Fairlight Village Voice

n Very sad to report the passing nine days ago of John Lutman. John was for some 30 years associated with the Parish Council, and was also our District Councillor and a Chairman of Rother District Council. John was also involved in the first cliff preservation campaign, when Sea Road was threatened. His name appears regularly in connection with the annual search for the recipient of The John Lutman Award for Community Service, which is named in his honour, and which was presented for the third time in December last. We extend our sympathy to Janet and to the family

Further sadness in the village; after a long illness bravely borne, Hugh Gallagher passed away last Saturday. Hugh was a serving Parish Councillor and, until his illness, Chairman of the Parish Council, and he remained actively engaged in village matters until a few weeks before his death. Hugh also chaired the Fairlight Preservation Trust, and contributed greatly to the successful efforts to protect the village from landslip and erosion. Additionally, he had many interests outside the village, especially the Maritime Volunteer Reserve. Hugh will be much missed, and we send our condolences to Carole and to the family.

That’s two genuine and highly respected ‘pillars of the community’ gone in the space of four days, and, unfortunately, within a couple of hundred words, it is impossible to expand here on the richness of the two lives outside of their work for our community.

n Not much on? Afternoon bookings in the village hall were notable only for their cancellation last week. First to go was the Gardening Club AGM on Monday, then came, or rather, went, the Literary Society on Wednesday, and finally MOPP’s Friday fixture. The Players failed to start the evening rehearsals for their new production – they were not too worried about people getting in, but more concerned about the potential difficulties people might have going home. (Hey, what happened to ‘break a leg’?) The ice didn’t worry the Tuesday table tennis, though; they were there in considerable force. The Playgroup and Nursery carried on in the mornings, without living dangerously, though they had done some of their own clearing where necessary.

n The Pantomime Group’s AGM was already planned to be later than usual, as this year’s performances had to be put back a week. Now we learn that it is to be yet another week later, and it will now fall on Friday, March 16 at 7.30 pm in the large hall of the village hall.

n The Tuesday Ladies Club will be in the village hall at 2.15 pm on Tuesday next, February 21, when their speaker will be the well-known local historian Haydon Luke on the subject, unsurprisingly, of the History of Fairlight. After the tea break, there’ll be a quiz on Sussex place names.

n The Literary Society will be meeting next Wednesday, February 22 at 2.30 pm. Those expecting to hear Laton Frewen talk of eight of the most visited houses in the South East, will find that, following a change, the talk will be given by Charlotte Moore, speaking on Hancox, the large Sussex house in which she lives, and a place where, ‘tis said, nothing has been thrown away for 120 years!

n The Playgroup and Nursery organisers must have feared for their Jumble Sale last Saturday, which could have left them with a hall full of goodies and no customers. In the event, there was actually a twenty strong queue just before the doors opened at 10 am. It all looked a bit like Selfridge’s on a Boxing Day morning. Within a short while the whole hall was heaving with customers, helpers and goods, and by the finish time the event had grossed a staggering £870. Thanks are due to those who donated so many readily saleable items, the countless customers who bought so much, and, of course, to those who worked so hard in organising the sale. A cliché, maybe, but this is surely a worthwhile cause, of which the village should be justly proud.

n A gentle reminder for all the members of Fairlight Bowls Club. The Club’s Annual General Meeting will take place tomorrow, Saturday, February 18 at 2.30pm in the village hall.

n I’m not colour-blind so how did I think last week that adding green dye to the council grit would make the road surface look like the Robertsbridge street, which is red? Has anyone seen my marbles? I seem to have lost them.

Keith Pollard

Brookfield, Broadway