Benenden Magazine Octobere 2016

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Benenden Magazine October 2016

Above: Opening of All Weather Pitch and Pavilion at Benenden School with Davina McCall; The 10th anniversary of In The Woods Festival off Hinksden Road. The nationally acclaimed event was by founded by Charlie Andrew, Brit Award record producer and musician from Benenden. Front Cover and selected In the Woods photographs courtesy of Tony Jupp (www.tonyjupp.com) BM OCT_Layout 1 27/09/2016 15:26 Page 202

01580 242700 Residential Sales • Management and Lettings wealdproperty.net Private Care Service Editorial £1,295,000 Sale Agreed (STC)

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/(0#'-#-$)*+#,-."#%)1#",2$234)#-%2$-3'205) %+#,-.)03$),05+0'2"3)%-#,26-%)23)7-3'8) I don’t know about mists, but there’s plenty of mellow fruitfulness in this month’s Benenden *+%%-9)03$)/-3'#05):"3$"3 Magazine. It’s the first anniversary of our re-launch with the new, larger, format, and free delivery ;<=>;)?@;A?A ;BBC@)C>A<<= for everyone in the parish. So many thanks to all who have worked so hard on the last 12 editions. One slight change is that we now have a triumvirate of editors to share the workload of each 23D"E&"#$%&"#'(%+#,-."#%F6"F+G edition. But please continue to send all contributions to the generic email address below. And &&&F&"#$%&"#'(%+#,-."#%F6"F+G while we have three ‘content’ editors we only have one ‘layout’ editor and feel that, just occasionally, she may deserve a break! So if you have any experience of desktop publishing or magazine design, and especially if you use Quark Express software, please do let us know and we may beg you to help out on one or two editions a year. At Weald Property we don’t Part of the workload involves updating and setting out the Benenden Directory which we hope to

distribute with January’s edition. So if you want your business or organisation or service included, just advertise your property... Domestic please email or send us your details just as soon as possible. Our Private Care Service offers Care We’re planning to continue ‘Foot Notes’ - local walks around the area chosen by our footpath tailored packages of personal care £9.77 per hour officer, Jim Hyde. But if you have a favourite walk please send it in. We’d like to have more ‘Local OIEO £475,000 that can help people stay in their OIEO £995,000 own home for as long as possible, Enterprise’ features, looking at interesting or unusual businesses in the village. If you know rather than going into a care home For a free assessment someone we might feature, or would like to be profiled yourself, let us know. And, as ever, we are of your care needs or to before it’s really needed. We assist seeking photographs and general contributions including humorous stories, poems and illustrations. receive your brochure those who need help due to Call us on 01580 762244 fraility, disability or illness to live In this edition look out for the continuing discussion over speed limits on page 23, and the lively as independently as possible, with debate over a proposed Anaerobic Digester plant within the parish boundary on pages 20-21. comfort & dignity, in their own home. Would this despoil the countryside or be an efficient way of turning farmyard manure into Town & Country Homecare Limited www.townandcountryhomecare.co.uk 102a High Street, Tenterden, Kent TN30 6HT ‘green’ electricity?

Sale Agreed (STC) Sale Agreed (STC) Enjoy the Autumn colours. Kent Barker, Co-Editor ...we SELL your property01580 242700 Residential Sales • Management and Lettings wealdproperty.net Being o high street, local and independent we If you would like to benet from a bespoke The Benenden Magazine is published monthly as a joint venture by Benenden Parish Council are eet footed and nimble as an organisation, strategic marketing plan to actually sell your and St George’s Parochial Church Council. It is distributed free to all residents of the parish. yet still retain National Wealdcoverage Property via has the been two successfully home, handling with exceptional genuine local exibility on commission Opinions expressed are not necessarily those of the publishers. Responsibility for accuracy of Property whilst supporting the villages of Benenden and largest£1,295,000 web portals. We focus on you and your rates tailored to your budget,Sale Agreed with relevant (STC) and Rolvenden since 1985. Offering a complete, professional and information rests with contributors and advertisers. goals, rather than those personalof a corporate, service in ResidentialLondon Sales,realistic Lettings and advice, Property particularly when it comes to an or city based head oceManagement whose ideas Agency, may our not successful achievable and unique approach sale price, is not then look no further. Editors: Kent Barker, Peter Thomas, Minnie Garnier be relevant to you or thisto rural be found market. on the High Street. Located at our inviting offices at Editorial Board: PCC Rep: Tracy Claridge, PC Rep: Kent Barker, Treasurer: Charles Trollope, To spring board your sale this Spring, please call It allows us to Windmillput theFarm, Benendenperson Road, Rolvenden, we offer cost Acting Advertising Manager: Paul Leek, Advertising Assistant: Iain Fraser, effective solutions for selling, letting Alexand managing Hill on your01580 Property. 242700 for a complimentary Recentlybefore SOLD BENENDEN the £775,000 prot. valuation with up to date market assessment. Distribution: Marilyn and Dick Hill, Layout Editor: Camilla Macdonald LEADERS IN To beneﬁt from our 30 years experience leading the way in Recently LET ROLVENDEN LAYNE £3,250 PCM Contributions to: [email protected] by the 15th of the preceding month. LOCAL PROPERTYWeald Property,Wealden handling Property, please exceptional call Alex Hill on 01580Wealden 242700 for homes since 1985 SINCE 1985 a complimentary market appraisal. Advertising orders or queries to: [email protected]. Postal address: c/o Community Office, Benenden Village Hall, Benenden, TN17 4DY 01580 240371 2 Windmill Oast, Windmill Farm, Rolvenden, Kent TN17 4PF 1

At Weald Property we don’t just advertise your property...

OIEO £475,000 OIEO £995,000

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Church Calendar Rector’s Letter

St George’s Church There is beauty in our churchyards Rector: Revd David Commander 240658 [email protected] (day off: Thursday) Something a little bit lighter than my letter last month concerning the murder of the gentle Churchwarden: Tracy Claridge 240454 [email protected] Catholic priest, Fr. Jacques Hamal in his church in St. Etienne-du-Rouvray, Normandy; though that Churchwarden: Julia Collard 241944 [email protected] community still continues to need to be held in prayer. www.benendenchurch.org 850849 [email protected] Please inform the Rector or Churchwardens if you, or anyone else, is ill or would like a visit or home communion. After this beautiful period of late summer weather, I wanted to write simply to say “thank you” to everyone who works so hard to keep the churchyards at St George’s, Benenden and St Nicholas, Sunday 2 October 8am Communion 11am Harvest Service 5pm Evening Prayer Sandhurst maintained. Not forgetting the grass around the Mission Church too! The churchyards followed by Harvest Lunch, Village Hall of the parish churches are places that are loved and cared for all year round, and are such wonderful habitats for so much wildlife. The way they are both tended encourages many birds Sunday 9 October 8am 1662 Communion 10am Morning Worship and animals, a variety of wild flowers, orchids, plants, lichen and mosses. I’m not going to name Sunday 16 October 8am Communion 10am Sung Eucharist 4pm Messy Church the people involved - firstly, because I don’t wish to cause embarrassment, and secondly, because at St George’s Church I’d risk offending by missing someone - but thank you, on behalf of all of us, for your dedicated work in maintaining our beautiful churchyards. Sunday 23 October 8am Communion 10am Matins There is a deliberate policy of both PCC’s (Parochial Church Council) to let some areas of the Sunday 30 October 8am Benefice 10am Benefice Communion parish churchyards grass grow at certain times of the year before being mowed. This encourages Communion at St Nicholas Church, Sandhurst the fauna and flora. Other areas, particularly around the current graves are mowed or strimmed Wednesday 2 November 8pm All Souls Day Service and the grass kept shorter. I occasionally hear comments, in both parishes, regarding the more natural areas of the churchyard - those areas with the longer grass - that the churchyard is not cared for; some even commenting that it is disgusting how the place is not looked after! This is Mission Church, Sandhurst certainly not the case, in fact, it couldn’t be further from the truth; and is actually hurtful to the Rector: Revd David Commander 240658 [email protected] (day off: Thursday) volunteers who put in so much of their time, doing so much, to allow the rest of us good access Every Tuesday 10am Communion to areas of the churchyard currently used for burials and interments.

