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Vacancy – Parish Clerk and Responsible Financial Officer.  

Due to planned retirement of the current Parish Clerk in June 2020 Woodnesborough Parish Council is seeking to recruit a Clerk to be the Proper Officer and Responsible Financial Officer of the Council. The Council is seeking to appoint a suitable replacement in good time to allow an orderly handover of responsibilities.

Salary will be according to experience in accordance with the National Joint Council for Local Government services salary scales SCP16 to SCP23. Hours are 6 hours per week. Candidates must be pro-active and highly motivated to promote the interest of the community in all aspects of council business.

Hours are flexible as long as meeting deadlines are met and evening meeting attended. Duties for this home-based appointment include attending 11 monthly evening Parish Council meetings per year usually on the fourth Tuesday of each month, plus the Annual Parish Meeting in May; preparing the agenda; taking minutes and giving procedural advice; carrying out the Council’s administrative tasks; keeping financial records; preparing accounts and the annual budget and preparing records for audit purposes; dealing with general enquiries and correspondence. Communicating with principal authorities and other organisations, managing the meeting process, preparing reports and other functions including dealing with contractors and liaising with residents.

The Council employs an environmental engineer for 3 hours a week. Part of the duties involve managing this member of staff.  

The ideal candidate will be a good communicator, with a professional attitude, and who is confident that they can work on their own initiative. They must have good interpersonal skills and the necessary ability to handle the organisational, computing, administrative and financial tasks required. The ideal candidate will also be either a qualified Clerk or prepared to study for and obtain the CiLCA qualification.

The Clerk to Woodnesborough  Parish Council currently Clerks for both Eastry and Great Mongeham Parish Councils as well. The Councils are willing to continue with this arrangement if one person would be interested in undertaking all three roles.

Apply to Sarah Wells Clerk to the Parish Council wood.pc@yahoo.com  01304 614320 for additional information or an informal chat.

Closing date for applications 13th March 2020

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A Short History Of Woodnesborough

 
Woodnesborough (Wodens beorg, meaning “Woden’s Hill) stands on an old Roman road from Richborough to Dover. The village takes its name from the Saxon god of wisdom. Woden has given his name to the third day of the week, originally called “Woden’s Day” but now known as ‘Wednesday’. The village is also associated with another Saxon deity: the main street was once called Cold Friday Street after the goddess Friga.
 
Certain wells, trees and stones were considered sacred by the Saxons and one of these was at Woodnesborough, dedicated to the worship of Woden.
According to legend, pagan meetings were held on Fir Tree Hill – a large mound on which the present church is built. Until the middle Ages, Kent was separated from the Isle of Thanet by the sea and this would have been a splendid site overlooking the water. Legend also says that a solid gold statue of Woden is buried in the hill.
 
There are many other stories about the mound which is supposedly artificial. It is said to be the burial place of King Vortmer, who died in AD 457 and, according to chroniclers, “desired to be buried near the place where the Saxons used to land, being persuaded that his bones would deter them from any attempt in the future”. Another theory is that the hill was the burial mound for the dead of the great battle between the kings of Mercia and Wessex which was fought at “Woodnesbeorh’ in 715. No one knows the truth of these myths but a number of Anglo-Saxon artefacts have been found on the site.
 
In the 16th and 17th centuries Flemish refugees settled in the area to escape religious persecution.   Their influence can be seen in the old brick houses such as Melville House and Street Farm House of which have typical Dutch gables. The refugees also reclaimed the marshes north of Woodnesborough for market gardening. These are called ‘polders’ after the reclaimed land in Holland.
 
The Church was built in 1180 by Ascelinda de Wodenberg. The tower once had a steeple but this was taken down in 1740 when the present wooden copula and balustrade was added, an unusual and possibly unique feature. Fortunately it survived restoration in 1884.
 
In 1910 work began on a colliery at Woodnesborough to exploit the newly discovered Kent coalfield, but it soon closed. In the 1920s, further plans were drawn up for a new pit and mining town to house 12,000 people. Again the scheme was abandoned as the great Depression set the economy back.

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