Hurstpierpoint High Street - September update

Sunday 17th September –
Super Sunday High Street Party

There will be a Street Party atmosphere as part of the opening of the Hurst Festival. The High Street will be closed to traffic between 12 noon and 6pm. 

Please do come along and support the event for an afternoon of family fun!

All the shops are planning special events for the day – come and find out more.

There’s also a classic car rally, live music, face painting, stilt walkers roaming the street, morris dancers, a tombola, snow dogs, reptiles on the rec, fly fishing classes, art demos and the chance to try your hand at archery! 

Traders will be putting on something special for children too. The Kids Shop Window competition will be in full swing. Just collect an entry form from Mishon Mackay or Ashley & Thomas and go exploring on the High Street!

As well as the usual fantastic array of shops, the High Street will be adorned with a number of independent stalls too. If you would like to take a stall for the day, please contact Gill Blackburn on 07748 630 316.

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hurstpierpoint Co-op reopening update

The Co-op is scheduled to reopen at the end of November. However, this is pending approval of additional planning consent, for which the deadline was the end of August.

On a brighter note, the temporary store on the green is now taking credit cards! And Wendy from the Hurstpierpoint Community Shop confirms that the charity shop will be returning to the High Street as soon as possible after the Co-op’s move back.

Albourne Village Show 2017

Albourne Village Show 2017 - 9th September 2017

This year sees the 10th Anniversary of the Albourne Village Show which attempts to recreate our old Village Flower Show of the 1930s. It takes place at the Village Hall and on the green. At its core is a traditional flower and vegetable show, with additional classes for children, arts and crafts, photography, beverages, fruit, eggs, honey and all manner of culinary exhibits. Last year’s show attracted nearly 1,000 visitors and nearly 350 class entries!

Additional attractions include the 10th Anniversary Raffle (with £100 first prize), apple pressing (bring your own), vintage vehicles, a fun dog show, children’s games (including live magician), birds of prey, live music (including the Patcham Silver Band), hot food from the barbecue, cream teas, a beer tent (serving real ale and wines) and many other village and countryside exhibits and stands. Oh, and we have ice-cream and candyfloss. 

Details of classes can be found here on our website (www.albournevillageshow.co.uk). Entries to all classes from those outside Albourne are welcome and indeed encouraged!

The event is just a 20 minute walk from Hurstpierpoint. Entry is 50p for adults. Free entry for children and free car parking.

Non-stop Shakespeare by Hurstpierpoint Players

12th-15th October 2017

By Bob Sampson

Hurstpierpoint Players are planning a repeat of the successful Non-stop Shakespeare as a fundraiser to refurbish the Players Theatre in Hurstpierpoint.

As happened in 1999, it is our intention to get all 37 plays read in this 70-hour marathon, and we are inviting our members, friends, schools, professional actors, neighbouring amateur dramatic groups, in fact anyone who is interested, to get involved.

There are also great opportunities for companies to sponsor plays or take advertising space in the souvenir programme. Email shakespeare@hurstplayers.org.uk for details of what’s on offer.

The readings will go on 24 hours a day from 7.30pm on Thursday 12th October until whatever time we finish on Sunday 15th.

If you don’t want to read, please put this in your diary anyway to come along and support those that do! 

We contacted the Shakespeare Centre Library looking for advice on how long we might have to allow if we were to read right through. They said: “You deserve a huge amount of money if you’re going to read through all of Shakespeare’s plays! Going on the productions done here by the RSC, and taking at least half an hour off their running time, it would take anywhere between 60 - 80 hours to go through all the plays, depending on your texts and the speed of your readers.”

The Theatre Museum was really helpful too. Word had it that they had done a complete reading of the plays in 1989. However, it turned out they had missed a few! So it was left to the Hurstpierpoint Players to take on the task in 1999. We have done it before, so now the date is set and the mammoth operation is under way once again.

