Etchingham

EVENTS CALENDAR: There is a calendar on the village website for residents and organisations to enter details of forthcoming events, this helps organisers check if an event has already been planned for a date they have chosen, and act as advertising for all village events. The idea of the calendar is for village residents and organisations to add details to the calendar themselves to reduce the workload of website admin.

To view or add to the calendar start on this page and follow the instructions http://www.etchinghamvillage.co.uk/calendar you will need a password to complete your entry, this is just a safeguard against the calendar getting filled up with spam posts. The password is the same for everyone if you do not have it ask me to supply it or ask someone who has already added to the calendar.

If everyone gets into the habit of adding their events to the calendar it will hopefully avoid too many clashes of events and people having to decide which event they will support. If you have any problems adding to the calendar contact me at [email protected] and I will get it added, but I do not want to have to add every event to the calendar.

FAIRY HUNT: King John’s Nursery and Garden, Sheepstreet Lane, the Fairy Hunt continues until April 20, 10am to 5pm. All sorts of fairy related things to see including, the original letter that describes real fairies being seen hundreds of years ago, information about the history of fairies and lovely things to buy from Maygreen fairies in the shop at King Johns Nursery. A map of the gardens and where to look out for fairies will cost £1 for each child, adults normal price. If you don’t see the fairies (they are very shy creatures), at least you might see their houses, front doors and garden things.

Harry Cunningham was inspired to organise the event after finding a family letter from the 1740’s which talked about seeing fairies.

COMMUNITY SPEEDWATCH: You will have seen that now the group has a device just for Etchingham use, sessions have been run on most days, and many have been concentrated around the new community facilities and school. The group could operate more efficiently, and each volunteer would not need to be used as often, if we had more volunteers, once new volunteers have completed a short online instruction session they can choose how often they join roadside sessions. If you would like to get involved the first step is to register on the Community Speedwatch website, go to www.communityspeedwatch.co.uk and follow the instructions to register, be careful to make sure you register for the Etchingham because the Hurst Green and Burwash groups both have Etchingham in the title. As soon as new volunteers have registered and completed the online instruction the details are sent to the group co-ordinator and they will be available for sessions.

We are aware that some local residents will have received Police letters following sessions in the village, if you or a friend have received one of the letters please do not blame the operators - it was not their fault. Some facts about speeds, a pedestrian hit by a car at 20mph has a 95% chance of survival, at 30mph it drops to 50% and at 40mph it is only 15%. One last thing the device does not have a camera and no pictures are recorded, the device simply detects the speed of an approaching vehicle and only those significantly over the 30mph limit are recorded and passed to the Police. April 13 to April 19 is TISPOL National Speed Check Week across Europe, so expect to see the Etchingham Speedwatch group operating several sessions during the week. For information about TISPOL go to the website www.tispol.org

SPEEDWATCH SUPPORT GROUP: We are aware that there are village residents who support the work of the Speedwatch group, but are not able to join roadside sessions, but could help in other ways. The purchase of the groups new device has been funded by the Parish Council and the CIC, there will be an annual service and calibration check to pay for, also there may be other items that the group will want to purchase in the future. The group would not want to keep asking for funds from Parish Council, so we would like to start a support group to help with securing funds and supporting in other ways. If you might be interested in helping to form a support group there is an online form on the village website or email the group co-ordinator at [email protected]

ETCHINGHAM CLUB: The Etchingham Club has new opening times, Mondays and Wednesdays, 7.30pm to 10.30pm. Fridays, 6.30pm to 11.30pm. Saturdays, 7.30pm to 11.30pm.

For more information on Etchingham Club, email [email protected] 01580 819240 also on Facebook www.facebook.com/etchinghamsocialclub

MOBILE LIBRARY: The Mobile Library now visits Etchingham once every three weeks, on Tuesday mornings 9.55am to 10.35am outside the new village halls.

You might like to put these dates in your diary; April 21, May 12, June 2, June 23.

If these times are not convenient, or you miss the Library when it visits, it will be at Hurst Green village hall, 1.30pm to 2.15pm on the following dates; April 23, May 14, June 4, June 25.

MILITARY & AVIATION PRESERVATION GROUP: The Etchingham Military and Aviation Preservation Group meet on the first Thursday of each month.

On Thursday April 30 the group will have a guided tour of the Redoubt, Eastbourne. Future meetings will include in May Mark Pittock “A Medic in Afghan”, June Melanie Gibson-Barton “Wandering in Flanders Fields”. For more information about the group contact Andrew Pope 07775 515936

PROMOTE YOUR ORGANISATION: Do you want to get new members for your group or organisation? Want to tell people what your group does? If you are connected with a village group or organisation send me some details and I will publicise your group in this column. Send me details of what your organisation does, when you meet, how to join, who to contact and any other details that you would like to add, I will then add details of your organisation, as space allows, over the coming weeks.

INFORMATION: If you have given me details of your event to put in this column, please remember to send me some details after the event so I can let your supporters know how successful the event was, how much you raised, interesting facts etc. Your supporters will be interested to know how you did. Get information for this column to me as soon as possible, if you have a diary of events planned for the year let me have the dates and I will put in a list of village events for the year so that people can put the dates in their diaries. There are several ways to get your info to me, but email is preferred because there is less chance of errors during copying. I need information by 10pm on Monday to be sure it will be in time for inclusion, I can sometimes add extra items on Tuesday morning, but this cannot be guaranteed. Just a little reminder, I get plenty of information about events that are taking place, but I get very little follow up information, after your event try and remember to send me brief account of how successful your event was, it can be as simple as a thank you to those that attended and how much money was raised etc. You can deliver to 2 Park Farm Close, telephone 01580 819532 or 07941 786244 or email [email protected] .

Colin Boylett

2 Park Farm Close