Winchelsea Village Voice

Winchelsea Conservation Society holds its Open Forum tomorrow (Saturday) on ‘The Issues involved in Obtaining Planning Consent’.

The meeting will be from 10.30 am to 12.30 pm in the New Hall and the speakers are: Caspar Johnson, County Archaeologist (East Sussex County Council) Diane Russell, Conservation Office ( Rother District Council) Richard Wilson, Development Manager (also RDC)and invited guest Amber Rudd MP. The talk which will be followed by Question Time and refreshments is free to members and £2 non-members.

An application by St Thomas’ Primary School to convert part of the roof space to an area used for office administration and a group room was recently granted by Rother District Council. In response there was some controversy in the town over the school expanding but the Head Teacher and Governors have confirmed that the space is not being set up as a means to increase pupil numbers. However should pupil numbers increase in the future, the new space may well be used as an additional class. This new development is likely to go ahead and would seem to fit with the government’s National Planning Policy Framework which ‘advises that local planning authorities should give great weight to the need to expand or alter schools’.

The Harvest Supper takes place tomorrow at 7 pm in St Thomas’ School, Friars Road. If you haven’t yet put your name down at the back of the church please do so and the cost is £6 per person (payable on the night). You can also contact Sue on 226618 for more details and to request the vegetarian option if preferred.

There will be a Quiz Night tomorrow evening on behalf of Rye & District Sea Cadets Minibus Fund. The Quiz will take place at 7.30 pm in the New Hall and Entry is £7 which includes light refreshments. Wine and soft drinks will be available and Richard Feast can be contacted on 01797 222629 for reservations.

An 8 am Morning Worship will be held at St Thomas’ Church this Sunday 14th October and will be conducted by Rev. Dick Dengate. At 10.30 am Revd. Malcolm Pickering will take the Choral Eucharist.

The pub quiz at the New Inn has been changed from Thursdays to Tuesdays and the next one is on the 16th October at 8.30 pm. Although supper is no longer served nibbles will be provided so do come along and test your skills.

On Wednesday 17th October the Mobile Library will be in Castle Street. This will be from 1.40 to 2.10 pm.

If you feel like a good Charles Dickens read then you will enjoy the Dickens Evening by the Literary Society next Friday19th October. You are requested to choose your favourite passages from Dickens then come along and read them to the group. It really is your choice but the following images may help to get you thinking: He had a cane, he had an eye-glass, he had a snuff-box, he had rings, he had wristbands, he had everything but any touch of nature; he was not like youth, he was not like age, he was not like anything in the world but a model of deportment (from Bleak House) and similarly: I am the only child of parents who weighed, measured, and priced everything; for whom what could not be weighed, measured, and priced, had no existence (from Little Dorrit). The evening begins at 7 for 7.30 pm in the Lower Court Hall and light refreshments are available.

If you are keen to look around two of the finest landscape gardens in England the Winchelsea Garden Society has organised a visit to Painshill & Claremont Gardens in Surrey. The date for this event is Tuesday 23rd October and tickets at £24 per person (includes travel) can be purchased, mornings only, from Winchelsea Post Office.

A creative exhibition entitled: ‘Winchelsea Reborn’ will begin on Tuesday 23rd October to Saturday 3 November from 10 am to 4 pm in St Thomas’ Church. The exhibition of work is by undergraduate architecture students from the University of Brighton who were asked to plan the rebuilding the long-abandoned western and southern quarters of Winchelsea. The setting of the project has involved looking ahead over the next fifty years to a town where the population has expanded due to residents from low-lying areas, e.g. Winchelsea Beach, moving to higher ground. Rising sea levels have caused this move which has taken Winchelsea back 700 years to where it finds itself perched at the end of a peninsular and once again with a harbour. Entry to view the exhibition is free.

A Recycle Swap Shop is to be held on Saturday 20th October in St Mary’s Centre, Lion Street, Rye (the old F.E.Centre) at 9.30 am to 12.30pm. You are invited to bring any useful old stuff that you no longer need and you can take away for free, stuff that is useful to you. The idea of bringing is not compulsory you can just drop in and see if there is anything you would find useful. This Swap Shop is run by St Mary’s Ecology and Transition Rye which can be found on: www.transitionrye.org.uk

Grateful thanks to everyone who helped with the Church Market last Saturday. This event raised the useful sum of £284.51 for Church funds. The next Church Market will be held on Saturday 3rd November at the usual time of 10.30 am to noon.

Winchelsea Beach

An Autumn Migration Watch arranged by Rye Harbour Nature Reserve will be held tomorrow (Saturday) from 9 am to 12 noon, meeting at Brede Lock. You will join the warden on a 3 mile walk in a search for warblers in the bushes, waders on the islands and wagtails overhead. Admission is free but donations would be appreciated.

This Sunday 14th October the 9.15 am Parish Eucharist at St Richard’s Church will be conducted by Rev. Malcolm Pickering. He will then move on to St Thomas’ Church for the Eucharist at 10.30 am.

There will be a visit from the Mobile Library on Wednesday 17th October. This will be from 11.55 to 12.30 pm in Sea Road.

A session of Bingo will be held on Wednesday 17th October. Please be at the Community Hall at 7.15 for 7.30 pm and light refreshments will be available during the evening.

Don’t forget the Table Sale next Saturday 20th October at 2 pm in the Community Hall. The cost is 30p entrance which includes tea and biscuits. If you have items to sell and would like to book a table please ring 01797 224820.

St Richard’s Fellowship Lunch is on the last Friday of the month at12 for 12.30 pm. The next lunch is on Friday 26th October in the Community Hall. If you would like to attend booking is essential and the number to contact is: 01797 227168.