The Players Theatre building was converted to a theatre in 1976 and it has been apparent for a while now that the theatre building is in need of some significant maintenance and refurbishment work. The seats for example were already 30 years old when they were installed and the heating system has become more erratic and noisy as the years have passed. The Theatre is used by Hurstpierpoint Players, Hurst Village Cinema and Centre Stage Children’s theatre as well as many other theatre and musical concerts. The intention of this refurbishment is to make the place more comfortable for the audiences and users of the theatre.

If you want to take part in this thrilling experience, or just find out more details, send an email to shakespeare@hurstplayers.org.uk

Hurst College in community action

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Hurst College students in action around Hurstpierpoint

Every year Hurstpierpoint College’s Senior School sends out three year groups, with staff, to do project work in the local vicinity as part of their Community Action Day initiative at the end of the summer term.

This year the college dispatched 470 pupils and 79 staff to 32 locations, to perform manual chores and maintenance work for charities and other worthy organisations. The community-oriented students, accompanied by dedicated members of staff, took up their mops, rakes, spades and trowels to participate in one of the college’s most valued annual traditions.

Projects ranged from tidying public footpaths, clearing back scrub on the South Downs and gardening in organic cooperatives to serving in elderly care centres and washing windows and minibuses. The college also sent a concert party to a care home and a gang show to a school for children with complex needs.

Locations and organisations in the immediate vicinity to benefit included the Millennium Gardens and allotments in the village, Paws and Claws Animal Rescue Service in Sayers Common and Age Concern in Hassocks.

This is one of a number of days in the year when Hurst College and its students gives something back to the local community in a more direct way.

Robin Driscoll - talks to Michele Copeland - Village People, Hurstpierpoint

By Michèle Copeland

I was looking forward to meeting Robin Driscoll, one dull Wednesday in mid-July, in the heart of the village.

He lives in what was probably an old yeoman’s cottage, which was added on to in the 1800s and again in the 1970s.

In his own words: “It was better built then, than in the 1970s, where there are still problems with the drains!” 

He lives with his wife Deborah, whom he met in 1982. They have a son Sam and a five year old grandson called Dominic. They moved to Hurstpierpoint from Brighton in 1993 when they were looking into secondary schools for Sam.

Robin was schooled at Boundstone School, Sompting, between Lancing and Worthing. At 17 he decided to study Creative Arts in Worthing, which is now Northbrook College, finding the more academic path more challenging. He then took a year’s break from the course to work with the Community Arts Workshop in Shoreham. “This setup was specifically geared to help special needs kids, as well as local children of all backgrounds to express themselves via performance arts,” Robin continues, in the comfortable, bright conservatory where we are now sitting over cups of tea.

Hoping to return to college for his second year, he was surprised to find that the Vice Principal was not so keen to allow him to do that, as it was no longer an art college as such. It was now West Sussex College of Design and no longer taught fine arts. So Robin decided to go back to The Barn to work with special needs groups for four years before starting The Cliffhanger Theatre Company in 1978. This company he started with co-workers and friends and ran for some 15 years. Notable names included Peter McCarthy, who became a successful author, Becky Stevens, who is now a kids writer for TV and an author, and Tony Hasse, who now writes for TV and performs, whom he had met at the workshop in the early 1970s.

“We toured the country doing serials, a two hour show, in successive weeks, first based in Brighton and finishing at the Edinburgh Fringe,” he explains. 

They were so successful that, after three years, they didn’t need the Arts Council grant anymore.

“During that time I was asked to play the Great Raymondo in Only Fools and Horses, which was quite stressful as one had to remember one’s lines,” he remarks!

“What you have to understand is that the Edinburgh Fringe was a kind of showcase for television and the arts at the time. We were consequently invited to perform in Europe and Australia for two years running. 

Unfortunately, to do this nowadays is too pricey, so most comedians have become stand-ups and the awards tend to go to them.

“We were then approached by Mel Smith and Griff Rhys Jones to contribute to their TV sketches on Alas Smith and Jones, a British comedy series on the BBC in the 80s, and then got the opportunity to write for Rowan Atkinson’s Mr Bean, when Richard Curtis got more involved with Comic Relief and so was less available, right up until the early part of 2000.” Asked about how it was to work in the TV world, Robin says: “I always felt that they were generous spirited and helpful.”

