Royal flavour to Hospital Garden Party

The Queen's official birthday was celebrated in style at Bexhill Hospital Garden Party on Saturday.
By The Newsroom
Published 14th Jun 2016, 10:57 BST
Updated 7th Jun 2018, 20:23 BST

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BH garden 6 SUS-160614-093932001

Lone Scots piper Hamilton Bracken, who had heralded the opening of the garden party, rounded off a highly successful afternoon with a rendition of ‘Happy Birthday’.

Crowds at the well-attended event joined lustily in the singing.

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Event organiser Mark Sivyer’s promised family event featured a bouncy slide, children’s archery, sand-painting and face-painting as well as pop-corn and crafts. Eager children swarmed over the East Sussex Fire and Rescue emergency vehicle.

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Popular local folk group The Exiles provided live music throughout a warm and sunny afternoon.

Doug Champion had travelled from Paddock Wood in Kent to join Bexhill 100 Motoring Club colleagues in exhibiting their cars. Doug’s career began with an apprenticeship with renowned coach-builders Thrupp and Maberly. These skills and two years of effort produced a stunning 1929 Cadillac replica.

By late afternoon Bexhill Lions Club members had entirely sold out of hot dogs and burgers. At the Di Paolo ice cream tricycle, Ewan Bradley had been kept busy dispensing the Bexhill café’s award-winning wares. League social secretary Harriet Chapman’s team laboured to keep pace with the demand for that event tradition, tea-and-cakes in the Health Centre hall.

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League supporter Val Rodney, who is trained in hand massage, had volunteered her services. Maritime Volunteer Service members had exhibited their hovercraft. Bexhill First Responders demonstrated defibrillator technique.

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Introducing Town Mayor Cllr Simon Elford, League chairman Cllr Stuart Earl praised the community spirit of an 18-strong team of Highwoods Preservation Society work-party members who the previous Saturday had toiled to tidy the hospital gardens created by the League.

The mayor thanked the League of Friends for the work its volunteers did for local patients.

Visitors included East Sussex County Council chairman, Bexhillian Cllr Michael Ensor.

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Stall tables loaned by Bexhill Gardens and Allotments Society were kindly transported by Witham Brothers removals.

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The event is expected to have raised more than £3,000.

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Related topics:Queen