Udimore

Beauchamps

I was very sorry to hear today (Monday) the sad news of the death of Dennis Crouch at his home in Rye this morning. Though he and Joan moved from Church Gate to Cadborough Hill several years ago, they always kept in touch with Udimore, where Dennis was born, and where they had lived throughout their life together. Dennis had many vivid memories and good stories to tell about the village in days gone by, of Western Court Farm, the Home Guard and Udimore cricket and football matches, some of which he memorably shared with us at the “All Our Yesterdays” tea party in the Hall in October.

At the AGM of the Hall Management Committee last Tuesday, Linda Harland was thanked for her hard work chairing the committee for its first four years. On her retirement, Frank Langrish has become the new chairman and has been joined by two new committee members, Nadia Florence-Marshall and Gill Rothery.

At the Annual Parish Meeting of the Parish Council last Wednesday, Bob Turgoose and Keith Dean were re-elected as Chairman and Vice-Chairman respectively. Individual responsibilities are to continue very much the same as for the past year, except that a new Tree Warden will be needed to succeed Stella Knight, who has now retired. If you would like to consider taking on this important job, please contact Bob Turgoose (01424 882657).

The Parish Council is also seeking volunteers to join Community Speed Watch teams in Udimore. Volunteers will be trained by Sussex Police in the use of a radar-gun and will work in teams of three. Each team will be expected to record vehicle speeds for a number of two hour periods on several days, and if there are enough volunteers we would hope to record at different times of day throughout the summer months . Vehicles exceeding the speed limit will be reported to Sussex Police, who undertake to visit any driver who is reported on three or more occasions. If you are interested and have some hours to spare, please contact either Bob Turgoose (01424 882657) or the parish clerk, Barbara Balkham (01424 752698 or email [email protected] ).

Our PCSO, Richard Perchard, also stressed how important it is for all of us individually to report to the police all cases of excessive speed or other forms of dangerous driving. This will demonstrate to the police that this remains a serious problem for us Udimore residents. Ideally, the registration numbers of offenders should be included in our reports, but at high speeds these may be impossible to read. 101 is the police number to ring (and sometimes this may involve several minutes’ wait). If you do succeed in reading and making a note of an offender’s registration number, however, an even better way of informing the police of the incident is to report it to Operation Crackdown (01243 642222, or on the website operationcrackdown.org ).

Included in Cllr Carl Maynard’s report to the meeting was his assurance that Rother District Council is robustly resisting the government inspector’s attempts to more than double the District’s current housing allocation. The Council’s aim, he said, is to protect our High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, and to oppose any housing development which is unsustainable.

Tomorrow (Saturday) there will be live music at the King’s Head, to mark the re-launch of the pub under its new management, during the course of this Bank Holiday Weekend. Opening hours are noon till 10pm, seven days a week. To book meals from their new full menu please ring 01424 882116.

Also tomorrow at 7.30pm in St George’s Church, Brede, Duncan Reid and Gary Marriott will be presenting a Musical Evening. For £8 tickets, for their concert and a buffet supper, please ring Marion (01424 751165).

This Sunday (May 26) between 2 and 6pm Matty and I look forward to welcoming you to Beauchamps garden, open to the public again with the National Gardens Scheme, after a two-year break. It’s been looking good lately, and will still be on Sunday afternoon too, come rain or shine. Even if you need an umbrella while walking round the garden, we can guarantee you an excellent tea under cover. Home-propagated plants for sale. Entry to the garden £4, children free.

And please remember that the following Saturday, June 1, from 4pm onwards on Parsonage Farm there will be a barbecue, other refreshments and a licensed bar, to which you are all invited, for a party to celebrate the third annual Rockabilly Race. The race starts at 6pm, but the party should continue well into the evening. Entry and plenty of parking space free.