Dragon Magazine

Preview of Latest Dragon
	The Dragon appears at the beginning of each month. It is unusual in village magazines in that it is distributed free to all households in the parish. The production cost is covered by advertising and distribution is carried out by a large number of volunteers.
The magazine is run by an editorial committee. Although it carries church and parish council news it is independent of both the church and the council. Award winning magazine In 2000 the Dragon was thrilled to win two awards in competitions for village magazines. We were one of only eight runners-up to the winner in the Country Living competition which attracted 250 entries from across the country. On a more local level we gained a highly-commended certificate in the contest run by the Rural Community Council of Essex. What are we trying to do? The Dragon aims to give all village organisations and individuals a channel of communication. Many clubs and other organisations contribute regular reports and the letter page allows readers to express their views to a village-wide audience. The Dragon carries church news and the monthly letter from the vicar as well as the church calendar and village diary of forthcoming events. The Parish Council contribute a summary of their meetings and details of planning applications. The village school publish their news and examples of their pupil’s work. Each August we publish a village directory of useful names and telephone numbers. The Dragon also aims to be a readable and interesting village journal. In the past year we have run series of articles on local footpath walks, village history, interviews with local residents and places of interest to visit. There are occasional contributions from readers on, for example, their holiday experiences. A new series in 2001 looks at the nuts and bolts of researching family history. The Committee The Dragon is run by a committee of villagers. Angela Tucker is responsible for finance and Helen Pimblett and Eric Dent organise the advertising. Jerry Platt looks after distribution and William Coleby contributes the church news. The editor is Liz Griffith-Jones and associate editors are Ros Heywood and Wendy Hogg. Want to contact us? The best way to contact the Dragon is to e-mail Liz Griffith-Jones on Lizgj@aol.com. Are you an ex-Henhamite living somewhere far across the world or even elsewhere in this country? Why not get in touch and tell us about your new life? Would you like to receive copies of the Dragon? If you e-mail Liz we will provide you with a quote.
August Dragon

This issue sees my return to editing the Dragon after a two month break. Many thanks to my co-editors Ros Heywood and Wendy Hogg for a couple of excellent issues in my absence.

Wendy has very bravely offered to fill a gap in our provision for younger readers. This issue sees the first of her articles from 'The Dragon's Den'. With the help of her teenage children she has written a lively piece on how to survive boredom in the school holidays and how to stay safe when visiting London.

Also with youngsters in mind I have included a piece on Essex Police's Smart Summer initiative. This is another attempt to stave off boredom during the holidays.

The editorial asks readers to point their youngsters to both of these items as I don't really expect anyone under the age of 30 to look at the Dragon. I also suggest that we shouldn't be flying the flag of St George all day, every day on the new flagpole. I suspect this will bring down a certain amount of wrath upon my head but I feel that flags should be flown to mark special days and occasions. Anyway, why the flag of St George and not the Union flag?

A bit of relief from eco-town proposals now that the consultation period is over though Nick Baker spells out the current position on the eco-town and option 4.

The Henham Dads footballers do their best to support the village pub in their article and we also have our regular news from the tennis club, garden society and school.

Liz Griffith-Jones