Donation to the Church Appeal Fund

This week, I have been asked by Hilda Aplin, the Whatlington Village Voice reporter, to post on the Whatlington and Vinehall Street Archive an article that was first reported in the Battle and Rye Observer (Friday the 23rd of September 2011):

What a tremendous boost the Appeal Fund has had this week; the balance of it has nearly doubled!

When I opened the post last week, I was thinking about the church's forthcoming Harvest Festival and what I needed to buy. Harvest is a time when we thank God for all the fruits of the earth.

This Harvest time will be extra special for the church this year and we have much to be thankful for; as inside the letter was a cheque for £10,000 for the Appeal Fund. Our generous benefactor, who has kindly donated this money, wishes to remain anonymous.

I am absolutely dumbfounded by their generosity and it means that the Appeal Fund now stands at £28,519.15; more than ever I had expected, in this deep economic climate.

Can I thank the person, through this column (and blog); that is of course if they read this column (or blog). 

I also had a generous donation from Tom and Jacqueline for smaller amounts but still valued as much. I cannot emphasise enough that we all give what we are able to; some can give more or less than others as some people have more than others, but that amount donated does not matter t me. What I think about is the love, kindness and thought that come with the gift!

The Parochial Council were invited to visit the wood yard where the roof timbers (for the church) are being renewed or repaired this week, but it was felt that as the timbers are likely to be re-erected at the beginning of October at the church, that members would rather see the timbers in situ.

This archive will return to normal service next week, but thanks once again to the anonymous donor(s).

The Harvest Festival

To those of you reading this, we are now obviously in September with the autumnal mornings. I am often told, by a few fellow villagers, that it is great hop picking weather. Does anyone know what this means? What is hop picking weather? Does anyone know if they were any hop gardens in Whatlington or Vinehall Street. I know there used to be some in Robertsbridge and Salehurst, there even used to hop gardens owned by the Guinness Estate in nearby Bodiam. The website of Bygone Bodiam shows some of the hop gardens. 

Did anyone, in the village, ever use beer tokens or those old clay ginger beer bottles? A photo can be seen here.

I hope everyone, who reads this blog, that lives in the village knows that there is a vineyard. I know of two people, who live in the village used to prune the vines, and I have picked the grapes. Sorry, you are supposed to cut the stalk of the bunch of grapes with secateurs. However with that hop picking weather, a form of foggy or misty morning where the sun's angle is starting to become lower in the sky, means that you will get really wet arms and upper chest from the picking through the foliage to find the grapes. Has anyone got any stories of pruning and picking the grape in Whatlington or does anyone know of any land within the village boundaries where a vineyard may have been. It should have a south facing slope but it could be south west or south east facing. I am hoping that someone will be able to tell me more exacting conditions for a vineyard.

Other activities within the village that could provide produce for a Harvest Festival include a strawberry and raspberry pick your own farm; milk from three dairies; beef from cattle, lamb from sheep; wheat, barley and potatoes. I shall give you some answers next week, but have I missed any produce that has been grown in the village?

Next week, what did villagers do in the village hall? 

As September arrives we think of past and present church services...

As the church at Whatlington, St. Mary Magdalene, is a relatively rural church, it may stand to reason that a few of the past services used to be, and still are, based on the more rural or agricultural pursuits or maybe I am wrong - please feel free to comment below if I have got things wrong or even right!

Plough Sunday - does anyone remember the Young Farmers taking a tractor and plough, or was it a horse, to Sedlescombe church? This ceremony is said to go back to Victorian Times, according to the Church of England's Seasons and Festivals of the Agricultural Year, or further still as it could have been used to celebrate the first working day after the Twelve Days of Christmas. This ceremony is celebrated between the 7th and the 13th of January (the Sunday after Epiphany). The document also goes on to state that the ploughs used to be kept in the church during the winter.

Creation - The Church of England has recently created a form of celebrations based on the biblical traditions surrounding the Creation and a date put forward to celebrate this day on the Second Sunday before Lent. Does anyone in the village know if this has been celebrated at Whatlington?

