Landkey Village

The Parish Council has recently received a briefing letter from Connecting Devon and Somerset (CDS) concerning the provision of broadband in these two counties.

CDS is an organisation which has been set up to deliver next-generation broadband infrastructure to areas where the market has failed to invest. CDS is a public-private partnership aimed at drawing on the strengths of each sector to implement a cost efficient plan to bring superfast broadband to Devon and Somerset.

Their ambition is to provide superfast broadband speeds of over 24Mbps to 100% of premises in the CDS area by 2020. This is being achieved in two phases, the first covering 275,000 residents and businesses across the region while phase two will focus on the harder-to-reach areas such as the National Parks.

Here in the village of Landkey, BT Openreach has already installed fibre-optic cabling which allows residents to achieve download speeds in excess of 24Mbps, albeit at a higher cost compared with non-fibre. There may, though, be some residents in the more outlying areas of the parish who are unable to access these higher broadband speeds.

The CDS website provides fuller information and includes a broadband speed checker which some residents might find useful. Their website can be found at: http://www.connectingdevonandsomerset.co.uk

After their service on 7th August 2016, members of St Paul's Church held a brief vigil in memory of soldiers who lost their lives in World War 1. One hundred years ago that war was still raging and was claiming the lives of many soldiers, including some who lived in Landkey. In 1916, the Battle of the Somme was fought between July and November and was responsible for a large proportion of the military casualties.

The vigil took place beside a bed of poppies in the garden below the church. These poppies were planted in May this year using seed saved from poppies grown last year. Those poppies were grown from seed donated by the Diocese of Exeter in 2014 to mark the centenary of the outbreak war and they are named "Northlew" poppies in honour of the West Devon village which lost, proportionately, more of its soldiers than any other community in the UK in of World War 1.

The vigil included a roll-call of the names of the soldiers from Landkey who lost their lives in the Great War. Among the Landkey names called was that of Private Charles H Cornish who was serving in the 1st Battalion Devonshire Regiment when he was killed at Maricourt in northern France on 13th October 1915, the only casualty recorded on that day. Also called were T J Gratton and R G Lock who were awarded the Military Medal for Gallantry. We are grateful to the descendants of Private Cornish for allowing this information to be made public.

After the Family Service on 7th August we plan to hold a brief vigil in memory of soldiers who lost their lives in World War 1. One hundred years ago that war was still raging and was claiming the lives of many soldiers, including some who lived in Landkey. In 1916, the Battle of the Somme was fought between July and November and was responsible for a large proportion of the military casualties.

The vigil will take place beside the bed of poppies in the garden below the church. These poppies were planted in May this year using seed saved from poppies grown last year. Those poppies were grown from seed donated by the Diocese of Exeter in 2014 to mark the centenary of the outbreak war and they are named "Northlew" poppies in honour of the West Devon village which lost, proportionately, more of its soldiers than any other community in the UK in of World War 1.

The vigil will include a roll-call of the names of the soldiers from Landkey who lost their lives as well as readings.

Landkey  Parish Council needs to co-opt a new councillor. Anyone wishing to be considered should contact the Clerk Martin Isaac at ms.isaac@btinternet.com.

It is encouraging to discover that this website is visited increasingly often. Since its establishment in 2013, visits have risen steadily from around 500 per month to 1200 in April 2016. Together with the Landkey Village Open Forum Facebook page (the link to which can be found on the left of this page) and the Landkey Newsletter, this website aims to offer Landkey residents access to village information and to share this with others.

Contributions from village residents are welcomed and these can include pictures of local interest (e.g. events), notification of forthcoming events, matters of concern, which can be raised via the Points of View page, as well as news items.

Events and Points of View may be added without the need to log in to the website. If you would like to add new items or upload pictures, feel free to contact me at cerwaldron@gmail.com and I will let you have login information.

This website is provided by Landkey Parish Council, together with Landkey Village Hall.