Preview of Latest Dragon

Award winning magazine

In 2000 the Dragon was thrilled to win two awards in competitions for village magazines. We were one of only eight runners-up to the winner in the Country Living competition which attracted 250 entries from across the country. On a more local level we gained a highly-commended certificate in the contest run by the Rural Community Council of Essex.

What are we trying to do?

The Dragon aims to give all village organisations and individuals a channel of communication. Many clubs and other organisations contribute regular reports and the letter page allows readers to express their views to a village-wide audience. The Dragon carries church news and the monthly letter from the vicar as well as the church calendar and village diary of forthcoming events. The Parish Council contribute a summary of their meetings and details of planning applications. The village school publish their news and examples of their pupil’s work. Each August we publish a village directory of useful names and telephone numbers.

The Dragon also aims to be a readable and interesting village journal. In the past we have run series of articles on local footpath walks, village history, interviews with local residents and places of interest to visit. There are occasional contributions from readers on, for example, their holiday experiences.

The Committee

The Dragon is run by a committee of villagers.  Angela Tucker is responsible for finance and Helen Pimblett and Eric Dent organise the advertising.  Jerry Platt looks after distribution and William Coleby contributes the church news.  The  joint editors are Liz Griffith-Jones, Ros Heywood and Wendy Hogg.

Want to contact us?

The best way to contact the Dragon is by email to henhamdragon@hotmail.com and one of the three editors will answer you. Are you an ex-Henhamite living somewhere far across the world or even elsewhere in this country? Why not get in touch and tell us about your new life? Would you like to receive copies of the Dragon? If you e-mail Liz we will provide you with a quote.

I was quite surprised how much copy arrived for the Dragon this month - usually everyone is on holiday and activity in the village has come to a standstill.

I interviewed Dominic Parry, the new kid on the block, about his Saffron Ice Cream Company which has just moved into Parsonage Farm, next door to the Brewery. Dominic is passionate about his product and takes care to use fresh, local ingredients and eco-friendly packaging.  I think I was most impressed by the huge stack of eggs waiting to be incorporated into the ice cream.  To make sure he only uses free range yolks Dominic cracks and separates the eggs by hand rather than buying in ready separated yolks.  Apparently the whites are just binned which seems a shame when you think of all the delicious meringues they could be turned into.

We have our regular Cookery Corner column from Helen Vincent. This month she tempts us with recipes for mussels, duck breasts and apple tart.  Delicious.  Henham Dads look forward to their October visit to Valencia.  As usual we learn more about their drinking habits than their football.  John Smith updates us on events at the Tennis Club with smiling photos of the latest tournament victors.

Chris Swain picks up on my editorial of last month about the Chinese lantern which ended up in the Wright's Piece hedge.  He points out the danger to livestock from the remnants which can come to earth anywhere.  He says that sending them off is a thoughtless act and that the subsequent littering is probably an offence.

I am happy to hand over to Ros Heywood for the October issue.