Past "In Memoriam" Notices

A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned that November is a month to remember, I am still awaiting to hear from you with regard to the War Memorial.

But on looking through some old scrap books, I came across a couple of obituary notices from the Whatlington News (dated Easter 1999). The first is of a long term resident from Whatlington and the other was a familiar figure from the village.

Whatlington bids farewell to Lily

Whatlington has lost a long-established resident. Lily Upton, born in Salehurst, had lived there since 1946 and at Brambles on the Green since 1951. She and her husband Jack, who celebrated their golden wedding anniversary six years ago, moved to Roselands in Brede just before Christmas and Lily died there peacefully on the 7th of January.

It was a great loss to her friends, of whom I must be one of the oldest as I had known her since she came to work for my grandmother at Vinehall in 1936. During the war she served for six years in the Naafi, where she learned her matchless skill as a sausage roll maker! Later, she was housekeeper for my mother in Battle for 25 years, becoming a wonderful carer and a really supportive friend. 

Lily would have made an excellent professional nurse, and it was a great joy to her when her daughter Rosemary qualified as as S.R.N.. Later, she and Jack were thrilled when their grandson Russell passed out top of his year with distinction at Plumpton college; he now farms at Burwash.

Essentially a practical person, neighbours could count on Lily's help. Her cooking was famous and her delicious and generous contributions were welcomed at village events. A lover of the countryside, she was a keen gardener with green fingers as well as a skilled flower arranger. recently she got out very little but she still enjoyed the beauty of the flower festivals in the Church.

Always courteous, she was a splendid letter writer: her friends will miss the notes she made sure of sending on special occasions. 

At her funeral in Hastings on January 21 the Rector spoke warmly about Lily and everyone expressed appreciation of her friendship as well as their sympathy for Jack, Rosemary and Ralph and Russell. 

Benedicta Whistler

Last month we had the sad news of the sudden death of David Frith. David was a popular man who seemed to make friends readily. He was known to many through his work as a postman, and through his keen interests in bee-keeping. Many people were recipients of a jar of David's honey.

A couple of years ago, David married Frances and they moved to live in Polegate. David recently had undergone surgery in Eastbourne General Hospital. 

He died on February 21st and his funeral was at Whatlington on March 3rd followed by his burial in our churchyard. We offer our sympathy to his wife Frances, to his daughter Carol and to all the family. may David rest in peace with the risen Lord whom he loved and served.

Father Colin Pritchard

As I said at the beginning of this posting, both these notices were originally printed in the Whatlington News around Easter 1999. The reason why I posted these past "In Memoriam" notices is that I am interested in what people remember of both of these people and look forward to reading your comments.

Red leaves, what used to happen in the Village Hall and a lot of questions

So another week had arrived and I hope that the shock to the system with the Indian Summer two weekends ago was not too great. However that sudden burst of warmer weather will have helped to create a autumnal rainbow of colours. 

Why do they turn different colours in autumn? A relatively easy article to read from How Stuff Works explains that the green leaves, containing chlorophyll, turn carbon dioxide, sunlight and water into energy through photosynthesis. Easy so far.  As stated earlier, the chlorophyll aids the transformation with the assistance of pigments carotene and xanthophyll. These pigments are found in all leaves, the carotene adding an orangey hue, similar to egg yolks, and the xanthophyll adding a yellow colour. However, when autumn comes, the deciduous trees prepare for hibernation in a two step process: primarily the tree creates a cork like layer at the end of each leaf so that it may eject the leaf at some point later in the year and thus it seals off the tree from potential infection; secondly, the production of chlorophyll decreases and this gives the carotene and xanthophyll a chance to add oranges and yellows to the leaf.  

The red colour comes from a different substance that is not present in all leaves, this is anthocyanin. Even if this substance is within the leaf, it may not produce the red colour in autumn as it depends on certain environmental parameters. The tree will try to recover as much sugar and energy from the leaf before it falls to the ground, and this is where the anthocyanin becomes necessary. It is thought that if the weather is still sunny and quite dry int he late summer and early autumn, a greater number of anthocyanins are released from the tree sap to the leaves in order to make more sugars and other nutrients. Some scientists say that other stress events, such as near freezing weather, can increase the level of anthocyanins. It is also thought that the red pigment acts as a protection for the leaf. So with the weather we have had, I expect to see increased amounts of orange (carotenes), red (anthocyanins) and yellow (xanthophylls) in the falling leaves. 

 I had a wonderful chat with the ladies in the Battle branch of Age UK East Sussex recently. There was Sally Davis and Rosemary Gallagher. Rose took over the organisation of the children's party in the village hall a few years after Cyril and Alice Carey had managed it, as Cyril had died and Alice had moved to Hollington; George Sax was the chairman of the committee and a flier had been sent to all the villagers stating that if no-one came forward to take on the running of the party, it would no longer exist. Rose was secretary and Chris Hayles was treasurer in the early 1980s. Can anyone remember these parties and have I spelt Chris's surname correctly?

Rose, came to the village in 1972, also ran the Whatlington Table Tennis Association in the Village Hall in the late 60's and early 70's, does anyone remember this or did you win any prizes there? It ran on a weekday night with the table tennis table being transported down the hill to the village hall. Latterly, a table tennis table was bought, but with dwindling numbers and the rise of Village Hall hire costs, the club sadly closed. 

Not only did Rose run these two clubs, she also organised a Saturday morning club for parents to drop their children off at the Village Hall so that shopping could be done without taking the children to the shops. All sorts of activities used to occur here, especially drawing and painting. At the time, Miss Pratt of Park Lane used to be in charge of the Village Hall. Can anyone remember this was? Sally Davis came to the village in 1979 with her husband, Clive.

November comes

Yes, I know we have only just entered October and what a glorious start to it with balmy weather and the fauna and flora not knowing what to do, I would like you to cast your minds forward to the next month. The month where we remember two days, the fifth and the eleventh.

A few years ago, I wrote an article in the Whatlington News about the Whatlington Renegades. Some of you may ask who are they? Google provides 174 articles about them. They are one of many bonfire societies in Sussex, thirty-nine in fact with seven coming from Lewes. The first Sussex bonfire starts on the first Saturday of September with the Uckfield Carnival Bonfire and ends with the Barcombe and Robertsbridge Bonfires on the third Saturday of November. 

One forum describes the Whatlington Renegades as "in their skins and skulls appear to have escaped from a Conan movie." One website shows a picture of Gerry Glenister's badged tailcoat who used to carry the drum for the Whatlington Renegades, does he still carry the drum? I have found a photo on Flickr with the badged drummer, is this Gerry? 

I have found a photographic blog with some of the Whatlington Renegades making torches for an early bonfire on the 10th of October 1998. Included are John Beeching, Peter Breach, Brian Gasson,  Gerry and Jean Glenister, Eileen LeNett, Min, Roy Robins and Margaret Trowell. This site describes the Whatlington Renegades as a society with no rules or membership usually found drumming at the rear of the procession.

But can anyone tell me who runs this society today, is it still John Beeching? What can they tell me about their history of the society? You never know, we may get something before the fifth of November.

Of course, the other time in November is when we remember the fallen from the wars of the 20th and 21st centuries. Does anyone have a photograph of the War memorial at Whatlington Church? I expect the service will be held at the Village Hall, but can anyone tell me of past Remembrance services?

I have just looked at the audience statistics for the blog, admittedly we haven't got many readers yet, but a waterfall starts with one drop. However we have had five visits to the site from Russia, does anyone have any ideas why Russia may be interested in a small Sussex village?

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?