Cookham Matters

The BBC has more than its fair share of National Treasures, David Attenborough arguably the richest.  But did you know that Cookham has its very own Village Treasure?  Brian Clews sits firmly in the Village Treasure chest for his activities with several groups, but perhaps most visibly for his work supporting the our wildlife and habitats.  He sits on the committee for Cookham Wildlife Supporters, and can often be found sharing his encyclopedic knowledge and a bad joke or three in their events program.  Brian, lives in Broom Hill and has been resident in the village since before the Ice Age.  Well OK, that's a bit of an exaggeration but for FORTY EIGHT years.  We barely even had a railway station forty eight years ago (also an exaggeration).  He has spent forty years contributing to the local RSPB group, and has written books and papers too numerous to mention on this, his specialist subject.  But I've been watching Blue Planet and I know that it's still possible to teach

You may have seen that  The National Trust  will soon be charging for parking down at The Moor.  This has received a mixed response from residents and visitors alike, but I think it is worth explaining a little more about it.  I have seen people comment that it is simply a revenue generating opportunity, and the facts of the matter are – that is correct, but perhaps not for the reasons that you would imagine.  Countryside NT properties such as Maidenhead and Cookham Commons (MCC) suffer from not being able to generate much of an income.  Some money can be generated through sales of wood products or specific area membership recruitment, but most rely on quite a meagre annual budget to maintain and conserve the land they own - which is not sustainable going forward. Pay and Display car parking is a way of generating an additional income for NT countryside properties such as the MCC.   The area here covers 834 acres and costs over £70K a year to run.  It has very little in the way of

Reading (as in the printed word, not the town) is a challenge for me these days.  My brain has atrophied to such a degree that I can only read 140 characters of text, and even then, only if it has a photograph of a puppy alongside it.  I last read an actual book whilst on a sun lounger underneath a palm tree.  It was in Sardinia in 2014 and I, along with the entire female population of the planet had bought Fifty Shades of Grey at the airport.  50SofG was laughable - although strangely, I managed to finish it 😉   However, there is a local publication that I still can read, and do so from cover to cover.  Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you...The Cookham Parish Magazine.  OK, OK, you’re right.  I skip over the Ministry in the Cookhams page and I don't need to read Children, Young People and the Church either.  But I always read Father Nick the Vics intro, and in fact it was him that got me hooked.  Some years ago when the huge fuss first started about same sex marriage, Father Nick c