Mayfield and Five Ashes village news

MAYFIELD and FIVE ASHES

MELFORD HOUSE: Melford House, Mayfield presents the premiere of a riveting new play based on the untold story of Mayfield author Pl Travers, creator of Mary Poppins. BAD WEDNESDAY by Nick Harrison, Melford House is thrilled to announce an exciting, professional production of a brand new play, ‘Bad Wednesday’ in it’s intimate, drawing room setting and in the very town where PL Travers once lived. The play promises to be an evening of revelation and surprise as it examines a part of Travers life not known to most people. What happens when Travers is confronted by the boy she chose not to adopt at birth in favour of his twin brother? Based on real life events, the play explores the fractious relationship between the successful, complex and unconventional PL Travers and her adopted son. The unexpected arrival of his unadopted brother, 18 years later shakes the foundations of all their lives. Featuring actress Joanna Bending as PL Travers, known as a regular on TV’s Doctors, Coronation Street and Eastenders as well as the National Theatre and Royal Court. As the two sons, Ryan Heenan plays Travers adopted son. Heenan was recently seen on stage in the West End production of Back to the Future as well as on tour with Jersey Boys and Grease. Gabriel Lumsden, having graduated from Mountview this Summer, makes his professional theatrical debut as Anthony. Directing is twice Off West End Award nominee Martin Parr. Performances take place October 3-6th at 7.30 and 3pm. Tickets are priced at £15 and £20 To book tickets and for more information, visit: www.theartsfair.com Ryan Heenan plays Camillus Ryan was most recently in Back To The Future, which can be seen at the Adelphi Theatre in West End. His previous roles include Robin in Little Robin Redbreast (Salisbury Playhouse), Bellboy/Wallace Hartley in the Titanic the Musical European Tour, Young Tom Osmond / Jimmy Osmond in The Osmonds Musical (workshop production – The Other Palace); Joe Spud (Lead) in Billionaire Boy (UK Tour); John (Lead) in Moonfleet (Salisbury Playhouse); Doody in Grease (UK Tour); Tobias Ragg in Sweeney Todd (Derby Theatre); Dusty in The Burnt Part Boys (Park Theatre); Kurt Von Trapp in The Sound of Music (Really Useful Group); Himself in Cracking Shakespeare (Bloomsbury Methuen Drama).Workshops include: Barefoot Youth in Bedbug (National Theatre); Robert in Feather Boy (National Theatre); Soldier in The Wall; Bruce in Matilda (RSC). For BYMT, Ryan appeared in A Beggar’s Opera (2010), Mort in Mort: The Musical (2011/2012), as Drunken John in Nikki and The Gang (2012), and as Andrei in Variété (2013). GABRIEL LUMSDEN plays Anthony Gabriel is thrilled to be making his professional theatrical debut with Bad Wednesday, having just graduated from Mountview, London. Roles whilst training include Hogarth in The Art of Success, Paris in Romeo and Juliet, Roy Cohn in Angels in America, Michel in God of Carnage and Danny in Wasted. Prior to Mountview, Gabriel appeared as Jamie in The Last Five Years and Emmett in Legally Blonde. Gabriel is a highly skilled musician and singer, playing both drums and guitar. JOANNA BENDING. Joanna Bending trained at RADA. Theatre includes: 1984 and The Odyssey (US Tour), Imaginationship (Finborough Theatre), Shadows Of The Evening (Bridewell Theatre), Waiting For God (National Tour), Outings (Lyric, Shaftesbury Avenue), The Sound of Murder (National Tour), Kingmaker (Arts Theatre and St James Theatre), Macbeth (U.S. Tour), The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (National Theatre), Under The Mulberry Tree (Festival Theatre, Edinburgh), Mountain Language (Royal Court), Phallacy (Kings Head Theatre), Two Women For One Ghost (Regents Park), Hand Over Fist – Stage Best Solo Performance Nomination, Boris: World King, Kingmaker, Trolling, Sex Lives of Others (all for Pleasance, Edinburgh), Blithe Spirit, Intimate Exchanges (Frinton), The Master and Margarita (National Theatre Studio). Television includes: Casualty, Eastenders, Doctors, Holby City, The Sarah Jane Adventures, Angel of Death, Love Soup (all for the BBC); PMTV (Paramount Comedy); The Bill (Talkback Thames); Coronation Street (ITV). Film includes: To The Grave; Second Coming; Tick Tock Lullaby; The Holiday.

