Your letters - September 24, 2010

Perhaps Bexhillians should bear burden

I READ with great interest two letters published September 17.

The first from John Hill who referred to his earlier letter about one of the art exhibitors at the De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill, which reminded me how much I agreed with him when I saw it.

I have seen more artistic displays at car boot sales and do hope such events are funded by someone other than council tax payers.

The second letter from William Ward (What is the purpose of the Pavilion?) states that the original purpose was 'to provide entertainment for the people of Bexhill'.

I find this commendable and would suggest, with the greatest respect, that the people of Bexhill should bear the burden of funding it to the relief of so many of us who do not live there.

Peter Venn

Lower Lake

Battle

Thanks for making book fair a success

THE team organising the Winchelsea Book Fair wish to thank everyone who contributed to making this event such a great success.

Well over 4,000 has been raised, 50 per cent of which will go to the Friends of Rye Hospital, 25 per cent to the Friends of the Ancient Monuments of Winchelsea and 25 per cent to St Thomas The Martyr, Winchelsea, where the fair was held.

Our special thanks go to the Rector of Winchelsea and to Bournes Haulage, of Rye, who provided boxes and stored them, full of books, until we could sort them.

We are most grateful to the staff and caretaker of Winchelsea School who allowed us to store and sort books there during the holiday period; also to the local village voices who gave us such good publicity before the event.

Thank you to all those who sorted more than 8,000 books, moved them to the church and manned the stalls for two days before dismantling them afterwards.

We are grateful to everyone who gave us books to sell and to those who came to buy them.

The rushg at the door at 10am on Friday was a reward for our hard work.

Finally a special thank you to Mike de Smith who had the original idea and managed the whole affair brilliantly.

There were many good books remaining which are being passed on to other charities.

The League of Friends Grand Raffle was drawn on Saturday. The 200 prize went to Milly and Emily, of Playden; the 100 prize to Mrs T Hodgson, of Rye; and the 50 to Ro Cooke; at Camber.

John Priestley

Chairman of Winchelsea Book Fair

Where are all the rural volunteers?

I HAVE recently been looking for volunteers to support families in the Rye and rural Rother area and must say how disappointing the response has been.

This for me is a real shame because, as a Rye resident, I am really keen to promote the charity I run so that local families can benefit from local volunteer support. My charity is Home-Start Hastings & Rother.

It's only since April of this year that we secured funding to work in Rye and rural Rother.

In itself this is a really exciting challenge as we have been operating in the Hastings and St Leonards area for over 21 years and can now share the benefit of our expertise to support families, train local volunteers and provide a needy link with organizations who can support them.

Our volunteers visit families in their homes for up to three hours per week, developing trusting relationships and helping those who don't always have a link with families and friends in their locality.

They share information about what is available locally to support them and benefit themselves from our training.

We never allow them to be out of pocket as we always reimburse travel expenses.

Can I implore you, if you are looking for voluntary work to consider Home-Start? I think, not only is it a worthwhile charity, but helps if you are looking for work, proving that you are building on your own personal development and knowledge of people.

We are looking for another 4 people to recruit in October. Our next Preparation course will be in Spring 2011.

Visit our website at www.hshr.org.uk to download an application form or ring us on 01424 443636 for more information.

Our next Preparation course is at Rye Children's Centre beginning 01 October (from 10am-2.00pm) and runs for 10 weeks (every Friday except half term week.)

Judy Breen

Senior Organiser

Home-Start Hastings and Rother

Dedicated bravery of Merchant Navy

AS WE think about the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Britain, without taking away anything from our gallant airmen and women, let us also remember the dedicated bravery of the men and women of the Merchant Navy who brought the fuel, without which the RAF could not have continued to fly.

The tankers had to endure attack from U-boats, aircraft and mines which resulted in the loss of all too many.

Norman Hillier

Norman Close

Battle

Horse rescue open day thank you

THROUGH your paper, may I express our thanks to all the trustees, helpers, performers, stall-holders, dog-show entrants and visitors that made our open day at the Brownbread Horse Rescue Centre, Ashburnham such a success on Sunday September 12.

We were fortunate to have the only sunny day sandwiched between the rainy days which contributed to making their efforts both pleasant and worthwhile.

Also a public thank you to our new joint patron, Lord Brett McLean of Hastings, who not only opened the event but remained throughout the day chatting and promoting the charity to all the visitors. More than 5,600 was raised on the day thanks to everyone involved.

The next open days will be on the May 15 and September 11, 2011.

Tony Smith

Chairman of Trustees

Brownbread Horse Rescue Centre

Ashburnham

Art too mainstream for the De La Warr?

HOW I wholeheartedly agree with Peter Morgan's view of so-called art at the De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill.

We have, in our village, a talented artist by the name of Ade Foorde who recently achieved national acclaim in the media for his incredible doodles, all done with ball-point pens which he acquired over the years from Tote betting shops.

The De La Warr was approached last year with a request to help him with an exhibition and just wasn't interested.

Let's hope they are interested now that he has been discovered, but that he declines to exhibit there due to his art being a bit too mainstream for them.

HEATHER JOHNSON

By e-mail

Does anyone know Trevor?

I HAVE recently been trying to contact Trevor Ridley and family who lived (in the 1990s) at High View, Langham Road, Robertsbridge.

Trevor is, I believe, a distant cousin and was writing a family history dating back to about 1790.

He had managed to contact my mother who lived in Hertfordshire and I did meet him there on one occasion.

I have been unable to find anyone who has the family's current address and would be delighted if anyone can put us in touch again after many years.

He will not know my address and may not remember meeting me but his research has been very useful as I am now also trying to put together a family history.

My address is as shown below - I hope someone in Robertsbridge still has contact with the family.

Thank you for your help with this.

Jenny Turner (nee Stokes)

20 Manchester Road

Wollaston

Northants

NN29 7SR

Boats should be in museum

Last week I was in East Sussex with my wife, and my being a keen photographer, I took, as I so often do when in the Hastings area, some photos of the old boats.

Often I am joined by various artists and others, who are simply interested in old boats and the fishing industry, in general.

As I love history and all things historic, I couldn't help but wonder why someone hasn't thought of creating an open air museum of the fishing industry and its history, after all much of what would be needed is already there.

Living in Southampton, I often visit the Weald and Downland Open Air Museum, near Chichester, where old buildings have been collected from various locations and reconstructed on site.

In Hastings and Rye you already have many old boats which could be spruced up or kept just as they are.

As the industry is in sharp decline, it would, I feel sure, give heart to all those redundant fishermen and their beautiful boats to know that a second opportunity could be given for their boats and their knowledge.

An open air museum would make money, attract lots of tourists, photographers, artists and would be educational for schools; car parking, toilets, shops and cafs already exist.

And if more boats were required, then there are plenty more around the coast, especially at Dungeness.

My idea may be implausible but I do hope that someone will give it some serious thought, as to watch it decline further each year saddens me a great deal.

JOHN LLOYD

Ivy Road

Southampton