On the other hand, I also often meet folk walking through the churchyard, with or without a dog, Iden Green Congregational Church and get many comments about how beautiful the place is. I trust that you continue to enjoy the Pastor: Rev Peter Michell 240642 www.idengreen.org.uk walks and the beautiful views from both churchyards. They are places where I hope that everyone can feel at peace, and at one with nature and our surroundings. Sunday Services 10am Morning Worship 5.30pm Evening Worship Please help those who work so hard for us in maintaining the churchyards, by being considerate of the nature and feel of your rural parish churchyard. When mementos, plants, trees and artificial The Roman Catholic Chapel items are introduced (against the national Churchyard Regulations) into rural churchyards they Fr Barry Grant 713364 www.sttheodore-cranbrook.org detract from the natural beauty of the place and actually make the churchyards harder to Masses 9am Sundays 7.30pm Holy Days maintain. I hope that we can all continue to enjoy the beauty of our churchyards for many years to come. And if you’d like to help ... more volunteers will always be made welcome! From the Parish Registers Revd David Commander, Rector Funerals 2 September Marjorie Wheeler Interment 2 September Peter Rutherford Funeral and burial

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Church Calendar Rector’s Letter

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The Holt Bed and Breakfast Greenacre Landscapes Quietly situated within walking distance of Benenden village Creating Beautiful Gardens Warm friendly welcome. Full English breakfast Just a Thought! with homemade breads and preserves since 1963 Charming ensuite rooms, two double and one twin Specialists in Private Garden Set in three acres of woodland gardens Design & Construction Afternoon tea and homemade cake on arrival Patios - Brickwork - Decking Kate Rundell ✼ 01580 240414 ✼ [email protected] ✼ www.theholt.org Stonework - Ponds/Lakes Water Features - Planting Schemes Positive thinking in Africa Groundworks Recently I sat down to reply to the latest neatly handwritten letter from the young Malawian Detailed Plans - Portfolio Available Free Consultation secondary school student that the congregation of St George’s has supported at boarding school ! "#$% & www.greenacrelandscapes.co.uk for the last three years, through ‘Starfish Malawi’. It struck me what an impressively positive, 01580 240085 01892 722412 '()' *'+,'- '' ' forward looking but realistic young man he was becoming. He comes from a village in the Furnace Lane Nursery, Furnace Lane, $+!*'' '(+ *( +' countryside in central Malawi and enjoys none of our modern facilities (one term the school had Brenchley, Kent TN12 7BX to close because of a plague of bed bugs and a leaking roof) and yet he has set himself significant goals, has ambition and at the same time enjoys a great game of football just as most of our youngsters do. Here is his letter:- MarshallhsrMa HeatingeHllah gntiae g Dear friends at Benenden church I would like to inform you about the term. It was fantastic and I enjoyed it. In the term there InstallationnI noitallastn BoilereliBo ReplacementspeRr stnmecealp LardGa ingpscadnen, were many functions that took place some of them being the hand over of the prefects, SeServicinggncirviSe Full CentralratneClluF Heating SystemsmsmseSystgnitaeHlra Bnda Proingduil suctd farewell party and sporting activities. Repair Hot WateretaWtoH r CylindersrsedniylCr aSm ll BsgaB Bkul, s, Loosga Loade sd

FreereF QuotationssnoitatouQere UnventeddetnvenU Hot WateretaWtoH CylindersdniylCr rsed eliveredeliveredD , or Collect from o y rdrdaur During the farewell party I was interested when I saw some students receiving testimonies in

PowerflushingshrfluewPo gnish Topsoils | Composts | Manure | Barks different subjects and others to be best student. I desire to be the one receiving and be the Gas RadiatorsrsotaidaR Aggregate | Railway Sleepers | Membrane best student but I realise that soon it will be my turn to act so that I can emerge as the best Lpg New BuildsdliBuweN sd Decorative Stone | Slate | Pathway Materials student and also receiving many testimonials. Oil UnderfloororfloednU o HeatinggnitaeHr Grass Seed | Turf | Lawn Dressings | Fertiliser I would like also to inform that a certain day we had interclass football game. So form 3A was Central HeatingeHlratneC WiringriiWgnitae ourVis wit ebs ite playing against form 3B, the most interesting thing is that I manage to score my goal and I feel Office: 01580510:ficefO 24303773034208 www capsden.gar edirect.co.uk so good. That is how it was and we won three goals to a goal, this means form 3A win the Mobile: 07545570:elibMo 62112112112654 cor al fal 0oneepherl 8 0 utisivrO ats at: game while 3B lost it. Email: [email protected]:liEma ma.a:liEma [email protected] o@gnitaehllarshma cok.ooltu m WeTh ,farh R, ,adoRey edneweN K,n TNtne 5Q G18 I would also like to note you that the school administration has stopped allowing students to go out to attend Sunday church service instead they are allowing us to conduct the prayers OFFERING LONG-TERM RESIDENCE, inside the school campus. This helps students to take part in preaching and many other church Mervyn Carey CONVALESCENCE & RESPITE CARE Valuer and Auctioneer FOR INDIVIDUALS AND COUPLES roles. The most wonderful thing is that I have been chosen to be secretary and also a preacher. of over 40 years experience WHO VALUE PRIVACY, LUXURY This encourages students to grow in both physical and spiritual way. I think it is now time to AND HAPPINESS make history and a change among my students. Although in the term we did not seem to cover Professionally prepared valuations a lot but I will do my best so that my goal of change will come true. carried out in a personal and PEASMARSH PLACE For Brochure & Details considerate manner for I would like to thank you for the great job you are doing. I am fine and I will be very happy if Insurance, Probate and Family Church Lane, Peasmarsh, Rye, East Sussex TN31 6XETel: 01797 230555 Division of single items to complete you are also fine. household contents Yours friendly

ADVICE ON SALES BY Yamikani AUCTION GIVEN I thought it would be good to share it - a contrast to the many negative images with which we Twysden Cottage, Benenden, are frequently presented in the media. Cranbrook, Kent TN17 4LD Sue Fisher Telephone : (01580) 240283 5

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Village Calendar Parish Council Letter

October As far as local government is concerned, we currently seem to be living in a world of internal contradictions, and this affects Parish Councils across Kent. On the one hand we have the great Sunday 2 St George’s Harvest Lunch, Benenden Village Hall, 12.15pm for 12.30pm p.9 move to localism with powers being devolved downwards as far as possible. On the other hand, Thursday 6 Planning Committee Meeting, Benenden Village Hall, 8.30am there is increasing pressure for greater efficiency, joint working and expenditure cuts. For us, Friday 7 The Music Scholars of Benenden School, St George’s Church, 7.30pm p.9 this means that we are being asked to do more things, and carry the cost while the Borough is Friday 7 Woodland Wide Games, Iden Green Congregational Church, 7pm increasingly sharing services with other local authorities. In some activities this has been tried Saturday 8 Churchyard Working Party, St George’s Churchyard, 9.30-12noon and failed. Sharing planning activities with Maidstone (based in Maidstone) proved to be an Saturday 8 Benenden Pre-School Jumble Sale, Benenden Village Hall, 10.30am p.9 operational and expensive failure and, much to the relief of your Parish Council, has now moved Thursday 13 Benenden Women’s Club, Shirley Gooseman, Iden Green Pavilion, 7.30pm p.11 back to Tunbridge Wells. Sunday 16 Apple Day, Standen Fruit Farm Orchard, Iden Green, 1-4pm p.17 Sunday 16 Messy Church, St George’s Church, 4-6pm p.19 Turning to our local roads, there used to be a Highways Partnership, based in Tunbridge Wells. Sunday 16 Harmsworth Court Service, Community Room, 4.30pm We had officers focussed on our local area. They knew the area and we knew them on christian Monday 17 Parish Council Meeting, Iden Green Pavilion, 7.30pm name terms. Together we could get things done. This arrangement was scrapped about 10 years Tuesday 18 Iden Green and Benenden WI, Tools for Africa, Memorial Hall, 2pm p.15 ago and operations centralised for greater “efficiency”. I thought this was a mistake at the time, Tuesday 18 Village Lunch, Benenden Village Hall, 12.30pm p.11 and we can see the result of this today! However I am pleased that the possibility of bringing Tuesday 25 Merry and Bright, Memorial Hall, 3pm highways matters locally back to the borough is now being considered. Friday 28 Argentine Wine Tasting, Benenden’s Community Shop, 7.30pm p.19 In contrast, the formation of a Joint Committee for West Kent is also being considered. This Saturday 29 The Royal British Legion 2016 Poppy Appeal collection begins p.9 would involve the transfer of some powers from Kent but also from the Boroughs, so in this Saturday 29 Stephen Message, Two Day Art Exhibition, Memorial Hall, 10-5pm p.29 case services would become even more distant. For the Parish here there are real dangers in Sunday 30 Stephen Message, Two Day Art Exhibition, Memorial Hall, 10-4pm p.29 that accountability also becomes more remote. In this event democracy would be further diluted November together with the voice of your Parish Council. Friday 4 Woodland Wide Games, Iden Green Congregational Church, 7pm In some ways the answer is to take matters into our own hands. For example, we now have the Saturday 5 Benenden Bonfire and Fireworks, Glebe Field, Benenden, 5.30pm Parish Lengthsman, Terry Baldwin, who is doing a great job looking after the village, carrying out Tuesday 15 Iden Green and Benenden WI, Winter Party, Memorial Hall, 2pm p.15 much needed repairs and maintaining things generally. Saturday 19 Iden Green and Benenden WI, Coffee Morning, Memorial Hall, 10am p.15 Nevertheless we must resist the pressures on us that result from the relentless search for expenditure cuts elsewhere. Democracy doesn’t come cheap! Benenden Youth Club/Streetcruizer, age 11+ Peter Davies, BPC Chairman Mondays at Benenden Village Hall, 7-9pm 01580 240723 [email protected] Coffee Shop Wednesdays in the Memorial Hall, 10-12noon Caroline Levett, Benenden Parish Council Clerk 01580 240371 [email protected] Cakes & Chaos: Cafe and Toddler Group For more information see our website www.benendenparishcouncil.org or find us on facebook Fridays during term time in St George’s Church, 9-11.30am

