Summer 2023
A slice of Cranbrook and Sissinghurst life
A slice of Cranbrook and Sissinghurst life
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Tasty local stories, published by Cranbrook and Sissinghurst Parish Council<br />
<strong>Summer</strong> <strong>2023</strong> | FREE<br />
Kent's Favourite Indian<br />
Dining Experience<br />
Jumeira Cranbrook branch now open<br />
IN ASSOCIATION WITH
Care Workers<br />
FULL TIME & PART TIME CARER WORKERS<br />
REQUIRED IN TENTERDEN, CRANBROOK, STAPLEHURST<br />
AND MANY OF THE SURROUNDING VILLAGES.<br />
Could be your main income, just a few hours each week to support with expenses.<br />
We have Mornings, Lunchtimes, Teatimes, Evenings and Weekend calls<br />
available. Also some Domestic Calls & Sleep Ins to cover.<br />
HOURLY RATE<br />
MILEAGE &<br />
TRAVEL TIME<br />
PAID FROM 1ST<br />
TO LAST CALL<br />
JOIN US IN<br />
<strong>2023</strong> TO<br />
RECEIVE<br />
A £200<br />
INCENTIVE<br />
BONUS FOR<br />
NEW WORKERS<br />
Any experience is beneficial such as raising children, looking after elderly parents/<br />
grand children. But, FULL TRAINING will be provided to all applicants.<br />
Why not contact us to discuss more about the<br />
work and what hours you are looking for?<br />
Call Natalie or Chloe 01580 762244<br />
These positions are exempt from the rehabilitation of offenders act
Published by Cranbrook and<br />
Sissinghurst Parish Council<br />
CO-EDITORS -<br />
Kim Fletcher and Carol Somers<br />
SUB EDITORS -<br />
Julian Flanders<br />
ADVERTISING SALES -<br />
David Hobden - 01892 677741<br />
davidh@spacemarketing.co.uk<br />
ADMIN SUPPORT - Graham Holmes<br />
gpholmes@hotmail.co.uk<br />
PRODUCED BY - Tally Rix - Coffee<br />
Shop Media Ltd - 01580 848555,<br />
tally@coffeeshopmedia.com<br />
PUBLISHED BY - Cranbrook and<br />
Sissinghurst Parish Council,<br />
01580 713112<br />
www.cranbrookandsissinghurstpc.co.uk<br />
Whilst every effort is made to<br />
ensure accuracy, the Cranbrook<br />
and Sissinghurst Parish Council,<br />
editor and authors cannot be<br />
held responsible for published<br />
errors. The views or opinions expressed do<br />
not necessarily reflect views of the Cranbrook<br />
and Sissinghurst Parish Council. Inclusion of<br />
any advertising material does not constitute a<br />
guarantee or endorsement of any products or<br />
services or claims made.<br />
SOMETHING FOR THE CAKE?<br />
We love to hear from you. Please send<br />
all ideas for contributions to The Cake to<br />
clerk@cspc.org.uk by 1 August <strong>2023</strong><br />
FRONT COVER<br />
Jumeira, which means “burning<br />
embers”, is at the glowing heart of the<br />
Vale of Kent, and renowned for the<br />
warmest of hospitality and guest style<br />
service. Jumeira is recognised in the<br />
south east as the outright winner of<br />
‘Best Restaurant in Kent’. Building upon<br />
its esteemed reputation, Jumeira has<br />
recently expanded with the opening<br />
of its third branch in Cranbrook,<br />
promising to deliver the same<br />
unrivalled standards and distinctive<br />
flavours that it has always been<br />
known for.<br />
3 High Street, Cranbrook, Kent, TN17<br />
3EB / 01580 493 812 /<br />
www.jumeiragroup.co.uk<br />
Chairman’s<br />
Message<br />
Cranbrook is being short changed by central and local government, by<br />
uncaring people who have no idea about rural market towns.<br />
The Department of Education shut High Weald, expecting all<br />
children to go to academic schools in Tenterden, Maidstone or Paddock<br />
Wood. We now see ‘ghost pupils’ who ought to be at school, but the<br />
authorities do nothing about them, leaving them bored and finding<br />
mischief in casual vandalism.<br />
There are no school places for non-academic pupils who want skills in mechanics, building or<br />
agriculture; all skills being driven out of the area by the cost of housing. The construction company<br />
Hurstway ran wonderful apprenticeships but can no longer find the skills needed for our ancient<br />
buildings and has ceased trading. The building trade estimates that 100,000 craftsmen are needed<br />
