Category: Community

All the members of Illston on the Hill WI enjoyed a thoroughly delightful last meeting of 2025. We were treated to a fantastic papercraft workshop led by our very talented member, Hazel Cave. Hazel had clearly put in a great deal of time and effort preparing an impressive range of projects for us to make.  They included Christmas crackers, designer parcel wrapping, charming tree decorations and several other creative items, ensuring there was something for everyone to enjoy.

The choir have been in full festive force bringing joy to the school and local community during several Christmas performances. They kicked off with a special singing assembly for the whole school where all the adults and children sang along. They especially loved an energetic rendition of The Twelve Days of Christmas!

On Friday 5 December the large wooden door of St Andrews Church, Burton Overy, swung open to welcome people from far and wide to another spectacular Christmas Tree Festival. There were 57 Trees, beautifully decorated and lit. With titles like ‘Hats off to Christmas’, ‘A Jacobean Christmas’, ‘Upcycled’ and ‘Fairy Nuff’, there was something for everyone.

On Sunday 14 December Kilby neighbours and friends got together to celebrate Christmas. This year, this annual event was held at the home of Tony and Kathy Kilsby.

As we step into the New Year, everyone at our charity would like to wish our community a very happy and healthy 2026. We hope you all enjoyed a peaceful and restful Christmas break with family, friends and loved ones.

Many residents have contacted me over the years about the safety of the Church Road and New Road junctions with the A6 in Kibworth. Like many of you, I’m frustrated that despite repeated promises, these junctions remain dangerous and nothing has been done to fix them.

For the history and film buffs we have a talk entitled ‘Zulu and the Battle of Rorke’s Drift’ on Tuesday 3February at 7.30pm. How true to life, or not, was the depiction of this famous battle in the film Zulu?

Over the weekend 3 and 4 January Norton & Gaulby Young Farmers went out across the South Leicestershire area to collect people’s Christmas trees for recycling. This year we have achieved record breaking numbers of 561 trees. We made £4494.50 all for three amazing local charities: ‘Yellow Wellies Farm Safety Foundation’ ‘Gems’ and ‘Derbyshire, Leicestershire &Rutland Air Ambulance Service.’

Now that the holiday season is finally over Kibworthians can look back at the humour brought by the Flamingos on the traffic island in the centre of the village. These pink birds generated a light relief to what is for some people a very stressful period. Thank you to whomever is concerned.

Happy New Year!