Spring 2022

WELLBEING
KENT HIGH WEALD
PARTNERSHIP (KHWP)
We are a countryside
management partnership
and run volunteer task days
across the High Weald,
including at Crane Valley
Local Nature Reserve. This
work includes a variety of
tasks from litter picking and
path clearance to the annual
meadow cut, managing the
site on behalf of Cranbrook
and Sissinghurst Parish
Council. Days run from 10am-
3pm with tools and coffee
break refreshments provided.
Keep up to date with our work
programme as well as other
projects at www.khwp.org.uk.
You can also contact Steph
(partnership officer) at steph.
dowling@kent.gov.uk if you
have any further questions!
INVOLVE KENT
Involve Kent provides
various services across Kent
including social prescribing
in the Weald. We took part
in the wellbeing fair to
share information about
our services and meet
members and partners of
the local community. Social
prescribing offers support
around your non-medical
needs and the service is
open to all patients 18 or
over who may benefit from
a conversation about their
wellbeing. Please contact
your surgery for a referral
to Involve social prescribing
which is a free service funded
by the NHS.
CRANBROOK OPERA
AND DRAMATIC
SOCIETY (CODS)
CODS is a long running
community orientated drama
company that is based in the
Queen’s Hall Theatre (QHT)
in Cranbrook School. Our next
production will be an Easter
treat as we are producing
Blackadder Goes Forth, which
is currently in rehearsal.
After that we will start our
audition process at the end
of April/May for our autumn
musical Made in Dagenham.
All performances being in the
QHT. To keep up to date with
our shows and information
about the Society follow the
https://linktr.ee/cranbrook
COACH OUTINGS
ARRANGED BY
THE CRANBROOK
BUSINESS
ASSOCIATION
CBA Millennium Outings’
first trip took place in May
2000, so we’re now in our
24th year. We offer days out,
by coach, covering a wide
range of interests (gardens,
theatres, special events etc.)
throughout the year, as well
as two or three holidays or
shorter breaks. We are well
supported by members of the
communities of Cranbrook
and Sissinghurst, along
with others who join us
from villages all around. We
maintain a database of some
340 names and addresses
all of whom are sent details
of new trips as they are
launched. For further details
contact Carol Gower (01580
712521) on weekday evenings
between 7pm and 9pm please.
THE CRANBROOK
MUSEUM AND LOCAL
HISTORY SOCIETY
Visitors learnt about
forthcoming talks,
exhibitions, research
facilities, publications, group
visits and loans, as well as
the wonderful Wheels of
Time scheme for 5 to 11 year
olds. They were also able to
find out about some of the
many ways that people can be
involved as volunteers, from
one-off sessions to longer
and more regular support.
See www.cranbrookmuseum.
org for more information and
contact details.
The Community Kitchen
Toasty Tuesdays in the Vestry Hall
Age Concern and Wellbeing in the Weald have
joined forces during the cold winter months to
provide a warm welcome and hot food every
Tuesday in the Vestry Hall to anyone living in
Cranbrook and Sissinghurst.
Since September, Cranbrook and District Age
Concern’s Tuesday coffee mornings have been
followed by a hot soup lunch, cooked and served
by volunteers, and the whole community has been
welcomed in. All ages are dropping by for a chat
and a bowl of soup, including coffee morning
guests who stay on, workers in their lunch hour
and families with pre-school children.
Buoyed up with the success of the lunch and
the sense of community, Wellbeing in the Weald’s
volunteers started providing a hot after-school
tea for primary and preschool children at the
beginning of January. Food is served straight
after school from 3.30-4.00pm and the menu
is announced the week before on the Toasty
Tuesday Facebook page. One of the following
dishes is on the menu each week – macaroni
Cranbrook and
District Age Concern
KEEP FIT, COFFEE, CAKE AND
HEARING AID SUPPORT!
Church House, opposite the main
entrance to St Dunstan’s Church, has
started an ‘in chair’ keep fit class every
Tuesday from 9.45–10.15am, finishing
just in time join the coffee morning.
The weekly coffee mornings, held
in the Vestry Hall between 10.15 and
11.45, continue to go from strength
to strength. Numbers are growing
as new people join in and enjoy the
friendly atmosphere, coffee, tea and
delicious cake.
The coffee morning now offers
hearing aid maintenance nearly every
week and free hearing aid batteries for
NHS hearing aids are always available.
Events are now being planned,
starting with a two course lunch at the
Milk House in Sissinghurst at the end
of February.
Visit the www.
cranbrookdistrictageconcern.org for
more information.
cheese, bangers and mash, pasta with tomato
sauce and shepherd’s pie – all followed by fresh
fruit. All children under 12 who live in Cranbrook
and Sissinghurst are very welcome. There’s one
proviso, children must be accompanied by an
adult but there’ll be a cup of tea or coffee for the
grown-ups provided!
There is a very special atmosphere created
when a community comes together to share food
and chat. None of this would have been possible
without the support of the local community and
financial support from Kent County Council,
TWBC and local donors. A great big thank you
to our four soup makers, Wendy and Julie from
Larkins, Paul and the ‘Men’s shedders’, the Milk
House, Carolyn, and Emma for staying on after
lunch and cooking the children’s meal. A big
thanks too to local businesses for supplying food
and ingredients including eggs from Fridays Ltd,
bread from Cranbrook Bakers and cakes from
Hartley Dyke Farm Shop.
Please come and join us for coffee or a soup
lunch and we’d love to welcome your pre-school
or primary school kids for a hot meal straight after
school on Tuesdays.
The Cake • Spring 2023 13