​It is with great sadness that we report the departure of Ted Nieass, the oldest resident of the village at the age of 96.  Ted died at The John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford on 8th April and is to be cremated at a family service on 29th April.

Ted’s long and successful RAF service began in 1942, at the age of just 18, when he volunteered to become a pilot. His flying training took place at No 1 British Flying Training School in Terrel, Texas, with Ted earning his wings on the US Harvard AT-6 Trainer aircraft.  Ted went on to fly jet fighters throughout the 1950s and 60s, finishing his flying career leading an RAF training team with the Kenya Airforce in the mid-seventies.  His last posting was as a member of the Directing Staff at RMCS Shrivenham before his retirement in 1979.  He then spent six years as the Bursar of Christs Hospital Girls School in Hertford before finally settling down in Great Coxwell 1986.  He was soon persuaded to become Parish Clerk a job that lasted for 13 years, while his wife Joan was WI Treasurer during ten of them.

Joan and Ted were married in 1946 and reached the milestone 60th Wedding Anniversary in 2006. They had one daughter, Jennifer (Jenny), three grandsons, Christopher, Martyn and Jonathan, and one great granddaughter, Emilia Rose, born in September 2019.

Ted will be remembered fondly in the village as a thoughtful, quiet, generous contributor and a resolutely independent and steadfast character. 

Ted remained quite active throughout his life and his love of flying continued in his 90s when he flew a Tiger Moth on his 90th birthday

Our thoughts are with his daughter, Jenny, and her family at this sad time.
 
If anyone wishes to attend the cremation, which is Covid restricted to 30 people, please contact Ted’s daughter, Jenny on 07771681679.  The hearse will be leaving from the house in the village (time to be confirmed) for those wishing to pay their respects.

Emma’s funeral is being held next Monday 12th April at 1pm. The cortege will be leaving the village from Warenne House at 12 30. Unfortunately due to COVID restrictions numbers at the crematorium are limited to invite only but we are webcasting the service. If you would like the link please email: [email protected]..
 
Donations can be made in Emma’s memory via the link below
 
Emma Catherine Watters - Hillier Funeral Service
 
We would like to thank the village for their support during this time.
 
Malcolm, Kirsty, Claire and Fiona
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Do you like books, miss browsing in bookshops, and wish you could support local business rather than Amazon? Jake Pumphrey (Manor Cottage) has set up a new online bookshop with thousands of titles from biography to children's, fiction, history and more: https://www.billandbenbooks.co.uk/. 

Jane Holmes is planting up all sorts of things (and will be taking orders at the end of April to raise funds for St Giles). Does anyone have any old spare 6 or 8 cell bedding plant trays please? If so, please leave them in Jane's garage (pink cottage Foxley at the bottom of the village) or contact [email protected] if you'd like them collected. 

Can anyone recommend a driving instructor?  It feels like the search for a good builder and I'd much prefer some feedback from a 'real' person rather than an online review.

Many thanks Jo - The Court House ([email protected])

Sadly Emma Watters passed away peacefully at home yesterday evening (12th March) surrounded by family.

Emma was a wonderful wife, mother and friend who enjoyed so many aspects of the Great Coxwell community throughout our 20 years here.

Malcolm, Kirsty, Fiona and Claire are very grateful for the love and support from the village, especially the past few years.

Would you like to be part of an imaginative, make-it-happen team to discuss what we can do as a community to strengthen us and our planet for the future?

If you have been thinking about making changes to benefit our climate and natural world yourself, maybe us as a collective could make it happen, and as a village group make an even bigger difference? 

There are so many areas we could come together and make change happen. It could be a sustainable village owned energy source for our future electricity. It could be a way to protect our natural environment. Perhaps you are concerned about biodiversity and maybe we want to create a plant and wildlife sanctuary? There are so many possibilities.

If you are in any way interested please email me - [email protected] or phone 07766954559

Let's make something amazing happen!

Annabelle (Zinovieff at Chapel House)

Mark’s funeral is being held at St Giles Church Great Coxwell on Thursday 11th March at 2.30pm. The cortège will leave the Tithe Barn at 2.15pm.
 
Daphne, Julian and Alison wish to thank everybody for the lovely cards, letters, flowers and messages they have received and are of great comfort.
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This has been mentioned in an earlier post in the Newsletter but is worth repeating.  This is such a clever location finder app - and potentially invaluable in an emergency to enable rescuers to find you.  The developers have divided the world into 3m squares and given each square a unique combination of three words like: dumpling-piano-visage.  You can then tell the ambulance, mountain rescue service etc the words and they can easily find you - it's as accurate as using GPS coordinates.  Download it from the AppStore of free - and let's hope you never need to use it!

Link to app.

Ian Mason

Thanks for everyone’s enduring patience, and sorry about last Sunday lunchtime – no one told us the scaffolders were coming, so we couldn’t make any arrangements. 
 
The basic ‘big roof’ major construction is finished, but there is a lot more to do out there.
 
Before the next phase commences, I see we’ve accumulated quite a lot of good, usable timber outside.  Some of it is reserved for building work, but if anyone is looking for wood, please get in touch and I’ll happily point out what you can raid for your own projects.  I would much rather it go to local use than recycling or landfill.
 
Russ Payne