Catsfield Village Voice

Catsfield honoured its dead from two world wars at the Remembrance service held at the parish church of St Laurence last Sunday. It was good to welcome three children and several visitors to the congregation as everyone observed the silence before the wreaths were laid. Four representatives of the village community laid the wreaths on behalf of the School, the Parish Council, the WI and St Laurence Church. On this 80th year of the anniversary of the end of WW2, the Royal British Legion’s Festival of Remembrance shown on television on Saturday evening and attended by the royal family seemed particularly poignant this year. We were reminded of the falling poppy petals as we left the church and the gentle breeze was scattering falling leaves over us. The church donated £100 of the collection money from the service to the Royal British Legion.

A musical treat to look forward to in December. On Saturday 13th Battle Choral Society will be performing their Christmas Concert which includes Vivaldi’s Gloria, with Christmas music and carols for choir and audience. It will be held at St Mary’s Church, Battle at 7pm and entry is free with donations to charity gratefully received. Refreshments will be served and there will be an excellent raffle. If you have never heard these singers perform, they are a joy to listen to and if you have heard them before, then I’m sure you will want to be there on the night.

Victoria writes - Following a lively AGM on Tuesday 4th November, we are delighted to report, two lovely courageous people volunteered to take on the two vacant officer's positions; Janet Woolf will become the Chairperson and Jo Fowler, the Show secretary. We still have room for more committee members, so do please get in touch with us if you would like to join. We are a friendly bunch, who enjoy setting up village shows for adults and children to enter their home grown/made produce and see the pleasure on their faces when they win financial awards and certificates. Families, friends and neighbours actually get a buzz, competing against each other! You can contact Vanessa on 07972360135 or Victoria on 07999476265 for more information.

Thank you to everyone who showed their support by attending the meeting but of course, it was most disappointing not to see any new residents from Catsfield there. The society needs young blood and the numbers of able-bodied folk are dwindling. At the meeting it was agreed that we would consider the possibility of ending our affiliation with the RHS at the next committee meeting in January, as the financial outlay does not give our society any valid benefits. Our bank balance is healthy enough due to generous donations and the fact we didn't have to pay out for a marquee this year, (due to lack of physical help). That said, please note; It was decided also at the meeting, that there will be no membership fee required next year.

It was wonderful that the Village Hall Committee and the Stoolball Club, got together to run the Fete for the village and raised money for the Village Hall. Thank you to all who said they missed the Flower Show, we missed you too! Sadly, we will miss you again next Summer, as we don't have the guarantee of enough physical help for 2026, to enable us to run the fete. Hopefully this situation will improve, otherwise we might end up folding! However, we will be holding a Spring show on 28th March 2026 in the Village Hall. We will look forward to seeing you then. The schedules including entry forms will be in out Post Office stores in February.

The November meeting of the Catsfield WI started with singing Jerusalem followed by the usual business matters and apologies for absence were received from nine members. Jane made a plea for donations of gifts and cakes to sell at the Christmas Market in the Village Hall on Saturday 29th November from 10am - 1.30pm in aid of St Laurence Church. A reminder too that the Christmas Lunch is at the Brick Wall Hotel in Sedlescombe on Thursday 11th December.

The next meeting will be the Christmas Party held on Thursday 4th November at 2pm and a programme of events for that was given to everyone present. Members are reminded to bring a gift costing less than £3 for the bran tub and there will be a competition for the best Christmas jumper. Also bring your own scissors.

Denise Taylor gave everyone ideas of decorative ways to be creative using papercraft. She distributed various materials – coloured tissue paper, green sticks cut to the same length and glue sticks and she demonstrated how to make paper flowers. She also produced small coloured cards, which with the addition of different embellishments stuck in place, made attractive greetings cards. Everyone was ready for a cuppa and a WI tea and the raffle was drawn before going home.

Catsfield Ukealongians group, after strumming and singing their way to another worthwhile charity event night on October 21st, is happy to say that the total amount collected from the evening for the charity ‘Saving the Streets’ is a marvellous £388.70. Thanks to everyone who came along and generously donated.

Jan writes - On November 5th this year a friend and I went grocery shopping in a well-known supermarket (others are available) and once inside, we each went off our own with our trolleys. What are the chances on this auspicious date in history that the emergency fire alarms went off? Customers were told to abandon their trolleys immediately and make their way out to the car park which we hurriedly did. Eventually we were ushered back into the store, found our trolleys and finished our shopping with not a sniff of smoke nor a fire engine in sight. Guy Fawkes failed to blow up the Houses of Parliament back in the day and fortunately the supermarket is still standing too.