Hurst Green

2 Park Farm Close

Hurst Green Shop and Café held their official opening on 27 June. Thomas Pakenham and Rother District Council Chairman, Councillor Ian Jenkins, carried out the official duties with some 100 other guests in attendance.

Proceedings commenced outside on the lawned area of the shop with a boisterous 8 minute drum recital performed by six boys from a Robertsbridge school followed by the ribbon cutting ceremony carried out by Thomas Pakenham. Speeches followed inside the shop led by Cllr. Jenkins who spoke about the importance of partnership working between community residents and organisations, concluding his duties by cutting a specially commissioned cake designed as a replica of the building. Further speeches followed from the Chair of the Board, Helen Melia of The Plunkett Foundation and Graham Brown, Chairman of the Parish Council. The benefits of bringing a shop, a café and post office services back into the village were highlighted, serving community needs across the generations and the importance of building up a strong volunteer workforce to help staff the shop ,with particular emphasis on the rewards that a volunteer programme canartnership can bring not just to the parties concerned but to the community generally. Helen Melia reassured those present of the high survival rate of community shop projects against the backdrop of shop closures being experienced in the High Street . Father Michael who conducted the last service in the church before its closure, concluded the formalities by blessing the building and whilst obviously very much saddened by the closure of the church expressed that he could not have wished for a more suitable way to bring the building back into service for the village.

The manager then organised delicious food tasting on the café tables for guests to enjoy some of the products sold in the shop; Ringden Farm apple juice and meads, Lighthouse Bakery bread, preserves from St Georges, cheeses and meats from Turners Fine Foods and a range of goodies from Country Choice.

East Sussex Hearing Resource Centre will have a mobile unit in Hurst Green, in front of the village hall on Thursday July 11, 10.30am to 3.30pm.

East Sussex Hearing Resource Centre is a registered charity, working in partnership with adult Social care, to provide a no charge mobile information and advice service for deaf, deafened and hard of hearing people living in East Sussex. The vehicle, which is funded by the Big Lottery Fund, is equipped to offer demonstrations of assistive equipment and hearing screening tests (if time permits). The bus is accessible to wheelchair users, and representatives of both the East Sussex Hearing Resource Centre and adult social Care will be available to provide individual information and advice on all aspects of hearing loss. For more information, 01323 722505 (voice/text/fax), email [email protected]

Can you take on this column? I will only continue to provide the Hurst Green Village Voice column for a limited period, we need someone in the village to come forward to take it on so that Hurst Green continues to have a column. If you might be interested in taking it on, it is not difficult, get in touch with me or contact the Battle Observer directly.

Get details of your events to me as soon as possible, so that I can give your event advance publicity, if you have a program of events fro future months let me have details and I will include in the column. To be sure of inclusion in the next edition get your details to me by 10pm on Mondays, but as early as possible to enable me to prepare the item and check any queries with you. You can use any of the following methods to get your information to me, Colin Boylett, 2 Park Farm Close Etchingham, TN19 7DQ, telephone 01580 819532, mobile 07941 786244, email [email protected]