CR5 Issue 162 Dec 2018

CR5 Trip Down Memory Lane
Fox Camp on Coulsdon Common is shown here on a postcard c1915. Because of the huge demand on
Caterham Guards' Depot temporary accommodation was required to house the soldiers. At one time
there were 15,000 men at the barracks
Are you interested in local history? Then why not join the Bourne Society.
Apply to : J Hurrion, 7 The Towers, Hayes Lane, Kenley, CR8 5YL www.bourne-society.org.uk
Chipstead & Hooley
Annual Bonfire Night - 2018
I am pleased to report that this year’s event, on Saturday
3rd November, went off without a hitch. For the second
year running, it was staged on the weekend, by kind permission
of the Rugby Club. The display was superb and
thought to be the best ever, lighting up the sky spectacularly!
This year for the first time, the committee decided to
enhance publicity by advertising through social media, to
around 5,000 households. As a result, I received emails
from more enquirers than usual, who were interested
in how advanced tickets could be purchased. This has
prompted me to consider investigating whether this would
be feasible. The costs of administration may outweigh the
benefits as we are a small organisation, but we shall see.
In spite of reaching out to many more potential supporters
in the hope that they choose to come to Chipstead, we
achieved slightly fewer attendees than last year, which, as
you may recall, followed two years of inclement weather.
Around 1,300 attended, and gate receipts barely paid for
the fireworks which has left us with further depletion of
our coffers. As a reminder, there are many costs which
need to be met every year which are ever-increasing i.e.
fireworks, insurance, medical services, security etc.
I had hoped for, with reasonable expectations, given the
excellent clear skies and mild temperatures, a bumper
crowd of at least 2,000. It was the only disappointment of
an otherwise successful evening. We must now think very
carefully how we promote next year, our 50th!
I shall be appealing to local businesses to support us as
we must now seek sponsorship to survive. We also need
more volunteers as we are already too few in number.
I shall therefore be contacting the younger generation who
live in our village to ascertain whether they would now like
to become involved in order to keep the event going well
into the future. We have an excellent formula which just
needs people on the ground in the days leading up to the
event eg building the bonfire, and of course on the day
itself eg putting up fencing. Thank you to my committee
who give up their time for this unique village and also for
those of you who agree to help on the night as well as with
bonfire building one week prior to the event. If you would
like to be part of our team, you would be most welcome.
There is always much advance preparation to be done i.e.
marketing, advertising through many forms of media etc.
As I have already mentioned, we shall be staging our 50th
annual event in 2019. We are planning to make it special,
finances permitting, by reviewing fire and special effect
performers to add to the entertainment and enjoyment
of the evening. Please put a note in your diary now to
remind you of this event and make Chipstead your family’s
first choice for your Guy Fawkes outing. We should love
to see you and your friends! The date and time will be
published closer to the event. We are as yet undecided
on the day and therefore I should like to invite you to give
your preference of either the 5th (it will be a Tuesday
next year) or the previous Saturday 2nd (providing the
Rugby Club is able to accommodate us). Let me know by
emailing to davidrselfe@gmail.com. Details of our event
are published on the ‘Get Surrey’ page of Surrey Live
every year. Our grateful thanks also to CR5 Magazine who
provide us with free advertorial every year.
David Selfe Chairman
– Chipstead & Hooley Bonfire Association
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