Local interest | OCTOBER 2012
BN5 at 75! W e just can’t believe this is our 75th issue! It seems like yesterday that we were celebrating our 50th issue, back in September 2010. Then we celebrated by finding 5 local heroes who were given £50 vouchers to spend in the village. Jackie and Brian Griffiths were winners for being great neighbours; Carolyn Phillips for her work for St Barnabas in Henfield; Debbie Slaughter for her tireless work at the Youth Club; Darren and Donna Angood for all their weekends spent coaching Henfield football juniors; and our local postie Trevor Simmons for being an all-round good egg and HART responder. We are still struck by the acts of kindness given by local people and their incredible achievements for charity and for the community.
Since I launched the magazine back in 2005 I have met some lovely people and seen lots of changes in the village. Some exciting new businesses have appeared in the High Street and continue to thrive. It’s a tough time to be a retailer but Henfield has always, and continues, to have a bustling high street; thanks to local people using the shops and people from surrounding villages visiting us. The Community Partnership and Parish Council have been working very hard with retailers to keep the high street looking great and encouraging local trade. Although, it would be nice if we could fill up our cars... We’ve met some interesting characters through BN5
and have loved sharing their stories with you. From Woodmancote’s horror writer James Herbert, who graced our October 10 cover (we had requests from all over the world for copies of the magazine, our furthest mail-out was to New Zealand – James’s fans have a way of finding out when he’s been written about!) to Etienne Minost, who flew for the Free French during WWII. Sadly Etienne passed away last year, but the story of his bravery and modesty touched many readers. We’ve seen wedding fairs and open gardens, the Henfield Show, Jubilee and Royal Wedding celebrations, school sports days and Henfield remembrance, which sees more and more people showing their respects at the War Memorial each year. Local people have done extraordinary things for charity and things dear to their heart – not least the amazing efforts of the 777 team earlier this year when Sam, Tim and Malcolm ran seven treadmill marathons in seven days. Countless other individuals and businesses took part, running full and part marathons in teams. They raised £24,000 for Henfield Leisure Centre and Clic Sargent childhood leukemia charity. In February 2010 we launched a sister publication called thirteen8 magazine, covering the Partridge Green & Cowfold areas. It’s allowed us to expand into a new postcode area and there has been a real synergy between the two, very different, publications.
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