THE VILLAGE NEWS

BLETCHINGTON

VILLAGE NEWS

YOUR COMMUNITY MAGAZINE – SERVING THE VILLAGE SINCE 1979

Bletchington Village News is your community magazine, written by the community, for the community and serving the village since 1979. It is run entirely by volunteers and delivered free of charge to all homes in the village. As such, we welcome articles from both organisations and individuals in the village – without this the magazine would not exist. It is the responsibility of the contributor to ensure that the content of articles submitted to the Village News for publication is:

Legal
Not likely to cause offence to anyone
Appropriate to be shared with the community

The editor reserves the right to amend, shorten or exclude articles as appropriate and whilst all incoming material is subject to editorial review, the Village News and the Parish Council do not accept any liability for articles which fail to meet these criteria.

Bletchington Village News is published bi-monthly, at the beginning of February, April, June, August, October and December.

The deadline for receiving material for publication is always the 18^th of the month prior to publication. Please be sure to let us know of any events going on the village, to ensure maximum publicity. Please e-mail your articles for publication to bletchnews@gmail.com.

We offer advertising to local businesses at very competitive rates. If you would like to advertise with us, please send us an e-mail at bletchnews@gmail.com.

If you would like to receive a regular electronic copy by e-mail, please ask to join our subscribers list by contacting bletchnews@gmail.com.

If anyone is interested in joining the Village News production team, please drop us an e-mail at the usual address, bletchnews@gmail.com.

OUR HISTORY

Village News was launched in 1979 by the rectors of Bletchington, Kirtlington and Weston-on-the-Green and covering the three parishes, replacing an earlier church magazine. Whilst continuing to include church news and details of church services, the aim was to create a more secular magazine covering all aspects of village life. Individual pages were produced by each of the villages, all typed by hand, then consolidated into a single magazine, duplicated to produce 800 copies, all stapled together by hand.

In the early years, the magazine did not carry any advertising but was financed instead by contributions from each of the organisations in the villages. In total contrast to the current arrangement whereby the magazine is professionally printed, in those early years the production process involved typing, duplicating and stapling and was very time consuming. Several people were involved in the whole production process.

After a while, the three villages decided to go their own ways and produce separate magazines independently. That arrangement continues to the present day, with three separate magazines produced, one for each village. Bletchington Village News is and always has been free to readers. We are now financed primarily through advertising, and no longer accept contributions from village organisations except for Bletchington Parish Council, who we are very grateful to for their financial support.

We are now well on our way towards out 300^th edition and continue to provide a service to villagers and local organisations, keeping everyone informed about what is going on. This service had never been more important that during Covid, when we continued to produce a bi-monthly magazine throughout the pandemic, albeit perhaps a little slimmed down, providing readers with an information lifeline during lockdown.

A special thanks to Greta Bickley, Bill Dyer, Ian Gedling, Robert & Karen Newnham, Ian & Wendy Howson, Mary Flynn, Tony & Liz Saunders and the many others who have been involved in the production of Bletchington Village News over the decades. Thanks also to our amazing team of deliverers who go out in all weathers to ensure you receive your copy.

Editors

1979-2019 Greta Bickley

2019- Pete Baker

BACK COPIES

Click on the links below to see recent copies of the magazine:

August 2026 Village News 283

June 2026 Village News 282

April 2026 Village News 281

February 2026 Village News 280

December 2025 Village News 279

October 2025 Village News 278

August 2025 Village News 277