Etchingham

“Etchingham Christmas Once More” will feature Christmas carols and music from the Etchingham Singers and the audience, a special Welsh item, and ‘Send for Saint Nicholas’ in which seasonal saints Lucy and Nicholas combine with King Charles II to overcome the miserable Puritans who want to ban Christmas and cancel the traditional Sussex Mummers Play in the new Village Hall!

Tickets available in the village shops priced £5 for adults and £1 for children

SCHOOL CHRISTMAS FAIR: Etchingham Primary School was magically transformed into a Christmas winter wonderland last Saturday (November 22), during the annual Christmas Fair. Children, friends and family were all able to join in the fun. Father Christmas and his Elves, Sylvie-May Hayler and Daniel Millea, were welcoming children with presents, there were games, and craft activities plus the older girls, Maddie Pittock and Lexi Fleet helped the youngest children choose and wrap gifts for their parents in the secret room. Many children also helped out on stalls and games too. And of course the mulled wine was being poured to add to the festive feel. The Friends of Etchingham School would like to thank everyone who supported this event including the many local businesses who donated gifts. Proceeds from the Fair will help enrich the school lives of the children of Etchingham School as it moves into a new era with the opening of the new school buildings in February 2015. Pictures from the Fair can be viewed online, go to https://www.flickr.com/photos/ttelyob and select ‘Albums’, it is the first album in the list.

POPPY APPEAL: Many thanks to everyone who contributed generously the the annual Poppy appeal, the total collected in the village was an increase on last year with a total of £1124.90 collected. For our small village that is a very good total, many thanks to everyone who contributed.

PARSONAGE CROFT: The three shared ownership homes on the Parsonage Croft development will soon be available through Amicus Horizon. The two bedroom property, full market value £235,000 will be £70,500 for a 30% share, 2 x three bedroom, full market value £280,000 will be £84,000 for a 30% share. Eligibility Criteria; You must live or work in Rother District, have a need for a 2/3 bedroom property, have a household income not in excess of £66,000 for the two bed and £80,000 for the three bed, be registered and approved by the HelptoBuy agent BPHA ( www.helptobuyese.org.uk ) and have savings of 5-10% of the share on offer. There will be a viewing on Thursday December, viewings are by appointment only, to book contact the sales team on 020 87268839 [email protected]

CHURCH SERVICES: Sunday Church Service, services will now be held at 11am for the winter months. A reminder the Church is open daily 11am to 4pm. The service this Sunday will be with Reverend Iain Morrison, Sunday December 7 Reverend Patrick Sales.

COMMUNITY SPEEDWATCH: The Etchingham Speedwatch group continues to hold weekly sessions as often as possible, since starting in January 213 sessions have taken place with 1,720 speeding vehicles reported and over 1,200 drivers have received Police letters. The group currently uses equipment on loan from Battle Police Station, Etchingham and Ticehurst Parish Councils have agreed to share the cost of purchasing a device for the use of the two villages, this will be ordered soon. This will enable the group to operate more flexible sessions, it would help if we could get a few more volunteers to operate sessions, if you might be interested in getting involved to find out more 01580 819532 [email protected] or take a look at the Community Speedwatch website www.communityspeedwatch.co.uk

MEET YOUR PCSO: Our PCSO is Iain Tomsett, he has regular ‘Meet in Person’ sessions for residents to meet up with him if they have matters to discuss, or just join him for a coffee and a chat. Iain holds the sessions, which last about half an hour, at the Bistro. The dates for the rest of the year are Monday December 8, 9.30am and Wednesday December 24, 9.30am. If you need to contact Iain, email; [email protected] Mobile; 07810813409, or call 101 and ask to be put in touch with PCSO Tomsett.

CHRISTMAS AND NEW YEAR: If you have any information for this column for the last two weeks of December and the first two in January please send to me as soon as possible, I will need to send information in early on some weeks, if I have your details early your item will not get missed.

INFORMATION: If you have given me details of your event to put in this column, please remember to send me some details after the event so I can let your supporters know how successful the event was, how much you raised, interesting facts etc. Your supporters will be interested to know how you did. Get information for this column to me as soon as possible, if you have a diary of events planned for the year let me have the dates and I will put in a list of village events for the year so that people can put the dates in their diaries. There are several ways to get your info to me, but email is preferred because there is less chance of errors during copying. I need information by 10pm on Monday to be sure it will be in time for inclusion, I can sometimes add extra items on Tuesday morning, but this cannot be guaranteed. Just a little reminder, I get plenty of information about events that are taking place, but I get very little follow up information, after your event try and remember to send me brief account of how successful your event was, it can be as simple as a thank you to those that attended and how much money was raised etc. You can deliver to 2 Park Farm Close, telephone 01580 819532 or 07941 786244 or email [email protected] .

Colin Boylett

2 Park Farm Close