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In an attempt to get some sort of handle on what 2005 may have in store for us, I took a critical look back at the performance of previous years similarly ending in 05. On the whole, it must be admitted the 05s have been an undistinguished lot, hosting remarkably few major events. 405BC, the earliest for which there appear to be any precise date records, made a modest enough debut with the Spartan victory at Aegospotami on the Hellespont, and in that year Thucydides published his History of the Peloponnesian War - doubtless a best-seller in its time, but now perhaps of more limited interest. There then followed a long uneventful gap of three hundred years till 105BC, when, possibly more significantly then than now, Jugurtha, king of the Numidians, was captured by the Romans (they had been fighting each other on and off since 112).
The 05s then checked out of history altogether for several centuries, till in 1305AD spectacles were invented and the papacy moved, apparently somewhat precipitately, to Avignon. Three centuries later, things became a little busier, with 1605 seeing the gunpowder plot, Galileo's invention of the telescope and Kepler's discovery of the laws of planetary motion. After such a promising revival, however, 1705 fell disappointingly between the battles of Blenheim ('04) and Ramillies ('06), both of which we won convincingly; although Halley did in that year correctly predict the return of his eponymous comet in 1758, an event which sadly he did not survive to see. Things have started to hot up for the 05s more recently with, in 1805, the Battles of Trafalgar and Austerlitz (our side won those, too), and in 1905 with the first Russian Revolution, the destruction of the Russian fleet by the Japanese at Tsushima and the publication of Einstein's special theory of relativity. On the whole, however, and compared for instance with the far more racy 15s, over the years the 05s have shown a less than exciting performance. Could do better? Anyway, if little of importance happens over the next twelve months, we should rest assured it will be no more than typical.
The more observant parishioners will have noticed the stout new fence Paul Weaving has put up round an extension to the Burial Ground. This plot of land is the second half of the area given to the village by Colonel and Mrs Walton back in 1984, for use for village interments, when the old churchyard became full. Whilst the initial half still has plenty of spaces yet to fill, fencing the rest now will give time for a new hawthorn hedge, which the Vale District Council has generously agreed to plant inside it, to become well established. The new patch also contains a small corral for grass clippings, which will take the place of the current unsightly pile laid up against the west wall of the old churchyard. A second access to the enlarged burial ground will be opened up via the existing gate in the north churchyard wall, shortening the carrying time and distance for burdened pallbearers. Reservations will in good time be available for the new patch, but on the strict understanding that they are not taken up before the hedge is fully matured.
In response to criticism from RoSPA (The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents), who expressed concern about the danger to children from a free-swinging gate, a new latch has been fitted to the gate at the entrance to the Bow Bank playground. I do not now wish to hear about any child whose fingers have been accidentally trapped in its mechanism.
Alan Boyce
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