Mountfield

CHURCH: Fred Stace was our last surviving member of the Mountfield branch of the British Legion and, among so many other things, the village Standard Bearer for many years, so his passing brings another local chapter to an end. The formal laying up of the Mountfield British Legion Standard will take place during a service of Holy Communion on Sunday, February 15th, at 10.00 am in All Saints, Mountfield. Rev’d Ann-Marie Crosse has also sent the dates of the other services for February: February 1st, Morning Worship, Netherfield; 8th, 10.00 am Holy Communion, Brightling; 15th 10.00 am Holy Communion as above, Mountfield; 22nd. 10.00 am Holy Communion, Netherfield; March 1st, Morning Worship, Brightling.

KIDZ: Vicky Staley writes: “Please come along to a meeting for Mountfield KIDZ Club on Friday February 6th at 4.30pm in the Village Hall. As you may know the Children’s Christmas Tree Party and Family Bonfire are organised by the Mountfield Children’s Club. The idea behind KIDZ is to relaunch the Club so that it can build on these events to provide an increased range of opportunities for Mountfield’s children and their parents. The idea is for KIDZ to provide fun local activities for the children and to add some social cohesion to a village that is so widely spread and where children go to so many different schools. The idea of the meeting is so that anyone can come along (you don’t have to be a parent) and pitch in with ideas and suggestions for activities, look at resources, talk about how to make it work and maybe even offer help in some form. If you would like to offer your views but can’t make it in person, please email [email protected].”

MOUNTFIELD CLUB: Last Saturday (January 17th), the Mountfield Club hosted a Fred Stace charity darts and push penny night which was very well attended following the sad loss of the great man. The Club would like to thank Steve Sutton and Steve Smith for providing the trophies and to every one who donated raffle prizes and food for the buffet. The event will become an annual charity event in honour of Fred Stace with proceeds going to St Michael’s. The Club’s snooker team continues its fine form having now won 11 out of its 13 league matches and stands two points clear at the top of the League and seven points clear of the team in third. Last week, the team won 5-0 at Burwash with wins for Steve Smith, Pete Last, Kevin Gray, Andy Saunders and Sean Spillett. Kevin Gray is currently joint top with 11 league wins and Steve Smith has so far won six away matches which is more than any other player in the division. There will be more Club events arranged soon. Watch this space.

MOUNTFIELD PARISH COUNCIL: The Parish Council meeting started with a tribute to Fred Stace who served the Council as both councillor and chairman. The Council will make a contribution from funds to one of Fred’s chosen charities: St Michael’s Hospice. Steve Rickman Smith raised concerns about the car park outside M&W Schools as it is now attracting a certain amount of anti-social behaviour including evidence of low-level drug use. MPC will do what it can with arguably the best short term measure being to try to get the site added to the regular routes of police patrols. The Council is also looking at the question of bus stops in the village, particularly provision for the school bus crowd. Other topics discussed included the provision of defibrillators, the status of the pub and further maintenance work on the playground.

DONATION DETAILS: To make a donation in memory of a special man, Fred’s favourite charities can be contacted as follows. For the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, either www.rnli.org/Donate, call 0300 300 9990 or check RNLI in the phone book. For the British Heart Foundation, either www.bhf.org.uk or call 0300 330 3322. For St Michael’s Hospice, either www.stmichaelshospice.org/donate or call 01424 445177.

CONTACT: If you have anything for the Village Voice, we can be contacted on 880614 or via [email protected].

Peter and Valerie Miles

[email protected]