[this is an extract from the full article printed in Hurst Life August 2017 issue] 

Robert Harris - Village People feature

By Michèle Copeland

Which residents of Hurstpierpoint would not have heard of, or been to, the St Lawrence Fair? Yet how many of us know its history and the role that the Harris family has played over 100 years?

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Harris Brothers Family Fun Fair - photo from the 80s

Though the Fair has been around for over 700 hundred years in Hurstpierpoint, it presumably started then to coincide with a cattle market trading day, which would have been very popular, first on Church Green (where the War Memorial now is) - the 1897 OS map has the area around the crossroads as ‘Market Place’. Later it moved a short distance away to the north to Lamb Platt, where London Terrace and North Terrace are now, opposite the entrance to Trinity Road. There are even entries in the school log citing occasions when the cattle spilled over into the road and prevented children going to school!

However, the link to Hurstpierpoint with the Harris brothers started in the 1860s and was made by John Harris, who had five sons and was a timber merchant with a yard in nearby Cuckfield. 

He came to the fairground business at the time of horse powered roundabouts and went on, with his sons, to be the first operator of steam roundabouts in Sussex. They first opened at Brighton Racecourse in Victorian times by supplying ‘amusements’ to fairgrounds .

[The full article is featured on the pages of the July 2017 issue of Hurst Life magazine]

Link: Harris Fun Fair website

Morley's hosts fashion show in Hurstpierpoint

Hurstpierpoint Traders organise a successful charity Fashion Show in June.

Last month a group of High Street traders from Hurstpierpoint held a charity event raising £1,200.

The owners of Ashley and Thomas, Le Chic Fashion Exchange and Morley’s Wine Bar worked together to organise the evening of fashion and fun, which was held at Morley’s in June. Clothes were supplied courtesy of Audrey (Le Chic) and the jewellery and scarfs from Gill (Ashley & Thomas). The event was a fundraiser for local charity Dame Vera Lynn’s Children’s Charity in celebration of Dame Vera’s 100th birthday this year.

Thanks must go to: The models (Sarah, Mickey, Sara, Jane, Liz, Susannah, Miriam, Isabella, Sheila); Sharon (hair); Jamie (makeup); Dressers (Sarah & Meriel); Steve and Chris of Gogglebox (comperes for the evening); all traders who donated prizes (Cookshop, Clive Miller, Muddy, JanTon, Hartley’s, Profiles of Hassocks, Le Chic Fashion Exchange, Lustig & Webb, and Louisanna florist. 

With special thanks to Toby and his team at Morley’s, and Steve at Trident Leisure for the supply of the marquee and chairs at no cost. 

What an amazing night – it just proves what can be achieved when a community pulls together.

Hurstpierpoint Open Gardens 2017

By Prue Heron

This lovely sociable afternoon will be held on Sunday, 11th June from 1-5.30pm.

The nine gardens that will be opening cover a spectrum from magnificent lawns, views to work-in progress, vegetables and, this year, one with children in mind.

Gardens opening their gates are:-

• 35c Cuckfield Road, BN6 9RW

• 13 Western Road, BN6 9SU

• 17 Western Road, BN6 9SU

• 162 Western Road, BN6 9TD

• South Lodge, South Avenue, BN6 9QB

• 15 Orchard Way, BN6 9UB

• 25 Orchard Way, BN6 9UB

• 26 Orchard Way, BN6 9UB

• 28 Orchard Way, BN6 9UB

There will be balloons at each entrance and the fee is only £6 for the whole day (free for 14s and under). There will be a hop-on, hop-off bus service running throughout starting at Trinity Road at 1pm.  Trinity Road car park is free on a Sunday. 

More information available on the website: www.hurstpierpointopengardens.org.uk or phone Prue Heron on 01273 835064.

South Avenue's marathon running team

Three Hurstpierpoint residents have all completed marathons this year, and they’ve helped each other along the way.

