2021 News Archives

Town Crier announces top awards at Borderland Rotary’s Christmas bash

(L - R) Cathy Osselton (President) David Kendall, Town Crier, Sherie Soper, Martin Davies & Chris Bryan-Smith

The Oswestry Town Crier called Borderland Rotarians in for Christmas dinner, then surprised two members by announcing that they had won the prestigious Paul Harris Fellowship award.

Members were taken unawares when the Oswestry Town Crier, Phil Brown appeared on the stairs at the Sweeney Hall Hotel and used his outside-voice, inside then, he had a busy night as master of ceremonies and managed to make himself heard above the chatter and mirth.

Borderland President, Cathy Osselton presented the awards to Sherie Soper, a recent president of the Club and to one of the founder members, David Kendall. To say that Sherie was surprised would be an understatement and she said, while clutching her certificate, “I have tried to serve Borderland and the principals of Rotary as best I can over the past few years but the last thing I ever expected was to be honoured in this way, I am so very grateful and I thank you all”.

The Paul Harris Fellowship Award is the top Rotary accolade, awarded for distinguished service, above and beyond the norm.  Such is the quality of Borderland Rotary that a third of their number are ranked this high.

Paul Harris founded Rotary over a hundred years ago and since then it has become the largest organisation of service, with a huge impact worldwide.  Despite the massive international connections, the main benefits everywhere are for local communities.  Most people join with a simple idea, to enjoy doing their little bit when they have the time.  All those "little bits" build up to create achievements, and a reputation to be proud of.

If you’re interested in getting involved, just Google "Borderland Rotary".

Triumphant return for the Christmas Parade

The Christmas Parade made a triumphant return on Saturday as people flocked to see a host of wonderful floats filled with children, colour and mirth and bringing a song and a smile to the waiting crowds. It’s been so difficult for all the organisers to make the big decisions when planning for the event as we never seem to be quite out of the woods with Covid, but the group leaders and the event organisers have kept their heads down and worked on regardless - and the results were wonderful to see. Jonathan Jones, who organises the event on behalf of Borderland Rotary Club said, “It’s been very concerning and very hard work, but I’m just so pleased that we could pull it off this year and I’d like to thank all the entrants, my fellow Rotarians, Pentons, Griffiths Tool Hire and all the people I’ve probably missed, but most of all, I want to applaud the people of Oswestry for coming out today and making this such a great occasion – thank you all”.

So much effort went into all the floats and corralling the excited children must have been a full-time job but smiles on the faces of the crowds made it all worthwhile.

The floats were judged by the Town Mayor, Cllr Mark Jones and Borderland Rotary President, Cathy Osselton, and the winners were as follows.

Non-Commercial         –         Ellesmere Line Dancing                    

Commercial                 -          Aico Ltd

Youth                          -           Cloe Elizabeth Dance Company                    

Children                      -           Ellesmere Primary School     

Walking                       -          Porth-y-waen Silver Band

More than £4,000 was raised, a record and more than the total back in 2019 – thank you Oswestry.  Borderland Rotary can now make plans to distribute the funds to local good causes and charities.

If anyone is interested in joining in this great work with Rotary, please google Borderland Rotary Club for more details.

Cambrian Heritage Railway at Borderland Rotary

L – R Rob Williams (Chairman CHR), Cathy Osselton (Borderland President) Pete McCracken (Head of infrastructure CHR) and Chris Bryan-Smith (Borderland)

Rob Williams, Chairman of Cambrian Heritage Railways (CHR) gave a talk at Borderland Rotary and discussed the opening of the line from Oswestry to Weston which is scheduled to run a regular tourist service from next spring. The work done by volunteers to open this section has been quite amazing with a new platform, siding and loop line being laid at Weston in the last couple of years - despite covid. Rob said “There are two main projects that will run in parallel, the first is to open the heritage railway just before Easter next year and run trains. The second is to work towards opening of a community rail scheme that will link Oswestry to Gobowen once more and provide a commuter service. This has been helped tremendously by the government giving us £50K to do the feasibility study of the plan” He continued, “Of course, the heritage line has the great advantage of having a destination in the form of Stonehouse Brewery and everyone smiles when I tell them.”

Borderland Rotary is teaming up with CHR to create a green corridor alongside the track with proposed bug hotels and rows of trees on the side of the line. Local schools are currently working on designs while Rotary members are busy getting sponsorship for trees to plant next autumn.

What a team!

Fantastic talk from David Lee-Birch and Tracey Leonard, the heart and soul of both Oswestry Life and It’s Beautiful magazines, at Borderland Rotary the other evening. Their enthusiasm and passion shone through as they remembered the birth of Oswestry Life and the steep learning curve that had to be climbed. Now, 5 years down the line and the magazine has a monthly print run of 7K and a Facebook following of over 24K. This depth of cover outshines all the other local media and means that their sustainable model can survive and flourish, even when faced with a pandemic! Long may the print machines run hot and thanks for sparing the time to tell us your story!

