Hailsham

FREE FITNESS: Get fit for free every Saturday morning from 9am to 10am in Western Road Recreation Ground. This group is very popular with all ages and a particular focus on getting the over 55s out there and keeping fit. Adaptable exercises to music to suit all abilities amongst a lively, fun group of people. Just turn up wearing comfy clothing and bring a bottle of water.

SUMMER MARKET: In the town centre tomorrow, Saturday, from 9am until 3.30pm is Hailsham annual Summer Market. There will be something for all the family with a range of street market stalls selling locally sourced food, as well as gifts and accessories. There will be live music throughout the day from the Peter Willson Jazz Quartet between 10am to 10.45am and again from 11.15am to 12noon followed by El Banda Burros between 1pm to 2.30pm. The King’s Head in South Road (Harvey’s of Lewes) will be providing a beer tent and selling wines in Vicarage Field, plus there will be hot pasties on sale, Hailsham FM will be broadcasting live at the event and there will be free face painting available for children, courtesy of Christchurch. Hailsham Parish Church will be holding an open church, where free refreshments will be available. Visitors can expect everything from the finest food, gifts, accessories on sale at the market, in addition to some amazing live entertainment and more. The Town Council supported by Hailsham Forward have organised this Summer Market event which attracts traders and visitors from across the region and is an annual highlight for Hailsham town centre. Not only will there be an excellent selection of high-quality goods, but plenty of fun activities for the whole family to enjoy. For further information on events organised by Hailsham Town Council, please contact Karen Giddings (during office hours) on 01323 841702 or by email: [email protected].

THE INCREDIBLES 2: Help raise much needed funds for Hailsham Foodbank by going to see this very popular sequel at Hailsham Pavilion on Thursday. This is a special screening for which tickets at only £2.50 are available at Hailsham Foodbank office in Market Square (between The Link and Barwell Solicitors) and is open daily.

BINGO: Charles Hunt Centre has an open Bingo session on Friday August 3 with games starting at just £1. Starts 7pm. All welcome.

GARDEN JAMBOREE: Keep your diary free for a lovely open garden fun afternoon with a difference. The event is open for everybody on Saturday August 18 from 1pm to 4pm at Ersham House Nursing Home, Ersham Road. Amongst the many stalls and sideshows there will be a pets corner, including friendly Alpacas Ziggy and Indie, Poppy the hen, the Varndean goats and Galaxy the sheep. Pat the New Forest pony will be giving rides. Come and enjoy a Ploughman’s lunch, strawberry cream tea, tombola, cake stall, refreshments, bric-a-brac, books and lots of other fun games.

OLD TIME DANCE: Eastbourne and District Old Time Dance Club meet on Wednesday at Summerheath Hall, Summerheath Road at 7.15pm to 10pm and fortnightly. Entry is £3 which includes refreshments. Beginners welcome. Enquiries on 01323 500180.

BEFRIENDING: There is a befriending volunteer recruitment session on Thursday between 12.30pm and 2.30pm at Prospect House, 1-9 George Street, Hailsham. Go along and find out more about how you could help reduce loneliness in our community.

ACTIVITY DAY: This Wealden free family event on Friday August 3 on Hailsham Recreation Ground, Western Road is between 10am and 2pm. Here will be arts and crafts activities, fire safety, BYO picnic, community chef and lots more. Under 10s must be accompanied.

FOODBANK: The Mayor of Hailsham took part in a special ceremony to mark the opening of new office space for Hailsham Foodbank last Saturday. Councillor Nigel Coltman cut a ribbon to declare the local charity’s new distribution centre in Market Square officially open. Last year, Hailsham Foodbank saw a 52 percent increase in local residents using the charity’s service and, thanks to a bequest from a community volunteer, they have been able to acquire office space in Market Square. Hailsham Foodbank is part of a nationwide network of foodbanks (supported by The Trussell Trust), working to combat poverty and hunger across the UK, and is a project founded by the Crosslink Trust, churches together in Hailsham, working towards stopping hunger in the local area. The foodbank relies entirely on donations of food and money for the provision of food parcels to local people in crisis in exchange for vouchers provided by frontline care professionals, such as health visitors, social workers, church leaders, and community workers.

CHIDDINGLY MARKET: The next Chiddingly Market with produce, crafts, gifts and much more is on Saturday 4 August. Please note that on this occasion only, the venue will be different. The market will be held at the same time but at Muddles Green School, Chiddingly, from 10am to noon (not 9am to 12.30pm as stated last week). From September the market will return to Chiddingly village hall on the first Saturday of every month.