MAYFIELD CARNIVAL: September 21 2024 6-10pm Mayfield Carnival Procession 2024. Road Closures: As usual, most roads in the village will be closed to all vehicles. Road closures begin at 6pm and affect Tunbridge Wells Road, High Street, Fletching Street (down to Alexandra Terrace junction), East Street (to Sandy Lane junction), The Avenue, and Station Road (including the junction with Stone Cross and Love Lane). Some roads will be opened to traffic once the procession has passed, but the High Street and parts of Tunbridge Wells Road will remain closed until 11.30pm, or until it is safe to open them. Please respect the Barrier Marshals as most of them are volunteers giving up their time for this fantastic community event, and they have direct communication to the Police control centre covering the event. This is an official Road Closure Order and if contravened may result in prosecution by the Police. For visitors, parking will be possible along one side of the Tunbridge Wells road, and this road will become one-way, heading away from the village, from 9pm. COMMEMORATION 6.45pm. There will be a service to remember the dead at the War Memorial, where a wreath will be laid accompanied by a short Eulogy, followed by a minute’s silence and lighting of the fiery Poppies. This year we will include a memorial to commemorate Ukraine’s fallen. PROCESSIONS and PARKING: FIRST PROCESSION 7.15pm. Forms up along Station Road (Bands form up in the top of West Street), lights up at the Horse trough, then proceeds up the High Street, down Fletching Street, and stops at the Rose & Crown. SECOND PROCESSION 8.15pm. Leaves the Rose and Crown, up Fletching Street, down the High Street, along Station Road to beyond Old Lane, and then turns on itself and returns up Station Road to stop just before the Horse trough. For this reason the full width of Station Road will be required to allow the procession to pass itself. Vehicles in the procession will continue to the junction with Love Lane and turn there. GRAND PROCESSION 9.15pm. Lights up at the Horse Trough, proceeds up the High Street and around to the gates of Court Meadow where it de-torches. We are asking residents and visitors to please observe the parking restrictions in order to allow an unobstructed procession and avoid damage to parked vehicles. Please do not park anywhere on the procession routes (see map). We cannot accept responsibility for any damage to vehicles or property left on the procession route. FIREWORKS 9.45pm: The fireworks display will commence as soon as the end of the procession has cleared the Court Meadow gates, which we anticipate will be around 9.45pm. Please note no fireworks are permitted by members of the public at our event.

MAYFACS:The Shed holds 3 sessions every week for anyone to come along and join in. With inside and new external workshop spaces available across all sessions every week, as well as the community garden, bee-keeping and the orchard, there is plenty to get involved in whenever you are available! New Shedders always welcome! For more information please visit our website: www.mayfacs.org.uk/theshed A beautiful fresh selection of produce from the MAYFACS shed Community Garden, outside the office most Tuesdays and Wednesdays whilst stocks last. Please help yourselves and donations welcome (don’t worry if you don’t have cash with you, we have a card machine in the office so do come in if you want to donate using your card). Thank you!​​​​​ If you grow your own produce and have surplus stock, please consider donating it to our produce table to share amongst our community. If you are interested in joining our community garden group, please do let us know – you can help as often or as little as you can! To avoid the Mayfield Carnaval. Our next Repair Café will take place at MAYFACS Shed on Saturday 14 September between 10am–1pm (last repairs accepted 12.15pm) We welcome you to come and find out more about our Repair Cafés, join us for some tea and cakes (you do not need to bring a repair to attend) and find out more about the MAYFACS Shed and MAYFACS MONTHLY TRIPS. Thursday 3rd October Visit the historic town of Battle £10. Thursday 7th November Annual shopping trip to Bluewater £10. Thursday 5th December Christmas bowling trip £17. Please visit our website www.mayfacs.org.uk for updates of weekly activities or contact us at the MAYFACS Office on: 01435 873888. You can also join our monthly eNewsletter mailing list to get full details on everything that we do to support our community by contacting [email protected]

MAYFIELD HORTICULTRIAL SOCIETY: Dates for the diary -It seems hard to believe that our autumn series of talks starts again next month, we’ve put together some really interesting speakers. Here are the first two:Tuesday 17th September 7.30 for 8.00,Colkins Mill Church,Brad Draga-Williams, Conservation Officer, Wadhurst Park - Putting Nature First.Tuesday 15 October 2024 7.30 for 8.00,Colkins Mill ChurchSpeaker: Len Bernamont, Bateman’s - Kiplings influence and maintenance of the gardens today. Tessa Crowewww.mayfieldhorticulturalsociety.org.uk[email protected]