Refuse Lorry Collections Parish Council Meeting Planning Committee Meeting Saturday 8 October, Garden Waste/Compostable Waste, Benenden, Village Hall layby, 8-11am Monday 17 October 2016, Iden Green Pavilion, Thursday 6 October 2016, Benenden Village Hall, Saturday 22 October, Domestic Waste, Iden Green, crossroads, 8-11am 7.30pm 8.30am 6 7 BM OCT_Layout 1 27/09/2016 15:26 Page 6

Village Calendar Parish Council Letter

BENENDEN PRE-SCHOOL News and Events St George’s Church www.benendenpreschool.co.uk

Harvest Lunch

(YHU\:HHNGD\LQ6W*HRUJH·V+DOOE\%HQHQGHQ&URVV-roads Sunday 2 October, Benenden Village Hall, Arnold Cole Trust 12.15 for 12.30pm Small and friendly pre-school - $ZDUGHG¶2XWVWDQGLQJ·E\2IVWHG The Arnold Cole Trust would like to invite The Harvest Lunch will follow the Harvest Large secure gardens with slide, sandpit, playhouse and more! Festival Service which will start at 11am. applications for its annual disbursements from All weather suits provided, for daily outdoor play in all seasons This year’s menu includes shepherd’s pie those clubs and societies within the Parish of Experienced, qualified staff including Graduate Leader and seasonal vegetables, fruit salad, cheese & Benenden in need of Funds. Dr. Arnold Cole biscuits. Tea, coffee, soft drinks are included, :HHNO\¶6SRUW\7RWV·VHVVLRQZLWK qualified instructor was GP in Benenden from 1930 until his death but wine & beer will be available to buy. Regular trips throughout the year - Close parental partnership Always a popular occasion, so buy your tickets Children may start from age 2 - Childcare vouchers accepted in 1960 after which his daughter, Joan Weston, early (adults £7, under 12s £3.50) from )XOOKDOIGD\VOXQFKFOXEVWRVXLW\RXUFKLOG·VQHHGV set up the Trust in 1968. The aim of the Trust is Benenden’s Community Shop or from to apply its income for the general benefit for Lesley Attwood 243318 Tel: 01580 241137 email: [email protected] [email protected] the Parish of Benenden, with special Everyone Welcome A non-profit making pre-school run by a committee of parents consideration being given to both the elderly Established 1967 a Registered Charity No: 1027577 and young. All applications in writing please to: The Secretary, Arnold Cole Trust, Scribbins, ANITA MEEKINS Benenden, Kent TN17 4DT. Please note The Friends of St George’s Church PRIVATE HIRE INTERVIEW PRACTICE are proud to sponsor a concert by F o r e s t applications must be received no later than and CV WRITING 30 November 2016. FIRST CLASS SERVICE F a r m The Music Scholars Ordinary & Executive Vehicles C a t Retired City insurance company & 8 seater minibus with seat belts H o t e l Chief Executive of Benenden School All drivers & vehicles For university entrance The Royal British Legion licensed & tested Idyllic rural location or job interviews Friday 7 October 2016 Individual heated chalets Poppy Appeal 2015 update Long & short journeys housing up to four cats at 7.30pm in St George’s Church Also welcome rabbits, & courier service available Call Charles Hume on The final amount of £5,005.25 was raised by guinea pigs, hamsters etc. the Benenden Branch for the Poppy Appeal Tickets: £5 for adults - 16 and under Free Business accounts welcome Come and see us before booking 01580 240838 last November, together with the event (ticket includes refreshments, a glass of wine/soft drink) Tel: 01580 240713 Call Lucy on 01580 242961 [email protected] or 07720 966374 Tickets available in church after services, Mobile: 07774 672 043 commemorating the Battle of the Somme in email [email protected] July this year. from Benenden’s Community Shop, [email protected] or see our website DBS certificated or from Jo Clube 01580 242956 [email protected] www.forestfarmcathotel.co.uk We are immensely grateful to all those who worked so hard to achieve this wonderful result, and who were so generous in giving Benenden Pre-School DOG their time and support. walking Jane Dalton Holmes, Poppy Appeal Organiser Jumble Sale Saturday 8 October, Benenden Village Hall, • Professional• Friendly Service • Fully Insured• One-Off or Regular 10.30am www.tn17dogwalking.co.uk Adult and Children’s Clothing, Homeware, Books, Toys, Cakes and Refreshments. 07719 070864 Poppy Appeal 2016 Donations very welcome from now! Have The Appeal runs from Saturday 29 October an Autumn Clean and drop donations at Pre- until Saturday 12 November. School or call our Chairman, Sian Wordsworth est. 1970 I would very much welcome any offer of est. 1970 on 07812 574119 to arrange. Otherwise, do help with collecting for the Poppy Appeal drop off at the Village Hall at 9am on the day. anywhere in Benenden and Iden Green. Providing the complete Decorating Service Providing the complete Decorating Service Jane Dalton Holmes, Poppy Appeal Organiser Telephone: 01580 713888 Telephone:Mobile: 07836 01580 254047 713888 240923 [email protected] Mobile: 07836 254047 9 BM OCT_Layout 1 27/09/2016 15:26 Page 8

BENENDEN PRE-SCHOOL News and Events St George’s Church www.benendenpreschool.co.uk

