Northiam village voice - March 30

The Primary School will be holding their Easter Service at 9.30am in St Mary’s, before breaking up for the holidays – let’s hope the weather holds.

Northiam Horticultural Society’s Spring Show will be held on Saturday. Entries need to be taken to the Village Hall between 9am and 10.30am. As you no longer have to commit to anything in advance, you can wake up on Saturday morning, take a look around your garden and decide what you can enter. Schedules are available from local shops if you haven;t got one already, or phone Joan Davis (253458).

It costs just 20p per exhibit, and committee members are on hand to help anyone who is unsure of what to do – which is essentially: bring along your exhibit, place it in the right section on the table, put your label next to it, and retire. Judging takes place and then everyone is welcomed back at 2.30pm to admire the displays and see how well they have done. All good fun, do give it a try!

There will be a new venture on Sunday, April 1st, with the first meeting of Northiam’s Messy Church. This is an all-age church service, with an emphasis on families. Starting at 4pm at St Mary’s there will be an informal time of stories, activities and craft, with a light meal to round off the afternoon. Everyone is very welcome, but children will need to be accompanied by an adult. For more details, speak to Rod or Sarah (253118) or come along and try it out!

Willing Fingers Craft Group held an Open Day earlier this month which was quite different from any they have done before and very enjoyable. Thanks to all the ladies’ dedication during the day, they made 30 dresses of assorted sizes to post off to the “Little Dresses for Africa” charity. From the sale of refreshments and the tombola, the group was able to pass on £50 to Jess in Hairtique, as a sponsor donation for her  parachute jump in aid of Help for Heroes. So thank you everyone. April’s meeting will be on Monday 2nd when Julie Fowle will be speaking, showing some of her bead work and encouraging members to have a go. Willing Fingers starts at 2pm on the first Monday of each month in the Church Centre, new members very welcome.

The next planning meeting for the Jubilee Celebration will be on Tuesday at 7pm in the Church Centre. Everyone who is interested is invited to come along as we try to finalise plans for a great village weekend. We’ve already got a special Summer Show from the Horticultural Society, a Jubilee Dance with the Starrlite Beatles with local supporting acts, we are joining in the national Big Lunch and having a torchlight procession to light the beacon. Alongside these events will be traditional games for the family, interesting historical details about our village and its people and excellent food and drink. Make sure you keep the weekend of June 2nd free!

Some information on the Pretious Sports Hall:

The sports hall at Northiam School is open for everyone to use outside of school hours. It was built especially for shared school and local community use following a campaign by local people and the School, and was funded by the Big Lottery, Rother and East Sussex Councils and other money raised locally. It is far larger than a normal primary school hall and has full adult size markings and equipment and meets all the relevant sporting standards.

Although on the School site, the community use of the hall is run by a Management Group made up of representatives from the School, East Sussex County Council, the Parish Council and with space for two representatives drawn from hall users and/or the local community. Staff are employed to open and clean the hall etc on a daily basis but all management decisions are made by the Management Group. Running and equipment costs are shared with the School but community use must not be subsidised by the School – community use must be self financing. Use of the hall has been built up really well since it opened in 2007 and is now running with a very high level of occupancy and on a sound financial footing. All sorts of fitness and sporting activities are available and taking place in the hall in your village that you could join – see our website for full details – or you could start-up your own?!

The Annual General Meeting of the management Group will be held on Wednesday 11th April at 7pm in Northiam School. This is an open meeting of the Management Group and will include progress reports of what’s been achieved since the last meeting, future plans and the annual accounts. The meeting will also elect two local community / hall user representatives to serve on the Management Group. All users and interested parties are invited to attend.

Services for Palm Sunday (1st): 8am Holy Communion, 10.30am Morning Praise, 4pm Messy Church.

Karen Ayling, The White Hosue Dixter Road