Hurst Life

HURSTfolk

Welcome to Hurst Life’s HURSTfolk event page. Here you will find our most recent information for everything regarding the festival.

HURSTfolk is the brainchild of Hurstpierpoint resident, Debbie Clare. Debbie is drawing upon her extensive live music career to weave together this community-focused weekend of live music performances.

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A celebration of live music in Hurstpierpoint

By Debbie Clare

HURSTfolk returns this November with three packed days of music, workshops and interviews across Hurstpierpoint. From Friday 7th to Sunday 9th November, the festival will bring together over 30 acts across seven village venues – with tickets ranging from free entry to just £10.

Now in its third year, HURSTfolk continues to showcase outstanding talent from in and around our village, while making live music accessible for everyone. As always, a portion of tickets are set aside free of charge for people from low-income households, ensuring the whole community can experience concerts on their doorstep. Venues this year include: Danny House, Lyona, The Hop Tub, The Poacher, The New Inn, Hurst Works and the Players Theatre.

Festival highlights include: Mini Concerts at Hurst Works – two days of intimate 40-minute shows, priced at £5, Danny House all-female line-up and Lou Beckerman’s Singing Workshop for Adults - back for a third year, always a sell-out, this uplifting workshop will take place at Lyona.

Players Theatre concerts – featuring music legend Eddy Temple-Morris, drummer and storyteller Terl Bryant, plus The Self Help Group with live visuals. Pub stages – free-entry performances at The Hop Tub,

The Poacher and The New Inn, with a vibrant mix of local favourites and new discoveries including Crystal Clear, Adam Whitby, Aidan Walker, Jon Wood, Neil Ferrigan, Mess of Blues, Scott Reece, Poni Mitchell, Relics, Breeze In, Dukes, Taking Back Tuesday, Room 3, Adulam, No Hat for Jo, The Defenders and The Dream Escape.

Special screenings and themed events – including Pink Floyd: Live in Pompeii, presented by Hurst Village Cinema.

Event tickets range from free entry to £5 and £10. For tickets and full programme details, visit hurstfolk.org

HURSTfolk

HURSTfolk fights for survival

By Debbie Clare
HURSTfolk is a grassroots music festival in Hurstpierpoint which I started it a few years ago after realising how many brilliant artists lived here – but had nowhere local to perform. That sparked the idea for a small community festival that could give them a stage.

Every November, we take over five village venues for three days, showcasing 60+ performers – from first-timers to seasoned musicians. It’s joyful, inclusive, and gives our high street and community a much-needed boost at a quiet time of year.

But right now, we’re desperate for funding. It costs around £8,000 to run, and we’ve only raised £2,000 so far which goes towards venue hire, licensing, production, insurance, and paying our small crew (all of whom work for reduced rates because they believe in the festival).

This year, like many festivals, we’re facing funding cuts – so we’re turning to our community for help to help keep HURSTfolk alive. If you’ve been to HURSTfolk before, you’ll know how much heart goes into it – from the performers, the venues, the crew, and the whole community who show up year after year to make something magical happen right here in the village.

We’ve just launched a crowdfunder to help us raise the £6,000 still needed to make this year’s festival happen – and we’d be so grateful for your support.

If you’re able to contribute anything at all, it really would make a difference. Even the smallest donations help keep this festival going – and every share or bit of encouragement helps too. You can find the campaign and donate here: www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/hurstfolk2025

Thank you so much for being part of HURSTfolk.’s story so far. With your help, we’d love to write the next chapter this November.

Albourne Village Show success!

By Lynne Bannon

What a great day! Held on Saturday 6th September, the Albourne show was a huge success, blessed with sunshine and an incredible turnout from the community. Running from 2pm until 10pm, the afternoon and evening were filled with fun, laughter, and plenty of local talent. Highlights from the day:
Flower Show – Stunning entries, from the best single stem to colourful arrangements, alongside fierce (but friendly!) competition in categories such as flapjacks, crafts, fruit, vegetables, and of course…the longest runner bean!
Dog Show – Sponsored by Pets at Home, Burgess Hill, our four-legged friends strutted their stuff and wagged their way to well-deserved prizes.
Craft Fair – Beautiful handmade creations that showcased the skills of our local makers.
Classic Cars – From a 1960s Jaguar, a 1930s Rolls to a Caterham & a 2CV there was a classic car for every taste on display.
Live Music – Fabulous bands kept the atmosphere buzzing and everyone dancing throughout the afternoon and into the evening especially with the Stanmer Bands fabulous Jukebox experience.
The Hop Tub – Did a brilliant job of keeping everyone refreshed with their delicious local beers and spirits.
Kids Activities – loads of games and fun as well as a chance to decorate a life-size horse.
Community Stalls & local businesses – Including the church stall & tombola, were a hit with everyone.

