Ansty Village Hall into a new Antsy Village Centre

Ansty Platoon of the Home Guard, thought to be taken outside village hall in1943

By Bradbury Williams

With exactly a century of service behind it, the old Ansty Village Hall is coming to the end of its unique innings at the heart of a thriving Mid-Sussex community. The official grand opening back in January 1921 was largely managed by the new Women’s Institute, one of the first in the country.

They ensured the new hall was equipped to a good standard, fully furnished, with oil lamps, a coke stove and curtains made by their members. But in just a few months time the historic old hall will finally be demolished to make way for the new £1.25M Ansty Village Centre.

“There’s no doubt it’s the end of an era,” said Maureen Gibson, of the Ansty Village Hall Trust. “I can’t count all the village fetes, cream teas and Christmas parties…there’s been a lot of happy memories and a lot of village history.”

For the last 100 years the hall has been a community centre and home to a social club and a highly successful cricket club, that’s grown ever stronger over the decades.

Before reaching Ansty the beloved hall had an earlier role in the First World War. It is thought to have provided troop accommodation for the Canadian Expeditionary Force on the Western Front in France. In August 1920, the Ansty Village Hall Committee had bought some land from the Sergison Estate for £20, but it had decided it couldn’t meet the estimated £542 for a new brick building.

Within months they found a solution, having jumped at the opportunity to buy an army surplus hut. It would arrive by train at Haywards Heath station as a flat pack, at a cost of just £250. During the interwar years, Ansty continued to grow with lots of new housing between the long established country homes. It had the relatively new St. John’s Chapel just next to the village hall, built in 1905 on the site of an old mission house. Also there was a village shop, a post office, a market garden, a blacksmith and a forge, now a Shell garage, plus a very well used pub, called The Green Cross, later the Anstye Cross.

Read more about the history of Ansty Village hall, including multiple sporting clubs, churches, and more in Feb’s issue of Cuckfield Life.

Join the revolution for a greener Cuckfield

By Vicky Koch

Fairly new to the village, Greener Cuckfield is an eclectic group of ten or so residents who are acting as a steering group to promote and facilitate small sustainable steps in the village. Everyone has a different background but we are all aiming for the same thing. There are two members doing a Masters in Environmental Studies, one member of Cuckfield Local, two governors from Holy Trinity School, a member of Mid Sussex Community Garden and a member of Mid Sussex District Council, to name a few.

(from top left going clockwise): Jo Notaras, Vicky Koch, Will Faas and Sheila Harris

The original idea to form Greener Cuckfield came in late 2019 after going to a Fairer World Lindfield event called ‘Your climate - Your choices’ with my friend Charlotte Rawle. Something that really struck a chord for both of us came from the talk with Climate Reality Project Leader, Peter Desmond. In his presentation about the climate and ecological crisis, he echoed a point from the film ‘2040 - Join The Regeneration’ that no one can help but be a hypocrite because the world’s system is based around fossil fuels.

As saddening as this point was, it also felt very liberating to hear. One of the most disheartening parts of wanting to do anything ethical is that you feel you will be outed as a hypocrite for buying anything with plastic or for driving a diesel car. Yet now it was clear that by making small manageable steps to lead a greener lifestyle we could still be doing the right thing. This became the ethos for what is now Greener Cuckfield.

It did not take long for a WhatsApp group to form. Originally we wanted to spread awareness by putting on events, perhaps even organise some trips. However, the pandemic came along so all of those ideas were put on hold and Greener Cuckfield was adapted into something a bit more Covid-friendly.

One of our key accomplishments to date has been creating a Christmas shopping directory to signpost people to their local shops and businesses. Ethical lifestyles often come with the stigma of being costly, not convenient and time consuming. So we felt that having the directory might help overcome some of these common barriers to greener living.

Other achievements include creating a presence online with our Facebook page and Twitter account; the launch of our website; and setting up a blog. In the new year, we would really like to have guest blogs on the website from as many different voices as possible, as long as they are positive and constructive. So, if you are interested in writing for us, please do get in contact.

