Mountfield

FIBRE: Like us, you may have run into Steve and his mates from OpenReach who have been conducting house by house surveys to design how to go about providing us with FTTP. That may not sound very exciting but, for the uninitiated, that stands for Fibre To The Premises. In simple terms, with great fanfares, BT announced SuperFast Broadband for Mountfield in 2013. They duly installed a cabinet outside the old pub in John's Cross. When this went live, the properties immediately neighbouring the old pub got genuine high speed broadband speeds. What also quickly became apparent was the speeds degraded with every yard data travelled along the ancient copper wires between that cabinet and the individual households. 80Mbps (lightning fast) at the pub became about 4 Mbps (okay) by Hoath Hill, 3 Mbps (okayish), to less than 2Mbps (poor) by Taylor's Cottage and less than 1Mbps (hopeless) for some properties beyond that. It's early days yet but it's beginning to look as though we can begin to dream of joining the majority of the nation who can do online courses, run businesses, etc and who won't be penalised for poor speeds if they want to sell their house.

BIG SCREEN SOCIAL NIGHTS: The new season of Mountfield Village Hall Big Screen Social Nights starts again next Friday, The 13th no less, with the iconic Rocky Horror Picture Show. The organisers are inviting people to dress up for the occasion with half price entry for those in their Rocky Horror gear. “Bring along the gang and get in the mood for a classic singalong with attitude” says the poster. Doors open 7.00 pm for a 7.30 start. A donation of just five pounds is requested towards upkeep of the hall. The usual bar and refreshments will be available.

And talking of the Village Hall Committee, we should have made clear that last week’s report on the Equiznox was from the pen of Chris Holden.

SOUTHERN WATER WORKS: This column had to be filed before this Wednesday’s drop-in session for those residents eligible to connect to the new sewer when it is completed. We shall report anything of significance next week. The situation south of Riverhall railway crossing is still unclear.

GREAT OAKS: We cannot let this autumn pass without commenting on what an amazing mast year it is. The beech mast and chestnuts are much as usual but the acorn harvest is astonishingly prolific. This will keep the jays busy; it has been calculated that each jay, working a 10-hour day at the height of the season, carries off and hides approximately 5000 acorns each year. The other curiosity this year, and it is one we have never seen before, is that the hornbeams are dropping their leaves but holding on to the old seed tassels, much as ash trees hang on to their keys long after the leaves have dropped.

CONTACT: We can always be contacted on 880614 (if no reply, just leave us your details on the answerphone) or via [email protected]. We always welcome contributions and feedback.