Fiona Bates, Gary Cole and Sarah Elsmore all live on South Avenue and became each other’s support network earlier this year when it became apparent they were working towards the same goal.

The full story is on page 19 of June's Hurst Life magazine. But you can support each of them with the following donation pages:

Fiona: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/fibates

Sarah: https://fundraise.cancerresearchuk.org/page/sarahs-fundraising-page-2090

Gary: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/Gary-Cole10

Hurstpierpoint Gymnastics Club gain great success

By Andrew Hair, coach

Hurstpierpoint Gymnastics Club had another tremendous success at their 18th Annual Arts Competition. Over a hundred gymnasts competed for trophies and medals in Ball Pairs, Beam Pairs, Rope Solos and Sports Acrobatic Sixes. Some of the competitors only joined the Club in the spring term, while some of the Seniors have attended the Club for over ten years.

(Full story in May issue of Hurst Life magazine}

Audrey's changes its name to Le Chic Fashion Exchange

The more eagle-eyed residents of the village may have spotted a subtle change to number 56 High Street in the last month or so.

Audrey’s has become Le Chic Fashion Exchange as it seeks to make it more obvious what the shop stocks. 

Hurst resident Audrey Wright, along with her partner Graham Towler, is still very much running the store which opened in August last year.

Le Chic Fashion Exchange stocks a mix of new and quality secondhand clothes, shoes and handbags, including such brands as Aquascutum, Jaeger and Coast. “We seek to be a place where local folk can find all sorts of bargains,” Graham explained, pointing to a ladies jacket that had never been worn, on the rail at just £35 (it was bought for over £500 originally!).

The exchange agreement with owners of clothes means that if something hasn’t sold in six weeks, it simply gets returned to them. This creates a natural turnover of stock and surely means that fashion bargain hunters really do have to pop in every week!

The shop also now boasts a new alterations and repairs service in store. Nataliya Avery works from the premises three days a week, has her own fashion range as well as being prepared to make to measure. 

Le Chic Fashion Exchange is at 56 High Street, Hurspierpoint and is open Tuesday – Saturday.

Living the country dream - Danny Lodge in Hurstpierpoint

A chance opportunity led Matt and Sophie White to not only buy a property on the edge of the South Downs National Park but also build their dream house for their family too. Whilst the build was certainly a Grand Design it was actually the sense of community in Hurstpierpoint that sold it to them.

By David Tingley

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Matt and Sophie White set up Matt Architecture in 2011, following a two-year stint living and working in Abu Dhabi. The plan was to return to London, set up a family home and build the new business together. As part of this, the pair set about developing the site of their house in London; making it into the home they wanted. 

During the building work they moved the whole family to Cuckfield, where they rented a property for a year. But they never moved back to the city.

Whilst living in Cuckfield the pair got a taste for family life in ‘the country’ and they saw just how smaller communities could work for them. An old friend of Matt’s lived in Hurstpierpoint and they had been to see him and liked what they saw. A coincidental loading of a new property app while Matt was in the area, led him to learn that Danny Lodge was for sale – which got them both thinking.

[extract from full article in May 2017's issue of Hurst Life magazine]

Kent, Surrey & Sussex Air Ambulance Talks

Kent, Surrey & Sussex Air Ambulance

Book a talk about our life-saving work

 

The Kent, Surrey & Sussex Air Ambulance is inviting local groups, clubs, societies and other organisations to book a talk (free of charge) to find our more about the work of the charity.

By inviting one of our volunteer speakers to your group, you will be helping to raise awareness of our work and therefore ensuring we can be there for those who need us, now and in the future.

For more information or to book a talk, please contact us on: 01622 833 833 talks@kssairambulance.org.uk

Andrew Marshall - Village People - Hurstpierpoint

by Michèle Copeland

There are many books and articles that touch upon illness and death, with more or less depth, but few will talk about those left behind, the bereft - the bereaved. One such book is My Mourning Year by Andrew Marshall published by RedDoor. 

