Category: Home Page

Bobservation No. 77: Council-ling and Attitudes

Red image of Capitol with Fulking sign and pound signs Miles Firth
Having experienced the demands of being Chair of the Parish Council I can appreciate why Miles has decided to resign. In my opinion he has been the best and most industrious Chair in all the time I have been in Fulking. He will be hard to replace. Please join me in thanking him for the wise and dedicated way in which he has served us.
It is worth considering how the incredible and shocking display of mob force in the Capital building in Washington, inspired by the outgoing president, gives us reason to value and protect our democratic way of life in Britain. Democracy is always under pressure from both extremes right and left. It is up to the ordinary citizen to be aware of what is happening and take legally acceptable steps to guard against these self-interested factions.
At the very start of the democratic process the four-yearly process of Parish elections will enable us to vote in a new Parish Council in May (unless Covid delays it). This will require volunteers coming forward to fill the places vacated by the present council and if there are more than 5 candidates then  voting will take place. I urge you to seriously consider how you might consider it to be your duty to stand for election.

Changing Attitudes
I was reflecting on how much attitudes have changed since I was a teenager, !!years ago. We had been brought up to be intolerant of anyone who was not a white, British, Anglo-Saxon, heterosexual protestant. Women were acceptable so long as they knew their place! Indeed, life at school could be very uncomfortable for anyone ‘who was not one of us’. Bullying not unusual and as far as I remember ignored by teachers, probably to ‘toughen’ us up. I suppose this all stemmed from the imperial attitudes of the time when we were expected to go abroad to quell the ‘natives’ and administer the diminishing empire. Fortunately, so far as I am aware, we live in a greatly more accepting world. Changes in the law have been widespread to create a greater understanding of colour, sexuality and infirmity. I believe I have been lucky to have lived in these changing times and seen what great strides have and are being made. It is up to us to ensure it continues. However, would it not be marvellous if the increasing gulf between rich and poor in Britain was limited by some form of wealth taxation on personal assets of the seriously rich. Food for thought!  Oxfam has just reported that the 26 richest people in the world own as much as the poorest 50%. Does that make sense?

Planning Meeting – Thursday 4th February 2021

You are cordially invited to an online Extraordinary Meeting of Fulking Parish Council, on Thursday 4th February 2021 at 6.00pm via Microsoft Teams, the meeting will consider the items set out below. 

If you would like to join the meeting please email parishclerk@fulking.net and the link to access the meeting will be emailed to you. 

Mark Hind – Acting Chairman  

AGENDA 

Public Participation: There will be a period of 15 minutes set aside at the beginning of the meeting for the public to ask questions or make comments on items on the Agenda. Comments on items not appearing on the agenda can be made at the chairman’s discretion.  

21/017/PM.          Apologies for Absence. 

21/018/PM.          Declaration of Members’ Interests. 

21/019/PM.          Planning matters 

Ref SDNP/20/05420/HOUS Location: Customary Cottage The Street Fulking BN5 9LU Proposal: Replacement Garage (demolish existing) 

Date of the next Ordinary Meeting: Thursday 15th April 2021 

Edburton Tithe Map

This website frequently makes use of clips from the Edburton Tithe Map of 1842 to illustrate posts. Not a lot has changed hereabouts in the last 180 years so the map is still both useful and attractive. If you have ever wondered how such a map came to be, then the West Sussex County Record Office has an interesting recent post by Abigail Hartley, their Searchroom Archivist. She uses Edburton as an example of a tithe map that is still in superb condition. The map shows the ecclesiastical parish of Edburton, the area served by St. Andrew’s, and thus shows all of Fulking, together with Edburton proper.

The map is still available from the Record Office (details via the link above). Local walkers are probably best advised to order the JPEG version and copy it to a tablet or mobile phone for consultation in situ. Unlike a large scale OS map, the tithe map does not mark the status of routes as ‘bridleways’, ‘public footpaths’, etc. If you are relatively new to the area, and plan to use the map for walking, then you may want to use an image editor like Photoshop to copy those indications over from OS Explorer 122.

A tithe map, like the Domesday Book, is ultimately about taxation. To that end the Edburton map uses colour to distinguish between the buildings then used for human habitation (red) and all the others (grey), typically agricultural buildings for animal accommodation or feed storage. That distinction alone tells us quite a lot about mid-C19 activity in the central section of The Street (between the pub and the building now known as Yew Tree Cottage).

Another feature of the tithe map, not shared with any of the various iterations of OS maps, is that it records the names of (all!) the fields. These names are often full of information, thus ‘Fulking Mills’ is located just where two of the local spring streams merge, an ideal location for fulling mills; ‘Coneybeare’ and ‘Upper Coney Burrow’ were probably both once sources of rabbit meat, the latter conveniently placed for the Perching Manor dinner table; ‘The Rookery’ and ‘Hog Pasture’ need no translation; and nor does ‘Boggy Lagg’ if you make the mistake of traversing it in mid-February with the wrong shoes on.

Ordinary Parish Meeting – 7th January, 2021

Planning MeetingYou are cordially invited to an online Ordinary Meeting of Fulking Parish Council, on Thursday 7th January 2021 at 7.30pm via Microsoft Teams, the meeting will consider the items set out below.

Should you wish to join the meeting please let me know by email (parishclerk@fulking.net) and I will email you a link invite to Microsoft Teams.

Trevor Parsons – Parish Clerk
parishclerk@fulking.net

AGENDA

Public Participation: 15 minutes are set aside at the beginning of the meeting for the public to ask questions or make comments on items on the Agenda. Comments on items not appearing on the agenda can be made at the chairman’s discretion.

21/001/OM. – Apologies for Absence.

21/002/OM. – Declaration of Members’ Interests.

21/003/OM. – Approve the Minutes of Ordinary Council Meeting of 8th October 2020
The minutes, subject to any amendments, to be approved and signed as a true record of the meeting.

21/004/OM. – Reports from District and County Councillors. 

21/005/OM. – 2020 – 2021 Precept

21/006/OM. – Matters Arising & Outstanding Actions To clarify and report on actions brought forward from the last meeting.

1) Ram Pump Noticeboard
2) Welcome Pack for New Villagers
3) Speed Indicator Device
4) Village Signs

21/007/PM. – Market Garden

21/008/OM. – Village Gateway

21/009/OM. – Village Hall

Asset of Community Value
Lease

21/010/OM. – Winter Plan

21/011/OM. – Yellow Lines

21/012/OM. – Reports from Outside Bodies.

1) WSALC planned breakaway Update

21/013/OM. – Information Items.  To receive information and items for the agenda at future meetings.

21/014/OM. – Correspondence.  To discuss correspondence and respond to correspondence received.

PROW – Don’t Lose Your Way – (Chris Smith)

21/015/OM. – Financial Matters. To receive the report on the Council’s income and to approve future expenditure.

21/016/OM. To set a date of Annual General Meeting of the Council and Annual Parish Meeting.

Date of the next Ordinary Meeting: Thursday 8th April 2021