Plan your visit to Lacey Green Windmill

Lacey Green windmill will re-open for 2012 on Sunday 6th May, and will be open every Sunday and Bank Holiday until Sunday 30th September. The mill is open from 2 to 5, and admission is free for Chiltern Society members producing their membership cards, otherwise £2 per adult anf £1 per child (aged 5 to 15). On Sunday 13th May the mill will be open from 11 to 5, as part of National Mills Weekend, and we will hope to have the sails turning, weather permitting. On site we will have our village Horticultural Society with their plant and produce stall, and we will also have a new local supplier of organic apple juice, who will be offering a range of tasting samples and selling their products by the bottle.

For the Queen's Diamond Jubilee the mill will be open on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday 3rd to 5th June, and (again weather permitting) we plan to dress the windmill's sails with bunting in the traditional way for celebrating national events. For further details, including full travel information, and up to date news on the above special days, please see laceygreenwindmill.org.uk.


Use your membership card to get discount at other attractions

If you are planning an outing please look at the list of attractions here where your Chiltern Society membership card will give you a discounted entry. For example if you are visiting Pitstone – there are 3 attractions in the area in our scheme – Grebe Canal Cruises, Pitstone Green Museum and Ford End watermill. If the recent wet weather continues and you want an indoor attraction, why not visit the Papertrail in Frogmore paper Mill near Hemel Hempstead and discover the history of paper.


Fighting HS2 and raising funds for the Judicial Review

Please follow the link below to see the latest Chiltern Society HS2 news round-up and news of the fundraising appeal in your browser. The April 2012 HS2 news round-up can be viewed here. PhotoGroup member Keith Hoffmeister has updated his presentation of the proposed rail route, click here to view it. He is now working on a completely new version which will show the impact along the whole route from London to Birmingham to be completed by June.


Join the Historic Buildings and Landscape Group on guided walks in Coleshill and Chesham

Walk around Coleshill with Julian Hunt – Monday 21st May 7pm Meet at Coleshill village hall car park, Barracks Hill, HP7 0LN. Fee £2. Walk around Chesham – Monday 25th June – 7pm. Meet at Chesham Museum, 15 Market Square HP5 1HG. Fee £2.50. To book a place on either or both of these walks please contact Keith Baggaley 01494 875968.


Watlington with the PhotoGroup

On Tuesday, 22 May, we revisit Watlington, an attractive town in South Oxfordshire. All Chiltern Society members are welcome to join us with their cameras. We meet at 10.30am at the car park in Hill Road, click here for a map. "Those coming on this outing, led by Barry Hunt, might in advance take a look at the Watlington location on the PhotoGroup website, click here. Because the weather was poor when we visited in September 2008 we would welcome new photos of many of these subjects," says Quiller Barrett, website editor. Lunch will be at The Chequers, a 16th century pub, followed by a visit to Swyncombe Church and Watlington Hill car park, a popular Chilterns escarpment viewpoint and excellent photographic opportunity. Contact Barry Hunt for more details..


Join our walking groups for…

Half day walks on Sundays and Wednesdays with occasional additional walks on other weekdays. Additionally, full day walks on some Wednesdays. Join in on our 'Red Lion Walks' which is the theme for the season with walks either starting or ending at a 'Red Lion' pub in the Chilterns. For full details of our walks programme, including when and where to meet, see the diary on the website home page, or the walks page here or the back pages of the Society's magazine, Chiltern News.

Because of the popularity of our walks, there is a constant demand for walks leaders – you only need to know your area. Guidelines for walks' leaders are issued to new leaders. Please contact Judy Sonley, the Walks Coordinator, on 01494 712857, or email her if you're interested in organising and leading a walk.


Volunteers' Week 1 - 7 June

This is an annual campaign which celebrates the fantastic contribution that millions of volunteers make in the UK. The contribution of volunteering Every year, over 20 million people throughout England and the UK volunteer, donating more than 100 million hours to their communities every week. It has been estimated that the economic value of this activity is worth in excess of £40 billion to our economy. Services and initiatives that are vital to the running of our country simply wouldn't exist if it wasn't for volunteers. This includes the NHS, the Coastguard Rescue Service (3,500 volunteers), the Mountain and Cave Rescue Service (3,500 volunteers in England and Wales) and, of course The Chiltern Society with over 400 volunteers. In 2012 the central role of volunteers is even clearer, which means we have lots to celebrate. The 2012 London Olympics and Paralympic Games could not happen without the efforts of 70,000 plus volunteers.


Volunteering and community cohesion

Volunteering has an even greater value than ensuring our essential community services function and national events are a success. Every year, millions of people help others in all sorts of ways, most of which they probably wouldn't even think of as volunteering. This makes a crucial contribution to binding our communities, building cooperation and trust between individuals, and helping to make our communities better places to live and work. So we hope that Volunteers' Week 2012 is going to be bigger and better than ever and the Chiltern Society looks forward to welcoming new volunteers who want to help with our activities. Have a look at our website here or ring Geoff Wiggett, our volunteer co-ordinator, on 01442 875906 for more information.


Aston Rowant National Nature Reserve – Talking Trail

The Society is assisting Natural England to develop this exciting new project. We are looking for more Chiltern Society members/friends to help. Please see attached flysheet.