Harvest Lunch

Benenden Pre-School News New term, new Pre-School year, and we’ve Cakes & Chaos welcomed a fresh group of young starters as Drop-in Cafe well as two new members of staff. We hope & Toddler Group everyone settles in quickly, and enjoys all that DulwichDul h PrepPrwicDul Pr SchoolhoolcSep hool Pre-School has to offer, which this term is a St George’s Church, Benenden particular focus on pets and favourite toys. Every Friday during term time, 9-11.30am CRANBRCRANBROOKOOK We look forward to enthusiastic discussions Please come and enjoy lovely cakes, about hamsters, goldfish, kittens - perhaps real coffee and a selection of teas. If you’ve got little ones, let them play ,QGHSHQGHQWGD\DQGÁH[LEOHERDUGLQJVFKRROIRUER\VDQGJLUOVDJHGWR,,QQ S HGQHSHG GWQH DD\\ Á\ UDREHOEL[HÁGQD ORRKFVJQLGU IIRR EU RR\\\V\IJ V GQD VOULJG DDJJJJ RWGH chameleons! - and beloved teddies and in the church. blankies with the children. Add to this some Only £1 per family. French lessons and music classes, and our For more information please call Pre-Schoolers are going to be thoroughly Revd David or Helen Commander 01580 240658 or email [email protected] entertained. or [email protected] There are many fundraising events lined up for Pre-School this year, kicking off with the Jumble Sale on Saturday 8 October, taking Benenden Women’s Club place in Benenden village hall. For any In September Gail Durbin, a lady who spent donations or queries, please contact our most of her career working in the education Chairman, Sian Wordsworth on departments of museums, culminating with [email protected]. the Victoria and Albert, talked to us about her www.benendenpreschool.co.uk Space to brbreathe,eatheea , time to grow.g or ww.. retirement occupation of jewellery making. She showed us brilliantly decorated anodised [email protected] [email protected] 01580 712179 www.dcpskent.org.dcpskwww.dcpskent.org aluminium earrings (the colour is steamed into the metal); necklaces using recycled COURSEHORN | C RANBROOKRANBROOK | K ENT | TN1717 33NP3TN PN17 Sunday School gemstones, papier-mache covered with gold Our first (re-instated) Sunday School was a leaf, small plastic animals (one with mice is a great success and good fun. The second one very popular) and crystal. We also saw earrings will be on Sunday 2 October, our Harvest made from recycled biscuit tins, where the Festival service; but please note the different motif is preserved in the earring; and brooches time of the service: 11am. Come along to in which tiny figures (from railway modelling church, as before, for the start of the service kits) are embedded in resin. Words cannot do ... perhaps bringing some harvest produce to justice to the evening! Bishopsdale Oast be shared out to others who are not in the Our next meeting is on Thursday 13 same fortunate circumstances as ourselves. October at 7.30pm in the Iden Green Pavilion. Award Winning Shirley Gooseman, who has lived in various Bed & Breakfast houses in Benenden over the years, and will be known to many of the older members, will be Benenden Pre-School ‘Treasurer’ needed! Village Lunch speaking about her life and times, dabbling in Tuesday 18 October, Benenden Village Hall, antiques, art and writing books. Some of her Our small village Pre-School really needs books will be on sale. voluntary finance and accounts help. About 3 hours a month. 12.30pm We shall be offering cava and cake! All welcome - £4 a head. If you need a lift Janet Beattie If interested, please contact our Chairman, Sian Wordsworth please let us know and we can arrange it. on 01580 441 582 or email [email protected] Please contact Kay on 01580 240566 if you Bishopsdale Oast Biddenden, Kent TN27 8DR haven’t put your name down but would like to A non-profit making preschool run by a committee of volunteer parents. Telephone 01580 291027 Registered Charity No. 1027577 come. We look forward to seeing you. email [email protected] 11 BM OCT_Layout 1 27/09/2016 15:27 Page 10

2@UDSGDC@SDENQXNTQ"GQHRSL@R/@QSX@S3GD!TKK Over Egging the village? VD@QDGDQDSNGDKO RNVG@SB@MVDCNENQXNTSGHR"GQHRSL@R Local Lord plays chicken

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INDEPENDENT PREP SCHOOL FOR GIRLS AND BOYS AGED 2-13. DAY, FULL & WEEKLY BOARDING

Born 14 March 1919. • OUTSTANDING ISI Inspection • Flexible boarding options from Year 3 2nd Baron Son of Admiral Roger John Brownlow Keyes, 1st Baron Keyes • Academic, Music, Drama, Sport & Art • Amazing facilities including golf course, and Eva Mary Salvin Bowlby. Married Grizelda Mary Packe, 6 December 1947. Educated King’s Mead School, Seaford, Sussex. scholarship programme theatre and indoor pool set within 47 Roger Commissioned 1932, Royal Navy. Graduated Royal Naval College. • Extensive mini bus service both to and from acres of stunning countryside Succeeded to title of 2nd Baron Keyes, of Zeebrugge and of Dover, school throughout Kent and East Sussex • Nursery from 2 years George Kent 26 December 1945. Retired from military 1949, with rank of Lieutenant. Director Mappin and Webb, Gordon Hotels, and Dannimac. Wrote Outrageous Fortune, published 1984, a biography For further information and a prospectus please contact Karen Cooper Bowlby of King Leopold III of the Belgians. Decorated Great Officer, Order on 01580 883090 or at [email protected]. of Leopold of Belgium 2000. www.vinehallschool.com Keyes Died 4 March 2005 aged 85. BM OCT_Layout 1 27/09/2016 15:27 Page 12

2@UDSGDC@SDENQXNTQ"GQHRSL@R/@QSX@S3GD!TKK Over Egging the village? VD@QDGDQDSNGDKO RNVG@SB@MVDCNENQXNTSGHR"GQHRSL@R Local Lord plays chicken

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INDEPENDENT PREP SCHOOL FOR GIRLS AND BOYS AGED 2-13. DAY, FULL & WEEKLY BOARDING

BODS MOBS (Mothers of Benenden Society) (Benenden Ordinary Dads Society) We will meet from 8pm on: Local school dads meet in THE BULL A Wood Fired Oven can provide Friday 21 OCTOBER at The Bull fantastic, fresh and fast food for you on the first FRIDAY of every month Thursday 22 DECEMBER at The Woodcock and your guests. from 8pm Dates for 2017 coming soon We are local to Benenden and can cater to catch up and have a few beers This will be a great chance to relax, socialise for private parties, wedding receptions and meet some new mums. and events of all kinds. All dads are welcome! We look forward to seeing as many of you as possible. Most people only think of pizza, but If you would like any further information on these meets there are lots of alternatives. To be included on the email list, contact please email katy.marshall hotmail.com. Give me a call to discuss on: @ 01580 279000 or 07788 279000 Graham on [email protected] This invite is for all Benenden Mums: [email protected] pre-school, primary, mums who have left the primary, and ANY mum who would like to join. or visit our website Look forward to meeting new dads! www.wowcooking.co.uk

NAMASTE KIDS Benefice services Iden Green and Benenden WI & TEENS On Sunday 30 October the 10am service is a The August meeting was both informative and benefice service at St Nicholas, Sandhurst to enjoyable, with an enthusiastic speaker on the commemorate All Saints Day. If you would like Flemish Weavers, how they came about, their the name of a loved one read out at this history and how they changed the face of service, then please email Cathy Baker England forever. Keep Fit next! Free trial class ([email protected]). Some members enjoyed a Ploughman’s Lunch There is also service on Wednesday 2 at the beginning of September at Lodge Farm. YOGA Classes for November, for the benefice, to commemorate We thank Jocelyn Gregory for her kind Pre-schoolers, Kids & Teens All Souls Day; this is at 8pm at St George’s, hospitality. Due to inclement weather, lunch was Benenden Village Hall Benenden. Again, if you would like the name of not in the cottage garden as planned, but much & Kilndown Village Hall a loved one read out at this service, then please food and conversation was had anyway! For more info please contact Hayley on 01580 240982 email Cathy. Please make it clear at which Meetings in the Memorial Hall: [email protected] service you would like the name read out. Tuesday 18 October, 2-4pm www.namastekids.co.uk Mr Stewart on Tools for Africa Tuesday 15 November, 2-4pm Cinque Ports Vets and Milbourn Equine provide a 24 Hour/365 Days Emergency Service Members and Guest Winter Party Dedicated to your pet’s well being Cranbrook and District Saturday 19 November, 10-12noon CINQUE PORTS VETS Pre-Christmas Coffee Morning Probus Club (CDPC) Elisabeth Spicer 752232 A caring, fully equipped An Equine Veterinary Clinic Did you know that Benenden is within the modern veterinary practice providing diagnostic and area covered by CDPC, a club which exists to for all your pets’ needs surgical services throughout provide a regular meeting point for retired professional and businessmen? We meet on Hawkhurst Veterinary Surgery Kent and East Sussex The Village Plan the second Monday of every month at The Bull, 01580 752187 The plan was published in February 2015 and Mobile and clinic based services Benenden around noon for a chat over a drink, Tenterden Veterinary Surgery distributed to every household in the village. If 01580 763309 Hawkhurst Ashford followed by a lunch, which concludes with a 01580 752301 01233 500505 you are a new resident, and would like a copy, I Also branches at Rye, Ashford, Lydd and Wye short talk. Occasional outings are also arranged. Also at Rye and Canterbury would be happy to deliver a copy if you would If you are interested please contact: Jan Kobus, Hon. Secretary 764857 care to email me at [email protected] Robin Dalton Holmes www.cinqueportsvets.co.uk www.milbournequine.co.uk 15 BM OCT_Layout 1 27/09/2016 15:27 Page 14

ST GEORGE͛S SOCIAL CLUB BENENDEN Come to the Standen Fruit Farm

WE WELCOME ALL OVER THE AGE OF 14 We are family owned and provide a private hire/taxi service and local tours SNOOKER TABLE (FULL SIZE) DARTS BOARDS GAMING MACHINES for the Benenden area and beyond.

