Super Sam’s Business Award

Round & About

Guildford

Puttenham mum and Surrey business owner Sam Reynolds has won an Inspire 2018 award in The Mpower National Business Awards for her company SamSpaces.

Sam Reynolds is a mother of one from Puttenham, and she is also the founder of SamSpaces. She has built an online resource and support group for anyone recovering and adjusting to life again after cancer. Alongside this venture, Sam is starting her post-natal doula business after experiencing motherhood after cancer and recognising the need for a deeper level of support.

Sam says: “It is an honour to have been nominated, let alone get this far. Being able to raise awareness and support those of us living life after cancer is something I feel passionately about. I am in an incredible company!

“There are a lot of awards out there, and we are proud about what makes these awards, and the women who enter, different!” says Nicola Huelin, multi-award winning business coach, founder of the Mpower awards, and mum to four children with her partner Graham.

“Often invisible to most, mums in business are changing the business landscape, while raising and inspiring the generations of the future. We believe their efforts and successes in overcoming the unique challenges of combining business and motherhood, particularly in those first few years when it’s the hardest, need to be recognised and celebrated.”

The Mpower Gala has been called The Networking Party Of The Year and is open to all entrepreneurs and business owners for an evening of networking, inspiration and celebration. To find out more about the 2019 event, and to nominate your business, or a friend’s, you will find a range of resources and information for mums in business, so visit www.mpowerawards.com

Ale & Hearty

Round & About

Guildford

Here at Round & About Magazine, we are passionate supporters of local pubs, restaurants and producers. After all, anyone working in the food and drinks industry will know it takes a lot of hard graft to help punters relax!

We have so many to mention that are especially beautiful in summer. For starters, top picks for a romantic meal include Kinghams in Shere (GU5 9HE, once known as Hangman’s Cottage) and Jodie Kidd’s wondrous Half Moon in Kirdford, RH14 0LT, (check out the events and sun terrace!). The March Hare in Guildford, (GU1 3SY), hits all the right gastro notes and The Dog & Pheasant in Brook, GU8 5UJ, is famed for its amazing roasts and garden – for free-range children. The roof terrace at Guildford’s Thai Terrace (GU1 3RW) is perfect for tom yum and cocktails while The Windmill in Ewhurst (GU6 7NN), offers great views. Oliver Reed’s old boozer, The Plough Inn at Leigh Hill (RH5 5RZ) might just be the quintessential village pub, especially when a summer cricket match is on, with its own brewery.

Speaking of breweries, hoppy bunnies are spoilt for choice. For tours, tastings and hearty ales, check out Hogs Back Brewery in Tongham (GU10 1DE), hand-batched brews at Windsor & Eton Brewery (SL4 1SE ) and Alton’s Pride and other award-winners from Triple fff in Four Marks (GU34 5HN). Cheers also to the teams at Ascot Brewing Company in Camberley (GU15 3DX), the Crafty Brewery Company in Dunsfold, Tillingbourne Brewery near Guildford and Surrey Hills Brewery (creator of the Shere Drop and Albury Ruby) based at Denbies Wine Estate near Dorking (RH5 6AA). We’re also smitten with the Sussex Dry Gin by artisan creators Blackdown Cellar in Lurgashall (GU28 9HA). High spirits indeed!

So, we’d like to know; what’s your favourite pub, and your favourite brewery, and leave a comment below!

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Shrew business

Round & About

Guildford

Pranksters Theatre Company return to Guildford’s historic Castle Keep from 13th – 21st July to stage William Shakespeare’s rollicking comedy The Taming of The Shrew

“Of all mad matches, never was the like!” Shakespeare’s outrageous comedy is host to one of theatre’s greatest double-acts, a couple hell-bent on confusing and outwitting each other right up to the play’s controversial conclusion. 

Sparks fly, identities are confused and parents fooled in this tale of money, marriage and love! Will Petruchio tame tempestuous Katherine, the shrew? Can Lucentio outwit his rival suitors and win the love of fair Bianca. 

