Robert Harris - Village People feature

By Michèle Copeland

Which residents of Hurstpierpoint would not have heard of, or been to, the St Lawrence Fair? Yet how many of us know its history and the role that the Harris family has played over 100 years?

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Harris Brothers Family Fun Fair - photo from the 80s

Though the Fair has been around for over 700 hundred years in Hurstpierpoint, it presumably started then to coincide with a cattle market trading day, which would have been very popular, first on Church Green (where the War Memorial now is) - the 1897 OS map has the area around the crossroads as ‘Market Place’. Later it moved a short distance away to the north to Lamb Platt, where London Terrace and North Terrace are now, opposite the entrance to Trinity Road. There are even entries in the school log citing occasions when the cattle spilled over into the road and prevented children going to school!

However, the link to Hurstpierpoint with the Harris brothers started in the 1860s and was made by John Harris, who had five sons and was a timber merchant with a yard in nearby Cuckfield. 

He came to the fairground business at the time of horse powered roundabouts and went on, with his sons, to be the first operator of steam roundabouts in Sussex. They first opened at Brighton Racecourse in Victorian times by supplying ‘amusements’ to fairgrounds .

[The full article is featured on the pages of the July 2017 issue of Hurst Life magazine]

Link: Harris Fun Fair website

Hurstpierpoint Open Gardens 2017

By Prue Heron

This lovely sociable afternoon will be held on Sunday, 11th June from 1-5.30pm.

The nine gardens that will be opening cover a spectrum from magnificent lawns, views to work-in progress, vegetables and, this year, one with children in mind.

Gardens opening their gates are:-

• 35c Cuckfield Road, BN6 9RW

• 13 Western Road, BN6 9SU

• 17 Western Road, BN6 9SU

• 162 Western Road, BN6 9TD

• South Lodge, South Avenue, BN6 9QB

• 15 Orchard Way, BN6 9UB

• 25 Orchard Way, BN6 9UB

• 26 Orchard Way, BN6 9UB

• 28 Orchard Way, BN6 9UB

There will be balloons at each entrance and the fee is only £6 for the whole day (free for 14s and under). There will be a hop-on, hop-off bus service running throughout starting at Trinity Road at 1pm.  Trinity Road car park is free on a Sunday. 

More information available on the website: www.hurstpierpointopengardens.org.uk or phone Prue Heron on 01273 835064.

South Avenue's marathon running team

Three Hurstpierpoint residents have all completed marathons this year, and they’ve helped each other along the way.

Fiona Bates, Gary Cole and Sarah Elsmore all live on South Avenue and became each other’s support network earlier this year when it became apparent they were working towards the same goal.

The full story is on page 19 of June's Hurst Life magazine. But you can support each of them with the following donation pages:

Fiona: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/fibates

Sarah: https://fundraise.cancerresearchuk.org/page/sarahs-fundraising-page-2090

Gary: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/Gary-Cole10

Hurstpierpoint Gymnastics Club gain great success

By Andrew Hair, coach

Hurstpierpoint Gymnastics Club had another tremendous success at their 18th Annual Arts Competition. Over a hundred gymnasts competed for trophies and medals in Ball Pairs, Beam Pairs, Rope Solos and Sports Acrobatic Sixes. Some of the competitors only joined the Club in the spring term, while some of the Seniors have attended the Club for over ten years.

(Full story in May issue of Hurst Life magazine}

Audrey's changes its name to Le Chic Fashion Exchange

The more eagle-eyed residents of the village may have spotted a subtle change to number 56 High Street in the last month or so.

Audrey’s has become Le Chic Fashion Exchange as it seeks to make it more obvious what the shop stocks. 

Hurst resident Audrey Wright, along with her partner Graham Towler, is still very much running the store which opened in August last year.

Le Chic Fashion Exchange stocks a mix of new and quality secondhand clothes, shoes and handbags, including such brands as Aquascutum, Jaeger and Coast. “We seek to be a place where local folk can find all sorts of bargains,” Graham explained, pointing to a ladies jacket that had never been worn, on the rail at just £35 (it was bought for over £500 originally!).

The exchange agreement with owners of clothes means that if something hasn’t sold in six weeks, it simply gets returned to them. This creates a natural turnover of stock and surely means that fashion bargain hunters really do have to pop in every week!

The shop also now boasts a new alterations and repairs service in store. Nataliya Avery works from the premises three days a week, has her own fashion range as well as being prepared to make to measure. 

Le Chic Fashion Exchange is at 56 High Street, Hurspierpoint and is open Tuesday – Saturday.

Living the country dream - Danny Lodge in Hurstpierpoint

A chance opportunity led Matt and Sophie White to not only buy a property on the edge of the South Downs National Park but also build their dream house for their family too. Whilst the build was certainly a Grand Design it was actually the sense of community in Hurstpierpoint that sold it to them.

