OUT AND ABOUT: History Road Show at Bidford Library held last Friday was a great success. The village pictures, some of Dunnington before and during my youth brought back memories, also, pictures of Warwickshire past array of petty criminals and the stiff sentence metered out to them was fascinating and the array of fossils and stuffed wildlife were worth seeing.

The show of collectibles at the Crawford Hall on Sunday, October 27, was well attended, displays of many items of interest, fine refreshments and a white elephant all for The British Tumour Charity.

Pitchill Autumn Fair takes place on the weekend of November 16 and 17, 10am to 6pm for Pitchill House funds.

Bingo, Crawford Hall, November 1 and 15.

The Vintage Tractor and Ploughing contest took place on Sunday, October 27, at Tower Hill on Mr Harry Smith's farm. A rather windswept and cold morning but well attended with eye-catching Fordsons, Fergusons and even some old 'Trusty' tractors all ploughing a straight furrow for everyone's entertainment.

Salford School: A Ladies Beauty Evening is scheduled for early November, 7pm until 10pm. Admittance £2 including a glass on wine.

Welford Village Hall, Saturday, bazaar to raise funds for Welford Cat rescue, 2pm.

Stow

EMBROIDERERS' GUILD: At the beginning of the month there was a talk given by Brian MacDonald entitled Tribal Rugs: Treasures of the Black Tent. Brian is a humorous and enthusiastic speaker and spoke from experience, having lived for a while in the 1970s among the tribes of the Middle East.

It was on the borders of Iran and Afghanistan that he was introduced to the mysteries of the Black Tent, to the traditional work of the women of the tribes. He saw the spinning and carding of the wool garnered from the underside of the sheep, and then the dyeing and the weaving of the wool into symbolic designs which had their origin more than two thousand years ago.

The day course this month was given by Liz Harding - Embroiderers' Landscape. Liz described to course members how she felt about the Cotswold landscape as she drove from Cirencester. She had thoughts of hand stitching as she saw the field patterns and the autumn trees. There followed an explanation of the composition and development of colour in the environment and attention paid to the changing shapes.

At the end of the day members displayed their work and the variety of approach and technique shown was amazing.