CRIB BILLIARDS SNOOKER SKITTLES CORN TOSSING We oﬀer a reliable, professional service including airport and station transfers, APPLE DAY BARBECUES THEMED EVENINGS QUIZ NIGHTS GAMES EVENINGS courier service and more. Male and female drivers. Sunday 16 October 1pm - 4pm All of the above and cheaper drinks! All licensed and CRB cleared. Contact us to discuss availability Annual Membership £5.00 and tariﬀs on: Under 18͛ƐΘ O.A.P.͛Ɛ £1.00 01580 242898 or 07707 242898 or visit our website Contact Glenda Marshall (Club Secretary) 01580 243089 for further information www.hemstedcars.co.uk

Benenden Village Hall The Perfect Party and Wedding Venue

Main hall seats up to 150 to eat or 200 theatre-style; adjacent small hall makes the perfect bar or quiet area.

Fully equipped kitchen. Large stage with sound & lighting. Showers & changing facilities. Disabled access. Car park. Hire charges from £10ph.

www.benendenvillagehall.org Lorraine Jones 01580 243123

P.F. WARD & SONS FAMILY BUTCHERS Enjoy this traditional Kentish Orchard FRESH LOCAL PRODUCE Pick your own apples Make your own juice VARIETY of HOME BBQ, Cider tasting, honey display, music MADE SAUSAGES and attractions for the family & BURGERS Free Admission and Parking Phone: 01580 240612 Entrance opposite Orchard Cottage, Standen Street, Iden Green TN17 4LB BM OCT_Layout 1 27/09/2016 15:27 Page 16

ST GEORGE͛S SOCIAL CLUB BENENDEN Come to the Standen Fruit Farm

WE WELCOME ALL OVER THE AGE OF 14 We are family owned and provide a private hire/taxi service and local tours SNOOKER TABLE (FULL SIZE) DARTS BOARDS GAMING MACHINES for the Benenden area and beyond.

Benenden Village Hall The Perfect Party and Wedding Venue

Main hall seats up to 150 to eat or 200 theatre-style; adjacent small hall makes the perfect bar or quiet area.

Fully equipped kitchen. Large stage with sound & lighting. Showers & changing facilities. Disabled access. Car park. Hire charges from £10ph.

www.benendenvillagehall.org Lorraine Jones 01580 243123

News from Benenden School In Benenden and Sandhurst inking of selling in We were delighted to open two major new A different way developments on Saturday 10 September. of being church Benenden Cheered on by enthusiastic girls, television of doing church personality Davina McCall opened the stunning Come along on Sunday 16 October this Autumn? new All-Weather Sports Pitch and Pavilion. This month at St George’s Church, Benenden, 4-6pm Guests were entertained by cheerleaders from Aimed at all the family... whatever your age. For helpful, straightforward the John Wallis Church of England Academy Have fun being church together, doing crafts together, worshipping together, and eating together. advice contact: with two international Hockey players, Sarah The ﬁrst hour is the craft stuff. Tenterden: Haycroft and Zoe Shipperley, in attendance. Then we have a short time of informal worship. Earlier in the afternoon, the eight new staff Finally we’ll sit down and eat a meal together. homes on the campus were officially declared Please come and join us. You do not have to get messy, 01580 766766 just have fun! open by Chairman of Council Anna Birkett and Revd David Commander, Rector two students. 01580 240658 [email protected] e specialist Village agent The All-Weather Pitch with sports, primarily Lacrosse and Hockey, to be played all through the winter, dramatically increasing training time. Benenden’s Welcomes Patricio Gouguenheim - Owner and Winemaker Our U15B Lacrosse team are already National Champions and we hope this new facility will further enhance the standard. Friday 28 October 7.30pm The accompanying pavilion includes changing rooms for players and officials, catering Argentine facilities, and covered and terraced spectator areas, which we hope will attract further Wine Tasting support from families and friends at matches. Wines of Gouguenheim, Mendoza, Argentina The new Staff Houses will enable more employees and their families to live on site. In 30 Tickets Only - Available At The Shop a boarding school, evenings and weekends are just as vital to girls’ education and development as time in the classroom. The next projects are £12 a new School Hall and new Music School. SOLD OUT As part of the Centenary Vision, the School is also expanding the Benenden School Trust Sandhurst Hospice in the Award programme, which offers bursaries for those otherwise be unable to afford the fees. Weald Final Event for 2016 Year Six girls from 18 primary schools in a Tuesday 11 October, Sandhurst residence, 3pm 7.5-mile radius of Benenden are eligible to Duo performance by Adrian Bradbury (‘cello) apply for these bursaries. and Oliver Davies (piano). They will be We are also delighted that girls from presenting another interesting programme of the School will shortly be volunteering in classics for this combination of instruments. Benenden’s, the village shop. This will give them Tickets by donation (minimum £15). wonderful experience and we hope will assist Reservations in advance only 01580 850384. the team of village volunteers who are doing All events take place in a private home in such a marvellous job in the shop. Sandhurst with a fine Steinway grand piano. Samantha Price, Headmistress Gillian Davis

