EASTER 2026 / MAY BANK HOLIDAYS – OPENING HOURS  Please note the surgery will be CLOSED for the long Easter weekend including the bank holidays on FRIDAY 3RD APRIL and MONDAY 6TH APRIL as well as the bank holidays on MONDAY 4TH MAY and MONDAY 25TH MAY.  Please plan ahead and make sure you have enough medication to last, remembering to order your repeats at least THREE WORKING DAYS before collection. If it’s not an emergency, you might be able to head to your local pharmacy rather than attending a GP appointment. Your local pharmacist can help you with a range of services, advice and treatment. From blood pressure checks…

Forty people, including a number of new members, attended to hear Peter Tatam from Halesworth speak on “The Old Vicarage at Grantchester”. There is evidence of settlement in Grantchester from the Saxon, Roman, Iron Age, Bronze Age and earlier periods. In the Doomsday book of 1086, it is named Grantesete. In the 1800s, much of the local land was mined for coprolites – fossilised dinosaur poo – which on treatment with sulphuric acid produces a valuable phosphate fertiliser. Although today’s population is small, at about 550, it has four public houses. The Cambridge Distillery is located in High Street with a shop offering bespoke gin experiences. Recently a bottle of…

The first day of spring in the UK occurs astronomically on the spring (vernal) equinox, when Earth’s axis is neither tilted towards or away from the Sun. In 2026 the spring equinox falls on 20 March. If you want to catch a sight of spring in Over, then a visit to Mill Pits might be worthwhile, to see ‘a host of daffodils’! Access is via the footpath off Station Road, just past the junction with New Road.

Our speaker this month was Graham Wylde, who gave a fascinating talk entitled “Maggie’s Letters”. Graham, a keen stamp collector, began by telling us about the great postal reforms of 1839-40, when penny postage was introduced, making postal services accessible to everyone. He collects Penny Red stamps on envelopes and once purchased a bundle of ten or eleven letters from a Cambridge stamp dealer, primarily because of the interesting stamps on the envelopes, paying little attention to the contents at the time. Later, Graham discovered that the letters had been written by a young girl called Maggie to her father during the Victorian era. The correspondence follows Maggie’s holidays with…

Local Government Reorganisation – consultation reminder Until Thursday 26 March, the government is consulting on four different options for Local Government Reorganisation (LGR) in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, which have been developed by different councils across the region. I cannot overstate how important this issue is and I encourage you to have your say either via the government’s consultation portal online or SCDC’s own website. Cambridge City, East Cambs and South Cambs District Councils are all in favour of option B. The Government will make a final decision on which local government structures are put into place this summer with the new unitary councils operating in a shadow capacity from May…

Sarah Doig, also from Rickinghall in mid-Suffolk, spoke to 38 attendees. Basil was a modest man and was little known outside his local area until firstly, The National Trust took over the care of the Sutton Hoo estate i(ncluding the Anglo-Saxon burial mounds) in 1998 and secondly, the Netflix film The Dig was released in 2021. He undertook many archaeological digs throughout his life, and put much effort into making detailed records of each one. Sarah spent nearly five years researching over 100 of his notebooks, with his scribbled writing, and numerous sketches. He also took many photographs but had a habit of cutting people’s heads off. Thirty-five of his…