GOLF DAY: A charity Golf day at Willingdon Golf organised by Tom and Elaine Chapman from Hailsham raised £4k to support Prostate Cancer charities. £1k has been donated to the Eastbourne Group of the Prostate Cancer Support Group (PCaSO) with a further £2700 going to Prostate Cancer UK. The money raised for the Eastbourne Group is earmarked to be spent on much needed equipment for the expanded Urology Investigation unit at the Eastbourne DGH. ‘The local support Group run by Debbie Hatfield and Christina Cutting gave my wife and I so much support when I was diagnosed with Prostate Cancer in 2015’ said Tom Chapman.’PCaSO do a fantastic job and provide excellent support to those affected by Prostate Cancer’. More details can be found on their website www.pcasoeastbourne.org.uk/ Many thanks to those generous golfers who attended the day and the kind sponsors who supported the event. This was the second year that the golf day has taken place and to date £8700 has been raised. Next year the event will be held at Willingdon Golf Course on 24 May 2019. Anyone interested in attending or being involved in any way please contact Tom Chapman [email protected].

COFFEE MORNING: Local law firm Hart Reade ran a summer coffee morning recently in aid of You Raise Me Up, a Polegate based charity whose work covers the South East and beyond.

The firm is supporting You Raise Me Up as part of their charity efforts in 2018/19. The Hailsham residents and businesses that attended the coffee morning were treated to barista made coffee with a special iced version due to the high temperatures. The team at the Hailsham office also contributed cakes and some fabulous prizes for the tombola. Head of the Hailsham office and Partner Laura Mitchell said, ‘we love getting involved with the community at the Hailsham office and being located so closely to the weekly market we felt running our event to coincide would get us maximum attendance. The introduction of the iced coffee was welcome in the heat and I am delighted that we raised over £250 on the day.’ Lesley Powell, Fundraising Co-ordinator at You Raise me Up said ‘We were delighted to come along and support the Hailsham coffee morning. I have attended the two Polegate coffee mornings which ran earlier this year. It’s a nice way for people to fundraise for the charity, they can get to know Hart Reade better but also speak with me about the work we do and where their money goes.’ 2017 was a tough year for the charity with the loss of one of the founders Jane Brooks, but they continue to focus on supporting families coping with the unbearable loss of a young person between the ages of 16 and 25 years.

GREASE SINGALONG: Get your ticket now for the Hailsham FM and Hailsham Festival singalong to Grease event at Hailsham Pavilion on Saturday September 8 at 7pm. You can pop into the box office in George Street, reserve on line at www.hailshampavilion.co.uk or by phone on (01323) 841414.

POETRY COMPETITION: This free to enter poetry competition, kindly sponsored by Millies, is open to all ages and is for the Hailsham Festival taking place in September. The closing date is 10am on 3 September. The age groups and subject choices are as follows: Up to 12 year (child) Magical Things, 13-19 years (teens) Weather or The Future, 20 years and over (adult) Weather or The Future. How to enter: Poems should be between 8 and 30 lines and original i.e. not entered into any other competition or been published prior to the closing date of the competition. The poem must be submitted on a separate page from the entrant’s details. Details, on a separate page from the poem, must include full name, age, address and contact detail i.e. either telephone number or email address, and which category it is to be entered into. Each entrant may enter no more than 2 poems into any one category/subject. Entries can be submitted in 3 different ways: email to [email protected] with Poetry Competition as the subject. Post to Pam Robinson, 65 Lansdowne Way, Hailsham BN27 1LT. Leave in a sealed envelope market Poetry Competition at the Demelza shop, 20 High Street, Hailsham, or similarly at Gallery North, 70 High Street, Hailsham. Deadline is 10am Monday September 3. Late entries will not be considered. Judging will be by 5 independent judges and the results and prizegiving for all age groups will be on Monday September 17, 4.30pm to 6.30pm at Bucklers Café, St Mary’s Walk, Hailsham. Get writing. Good Luck.

FRENCHIES: Have you visited Frenchies yet. Another new business arrives in Hailsham. The shops are filling up. Open only for three weeks, Frenchies is a new gift shop in George Street (where the sandwich shop was). Local lady and proprietor, Julianne French, has recently expanded her successful wedding events business which has a showroom at the rear of the premises in Victoria Road, to also offer that unusual general gift you are looking for wedding present or other celebration or household item, even children’s lunch boxes. Support your local businesses, pop in and say hello and see if there is something that catches your eye for that special occasion.