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.

The fund raising appears to be on target for the acquisition of the Village Hall from the Church.
It would be good to know that plans are in place for the really necessary repair and maintenance work that is going to need to be funded.
Because I am aged and disabled I am particularly concerned about the highly dangerous steps and entrance door opening out onto those steps. Wheelchair access is impossible which excludes anyone with that need from attending the hall. In order to update this entrance from the entrance gate to the front door must cost several thousand pounds and I hope this has been budgeted for in future costings.

In setting out the foregoing I am only expressing concern that the enthusiasm for acquiring the hall has not obscured the serious costs that are going to be needed to improve and indeed maintain the hall, if it is going to continue to be the asset it has been in the past.

It is not popularly known that in the sixteenth century the local baron, Sir John Poyynings, who held the title of Lord of the Manor, offered the (then) village hall to the villagers to use for protecting their pigs from predation. This at a price of 6 hens, 23 eggs, 4 rabbits, 4 hours of tree felling, services of 7 virgins, use of 4 drummer boys, 1 gallon of mead, 6 bundles of firewood and an artist’s impression of the lady of the manor in crayon. After three months the village elders decided to discuss the offer and agreed to hold a public meeting before the next leap year. Regrettably before the meeting was held Sir John had absconded to Molliscombe with several of the village wives and as an atonement for his sins donated the hall to the Church of England. What right the Baron had to dispose of the hall in this manner we shall never know. 1/4/25

Courage
I was very moved by the speech made by Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde at the Washington prayer service for the inauguration of Donald Trump as President of the USA last week. Not many of us would be willing to publicly , and justifiably, criticise the head of state to his face and in public. She rates very highly in my book.

Fulking Village Hall
The recent highly successful open meeting in and on the subject of the village hall seems to have hopefully, at last, opened up the subject of the acquisition of the property from the Church. Of course there are some villagers who feel that the acquisition should be made as a free gift to Fulking Village and in spite of what evidence there is to show that the property is an asset of the Church, I would have thought that as gesture of goodwill and in view of the considerable sums that have been spent by villagers over the years on maintaining the property this might be the case.

Idiocy
I have only just discovered one of the most idiotic ‘improvements’ in abbreviations I have ever seen. AD which used to mean Anno Dominae being a year since the birth of Christ and BC which meant a year before the birth of Christ have each been revised as CE and BCE, now meaning Common Era and Before the Common Era. This has been done presumably to appease other religions than those following Christ. As an atheist I cannot think of a more stupid idea. Two perfectly good abbreviations now dispensed with to pander to a bunch of religious nutters. Globally the cost of this alteration must be astronomic. I intend to keep using the old method!