Jenny Swift co-director of the show says: “The Taming of the Shrew is a brilliantly fun and fast-moving play from beginning to end and we have loved picking the script apart to play to Shakespeare’s humour and his love of complications! With such a small and intimate setting within the Castle Keep, the audience can almost become a part of the action which will be a very special experience for all.” 

Pranksters Theatre Company create site-specific productions. Recent successes include sold-out Henry V also in Guildford Castle Keep and TWO by Jim Cartwright at the Keep Pub. The Taming of The Shrew will be their fourth production in Castle Keep.

Tickets £15 adults (£12 students/under-16s) are restricted to 50 per show. Book from Guildford Tourist Information Centre, 155 High Street, Guildford, GU1 2AJ, 01483 444333. Visit www.pranksterstheatre.org.uk

Woodland Wonder

Round & About

Guildford

Woods are amazing. They’re where imagination takes root. Where a love of nature grows and thrives. And they’re the lungs of our county. They are also the best place to escape to, and shrug off your cares. The Japanese have a name for it; Shinrin-Yoku, which, poetically coined, means “forest bathing”. Living in this part of the world, we’re spoilt for choice, so we have teamed up with The Woodland Trust, a charity that exists to protect native woods, trees and their wildlife for the future. They focus on improving woodland biodiversity and increasing peoples understanding and enjoyment of woodland.

Harpsden & Peveril Woods

Harpsden & Peveril Woods is an 18-hectare area that has been designated as “ancient semi-natural woodland”, an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, Site of Special Scientific Interest, Special Area of Conservation and has Tree Preservation Order work. This site, next to Henley Golf Club, approximately a mile south of Henley-on-Thames, and within the Chiltern Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, has a 50-year management plan with the minimum of silviculture intervention in place.
Harpsden & Peveril Woods is dominated by mature beech, pedunculate oak, ash trees and sessile oak. Also hazel, holly, field maple, rowan, wild cherry all present.

The majority of the land of this wood was acquired by The Woodland Trust in 1991, after the Great Burns Day Storm of 1990. There were a lot of wind-blown trees, and these gaps are being filled with younger trees of a variety of species.

The Woodland Trust says there will be a loss of ash through ash dieback disease, which is very likely to occur in the next 10 years and this will add further gaps to the mature tree canopy. Over time this wood is likely to become more of mixture of beech, oak, birch and sycamore.

The open canopy gaps have allowed other flora and fauna to flourish. There have been 40 recorded species of flowering and uncommon plants strongly associated with old woodland including bird’s nest orchid, narrow-lipped helleborine, green-flowered helleborine, cow-wheat, goldilocks and the yellow bird’s nest. The deadwood habitat is also very rich, and this wood has been noted for its diversity of fungi. In a fungal survey in 1999 recorded 171 species of which nine are rare.

Penn and Common Woods

Walk back in time in Penn and Common Woods, once home to Iron Age smelting, a Roman settlement, a wood-turner’s workshop for High Wycombe’s chairmaking businesses, and even an army base during World War II.

You can find this place, which is at the very heart of the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, close to the amenities in the village of Penn Street, near Beaconsfield in Buckinghamshire.

These woods today have taken their shape as a direct result of its rich and changing history. For those interested in archaeology, there are a number of features to look out for which point to the wood’s past, such as banks, ditches, pits and dells.
As well as providing a home and source of income for individuals, Penn and Common Woods has had an interesting history of wildlife. Wild boar, wolves and deer roamed the wood in the Middle Ages, and there are still roe deer to be seen today.

Medieval farmers would bring their cattle, horse, sheeps and pigs to graze on common ground. The Woodlands Trust has reintroduced cows to Penn Wood to maintain open pasture by trampling down thickets and fertilising the ground, encouraging a vast array of flora and fauna back.

