Littleton-upon-Severn is a village in South Gloucestershire

South Gloucestershire

South Gloucestershire is a unitary district in the ceremonial county of Gloucestershire, in South West England.-History:The district was created in 1996, when the county of Avon was abolished, by the merger of former area of the districts of Kingswood and Northavon...

 near the mouth of the River Severn

River Severn

The River Severn is the longest river in Great Britain, at about , but the second longest on the British Isles, behind the River Shannon. It rises at an altitude of on Plynlimon, Ceredigion near Llanidloes, Powys, in the Cambrian Mountains of mid Wales...

 and is located to the west of Thornbury

Thornbury, South Gloucestershire

Thornbury is a market town in South Gloucestershire, England, approximately 12 miles north of the city of Bristol, with a population of 12,342 at the 2001 UK census. The town hosts South Gloucestershire Council headquarters and is twinned with Bockenem in Germany. Thornbury is a Britain in Bloom...

.

The village has a church, village hall, post box and public phone box as well as a popular 17th Century pub called The White Hart.

Littleton Brick Pits are an artificial lagoon, once the site of clay extraction for brick making, where the Avon Wildlife Trust

Avon Wildlife Trust

The Avon Wildlife Trust aims to protect and promote wildlife in the area of the former county of Avon — now Bath and North East Somerset, Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire, in England...

 have reintroduced reedbeds close to the Severn Estuary

Severn Estuary

The Severn Estuary is the estuary of the River Severn, the longest river in Great Britain. Its high tidal range means it has been at the centre of discussions in the UK regarding renewable energy.-Geography:...

, as a feeding and resting place for migrating birds.

Littleton Festival

Since 2004, Littleton has hosted a small music festival for local bands in the summer of each year. The festival has traditionally taken place on the river bank and is always a popular event for people of all ages. In the past the festival has often started around mid-afternoon and has finished around midnight. The stage has traditionally been a large trailer, which in the past has just been sufficient enough for a 5-piece band including the space-consuming drum kit, keyboard and amplifiers. There are also tents for food, a bar, children's games and confectionery and first aid as well as an outdoor 9-pin bowling alley. There is often a raffle and magic show half way through the day.

The idea came from Jon Swift, singer and guitarist from village band, This 'n' That. At that time the village church roof needed to be replaced and so all the profits from the festival were given to the church roof fund. The festival was named Littleton Annual Festival of Fun (LAFF), although a second festival was not planned at that time.

The event was such a success, that the organisers planned a second festival for 2005. This time, Jane Gulliver took over from Jon as lead organiser and the profits were divided so that some money went into the next festival and the rest was put into a fund to buy a marquee for future village events. The festival was renamed Littleton Festival.

Littleton Festival is now officially in its fourth year. The organisation of the event for 2007 has been resumed by Jon Swift, joined by Debbie Parsons. The new organisers have decided not to run the festival in its traditional form and are 'down-sizing' for a year, instead holding a night of Music in the Marquee. This decision was taken due to problems financing a full scale festival.

Committee

The Village Hall Committee was set up to look after the village hall, by collecting money and maintaining the building. The current chairman is Allison Gould

Activities

The village hall committee often host many activities during each year. These include American village suppers, guest talks and presentations, small concerts, wine-tasting and many more different events. In the past, the hall has also been used for private functions such as band practices and children's parties.

This 'n' That

This 'n' That are a band traditionally for Littleton musicians. The band was started in early 2002 by Jon Swift and originally had 5 members (a keyboard, two electric guitars, one acoustic guitar, one drum-kit). In the past they have described themselves as Littleton's musically-challenged band. The band play a variety of different styles of music ranging from old favourites to modern-day rock as well as composing a few of their own tracks.

This 'n' That have performed annually in village events and hosted the 2004 Littleton Festival (then the Littleton Annual Festival of Fun).

The Whale

The village became famous on 15 January 1885 when a whale was stranded on the river shore there. That area of the village has since been named Whale Wharf.

Millennium Record

The Littleton Millennium Record was a project to record and distribute visual and literal information about the village including its history, so that future villagers and historians can look back and see the village as it was at the beginning on the 21st Century. The book was put together by the Village Hall committee in 2000 and free copies were given to every household in the village. A video documentary was also produced for the record, but was expanded when Foot and mouth disease

2001 UK foot and mouth crisis

The outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in the United Kingdom in 2001 caused a crisis in British agriculture and tourism. This epizootic saw 2,000 cases of the disease in farms in most of the British countryside. Over 10 million sheep and cattle were killed in an eventually successful attempt to...

 reached the village. The documentary was directed by Christopher Parsons

Christopher Parsons

Christopher Eugene Parsons OBE was an award-winning English wildlife film-maker and the executive producer of David Attenborough's Life on Earth, widely regarded as one of the finest and most influential of nature documentaries...

and Produced by David Wilkins and was finished and distributed throughout the village in 2002(?).

Whale Wharf Business Park

Somewhat surprisingly for such a rural area, there was a factory beside Whale Wharf producing machines for fabricating microchips. The factory, 'Electrotech' has now been moved to larger premises elsewhere.

External links