As October begins, Littleport is gearing up for this month’s quota of enjoyable and interesting events.

Not least of these I would say is at the Women’s Institute’s next meeting, Tuesday October 11 at the Village Hall at 7.15pm (where all women are welcome) with guest speaker Lucy Lewis, a bomb disposal expert!

If you were a fan of the old TV series Danger UXB, you would be forgiven for thinking it was only a job for men.

Cecil Sharp would have agreed with that idea too.

The musician/composer who made his name as a folk song compiler came to the Isle of Ely in 1911 and listened to Littleport man Yarrow Gill who sang him many songs.

Sharp was also a well-known misogynist who was against giving women the vote.

Perhaps one of those songs he wrote down, the scary ‘False Lamkin’ could be home recorded and played at the Littleport Ex-Servicemen’s Club (LExS) ‘Spooky Halloween Family Disco’ on Sunday, October 30 at 4pm.

Littleport has great schools; the village’s Millfield Primary School children sang it at their concert in 2013!

Not to be outdone by Mr Sharp, in a virtual performance on October 6 last year, boys and girls of Littleport Community Primary sang a folk song that they’d made up themselves.

By the way, last week’s Macmillan fundraising effort at the LExS Club has netted about £1,000 so far!

And looking ahead, Littleport Leisure centre hosts charity fundraiser wrestling extravaganza, Spectrum Scarefest, on Sunday, October 30 at 12pm.

The Crown Inn will be a riot of fun, music and dance this Friday when fab group ‘The Casuals’ return.

To paraphrase as Cecil Sharp so often did, if October comes, can winter be far behind?

And the Crown has organised the Littleport Christmas Street Fair with stalls galore; indoors at the Littleport Ex-Servicemen’s Club, outdoors at the Crown on Friday, December 2 from 5pm.

All proceeds go to the East Anglian Air Ambulance.

It is all systems go this week for the activities that are regularly scheduled in Littleport, and all the shops and services await your custom, too.