Catsfield

Catsfield Village Stores: This week we are sad to say goodbye to Jim, Sarah and Rebecca Campbell from the village shop. They have all joined in village life and become an important part of the local scene. Rebecca went to the village school and for many years took a big role in the pantomime. She has a passion for swimming and perhaps one day we can follow her progress on the national scene. Sarah has been on many committees, was a school governor and it was a pleasure to work with her on the Diamond Jubilee celebrations. She, Jim and their staff became responsible for the Village Hall bookings, collecting money, selling tickets for events and assisting Hall Treasurer Jill Jarrett with the banking. The extension of the work of the Post Office has been of great benefit to their customers and there doesn't seem to be anything you can't do there. All done with willingness and in a friendly way. Let us not forget the splendid home-made cakes, sandwiches and baguettes that Sarah made and sold, also pretty much most things that you could ask for in the shop were there somewhere. We thank them, we will miss them and their staff and send them our good wishes for the future, do please come back and visit often.
Catsfield newsCatsfield news
Catsfield news

We all welcome the new owners, Priya and Kumanan who take over today (Friday) afternoon. The shop will be opened by Sarah and Jim for the last time between 5.30 am and 9am and then it will be closed for stocktaking and Post Office audit between 9am and approximately 1 pm when it will re-open as theirs. Priya and Kumanon come from Kent and have two daughters of 18 and 16. They have run a shop and post office before and they really want to join in with the village community, so we all look forward to getting to know them. Sarah and Jim wish them every success and hope their time in Catsfield will be as great as theirs has been and Sarah says that the cakes will return in a few weeks!

Catsfield Village Fete and Flower Show: The Catsfield Horticultural Society will be holding the annual Fete and Flower Show on the playing field on Saturday 5th August from 1.30pm, admission will be £1 for a lucky programme (children free) The Show schedules are in the Village Shop, so pick up a copy and plan your entries now! All the many interesting classes are in the schedule with details of how to enter – its great fun seeing if you can win a prize and everyone stands a good chance of succeeding. It’s no good going round the show tent after the judging saying ‘I could do better than that.’ As Delia Smith once famously said ‘Let’s be ‘aving yer’. Show us what you can do!

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The Playing Fields will be covered with fun things to see, buy and do, including: A Fun Dog Show: Big Bingo; Cakes: Tombola: Pims: Bric-a-Brac: Welly Wanging: Stoolball Challenge: Book Stall: Coconut Shy: Hook-a-Duck: Balls-in-a-Bucket: BBQ and MUCH more, including WI teas. Hopefully the Battle Town Band will be there too, playing the tunes that are part of any traditional Village Fete!

Family Service: This Sunday 16th July is the third Sunday in the month and the service of Holy Communion will be at the earlier time of 9am at the parish church of St Laurence. The Family Service will follow at 10am for approximately half an hour and refreshments will be served afterwards.

WI: The July meeting of Catsfield WI last week started with the customary singing of Jerusalem, valiantly accompanied by Barbara our pianist playing with a broken thumb.

As our president was away on holiday, the meeting was ably lead by the vice-president Ann – who is also the treasurer. The minutes of the previous meeting were duly read and signed and the secretary Beryl read the report from our link delegate who attended the AGM in Liverpool. Following the notices and dates of future events, our speaker and fellow member Sandra Shoobridge took to the stage to talk to us about ‘Life in Full Bloom’.

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Sandra is a skilled and popular local florist, as well as having many other talents and everyone watched enthralled as she demonstrated her art with foliage and flowers. She told us as she worked of her introduction to flower arranging and the WI together when she was a twelve-year old girl and her Auntie Mary took her along to a local branch meeting to assist with preparations for Halloween. In memory of this event which had such an influence on her life she had brought along a cauldron-shaped container in which she built a magnificent fire made from copper beech foliage, phormium leaves, red carnations, some orange flowers(?) and yellow chrysanthemums - the finished effect was stunning!

Again accompanied by many more stories about Auntie Mary, who it was evident had had a huge influence on Sandra’s life and is remembered with obvious great affection, she reminded us of ‘The Cod War’ of the seventies. With a title of ‘Who Wants Cod’ she created a lovely seascape in a shallow square container using silver-green senneccio foliage, spikes of blue delphinium, blue eryngium and September daisies. Triangles of snake grass represented the sails of a boat with three green chrysanthemums and the spray of the waves was brought alive with frothy gypsophila. Another gasp of appreciation from the audience and a big round of applause showed how much everyone was enjoying this demonstration, whilst we heard more about Sandra’s happy times with Auntie Mary.

The last demonstration was a simple tied bunch of ordinary garden flowers including lace-cap hydrangeas, phlox, alchemilla mollis, some foliage and all tied together with string and a white ribbon. Simple? Well, that was how Sandra made the construction of this lovely posy appear! There was applause for Sandra for the pleasure that she’d given us all in showing us how it’s done and we all wished we’d had an Auntie Mary too.

Catsfield Horticultural Society Prize Cups and Trophies: (I received this from Victoria the other day and I thought I’d include a few of them in the next few weeks before the Show on 5th August.)

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Many people have asked the history of the trophies awarded at the Summer Show. I have made some in-roads into this request, but would love to hear from you if you can supply any more details. Please contact Victoria Crawshaw, Show Secretary.

CHRIS CAMPBELL SHIELD Most points horticultural (flowers) Classes 1 to 19. Sponsored by Estate Agents in Battle of same name.

ERNIE TAYLOR CUP - Most points horticultural (vegetables) Classes 20 to 37. In memory of Ernie Taylor, and presented by his wife Gwen. He was a long standing resident of Catsfield. First awarded in 2008.

BURGESS CUP - (Note results from first 2 awards) Highest points in open classes 1 to 37. Presented by Major Burgess of Catsfield Manor in around 1956

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RHS BANKSIAN MEDAL - Calculated from the above. Cannot be awarded to last year’s winner or the previous one.

Most prize money won in horticultural classes 1 to 37. Provided annually by The Royal Horticultural Society.

SWEET PEA SALVER - In memory of Mrs. E. Parsons Best in Class 2. Presented by her family and remembered as an elegant American lady.

Farming: Is there such a thing as an I-Spy Book of Farm Machinery? If so, a quick holiday in France could complete a full set of points in about a day at harvest time. In Brittany, they are harvesting the corn before the rape, but the rape harvest comes first over here. Naturally, a cue for the rain to fall after an extremely dry spell.

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Mobile Library: The East Sussex Mobile Library will be in its usual place outside the Village Hall today, Friday 14th July from 11.55am until 12.30pm

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