East Worthing John Hobbs 01903 237440 STAMP COLLECTORS: At the last meeting of the Worthing Society of Postal Historians, Bryan Hawkins entertained members with his ever popular display of cartoon covers. All these have been drawn by Bryan and had been postally used to correspond with the theme.

Meetings are held at the East Worthing Community Centre and the next will be on January I4 when Jeremy Gaskell will be talking about the Foreign Post in China from 1888 until 1930.

Worthing Philatelic Society finished their year with the largest meeting for many months, the reason being that wives were invited to join in the Christmas festivities.

During the evening Roy Page kept the members' little grey cells working in overdrive with a quiz of 64 pictures of various places in the world. Eric Burchell was first with Roger Davies second.

Meetings are held at Field Place and the next will be on January 4 when it will be a members' night.

COMMUNITY CENTRE: Diane Bewley, manager of the East Worthing Centre, arranged a buffet for the management committee and staff as a thank-you for their help and support during the year.

The Community Centre hosts a numbers of clubs and societies, and any new residents to the area are welcome to come along and see what we offer. Call Diane on 212855.

Forest Row and Ashurst Wood Pauline Maynard 01342 823618

IMPERIAL CANCER RESEARCH FUND: I shall be sending a cheque for around £243 to this organisation as a result of carol singing "gigs" arranged by Rachel and myself. They were attended by friends from the Friday Singers, Balcombe Church Choir and others.

We again enjoyed an evening at the Bluebell Railway as well as Chequer Mead Arts Centre, East Grinstead station and Forest Row pubs.

We also enjoyed our annual parish visit to Gatwick Airport last Thursday to sing carols for the charities the Airport supports.

SCHOOL: Forest Row Primary School's Click On 2000 project has received a boost from local company Rydon Construction, who recently donated £6,000 to the project, which aims to put a new computer in every classroom, at an anticipated cost of £10,000.

CANDLES: People in Ashurst Wood are being invited to place lighted candles in their front windows between 6pm and 8pm on Christmas Eve with electric lights extinguished except for Christmas tree lights and dim lighting at the back of the houses, where it will be unseen.

Provided curtains are drawn back properly and correct holders are used and the candles are not placed in a draught, there should be no reason for this to be unsafe. This simple idea, originating from Camden Hill Square, London, looks very effective, peaceful and pretty.

MILLENNIUM: Forest Row Millennium Committee have arranged many activities for the Festive Fortnight to be held between June 19 and July 2, 2000, and it is hoped that every club and organisation in the village will be represented in some way.

Many local halls are offering their facilities free of charge and so this is an excellent way of promoting your group and gaining new membership.

Please let the committee know if your organisation would like to participate, or if you can help individually in some way in the coordination of everything.

Tracy Castle is the person to speak to at the community centre on 01342 822661.

HERSTMONCEUX AND WARTLING Dianne Town 01323 833841

CRICKET SUPPORTERS CLUB: The result of the November draw is: Miss Yewlett who wins £40, Mrs A Barrow £l5 and Mrs N. Reynolds and Mrs P. Walker who win £10 each.

POPPY DAY:

The Royal British Legion, Herstmonceux & Wattling Branch, held their Poppy Collection recently and were £300 up on previous years, making a grand total of £1,968

VILLAGE HALL: Open Day at the new Village Hall is on Sunday, January 3. You can go down any time between 10am and 4pm and you'lI find lots of things going on, stalls, raffles, tombolas and of course that very welcome cup of tea.

You will be able to have a proper look round the hall and discuss any ideas you may have with various members of the village hall committee.

Yapton & Ford John Dickeson 01243 551972

MILLENNIUM: The Yapton and Ford Village Hall is already adorned by the new millennium clock. It was put up on December 15. Although the face is printed with the figures 2000 to mark the occasion for which it was erected, it is already ticking away the minutes to January 1.

This is the first item to appear to mark the millennium at Yapton and Ford. Other plans include a New Year's Eve dance in the Village Hall, a May Day festival and a commemorative mug for each child. It is also hoped to floodlight St Mary's Church if a grant can be obtained from the Millennium Fund.

Cooksbridge and Offham Mavis Clark 01273 473666

HAMSEY SCHOOL: Liz Lethem, who was the acting head teacher at the school, was appointed head teacher in September and under her leadership the children have been involved in a number of activities.

