Latest News and Press - 2025 4th.Quarter

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V    Reported 6.12.25

Oswestry Christmas Parade back on track once more

Fantastic turnout for the Oswestry Christmas Parade on Saturday with nearly forty floats and thousands of festive merrymakers crowding the streets. The rain in the early morning cleared up and just a few light shows did not damp the enthusiasm. 
Jonathan Jones of Borderland Rotary Club, who organises the parade, said, “It’s been great to be back on the streets of Oswestry after last year’s disappointment, and it never fails to amaze me how people enter into the spirit of the event and how generous they are. I’d like to thank all the local Rotarians for helping make the parade possible, everyone involved with the floats including the drivers and hauliers and of course – the public, who show us that the parade is really worthwhile. And don’t forget, all the money collected will go to local good causes in the near future”.  
The Parade, which started way back in the fifties has been organised by firstly, Round Table and then Borderland Rotary Club for the last couple of decades. It’s nice to see a local event organised and run by local volunteers.

Best in Parade Winners

Walking Winners - Oswestry in Bloom

Children's Float Winners - Beavers

Youth Float Winners - Scouts

Non-Commercial float winners - Border Rounders League

Commercial Float winners - Unicorn Nursery, Maesbury

V    Reported 6.12.25

Christmas Bazaar at the Orthopaedic Hospital 

Borderland Rotary members provided a bottle stall in the Christmas Bazaar at the Gobowen Orthopaedic Hospital and business was brisk as visitors and staff entered into the spirit of the season.

Harry Richardson, Justin and Sherie Soper from Borderland set up and ran the event and Sherie said, “We’ve been doing this bazaar for some years now and it’s great to see old friends and new faces and catching up. People are so nice and generous and we love doing it”.
The money raised will go to one of the hospital’s charities.

V    Reported 4.12.25

Oswestry Christmas Parade starts Saturday at 11am

Don't forget to bring cash with you on Saturday  – all the money goes to local good causes!

V    Reported 25.11.25

Oswestry Christmas Parade is back on Saturday 6th December at 11am

The Parade, which was cancelled last year when Storm Darragh brought very strong winds to western parts of England and Wales is back on Saturday 6th December starting at 11.00am so grab your coat, and get your hat and leave your worry on the doorstep as you join in the yuletide fun and good cheer and put a smile on the face of Oswestry. 
Jonathan Jones, who organises the parade on behalf of Borderland Rotary, said “Come and join in, and make this a day to remember and don’t forget that the money raised will go to local causes – so put the date in your diary and come and support this great event”.
The Christmas parade dates back to the 1950s and it’s wonderful that it’s still locally organised by Borderland Rotary.  Local people still love and appreciate this Christmas gathering.

V    Reported 20.11.25 

Borderland Rotary supports Midlands Air Ambulance

Borderland Rotary Club is proud of its history of fundraising for Midlands Air Ambulance Charity over the past 30 years from the proceeds of the Borderland Mountain Bike Challenge, and this year presented Pip Machin from Midlands Air Ambulance Charity with a cheque for £5,000. 
Pip updated the club about recent developments saying, “It’s great to be here again with more good news. Midlands Air Ambulance recently bought a new helicopter. G-HMAA is the charity’s third wholly owned helicopter and replaces the organisation’s last leased aircraft. Our lifesaving missions are only made possible thanks to organisations like Rotary raising and donating money to the service. We don’t receive any government funding; the public are very generous – maybe because they see us flying around the place and I think most people know of someone who has been helped by our distinctive red helicopters”. 
Tim Gray, from Dairy-Pak, who has sponsored the Borderland Mountain Bike Challenge since its inception said, “I’m extremely proud of my late father for being such a big supporter of the Challenge and I’m very pleased to continue in the family tradition so it’s now time to plan for next years’ event which will be held on Saturday 9th May 2026”

V    Reported 15.11.25 and 23.11.25

The Ukulele Man visits Borderland Rotary

A fascinating evening at Borderland Rotary was had with the return visit of the Ukulele Man, John Croft.  A former President of the Rotary Club and well known around Oswestry, John gave a talk in his own very entertaining way.

He explained how George Harrison, from the Beatles had framed his life in the 1990s and why he had kept quiet about it for as long as possible. He said, “I’ve always loved to play the Uke, and to talk with likeminded people about the instrument, but one day the phone rang and a man with a soft Liverpool accent said, ‘Hi John, it’s George Harrison here. I’d like to talk to you about playing the ukulele’. Well, you can imagine my shock – suddenly talking to one of my heroes from the legendary band, the Beatles. And it just got better; he came to Oswestry to visit me in my house in Jasmine Gardens, Oswestry, and after a few months a genuine friendship developed.

Over the next eleven years, I visited (and stayed!) with George at his home, Friar Park, near Henley-on-Thames, on a number of occasions, and he even came to stay overnight with Mary and I in Llanyblodwel – where, at his suggestion, we went for a short drink at ‘The Horseshoe’. To our amazement, we were invited to Portmeirion Hotel for part of the filming of ‘The Beatles Anthology’. During one visit to Friar Park, George gave me the most beautiful vintage Gibson Banjolele – which I treasure. It always seemed really strange that a schoolteacher from Oswestry would become friends with one of the most famous people in the world”.

Harrison’s earliest musical influences were George Formby (from the age of 14) and Django Reinhardt before he discovered Carl Perkins, Chet Atkins and Chuck Berry, and although most people think of John Lennon and Paul McCartney as the songwriters in the Beatles, George wrote some wonderful songs including, ‘Taxman’, ‘While my guitar gently weeps’, ‘Something’, and ‘Here comes the Sun’. After the Beatles he explored many forms of music with his first success being, ‘My Sweet Lord’ and later he formed supergroup, the Travelling Wilburys, with Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne, and Roy Orbison. When at home, George would play the uke around his house, all the time, said friends. 

“I kept quiet about our friendship for many years”, John continued, “as George and I shared a musical interest – not a commercial endeavour. I finally decided to write about what happened in my new book, ‘The Uke, the Beatle, and Me’ because I wanted my family and friends to know the story, and especially to tell readers that, putting aside his fame and fortune, what a genuinely kind, thoughtful, humorous, and lovely man I found George Harrison to be.

John buys and sells instruments and has written a number of books about them. His new book is available from his website at www.theukuleleman.com, by email at theukuleleman.com@gmail.com, and from the ‘Local Interest’ section in Booka Bookshop in Church Street, Oswestry.

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