to maintain our housing stock but there are few opportunities for local youngsters to develop the<br />
necessary skills.<br />
Going to school together creates lifelong bonds but with our children travelling all over the Weald<br />
each day, these bonds are not being made. The environmental impact of the 600 or so children being<br />
shipped out of the area and the 200 special needs children who are taxied into Cranbrook daily from<br />
all over the county is not insignificant either.<br />
Thank goodness for Cranbrook rugby and the Junior football clubs and Sissinghurst cricket, scouts,<br />
guides and other children’s groups for engaging with local children each week.<br />
House prices are raised locally because Cranbrook School offers excellent state academic selective<br />
education, saving parents upto £250,000 in fees to go to St Ronan’s, Dulwich, Benenden, Bethany,<br />
etc, so paying an extra £100,000 on a house makes financial sense.<br />
What we are getting is new housing that locals cannot afford and gridlock at 3pm around the<br />
landlocked primary schools in Cranbrook and Sissinghurst. We need affordable housing for a local<br />
workforce and their children, and better local education that meets rural needs.<br />
The new Weald of Kent parliamentary boundary puts our parish at the extreme west end of the<br />
constituency that has no real focal point. We will need a firebrand MP to cut any ice in parliament,<br />
no matter what colour their rosette. If you care about these issues, then find like-minded people and<br />
let’s see what we can do together to express these views. Please do not think ‘something must be<br />
done’, make it happen yourself.<br />
Now’s the time for people to man the barricades again, just as they did in 1391!<br />
Inside<br />
this issue<br />
REGUALRS<br />
5 What’s on & Directory<br />
6 Letters<br />
8 Development News<br />
9 High Street News<br />
10 Local News<br />
13 Club News<br />
14 Event News<br />
17 Wellbeing – Men’s Shed<br />
and more<br />
30 Let’s Cook<br />
34 Badger’s Plot<br />
39 Legal – executing a will<br />
40 PC Update – annual report<br />
FEATURES<br />
19 The Memorial Hall –<br />
Frittenden’s new £340,000<br />
facilities<br />
21 Jaegar’s Field – the story of<br />
Bernard (Bill) Lytton Jaegar<br />
22 Local Politics – Boundary<br />
Commission changes<br />
Cllr. Kim Fletcher,<br />
chairman, Cranbrook<br />
& Sissinghurst Parish<br />
Council<br />
25 Walking with Dogs – a quick<br />
guide<br />
26 Steam Train Volunteers<br />
– opportunities with K&ES<br />
Railway<br />
29 Farming Matters – threats to<br />
our orchards<br />
31 Museum Matters –<br />
celebrating 50 years<br />
37 Cranbrook’s Revolting! – Ann<br />
Historian on events in 1381<br />
42 Cake Meets… Carol Gower,<br />
CBA Millennium Outings<br />
The Cake • <strong>Summer</strong> <strong>2023</strong> 3
directory<br />
A list of useful contacts in<br />
Cranbrook and Sissinghurst<br />
Cranbrook and Sissinghurst<br />
Parish Council<br />
The Old Fire Station, Stone Street,<br />
Cranbrook, KENT TN17 3HF<br />
Clerk – Mrs. C. Bezuidenhout<br />
Deputy Clerk - Mrs. L. Ham<br />
Deputy Clerk – Mrs. L. Thirkell<br />
01580 713112 / clerk@CSPC.org.uk<br />
BOROUGH & COUNTY<br />
COUNCILS<br />
Tunbridge Wells Borough Council<br />
01892 526121<br />
www.tunbridgewells.gov.uk<br />
Kent County Council<br />
03000 41 41 41 / www.kent.gov.uk<br />
USEFUL NUMBERS<br />
UTILITIES<br />
Electricity: 0800 727282 (24 hrs)<br />
Gas: 0800 111 999<br />
Water: South East Water (drinking<br />
water) 0800 0283399, Southern<br />
Water (waste water) 0800 820999 (24<br />
hrs), Emergency leak 0800 0283399,<br />
Floodline 0845 9881188 (24 hrs)<br />
CRIME<br />
Non-Emergency Police: 101<br />
Crime Stoppers: 0800 555111<br />
KCC Community Warden: Adam<br />
Osborn - 07813 695741<br />
Neighbourhood Watch Area<br />
Co-ordinator: 01622 604395<br />
In an emergency i.e. if life is in danger<br />
or a crime is in progress call 999. To<br />
request non urgent police assistance,<br />
to report crime or to make enquiry<br />
call 101. Non urgent correspondence<br />