Penn Woods is renowned for its rich stock of ancient woodland. Over much of the site the canopy is dominated by broad-leaved tree species including oak, beech and birch – some of which are over 200 years old. However, there are also areas of dense coniferous plantation and open pasture.

The range of habitats here supports a diversity of species adapted to completely different ecological niches. This can be illustrated by the rare butterflies and unusual beetles. A survey in 2000 discovered 10 nationally scarce beetles.

Overhead a wide range of birds can be spotted including brambling, tawny owl, cuckoo, garden warbler, red kite, kestrel and buzzard.

Puttenham Village Walk

The Puttenham Village Walk (3miles) Leg 1. Follow the signs for a footpath, you’ll pass a cottage, keep left round the corner, down steps to a bridleway, then turn right (you’ll see yellow arrows, follow them). Pass through some swing gates, over stiles and a flat bridge towards a large metal gate, which, leads you to Puttenham Lane. Turn left, pass through a kissing gate, into the meadow, keep left and follow the winding path steeply uphill. In the distance, you will see Puttenham Priory on the right. At the final stile, continue ahead to a T-Junction in the village. (On the right is St John the Baptist – well worth a visit.) Reward yourself with a pint and lunch.
The Culmill Circuit (7½miles) Leg 2. From the village head towards the North Downs Way. It’s a five-mile straight walk, with a few twists and turns, but you will have a fine view of the Hog’s Back. This path will take you towards Totford Wood to meet a junction with fields. Look out for the yellow arrows, that will guide you through an area called Payn’s Firs. Look out for the little fairy house in the trees. Go right on the road. (If you need a toilet break head towards St Laurence.)

Next the trail is a zig-zag, starting from the left towards Binton Wood. There are lots of chestnut trees here. Stay on the path, following the green-and-white signs, past beautiful, tall pine trees, to a place known as Culver’s Well. The track runs through open woodland of Crooksbury Common, and onwards to the timber works, keep an eye out for the vehicles. You’ll get to a crossing. On the otherside is Britty Wood.

Leg 3 (2½miles). The route goes up through pines, beeches and a coppice. Then it’s downhill into a beautiful area of silver birches. You come to views of Cutmill Pond, this used to serve an iron mill in the 16th century. Pretty soon you’ll pass Rodsall Manor, with its proud stone eagles. When you see the steps on the left, you’ll be back at the car park.

Stratfield Brake

Stratfield Brake, OX5 1UP, two miles outside Kidlington, is really family-friendly. The Woodland Trust began managing the 18.5-hectare site from 1997 after establishing a lease with the site’s owner, Oxfordshire County Council.

The wood is made up of a mature wood, a young wood and a wetland area. This wood contains tree species such as oak, field maple and elm, as well as many bird species such as tree creepers, rooks and woodpeckers. Old oak trees provide habitats not just for birds but also fungi, mosses, insects and bats.
Sadly, at the moment, access is restricted to the mature woodland area in response to the presence of a disease called acute oak decline, which affects native oak trees, leading in some cases to their death. The disease poses no threat to either humans or animals, but it may be spread through movement of bacteria picked up on visitors’ shoes and clothing or by vehicles. Therefore, on the advice of Forest Research, the Woodland Trust has temporarily closed Stratfield Brake’s mature woodland area to the public.

There’s still plenty to observe at Stratfield Brake this summer including the meadows and the wetland. Just park near the sports club and follow the signs to the wood. There are four entrances to the site from here, creating a network of 1.5miles, buggy-friendly surfaced and unsurfaced paths in Stratfield Brake, which are level and have no width restrictions (but can get muddy in wet weather).

One short loop of surfaced path leads to a bird-watching area overlooking the wetland. All year round it attracts all sorts of birds – you might be lucky to hear the drumming of great spotted woodpeckers high in the trees. There’s a good chance you’ll see mute swan, tufted duck, heron and coot and, if you’re lucky you might spot a rarity such as a little egret. This small heron is hard to miss as it has whiter than white plumage.

