Latest News of Local Interest

Bobservation No. 60: Mayfield

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Anthony Watts Williams (LAMBS), Malcolm Eastwood (Henfield PC), Karen Healy & Miles Firth (FPC)

The Mayfield Market Town Proposal
Impending disasters come at all levels. The international one is Global Warming, the national one is Brexit and at a village level there is Mayfield. Those of you who attended the Mayfield Market Town proposal meeting in the village hall on Wednesday 28 August will hopefully have come away with a sense of horror about the proposal. This will, if proceeded with, change the way of life of Henfield village dramatically and will lead to intrusion into the Downland villages of which Fulking is one. And, dare I say it!  have an retrograde effect on property values in this area. I do urge you to be aware of what is intended by looking at the proposal on line and registering your opinion with the Parish Council by emailing the Parish clerk. LAMBS (Locals Against Mayfield Building Sprawl) are the major local organisation objecting to all this.

Fulking Social Committee
Our next meeting is in the village hall on Thursday 17 October at 7.30pm when we will be discussing the way forward with the Christmas party and next year’s events. It is with great regret that our treasurer Nick Hughes will be leaving us as he has been a stalwart in so many ways. We desperately need new members if we are to continue as we have been over the last few years. Please come along, you will be made very welcome.

Perching Wood restoration

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Perching Hovel Wood
Perching Wood* (also known as Hovel Wood and as Perching Hovel Wood) is afflicted by ash dieback. The infected trees need to be felled and a replanting scheme initiated (click the map above for details). Work is to start in September and October and the farm will manage the movement of timber lorries as sensitively as they can.

*If you have ever walked from Clappers Lane or the North Town Field to Edburton along the public footpaths then you will have passed the wood to your immediate left

The Women’s Land Army

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The Women's Land Army
A talk by Ian Everest to Beeding & Bramber Local History Society at 7:45pm on Wednesday 4th September 2019 in the Village Hall, Upper Beeding. There is a hard-to-detect car park immediately opposite.

The talk covers the role of women on Sussex farms and their vital contribution to feeding the country during both WWI and WWII. Their efforts only gained official recognition many years after they were disbanded in 1950. The speaker was brought up on a farm near Lewes and his mother was one of 80,000 Land Girls during WWII. The talk will include some of her personal memories as a ‘Cinderella of the Soil’.

Village Meeting on Mayfield

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Fulking Village Hall, Wednesday 28th August 2019 at 7:00pm

All residents are invited this meeting to discuss the Mayfield Market Town proposal, currently before Horsham District Council (HDC). The speakers will be Malcolm Eastwood, the chairman of Henfield Parish Council, and Anthony Watts Williams, former MSDC councillor and founder of LAMBS (Locals Against Mayfield Building Sprawl). There will be a Q&A session and the meeting will be chaired by Karen Healy and I.

This proposal is for a town of 7,000 new homes (20,000 people) within half a mile of the Henfield boundary in the Wheatsheaf Road area. After rejection by Mid Sussex District Council, Horsham District Council are now being targeted. They are currently under pressure to provide new homes in their region. Should this go ahead, there will be an enormous impact on the surrounding area in terms of stretched resources, increased traffic, etc., as well as on Henfield itself.

Please note that while this isn’t a formal FPC meeting, the Parish Council will note the general sentiment and provide feedback to HDC as an adjoining parish under their Community Involvement Policy.

Miles Firth

Fulking photographer wins major award

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Hugo Healy The Sun 9 August 2019
Attentive readers of this website will know that Hugo Healy, seen above in his garden at Oldwood, recently took a set of aerial photographs of Fulking Fair. But he is now much better known for winning the Agora Images #Aerial2019 competition and, as a result, having his work feature in both The Sun and The Mail in the last couple of days (make sure to check both links as they feature slightly different sets of photos). More of his work can be viewed on Instagram @hugohealy and you can reach him by email if you are interested in obtaining prints.