Some of our readers may remember relationship therapist Andrew’s previous bestselling book ‘I Love You, But I’m Not in Love with You’, published in 2010. The book explored where relationships seemed merely defined by companionship rather than passion, and how he devised his own personal, unique programme, by offering couples a seven guided step map to recoup their attractiveness and uniqueness and thus resolve their marital issues.

A Hurstpierpoint resident for 30 years, Andrew has written 16 other self-help books, some of which have been translated into 20 different languages. He still has a practice in the city, and once a week he will see clients locally at the Sussex Osteopath Centre.

Though for many years he worked for Relate, a national relationship counselling organisation, he decided to stop working for them seven years ago.

He has contributed to many radio programmes and newspapers over the years, such as The Guardian, The Daily Mail, The Telegraph and The Times, as a freelance journalist.

Andrew comes across as a very private person, and it is all to his credit that he has had the courage to publish his one year diary, following the death of his beloved partner Thom in 1997 after a long debilitating illness. 

[Excerpt from the full article printed in the April 2017 issue of Hurst Life magazine]

Hurst Festival presents Any Questions live broadcast

Do you have a burning question about politics today or enjoy listening to lively, in-depth discussion of current events? For the first time ever, Hurst Festival are delighted to host a live broadcast of Any Questions?, BBC Radio 4’s flagship political panel programme, on Friday 5th May at 8pm in Hurstpierpoint Village Centre. 

Chaired by Jonathan Dimbleby, Any Questions? transmits live from a different part of the country each week, providing members of the public with an exclusive opportunity to challenge a diverse panel of four leading politicians, writers and thinkers.

Hurst Festival are pleased to offer a limited number of free tickets to members of the Hurstpierpoint community for this prestigious event on a first come first served basis. Applications for tickets should be made through the Parish Council. Or if you cannot attend, why not tune in live at 8pm on Friday 5th May, at 1.10pm on Saturday 6th May, or through BBC iPlayer for 30 days following.

For tickets to this esteemed event, please contact the Parish Council directly, or for more information email Sarah Williams at scw48@ aol.com

Hurst Pet Shop reopens on High Street

Pierpoint Pet Supplies is now back in business after six months. The shop had been closed, following smoke damage in the shop after a fire in the storage area. It has now been completely refurbished and restocked.

The shop has been trading for around 24 years, having been opened by the existing owner’s father and sister. Both Lee and Andrée Tite have been partners in the shop for ten years.

“We are looking forward to seeing both our loyal existing customers again and new ones too, and we still offer free local deliveries on Wednesdays and Fridays,” says Andrée.

Opening times are Mondays to Fridays 9am to 5pm, Saturdays 9am to 4pm with late opening on Thursdays until 6.30pm.

For more information please email: pierpointpets@hotmail.com or call 01273 832368.

Hurstpierpoint & Sayers Common Parish Council surgeries to be trialled

Hurstpierpoint and Sayers Common Parish Council will be starting a new initiative this month, by holding monthly Parish Councillor Surgeries. They will be an opportunity for residents to speak to a local councillor in an informal manner.

The first Surgery will be held on Saturday 8th April 2017 between 10am-12noon, in the Conference Room at the Village Centre, Trinity Road. Two councillors will be available to chat about any issue or idea that residents might have.

All Parish Council and Committee meetings are open to the public and everyone is very welcome to attend. This initiative is being trialled for a year, for those people who might find it easier to chat in this informal manner. For more information, please contact the Parish Council office on 01273 833264 or hurstpierpoint.pc@btinternet.com.

Hurst Village Cinema

By David Saitch

Hello from the Hurstpierpoint Village Cinema. We have three extraordinary and radically different films and a fantastic Live Broadcast coming up in March.

Thursday 9th March – NT Live Hedda Gabler
Ruth Wilson stars in this stunning adaptation of Ibsen’s masterpiece, directed by Ivo van Hove. Her performance has received rapturous reviews and the productions stark simplicity has been called ‘Dark, bold and devastating’. Not to be missed, an absolutely spellbinding triumph.

