TESCO is being urged to make the front of its new store in Stratford-upon-Avon High Street look like nearby Jack Wills. The supermarket chain is putting a Tesco Express where HMV used to be, but townspeople are concerned the proposed shop front could spoil the “historic spine” of the town. There is even a £50,000 pot of Stratford District Council and Stratford Society money available for companies to make their fronts more traditional.
PATIENTS in South Warwickshire will soon be able to order their medicine over WhatsApp, Skype, and FaceTime. A new internet pharmacy that delivers prescription medicine to the door has opened in Wixford near Bidford-on-Avon. The pharmacists behind DELmyMEDS are hoping to capitalise on concerns over how to get to the village’s new health centre, a mile outside Bidford.
ANGIE MIDCALF hasn’t got hair anymore but a children’s charity she supports is £3,000 better off thanks to her selfless head-shave in front of crowds of people.
TEENAGER Ingrid Laubscher has successfully swam the English Channel in aid of Diabetes UK. The Stratford-upon-Avon Girls’ Grammar School sixth former and her team recently completed their challenge in 17 hours and 16 minutes but not without incident after Ingrid sustained a nasty gash to her leg on entering the water for the first time. Undeterred, she continued her swim despite needing hospital treatment on her return to Dover.
WARWICK District Council will welcome approximately 2,000 competitors and thousands of spectators to Leamington for the English Bowls Championships, which start on Saturday. Leamington has traditionally been the home of the women’s championships but this is the first year both the womens and men’s championships have been held in the town following Bowls England’s decision to relocate from Worthing to Leamington in 2012.
A KNEE injury to Joe Halsall overshadowed Stratford Town’s 2-1 defeat at home to Stourbridge on Saturday in their latest pre-season friendly game. The influential midfielder landed awkwardly 14 minutes into the game after rising to head home Jamie Sheldon’s left-wing corner for Town’s equaliser, after Sean Geddes had given the Glassboys an eighth-minute lead. Halsall was taken to hospital immediately after the incident. The winning goal also came in the first-half when Ben Bellingham lashed home a fierce left-footed shot past Town keeper Andy Kemp on 27 minutes.
Stratford Town 2 Leamington 2 STRATFORD Town came from behind twice to force a draw with Conference North neighbours Leamington on Tuesday night. It was an impressive friendly performance against a team two leagues above the home side, with new signings and academy boys stepping up in the absence of some first-team players.
GAME of Thrones star Sophie Turner has become a patron of a Warwick-based theatre group for young people. Sophie, who plays Sansa Stark in the hugely popular HBO television series, is a former Warwick Prep and King’s High pupil who joined Playbox Theatre company when she was three years old.
FROM Greensleeves to Elgar, modern musicals to madrigals, this year’s Wootton Wawen Music Festival from 9th to 14th June is intended to capture the ‘Essence of England’ in melody.
FOURTEEN young people from South Warwickshire performed extracts from Shakespeare’s plays last night in the Speaker’s apartments in the Palace of Westminster.
NIRVANA Unplugged was recreated by a dozen musicians in Alcester on Saturday 17th May and the gathered crowd lapped up every second of the gig.
Misaki Morita from Japan visited England for the Shakespeare Birthday Celebrations and while here saw Tread the Boards Theatre Company’s Othello, which ran until Sunday and returns to the Attic Theatre for the Stratford Arts Festival…
SECOND Thoughts Drama Group seems to be re-establishing its reputation for putting on challenging performances, to not only stretch the company’s ability but also to stretch the audience, as last weekend’s production at the Bear Pit Theatre proved. Graham Taylor, who was making his directoral debut with the drama group having previously directed for Avonside Players, set himself a huge task when opting to stage Terence Rattigan’s hugely acclaimed The Deep Blue Sea.
AROUND 4,500 people turned out for a dazzling fireworks display at the Royal Shakespeare Company theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon on Wednesday 23rd April, in celebration of William Shakespeare's 450th Birthday. Below is a video of that display, which cost £30,000 and was paid for entirely by the RSC out of the West End profits from Matilda, The Musical.
A 59-year-old man working at Alveston Manor was airlifted to hospital today (Wednesday) after suffering severe burns while cleaning the kitchen. An air ambulance landed on the cricket pitch of the recreation grounds shortly after midday and airlifted the immobilised man to the specialist burns unit at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham. The member of staff, burned on his chest and arms, arrived at hospital at 12:40pm. Alveston Manor are conducting a full investigation into the incident.