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Green and good or Benenden Parish Council has considered The Parish Council urges KCC to address planning application ref: KCC/TW/0135/2016, these issues more fully than is covered in the Big and bad? Forest Farm, Nineveh Lane, Benenden, Kent, documentation thus far. Peter Thomas looks at the issues surrounding TN17 4LG Although generally supportive, the Council plans for an anaerobic digester in the village This comprises the erection of a 499kw cannot therefore recommend supporting the In a village as attractive as ours, it’s hard not anaerobic digestion facility to process farm application as it stands. Peter Davies, Chair, Benenden Parish Council to have an opinion on matters that could yard manure and slurry which is produced on threaten both its look and its rural identity. site, along with a proportion of crops which are We live in an Area of Outstanding Natural grown on the farm, and 832 tonnes of imported Jim Hyde, Benenden’s footpaths co-ordinator, Beauty, and that’s something worth protecting. chicken manure. The development comprises also an energy efficiency and environment The latest such ‘threat’ comes from a two 18m diameter tanks connected by a pump consultant strange beast called an Anaerobic Digester, a room, each topped with a gas dome, one feeder machine designed to turn farmyard waste and and a Combined Heat and Power unit. The subsidies paid to electricity producers surplus vegetable matter into fertiliser, with a The council is generally supportive of by the Big 6 energy companies are collected by-product of electricity - four million renewable energy projects and of anaerobic through the ‘green taxes’ paid by every kilowatts of it, equivalent to the annual digestion of farm material and associated CHP electricity consumer … The farms already consumption of 1200 homes, more than our processes in particular. receive large subsidies from the EU common whole village - generated from the process objection. Nor has Tunbridge Wells Borough The applicant has provided very extensive agricultural policy, which will be replaced by a and sold back into the National Grid. Council, which has passed the matter on to and detailed documentation which was fully UK subsidy following withdrawal from the EU Local farmer and former Parish Council Kent County Council. reviewed both by members of the council and and these would continue if the AD scheme chairman Gordon Reynolds has submitted plans Benenden Parish Council, however, while other local residents. goes ahead, meaning we would be paying for one such digester on half an acre of pasture broadly in favour of the project, decided at a However the council considers that there doubly to have the AONB spoiled. land at Forest Farm, on Nineveh Lane, which are recent rather heated meeting in the village hall are still a number of issues that require The scheme would provide no wider being considered by Kent County Council. to recommend the plans for refusal on the clarification and independent examination. community benefit, and the proposed form Whether the threat from such a project is basis that insufficient independently-verified Although there is an analysis of traffic of electricity generation is neither green real or merely perceived is, as yet, undecided, information has been given by the applicant in movements, the impact on the individual very nor renewable. but opinions abound. certain key areas, most importantly traffic narrow local lanes around the site needs Anybody who has ever had their weekend movements and the scale of the development. greater clarification. Clair barbecue spoiled by the waft of chicken manure Questions remain. Will the Reynolds family Daily and weekly timings of movements e Tester, planning advisor, High Weald will surely welcome the digester, as it will farms provide enough ‘fuel’ for an AD of this remain unclear. AONB Unit supposedly produce an inoffensive, odourless size or will large quantities have to be shipped Questions have been raised about the scale In summary, it is considered that the proposed fertiliser where once there was only smell. in? Is the growing of crops specifically for an of the proposed unit relative to the farms facility will support the ongoing agriculturally The production of renewable energy is a AD truly a ‘green’ approach? Will neighbours be supporting it, and this does need impartial productive use of the farmland around Forest welcome bonus in an age where many of us are able to see the tanks and domes, and will they professional advice. Farm and will assist with mitigating the effects pondering climate change and feeling the time look any worse than other farm buildings? Will The cropping schedule does not give any of climate change. It is therefore compatible is ripe for local communities to do their bit. they be able to hear the digester working, or the indication of seasonal variations and impact on with objectives FH1 and G3 of the High Weald Neighbours, meanwhile, may hold a different pumps needed to move the resultant fertiliser the volume of crop availability or its storage. AONB Management Plan. The design and view - and many plainly do. They warn of through underground pipes to its destination? Would processing be a 24/7 operation? If so position of the development is considered to be excessive noise from ADs, of excessive smell, These and many more are being considered what would the manning requirement for the appropriate and not harmful to the High Weald of over-bearing appearance and increased by KCC, who will rule shortly. Below is the site be? landscape components, subject to control over traffic movements on a narrow country lane. official view of the Parish Council. There is also the question of security for the source and colour of the materials used for Neighbours, however, are not always the this controversial site. Does this impact on the new plant and buildings and over vehicular most objective of witnesses. They complain above: A 400KW AD Plant in Scotland. The Forest lighting, other security measures or the need movements to and from the site and lighting. about the impact on the environment, yet the Farm proposal would have two domes, each slightly for a manned presence? It is stipulated in the Overall it is considered that the proposal is plans have been seen by Natural England, the smaller and shallower; 1998 Crime and Disorder Act (Section 17) appropriate to the High Weald Area of Kent Wildlife Trust and the High Weald AONB below: A cross section plan included in the that LAs making planning decisions should Outstanding Natural Beauty and I therefore Unit and none of these has raised any Forest Farm application consider these factors. support this planning application. 20 21 BM OCT_Layout 1 27/09/2016 15:27 Page 20

Letter to the Editor MP Helen Grant and County Councillor Sean Holden believe that the Police have Please write to the Editor, effectively abandoned enforcement of speed Volunteers Needed c/o Community Office, Benenden Village Hall, limits in rural areas, causing particular For Benenden TN17 4DY or email frustration to various Speedwatch teams. With Shop Service [email protected] Helen and Sean, I have attended meetings with & the Police and Crime Commissioner, Kent Cafe Service Driving at Dangerous Speed through Police, the Highways Portfolio Holder for KCC, the Village Learn how to make representatives from Parish Councils and Dear Benenden Magazine that perfect coffee Speedwatch teams. From a very low base - with I totally agree with your concerns (editorial and serve it! then Commissioner Ann Barnes initially refusing September edition) it is amazing that a serious to meet us - we have made some progress. The Accident has not occurred. I fully support your 01580 279808 Police Community Safety Units (CSU) in suggestion that a monitored 20mph speed limit www.benendens.co.uk/volunteers Tunbridge Wells and Maidstone periodically should be introduced. Please do not forget the [email protected] allocate an officer to be with the Speedwatch approach roads. The section past Benenden teams so speeding motorists receive a ticket School to the crossroads currently indicating a and not just a cautionary letter. The Police 40mph limited is regularly driven at speeds believe that many stopped for speeding live exceeding 60mph. locally so we need to create more MEET Sincerely understanding of the real dangers involved. Kate Ferry The Kent and Medway Safety Camera YOUR MP Partnership is responsible for fixed and mobile Helen Grant enforcement cameras but the latter tended to visit the same locations at the same times - Helen Grant, MP for Maidstone and the Rural Speeding becoming familiar to regular road users and so Weald, holds regular surgeries around I would like to add to the debate on Rural largely ineffective. A less predictable programme the constituency. If you would like to Speeding, and to outline some efforts being arrange an appointment to discuss an is now in place. The Partnership had a policy issue of concern to you, please e-mail made to address this problem. Speeding is of installing fixed cameras only after at least Helen at [email protected] arguably more important for rural areas than two accidents where people had been ‘Killed or telephone 020 7219 7107. How good a photographer are you? urban with traffic congestion and cameras. or Seriously Injured’ (KSIs). Police now accept www.helengrant.org Enter Benenden Magazine’s Cover Photo Competition The rural minority needs to be heard. In our that assessment of “threat and risk” - including Produced by Helen Grant MP, House of Commons, London SW1A 0AA email [email protected] Village there are two dangerous crossroads - evidence from Speedwatch teams - are a more Iden Green and Benenden - we can all recall appropriate than KSIs. The intention should Baldwins Travel - Specialists in accidents by the butchers. Large farm vehicles ADVERTISE IN THE BENENDEN MAGAZINE Cranbrook be to prevent accidents. Moves to change Tailor-made 01580 714411 pass through the village and a tractor and the policy of the Safety Camera Partnership It’s big and it’s colourful - it reaches the entire Itineraries and Baldwins Travel - parish of Benenden, and is available to visitors. Cruising Maidstone trailer overturned outside the entrance to are underway. 01622 762141 We have three sets of rates depending upon your Benenden School. Our Primary School children Concerns about rural speeding are shared by Flights, Travelux -Tenterden type of organisation. They are: 01580 764344 regularly cross the main road moving between newly elected Police and Crime Commissioner Hotels, Car Hire • Rate Card A Tours & Baldwins Travel - various school premises around the Green. The Matthew Scott, and by Councillors from other (Non-village, voluntary/not for profit Packages Tunbridge Wells 01892 511999 Benenden Parish Plan concluded that 40mph wards in Tunbridge Wells. I am on a Borough organisations and village businesses) Baldwins Travel - • Rate Card B Independent, Tonbridge should be a maximum throughout the Parish, Council working group looking into this matter. (Local not-for-profit organisations) Family 01732 351223 with a 30mph limit by the Hospital and a • Rate Card C and Baldwins Travel - There is no simple solution. It is partly about (National/non-village Commercial) Group Travel Uckfield 20mph limit in the centres of Iden Green and 01825 760488 enforcement - though this will never be the Prices for a single issue range from £50 for a full Sevenoaks Travel Benenden - the latter extending round the Police’s top priority - and partly about page advert to just £7.50 depending on size. Travel 01732 458255 Insurance Baldwins Travel - Green. The objective is entirely sensible. encouraging a change in behaviour. Colour attracts a 20% surcharge, and if you sign up Foreign Lewes for 12 issues we do that for the price of 10! Implementation, however, is proving more Tom Dawlings Currency 01273 472466 BBTM - To enquire about you specific needs, email us at difficult as the Parish Council have encountered Borough Councillor for Benenden & Cranbrook www.baldwinstravel.co.uk Business Travel [email protected] 01892 515900 the bureaucracy that is Kent Highways. BALDWINS TRAVEL GROUP TRAVEL BALDWINS #HolidayInspirations 23 BM OCT_Layout 1 27/09/2016 15:27 Page 22