The show team were thrilled to see even more visitors than last year – a true testament to the wonderful spirit of our community. A heartfelt thank you to everyone who attended, contributed, sponsored and supported the event. Now, time for a well-earned rest…before we do it all again on Saturday 5th September 2026!

Hurstpierpoint's St Lawrence Fair

Welcome to Hurst Life’s St Lawrence Fair event page. Here you will find our most recent information for everything regarding the fair.

Since the 14th century, the village of Hurstpierpoint has celebrated the Feast of St Lawrence with a village fair. The fair is one of the oldest in the United Kingdom.

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St Lawrence Fair 2026 news will appear here when available!

St Lawrence Fair AGM at The New Inn

By Nic Stenning

We encourage all to come along to the St Lawrence Fair AGM on Thursday 30th October 2025 from 7.30pm at The New Inn. What do we need from you: we welcome anyone to our AGM to come along and share your views on the St Lawrence Fair, we will take on board any constructive criticism but mostly what we would love to hear are your ideas as well as your support in implementing them. We know that there are aspects of the Fair that could be improved but, despite us having two new committee members join this year, we are still a very small (but very merry) band, so if you have an idea for something new or how to improve something existing, then we would love to hear from you at the AGM. What we would additionally really appreciate, is your assistance in implementing your ideas, you don’t need to join the committee, so why not come along and share your views? Hopefully we will see you there!

Hurst Festival

Welcome to Hurst Life’s Hurst Festival event page. Here you will find our most recent information for the two week September festival.

A registered charity, Hurst Festival was conceived in 2004 by a merry band of friends over dinner, impressed by the wealth of talent in our village. It has one aim; to provide people with two weeks of enjoyment in September during which we can meet each other, experience something new and feel connected to our community.

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By Susan Eskdale, Festival Manager

We are now days away from the start of Hurst Festival, two weeks packed with lots of great entertainment: music, theatre, film, exhibitions, talks, walks and workshops. Some events have already sold out, to see which still have tickets available, either call into the Festival box office at the Players theatre on Saturdays 10am – 12noon or go to www.hurstfestival.org/events/ to book.

If you aren’t off to Wembley to see Oasis, love their music but not the ticket price, you may be in luck, there could still be some tickets left for Oasis 2ribute, the Festival’s opening gig on Saturday 13th September. They promise to provide “the ultimate Oasis gig experience,” and having sold out a recent Donnington gig they have honed their sound and promise a great evening.

All artwork submitted to the brochure cover competition will be on show in the windows of Lyona, thanks to the support of Rob and Rachael. Pop along to see the work of the talented competition entrants. We have two great ‘free’ events offering entertainment for people of all ages; the always popular Super Sunday 12noon – 6pm on 14th September. I can now confirm that there will be workshops delivered by AudioActive – www.audioactive.org.uk – who have been running Beats & Bars sessions at Court Bushes since July, everyone welcome.

We will be entertained by singers from St Lawrence school, Mid Sussex Radio and Made in the Shade. Additionally, the winning cover artist Ruby Clemmans and runners up Archie McDougall and Nora Sartin will be awarded their prizes, so please come along to cheer them on.

As usual there will be an exciting range of stalls including great food and drink offers along with the Festival bar, your support of the bar helps to fund the Festival. Our second free offer is the Festival Pirate event at Court Bushes, 2pm – 4pm Saturday 27th September.

Everyone is welcome to be entertained by The Captain’s Beard (www.bit.ly/3UHUvYF) and Mid Sussex Radio, to join in some Pirate related fun, there will also be fabulous food to purchase and a paid bar. We can’t wait to see you…very soon!

Gearing up for the Albourne Village Show!

By Lynne Bannon

The much-loved Albourne Village Show is just around the corner on Saturday 6th September, and this year’s celebration promises to be the biggest yet, with organisers announcing an even broader lineup of entertainment, competitions and local flavour for the community to enjoy.

Running from 2pm to 10pm at the Albourne Recreational Ground, the show is a celebration of village life with a vibrant mix of live music, local food and drink, family-friendly competitions and artisan stalls.
Returning highlights include the everpopular dog show, craft tent, and photography competition, with new twists and a few surprises in store.

This year (weather permitting) there will also be a display of classic and interesting cars — just for fun, no prizes — so if you’d like to bring yours along, send us a message! The local fire brigade will also be visiting again, giving children (and quite a few adults!) the chance to climb aboard and explore their fire engine. Attendees can look forward to performances from local favourites The Kites, The Tar Babies and The Stanmer Band, alongside an Open Mic slot for emerging talent. Food lovers will find even more to feast on this year, with The Hop Tub from Hurstpierpoint returning to run the bar and an expanded food van lineup showcasing Sussex’s best.

The show’s traditional flower and produce competition continues to grow, so make sure you bring your entries in from the start of the show. The categories include best cake, best jam, recycled crafts, and the ever-hilarious funniest vegetable – to find a list of all the categories, visit our Facebook page.

