Iden

THE PARISH COUNCIL MEETING: The meeting of the Parish Council on Tuesday 4th April was chaired by Ray Griffin. Chairman of Rother District Council, Paul Osbourne, said that Rother had donated £51, 000, which together with local businesses, had gone some way to meet the cost of lifeguards, and-water- safety propaganda, following the drownings in Camber last year. Keith Glazier, Chairman of East Sussex Council spoke of the continued strive to keep health and social services a priority. The Parish council voted to supply high- visibility vests for volunteer’s use, when litter-picking, planting etc. Councillor Jim Woods, spoke about I.C.E [Iden Community Emergency Forum] He said he would welcome new members, and spoke about the forthcoming ‘ Save A Life’ [Emergency First Aid] evening, in Iden village hall, on Tuesday April 18th, from 7.30pm. Supported by SECAMB, they will cover basic life support, CPR, using defibrillators, choking, the Heimlich Manoeuvre, strokes and serious bleeding. Refreshments will be provided The course is free, but there will be a collection plate for donations towards ICE.

Tree-felling was discussed . Any kind of tree-felling is a sensitive issue as no one deliberately fells a tree. Diseased trees are a health and safety risk, and Councillor John Hazelden said that all category ‘A ’trees have been dealt with. Councillor Michael Miller has on-going concerns about fly-tipping, which rears it’s ugly head in Iden, all too frequently. We are to have signs in the village on how to report fly-tippers. It was a relatively short meeting in view of the recent Village Assembly. The next Parish Council meeting will be on Tuesday 2nd May, at 7.30pm, in Iden village hall.

EASTER SERVICES: GOOD FRIDAY At 12 noon, there will be the ‘ Walk Of Witness’, at the ‘ Foot Of The Cross’—Iden. SATURDAY 15TH [Easter Saturday] 6pm at Playden Church is The ‘Blessing Of The First Light’. Easter Sunday

9.30am family service at Iden Parish Church. 11am Family service at Playden Church. Please Note -There will be a combined service at Playden on 30th April, followed by coffee [no service that day at Iden.]

IDEN PLAYERS VARIETY EXRAVAGANZA: [Review written Michael Miller] The Iden Players weighed anchor this past weekend when everyone was invited aboard to enjoy their “Ship to Shore” concert at the Village Hall

This consisted of a series of sketches and songs with a nautical flavour ranging from a very gruesome tale about a hapless Lighthouse keeper to an explanation of life according to various animals who seemed to be not only highly articulate but also very knowledgeable. We also had a dog monologue (a dogalogue!), a swarm of bees and yet another Harrison witty ditty about one of our local supermarkets. Geoffrey Chater read two well-known poems by John Masefield and Alan Riley gave a short history of the Norman Conquest.

The evening started with the Rye Ukulele Experiment playing and singing well recognised shanties and the Iden Players continued the theme with very appropriate and colourful songs where we could almost smell the sea air and taste the ice creams.

All in all a very worthy successor to the pantomimes of previous years and tremendous credit goes to the very hard working and inspirational Teresa Cooper who not only put together the show but was its Producer. The ubiquitous Helen Gray directed the show and she was also one of the comperes along with Christopher Strangeways and John Harrison

Alison Catt and Susannah Miller were the accompanists for the various songs and of course a very big thank you is due to the entire company and back room volunteers, none of whom fortunately had to be pressed ganged into helping.

The audience disembarked having had a thoroughly enjoyable voyage of discovery and surprises and eager to book their next adventure with the Iden Players

Well done everyone concerned for giving us all so much joy to go along with this wonderful spring weather! A real tonic!

PAT’S BENCH: Mandy and Paul Parsons would like to thank everyone who contributed donations towards a bench in memory of Pat Buckland. Pat loved Iden, and having a bench in her memory on which to sit a and rest, and take in our lovely countryside is something she would have really appreciated. Mandy has asked if villagers would kindly help with suggestions for the most appropriate place for Pat’s bench. If you have any suggestions would you please ring Mandy [telephone 01797 280041].

THE COURSE OF ‘SHOE’ LOVE: Once upon a time we had a very amorous spaniel called Buster, who would howl to be let out at about 4 am, and come home exhausted, disheveled, and badly in need of a bath. Coincidentally, all these boots started arriving in our garden [boots, we later discovered that carried the aroma of Buster’s lady-love]. We took it as a matter of course, [we tend to be a bit lackadaisical about things, but our back garden was beginning to look like ‘Freeman Hardy and Willis’] Anyway, one day there was a knock on the door, and a man stood there who introduced himself as Mr Mills-Platt. “Your dog”, he said “has been stealing boots from my garden shed, including a very expensive pair of Timberland boots”. I got out my cheque- book, but then I said “ hang on a minute, shouldn’t you have a lock on your shed Mr Mills-Platt”? Buster slunk under a table, denying all knowledge. I rang the police, who laughed and said they could hardly arrest the dog! I told my husband. “Who is this bloke”, he said, but after a bit of a doorstep wrangling, it was decided that we would get a lock on our back gate and Mr Mills-Platt would have one put on his shed. It’s bad enough dealing with love- sick teenagers, but a love-sick spaniel is a whole different ball game. It takes more than just a ‘Bonio’ to cure such unrequited love! Buster wasn’t apologetic about the boots either. In his mind love meant never having to say you’re sorry!

CONTACT ME: If anyone has anything to add to the Village Voice, please ring Gill Griffin [telephone 01797 280-311]

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