Fairlight

Lovers of flowers – and who isn’t? – should make a note that Pett Flower Festival will be in the church of St Mary and St Peter in Pett for the September weekend of Saturday and Sunday, 16 and 17.

And while we’re on the subject of churches and flowers, it is a good moment to remind you that St. Laurence Church in Guestling is holding its annual Flower Festival on today, Saturday and Sunday, August 18, 19 and 20, between 10 am and 5 pm each day. The theme for this year’s event is ‘A Floral Look at Life’. Lunches (including ploughman’s), tea, coffee and cakes will be available, as well as various stalls. Entrance is free, and there is ample parking. All proceeds go to the St. Laurence Church Restoration Fund. The Festival concludes with a Songs of Praise service this Sunday at 6 pm.

MOPPs today and next Friday: Today, Friday, August 18, there’s the all-action but gentle Tai Chi Exercise with Sarah Kimber. The lunch that follows will consist of steak and mushroom pie, followed by fruit crumble and custard. Next Friday, August 25, it’s time for Comfort Plus with David Joy, and also free hearing aid maintenance. Next week’s lunch will be quiche and salad and then fruit jelly and cream.

MOPP’s Quiz: It seems currently par for the course that the young, in the form of the Fairlight Playgroup, and the not-so-young, in the form of MOPPs, both need to be attracting extra funds. To this end, for MOPPs, tomorrow, Saturday, August 19, there’s MOPPs Quiz in the village hall at 6.30 for 7 pm, being run by the former Cove quiz masterminds – the popular Bob and Dec. Teams can be a maximum of six people each. Jim Saphin will be vocalising, as is his popular wont, at the end of the evening. For a mere £5 each, your ticket gets you a quiz, a ploughman’s and Jim singing! Tickets are only available from the Post Office – there will be no walk-up sales on the door, because of the catering.

The Playgroup: And as for the young, the fund-raising activities of the Playgroup have been frequent and exciting over the last few months. Now there comes news of a special Charity Performance on Friday, August 25, in the village hall at 7.30 pm when the immensely popular Kytes will be appearing. Tickets are available at the Post Office for £5 each. Those on the door on the night, should there be any left unsold, will be £6.

Making an exhibition: Last Saturday saw the interesting, informative, fascinating and generally spell-binding exhibition of Fairlight’s history mounted by village archivist Paul Draper and historian Haydon Luke in celebration of the 70th Anniversary of the Residents Association. The timing of the exhibition also coincided, almost, with the centenary of the sale, on November 24 1917, of the Fairlight Hall Estate, which had been collected piece by piece by the Lucas-Shadwell family over nearly ninety years. Comprising some 3,680 acres from Ore to Rye, and encompassing the Parishes of Fairlight, Pett and Icklesham, the sale of the 75 individual lots lead to the development of Fairlight Cove as we know it today, with local businessmen realising the potential for housing of the land around Waites Farm. Those 3,680 acres equate to six and three-quarters square miles! At the village hall, countless people were wholly captivated by the priceless and often unique artefacts, pictures and maps on view. The two organisers hope those who attended may be prompted into the recollection of old treasured pieces of paper – maps, bills, catalogues and so on – nestling in their own family archives, or items that they know of which belong to others. It would be much appreciated if Paul and Haydon could at last have a sight of such items, possibly to copy or have on a short term loan, and thus fill in some more details of the past of our fascinating village. Meanwhile, we today are extremely fortunate in having Paul and Haydon, assiduously researching their chosen subject. Thank you, gentlemen!

A ‘taster’ for Step in Time: Dale Bowen’s popular Step in Time will be present in a ‘taster’ form on Tuesday, August 22 at 10 am in the village hall. The class lasts until 11.30 am and consists of some gentle exercises, followed by dance routines from around the world. Coffee and biscuits will be provided at the end of the session – and all this for only £3. This is your opportunity to go along and give it a whirl! If you have any questions, please contact Dale Bowen direct on 812307

Parish Council Meeting: The August meeting of our august Parish Council will take place in the village hall next Tuesday, August 22 at 7 pm. The agenda has yet to be published.

The Gardening Club’s outing to Herstmonceux: Last Monday week, August 7, members of the Gardening Club enjoyed their 2017 outing with a trip to Herstmonceux Castle Gardens and Grounds. Though many of the group had never visited Herstmonceux before, everyone was very impressed with the differently themed gardens and the wide variety of plants and herbs. Also worth mentioning was the cream tea, which was a very grand affair with Club members were directed into a specially allocated room within the castle. Here they found a long baronial table laid out with delicious freshly made scones, jam and cream plus pots of tea and coffee. Everyone felt very spoilt and the afternoon was a great success!

An end to your hearing troubles?: The extremely helpful East Sussex Hearing Resource Centre co-ordinator Martin Crawford Jones has notified us that their mobile unit will be visiting Fairlight on Thursday, August 31, and will at the village hall from 10.30 am until 3.30 pm. The bus is accessible to wheelchair users, and representatives from Adult Social Care will be available alongside those from the Hearing Resource Centre to provide individual information and advice on all aspects of hearing loss. More details are available by calling 01323 722505. Batteries and re-tubing are generally available, for which you will need your brown ‘hearing aid’ book! This visit is in addition to the regular bi-monthly hearing aid service offered during MOPPs, which is coming up on Friday, August 25, as has already been mentioned above.

Cricket, not-so-lovely cricket: Went up to Wood Field to watch some cricket last Sunday. There was nothing doing. The Parkhurst skipper later told me that they had been obliged to remove the pitch protection – on safety grounds. It may, of course, not be so, but it looks like a bit of a knee-jerk reaction to me, although I haven’t been able to confirm that. If it concerns the metal rods, sharpened at the ‘ground’ end, and formed into a loop at the top end, to take a rope, there must be many thousands of such poles helping protect cricket wickets or squares throughout the land, normally quite passively without endangering anyone. Similarly with the risk assessment to come at next week’s PC meeting, people at cricket matches seldom seem to get hurt. Most of the very few injuries suffered affect participants. Obviously, the Parkhurst warning is sensible – be aware of what is happening on the field of play and keep an eye on it all the time. Similarly, we all have the right to walk across any main road in the country. But if we do it without paying the utmost attention, we will be run over. Seemples!

The road to nowhere?: Fairlight Road. Time passes. Listen. Time passes. Fairlight Road is an anglicised latter-day version of Dylan Thomas’ Llareggub. Nothing happens. Nothing happens to potholes, sinking and breaking up stretches, dangerously lousy visibility round bends. Strobe-like flashes down the heavily wooded Battery Hill, with but few car lights on in self-help. Without a massive detour, Fairlight Road is our only approach option from Hastings and the north and west. No one seems to care.

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