Since setting up the directory, the group has taken a life of its own. During our first Zoom meeting, ‘Terracycling bins’ throughout Cuckfield became the latest focus. Terracycling aims to recycle things that you cannot recycle from your bins at home such as contact lenses, coffee capsules and bread bags. Recently we did a poll on Cuckfield Gossip to find out what Terracycle bin people wanted most. Crisp packets were the most popular. So far we have reached out to various locations and had positive responses from the Rose & Crown, Wheatsheaf and the Parish Council. So hopefully it will not be long before you find these in the village.

Future possibilities for Greener Cuckfield seem endless at this stage. We are in the process of talking to similar groups in surrounding villages and towns who we expect will give us a lot of food for thought. Yet the people we really want to talk to are the residents of Cuckfield. We want to know what you want for the future and what you would like from this steering group. Then we can go back to our team, reach out to the many groups of Cuckfield and see what we are all capable of.

You can get in touch via email: cuckfieldfairerworld@gmail.com, or find the group on Facebook, Twitter or see the website: www.cuckfieldfairer.wordpress.com

Find your inner adventurer with Bolnore Scouts

By Charlie Smith, Group Scout Leader

As you all know, 2020 has been a difficult year for everyone, and many groups and clubs have found it difficult to cope with such an unprecedented experience. This has included the Scouts group: it has led to us being shut down for a long period of time with no face-to-face meetings, which has taken away a lot of what scouting is all about.

As you may or may not know, we have a large amount of rules to strictly follow, which are given to us by the Scouts HQ, but most importantly we follow the government guidelines for both the children, leaders and parents and carers. As you can imagine after this length of time of not having meetings, we are looking forward to starting our meetings up again. We will be following both the government and Scouting guidelines and there will be a lot of people, including children, leaders, parents and carers who will want to make sure that what we are doing is safe for everyone and I can certainly understand this. The best advice I can give is contact your group leader and we will (try to) answer any questions you have on this subject.

I will say that Scouting has not be a priority for many at this current moment in time, but what we are trying to do is to let people know that we are still here and we are part of the community and have been going within Bolnore for almost ten years. Yes, almost ten years within the village! This group started meeting in the school (a very small hall) while we were waiting for the Woodside to be built; we continued to grow within this space until The Woodside was opened in 2014 and we have been there since, working with the hall on events such as the Woodside fete, where we provide the BBQ for the whole event! We also do the annual poppy collection within the village as a group (it is getting more difficult each year as the village gets bigger and bigger!).
Neither of these happened in 2020.

I would just like to say a big thanks to all the leaders that work so hard in the group, giving up their time and expert skills to help so many people. They made my decision to go from the Scout Leader position to the Group Scout Leader easier as I know I can rely on them for support and am looking forward to developing and expanding the group. Having been with the group for nearly ten years, I am excited to see our next stage in Scouting.

2021 will be a new start after the Covid year of last and we are looking for new children who want to start their Scouting adventure. Our Scouting group is open to all children from the age of six with the Beavers, where fun and learning is the name of the game and badges can be earned along the way. From the age of eight, Cubs start developing the traditional Scouting skills we all know and love but also gain valuable life skills and new adventures with lots of new tasks, where we as leaders learn with the Cubs! Scouts start at the age of 11 and there is no stopping them. Learning while having fun is a must, whether it’s cooking odd things, camping, building, archery, climbing or caving, to name a few of the things that get the young people wanting more. As leaders, we love expanding their minds and seeing the children grow and we do this with a fantastic team behind us.

We could not do this without our leaders and our helpers. I think they have as much fun as the children. But we are always looking out for more helpers and leaders if you are interested. You don’t have to have children with us but just be someone who is up for an amazing venture. WE NEED YOU and you NEED TO FIND YOUR INNER ADVENTURER with new ideas and skills to build the foundations of all our young people.

If you are interested in the group have a look at our website and you can contact us on http://bolnorescouts.org.uk or email me at: gsl@bolnorescouts.org.uk.