Etchingham

The December/January edition of the Parish Magazine is now available in the village shops.

Etchingham Under Five’s Playgroup invite you to a Christmas Prize Bingo Night at Etchingham Club on Friday December 14, 7.30pm. Bring your friends and family for an evening of festive fun and support your local Playgroup.

Lots of great prizes, including a Christmas hamper and Christmas Cake, Drusilla’s tickets, voucher for Slap ‘n’ Dash, 100 tulip bulbs and 6ft Christmas Tree from English Heritage Gardens, Remington hair straighteners, goodies from beauty@thebistro, voucher from The Claypot Hurst Green, Clambers tickets, two sets of five tickets to The Dogs at Brighton. Tickets £6, includes six game cards. Tickets available on the door, or in advance from Playgroup, or phone Suzy Eade 07875 077816 or 01580 819088.

The next Quiz Night at Etchingham Club will be next Saturday, December 15, 8.30pm, the quizmaster will be Keith Boylett, everyone welcome. Please note this is a changed date as the original date clashed with the event in the Church tomorrow evening.

Etchingham Women’s Institute has closed after 93 years. The main reasons are age and infirmity. The group is however still functioning until the end of the year, and they are holding a Carol service in the Church on Monday December 10, 2.30pm all are welcome.

They hope to establish a more informal group of like minded ladies to meet rfor talks, outings and lunches etc. The initial meeting will be in the village hall on Wednesday January 2, 2.30pm, when they hope to welcome old and new friends and start to plan a future programme. If you are interested, or require further information, contact greta Crane on 01580 819304.

Following very successful presentations in previous years, tomorrow evening (Saturday December 8), “Another Etchingham Christmas” will be staged in the Church at 7pm. You will be treated to Courtney Kenny at the piano with the Etchingham Singers, and featuring “First Yule” - St. Wilfrid brings Christmas to the heathens of Etchingham. Admission £5, children £1, includes a glass of wine (or soft drink) and mince pie. Tickets may still be available, check at the village shops, or phone 01580 819434.

Etchingham Church continues to arrange a weekly services, Sunday Services have returned to 11am. Children’s services will continue on the second Sunday. If you have ideas about how the popularity of the Church and services can be improved, contact a Churchwarden.

The Church is now open to visitors every day from 11am to 4pm. If you have any queries regarding the Church contact the Churchwardens Mary Barnes 01580 819142 or Geoffry Lucas 01580 819439.

Etchingham Church Services over the Christmas period will be as follows; Sunday December 16, 4.30pm, Carol Service led by the Reverend Peter Clark. Sunday December 23, 11am, Holy communion led by Reverend Simon Gurd. December 24, 4.30pm, Crib and Christingle Service led by Ruth Waller. December 24, 11.30pm, Midnight Mass led by Reverend Peter Clark. December 25, 10am Morning Service led by Sue Greener.

Please note there is a change to the Christingle Service mentioned in this column last week.

Calling all Etchingham groups, societies and fundraisers; Etchingham Church has booked a large Christmas Tree in Burwash Church, as part of their Christmas Tree Festival, all Etchingham groups and societies are invited to take part. Advertise your charity, group or society simply by hanging something on the tree. You can be as creative and imaginative as you like, but try to stick to the colour scheme which will be white, gold and red, collecting boxes are allowed. The tree has to be dressed on December 13, between 11am and 8pm. There will be a grand opening evening on Friday December 14, for which tickets will be sold and the church will be open with refreshments and entertainment on December 16 and 16, 10am to 4pm. Please let Mary Barnes know as soon as possible, 01580 819142 [email protected]

Robertsbridge District Trefoil Guild has not been mentioned for a while, but it continues to meet every month, on the first Thursday, 2pm at the Robertsbridge Guide Hut. They have a very varied programme, and are a very welcoming group, so if you have fond memories of you time in any part of the guiding family, they would love to hear from you. The next meeting is Thursday December 6, when they will be holding their Christmas Party, they do not let any opportunity to celebrate pass them by,, and it’s nice to be one of the first Christmas parties. The programme for 2113 is almost finalised, so if you are interested contact Barbara Thomas on 01580 819330 or email [email protected] for a copy.

Carol Singing in the village will take place on Friday December 21. Meet by the Christmas Tree at the Church at 7pm, the group will then sing at the Christmas Tree and at the station before moving up the High Street. Everyone is very welcome to join in, collection will be for a local charity, remember to take a torch.

Etchingham on Facebook, several village organisations have a presence on Facebook, where you can keep up with what they are doing. There is a general Etchingham page where details are posted of things happening in the village http://www.facebook.com/EtchinghamVillagePage, Etchingham Club is at http://www.facebook.com/etchinghamsocialclub, the Bistro can be found at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Bistrothestation/, Neighbourhood Watch http://www.facebook.com/etchinghamwatch, and the Shop & Deli can be found at http://www.facebook.com/etchinghamshopanddeli , Christmas trading hours for the shop are on the page.

A date for your diary, the Etchingham Singers are presenting a concert in Hurst Green hall on Saturday March 16, more details here nearer the date.

For details of Hurst Green events, see the Hurst Green column.

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]