locals Gayle Pollock and Alexis Urie have begun researching the men named on the Memorial and are asking members of the community for help. If anyone is either related to or has information about the men, their families or about the memorial itself please contact Gayle or Alexis
There are some names yet to be traced. There is also some confusion as there are some names on the church memorial but not on the Village Memorial and in addition it is known that many men who worked in the bleach works also perished. Gayle & Alexis are also interested in the fallen from WWIl.
HOWWOOD WAR MEMORIAL CONT.
If you know of any names missing from the memorial from either World Wars or from subsequent conflicts please contact Gayle or Alexis with the details. Here are the names of the fallen collated to date:
WWI
Pte. John Allen 2nd Kings Own Scottish Borderers (KOSB) 11-6-17
2nd. Lt. John Allison 14th Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders (A&SH) 21-3-18
L/Cpl. John Armstrong 7th Seaforth Highlanders (SH) 21-9-17
Pte. Hugh Campbell 8th SH 15-10-17
L/Cpl. Andrew Carnduff 9th Highland Light Infantry(HLI) 27-9-17
Pte. Philip Clark 7th Royal Scottish Fusiliers (RSF) 26-9-25
Pte. James Clews 1st Gordon Highlanders (GH) 30-4-18
Pte John Edgar MM 15th HLI 29-8-18
Pte Matthew Findlay 7th SH 19-9-15
Gnr. William Findlay Royal Field Artillery (RFA) 15-10-18
Pte. James Gilhooley 10th A&SH ????
PO John J. Gilhooley Royal Navy (RN) HMS Cassandra 5-12-18
Pte. John Graham 1st/7th GH 20-11-17
Cdt. Gilbert Guthrie Royal Naval Reserve (RNR) HMS Ramsey 8-8-15
Pte. Robert HB Guthrie 9th Scottish Rifles (SR) 12-1-17
Pte. James Haughy 7th SH 6-6-18
Coy. Sjt. Maj. John Hunter 1st SR ????
Sjt. David Irwin 0th Royal Irish Rifles (RIR) 7-6-17
Sjt. James Irwin 14th RIR ????
Pte Angus Kerr 11th RSF 21-4-20
Arthur Logan
Pte. David Logan 155sqd. RAF 8-8-18
Bombd. James Moore 251Bde.RFA 27-9-18
Pte. William Murphy 10th RSF 14-2-17
Pte. William H. McCabe 1st Border Regt. 29-6-15
Pte. John McIlroy 6th RSF 29-9-15
Pte. William McLure 7th Black Watch (Scottish Highlanders) 15-4-18
Cpl. Robert Neillands Imperial Camel Corps 8-8-18
Sig. William Barr Nelson 2nd RF (London Regt) 11-4-18
Pte. William Niven 12th Royal Scots (RS) 16-7-16
Cpl. G.Bert O'Bryen East African Transport Corps 1-12-18
John McR. Simpson ??
Pte. John Stevenson Royal Army Service Corps (RASC) 3-6-19
Robert Smith ??
AB. John Trainor RN HMS Fauvette 9-3-16
Pte. Arthur Wardlaw Lovat Scouts 14-10-15
Tpr. Robert R. Weir Canadian Light Horse (CLH) 29-9-18
Pte. David Wilson 1st/4th RSF 13-8-15 *
WWII
3rd.Eng.Off. Robert Andrew Merchant Navy (MN) MV Empire Spring 15-2-42
Gnr. R. Bruce 57th Searchlight Regt. RA 5-1-41
Flt.Sgt. OS Harvey 51sqd. Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve 23-4-44
Cpl. H. Nicol 6th SH 19-1-44
Rfl. T.Smith 2nd Cameronians 23-12-43
If you have any information or are willing to share copies or scans of papers & photos contact There is a planned trip to Belgium at Easter were Gayle & Alexis hope to visit the CWGC Cemeteries and Memorials were some Howwood men are either buried or mentioned.
To find information or research the following websites are useful:
www.operationwardiary.org www.1914.org www.poppyscotland.org.uk www.lastpost.be www.warmemorials.org www.cwgc.org http://www.britishlegion.org.uk/
Contact Gayle Pollock or Alexis Urie
HOWWOOD COMMUNITY RESILIENCE PLAN
Could you help Howwood in a time of a crisis?
Think you have nothing to offer?
Not sure how to help or what to do?
If you can
or ororor or
(or have some other hidden talent)
Then YOU can help Howwood - It is as easy as that!!!!
Want to find out more? –
then contact members of Community Council and discover how you can help your community when it needs you the most.
For more Information contact Bill David on 01505-703500 or 07802575960
All welcome
Contact Bill David 01505 703500 bill@billdavid,co.uk
or Robert Scarsbrook 01505 704083
SENIORS CITIZENS SCOTTISH NIGHT SATURDAY 8 MARCH 2014
THE ANNUAL SENIOR CITIZENS NIGHT WILL BE HELD IN THE VILLAGE HALL ON SATURDAY
8 MARCH 2014 AT 6 FOR 6:15pm
The Community Council announces that the annual Scottish Night is open to all villagers aged 60 and over. Tickets costing £1 will be available from mid February. Free transport can be arranged if required.
The night will be the usual mix of entertainment and dancing. A meal of haggis, neeps & tatties will be provided including veggie haggis. As usual there will be a dram or two to keep the chill out as well as the fun raffle.
Donations for the raffle will be gratefully received. These may be left at either shops, Pharmacy or Howwood Inn, when re-opened, marked for the attention of Bill David or Linda Smith.
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Pre booking for the event including transport requirements is essential. Tickets can be ordered from
BILL DAVID 01505 703500
LINDA SMITH 01505 705157
Your tickets will be delivered to you prior to the event.
Contact Bill David 01505 70 3500 or any member of the Community Council to pre book your tickets and / or arrange transport.
VILLAGE SPRING CLEAN SATURDAY & SUNDAY 5 & 6 APRIL 2014
THE ANNUAL VILLAGE SPRING CLEAN WILL TAKE PLACE OVER THE WEEKEND OF 5 & 6 APRIL 2014.
The Community Council is organizing a spring cleaning weekend on Saturday and Sunday 5 & 6 April 2014. All welcome to come along and help clean up our village. Meet at the Village Hall at 10am both days for the first session then after a lunch break meet again for the second session both days at 2pm. The aim is to finish by 4pm latest. Should we have sufficient people helping out one or both the Sunday sessions might be cancelled.
Supervised youngsters will be made most welcome. Please wear old cloths appropriate to the weather. Bags, gloves and litter pickers will be provided.
Contact Bill David 01505 70 3500 or any member of the Community Council
HEALTH ADVICE PROVIDED BY REACH PHARMACY
Health advice from Reach Pharmacy.
Q. What is NHS 24 and what is NHS Inform?
A. NHS 24 is a free, confidential telephone health advice and information service, available across Scotland, by calling08454 242424; the website iswww.nhs24.comandit is also on social media.
NHS Inform is a free, nationally coordinated single source of health and care information, available on0800 224488(8am-10pm); the website is www.nhsinform.co.ukand it is also on social media. NHS Inform cannot help you with medical emergencies.
HEALTH ADVICE PROVIDED BY REACH PHARMACY CONT.