Jane’s Kitchen There is no APPLE CIDER TART Choral Evensong Serves 8 in October BUT FOR TART CASE 120g plain flour + extra for dusting There will be 40g icing sugar Matins with Pinch of salt Stanford’s Te Deum 120g unsalted butter, diced sung by the choir 1 large egg yolk at St George’s on FOR FILLING Sunday 23 October ! " #! 250ml apple cider at 10am ! $ %&' () 4 red apples !" *&+,* -(*'*, . *''/( 0+,&-0 100g unsalted butter, softened " 1" 2 33 " . 1" 2 33 " . 4443" 2 33 " 2 medium free range eggs, lightly beaten 80g ground almonds 2tbsp plain flour FOR SYRUP Hospice in the Weald 60g soft light brown sugar Open Gardens 2017 2tsp apple cider vinegar It’s a proud moment when your garden 1.5tsp cinnamon comes into full bloom and you can stand back 1.5tsp unsalted butter and enjoy the results of your creativity and ... it’s the word on The Street! METHOD hard work. And there’s a special reward in l Case: In food processor blitz to coarse crumb being able to show your achievements to An excellent range of groceries, breads, vegetables, beers & wines, flour, sugar, salt, butter. Add egg yolk, pulse to admiring visitors. together with Post Office services ... form a ball, add splash of water if needed. On Hospice in the Weald is inviting you to lightly floured surface, shape into a smooth share the delights of your garden with other ... and a great place to meet and chat over a coffee or snack. disc, clingwrap, chill for 30min. gardening enthusiasts - and at the same time l Filling: Pour cider into a bowl, reserve 2tbsp to raise money for a great cause. Free Wiﬁ for later. Peel, core, quarter apples, slice thinly Each year we have a varied and enticing choice of gardens featured, and Open Gardens [email protected] Tel: 01580 279808 into cider, toss to coat, set aside. Beat butter and sugar until pale fluffy. Slowly beat in eggs day 2016 raised £25,000. But the organisers and 2tbsp reserved cider, it will look curdled, would love to expand the range for 2017. It’s fold in almonds and flour, set aside. On a always exciting to see new gardens which the floured surface, roll out dough, cover a 25cm owners might not have considered putting on In lTuition show. There’s no limit to the style of garden loose bottomed tart tin, press into edges, cut that visitors might enjoy - modest ones to Learning in a supportive environment away excess. Prick base with a fork, chill for 10min. Pre-heat oven to 400f/200c/180fan/ inspire creativity, larger areas to explore, with perhaps areas for wildlife and ideas for fruit l Individual Tutoring gas6, place on baking sheet. Drain apples, keep and vegetables. We invite gardeners to contact o English cider. Arrange slices starting at outer edge, us now ready for the next brochure. Gardens o Maths press slices in at an angle so they touch each can be small, big or quirky as long as they are o French other and the base. Bake for 15min, reduce oven to 350f/175c/160fan/gas3, bake for interesting and reflect the owner’s passion. For more details please contact: l Experienced Teacher further 20min, or until brown on top and set. C a k e ! Pam Coleman 01892 820502 l Benenden Village Location l Syrup: Place 2tbsp cider and syrup ingredients For any occasion. [email protected] in a pan, simmer, reducing to a syrup. When the Call or pop in tart is ready brush top with syrup. to enquire. [email protected] 07748 462792 25 BM OCT_Layout 1 27/09/2016 15:27 Page 24

Claridge’s Wine If you have 45 & 51 High Street any boar left Tenterden Peter Thomas seeks out the human face of over, and a wine among the mountains of Roussillon little cheese to For many drinkers, wine is a commodity that follow, seek simply appears on supermarket shelves from out the silky the ether of a foreign country (or possibly Cote du Biddenden) without so much as a grape Roussillon being crushed in anger. The terroir is Waitrose rouge from shelf and the harvesting is done by squeaky- Domaine wheeled trolley. Sabarda at In the windswept wilds of France, however, nine euros a lies the truth about the bottles we uncork pop; perhaps without a second thought - and parts of the Cuvee France don’t come much more windswept or Prestige from wild than Roussillon, caged between the Chateau Trillol Mediterranean, the Pyrenees-Orientales and halfway up the Pyrenees in Cucugnan, although the Spanish border to avoid unnecessary it’s easier just to buy their standard red in trouble. You always know there’s trouble Bargain Carpets & Floors Benenden’s own village shop. brewing when a region has road signs in two But for serious stuff, it has to be Le Soula, languages and one of them is Catalan. Carpet, Vinyl, Laminate and Wood supplied and fitted at reduced rates in the tiny village of Prugnanes, where former Take the D117 inland out of Perpignan and • Same choice as any shop but up to half the price UK wine merchant Mark Walford - complete soon you’re passing through unprepossessing • We can move your furniture for you and take away your old flooring with very un-French claret-coloured chinos - towns with familiar names, like Rivesaltes and oversees the earthy and complex Trigone red Maury, with its own AOC for a fortified vin For free home sample viewing at 12 and a half euros, and an orange wine that doux naturel, all sweet and red and inviting. and estimates please call Stuart once, so they say, accompanied wild Wineries spring up at you from the mushrooms at The Fat Duck. roadside against a looming mountain backdrop, I turned up to find the team and their and the only hardship lies in choosing which to 01424 855882 / 07734 659834 kids listening to bluegrass music on the porch, visit. This used to be the heartland of dreadful which is what hunting down good wine is 10 down; 8 across; 5 down; 3 down; www.bargainfloors.co.uk co-operative wine in enormous bulk, but these 2 down; 6 across; 7 across; 4 across; all about. 1 down; 10 across; 9 down. days there are plenty of good producers Peter Thomas [email protected] harnessing the delights of ferocious sun and herby, garrigue-strewn slopes. BENENDEN MAGAZINE I chose Mas l’Avail for starters, breaching above: Top bottles: the spoils of a wine safari; protocol by arriving at lunchtime but being NEEDS below: Heading into one of Roussillon’s best known shown round nonetheless by the charming your photographs of appellations on the road down from Cucugnan village life and people winemaker’s son Nicolas Batlle. His machine refused my debit card but WELCOMES when I returned from the ATM with hard cash news of events and happenings he rewarded me with a free bottle of sweet around the parish Maury blanc to go with a case of 12-euro La SEEKS Desirade, a spicy old vine Carignan, Grenache suggestions or contributions for and Syrah blend that would go down well with features pages and countryside forum a freshly-killed wild local boar, wrestled to the Please email ground by the kind of hunter who makes the [email protected] ex-pats nervous. for further details 27 BM OCT_Layout 1 27/09/2016 15:27 Page 26

Bird Notes

Rufous Bush Chat, Eastern Towhee and Ancient Murrelet are probably names of birds with which unrecorded number will have died in the storms. The thaw in the famous North West Passage has you are not familiar. When visiting The British Birdfair at Rutland Water in August I was given a enabled sea birds to travel from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean. Taxonomy splits have grown little booklet called ‘The complete checklist of British birds’ and these birds all appear in this the list significantly, for instance the Herring Gull was recently split into four species, thus in checklist. The UK total has now exceeded 600 species, standing at 603. The species are split into modern field guides you will find Yellow-legged Gull, Caspian Gull and American Herring Gull. three categories. Category A is for species that have occurred in natural state since January 1st The list is used for many reasons not least by birdwatchers competing with each other to tick 1950 and Category B is for species recorded between 1st January 1800 and 31st December 1949 off as many species as possible, commonly known as ‘twitching’. Participants travel up to 73,000 but have not been recorded since then. There are only eight species in this category and some, miles per year to ensure they don’t miss a ‘twitch’, perhaps travelling from Shetland to Scilly on such as the Great Auk, are sadly extinct. There is a third category, C, which is for introduced frequent occasions. The lead ‘listers’ have life lists amounting to about 550 species; quite amazing species that have established self-sustaining populations and include species such as Little Owl considering there a large number of species which have only one or two records, often in remote and Red-legged Partridge. There are only ten species in this category. These three categories places. To put this into perspective I have travelled around most of Britain armed with a pair of make up the 603 species. There is also a Category D which is for species which have definitely binoculars for nearly fifty years and my UK life list is a mere 289! occurred in the wild but there is some doubt that they have ever occurred in a natural state and therefore are not included in the list. For years there has been betting on which species would be The Birdfair is an enormous event, practically every country on the globe offering eye catching the 600th with many varied American and Eastern species listed as likely, but it was a Yelkouan birding holidays but my favourite marquee is the art marquee (where Stephen Message exhibits Shearwater discovered some eight years ago on the Devon coast which made it. Because this his brilliant work) where it is fascinating to compare so many different styles and techniques. species is so similar to another species, the Balearic Shearwater, it took the various experts over There are four lecture marquees with continuous talks on every ornithological topic. I try not to eight years of research and discussion before it was accepted! visit temptation in the optics marquee, although it is quite interesting looking through telescopes and binoculars with price tags well into four figures! Worth the price? Not for me. Some birdwatchers take great satisfaction in finding a new bird to add to the list but this is no easy process. A submission has to be made to The British Birds Rarity Committee which must Charles Trollope 240821 [email protected] include copious notes taken at the time of the sighting and have sufficient detail to exclude all other similar species. Digital photography and sound videos have been a great help in recent submissions. Once the committee of ten experts have accepted the submission the file is then passed to The British Ornithological Union who verify the identification and also decide if the bird occurred in a natural state. This can be a difficult and contentious process. They will consider where and when the bird was sighted and look to see if the species is a known captive one and look for captivity indicators in the plumage. A non-migratory bird from some distant place will never be accepted but captive migratory birds can be difficult to assess and the committee, frequently much to the finder’s annoyance, err on the side of caution. With good photographs and a relatively easy bird to identify admission to the list can be relatively quick but more difficult species can take years with experts from around the world involved. DNA is another useful tool in difficult species identification, just a tiny feather or piece of poo can help. Once accepted the finder is asked to write an article on finding the new bird. These can be quite entertaining as the finder writes of his first reaction on becoming aware of finding a new species for the list. Panic sets in, heart beat rises. Which to do first? Take notes? Take photos? Ring other birders? Check the field guide? and so on. On the other hand a recent rarity was identified when the finder published his photo on the internet as a Yellow-browed Warbler (a rare autumn passage migrant) only for an eagle-eyed colleague to spot that it was in fact an Eastern Crowned Warbler, a first for Britain. A few years ago before digital photography and the internet this would have gone unnoticed.