There’s already some stiff competition hotting up for the best local photographs, and some fabulous raffle prizes have been secured, from Rushfields, South Downs Nursery, Turn and Fire and many others — you’ll need to be in it (and at it) to win it! Now a registered Community Interest Company (CIC), the Albourne Village Show proudly reinvests all profits into local causes and future events. With support from local sponsors Avtrade, Hurst College, Ernest Doe and more, the show is set to be a standout event on the Mid Sussex summer calendar. All in all, it’ll be a fantastic afternoon and evening — so come along from 2pm onwards to enjoy the fun!

Eddy Temple-Morris; from Hurst to broadcasting and beyond

This month, Mike met up with the Virgin Radio DJ to hear all about his life in broadcasting and beyond.

By Mike Thatcher

I felt a movie scene was being described to me as Eddy recalled sitting in front of his housemaster at school. “He slowly and deliberately tore up my UCCA form, saying ‘I’ve talked to your father - you’re not going to art college, you’re going to university.’ My father was a wonderful Member of Parliament and great with strangers, but any kindness did not trickle down to me.” Unlike in my projected movie, it was not the huge crossroads moment in his life; it merely delayed him getting to where he wanted to be, rather than derailing him. He dropped out of university in London at the first opportunity and discovered club culture: Boyclub, KitKat Club, Batcave, Heaven, Alice in Wonderland. “I moved in with a couple of DJs and the rest is history.”

He had led a double life growing up; idyllic summers back in Iran, where his great uncle was Prime Minister and whose home is now a UNESCO World Heritage site, coupled with the tough reality of being a mixed-race boy in a late 70s school in the UK. He has ADHD and the bullying was not confined to his contemporaries: “Once, I had the temerity to put my hand up in class as I didn’t understand something, only for the teacher to announce I was ‘a stupid, stupid boy.’ Naturally, the rest of the class all laughed.”

Like many in his situation, he disappeared into music and he ended up with a record collection, and crucially, music knowledge. The kids who had thrown chairs at him ended up being his friends; he was telling them who the cool bands were. The first record he bought was Rattus Norvegicus by The Stranglers. I asked if this was a political or rebellious statement. “No, it was probably cheap!” Japan was the first band that was ‘his,’ the one he fell in love with to the exclusion of others.

Eddy has had three careers (with one, he hopes, yet to unfold): musician, DJ and TV presenter. As a producer at Radio 1, he used his musical skills to create their jingles, moving it from ‘the hairy cornflake station’ into the era of Chris Evans and Mary Anne Hobbs. When the jingles won awards, he was headhunted by MTV, which was launching in the UK. With no real desire to be in front of the camera, he didn’t prepare anything for the audition. “This made me all the more appealing to them! The screentest went all the way up to the worldwide boss of MTV who loved it and I was told to resign from my job.” His friend and boss Matthew Bannister at the BBC told him to go for it, saying: ‘I look forward to welcoming you back into this building at a vastly inflated salary!’

To read Eddy’s full story, please pick up a copy of July’s Hurst Life today and turn to page 22.

Mid Sussex District Council celebrates Mid Sussex Applause Awards

Celebration for the unsung heroes of Mid Sussex

Unsung heroes were celebrated at the Mid Sussex Applauds Awards 2025 - an annual event that recognises those people who go the extra mile for their community. More than 100 people attended a special ceremony that was organised by Mid Sussex District Council and held at the South of England Showground, Ardingly. Hosted by Cllr Rodney Jackson, Chairman of Mid Sussex District Council, and the High Sheriff of West Sussex, Dr Timothy Fooks, there were 37 individuals, groups or businesses who were recognised for their contribution to the district.

These included nine winners, 10 highly commended and 18 commended nominees. Sponsors of the awards were: Community People, Glendale, Jobs Go Public, Orchards Shopping Centre, Places Leisure, City Science, MUFG and Chroma Vision. For a list of all winners, including those highly commended and commended, visit www.midsussexapplauds.co.uk

To see our showcase of winners and to read the full article, please click the images to enlarge them or pick up your copy of July’s Hurst Life.

Hurst Parish Council news - May 2025

No Mow May

As in previous years, the Parish Council will be leaving an area of lawn at Court Bushes Community Hub uncut as part of No Mow May. This year however, small areas will remain uncut until September to provide the maximum benefit to butterflies, moths and other insects. Many butterfly and moth caterpillars feed on grasses to get the energy to complete their life cycle so they benefit from having access to areas of longer grass. Hopefully wildflowers such as dandelions and buttercups will appear which will provide valuable nectar for bees, butterflies and other pollinators.