Leading up to the end of term last Friday, the senior citizens from the parish joined the children at school for a Christmas lunch, where the children served the meal.

The school has also put on a concert to entertain parents and friends. The whole school went to the Gardner Centre to see Alice in Wonderland.

A respectable sum of money was raised for the school when they held their annual Christmas Fair and to mark the end of the century a special millennium photograph has been taken.

OBITUARIES: Two very sad occasions for the village, the death of Michael Gillies, the well-known entomologist from Hamsey, and very much respected resident of the parish. His funeral took place last Friday.

Also on Friday the funeral for Jacqueline Warner, a former parish resident and widow of Brian, took place at St Peter's Church, Offham.

NATIONAL FARMERS' UNION: The county AGM took place last month with its speaker Lord Renton of Mount Harry, who gave a talk on the South Downs and the possibility of turning them into a country park.

He told the meeting that the decision was a political one and the Sussex Downs Conservation Board, of which he is chairman, had accepted the decision and would work with it.

Lancing Gordon White 01903 761910

SHOWTIME: Come and see the Adur Theatre Company in their latest production of Puss in Boots by Len Shipton on January 14 at 7.30pm and January 15 at 2.30 and 7.30pm. at Shoreham Community Centre. Tickets £4.50 on 01273 454686.

Lancing Repertory Players present the Wizard of Oz at Lancing Parish Hall on January 12-15. Performances start at 7.30pm, and Saturday 2.30 and 7.30pm. Tickets £4 (£3 concessions) from 01903 521629. Gala night on Wednesday at 7.30pm in aid of Southlands Hospital League of Friends.

Sussex Organ Society, South Street, Lancing, present Steven Allison playing the electronic organ on January 6 at 8pm. Admission £3. Call 01273 463458.

eastbourne Dee Sharpe 01323 649986

WALK: The 'trim off that turkey trot' is a brisk guided walk taking place on Boxing Day, meeting at 2.30pm outside the Lifeboat Museum. The walk is suitable for wheelchair-users and lasts about an hour-and-a-half.

BANDSTAND: There are two performances this Christmas. The Eastbourne Silver Band will be playing on Christmas Day from 10.45am until 12.15pm and Sounds Easy will be playing on Boxing Day from 11am until 12.30pm.

DANCE: A Boxing Day tea dance will take place at the Winter Garden with organist and presenter Chris Mannion. There will be tea and biscuits served at 3pm. The event costs 3.50 inclusive. Phone 412000 to book.

STORIES: Winter tales will be told by East Sussex Story Telling Society on December 29 from 7.30pm at the YWCA in Ocklynge Road. The group meets twice a month and welcomes new members. Call Derek Legg on 01323 735970.

BOOK GROUP: A new group is starting up where people can get together to discuss books and the issues and feelings arising from them. The group will meet monthly and there is no charge for membership. Phone Ian on 483654.

Billingshurst Madeleine Woods 01403 783253

St Mary's Guild: Zsa Roggendoff generously set Shipley St Mary's Guild in the mood for Christmas on December 6 when they visited Oaklands Farm to see her demonstrate her artistic skills in Christmas Decorations.

On December 13, the Guild paid an evening visit to Sussexdown RAFA Nursing Home where they toured the corridors to sing carols to the elderly residents in their rooms.

The happy occasion ended in the bar with mince pies, refreshments and more carols.

Heroes of New Millennium: In a rousing welcome to the year 2000 the Billingshurst County Junior School was decked out in purple and silver artwork to present a brand new musical for their Christmas production.

Sheila Wilson's New Millennium Heroes compares the messages of Jesus Christ through the pages of history with up-beat singing and dancing re-telling the Feeding of the Five Thousand and the Good Samaritan.

Hove to fishersgate Frank Blake 01273 885332

Cycling: At the recent AGM of the Brighton Mitre Cycling Club at the Knoll Community Centre, several of our newer members took over some official positions. Ray Smith was elected chairman, Mark Farley became Press and team secretary, Dave Clark mountain bike secretary and Peter Evison membership secretary.

Mike Hayler retired as president and became assistant secretary to Frank Blake who was elected as the new president to take us into the new millennium. Tristan Court was re-elected for the second year as social secretary.

A bicycle jumble sale is to be held on Saturday, January 23, at The Quayside Community Centre, Upper Kingston Lane, Shoreham, starting at 10am.

To book a table ring 01273 203856. Ray Smith is the organiser.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.