Author: Miles

Village Hall Appeal Update

What a year it’s been for Fulking!
Following a community consultation in January, we launched a bid to raise a daunting £85,000 to save our village hall. There followed a year-long programme of fundraising events, from Seedling Sunday, Farm Open Day and the Wimbledon Garden Party to the Charity Cricket Match, Ceilidh and Call My Bluff.
The Shepherd and Dog came up trumps with a £1 voluntary donation on every table, raising an incredible £4,000 to date, and most recently Sally Gunnell’s quiz at Preston Nomads raised over £3,600.
Still to come are the Fulking Xmas Party on Dec 12 and a Champagne Music Night on Dec 13.

The good news is that with £80,000 in the pot, we’ve very nearly made it, and the hall purchase is going ahead as we write. An enormous and heartfelt thank-you to everyone for your incredible generosity and support.

The even better news is that the whole community has come together behind the project as never before! Any surplus funds will go to hall improvement.

Bobservation No. 134: Call My Bluff Wine Quiz

Call my bluff wine quiz
Nick Hughes and I started this event to raise funds for the Social Committee. Through the years we have been supported by Quaff, Wine Rack and Tesco among others.
Initially we were helped by a friend of Nick’s but as it developed we did more of the organisation and pricing ourselves.

Call My Bluff Wine Quiz evenings have been held in the village hall, in the marquee at the annual village fair at various private homes, at Preston Nomads and at the Shepherd & Dog.
The ethos has been to keep the cost of admission as low as possible whilst enabling the guests to enjoy good wines and perhaps even learn a little about wine. The largest number of places we ever sold was 96 in the marquee.

We have tried to keep the inebriation at an acceptable level but I must confess on a few occasions it has ended up as a bit of a party. The three quizzers have been assisted by a crib sheet for each of the wines and allowed to embellish this as much as they care to.

I have personally had a great deal of pleasure presenting this evening and have descended into barely acceptable Limerick poetry at times.
Over the years we have raised quite a lot of money for the Social Committee.

Lastly, I wish the Village Hall fund raisers every success in their latest edition next month, of what, I hope, has become something of a Fulking tradition.

Call My Bluff Wine Evening – 7th November 6:30-10:30pm, Fulking Village Hall.

Bobservation No. 133: Hearing Aids

Having used ‘Action for Deafness’ for quite a few years, in fact ever since they used to come regularly to the Henfield Village Hall, I was surprised when they announced their discontinuance and transfer to a private firm, Scrivens. On the face of it this appears to mean that the NHS is no longer offering free hearing aids and support. I am given to understand it is still possible to get free hearing aid support and indeed new hearing aids if you get referred to Scrivens by your GP. I have not had the occasion to find out how well this actually works but would be very interested in hearing from any villager who has tried to get referred.

Bobservation No. 132: Old Friends and Quotations


Quotations Group
This group continues to meet in the village hall at 11am on Mondays. It is a friendly group of villagers who have become good friends. Each meeting has a catalyst of a word chosen by popular demand around which the meeting is based. Attendances are rarely more than ten which we have found is an ideal number for a discussion. We seem to be mostly female but welcome anyone. Discussions are friendly and cover any subject that those present care to bring up.  It would be of great value if more and similar groups could meet up and possibly discuss local ideas and problems as well as international matters.

Old Friends
Just bumped into Harry Diamond in a restaurant. He was looking very fit and it reminded me of an occasion probably twenty years ago or more: I was then Chair of the Parish Council and Harry and I met the Chair of Mid Sussex District Council (MSDC) in the field next to Harry’s house whish was too large for just he and Charmaine to live in. The  purpose of the meeting was to discuss the possibility of Harry transferring the whole of his bottom field to the Parish Council, completely free with no charges whatsoever so that that a new village hall with adjacent parking might be built. In exchange for this very generous and highly practical offer Harry was to get planning permission to build a smaller house than his own in the adjacent field. The MSDC Chair immediately dismissed the offer saying ‘we don’t do deals at MSDC’. So that is why a considerable amount of money is being raised to acquire the current village hall.