Eastleach our home in the Cotswolds countryside

CHEQS MAGAZINE – OCTOBER 2021

Welcome to the October edition of the new CHEQS Magazine!  Your community magazine – supported by representatives of the five village communities, Coln St Aldwyns, Hatherop, Quenington, East­leach and Southrop.


Hello from…the editor (again!)

As this is my third time of writing the ‘Hello From…’, I’d better explain! I have a confession to make – I have too many hats at the moment! No, not the literal ones (most of mine are caps), but the metaphorical ones. This has led to me being too busy with a variety of tasks – and family issues – this month, so I didn’t get round to finding a willing volunteer for this feature. But it gives me an opportunity to put out a request. If you know someone who might be willing to introduce themselves to the wider community in this way, please ask them, then let me know. It’s interesting to have a range of different people – and would be great to have some more contributors from the younger end of the age scale, or perhaps people who are new to our area.

You may not think your life story is very interesting, but we all like to learn a little more about each other – it’s part of what it means to be a community. When people comment to me on the magazine, the feature they often mention as being of particular interest is this one. So, don’t be shy… say hello to us all!

With more events happening now, we have quite a lot of larger blocks of information this month, so fitting everything in is a challenge. The CHEQS Diary is also taking up more space now, which is good to see – long may it continue. The magazine relies on advertising to cover the printing costs (£220 each month), so it’s also important to fit those in on request, where possible.

A new feature which I’m hoping to run next year is about our local farms and farmers. I had wanted to start this in September, but the previous month is always rather a busy one for farmers gathering in the harvest – and I had to put it on hold. So, to all the farmers reading this (if you ever have time to open the pages of the CHEQS Magazine) – be prepared to be asked to tell us all about your land, crops, the history of your farm, your ecological outlook, or anything else which may be of interest.

Looking after the land is never an easy job, and changing government policies and international politics don’t often make it any easier! But farms are the life-blood of the countryside, and we should all do whatever we can to support those who are custodians of the beautiful area in which we live – and to show them our appreciation.


Margaret Stranks – Editor

Click Here to read this months magazine, online

CHEQS Archive can be found here.

steve clarke
Author: steve clarke