Please note that Blackwell Hollow will be closed between 9.30am and 3.00pm on Monday 11th May to allow urgent treeworks to be carried out. Diversions will be put in place
CAROLLERS and Christmas shoppers will be able to park free in East Grinstead from 1pm on Saturday 7 December.
Mid Sussex District Council offered the seasonal incentive which the Town Council decided to apply on the afternoon that Town Mayor Margaret Belsey will perform the official ‘lighting up’ ceremony for the Rotary Club’s Christmas tree in the High Street.
ASHPLATS Ward’s annual Day of Action, which took place at St Luke’s church on 30 October, was attended by Cllrs Danny Favor, Liz Bennett and Peter Reed.
The event, which fosters community spirit and togetherness, was organised by the ward’s Local Action Team, Neighbourhood Panel and Sussex Police, and attended by representatives from housing and benefit offices, town, district and county councillors, Sussex police and fire, the Mid Sussex Well Being team, representatives from the Queen Victoria Hospital and Filipino British Nurses Extra Care East Grinstead, and other community groups.
Residents were able to enjoy networking, children’s activities, ‘clean and green’ projects including litter picking, cakes and coffee as well as being offered free health checks on blood pressure, blood glucose and BMI provided by the Extra Care Team.
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Plans for the third annual Mid Sussex Marathon are underway, with the three day event planned for the first bank holiday weekend in May 3rd to 5th May 2014.
The classic marathon distance of 26.2 miles spread over three races, will kick off in East Grinstead with a 10 mile, mostly cross country course, which starts and finishes at the East Grinstead Sports Club, passing through some of the most beautiful landscape our region has to offer. Runners will follow the tried and tested route, using footpaths down to Weir Wood Reservoir, passing the National Trust property of Standen before heading across fields and woodlands towards Brambletye and onto the Forest Way. A short road section leads onto the West Sussex Border Path then across fields through farm land and back down to the reservoir before retracing the outward route back up a challenging hill to the finish.
The second leg, also a 10 mile race takes place in Haywards Heath and the event will be rounded off on the Bank Holiday Monday with the remaining 6.2 miles (10K) in Burgess Hill.
Participants can enter now for all three or any individual race at www.nice-work.org.uk or www.runnersworld.co.uk/events
For further information, please call race organisers Nice Work on 01797 230572
Anyone interested in helping to marshal, sponsor or donate prizes for the East Grinstead leg of the Mid Sussex Marathon please contact Dawn Spalding on 01342 410121
BACK in East Grinstead with a Diploma in Dance and Musical Theatre from Millennium Performing Arts, Skye Tupholme will be spending Christmas at Chequer Mead playing Jill, the leading lady in this year’s panto Jack and the Beanstalk.
Skye, a former pupil at Forest Row’s Cora dance school, has made numerous previous appearances with The Company of Friends. She started as a member of the junior chorus in productions of Jack and the Beanstalk and Cinderella before graduating to a lead role in The Boyfriend and playing the Artful Dodger in Oliver.
Skye’s professional credits include being part of the opening cast of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang at the London Palladium, and while at college she performed in several other London theatres.
But she’s delighted to be back on home ground for the panto, and to be reunited with Dylan Holdsworth as her leading man Jack and Michael Spencer as Dame Trott.
* There will be 16 performances of Jack and the Beanstalk over the Christmas period, but tickets are flying out fast, so book early to avoid disappointment.
SHOPPERS from the town’s satellite villages are being invited by the Bluebell Railway to do their Christmas shopping in East Grinstead.
Shoppers will be offered a £5 return ticket into East Grinstead on the early train, and back after 2.30pm each Saturday in November. The offer will be promoted via entries in the Fletching, Horsted Keynes, Ardingly and Lindfield magazines.
THE town museum in Cantelupe Road will be hosting its latest exhibition 150 years of cottage hospitals in East Grinstead until January 2014.
Entry to the museum is free.
TOWN Promotions officer Simon Kerr was a guest at BBC Radio Sussex in October to help celebrate their 30th birthday.
In return for the warm welcome he always gives reporters doing stories in and around East Grinstead, Simon was presented with a cake!
TOWN Promotions officer Simon Kerr is working on a new initiative to bring together all the leisure facilities to the south west of East Grinstead.
“It’s remarkable that we have an area with so many opportunities within walking distance of each other, but which even people who live in East Grinstead don’t really seem to know a great deal about,” said Simon.
These include the new Kingscote vineyard, which also offers fishing and shooting, several businesses based at Blacklands Farm, and Stone Rocks, which belongs to the British Mountaineering Club and is where aspirant climbers can learn to climb safely.
Just next door to Stone Rocks, Deers Leap Park stands on a 240 acre site which includes a mountain bike park, and an underground obstacle course. The Park’s owners also have plans to expand its activities to include Iron Man contests and even bog snorkelling – something Simon admits he has yet to try.
The Rugby and Sports Clubs are also close by, as are the grounds of Standen estate which lead down to the Weirwood reservoir which is home to a wealth of outdoor pursuits.
And if walking and off-road cycling are your bag, then the place to go is the Gravetye woods says Simon, who is planning a new marketing campaign to promote the area to visitors and townspeople alike.
TOWN promotion’s officer Simon Kerr not only gives advice and assistance to East Grinstead’s visitors, but also to local students.
So he was delighted to lend a hand to Sackville pupil Katie Steer who was working on a project to develop an East Grinstead Coffee Shop Tour which will be made available to the public at the tourist desk in the library.
“Most of our work with schools involves them in developing skills in the leisure and tourism field. Quite often we can help them develop guided walks through our historic High Street area, but Katie’s leaflet is a new departure for all coffee lovers – and much more sensible than a pub crawl,” said Simon.
* Simon and his assistant Dawn look forward to continue working with more of the town’s schools both at primary and secondary level, so if you would like them to lend a hand contact them at the West Street library.
A fundraising dance for a statue to be erected in the High Street in memory of pioneering plastic surgeon Sir Archibald McIndoe raised almost £4,000 last month.
But there will be further opportunities to contribute to this very worthy cause in the next few weeks: