The volunteers behind the annual Bolnore Village Halloween disco

As the summer ends in Bolnore Village, anticipation is building for one of the community’s favourite traditions - the annual Bolnore Village Halloween Disco at The Woodside.

While attendees experience a seamless night of spooky magic, lights, and music, the event is powered entirely by the hands-on dedication of its organisers and the strength of local village support.

Behind the scenes, the event’s directors work tirelessly for months to bring the celebration to life. They secure The Woodside venue, curate the eerie decorations, and design the setups that transform the hall each October. When the doors open, the director’s step straight into action - running the entertainment, managing the music decks, and hosting the games across multiple sessions tailored for both younger children and older families.

Yet, despite all the work put in by the directors, the organisers are quick to emphasise one crucial truth; the event simply wouldn’t run without the help of the local community.

From parents stepping up to manage ticket desks and serve refreshments, to husbands playing DJ, to volunteers staying late into the night to clear away cobwebs and sweep up glitter, the disco is a true collective effort. It takes a village to pull off an event of this scale, and Bolnore residents consistently rally to keep the tradition alive.

The highlight of the night remains the incredible effort put into fancy dress. Year after year, the creativity of local families blows the organisers away.

Beyond the dancing and spooky fun, the disco serves as a vital anchor for village spirit - a place where neighbours catch up, newcomers connect, and local children build lasting memories right on their doorstep.

Tickets for this year’s disco will be available soon. Space is limited, so keep an eye on local social media pages to secure your spot early.

Cuckfield Evening Flower Club

Cuckfield Evening Flower Club

Cuckfield Evening Flower Club recently celebrated 45 years with an afternoon tea, demonstration and garden tour kindly hosted by Sue Flight at her home in Framfield.

The club was founded in March 1981 by a small group of village residents with a shared love of flowers and creativity. The club’s aim was, and remains, simple: to bring together people who enjoy floral design and artistic expression in a friendly, welcoming environment.

The first meeting was well attended and featured a demonstration using spring flowers and foliage. From this successful beginning, the club became firmly established and has continued to meet on the second Friday of every month, except January.

Over the years, the club has welcomed demonstrators from across the country, all sharing their expertise, skills and enthusiasm for the art of flower arranging. In its early years, membership grew to around 70, including children, reflecting the club’s broad appeal. It has always been an active and vibrant organisation, offering a varied programme of demonstrations, talks, workshops and outings throughout the year.

In addition to learning new techniques, members value the club as an important social space where friendships are formed and creativity is encouraged. The club remains an active part of the local community and regularly decorates a tree at the Cuckfield Church Christmas Tree Festival.

The next meeting will take place on Friday 11th September from 7.15pm at the Methodist Church in Perrymount Road, Haywards Heath.

For further information please contact Sue on 01444 831602.

Cuckfield Defibrillators update - How to use a defib machine

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At Cuckfield Life, we’d like to encourage everyone living and working in the village to familiarise themselves with the sites of the life-saving defibrillator machines in Cuckfield and Bolnore and learn how to use them.

Inside defibrillators:
Golf Centre on Staplefield Rd
Rugby Club Whitemans Green
Cosmos Football Club (Portable) Whitemans Green
Holy Trinity School on Glebe Rd
Warden Park, Broad Street
Holy Trinity Church on Church St
The Queen’s Hall on High Street

Outside defibrillators:
Whitemans Green playing fields
Cuckfield Baptist Church, Polestub Ln
Mansell McTaggart, High Street
Cricket Club, South Street
Staplefield Village Hall, Cuckfield Road
Staplefield Old phone box, Cuckfield Road
Bolnore School, Updown Hill
The Woodside, 120 Middle Village in Bolnore
Deaks Paddock, Ansty

We need your help to keep our defibrillators operational for the future.
We have two defibrillators paid for by our Cuckfield community. One is located on Whitemans Green (widely used for sports, picnics and recreational activities for all our residents from footballers to dog walkers), the other is located in the heart of the High Street, adjacent to The Talbot pub on the wall of Mansell McTaggart. We need £900 every six years to fund the pads and batteries and in the future we will need to fundraise to replace the actual units when they get too old. We now have a dedicated ISOC defibrillator facility for donations towards keeping these essential units operational.
If you would like to contribute to the upkeep of these units, you can make a bank transfer direct to Independent State of Cuckfield - who will ringfence any donations made with a reference ‘defibs’. ISOC Bank Account: Sort Code 20-49-76, Acc No. 20513253

Why are defibrillators so essential in our communities?
Defibrillators AEDs (Automated External Defibrillators) are the only treatment for outside hospital cardiac arrest, when available and used alongside CPR, (chest compressions) they will give our residents the very best chance of survival. The more units we have available in our community, the better the chances of survival are, as deploying them is time-critical. Every minute of delay to CPR and defibrillation will reduce the probability of survival by 10%.

Any local clubs should aim to register their details with the South East Coast Ambulance Service to enable any 999 call handlers to tell them where their nearest unit is in the village.

For those readers who aren’t sure what they would do, should they be needed to use a defibrillator in an emergency - there is an app recommended by the Resuscitation Council. To download the app, visit the website: www.resus.org.uk/apps/lifesaver

* If you know of updates to this map, do please let us know by sending an email to editor@cuckfieldlife.co.uk. *