Staplecross

It all seems very quiet around the Parish at the moment. ~ so this column may be rather a short one, ~ for a change.

That little hub of industry, Staplecross Bowls Club are, however, the exception to the rule. SATURDAY AUGUST 10th. sees this club away at Rye for a 4T match, being part of the Mermaid League. On WEDNESDAY AUGUST 14th.they play Horam at home for a Friendly 4T Match. They will be playing away again at Rotherfield on SATURDAY AUGUST 17th for another Friendly match of 4T and SUNDAY AUGUST 18th finds them back at their home ground for another Friendly 5T match.This time their opponents are Cranbrook. All these matches begin at 2.30pm.What a busy and dedicated club this is. I’ll pass on all their results to you, as soon as the information trickles through.

Still outside, but on a much grander, nobler and certainly much noisier scale over the weekend of SATURDAY AUGUST 10th and SUNDAY AUGUST 11th from 10.30am until 5pm the countryside surrounding Bodiam Castle will resonate to the sounds of a Grand Medieval Weekend and all the excitement that that entails. ~ Just imagine it’s 14th Century England and here at Bodiam, work on the magnificent Castle, soon to be home to Sir Edward Dallingridge and his family, is almost complete.Whilst the exterior of this imposing castle is finished, work still continues on the interior, the celebration goes on outside with jousting, archery, fighting displays, and hunting games to name but a few delights in store. Don’t miss Bodiam Castle’s biggest event of the year, with medieval encampments, jousting tournaments and much, much more. See one of Englands most loved and visited, as well as filmed,castle come alive with all the sounds, sights and colours of a celebratory event.Try your hand at archery, or have a taste of the delicious food. See, hear and imagine life as perhaps it was lived during this period of time. There will be lots to see and marvel at both inside and outside the grounds of this historic and much loved castle. New at Bodiam this year, will be a Jousting Rail, ~ so don’t just watch ~ train to be a knight with the local ‘Hands-on-History’. For all further information, including various admission prices contact the Box Office on 0844 249 1895 or www.nationaltrust.org.uk/bodiamcastle or email:[email protected]

Striding out on TUESDAY AUGUST.13th will be the members of the Rother Ramblers,~ a local group of Britain’s walking charity.They’ll all be meeting up, at 10.0am, in the village car park in Lamberhurst for a circular 10 mile walk from Lamberhurst via Bewl Water which promises stunning views, so don’t forget to bring your camera along with your picnic lunch. You may also bring your dog if desired. Please contact Carol on:01580~852432 for all further details. On SATURDAY AUGUST 17th. the Rother Ramblers have arranged another walk. This time it’s only 5 miles,~ ideal if you wish to come back to Rambling or if you feel you’d like to just start. They are going to meet in the Main Car Park in Wadhurst at 9.30am. There will be a short refreshment stop midway along the walk and once again, dogs are permitted. For the route and all further details, please ring Lionel on 01424~752452. What a lovely way to see and enjoy more of our glorious contryside, at a more leisurely pace, with a nice group of people, and you can take your dog with you !

Email:[email protected]

At Brede High Woods, at Cripps Corner, on THURSDAY AUGUST 15th another Family Bushcraft Day has been arranged. From between the hours of 10.0am until 3pm. this fun, exciting and active day gives you hands-on woodland bushcraft tuition. You will learn new skills and put them into practise. You’ll also be out in the free, fresh air, in beautiful surroundings with lovely, knowledgeable people. As always, for more information and to book and reserve your place contact Martin at: [email protected] or you can telephone him on 0845~2935734. Two more dates THURSDAY AUGUST 22nd and THURSDAY AUGUST 29th are also Family Bushcraft Days, so if you can’t make the 15th. perhaps you could enrol for either of the last dates of the year. The Woodland Trust have some really exciting events planned as we head towards the Autumn season. To wet your appetite, those lovely people at Brede High Woods have arranged a Heathland Walk, An evening Bat Walk, a Fungi Forrage Day, as well as an amazing Christmas Family Craft Day. Further details for all of these events, and more as they arrive will be published.

You know what they say about ‘the calm before the storm’, well, Ewhurst, Staplecross & Bodiam Garden Society have had a few hours peace and quiet recently, allowing them to simply enjoy the fruits of anothers’ labour within the garden, instead of their own hard work. Many members of this society visited Merriments last Wednesday for an afternoon of delight and indulgence and just sheer enjoyment. New ideas and perhaps new forms of strategy on dealing with all those pesky gardening problems that irk us all from time to time may arise from this little treat of an afternoon out. Many will see this as a bit of a breather before their next major undertaking in their busy horticultural calender which is the Flower, Fruit & Vegetable Show which will take place on SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 7th at Staplecross Village Hall. More news on that as we approach the time.

Over the next three (3) years the East Sussex County Council needs to find £63 million of savings. As a consequence, they are reviewing a number of our services, including how they provide support to local bus services. Before making any changes to services, the E.S.C.C. would like to know the views of ALL of the local communities and other interested parties. All comments received by E.S.C.C. will help them to make decisions about the future provision of bus services in the county. YOU have until SATURDAY AUGUST 17th. to give them your views. Go to eastsussex.gov.uk/have your say, telephone them on 0345 60 80 193 or email at:[email protected] Once E.S.C.C. have developed their draft bus service proposal, the public will be asked for their view again in October or November.

Church Services for the Parish of Ewhurst for this weekend will commence at St. James the Great, in Ewhurst on SUNDAY AUGUST 11th. Trinity 11. 9.30am. Holy Communion (BCP) The Reverend Gordon Winchester will then move to Staplecross to the little but lovely church of St Marks for a Morning Praise service at 11.15am. Gordon is always there to give help or guidance or support, in any way he can, whether happy or sad, so if he can be of service to any of you, please don’t hesitate to contact him on 01580~830268.

Don’t forget, whatever event you are planning, be it a club outing, a social gathering, a charity or fund-raising event, an exhibition or sporting programme,~ if you would like me to spread the word and give it an ‘airing’ via this column, please contact me either by telephone on:01580~831881 or by email at [email protected] I’ll certainly do the best I can to get as much coverage as possible for you, but do please allow at least two weeks ( more would be better !.) before the events take place.