Stratfield Brake is also a good place to join the Oxford Canal towpath; a 4.7-mile (7.6km) circular walk using the footbridge to Yarnto, developed by local Ramblers for the Canals & Rivers Trust.

Visit www.woodlandtrust.org.uk for more woodland walks. Please remember when setting off for a walk, to take a compass, a good map, a bottle of water and a snack.

Headway Highlight

Round & About

Guildford

Headway Surrey is the Mayor of Guildford’s chosen charity for 2018. Its five paid staff, supported by wonderful volunteers, won the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Services last year.The charity helps adults across the county with an acquired or traumatic brain injury, offering cognitive rehabilitation and family support.

There are two types of brain injury:  

• Acquired via a stroke, heart attack, brain tumour, blood clot, encephalitis, haemorrhage, aneurism, meningitis, hydrocephalus, carbon monoxide poisoning and other medical issues.  

• Traumatic event such as a road accident, sports injury (skiing, football, rugby, boxing), work incident, assault, combat, falls, trips and slips. 

Brain injury affects cognitive ability, things we take for granted such as making a cup of tea, walking, talking, reading, writing, cooking and dressing. Headway staff support those who now have problems with social skills, conversation skills and behaviour, helping individuals to control their lost inhibitions. The brain needs executive skills to make sense of information and then to make decisions. Using selected exercises and strategies, individuals can find new brain pathways around the damaged area of the brain.  

The fastest recovery time is within the first two years (using cognitive rehabilitation therapy), however long-term slow stream rehabilitation can go on for decades. Headway Surrey provides a range of services: individual programmes, group workshops, home community visits, hospital  liaison visits, a befriending scheme, a helpline and supportive activities for family and carers.    

Another often forgotten area is the family. One minute your husband/wife, dad/mother or son/daughter is normal, the next minute they are not.  Brain injury is a hidden disability – your loved one may look the same, but they are “not the same”.  They may have issues not only with thinking, decision making, prioritising, memory, but also with clumsiness, balance, slurring words, hand/eye co-ordination, taste… the list is endless. 

Families have their own issues and may suffer loss of friends and depression. Partners often have to give up their jobs to become full-time carers and relationships can break down. 

Headway’s support activities for carers and families, therefore, are extremely valuable. Clients are matched with volunteers who enjoy similar social or recreational activities. They meet weekly, fortnightly or monthly, and might go for a coffee, a walk, visit the cinema or whatever.

Sonja Freebody, CEO of the charity, is passionate about fundraising and she and her team will take part in the Guildford Raft Race on Saturday, 7th July. Please sponsor them by visiting www.uk.virginmoneygiving.com

Please contact Headway about fundraising, volunteering and services on offer. Visit www.headwaysurrey.org or call 01483 455225  or email [email protected]

A good innings

Round & About

Guildford

Home with Gareth Malone

Round & About

Guildford

We chat to Gareth Malone, whose favourite hobbies are singing – and would happily sing ‘Yesterday’ everyday – and unwinds by ice skating!

Q. How long have you been singing for and how did you get into it?
“I’ve been singing since I was a toddler and my mother sang to me. I joined a school choir at the age of seven and have sung ever since.”

Q. What led to you present The Choir?
“I ran a local community choir at St Luke’s near the Barbican, which was one of the outreach projects run by the LSO (London Symphony Orchestra). Ana de Moraes, then at Twenty Twenty TV, was looking for a choirmaster for a new BBC series. She called Amy Armstrong at the LSO who fortunately recommended me. Luckily due to the success of the first series, it was immediately commissioned for another series and has continued.”

Q. Do you think people’s view on choir singing has changed? “Having something on BBC2 gives people the chance to see what’s going on which might otherwise be considered as quite niche, such as singing or baking.”

