Barrow Upon Soar Community Association is a Registered charity (a C.I.O.) that organizes and runs many community activities in Barrow. It consists of a number of subgroups, each with its own role.
Pick up one of our new flyers from around the village, summarising what BUSCA is all about and giving you contact details for the various activities that make up BUSCA. You can also become a member by filling out the application form.
Our main BUSCA Trustee's meetings are usually held four times a year. Do come along.
The Annual General Meeting for 2023 will be on Tues 16th May starting at 7.00 in Barrow library.
The next trustees meeting will be on Tues 16th May 2023 at 7.00 in Barrow library. Everybody is welcome but email faddison@hotmail.co.uk or phone 07896 3024 to receive the papers.
This lively, full-colour, free village magazine is produced quarterly by an editorial team of about nine members all of whom are volunteers. In 2023 the print run was 3300 copies per edition. The content is wide ranging but concentrates on publicising BUSCA events, topics of concern in the village, such as the new housing developments, supporting local businesses and interviews with local people in relation to their business or individual achievements.
The team has staged a Christmas Street Market that was accompanied by activities for kids and competitions for householders. The next big event will be a Barrow Fete in April working with Humphrey Perkins School and located in the school. We look forward to a River Festival in 2024.
The Group regularly meets and works on projects with connections to the history of Barrow including the history of Hall Orchard primary school using an archive of old documents. Recently they have been recording events in the development of BUSCA using old copies of Barrow Voice. For more information about their work and projects, visit their website www.barrowuponsoarheritage.org.uk
Barrow Library continues to develop and serve the community. Our volunteers are the key to success and they run the library with skill and a warm welcome for everyone. We are in the midst of trying to extend the space of the library to give us more room for our Independent Book Loan service, to attract more hirers, enable us to provide a better service for children and ….lots more. We are also working on making the car park more accessible for people with mobility issues and for carers with small children. We depend on income from hiring the library space when the library service is closed. This is still not back up to pre-covid levels.
We were very thankful for the decision of the Parish Council to effectively form a financial partnership with us.
Barrow Upon Soar is twinned with the French town of Marans in the Charente Maritime of Southwest France, very close to La Rochelle.
Although the Twinning Association was only formed in 2006, and became part of BUSCA in 2014, the links between the two Communities go back to the Fifties. In those days the exchanges were between Humphrey Perkins School and the School in Marans. Some of the youngsters who took part in those early exchanges still take part in exchanges today.
The exchanges between the Schools which continued until the late 1970s unfortunately no longer take place but the Twinning Association continues to arrange biannual visits and many enduring friendships between families in the two communities have been established.
We have a varied social calendar which includes Garden Parties, Quiz Nights, Pie Nights, Talks, Theatre Visits, dances and much more. Members and their guests are always welcome to our events which are well publicised both in the local press and around the Village.
We are always happy to welcome new members or simply to offer advice about holiday opportunities in the area. If you are interested in joining or would simply like to know more about the Twinning Association, please contact; Ted Rodgers 01509 416533 or Helen Duxbury 01509 552867
The Association will host an exchange to Barrow of the Marans Twinning friends in June 2023.
The small team of BUSCA website administrators works hard to keep Barrow's five community websites up-to-date and jammed full of useful info. That's the BUSCA, Village, Barrow Voice, Library and Heritage websites. You can pick up a flyer which gives you more information from lots of places in Barrow. The flyer goes hand in hand with a Welcome Pack for new residents. Ask in the library for your Pack.
Contact admin@busca.org.uk if you would like to request your own business page or community group page on the Village website.
The Village website also offers an information service - just use the Contact Us button.
As you can see, there is (usually) a lot going on. We value the continued support of our members.
For details of all forthcoming events, visit the Forthcoming Events page.
Almost all of these events were announced and reported in Barrow Voice, our splendid quarterly community magazine.
So you can see that there is plenty of variety in what BUSCA does. If you would like to join us, contact the Membership Secretary via busca-membership@busca.org.uk or give or give Lin a phone call on 01509 620285 or email eluned.webb@gmail.com or click on SUPPORT US and follow the links. THERE'S ALWAYS SOMETHING NEW GOING ON.
The Village website also offers an information service - https://barrowuponsoar.org.uk/
