Ninfield and Hooe

VILLAGE MARKET: Tomorrow, Saturday, Ninfield Village Market in the Memorial Hall from 9.30am to midday. All your favourite stalls will be in situ providing fabulous local produce at very reasonable prices. The Pie Pantry, Asselton Cakes, Mrs Barkers Preserves, Fuggles Apple Juice, Chilley Farm Meats, cheese and bread, eggs, Keeley’s Cakes and local honey and of course the non-comestibles including cards, quilts, bags, wood, books, jewellery. The Pop Up Café will also provide refreshments while you browse and buy. With so many events and parties planned for the summer months, why not get a regular order with your stallholder and take the pain out of shopping. The next market will be on July 21, the weekend after the Carnival, if you want to book a stall call Chris Hutchinson on 01424 893388.

CATSFIELD QUIRE: Tomorrow, Saturday, Catsfield Quire in Catsfield Village Hall, 7.30pm. A special event to celebrate Sussex Day when Sussex Harmony, a West Gallery Quire, will make a welcome return to perform songs, music, pieces and snippets of history. Be prepared to join in with voice, or an instrument if you play one, this was how the Quire was originally formed hundreds of years ago. Admission is free for the evening, but there will be a retiring collection, and refreshments will also be available.

NINFIELD BONFIRE SOCIETY: Ninfield Bonfire Society meet on Wednesday. The next meeting will be at the Working Men’s Club at 8pm, where the members will be finalising plans for their participation in the Carnival, and for their own special two day musical event at the end of July, The Proms and Gig. New members are always made very welcome, so if you fancy getting involved do turn up at the meeting.

LOCAL HISTORY GROUP: Thursday, Ninfield Local History Group meet in the Methodist Hall at 7.30pm. John Cheshire will be giving a talk on the history of Ashburnham Place. Also, the NLHG Archive Room, in Sparke Pavilion, is open to the public every Monday from 10am to midday, where you can look through their collections of old photographs, maps and documents. There is often a slide show running of pictures that have been donated to the society and, if there is a particular theme that you’d like to see, or know more about, please let members know in advance. If you have items of local interest which show the village in days gone by, do take them along on a Monday morning, they can be scanned while you wait and added to the archives. There is always free tea and coffee available while you indulge in some tranquil, historical research reliving those times gone by.

HOOE OPEN GROUP: Meet on Thursday in the village hall from 7.30pm. The Hooe group will be welcoming Brian Bradbury with his talk entitled Sussex Place Names: their origin and meaning. The group are very active and are researching their local history, including all aspects of village life, from smuggling to school, farms and church, all items that are of interest help to make the picture of life in times gone by come alive. Do go along and join this interesting society and if you have any anecdotes, write them down and send to [email protected].

HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY: A Message From Rose: A reminder for members who have booked for the summer visit. We meet at 2pm at the Walled Nursery, Hawkhurst on Thursday June 21. Let’s all hope for a lovely sunny day.

BOWLS CLUB: News from Carole: The two matches played this week were both friendlies and the results were as follows. Saturday June 9, Ninfield 70 Hellingly 80. After the match some of the members joined the supporters and went to the Kings Head in Horsebridge for supper and a great evening was had by all. Sunday June 10, the Ninfield team played Beckley and the result was Ninfield 67 Beckley 64. A lovely afternoon weather-wise and great company. Fantastic weekend of bowls and fun.

GROUP REPORT: Hooe Open Group. A Report from Edna on the latest fun and frolics with the lively Ladies of HOG: On June 8, the second Friday of the month, the ladies enjoyed a fabulous afternoon in the company of Sally Watson and her team from the charity Hearing Dogs for Deaf People, including some of the lovely dogs. The group were very interested to listen to how the dogs are trained to react to almost any situation be it a front door bell, smoke alarm or the distress of it’s owner. It takes almost two years to train a dog to the necessary high standard, where dog and owner work confidently together, and this can cost in the region of £25,000. Once the dog is handed over to the recipient, the charity look after the welfare of the animal and foot all vets bills thereafter. The ladies were so enthralled and moved by their afternoon, their collection in the charity bucket overflowed. Afternoon tea, as always, followed and the raffle. If you’d like to join this lively group, please either turn up on the second Friday (not August) or call Edna Wallis on 01424 842591, you’ll be made very welcome.

GARDEN PARTY: St Oswald’s Garden Party. Another mention for Saturday June 30, the garden party in the grounds of St Oswald’s Church, from noon until 4.30pm. Hooe Silver Band will be playing from 2pm and there will be lots of lovely side shows, stands and stalls to browse and buy from. Tea and cakes, plants and a tombola will all be raising funds and of course, the raffle. There will be parking in the adjacent field. Please call Jack Rist on 892576, or Simon on 845087 for any more information.

OPEN GARDENS HOOE: Tuesday July 3, 10.30am to 4pm. A first mention of the St Michael’s Hospice Open Gardens event, a return visit to all the lovely gardens and paddocks. For more information please visit www.stmichaels hospice.com/opengardens. More next week.

CHURCH SERVICES: Sunday, Methodist Church, 10.30am Service of Worship and Praise with Margaret Bickerdike. Messy Church, Wednesday June 27, Methodist Church Hall. The young people are in for a whale of a time. The activities that go along with this theme could be amazing.

PARISH CHURCHES: Sunday, Ninfield St Mary’s, 9.30am Family Eucharist; Hooe St Oswald’s, 11am Parish Eucharist.

EARLY HEADS UP: This is early for a reason, to promote the shows coming to the Memorial Hall from September onwards. Firstly, a brilliant new musical that has been delighting audiences recently in the Brighton Fringe Festival. Quiz Night The Musical is in Edinburgh for the Fringe Festival in August and then will be coming to Ninfield, for one performance only on Saturday September 15. Hilariously funny, great music and with a real Pub Quiz throughout the show, it promises to be a fantastic evening’s entertainment. Then on Saturday October 27, the Gala Night returns. The black tie event sees the fish and chip supper and a musical comedy sketch show from Deja Revue, plus the Village Awards, a Disco for dancing and other surprises. The Memorial Hall once again will be making it’s theatrical mark and tickets for both events are on sale from the end of this month.