Rogationtide - There are 4 Rogation days including April 25th and the three days before Ascension Day and it was originally thought, in Graeco-Romano days, as a way of invoking the work of the Gods to rid the crops of mildew. This grew into a festival of beating the boundaries of the Parish and the fields as well as a blessing of the land. One such example of this service in Whatlington went from St. Mary Magdalene Church to Leeford Farm then a hike to Maddamswood onto Vinehall and then back to Hancox with the service finishing on the green by the Royal Oak. Can anyone remember when this happened and has it ever been repeated?

Lammastide - often called Loaf Mass, as the service was held as a thanksgiving for the first fruits of the wheat harvest. The first of August was usually used as Lammastide and the local farms would bring their first sheaf of wheat as well baked items using local produce. I had heard that Vinehall Farm would bring their sheaf, does anyone know who else brought their sheaves? I also heard that the local baker, Mr. Honeysett from Mountfield would bake a loaf in the shape of a wheat sheaf for both Mountfield and Whatlington churches, does anyone else know of this tradition?

Harvest Festival or Sunday - This occurs around the time of the full Moon that occurs closest to the autumn equinox (about Sept. 23), which often occurs in October, and was first recognised by the Church of England in 1862. Can anyone tell me what happened in Whatlington Church with regard to this service?

With reference to the Church of England's Seasons and Festivals of the Agricultural Year, a recent addition has been added to create prayers in times of agricultural crises. This has recently included the recent outbreak of foot and mouth in England that restricted the movement of both mammal and person across the countryside, can anyone remember what happened at the church at this time?

As you may see, I have asked a lot more questions this time, so how do you answer these questions, either by sending an email to wvarchive@hotmail.co.uk or by adding a comment below. Thank you. 

Alice Carey as well as types of firewood

As September starts, autumn appears with a change in the leaf colour but so does the need for firewood. I came across an anonymous poem called The Firewood Rhyme, which will help you to choose your wood for the fire:

Logs to Burn, Logs to burn, Logs to burn,

Logs to save the coal a turn,

Here's a word to make you wise,

When you hear the woodman's cries.

Never heed his usual tale,

That he has good logs for sale,

But read these lines and really learn,

The proper kind of logs to burn.

Oak logs will warm you well,

If they're old and dry.

Larch logs of pine will smell,

But the sparks will fly.

Beech logs for Christmas time,

Yew logs heat well.

"Scotch" logs it is a crime,

For anyone to sell.

Birch logs will burn too fast,

Chestnut scarce at all.

Hawthorn logs are good to last,

If you cut them in the fall.

Holly logs will burn like wax,

You should burn them green,

Elm logs like smouldering flax,

No flame to be seen.

Pear logs and apple logs,

They will scent your room,

Cherry logs across the dogs,

Smell like flowers in bloom

But ash logs, all smooth and grey,

Burn them green or old;

Buy up all that come your way,

They're worth their weight in gold.

Can anyone tell me, if this rhyme is true?

Whilst we are trying to remember things - does the surname Carey mean anything to anyone reading this.  I cam across an obituary from The Whatlington News, typed on a typewriter by Mrs. Betty Petty, about Mrs. Alice Carey. She lived in the house next to the railway bridge on the Whatlington Road to Battle. She arrived in Whatlington as a bride to Mr. Cyril Carey in 1935. She lived there until 1983 when she moved to Hollington, in Hastings, to be closer to her family. She was described in the obituary as:

"a plump, cheerful person...was interested in what was going on in the village including in the past the Bonfire Society and the Football Club. She and Cyril were two of the founders of the Children Christmas Party Committee, and years later on, Barry, was to become chairman. Alice, a keen and generous supporter of local events, was a loss to the village when she moved. She gave a trophy to be competed for annually by the children, in memory of her husband, a former Parish Councillor. Sadly, like so much else in the village, this now seems a thing of the past. We offer our deepest sympathy to her sons Barry, who lives in Hollington, and Carl who emigrated to Australia and joined the Flying Ambulance Service, and to her grandchildren. Like the trophy, characters like Alice Carey no longer appear on the scene and we are all the poorer for their loss."

I remember both Mr. and Mrs. Carey, although I was quite young at the time. Cyril Carey used to work on the potato harvester during the early autumn and did some gardening at Vinehall Farm as well as other places, I am sure, but maybe you will be able to tell me better. He also worked in the gypsum mines at Mountfield, as did many others. Can anyone tell me who also worked in the mines from the village?