By David Tingley

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Matt and Sophie White set up Matt Architecture in 2011, following a two-year stint living and working in Abu Dhabi. The plan was to return to London, set up a family home and build the new business together. As part of this, the pair set about developing the site of their house in London; making it into the home they wanted. 

During the building work they moved the whole family to Cuckfield, where they rented a property for a year. But they never moved back to the city.

Whilst living in Cuckfield the pair got a taste for family life in ‘the country’ and they saw just how smaller communities could work for them. An old friend of Matt’s lived in Hurstpierpoint and they had been to see him and liked what they saw. A coincidental loading of a new property app while Matt was in the area, led him to learn that Danny Lodge was for sale – which got them both thinking.

[extract from full article in May 2017's issue of Hurst Life magazine]

Hurst Pet Shop reopens on High Street

Pierpoint Pet Supplies is now back in business after six months. The shop had been closed, following smoke damage in the shop after a fire in the storage area. It has now been completely refurbished and restocked.

The shop has been trading for around 24 years, having been opened by the existing owner’s father and sister. Both Lee and Andrée Tite have been partners in the shop for ten years.

“We are looking forward to seeing both our loyal existing customers again and new ones too, and we still offer free local deliveries on Wednesdays and Fridays,” says Andrée.

Opening times are Mondays to Fridays 9am to 5pm, Saturdays 9am to 4pm with late opening on Thursdays until 6.30pm.

For more information please email: pierpointpets@hotmail.com or call 01273 832368.

Hurstpierpoint & Sayers Common Parish Council surgeries to be trialled

Hurstpierpoint and Sayers Common Parish Council will be starting a new initiative this month, by holding monthly Parish Councillor Surgeries. They will be an opportunity for residents to speak to a local councillor in an informal manner.

The first Surgery will be held on Saturday 8th April 2017 between 10am-12noon, in the Conference Room at the Village Centre, Trinity Road. Two councillors will be available to chat about any issue or idea that residents might have.

All Parish Council and Committee meetings are open to the public and everyone is very welcome to attend. This initiative is being trialled for a year, for those people who might find it easier to chat in this informal manner. For more information, please contact the Parish Council office on 01273 833264 or hurstpierpoint.pc@btinternet.com.

Hurst Village Cinema

By David Saitch

Hello from the Hurstpierpoint Village Cinema. We have three extraordinary and radically different films and a fantastic Live Broadcast coming up in March.

Thursday 9th March – NT Live Hedda Gabler
Ruth Wilson stars in this stunning adaptation of Ibsen’s masterpiece, directed by Ivo van Hove. Her performance has received rapturous reviews and the productions stark simplicity has been called ‘Dark, bold and devastating’. Not to be missed, an absolutely spellbinding triumph.

Thursday 16th March – Things to Come (12A)
Isabelle Huppert is simply incredible as a philosophy teacher who finds herself having to soldier on as she loses her job, her mother and her husband leaves her over a short period of time. A poignant, wonderfully funny and elegantly crafted meditation on coping with the surprises that life can spring on you. Filmmaker Mia Hansen-Løve just keeps getting better and better and Things to Come marks her out as one of the most talented and exciting directors working today. French with English Subtitles.

Sunday 19th March – I, Daniel Blake (15)
Winning the Palme d’Or at Cannes and Best British Film at the Baftas, the Evening Standard Film Awards and Best Film at the European Film Awards, as well as a host of awards for the director and cast, this searingly angry but also very funny and humane polemical film is one everyone should see. This is a charity event and all proceeds from ticket sales will go to the local food bank - a fantastically worthy local charity.

Friday 24th March – Tale of Tales (15)
Matteo Garrone’s Tale of Tales is fabulous in every sense; a stunningly beautiful but freaky portmanteau film. It is gloriously mad, rigorously imagined, visually wonderful, hilarious and internally consistent. It immerses you in a complete created world. It is a masterpiece of blackcomic bad taste and a positive carnival of transgression. The secret is the deadpan seriousness with which everything is treated. Tale of Tales is a treat, and Toby Jones is utterly superb as a conceited, melancholy, ridiculous king. It has fantastic performances from Salma Hayek, Vincent Cassel and John C. Reilly.

Tickets from Mishon Mackay or www.hurstfilms.com

Why is repeat advertising so important for your business?

By David Tingley, editor, Hurst Life magazine

One-off advertisements don't really work. I mean, sometimes they do, sure. But generally they don't! That's the reason why we recently stopped selling small, one-off placements in our family of three community magazines (Cuckfield Life, Lindfield Life & Hurst Life) - because feedback suggested that it wasn't good advice for our customers. 

Here is local marketing expert, Rebecca Jabbar (Strategic Marcomms), who explains what she thinks about why it makes good sense to advertise repeatedly...

What we want our customers doing is spending money on GOOD, EFFECTIVE advertising that gives them new customers consistently, so that THEIR BUSINESS GROWS and they tell lots of other businesses about how worthwhile it was ADVERTISING in our community magazines. 

That is our aim and that's just what we strive to do. Talk to us about advertising in Hurst Life today...