Winchelsea

Autumn Show: The Garden Society is holding its Autumn Show tomorrow, Saturday September 15th at 2pm in the New Hall. Visitors are welcome and this is an opportunity to view the exhibits and see who are the cup winners for 2018. Admission is free and there will be a raffle available, plus vegetables, fruit, flowers, floral art, handicrafts and refreshments.

‘Count the Clock’: After a good summer’s break the Literary Society will be meeting next Friday September 21st as usual in the Court Hall at 7 for 7.30pm. Non-members are welcome to join the gathering and a donation of £5 includes light refreshments on arrival. The talk will be given by Lord Gawain Douglas and the title is, Shakespeare’s Sonnets: “The Wastes of Time”. This phrase, found in Sonnet 12 begins with, ‘When I do count the clock that tells the time, And see the brave day sunk in hideous night’ which is a gentle reminder of the nights closing in from now until next March. Gawain Douglas was brought up in Portmeirion with an interest in poetry which was inspired by the Welsh countryside.

WAS tour: A guided walk of of the town to see the medieval remains and historical sites will take place on Wednesday September 19th at 2pm, by the Town Well in Castle Street. The walk includes access to the medieval cellar of Blackfriar’s Barn which is the largest cellar in the town and contains rare ship etchings in the plaster work. A guide book and admission to the town museum at the Court Hall is included in the £8 price and bookings can be made by phoning 01797 224637. The tours are run by Winchelsea Archaeological Society which is a registered charity that supports research, preservation and education of the archaeological features of the town.

Open Gardens NGS: The last of the Open Gardens visits for this year will be on Saturday September 22nd. Kings Leap in Castle Street and Rye View at The Strand are the two gardens which will be open to visitors for the National Gardens Scheme charity, starting at 1 till 5pm. The cost for adults is £4 and free for children and dogs are welcome to attend.

Animal Rescue: After getting my rescue dog, a beautiful cross breed with similarities to a lioness, I noticed that homeless dogs were much in the news. This was due to the rise in numbers of strays and that some well-known animal charities did not seem to do enough to rehome them. Overbreeding and puppy factories are often blamed for the increase in stray dogs and sadly, approximately around 20,000 dogs are put down every year in the UK. The Dogs Trust emphasises that they do not put down a healthy dog but it appears this is not so for all animal organisations. In some instances, only about a third of the dogs and cats taken in are rehomed. The rest which number in the thousands are, it seems needlessly put down because of lack of space, or in the case of dogs for alleged ‘behaviour issues’. It appears that these organisations, rather than working with people and their animals to keep them together, instead prefer to prosecute as a way of gaining publicity which can be devastating for such owners and their pets. However, a recent more positive response was that the number of ‘rescue animals’ that are put to sleep includes wildlife, and that much work has been done to bring the number to zero of rehomable animals such as dogs, cats, rabbits and horses being put to sleep in their centres. Some breeds are illegal under the Dangerous Dogs Act and are required to be put down which is unfortunate in the case of individual dogs that have a good temperament. Although badly injured and cruelly treated animals cannot always be saved and difficult decisions have to be made animal charities have made clear that they have a duty of care and will always do their best.

Winchelsea Beach

Harbour Field Work: The Parish Council recently arranged for a contractor to remove an overgrowth of brambles at Harbour Field. These brambles had managed to collect litter which was then hard to remove but the work is now completed and it has made an improvement to the field. Going forward, at least two steps, is the plan to remove concrete and hardcore from part of the field along with undertaking the pruning of trees near the play area. Also, IPC is looking into the response from East Sussex Highways over residents’ concerns about traffic speeds and the safety of pedestrians in Dogs Hill Road where there are no footpaths.