Etchingham village voice - March 23

The Fete replaces the Summer Fete which is normally held in July, and will be in the Lambing field instead of Queen’s Garden. Full details will appear here nearer the date, along with details of any other events that may be added to the weekend.

As there are several events already planned in the village to celebrate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, I have set up a group on Flickr where anyone can add pictures taken at any of the village Jubilee events, anyone can view the pictures, but you need to join Flickr to add images. If you already use Flickr, just upload the pictures to your space on Flickr and then add them to the group. If you do not use Flickr, it is a very easy sign up process and the initial free account gives you space for 200 images, you only need to pay if you want to upload more pictures. If you have pictures that you would like to add, but for any reason would prefer not to join Flickr, if you email the pictures to me and I will upload them for you, you will of course be credited as the owner of the images. Let’s see if we can build a really large collection of village images celebrating the Jubilee. The group can be seen at http://www.flickr.com/groups/diamondjubileeinetchingham/ . Any problems adding or downloading images, contact me [email protected]

Medieval Feast, in the Church on Saturday June 2, 7pm to 11pm, a journey back to the 14th century to celebrate the 650th anniversary of Sir William de Etchingham’s Church. Entertainment will be by Serpentyne, a group who mix medieval songs and dance tunes with world rhythms, creating an exciting magical atmosphere, for more information about Serpentyne, visit their website www.serpentyne.com , there are video clips on the site showing the group performing. Tickets are limited to 120, so get yours as soon as possible, the ticket application form is on the back of the information which everyone received recently, tickets are available at the Post Office.

Church services, a reminder that the Family service is a week later than usual this month, and is this Sunday (March 18), which is Mothering Sunday.

Last Saturday the Under Five’s Playgroup held a quiz at the Etchingham Club, the quiz was very well attended and raised a much needed £350 for the Playgroup funds. Playgroup need to urgently raise more funds to help get them through a difficult financial situation, if you have any ideas for fund-raisers they would like to hear from you, 07528 219825.

There is a Table Top Sale in aid of the baby charity BLISS in Robertsbridge village hall on Saturday March 24, 10am to 12 noon. Items for sale will include baby equipment, clothes, toys, books, DVD’s, crockery, pictures, plants etc., actually virtually anything that will fit on a table.

The baby charity BLISS provides vital support and care to premature and sick babies across the UK. It offers guidance and information at a critical time in families lives. Also Matthew Wilkinson is running the London Marathon in aid of the charity and hopes to raise £2,500. If you require more information about the sale or the charity, contact Matthew and Sarah Wilkinson 01580 881845 [email protected]

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 Cottages.