The team at Holy Trinity Church are planning a virtual arts festival to help bring together the community. It’s the brainchild of Hilary Turner-King and Helen Swift, who are family ministers at the church. “We were originally planning to hold an Arts Festival in the church and the Old School over a weekend,” Hilary explained. “There’s so much creativity in Cuckfield and we thought it would be a great way for people to come together, showcase their work and see the work of others. However we soon realised that wasn’t going to be possible but we still wanted it to go ahead in some form.” The orgnisers are appealing for creators of art, photography, floral and digital displays, sculpture, textiles and poetry to share their original works with them, in photographic form, to inspirefm@ holytrinitycuckfield.org. The gallery is very much open for contributions from children too. The plan is that work will be displayed online at the church’s website between 8th-22nd August. There are even hopes for a poetry reading evening via Zoom. For more information see: www.holytrinitycuckfield.org
The new Ansty Village Centre
It has been a long time coming but work on the new Ansty Village Centre is now underway. The project started on the Recreation Ground in January and has had to contend with a variety of challenges including rerouting the sewer across the site, a very wet February and the suspension of work on the timber frame due to Covid-19. Work started to get back on track at the end of April and a concrete platform is now in place and will be ready to receive the timber frame when it arrives on site later this month. The original objective was to complete the new Centre by October 2020. The Ansty Village Centre Trust – the partnership between the Parish Council, the village hall, the sports and social club, and the cricket club – now expects the project to be completed by February 2021. The Trust will then turn its attention to demolishing the existing village hall and social club before extending the car park.
To see what the building may look like complete and to read more about what it will have inside, take a read of July’s issue of Cuckfield Life.
Back in business
Last month saw the return of some of Cuckfield High Street’s shops as they slowly began to reopen their doors for business for the first time in almost three months following the lockdown. The welcome news came after the government announced that non-essential shops throughout the UK could open their doors and allow customers to enjoy the High Street shopping experience once again. Lisa Evans, Director of Ensor Interior Design, described how she felt as the easing of the restriction measures and rules started to shift: “You could almost hear the tumbleweed on the High Street during lockdown, but now it is alive with browsers, shoppers and people just wanting to say hello. We keep our door open during the day, which people seem to love, most stop and say hello and are glad things are returning to normal. We are very positive about the future and are now seeing clients again.” Some of the traders of course remained open throughout the lockdown period and have kept the village alive by helping the Cuckfield community come together in these challenging times.
To read more about the Cuckfield shops and shoppers have a look inside July’s issue of Cuckfield Life!