Fairlight

There’s a craft morning coming up for any adults who like to be creative. It will start at 10.30 am on Wednesday, November 19 at St Peter’s. If you are good with a pencil, and scissors, if you can fold or staple – you are needed! You must be able to keep a secret as you will be involved in the making of something to be used in a Christmas service at St Andrew’s! Please book your place with Kath on 812799 as soon as possible, and any offers to make tea or coffee on the day would be very welcome.

Almost 40 shoeboxes were taken to St Andrew’s last Sunday and these have now been collected by a representative from Samaritan’s Purse. If you were unable to go to the service, you can take your shoebox to, appropriately, ShoeZone, in Priory Meadow Shopping Centre, during the week.

At MOPPs today: Friday 14, it’s time for the talk by Michael Hoad entitled ‘From Weald to Welland’. Michael’s talk will be followed by a lunch of chicken and vegetable pie, and bread and butter pudding for afters. Next week on Friday 21, you can work up a good appetite with some of Celia King’s chair-based exercises, and then get stuck in to roast lamb, with banoffee pie for dessert

I wonder who reads this each week thinking ‘that sounds really good’. Well, stop thinking about it and go along and see for yourself. Call Robert Pasterfield, the co-ordinator, on 07860 414277 for more details – and to sign up!

The Bowls Club Whist Drive time: Tonight is the latest in the Bowls Club’s fortnightly series of winter Whist Drives, in the village hall at 6.45 for 7 pm, at a cost of £4 a head. The last drive was very well supported, so you’d be well advised to get your hand in and join in the fun.

It’s tonight, Friday: At the History House in Courthouse Street from 7 to 9 pm, Andy Dinsdale, of the Marine Conservation Society and Mallydams RSPCA centre, will be presenting an illustrated talk on Flotsam and Jetsam. Andy is an enthusiastic local Beachwatch co-ordinator responsible for organising regular beach surveys and clean-ups in the Rye Bay area. If you’d like more details, call Jill Howell on 815256. But don’t delay…

Shopping for ideas: With our, well, Ken and Pam Dixon’s, Post Office and General Stores on the market, resident Heather Black’s initiative to explore and further the notion of the business becoming a community venture takes a major step forward tomorrow, Saturday, November 15, with a public meeting in the village hall from 10 am to 12 noon. It is hoped that many local residents, who after all patronise the facility daily, will be present to listen, learn and comment on the possibility of a favourable outcome for the village, and how best it might be achieved.

The Market Garden site: It’s two and a half years since we all went upstairs in the pre-updated Cove pub and restaurant to examine GemSelect’s plans for 22 properties on the Market Garden site. Now the company’s work on Sycamore Chase, on the corner of the Ridge and Elphinstone Road, opposite the cemetery entrance, appears almost complete, they have put in for Planning Permission on their plot in Fairlight, seeking 11 houses and 9 flats on a site slightly smaller than that covered by their original plans. There will be a drop-in session in the village hall tomorrow, Saturday, November 15, running in parallel with the Post Office discussion (above), and last an extra hour after that meeting is concluded. Judging by the interest the May 2012 presentation engendered, there should be another good turn out for this session, too. This will be an opportunity for you to ask questions and make comments which the Parish Council Planning committee will consider before making its comments on the application to Rother, the planning authority.

Next Tuesday with the Ladies Club: Their meeting on the 18th, which starts in the village hall at 2.15 pm, will feature popular speaker Ray Shayler. Ray will be disclosing the secrets of the Treasures found in the Scotney Castle attics. Guests are always welcome for a mere £2, which will get them an excellent talk and refreshments, too.

Speaker’s Corner: Wednesday’s meeting will feature well-known local geology expert Ken Brooks. He will be talking of Local Geology and Fossils. He is unlikely to mention anyone by name… The meeting will commence at 2.30 pm, and non-members are welcome for a fee of £2. They also partake of the refreshments and participate in the raffle.

A Christmas Bonanza: is just around the corner, and it will be with us on a week tomorrow on Saturday, November 22 in the village hall from 10.30 am to 4 pm. Free admission will enable you to browse 30 tables of high quality goodies in ceramics, wood and gilden, mini teddies, jewellery, walking sticks, fossils and gems. In addition to Christmas cards and decorations, there will be an opportunity to order Christmas wreaths for later delivery (if you take them on the day, any floral bits will have gone off before Christmas!) There will also be what you need to make your own wreath – if and when you have a minute to spare. As well as games of chance, you could have a Tarot reading. Teas, coffees and home-made cakes will be available, as will lunches to sustain the famished.

Vis-à-vis the do-si-do: Fairfest have a bit of fun coming up on the horizon, with their Barn Dance at the village hall on Saturday, November 29. The evening will be run by Broad Oak’s Flat Cat Barn Dance Band, who have most successfully visited our village before. The evening starts at 7.30 pm, and the tickets are £7.50 each, available from the Post Office or by calling 812476. Do-si-don’t miss it!

The Players’ play: ‘Separate Tables’ finished on a high note for the Players last Saturday, having attracted respectable audiences with an unusual aspect. Friday and Saturday evenings were both very well attended, but numbers were considerably thinner on Thursday and at the Saturday matinee. Demands were high, and not just for the actors. The two set play needed two Stage Managers, two wardrobe managers, and three people on props! David Burchell’s first Fairlight show as Director went well, and the company now has time to determine what it is that they will be entertaining their regulars with next April. Do watch this space for all the details.

John Charrot: Sad news reached us last week from Cumbria, when it was learned that John Charrot had passed away. John was 93, and had only left the village three years ago after being a resident for 40 years. He and his wife Margaret were firm fixtures at all things Players, certainly ever since 1983 when John was on stage management for ‘And This Was Odd’, when it was performed it for the second time. (Margaret began her connection in 1981, when she did the publicity for ‘The Chalk Garden’). John, and Margaret, will be fondly remembered by all in the village who knew them.

The Panto Group is about to play: As is the pattern each year, as soon as the Players finish their first show, the Pantomime Group begin their annual extravaganza, with rehearsals this year for Rapunzel, (which will run from January 21 to 24), starting this Sunday under the watchful eye of Ben Burford. As soon as the cast list is to hand, I’ll let you know who you’ll be cheering or booing this time round! What the group knows already is that they will need for the January run a lady to take charge of the audience teas for the five performances - that’s four evenings and a Saturday matinee. Do you know of someone who would like to help out with this job? Or could it be you? Would anyone interested please contact Anne Bird on 813636.

Community Speedwatch: is now being organised by Graham MacPherson on a Marsham Ward basis (Fairlight, Icklesham, Pett and Three Oaks). Graham says that visits to Fairlight by the Community Speedwatch volunteers are imminent. This will involve volunteers with a speed detecting device monitoring the speed of vehicles. Some half-dozen Fairlight residents volunteered to help when Speedwatch was being organised on an individual parish basis. Graham has those details, and he will be making contact. If you would like to volunteer please contact Fairlight Parish Councillor Val Gibbs, either at [email protected] or by calling 814278. She will then pass on your details.

Keith Pollard

Brookfield, Broadway