and crime can be reported via the Live<br />
Chat icon at www.kent.police.uk<br />
ROOMS & HALLS TO HIRE<br />
St George’s Institute, Sissinghurst:<br />
Ursula O’Connor 01580 713938<br />
The Parish Room, Sissinghurst: Sue<br />
Crowe 01580 712567<br />
ts.crowe74@gmail.com<br />
The Vestry Hall, Council Chamber and<br />
Addison VC Room, Cranbrook:<br />
01580 713112 (10am-12pm weekdays).<br />
A full list of over 30 venues for hire in the<br />
parish is available from the parish office<br />
USEFUL CONTACTS<br />
CHURCHES<br />
Congregational Church,<br />
Cranbrook: 01580 388070<br />
St. Dunstan’s, Cranbrook:<br />
01580 715861<br />
St. Theodore’s RC, Cranbrook:<br />
01580 713364<br />
Strict Baptist Church, Cranbrook:<br />
01580 713212<br />
Trinity Church, Sissinghurst:<br />
01580 852275<br />
Vine Church, Cranbrook: 01580 712620<br />
SCHOOLS AND PRE SCHOOLS<br />
Belle Vue School, Cranbrook:<br />
01580 854641<br />
Colliers Green CE Primary:<br />
01580 211335<br />
Cranbrook CE Primary: 01580 713249<br />
Cranbrook Children’s Centre:<br />
03000 41 10 35<br />
Cranbrook School: 01580 711800<br />
Dulwich Preparatory School:<br />
01580 712179<br />
Rainbow Pre School, Cranbrook:<br />
01580 715570<br />
Sissinghurst CE Primary: 01580 713895<br />
Woodpeckers Pre School, Cranbrook:<br />
01580 720195<br />
DOCTORS<br />
Old School Surgery, Cranbrook:<br />
01580 712476<br />
Orchard End Surgery, Cranbrook:<br />
01580 713622<br />
The Crane Surgery, Cranbrook<br />
01580 712260<br />
DEFIBRILLATORS<br />
Cramp Club, Cranbrook<br />
Cranbrook Fire Station<br />
Cricket Club, Sissinghurst<br />
Parish Council office<br />
Sissinghurst Castle Garden<br />
St. George’s Institute, Sissinghurst<br />
Tennis Club, Sissinghurst<br />
The George Hotel, Cranbrook<br />
The Milkhouse, Sissinghurst<br />
WHAT’S ON<br />
June<br />
DIRECTORY<br />
6 June – “Wine and Roses”, led by the Head Gardener, Troy Scott Smith, 6pm,<br />
Sissinghurst Castle Gardens, www.historicroses.org<br />
10 June – Guns 2 Roses, 7.30pm, The Vestry Hall, www.wmwcranbrook.co.uk<br />
16 June – The Cranbrook Comedy Club, 8pm (with food from The Bun<br />
Buddies food truck), The Queen’s Hall Theatre, www.queenshalltheatre.co.uk<br />
17 June – Music Quiz, 7.30pm, The Vestry Hall, www.wmwcranbrook.co.uk<br />
23 June – Mark Morriss, 7.30pm, The Vestry Hall, www.wmwcranbrook.co.uk<br />
24 June – Cinema: The Goonies, 2pm; A Man Called Otto, 7.30pm, The<br />
Queen’s Hall Theatre, www.queenshalltheatre.co.uk<br />
24 June – Kelly Bourne & Amber Rhiannon, Jazz, 8.30pm–10.30pm, The<br />
George Hotel Cranbrook<br />
25 June – Cranbrook Town Band Sunday Afternoon Concert, 2.30pm–5pm, St<br />
Dunstan’s Church, www.cranbrooktownband.org.uk<br />
July<br />
1 July – Cranbrook Juniors FC Family Fun Day, 11.30am–2.30pm, Rammell<br />
Field, Cranbrook TN17 3AF<br />
1 July – The Gigspanner Big Band (led by Peter Knight, formerly of Steeleye<br />
Span), 7.30pm, The Queen’s Hall Theatre, www.queenshalltheatre.co.uk &<br />
www.wmwcranbrook.co.uk<br />
12–13 July – Cranbrook Primary School’s <strong>Summer</strong> Show, www.cranbrookcep.kent.sch.uk<br />
15 July – “For One Night Only”: A celebration of 30 years of the Invicta Youth<br />
Theatre, 7.30pm, The Queen’s Hall Theatre, www.yt93.co.uk<br />
16 July – Cinema: Disney’s Strange World, 2pm, The Queen’s Hall Theatre,<br />
www.queenshalltheatre.co.uk<br />
22 July – Fairport Convention, 7:30 pm, The Queen’s Hall Theatre, www.<br />
queenshalltheatre.co.uk & www.wmwcranbrook.co.uk<br />
29 July – Karaoke, 8.30pm–10.30pm, The George Hotel Cranbrook<br />
30 July – Cranbrook on the Green, <strong>Summer</strong> Festival, 11am–6pm, on the<br />
Ball Field<br />
August<br />
8 August – A Midsummer Night’s Dream, 7pm, Hemsted Park, Benenden<br />
School, TN17 4AA www.hemstedpark.com<br />
12 August – Hawkfest, with the Dualers, Wild Horse and others, 1pm, Moor<br />
Hill, Hawkhurst TN18 4QB<br />
26 August – Proms Spectacular Concert, 6pm, Hole Park Estate, Benenden<br />
Road, Rolvenden TN17 4JA<br />
September<br />
8–9 September – CranFest <strong>2023</strong>, various venues around Cranbrook<br />
