Winchelsea

Fun Quiz Night is tomorrow in the New Hall for teams of up to six and doors open at 6 for 6.30pm. There will be prizes and a raffle and tickets are £9 p.p.; contact 01797 223810 to reserve your place and proceeds are for the benefit of the Rye & Winchelsea District Memorial Hospital.

An Under Winchelsea Cellar Tour has been arranged during this Bank Holiday weekend for Sunday May 4th. Always a very popular way to spend 90 minutes and tickets are only £5 p.p. from Winchelsea Archaeological Society (01797 224446). A Guidebook is provided and you will need to meet in Castle Street at 2pm.

Folk musicians Miranda Sykes and Rex Preston will be performing at St Thomas’ Church on Friday May 9th at 7.30pm. Miranda is the third member of Show of Hands and is one of the few female double bassists in England as well as a talented singer. Rex is a skilled mandolin player and a leading light within British Bluegrass. Winchelsea Bonfire Boyes have organised the concert and the tickets which are £10 p.p. can be purchased either by phone on 01797 224446 or online at: wegottickets.com/Winchelsea or from Grammar School Records in Rye.

Winchelsea Conservation Society is holding its Annual General Meeting on Saturday May 10th at 10am in the Lower Court Hall. Chairman John Spencer has requested that members wishing to stand for election to the Committee should apply in writing to the secretary Mrs Pemble as soon as possible.

The Ferry Road Health Centre Patients Participation Group together with the Rye Medical Centre PPG are running an event given by Mr. Roger Plail, Consultant Urologist, East Sussex Healthcare Trust, entitled ‘Robots, Lasers, Iceballs; the changing face of urological surgery’. This will be held on Wednesday May 14th at 6 for 6.30pm in Rye Community Primary School (car parking off Love Lane). All are welcome and refreshments will be provided.

A visit to the Savill Garden near Windsor has been planned by the Garden Society for Wednesday May 21st. Please note the change of date which is due to large numbers wishing to visit the garden. At 9am the coach will be leaving the bus stop near the Town Sign and will return around 6pm. The cost including travel and admission to the garden is £25 and to reserve a seat please put your money in an envelope (cash, or a cheque to ‘Winchelsea Garden Society’) and write your name, the number of seats you are paying for, and a contact phone number on the outside of the envelope and post it in 4 Hiham Green. Tickets will not be issued but you’ll be contacted about ten days before the trip to confirm details. Garden lovers will enjoy the Savill which is an outstanding achievement of garden making in Britain and known to be the finest of all Royal gardens. Moreover the famous azaleas and rhododendrons should be at their best. In addition there is an excellent restaurant and those who want to, can also visit the Valley Gardens nearby free of charge.

You are invited to meet with one or more of your Icklesham Parish Ward Councillors on the first Saturday of each month from 9 to 10am in The Court Hall. Local councillors Steve Turner and Anna Hargreaves will be available to meet and talk to Winchelsea residents and generally share ideas of how best to represent them at the meetings the following week. So if you have an idea to improve the town or a problem you want to share do come along. It is important that the people from our town have the chance to talk with us. We can’t always take everything forward as our remit is limited but we can hopefully help provide the relevant information or way forward where possible either at the time or by doing some research as is own the case.

At present there are no barriers at Winchelsea Station’s level crossing and flashing lights are the only warnings of a train approaching. However East Sussex County Council is shortly to be resolving this issue by having new barriers installed on behalf of Network Rail. The duration of the work is just one day starting at 11.20pm on Saturday May 31st until 7.20am on Sunday June 1st. Over that time there will be a temporary road closure at the station level crossing and a diversion route will be sign posted via A259 Winchelsea to Rye or Udimore Road but will not affect pedestrian access.

Winchelsea Beach

Winchelsea Beach Community Association has organised a Table Sale for tomorrow (Saturday) at 11am in the Community Hall. If you would like to book a table the contact number is 01797 224820. Tombola is available and entrance is 40p which includes tea and biscuits.

From 2 to 4pm tomorrow, a two-mile walk based on an Introduction to Rye Harbour Nature Reserve is set to take place. Please meet at Rye Harbour car park and donations towards the Reserve would be appreciated. This is the first of a series of three walks to introduce people to the nature reserve and its wildlife and maybe take you to a part of the reserve you have yet to visit. In the first walk the focus will be on looking at wildlife on the new saltmarsh and visiting the birdwatching hides at the Wader, Quarry and Ternery Pools.

Also at Rye Harbour Nature Reserve on the following day, Sunday May 4th there will be a Wader Watch three-mile walk beginning at the early time of 4.30am to 8am. It is an early morning walk for the birdwatcher to catch sight of the early birds such as the Whimbrel which leave their roost at dawn and a range of wading birds. As usual donations would be very helpful and you will need to meet at Rye Harbour car park.

The monthly Evening Prayer service is this Sunday May 4th in St Richard’s Church and all are invited to attend. This will be at 3pm with Canon Whitehead will be leading the service.

On Wednesday May 7th there will be an evening of Cash Bingo in the Community Hall and doors will open at 7 for 7.30pm. Friends and families are welcome to participate and light refreshments will be at hand.

Cindi Cogswell

31 Highfords, Icklesham