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Strictly Gardening Strictly Gardening, Haywards Heath’s community gardening show, is certainly growing in reputation, with The Telegraph’s Helen Yemm and our new High Sheriff of West Sussex, Jonathan Lucas, both taking part this year. The event, which takes place in The Orchard’s Shopping Centre on Saturday 10th May, 10am4pm, will provide the very best of advice, ideas and inspiration for gardeners – both green-fingered or just green – as well as lots of stalls and entertainment. The very popular celebrity panel will also be there to answer your questions, chaired by Jean Griffin of BBC Radio Sussex, and anything goes as far as the questions are concerned – the more intriguing, the better! Meanwhile, the whole community will be involved with the schools’ painting competition ‘Over the Rainbow’, a Scarecrow Procession and Award and a quite beautiful sculptured bird table prize for the best mosaic from our Care and Nursing Homes. And, with the help of a West Sussex County Council grant, all these homes have been given the plants to create their own Sensory Garden. There will be a vibrant display of exhibitors and stalls, selling everything conceivable for your garden and, of course, fun quizzes for our visitors, with prizes from The Gardener’s Arms in Ardingly and Borde Hill Garden, not to mention our local school choirs and Pom Pom girls who’ll be entertaining us, and an ‘idiot’s guide’ to arranging flowers by de Novo Flowers. Hosting the Show, Orchards Manager Nicola Bird, is very excited: “The best thing about Strictly is that it involves the whole of our community,” she says. “Also, I’m getting married this year, so it’s pretty fantastic for me as we move into our own home, that I’ll be getting all the gardening help I’m going to need!” For more information and to get involved, please contact Nicola Bird on 01444 410 620 (NBird@fandcreit.com) or Ruth de Mierre on 01444 453 399 (ruth@i-dmc.co.uk).
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SuSSex Living May 2014
Burgess Hill Bike Ride The 22nd annual Burgess Hill Bike Ride takes place on Sunday 8th June. For the first time, this local popular event is being organised by the Lions Club and Rotary Club of Burgess Hill and District. There will be some key changes under the ‘new management’, although most of the event will be familiar to regular participants. Cyclists will still have a choice of 10-mile, 20-mile and 40mile circular routes, all starting and finishing at Oakmeeds Community College in the town centre. All courses pass through the beautiful Sussex countryside around our town, including the South Downs at Fulking and views over parts of East Sussex. Entrants will be asked to pay their entrance fee but will not be asked to collect any sponsorship monies. In a new departure this year, only fees will be used to provide funds for the Kent, Surrey and Sussex Air Ambulance and other local charities. Open Days will be held at the Market Place on Saturdays 3rd and 17th May and at the South Downs Nurseries on Sundays 11th and 18th May. Members of Lions or Rotary clubs will be in attendance. Entrance fees are £15 for adults and £5 for children aged 10 to 15, who must be accompanied by an adult. As an incentive to families, organisers are also offering a family ticket for up to two adults and two children, priced at a bargain £30. So the kids go free! “I am delighted that the Lions Club and Bike Ride Chairman Malcolm Stephens invited us to jointly organise this important local event. I am sure it will be just the start of a major collaboration, and I believe, a whole new
chapter for the Burgess Hill Bike Ride,” said President of the Rotary Club of Burgess Hill and District, Annemarie Allen. The famous Burgess Hill Bike Ride T-shirt, which is of a different design every year, will again be given away free to all advance bookers whilst stocks last. T-shirts will also be on sale to entrants on the day for just £5. All proceeds will go to the designated charities.
Balcombe History Society ‘Treasures from our Archive’ is the title of the Society’s Exhibition on Saturday 3rd May, 10am-4pm at the Victory Hall. A wide range of interesting exhibits will be on view, many of them new to us and never been shown before. Everyone will be welcome. Entry price is £1 and children are free. More than 40 archive items and local pictures will be available for all to enjoy. Many of the albums are from records kindly donated by Joan Dutton and put into presentation format by Tony Perkins. Some of the medieval coins and the 14th century bronze water jug found in Balcombe in 1897 – ‘The Balcombe Find’ – will be on display. Some of the groats, half groats and pennies minted in the reigns of Edwards I, II and III and Richard II (on loan from a private collection) will be exhibited and this will be a rare opportunity to see these items. A history of this discovery will be available and on display. The Coroner’s Inquest jury at the Half Moon Inn declared that the 12 gold coins and 742 silver coins were Treasure Trove. We shall have pictures of these gold Nobles – now held by the British Museum, on view. ‘Balcombe at War 19141918’ is a new Balcombe History Society book and will be on sale at the Exhibition at £5. This book describes the experiences of Balcombe families and is based mainly on the names on the War Memorial at the Victory Hall. It has been written and edited by Roy Bliss, Jasmine Waters and Richard Davison. Michael Noble designed
the evocative cover. These three busy people, our World War I study group, set out to research some of the effects the war had on life in Balcombe and on its people. Their work of the last five years results in this book. They will be at the Exhibition to tell you how they set about it. Over 200 men from Balcombe families served in the War. The total of those killed is not completely clear but 39 of them who did not return are named on the War Memorial at St. Mary’s Church. As much information as available about each of the men who fell in the War, including extracts from the War Diary, is provided in the central chapter of the book. The story includes “Life on the Home Front’ and the work of the VAD hospital in Stockcroft Road, as well as village events in the war years. This is a comprehensive study of special interest to Balcombe families and is a fitting tribute to all those who gave their lives for this country.
Little Horsted Fun Run Organisers of the Little Horsted Fun Run are delighted that a sponsor has stepped forward to pay for the promotion of the event along with the medals this year. Over the last four years, Little Horsted on the outskirts of Uckfield have staged a series of Charity Fun Runs. The runs have now established themselves to become an annual event, with over 250 runners taking part. This year, the organisers were very keen that everyone who participates should receive a medal. Unfortunately, due to a change of circumstance, the usual sponsor was unable to support the run this year and a plea went out in February to www.sussexliving.com