22 September – The Cranbrook Comedy Club, 8.00pm (with food from The<br />
Lloyds Kitchen food truck), The Queen’s Hall Theatre,<br />
www.queenshalltheatre.co.uk<br />
October<br />
6 October – “Happy Birthday Tony! Who Wants to Live Forever?”: A One-Man-<br />
Show, 7.30pm, The Queen’s Hall Theatre, www.queenshalltheatre.co.uk<br />
13–14 October – Cranbrook Literature Festival, check website for times and<br />
venues, www.cranbrookliteraturefestival.com<br />
26–28 October – CODS Presents… Made in Dagenham, The Queen’s Hall<br />
Theatre, www.cranbrookods.org.uk<br />
Please contact hulland-rumleyk@cranbrook.kent.sch.uk to add your<br />
event to this calendar.<br />
The Cake • <strong>Summer</strong> <strong>2023</strong> 5
letters<br />
www.bussmurton.co.uk | T: 01580 712 215<br />
Miss Junior<br />
Teen Great<br />
Britain<br />
I am sure that readers of<br />
Cake magazine would be<br />
thrilled to know that one<br />
of their local residents,<br />
Lucy Baker, is representing<br />
Kent in the Miss Junior<br />
Teen Great Britain pageant.<br />
This is a nationwide<br />
beauty pageant with the<br />
motto ‘make friends, build<br />
confidence, make memories.’<br />
She first got involved in the<br />
competition in February and<br />
has now made it through to<br />
the finals.<br />
Lucy, who is 15 and lives<br />
in Cranbrook, is fundraising<br />
for Together for Short Lives,<br />
a charity that supports<br />
young people with lifethreatening<br />
conditions,<br />
helping them and their<br />
families lead the most<br />
fulfilling lives they can<br />
and experience the best<br />
end-of-life care. She has<br />
raised money by running<br />
a games table with prizes<br />
at local farmers markets,<br />
collecting outside the Co-op<br />
and through her Just Giving<br />
page. In her spare time, she<br />
attends Cadets, helps out<br />
at Brownies, community<br />
lunches and coffee mornings.<br />
She also collects food and<br />
clothing for the homeless.<br />
The Miss Junior Teen finals<br />
take place in Blackpool in<br />
October and Lucy hopes to<br />
do her county proud and<br />
bring home the crown.<br />
Sabrina Spencer<br />
BERKELEY HOMES<br />
Ugly Estate of ‘Generic’ Housing<br />
Sir, It is a curious turn of events<br />
when one of Britain’s largest<br />
housebuilders appears ready to<br />
fight for the right to build ‘ugly<br />
identikit homes’ in an Area of<br />
Outstanding Natural Beauty<br />
(news, 2 May). There is, though,<br />
more to the decision than looks<br />
alone. This is a fight over rules<br />
that prevent major development<br />
in an AONB except in exceptional<br />
circumstances.<br />
Michael Gove was right to block<br />
an ugly estate of ‘generic’ housing<br />
in the Kent countryside. This<br />
large housing development, on a<br />
greenfield site, was opposed by<br />
Natural England owing to its size,<br />
scale and the harm it would cause<br />
the High Weald.<br />
Crucially, the proposal was<br />
for unnecessarily big, expensive<br />
homes. What is needed is truly<br />
affordable and sustainable housing,<br />
including homes for social rent.<br />
Roger Mortlock, chief executive<br />
CPRE, (Letter to The Times, 3 May<br />
<strong>2023</strong>)<br />
6 The Cake • <strong>Summer</strong> <strong>2023</strong>
We have been providing expert and<br />
trusted legal advice to individuals and<br />
businesses for generations.<br />
Let it Weather<br />
Some people have expressed<br />
disappointment at the new<br />
appearance of the Sissinghurst<br />
bicycle, which has been hot-dipped<br />
galvanised – immersed in hot zinc – to<br />
prevent further rust corrosion. This is<br />
an age-old process that will provide<br />
a robust coating and protection from<br />
corrosion for 50 years or more.<br />
Although it might not look its<br />
best at the moment, once it has<br />
‘weathered’ – probably for about 18<br />
months – it should start to slowly<br />
improve. Having lived for many years<br />
in South Africa, where there are many<br />
galvanised tin roofs, I know that,<br />
once they have weathered, they can<br />