Thursday 16th March – Things to Come (12A)
Isabelle Huppert is simply incredible as a philosophy teacher who finds herself having to soldier on as she loses her job, her mother and her husband leaves her over a short period of time. A poignant, wonderfully funny and elegantly crafted meditation on coping with the surprises that life can spring on you. Filmmaker Mia Hansen-Løve just keeps getting better and better and Things to Come marks her out as one of the most talented and exciting directors working today. French with English Subtitles.

Sunday 19th March – I, Daniel Blake (15)
Winning the Palme d’Or at Cannes and Best British Film at the Baftas, the Evening Standard Film Awards and Best Film at the European Film Awards, as well as a host of awards for the director and cast, this searingly angry but also very funny and humane polemical film is one everyone should see. This is a charity event and all proceeds from ticket sales will go to the local food bank - a fantastically worthy local charity.

Friday 24th March – Tale of Tales (15)
Matteo Garrone’s Tale of Tales is fabulous in every sense; a stunningly beautiful but freaky portmanteau film. It is gloriously mad, rigorously imagined, visually wonderful, hilarious and internally consistent. It immerses you in a complete created world. It is a masterpiece of blackcomic bad taste and a positive carnival of transgression. The secret is the deadpan seriousness with which everything is treated. Tale of Tales is a treat, and Toby Jones is utterly superb as a conceited, melancholy, ridiculous king. It has fantastic performances from Salma Hayek, Vincent Cassel and John C. Reilly.

Tickets from Mishon Mackay or www.hurstfilms.com

The Regina Monologues comes to Hurstpierpoint

Divorced, beheaded, died. Divorced, beheaded, survived. There’s more to this little phrase than meets the eye as Hurstpierpoint Players’ next production, The Regina Monologues by Rebecca Russell and Jenny Wafer, proves!

The writers transplant the stories of the six wives of Henry VIII into the 21st century and by doing so show that their lives are not that far removed from those of modern women. Cleverly constructed, this is not a series of six monologues spoken one after the other.

Each wife takes a turn to reveal another bit of their story, which serves to hold the audience’s interest as all the tales reach their climax at once.

The Regina Monologues is both extremely funny and poignant, changing in the space of seconds, done with as much skill as Alan Bennett shows in his ability to find humour in the minutiae of life as well as in the big relationships! Coincidentally the show is accompanied by some of Bennett’s Talking Heads plays: Hand of God, Miss Fozzard finds her Feet and Soldiering On. At The Players Theatre, High Street, Hurstpierpoint from 28th March until 1st April, starting at 8pm.

Tickets are £10 Tuesday and Wednesday and £11 on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. They can be purchased from Richwards, 133 High Street, call 01273 834506, or buy online with a 65p booking fee per transaction (not per ticket) and can be posted to you for an extra £1 per transaction. Visit www.hurstplayers.org.uk for details.

Unfortunately Hurst Players are not able to offer price concessions for this production.

Hurstpierpoint local ladies run marathon for hospices

Louise Payne & Lisa Stafford

Two local 40-somethings, Louise Payne and Lisa Stafford, are taking on the challenge of running the Brighton Marathon this 9th April in aid of St Peter & St James Hospice. “We are very much looking forward to this challenge, but with the usual ‘Maranoia’ that goes with it. We want to raise as much as we possibly can for this wonderful charity and are hoping that people’s generosity will help us reach our target and beyond. We thank all our friends and family who have donated so generously already.”

Louise has worked for the hospice for the last five years as a physiotherapist, so it made complete sense to support the hospice. “We want to make our Marathon count, and what better motivation could you have than supporting such a local and worthy charity. St Peter & St James Hospice is a vital service to our local community but only receives 17% government funding. Therefore, they must raise 2.6 million pounds a year to run the hospice and their community services in East and West Sussex. If you wish to make a donation, then please visit our fundraising page by following the link provided. To all who donate please accept our grateful thanks in advance for your wonderful generosity.”

http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/LouiseandLisa