Etchingham

Full details are on the Etchingham website www.etchinghamvillage.co.uk , there is also a link on the website to book your place, or you can reserve a place at the Etchingham Shop and Deli. Suggested donation for tickets is £15 to include a glass of wine or soft drink.

Police are warning residents to make sure their sheds and garages are secure.

At this time of year many of us are busy in the garden with various garden machinery, this equipment can become a target for criminals and at this time of year garden sheds become a target for thieves, there have been a lot of reports of shed break ins during recent weeks.

A shed alarm that is triggered when an attempt is made to enter the shed is always a good idea, a quick search on Google for ‘shed alarm’ comes up with a large number of suitable alarms many battery operated, with prices starting from about £10.

There have also been a lot of incidents of heating oil thefts in the area recently, our Church being one of them, Sussex Police have a lot of advice on oil tank security on their website http://www.sussex.police.uk/policing-in-sussex/your-community/crime-prevention-advice/fuel-and-oil-theft . If you do not have internet access and want details of shed alarms or oil tank security please contact me I have all the details available.

Community Speedwatch; At the end of April we had a Survey SID set up for several days recording traffic movements 24 hours a day. It was set to monitor vehicles heading west towards Burwash, it recorded for approx. 106 hours, in that time it recorded 7,144 vehicles, 1133 of those were travelling at speeds in excess of 35mph. A further 2,274 were recorded between 30mph and 35mph. These figures cover a period of seven days but the equipment was set up mid morning on the first day and removed late morning on the last day, there was a gap in the middle when the battery needed charging, so the figures for a complete week would be much higher.

In March we had the equipment set up monitoring traffic heading east towards Hurst Green, the volume of traffic was very similar on both sets of results but the number of vehicles exceeding the speed limit was x4 higher with the vehicles heading west. You can keep up to date with the weekly activity of the Etchingham Community Speedwatch group on the Facebook page www.facebook.com/etchinghamspeedwatch ‘Like’ the page and get news as it is added to the page.

These two short videos give you more information about how Speedwatch works;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ypb94rR3-GM * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJthno1lkXo

We currently have only six trained and active operators, we need more volunteer operators if we are to continue with the same frequency or we will have to reduce the frequency to avoid overloading the few volunteers we have.

If you, or someone you know in the village, feels inclined to get involved, please get in touch with me. Volunteers need to be trained in the use of the equipment and the safety issues involved before they can go out on Speed checks, the training is not difficult and takes just a couple of hours at Battle Police Station. Once trained, volunteer operators can take part in as many of few sessions as they want. Anyone interested in helping can get more information on the village websitewww.etchinghamvillage.co.uk or atwww.communityspeedwatch.co.uk, updates of the group’s activities are on Facebook www.facebook.com/etchinghamspeedwatch If you have any questions - please ask. Colin Boylett, Speedwatch Co-ordinator 01580 819532 [email protected]

A Midsummers Party at Burgham Farm, Sheepstreet Lane on Saturday June 21, 7.30pm till Midnihgt, in support of Scotty’s Little Soldiers. Live Band, International Burger Bar, Auction of Promises and Raffle. Tickets are £10 per adult, children free, available from the Etchingham Shop & Deli and the Bistro, or email Beth at [email protected] Scotty’s Little Soldiers is a Charity dedicated to supporting the children of men and women killed whilst serving in the British Armed Forces.

In July the Village Summer Fete will be held in Queen’s Garden. Last year, during the Fete, I put on a display of old photographs, postcards and documents in the Church, depicting much of the village history.

I am planning a similar display this year, it will be based around my collection of old photos and postcards, if I can borrow enough suitable items from village residents I hope to also include a display of memories of the school, as this will be the last year in the current building. If you have any suitable items I can borrow, let me know as soon as possible to help me plan space. You might have photos, books, documents, press cuttings or other items from your school days, or perhaps from parents or grandparents. I also have access to a lot of items relating to Etchingham Women’s Institute, so would like to also feature that in the display, if you have anything W.I. related that I can borrow please let me know.

If you have photos or small documents I can either borrow the originals for the display or make copies so that you can have the original items back straight away. If you have books or larger items I will need to see what you have as soon as possible so that I know how much space is required and pick the items up a couple of days before the display.

I will also be doing a display during the Flower and Dog Show, it would be good to have a different theme for the display, ideas welcome, one suggestion has been a display marking the centenary of the start of World War One, this is a possibility if enough items can be found, the items could relate to the time period and not necessarily all be related to Etchingham directly.

For both displays the available space is the area around and on the Choir Stalls and the Chancel in the Church.

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