You will find the SCA Ceddesfeld Hall pamphlet for 2026 included with your newsletter. Outlined are the annual community events and regular activities for the various interest and hobby groups which take place at Ceddesfeld throughout the year. SCA are keen to hear from anyone who may wish to start a new group and/or regular activity. The room hire rates are very competitive, and the rooms are spacious and comfortable, with free Wi-Fi. The SCA website has been updated, in readiness for the new year.
Burns Supper 2026 – 24 January
SCA is delighted to host the annual and very traditional Burns Supper. The evening starts at 7pm with a sparkling wine reception followed by a traditional meal of scotch broth, haggis, neeps and tatties, or roast beef, (vegetarian option provided on request), then sweets, cheese board, coffee & mints, whisky or port. There will of course be a traditional address to the Haggis, and a Toast to Immortal Memory and Verses, with poetry and music too – all for £35! To book your table, please contact any of the numbers below.
Sections, Groups and Friends – Subscribe to the SCA - Update
The most supportive thing you can do for SCA is to become a member!
In January, SCA will begin to renew and collect the annual subscription fees from all sections and groups. If you use Ceddesfeld Hall regularly or come along to support and/or volunteer at community events you can become a ‘Friend of SCA’ member. You do not need to be a member to visit our CAMRA listed bar and lounge, however, membership helps support the hall and ensures the bar remains a facility for the village. You can join by using a brown envelope kept behind the bar at Ceddesfeld Hall or by using the new online system at membermojo.co.uk/sedgefieldsca, which is very straightforward. All members are entitled to reduced room hire rates.
The membership fees are £9 for adults, £8 for over 60s, and £4.50 for young people and students. Some sections may make additional charges.
If you need help or information, please contact the membership secretary Jean Easson on 01740 620656.
One of the excitements of a New Year for me is starting a new bird list! Every year many birders look back at the past year and think about the birds they missed (dipped out on) and what their year total could have been! The Wryneck they couldn’t find at South Gare or the Black Tern that flew past Hartlepool five minutes before they arrived, but they also consider the rarities they did see like the Bluethroat or the Olive-backed Pipit.
Seeing new species and the search for them has been shown to help your mental health and improve your connection to nature. This is not the only benefit - the records help scientists to monitor populations, see which areas are important and hopefully conserve these sites for the future.
Like most things these days there is an app for recording. BirdTrack is a citizen science project run by the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) and partners that allows birdwatchers to record sightings and contribute to conservation research across Britain and Ireland. It’s both a personal logbook for birders and a collective database that helps scientists track migration patterns, distributions, and population changes.
It is easy to use; you download the app, it knows where you are and gives you a ready-made list of the species you might see in that location and then you just tick the species that you do see. You can also see what other people have recorded in the same area. It keeps a record of everything you see, everywhere, and can tell you at the end of the year your total for that year and then you are able to compare with the previous year. So if you want to contribute to this citizen science project download the app and have a go.
The other thing you could consider doing this New Year is getting involved in the New Year Plant Hunt run by the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland. Each year, across a set of days around New Year, intrepid botanists of all ages and abilities set out to record which wild plants they can find in bloom.
By recording the wild plants in flower in your local patch in the depths of winter, you can help them gather valuable data about how our wild or naturalised plants are responding to a changing climate, and how this might impact the other species that rely upon them. You can get more information about how to get involved at bsbi.org/take-part/activities/new-year-plant-hunt.
The House and Garden Group had an exceptionally busy month with visits to Brancepeth Castle, where they were treated to a private, guided behind-the-scenes tour, to Raby Castle for their annual Christmas Fayre, and to Aglow at Bishop Auckland Deer Park where they were able to meander around and through the spectacular light installations, albeit on a cold and damp evening. The u3a may be an organisation for the older resident but our members certainly do not believe in just sitting at home; they really do make the most of places to see, people to meet.