drastically change in appearance.<br />
Indeed, I have a steel frame in my<br />
garden at the moment, which was<br />
also galvanised – most likely by the<br />
same company – about 18 months ago<br />
and I can assure you that it is a very<br />
different hue to that of the originally<br />
galvanisation.<br />
I cannot give you all the answers<br />
but I know that leaving it to weather<br />
will improve its appearance. After<br />
that, if it still looks bad it could be<br />
treated with a specific primer and<br />
then painted if necessary.<br />
Peter Hall<br />
Completely<br />
Astonished<br />
As you probably realised, I was completely<br />
astonished to receive the KALC Community Award<br />
on Wednesday. I found myself involved with the<br />
Sissinghurst Flower Show Society soon after we<br />
moved into Mill Lane in 1963 and have been on the<br />
committee for more years than I care to remember.<br />
There have been many pleasures and challenges<br />
over the years, all of which I enjoy, as well as my<br />
interest in the past history of the society. As a<br />
long standing village event, it is rewarding for the<br />
committee that the three annual shows still play a<br />
major part in the village calendar of events.<br />
I would like to express my thanks to everyone<br />
involved and hope that the KALC community award<br />
scheme will continue to bring unexpected pleasure<br />
to many in years to come.<br />
Mitzi Newsom<br />
POSITIVE MENOPAUSE<br />
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Poet’s Corner<br />
Pupil from Walliams<br />
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Like a painter’s brush, gifting new colour,<br />
Each bristle glistening gloriously with the sacred oath<br />
Of life, the promise of spring<br />
And the flowers bloom once more<br />
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How much better would you feel if you could at<br />
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Pupil from Tolkien Class, Belle Vue School<br />
The Cake • <strong>Summer</strong> <strong>2023</strong> 7
DEVELOPMENT NEWS<br />
Berkeley – Turnden<br />
Michael Gove turned down<br />
the Turnden phase 2<br />
development, as he<br />
considered the housing as<br />
‘A generic suburban nature<br />
which does not reproduce the constituent<br />
elements of local settlements.’ He also<br />
considers that the layout of the scheme<br />
‘does not respond to its AONB setting’.<br />
These are two of the key criteria used by the<br />
planning committee and seems the first time<br />
they have been used to refuse a planning<br />
application.<br />
As expected, Berkeley will not give up and<br />
are taking Mr Gove’s decision to court on the<br />
basis it is ‘irrational’.<br />
A letter in The Times from Roger Mortlock<br />
hits the nail on the head: ‘Crucially the<br />
proposal was for unnecessarily big, expensive<br />
homes. What is needed is truly affordable<br />
and sustainable housing, including homes<br />
for social rent.’<br />
Following the refusal of Berkeley Homes’<br />
permission many letters were sent to<br />
National newspapers, including this from<br />
the parish chairman:<br />
Sir, Your article on Gove vs Berkeley<br />
misses the point about ‘levelling up’<br />
and the value of AONBs. Berkeley<br />
homes, that start at £633k, (18.5<br />
times the median UK wage), are<br />
simply unaffordable. Our Community<br />
Land Trust tried to buy the land for<br />
affordable housing for local people, but<br />
Berkeley had more cash.<br />
As a rural market town, Cranbrook<br />
needs affordable houses for local<br />
working people, with infrastructure<br />
of schools, medical centre and paths<br />
to walk and cycle into town. Our<br />
In Brief<br />
• Cranbrook<br />
Engineering<br />
At last, equipment<br />
has moved onto<br />
the site. The listed<br />
building, which<br />
has been clothed<br />
in scaffolding<br />
for over 10 years<br />
and had stopped<br />
development,<br />
is proving very<br />
tricky to deal with,<br />
as none of its<br />
ceiling heights or<br />
proportions meet<br />
modern building regulations.<br />
