COFFEE AND SALE - There will be a coffee morning and table sale at the church hall, Knighton, on Saturday from 10.30am to noon.

OPEN GARDENS - On Saturday and Sunday residents of the Cwm will be opening 10 gardens to the public in aid of The Samaritans and Hope Hospice. There will be tea and cakes and a plant stall. Tickets are £3 per adult or £5 for two, children go free but must be accompanied. Tickets available at shops and cafes around the town ahead of the event and from the gardens on the day. Look for the yellow signs. For details, call Knighton Community Support on 01547 520653.

SUNDAY SERVICES - St Edward’s Church, Knighton, 9.30am morning worship led by Rev Peter Cope. St David’s, Whitton, 9.30am led by Rev Gordon Mansfield. St Andrew’s, Norton, 11am led by Rev Melia Cope.

Knighton Baptist, 11am led by Rev Maggie Rich. Knighton Catholic Church, Holy Mass 11am. Knighton Methodist, 11am led by church members.

AGM - Knighton Community Centre’s AGM on Monday at 7.30pm in the centre’s Reynolds Room comes after a long period of uncertainty about the venue’s future and with a community development consultant, specially commissioned by Glasu, the Rural Development Plan Funding Agency for Powys, soon to report his conclusions on its viability. The consultant will be presenting his interim findings to the AGM based on responses to a widely circulated community questionnaire. Powys County Council’s longawaited decision on whether it will fund urgently needed repairs or support the centre in the future will depend on his findings.

Also hinging on the report is the management committee’s application for Big Lottery funding, without which the centre’s facilities, from heating boilers to window frames to furnishings, cannot be improved.

Management committee chairman Karen Plant will urge local people to come forward to offer assistance, both as committee members and as volunteer workers to help with storage, painting, decorating and carrying out minor repairs. Anyone wishing to stand for election to the committee is asked to call Karen on 07751 221487, email knightoncomm@ googlemail. com or use the contact page on the Knighton Community Centre website.

WINNERS - The winners of the Knighton Town Silver Band 100 Cub for June are £20 Chris Branford, £10 Ann Edwards and £5 Flora Edwards.

GIFT DAY - Next Thursday, June 21, from 7pm Knighton Baptist Church will be holding it’s annual gift day in the Norton Street School room.

KNIGHTON PLAYGROUND - Over the last month many changes have been made to the playground next to the Knighton and District Community Centre thanks to Powys County Council. Not only has the council committed to spending £5,000 on new play equipment they have also put in a bench, a bin and cut back hedges as requested by a group of local mums. Old matting has been taken up and grass seed has been sown in preparation for the new play equipment. It is hoped that the play equipment will be in place by the end of the second week of August. This enthusiastic group of mums has also presented new county councillor Peter Medlicott with a petition containing 274 signatures.

COFFEE - The Samaritans are holding a coffee morning at the Tower House Gallery on Monday from 10am till noon.

EXHIBITION - In June, 63 Peckham school children were ‘evacuated’ to Shropshire in a ground breaking educational experience to bring Second World War history to life and bring two very different school communities together. Hundreds of people in the local community took part in the project and a small group came forward to share their childhood stories of evacuation and air raids, rationing and making do. Artist Kate Morgan- Clare did further research to build a body of work around the stories. Her series of drawings and paper garments is on exhibition at Knighton Library from Tuesday until July 7, in support of Amnesty International. For more details, call Kate on 07813 786581.

TEA AND CONCERT - There will be an afternoon tea and variety concert at Cwmwhitton Farm on Sunday, starting at 4.30pm. £8 for adults and £4 for children, in aid of Whitton Church and the Wales Air Ambulance. For more information, call 01547 560209.

ST DAVID’S LADIES’ GUILD - St David’s Church, Heyope, Ladies’ Guild will be meeting at Knucklas Community Centre on Tuesday. At the meeting Isabel Morris will be talking about her visit to Gambia.

WI - Llanfair Waterdine WI has been runners up twice recently. At the county show of the Powys Radnor Federation (PRF) of Women's Institutes it won the Peter Jenkins Award for coming second and the Joan Lewis Shield for gaining the highest number of points in the arts and photographic section. It also came second in the PRF annual quiz held in Crossgates Community Centre, losing to Stow and Stanage WI by four points.

ARTS AND GARDENS FESTIVAL - The festial in Llanfair Waterdine on June 23-24 is in aid of St Mary’s Church, Send a Cow, Smile Train, the British Heart Foundation and local youth charities. There will be major displays of art in the Everest Hall and Book Art in St Mary’s Church by the Marches Book Art Group. Both venues will be open from 10am-5pm on both days. The church will also host children’s art workshops as well as a Young Musicians’ Concert at 6pm on the Saturday and choral evensong with Llanfair Singers at 6.30pm on Sunday. Participating gardens will be open from noon-5pm on both days as will the Melin-y-Grogue Gallery showing 21st century art. Plants will also be for sale at the Derrells. Refreshments, including ploughman’s lunches, will be available at the Everest Hall. All the art and much of the Book Art will be for sale. One ticket at £5 - ages 16 and under free – will cover all events. Anyone interested in taking part in a Book Art workshop on Saturday or Sunday can contact Marilyn Tippett on 01547 528842. For more information, visit llink.org/art.htm, call Graham Trew on 01547 510327, Robert Taylor on 529706 or email art@llink.org.uk.

ROYAL CONNECTION - A chair in the Offa’s Dyke Antique Centre in Knighton is the same as one in the Queen’s collection at Sandringham. The three-legged turned arts and craft chair dates from the 1880s and is valued at around £500. Islwyn Watkins from Knighton said: “It is known that Edward VII bought a chair identical to the one in the shop in the 1880s.”