Etchingham

Saturday November 9, put the date in your diary, this is the date of the annual Bonfire and Fireworks. As you will be aware, the site that has been used for a number of years is now the site of the new school and village hall, so the event will be at a new location this year. The location is still to be confirmed, so watch this column and posters in the village for details.

The annual Royal British Legion Poppy appeal is approaching fast, door to door collections will be made between November 2 and November 9, we do however have some areas of the village without a collector. If you can help by collecting in Fontridge Lane, Borders Lane, Burgh Hill, Fysie Lane or the Straight Mile, if you can help with any of these locations please contact Shaun or Eleanor Knowles on 01580 819117.

The Remembrance Day service will be on Sunday November 10, gather at the War Memorial at the Church for the service which will start at 10.45am.

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.

The Annual General Meeting of the Etchingham Trust for Sports and Recreation (ETSR) will be held on Monday (October 14), 8pm, in the village hall. All parishioners of Etchingham are invited to attend. Trustee nomination forms can be obtained from Catherine Richards [email protected] 07855 239848. Nomination forms should be completed and returned to Catherine today for inclusion at the meeting.

There is now good progress with the new village hall and school development, preliminary work has started on the Lambing Field site in preparation for construction work scheduled to start in early November.

The following is the latest statement issued by Etchingham Parish Council;

“The Parish Council met on Thursday evening September 19, 2013 and discussed the sale of the existing Village Hall. The new Community facilities and new Primary School has finally received all of the necessary permissions and preliminary work has begun on the Lambing Field site in preparation for the construction works which are scheduled to begin in early November. In order for the whole Project to progress, i.e. the School, Community facilities and new Housing, the Parish Council was required to enter certain legal and financial Agreements. As a consequence of these Agreements the Parish Council has needed to give very careful consideration to the disposal of the existing Village Hall, especially with regard to the timing of any disposal. The Council recently gave consideration to the marketing exercise undertaken by Bracketts and examined in detail the offers and proposals received for the purchase of the Hall. The Council interviewed three prospective purchasers and has decided to agree a sale of the Hall to W H Hodder & Son of Wadhurst. The Council has agreed to an Exchange of Contracts with W H Hodder as soon as possible but the agreed completion date for the purchase will be May 2, 2014, subject of course to Contract. This will allow existing users of the Hall the Autumn Term 2013 and Spring Term 2014 to continue with their activities. The completion date of May 2 will also allow existing groups the Easter holiday period plus a few extra days in which to vacate the premises of any equipment stored at the Hall. The present timetable for the Project is that construction will start in November this year with the facilities being available from the Autumn Half Term 2014. Further updates will be made on progress of the Project and the anticipated dates for occupation.”

As the project moves forward regular updates on progress will be posted on the village website www.etchinghamvillage.co.uk

Adult Street Pop with Caroline, come and learn some new routines with Caroline on Wednesdays in the village hall, 7.15pm to 8pm. Classes £7 per lesson. All abilities welcome. For more information contact Caroline on 01435 [email protected]

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] .