Mountfield

Peter and Valerie Miles, [email protected]

Last week we said goodbye to David and Sandy up at the Coach House at Banks Farm and bade welcome to Sean and Yvette at Castle Farm Cottages. And this week it isn’t quite appropriate to welcome Tim and Tracey Pearce to the village but they have at least moved from the suburbs (Johns Cross) to Mountfield’s city centre (Hoath Farmhouse). It should also be said that it is very nice to see the old farmhouse in all its glory of old Wealden central chimney stack, warm brick, hung tiles and catslide roof — it’s been hidden for years behind impenetrable hedging. We should also bid a warm welcome to Peter and Sharon Pearce (no relations to Tim and Tracey) who have moved into Harp Tree House (next to the village hall); they already know the area a bit as they have a son in Battle and are looking forward to getting to know everything local much better.

Next we have an uplifting item from the Battle Waste and Recycling Group who write that they have launched a bra recycling scheme. Apparently bras, in any condition (but clean!), can be taken to collection points at either Knickknicks (in Old Ladies Court, off Battle High Sreet) or Battle Post Office. The bras are sent to a central depot, sorted and then sent to Africa. The scheme also supports Breast Cancer Research and 1066 Cycle Club projects. So a worthwhile reason to sort out your drawers. Your support counts!

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Your Village Voice column has the ability to cheer you up, make you cry, depress you and make you laugh, all at the same time. Try this. The Parish Council has received a response to the question of potholes. The local steward has “taken photos and measurements through Mountfield Lane” (Kent Lane) which have been passed to the Asset Management Team. (Holes, apparently, are “assets”.) Currently, the lane is 494th on the list (seriously) but will be re-prioritised once the “assets” has been assessed further. Personally, we are confident that this assessment will send us soaring up the charts as the church is impassable to cyclists and a danger to cars, and Rocks Hill (just by us) is much the same but steeper — so much more fun when watching cyclists… When we get our new position on the Hits Parade, we’ll let you know.

Talking of the Parish Council, the next council meeting is next Tuesday, September 10, at 7.30 in the village hall. There is a fairly full agenda which will be posted on the parish website in the next few days. If you haven’t discovered the joys of the website yet, visit http://mountfield.org.uk. You can also sign up to receive email notification of new postings.

A date for your diaries — or more probably for the grandchildren’s. The Rother Valley Railway is holding a “Return to Robertsbridge” gala weekend which will include steam train journeys from the station to the Northbridge Street crossing. It may not sound much of a journey but if you think back to what was there even one year ago, let alone a couple of years or more, the progress is extraordinary. In the course of delivering Val to the station in the mornings, we have been watching the progress. If you haven’t seen the railway from either the station car park or Northbridge street recently, you will be astonished. For those of you with the right connections, they have a very good blog and website at www.rvr.org.uk with pictures of where it’s all at — they’ve even started paving the platform.

Our final item is a personal one. We are looking for anyone locally who has a real knowledge of all things motor racing, particularly 1930s to 1950s, to help us with some research. So if you know all about Fangio and grand prix racing cars, or if you know someone else who does, we’d like to hear from you.

You know where we are: [email protected] or 880614.