Etchingham

Etchingham Bonfire this year once again went with a bang. This was a new venue for us, thanks to Sheila Parker for letting us use her field (and get it so muddy). The mud was not quite up to Glastonbury standards but it was getting there. The weather forecast promised rain on the day and we weren’t disappointed! True to the forecast it. cleared in the afternoon and by about 4pm there was a patch of blue sky and stars by 6pm, although by this time the ground was soaking wet.

Despite the weather, we had a good crowd. The field provided lots of space for an uncountable “giggle” of children running round - invisible in the darkness except for their glowsticks. It’s not often that youngsters get to run around in the dark (and the mud). Thanks to the Etchingham Shop and Deli, who sponsored the guy competition - there were 3 entries and the winner was Clover. A further guy was delivered later to the field. The Etchingham fast-food-hot-dog-and-punch-outlet worked flat out serving Burwash Beauties and homemade soup and punch.

A brilliant display of fireworks finished with a magnificent silver starshell bursting over our heads and was followed by Paul & Bill’s usual splendid bonfire.

Many thanks to all the helpers who made the evening possible. Firewood collection; Chas, Helen, Frank, Paul J, Christian and Andy. Setting up (in the pouring rain); Bill, Frank, Chas, Ian, Paul J, Christian, Helen and Steve. Collectors; Sue Mumford and Margaret Cleife. Marshalls; Paul G, Philip Simon, George, Allan, John, David, Steve and Martin. Fireworks; Frank, Bill, Christian, and from Selstar Fireworks-Harry and Ian. Food Preparation and tent; Ian, Jenny, Pennie, Jane, Nigel, Alison, Helen, Barbara, Izzy, Caroline, Lucy and Corinna. Bonfire; Paul and Bill. Glowsticks; Chas and Charlie. Generators; Sid and Steve V. and last but not least, everyone from the village who braved the mud for an enjoyable evening. Photos and video clips are online now, go to www.flickr.com/photos/ttelyob

There was a very good assembly at the War memorial and after in the Church fro the Remembrance Day Service. A few pictures of the gathering are at the same location as the fireworks pictures.

Community Speed Watch, we are in the process of getting a Community Speed Watch group organised in Etchingham, at the time of writing 15 people have expressed an interest in taking part, ten of those have registered as group members. Speed Watch is operated by volunteers from the community, equipped with speed monitoring equipment, they record the details of vehicles exceeding the speed limit, the details are passed on to Police who send out warning letters and where appropriate take further action. Full equipment and all the necessary training will be given by the Police. If we can get a reasonable number of volunteers, then no one will have to do it very often. If you want to find out more about how Speed watch works go to the village website www.etchinghamvillage.co.uk, follow the Speed Watch link on the left, or visit the Sussex Police website www.sussex.police.uk and put Speed Watch into the search box. If you are willing to be included in such a useful and necessary scheme please ring Jill Copland on 01580 819321, Colin Boylett on 01580 819532 or email [email protected] . You can now also register directly on to the system, go to www.communityspeedwatch.co.uk go to the button labelled ‘System Access’ from the drop-down menu select ‘Register as Group Operator’, change the group name to Etchingham, fill in your details and register. You will get a confirmation email and the Etchingham Group Admin will contact you as soon as your details appear on the system Updates on the progress of starting a scheme will also be posted on Facebook www.facebook.com/etchinghamspeedwatch

Parish Magazine, a reminder that today (Friday November 15) is the deadline for items to go into the December/January issue of the Parish Magazine, deliver to Phillipa at Englefield, High Street or send your contributions to [email protected]

The next Parish Council meeting on Thursday November 21 will be in the village hall and not the annexe. The meeting will start at 6.45pm with a presentation by Jim Stobart, Road Safety/ASD Co-ordinator, Operation Crackdown, Road Policing Unit. Jim will be giving a presentation on Operation Crackdown, this will be your opportunity to learn more about the scheme and ask questions.

The Parish Council meeting will follow at 7.30pm, on the agenda will be the Experimental Traffic Order, this will be the final opportunity to discuss the Order before ESCC Highways makes a decision on the yellow lines and other parking restrictions in the village. Many thanks to those who have submitted comments, both to EPC and direct to ESCC. If you have not already submitted comments and wish to, please submit your comments to the Clerk [email protected] as soon as possible.

Live music at the Etchingham Club, tomorrow (Saturday November 16), The Logan Wilson Band. Entrance is free and non-members are welcome. For more information on Logan Wilson go to www.loganwilson.com

A member of a village organisation asked if a calendar could be put on the village website www.etchinghamvillage.co.uk where residents could find out about future events, and organisers could check what is already planned by other organisations to avoid clashes of dates.

This has now been set up at this location www.etchinghamvillage.co.uk/calendar there is a link to the page near the top of the website Home Page and another at the bottom of the menu on the left of every page. Full instructions are on the page, but adding entries is very easy, any authorised person can add details, but alterations later can only be made by an admin.

To avoid the risk of unwanted spam/prank posts getting into the calendar a password is needed to complete the entry, I have sent a password to a lot of people who will want to add entries. I have probably not included everyone, so if you are a member of a group or organisation, or individual and need to add entries, contact me for the password if you have not received it.

The idea is that all entries are added to the calendar by village residents, so that I do not have to spend time adding information, and only need to edit errors and changes, hopefully all village organisations will make full use of the calendar and find it useful when planning events.

It is possible that there may be someone who wants to add an event to the calendar and not have internet access, in this case ask a friend or neighbour if they can add the details, if that is not possible contact me with the details.

Etchingham School Bazaar will be held on Saturday November 23 at the school from 12 noon to 3pm. Father Christmas will be in attendance, there will be lots of stalls to buy Christmas gifts, a BBQ and café will provide refreshments including mulled wine and mince pies. Attractions such as tombola, guess the weight of the cake and face painting will be going on during the afternoon. Raffle tickets will be on sale soon and will also be available on the day. All very welcome with fun for all the family.

For maximum publicity of all your Christmas events in this column, get the details to me as soon as possible, also, if you are planning fund raising events for Children in need get the details to me as soon as possible.

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] .