The list grows each year in two ways; taxonomy splits, another task of The British Ornithological Union, and new rarity findings. It is surprising that new birds are found in most years despite the backdrop of so many declining species, but bird ranges change, climates also change; more frequent hurricanes blow American migrants in our direction, though sadly this means that an 28 29 BM OCT_Layout 1 27/09/2016 15:27 Page 28

Bird Notes

Foot Notes T R E E S T U M P REMOVAL SERVICE Benenden Village Landscape Walk 2 • Specialist stump Distance: 5.4 miles grinding service This month’s walk explores the area to the • All treework west of the village, with a mix of farming • Free quotation activities and tranquil country lanes. advice • Minimal ground 1) The walk leaves the village along footpath disturbance WC323 to the right of St George’s church, • Fully insured follow the tarmac path downhill and just before the road turn left onto WC324 which MJM Forestry & Land Clearance Ltd passes across the front of Benenden Place. At the end of the path turn right onto the farm 01580 291984 track WC328 where the track bears left continue ahead diagonally across the field to New Pond Rd on the edge of Iden Green. 2) Turn left along the road and after 30 Saint Ronan’s School metres turn right onto footpath WC156 Hawkhurst, Kent • Founded 1883 • www.saintronans.co.uk which emerges onto Coldharbour Lane, turn Boys & Girls from 3-13 • Day & Boarding • Forest School left and follow the lane downhill, and where the lane begins to climb, turn left on the farm track at the entrance to Sarnden Farm WC313. Follow the track through the farmyard passing between the two barns, at the end of the barn turn sharp right and cross the lawn close to the fence, at the pond turn left and follow the path to the field. Cross directly above: Map courtesy of Ordnance Survey Public over the large field bearing slightly uphill, the Sector Mapping Agreement; largest tree halfway up the opposite below: Fig.1 WC313 Towards Sandhurst hedgerow is your best landmark. Cross the two stiles that separate the fields and head diagonally right to the corner of the field. Through the gate turn left onto the farm track and pass downhill through two gates. After the 2nd gate there is a pedestrian gate in the fence on the right, go through this gate and head diagonally left to the corner of the field (Fig.1), aim to the left of the houses on the bank opposite to emerge on Hinksden Rd. 3) Turn right and follow the road uphill a short distance to a house called Camely Meadows, here take the footpath through the gate on the left hand side WC365. The path follows the line of trees across the field and where the trees stop continue ahead on the same line, pass through the gap into the next field and go downhill with the hedge on your right (Fig.2). Near the bottom of the hill the path crosses a stile and into a wood dropping down to a bridge over the stream to emerge into a large field. At the break in the hedge the footpath goes slightly Email [email protected] right and passes between a pond on your right and the hedge on your left. Follow the path uphill Discover the magic! through a 5 bar gate and continue uphill. At the junction of paths go through the pedestrian gate. or call 01580 752271 to book an appointment. continued overleaf/ 31 BM OCT_Layout 1 27/09/2016 15:27 Page 30

The path WC201 runs through a private a-z ÊÊ ÊÊÃÌÌ>ÜÕÞÀiÛiÌ> 7 ÃÃÌÌ °°°iÀ garden, so keep to the left hand side alongside Ê ÊÊ Ê Ê`VVÌiÃ> VÀÕ«Ei>ÃiÃÕ °°° Ê]}iÛ>ÀÌ]} Ê Ê ÊÊ Ê>ÀiÛÀÜÀi«>«]ÀÜ}`ÕLiÃÕ ÊÊÊÌÃÕÀ`> the fence. Follow the path to a T junction Ê ÊÊ Ê ÊiÀiÃÕ ÀÕÞiÃÌ»}ÀiÌÌÕVi`º ÊÞVÕµ Ê Domestic, Commercial, Industrial ÊÊ ÊÊ Ê ÊiLÝiy`>Þ`iÀv>ÀivviÜq Ê ÊÊ Ê ÊiÀÕViÃ Ì7°ÀL>À iVÛÀiÃ Ê and turn left go through the farm gate and Electricians All work insured and guaranteed ÊÊÊÊÊ>]ÃiÌ>ÀiÛÌÌi«V]i}>ÀÌÃ ÊÊÊ ÊÊiiÀviÃÃ> `>iÛii pedestrian gate and follow the path between Trusted locally for 40 years ÊÊÊÊtÜÃÕÌV>ÌV]ÃÃiVV>ÇÉ{Ó [email protected] the wire fence and hedge to emerge in a field. Êä£xnäÊÇ£ÎÓÎ£ÊÊÊÊ£ÎÓÎ£Çänx£ä ÊÊ There is a lack of waymarking here but the ÜÜÜ°L>ÀÃÌÀi°V°ÕÀÌÃÀ>L°ÜÜÜ i°V°Õ path goes diagonally left downhill to the far corner, near the corner there is a gap in the hedge where the path crosses a bridge across a stream and continues uphill. 4) At the gap into the next field and keeping the hedge to your right walk up to the corner of the field. Go through the squeeze stile and follow the path to the car parking area for Woodsden, continue ahead through another squeeze tile and follow the path past Plumtree Cottage (Fig.3). 5) At the tarmac road continue ahead passing to the left of the barn to a gap in the hedge on your right. The path then goes diagonally left towards Tilden Farm. Cross the stile in the corner of the field into a smaller field, ignore the path and stile on your left but continue on WC364 over the stile ahead. Keeping the hedge on your left continue on to where the hedge ends and cross straight over the field towards Forest Farm, passing through a pedestrian gate, heading for the large oak tree ahead. Leave the field to the left of the oak tree and go downhill to the entrance of The Forest. Go through the kissing gate on your left and cross diagonally right downhill above: Fig.2 WC365 Towards Bedgebury Forest; to the end of the row of trees at the bottom below: Fig.3 WC201 Towards Saint Ronan’s of the field. Cross the stile and keeping the hedge on your left follow the path to where it emerges onto Nineveh Lane. 6) Turn right on Nineveh Lane and follow it past Little Nineveh and downhill to South Cottage, here the lane divides, take the lane on the right marked as National Cycle Route 18. Follow the lane to the end and turn right onto Coldharbour Lane, cross the bridge over the stream and go up the hill. At the sign for Scullsgate House turn left onto the track. After a few yards just past Scullsgate Oast turn right onto WC312. This path goes straight ahead passing through 3 fields, before going through a farm gate onto a narrow path between the hedge and a post and rail fence to Stream Farm. 7) From Stream Farm turn right following WC320 uphill to New Pond Rd, cross the road and follow WC322 back to the start at St George’s church. Jim Hyde, Parish Footpath Co-ordinator

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Benenden Magazine October 2016