Q. How was it being a judge on Pitch Battle?
“Really fun. I’m not afraid of telling people what I think and I loved working with Kelis.”

Q. How do you do to relax?
“I play jazz piano and ice skate.”

Q. Any plans for the rest of the year?
“Very excited about more tour dates and filming for BBC.”

Q. If you were only ever allowing to sing just one song for the rest of your days, what would it be?
Yesterday by The Beatles.”

Visit www.garethmalone.com

Home truths

Liz Nicholls

Guildford

Liz Nicholls chats to Barry “Baz” Warne of The Stranglers

Q. You’re just about to jet off to Oz – how do you feel about touring these days?
“Confident and excited! We had a great French tour in November that loosened up all the cogs and ironed out all the creases. I know we’re all getting on, but a five- or six-week rest over Christmas was enough before we started wanting to get back on it! We’ve spent the past two weeks in the West Country turning it up loud and blowing away the cobwebs. We’re ready to roll!”

Q. You mention ‘getting old’ which happens to us all! How do you stay sharp?
“I eat well; me and my girlfriend love to cook. She’s trying to get me into yoga, actually, but she’s quite a bit younger than me – I’m just a 53-year-old fart who’s trying his best to get his legs behind his head in the living room… but it helps! I played football as a kid but my shock absorbers are knackered so I can’t play with my grandchildren any more, which pisses me off. We go out on motorbikes, in Yorkshire where we live, for fresh air. When you get older you have to take care of yourself. All of us have burnt the candle at many ends over the years. While we still like that – we’re not monks – things slow down a bit!”

Q. You have Stranglers fans of all ages, don’t you?
“Aye; we get the die-hard fans who’ve seen us 50-plus times, and their kids and their grandkids’ generation, which is great.
If the kids like the Stranglers, or any band from before their time, they can find it at the touch of a button. In my day you had to stay up late to watch The Old Grey Whistle Test.”

Q. When did you first hear No More Heroes?
“It came out in 1977 when I was 13. I can’t remember the impact it had on me but it must have been profound. When it comes on the radio nowadays, it still sounds glorious and fresh.”

Q. Do you listen to much music?
“Not really. These tours are so frenetic and you’re living in this musical bubble for weeks and weeks, so it can be hard… I can almost hear your readers saying ‘bless him, poor lad; you wanna try working a nine-to-five like the rest of us!’ But working as we do, our whole raisin d’etre is to stay mellow for 22 hours before each gig, basically, to save ourselves for your two hours of nuts stuff! Putting on music can feel a bit like a busman’s holiday. I tend to have the radio on in the background with classical music on and crank it up now and again!”

Q. It’s your birthday on March 25th isn’t it?
“Aye! I was lucky enough to spend my 50th playing in Guildford – I had 2,500 people sing Happy Birthday to us, which was very sweet. This year I’ll be between Guildford and London.”

The Stranglers Live
The Stranglers Live

Q. Who’s your favourite guitarist?
“Ahh, that’s a toughie! I love everyone from Chet Atkins to Angus Young to James Honeyman Scott who was the original guitar player in The Pretenders and just sublime. But, while I do appreciate virtuosos who can make a guitar ‘sing’, I’ve always been more about serving the song which is the Stranglers way. Without rowing my own boat, I am a good guitar player; I can play a cracking guitar solo along with the best of them but I’d rather lock in with the group.”

Q. What’s on your rider? When I asked JJ that a couple of years ago, he was very amusing!
“Well yes, we do request some Filipino boys with palm leaves full of… no, only joking! We don’t even have big bowls of blue Smarties or any madness like that. We are partial these days to a good Bloody Mary – which I’ve become very adept at making – so we have vodka, some wine, beer, some cold cuts, a few sarnies… Really, you just want things like nice, clean dry towels! Some water and a lot of space. It’s nice to kick around the dressing room after we’ve finished playing and toast our roaring success. The usual crap, really.”

Visit www.thestranglers.net