Winchelsea

30 Highfords, Icklesham

2nd November 12

It is the monthly Church Market tomorrow (Saturday) at the usual time of 10.30 am to noon. On sale will be home-made produce as well as a variety of plants and hardback books. What’s more there are places to sit and chat with coffee, tea and biscuits and all to the accompaniment of piano melodies by Iain Kerr.

Tomorrow is the last day of the Winchelsea Reborn exhibition in St Thomas’ Church and if you want to see something unusual this is it. Achieved by undergraduate architecture students from Brighton University this intriguing exhibition consists of fantastic graphic images and structural models of a new Winchelsea after massive floods turn it into a promontory with harbour. Included in this brave new world for Winchelsea are motorway flyovers, an all-glass financial complex, a nursing home for gambling addicts, all-year cultural festival, salt flats with factory, a cemetery island, world’s largest religious hub and an intricate dairy farm project. The purpose of the giant futuristic monuments, grotesque over quaint Winchelsea may be to scare away intruders but it is unlikely these would ever get planning permission.

As part of the National Trust Walking Festival there will be a weekend of walking on Saturday 3rd and Sunday 4th November meeting, on both days, at 10 am from the Cricket Pavilion near the New Hall. These will be free guided walks by the NT through the areas of outstanding natural beauty and will take about 1.5 to 2 hours. Also on Saturday 3rd November you are invited to the NT Office on Mill Road Winchelsea at 2 till 3 pm to hear what the NT is planning; forthcoming projects and how you can be involved. In addition it is a time to share any ideas and suggestions you may have. One particular focus is Rookery Field and last month 128 schoolchildren from local primary schools came along and enjoyed learning about Winchelsea, effects of climate and longshore drift as well as hunting for insects in the ditches. Although this means that Rookery Field is unfortunately not available to the Bonfire Boyes for Guy Fawkes Night, the NT thanks Mr Palmer of Wickham Manor Farm for allowing them to use these fields for educational visits.

Phil Beer multi-instrumentalist and fifty percent of the duo Show of Hands will be performing in St Thomas’ Church this Sunday 4th November at 7.30 pm. The duo was a sell out at the Albert Hall earlier this year and has recently produced a CD entitled Wake the Union. This promises to be great entertainment and the funds raised will be shared between the Church and the Bonfire Boyes. You are all are invited to the concert and tickets are available at the door from 7 pm, or in advance from Grammar School Records in Rye and by email: [email protected].

‘Untouchable’ will be showing at Winchelsea Moving Pictures night in the New Hall on Monday 5th November at 7 for 7.30 pm. Entrance cost is £5 payable on the door and a bar will be available. The film is a French comedy, based on a true story, of a Quadriplegic aristocrat who hires an ex-convict as his carer.

There will be a Bowls Club Quiz on Saturday 10th November at 6.30 for a 7 pm start in the New Hall. Tables of no more than six people are required and the entry fee is £8 per person which includes a two-course meal. If you would like to book a table please contact John Priestley on 01797 224339. The Bowls Club Annual General Meeting will take place on Thursday 15th November at 7 pm in the court Hall by kind permission of the mayor and new members are very welcome to come along.

The Remembrance Day service at St Thomas’ Church is next Sunday 11th November. You will need to be at the war memorial in the churchyard by 10.50 am ready for the two-minute silence at 11 am.

Icklesham Parish Council will be meeting on Monday 12th November at 6.45 pm for the Planning Committee in the New Hall. This will be followed at 7.15 pm by the Council Meeting and members of the public may attend.

The disciplinary made by Bishop Wallace Benn (recently retired) against Canon Howard Cocks (also newly retired) and David Page, regarding David’s preaching as a gay priest came to an ‘agreeable conclusion’ for Howard and David as granted by Bishop Sowerby. During this process urgent requests for support were made by Howard Cocks and David to the congregation and several members wrote letters to the Bishop of Horsham. This contributed to settling the dispute and giving David the permission he has wanted, to officiate in St Thomas’ and St Richard’s Churches during the interregnum.

Dr Martin Warner now replaces Bishop Benn and will be enthroned at the end of November. Respecting the Revd Wallace Benn he is a family man of good Christian character and during his period of office in the diocese of Chichester was a much admired preacher. It is therefore a great pity that the media targeted him for failings in the diocese over a few immoral priests, rather than taking a more critical standpoint.

Winchelsea Beach

On Sunday 4th November the 9.15 am service will be as usual in St Richard’s Church. However the 3 pm service, normally on the first Sunday in the month will be on Remembrance Sunday 11th November and will be led by Lay Worker Mr Michael Phillips.

Young people aged between 11 to 16 years who would like a Youth Club/group facilities in their area are invited to a meeting on Friday 9th November at 7 pm in the Community Centre (Winchelsea Beach). The meeting is hosted by Icklesham Parish Council, Youth in Motion and Neighbourhood Enablers Project and there will be pizza and refreshments available. Public transport has been arranged from Rye Harbour, Winchelsea and Icklesham and the bus will call first at Rye Harbour Stores at 6.20 pm and Winchelsea opposite the Bridge Inn at 6.25 pm and the public toilets at 6.30 pm; then on to Icklesham at Goldhurst Green for 6.35 pm and the Recreation Ground at 6.40 pm before heading to Winchelsea Beach. It would be great to see plenty of young people there so do come along with your ideas on how you would like it to run.

The St Richard’s Fellowship Lunch takes place on the last Friday in the month and this will be the 30th November at 12 for 12.30 pm in the Community Hall. Although the lunch is not for another four weeks booking is essential and the number to contact is 01797 227168.