Crafts, Training, Workshops

The Power of Purple with Epwell’s Ridge and Furrow Lavender

In November, Peter & Carolyn Koch de Gooreynd came to talk about their family business growing and distilling lavender

The meeting opened with two minutes silence for David Willatts. David was an anaesthetist in Banbury and in the past he has given us a very interesting talk on the history of anaesthetics. He travelled widely with his wife Alison, and we had several very good presentations about their travels.

Peter and Carolyn live on the edge of Epwell, where the long distance d’Arcy Dalton Way climbs out of the village towards Shennington. About 15 years ago they started to convert the field next to them into a lavender farm. Currently the rows of lavender plants occupy an area of about 200 yards by 50 yards. With occasional help from their son they do all the work themselves. They had no previous experience of large scale lavender growing and therefore there was a lot of trial error. Peter summarised their business as: Plants to planting, Drying to distilling, and Products to sell.

Every part of the plant is used. They produce body oil; lavender hydrosol, a milder product than the oil; soap; lavender bags and firelighters, made from the dried stalks. They sell on-line, and in one year they attended 200 local markets. They are pleased to have been accepted at Clarkson’s Farm where they have a pop-up shop.

Their plants need to keep there colour, and the plant type has to be a good producer of oil. Their chosen colour is purple. They have around 5 types, including Maillette from Provence. They visited a grower there and came back with 400 plants. Their motto is: Dream it, Build it, Grow it.  

Lavender does not like to be in water, nor does it like temperatures below about 7 degrees centigrade. They have created their own ridges. Initially they had to strip 2 kilometres of turf. Drainage trenches are also needed. A strong ground membrane is laid and a 4 inch diameter hole is pierced for each plant.  Although the membrane suppresses weeds, they still have problems with them. The plants have a life of around 7 years, so it is necessary to keep introducing replacements. 

Distillation is done in a 40 litre copper vessel and this means the plants are processed in relatively small batches. The harvesting period is 3-4 weeks. Lavender is used for its calming and anti-inflammatory properties, offering benefits to sleep, anxiety, skin health, and pain relief. It can also be used for aromatherapy.

After the meeting their products were for sale. Peter and Carolyn were thanked for an informative and entertaining talk.

Our next meeting is on Monday 1^st December when we have our Christmas Party which includes a buffet supper and Christmas raffle. We meet in the Village Hall at 7 30 pm.

Eric Darvell 

46^th Annual General Meeting

Annual General Meetings provide the opportunity to review the previous 12 months and look forward to the year ahead. Over the past 12 months the Society held 11 interesting meetings.  Attendances averaged 41.

The meeting opened with two minutes silence for Ken Minor. He died suddenly in September and he will be remembered as an energetic member of the Brailes community. He will be missed.

Ian Haycock chaired the meeting. His daughter-in-law Katie is our meeting secretary and her varied programme is a major factor for the Society’s continued success. To give a few examples: we started 2025 with Dr Thorogood talking about his career in General Practice; later in the year, Sheldon Banks talked about the modern uses of steam; and then Richard Gray talked about butterflies and moths. All  three speakers are closely connected to Brailes. Katie has almost completed next year’s programme. We are very grateful for what she does for us.

Thanks also go to founder-members Michael and Stuart Cummings. Michael does the raffle at each meeting. Stuart is the Treasurer. He reported that our finances are in good order.

Eric Darvell continues as Secretary. The remaining committee members are John and Theresa Wakeham.

In September 2025 we had 70 paid members. Our subscriptions are £5. Guests are welcome at all meetings, and no charge is made.

We appreciate the excellent facilities provided by the Village Hall Committee and we work closely with them.

Our evening concluded with tea and biscuits followed by the raffle.

Our next meeting is on Monday 3^rd November at 7:30 in the Village Hall. Ridge and Furrow Lavender are coming from Epwell to talk on The Power of Purple.

Eric Darvell
Secretary

Ken Minor on The Apollo Story – the Voyage to the Moon

The USA’s six Apollo flights are the only crewed landings on the Moon to date.
 Apollo 11 was the first in July 1969, and it was followed by 12, 14, 15, 16, 17. Number 13 was aborted. The crew successfully returned to earth. The programme ended in 1972 after Apollo17. Our member Ken Minor gave a fascinating talk describing the start of space travel after the Second World War.

 Ken’s interest in space travel started in his early childhood. In 1957 the Russians launched the first satellite to circle the world. They called it Sputnik and although it was only 2 feet in diameter it caused a sensation. His father asked him to get a paper with the news of this achievement. By the time Ken got to the shop the only paper available was the Daily Mirror. He brought along his treasured copy. 

In 1960 a monkey survived a journey into space. The Americans decided to respond to the  Sputnik launch and in 1961 President Kennedy announced that they would have a man on the Moon by the end of the decade. At the programme’s peak 440,000 people were working on Apollo. Their rocket was 360 feet high, three times the height of Brailes church tower. It weighed nearly 3000 tons when fully fuelled. The fuel was a petroleum product.

There were a number of landmark events. In December 1968, Apollo 8 was the first crewed flight to  circle the Moon. Several lunar orbits were made. In March1969 Apollo 9 demonstrated life support systems, and in May Apollo 10 went  within 15 kilometres of the moon’s surface.

This was followed by Apollo 11’s crew landing on the Moon in July. The low gravity on the Moon reduced the weight of their 80 kilogram space suits, which, being so heavy, were difficult to walk in on earth. The temperature on the Moon is 120 degrees centigrade on its sunny side and minus 240 degrees on the dark side. The Moon doesn’t rotate.

The remaining Apollo missions explored different areas of the Moon, with later flights using the Moon Rover wheeled vehicle. In total, the programme brought back about three quarters of a ton of rock.

This was a high cost, high risk programme. The 3 man crew of the first Apollo all died on the launch pad. Apollo 12 was struck by lightning on re-entry into the earth’s atmosphere and the crew  landed safely without computer control.

Ken brought along a one metre high Lego model of Apollo 11. To commemorate 1969 it is built with 1969 pieces. He split the model up to show the sizes of the various rocket stages.
                                                              
Vic Lee thanked Ken for his excellent talk.


Our next meeting is on Monday 6^th October when we have our AGM followed by a video.
We meet at 7 30pm and all are welcome.