Chris Bryan-Smith Tracey Leonard Cathy Osselton David Lee-Birch David Kendall Bob Jones

Oswestry Mayor, cllr. Mark Jones, lights Borderland Bonfire 6.11.2021

Borderland Bonfire back with a Bang

The good townsfolk of Oswestry flocked to Brogyntyn Park on Saturday to see a great big bonfire and a magnificent fireworks display. People started arriving at the park long before the event was due to start and it was near capacity by the time the Mayor, Councillor Mark Jones lit the blue touch paper and the bonfire roared into life. A long, loud and spectacular firework display followed with whizzbangs, booms and plenty of colourful bursts which lit up the sky and could be seen for miles around.

Borderland Rotary and Oswestry Town Council worked hard to prepare for the event not knowing the public reaction, given the circumstances. Jonathan Jones from Borderland Rotary, who organises the event said, “We collected all the materials for the bonfire in the week and volunteers built it on Saturday morning but I had no idea if anyone would turn up so you can imagine how gratified I was when people started streaming in and we had a full house. A lot of effort goes into arranging an evening like this and it’s great when it works out so well. It also means we have raised an incredible £9K for good causes and local groups. I’d just like to thank the Town Council, the Fire Station but most of all, everyone who came along and made it such a success!”

The fireworks were handled by professional pyrotechnicians and they produced a wonderful display which inspired much oohing and aahing and seemed to go on for ever. The fireworks and the park are provided by Oswestry Town Council while Borderland Rotary organise and marshal the event. The money raised will be distributed in the New Year.

John Waine, Cathy Osselton, Adele Nightingale, Paul Dalton, Andy Boroughs

BID Oswestry visit Borderland Rotary

There were more answers than questions at Borderland Rotary when Adele Nightingale and John Waine from BID Oswestry came along to give a talk about their projects and aims. Adele outlined the many activities that BID are involved with, from the improvements at Maesbury Trading Estate to working with the Cambrian Heritage Railways on the project to re-open the railway to Gobowen, and thus, the ‘mainline’.

Adele said, “Things are even busier now that businesses are opening up again and the work of BID had become even more vital to the growth of the town. We just hope that the business owners as well as the public will appreciate our efforts”

Someone commented that Adele had answers to questions that he hadn’t even thought of and anyone who had previously thought that Oswestry was behind the times with no coherent ‘plan for the future’, must now realise how wrong they were and just a walk down Church Street to see the new lights would surely confirm this.

Paul Evison  John Campion  Cathy Osselton  Harry Richardson  Sherie Soper

Borderland Rotary visited by police

Borderland Rotary entertained the West Mercia Police & Crime Commissioner, John Campion and he was quick to explain that he is not in fact a policeman but the man with the money for policing in this area. In a very interesting and highly entertaining talk he explained that he had been elected Commissioner in 2016 having previously served in the cabinet of the Worcestershire County Council.

He said his priorities were, care and support of survivors and victims, a secure West Mercia and a focus on the rebuilding of a visible police presence on the streets and thus reassure and build back any lost trust in the police.

John said, “We police by consent in this country, so the force must be trusted – and be seen - but we don’t leave any marks. A painter and decorator paints a wall so you can see where he’s been but with the police, when they leave a location, there is no sign of their recent presence so there may be more police about than we think.”

He also discussed online crime and the scourge of the “county-lines” drug problem and reported that a lot of effort and manpower was being used to stamp it out.

He concluded by talking about highway policing and said, “There are many deaths on the road and we each have to take responsibility for our own actions and so make the roads safer for everyone”

Special Speaker Evening

Borderland Rotary regularly have interesting speakers for their evening meetings, but last Wednesday was special.  They learnt so much about cardboard production from virgin timber to boxes.  Tim Gray also detailed the recycling process and explained how important it is for all of us.  He is well known to the Club as his Company is the principal sponsor for their well known Mountain Bike Challenge.

New President for Borderland Rotary

Cathy Osselton takes over on 1st July, but the usual celebrations are deferred because of Covid restrictions.

She said, “I am looking forward to taking over as President for the year 2021-2022. Last year was a difficult time for the club as a consequence of COVID and our activities were severely restricted.  This year I hope that we shall be able to get back to some normality.  My main objective is to grow our membership and ensure that members have an enjoyable and productive year.  I have put together a comprehensive program, updated details of which will be posted on this website:” see “What’s NEXT”.

Borderland Rotary Shedding event

Borderland Rotary, with the help of Evastore Document Management, have had a busy morning at the Bailey Head, securely shredding documents for allcomers. The Mayor, Thomas Jones paid a visit and said, “Great to see everyone out and about again on such a lovely day and I’m really heartened that even in these difficult times, people are thinking of others and how they can help them”. This is Borderland’s first event for over eighteen months and it looked like they were glad to be back.