Encamped about the Wiltshire
"Caffè e latte" or would it become another ‘Late Café ’ That is the question.?

If residents wish to see some sort of a café opened in Tisbury, fair enough. However consideration should be given to the fact that the village has sported several similar establishments over recent years. Each was welcomed with acclaim and probably all, have since disappeared. We did not patronise them sufficiently, any more than the village patronises its retail shops. It would be nice to have such a meeting place, however Ladies running Tea Rooms are a thing of the past, it is just not economic so to do.

Off hand I recall here, a café adjoining ‘Nobel’s’ as was, then the Pottery decorating café on the site, the delicatessen had tables serving tea and coffee. It may well still do so for all I know. Then there was too a restaurant . That operated by a person of experience who at the time had a successful establishment close to the Royal Holloway and Bedford New College.

Lymington in the New Forest has, well certainly had a Community Centre. If I recall correctly we the residents paid a very modest subscription for our membership. It had a place were one might get a cup of coffee (not a Latte then). Buy a second hand book donated by others for the benefit of the Community Centre funds. There were small rooms that might be hired for Committee Meetings etc. Even a notice board for the use of the public.

If one wants a meeting place it might be an idea to introduce such a facility into one of the Halls. ‘We’ have the Victoria Hall, and the Elizabeth Hall, and the Hinton Church Hall, and the Methodist Church Hall, and the Room owned and operated by the Catholic Church. Oh yes I knew I had forgotten something, we have the Nadder Hall, and the former Court House, that now is, I believe occupied by the Youth Club. These places are as ever efficiently run, but none seem available for drop in use. Maybe ,we luxuriously have too many of them?

I recall visiting Mulcheney Abbey and being served an excellent tea in the nave, by Church Members catering to the Tourists visiting the Abbey, its Ruins, and the Pottery. They did so to raise money for the Church Fabric. I understand we have several Churches in this Village; all must surely need funding. St.John’s, The Sacred Heart, and the Methodist Church; Have not other places of worship , fallen on stony ground by the way side?

I suspect that in the past a Church Building was very much a Social Centre. It is lovely now to go into St. John’s in particular, but all too often the place is empty betwixt times of Worship. From the 18th to the 25thJanuary, there is a week of prayer for Christian Unity. Glad about that I recall being told whilst ‘we’ were recording that Cristmas Carol CD that ‘St. John’s was the Church Of England and not the Catholic Church’ .

That a long time part of the changing scene of life no doubt. (* see link below might need to be typed in as Hyperlinks tend to fail on the Community web site.)

Some of us do tend to preach a bit. Maybe it is one of the hazards of living in the Nadder Parishes. It was only this week that I discovered that my ecumenistic ancestry included not one but two Methodist Ministers.

Oremus Hymnal: Through all the changing scenes of life Through all the changing scenes of life, in trouble and in joy, the praises of my God shall still my heart and tongue employ. O magnify the Lord with me, ... www.oremus.org/hymnal/t/t657.html - 14k - Cached