Methodist Church Update

On 20th March 2025, the old Methodist Church at 42 Cuckfield Road, Hurstpierpoint, was sold at auction. The Church closed in December 2023. In response to requests from residents and local community groups, the Parish Council was able to register the building as an asset of community value in February 2024, prior to it being sold. Although there are a number of good-sized halls for hire in the parish, there is still a high demand for large hall spaces for all types of community activities. Due to this ongoing need, the Parish Council considered taking out a loan to purchase the old Church to help meet some of the demand. A valuation, building condition survey and structural survey were undertaken to ensure the building could be refurbished. Despite the cost of the building, the Parish Council recognised what a fantastic asset it would be for the community. On 13th March 2025, we agreed to put in an offer to purchase the venue for a price that was considered affordable and fair for council taxpayers. Sadly, this offer was not accepted, so the building was unable to be saved for community use. Assuming the current sale goes through, we anticipate much interest in how the land and building are developed in the future.

To read the full article, please pick up your copy of May’s Hurst Life today or click the images to enlarge them.

Your nearest defibrillator in Hurstpierpoint and Sayers Common

Click to enlarge

At Hurst Life, we’d like to encourage everyone living and working in the village to familiarise themselves with the sites of the life-saving defibrillator machines and learn how to use them.

An estimated 60,000 people each year in the UK have an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest and, sadly, less than 10% of those people will survive. Yet if a bystander is able to start CPR, they could double a person’s chances of survival.

Hurstpierpoint has seven machines: one on the outside wall at the Fairfield Rec on Cuckfield Road, another is situated at the bowls club on South Avenue Rec, a third is inside the medical centre on Trinity Road and one is mounted on the wall in the alleyway next to Morley’s on the High Street. There are also defibs available at Court Bushes Community Hub and the Village Centre. Both of these units can be unlocked by a code given by the 999 operator.
Another defibrillator was installed in the village, paid for by Burgess Hill Lions, is located at the St Peter & St James Hospice Distribution Centre on Albourne Road.
The most recent defibrillator has been installed at the Sportsman Pub in Goddards Green. The unit was kindly donated by Downlands School.

In Sayers Common, there is one on the outside wall of the Community Shop (by the door to the hall), while in Albourne there is one inside the primary school, in the gym of Wickwoods Country Club (up Shaves Wood Lane) and one mounted on the outside wall of Albourne Village Hall, to the right of the entrance doors. Not all of these will be available 24/7 but the outside ones listed (pictured) should be.

All of the machines are portable and contain full instructions. Plus, if you are on the phone to 999, the operator will be able to talk you through using these public devices in real time.

A good place for more information is the British Heart Foundation’s website: www.defibfinder.uk - which gives a live listing to all registered defibs, plus FAQs about using them. If you have any information about changes to these defibrillators, then do please let us know, so we can update our knowledge for next time.

Newsletter from Mid Sussex District Council - April 2025

Raising awareness of heat pumps

Heat pumps are relatively rare in residential properties in the UK – there are only around 250,000 currently. This means that the vast majority of people will never (knowingly) have seen a home with a heat pump.

Nesta, the charity that focuses on innovation including a sustainable future, wants everyone in the UK to be able to visit a heat pump near them and get the support they need.

Visit a heat pump combines a digital platform along with recruitment and training of heat pump hosts, providing a full end-to-end service for the public to visit a heat pump and get further support to help them build their confidence. So far, nearly 400 hosts are listed and Nesta is aiming for over 1,000 visits in the next few months.

Anyone interested in being a host or visiting a heat pump can register their interest at: www.visitaheatpump.com

Sign up to our digital newsletter!

Want to keep in the loop with what’s happening in your local community? Then sign up to our digital Mid Sussex Matters newsletter, a monthly email to help residents stay up to date with what’s going on at the Council and in the wider district. Scan the QR code or visit our website www.midsussex.gov.uk to subscribe and join thousands of residents who are already taking advantage of this valuable resource. Let’s work together for a better Mid Sussex.

To read the full newsletter, click the images to enlarge them or pick up April’s Hurst Life today.

Hurst Parish Council news - April 2025

Extending the 20 MPH Zone

The extension of the 20 mph zone in Hurstpierpoint has been approved for the feasibility and design stage by WSCC due to overwhelming public support. Their current aim is to complete the feasibility and design process through 2025/26, and then to propose the scheme for delivery as part of the construction programme 2026/27, subject to the funding being available. This is good news and the Parish Council hope to work with the design engineers to develop the best possible scheme for the village.

Orchard Blossom Day Saturday 26th April

Celebrate this annual event by visiting the Heritage Orchard in Hurst Meadows to see the apple trees at their most beautiful. Orchard manager Martin Sadler will be on hand to answer questions about the Orchard and give advice on the best way to care for your own fruit trees. The Orchard will be open between 10am and 4pm.

To read the full newsletter, pick up your copy of April’s Hurst Life or click the images to enlarge them.

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