secondary school was closed in 2021<br />
so 800 pupils across the Weald are now<br />
bussed, for up to an hour each way, out<br />
of the area.<br />
‘Affordable Homes’ means they are<br />
let at 80 per cent of the local market<br />
price, but in an area of high property<br />
prices they are still not affordable<br />
to working people. The discussion<br />
needs to refocus on affordability not<br />
aesthetics.<br />
Planning guidance states that a<br />
development in an AONB must provide<br />
exceptional benefits to the community.<br />
This does not.<br />
Kim Fletcher, chairman, Cranbrook<br />
and Sissinghurst Parish Council (Letter<br />
to The Times, 3 May <strong>2023</strong>, unpublished)<br />
• Hill Development – Brick Kiln<br />
We have all suffered from the disruption while the new entrance<br />
is being constructed. Hopefully this will end soon. Cranbrook<br />
in Bloom have offered to help with the planting scheme for the<br />
new traffic island.<br />
• Fernham Homes – St George’s Institute, Sissinghurst<br />
The trees have been cut down prior to the bird nesting season,<br />
with a view to starting construction in the late summer.<br />
8 The Cake • <strong>Summer</strong> <strong>2023</strong>
HIGH STREET<br />
A Great Place to Shop<br />
Cranbrook has over 90 commercial premises. It’s easy to forget what we have! Visitors come for<br />
the free parking, convenience, the opportunity to browse and find unexpected treats<br />
There are few everyday<br />
items you cannot<br />
find in Cranbrook,<br />
and we have always<br />
been a venue for card<br />
and gift shopping. Looking at a<br />
list of shops, we are blessed with<br />
specialist retailers who know<br />
their trade and what you want as<br />
customers.<br />
The shops generally exclude<br />
the large multinationals, so our<br />
niche retailers flourish. Computer<br />
support (by humans!), florists,<br />
stationery, specialist podiatry,<br />
pet stores, vape shop and four<br />
gift shops all contribute to the<br />
unique offer. Most people find the<br />
majority of their daily requisites<br />
in the town, avoiding the time<br />
and expense of going to larger<br />
towns. We still have two banks,<br />
solicitors and accountants, even a<br />
new wealth management office.<br />
There are 14 cafes, takeaways<br />
and restaurants in the town, to<br />
suit all pockets. Our farmers and<br />
local producers supply the farm<br />
shops in Hartley and Charity<br />
Farm, and some sell at their<br />
farm gates: Paley Farm (meat),<br />
Hinxden, (dairy), blackcurrants,<br />
apples and plums at Dove Farm<br />
and Sissinghurst cherries at<br />
Aragon Farm.<br />
Currently there are 14 vacant<br />
properties, including two banks.<br />
LATEST CHANGES ON THE<br />
HIGH STREET<br />
The Ticehurst pharmacy are<br />
hoping to take over the Lloyds<br />
pharmacy in the High Street by<br />
the autumn. They were the first<br />
pharmacy in the country to set<br />
up a Covid vaccination centre<br />
and are very keen to collaborate<br />
with our GPs to extend<br />
healthcare from the premises.<br />
They are highly innovative, and<br />
not run by a huge conglomerate<br />
who probably don’t know where<br />
Cranbrook is on a map.<br />
The White Horse is up for<br />
sale. The existing landlord did<br />
not have his lease renewed by<br />
Admiral Inns. The previous<br />
owners, before Admiral, sold<br />
off half the car park for two tiny<br />
new houses, and now Admiral<br />
are selling it on. There is space<br />
in Cranbrook for a new pub, we<br />
used to have over 20 of them. Go<br />
to see the current exhibition in<br />
the museum to see where they<br />
were!<br />
Oishi, a sushi restaurant,<br />
has opened in Stone Street,<br />
the Cloudberry has reopened<br />
for dinners on selected days<br />
of the week and Jumeira, the<br />
new Indian Restaurant will be<br />
opening soon, hopefully by the<br />
time you read this.<br />
Begbies the accountants,<br />
opposite Wilkes the Butcher,<br />
upped and left with no warning.<br />
The big question is what is going<br />
into the old tea rooms by the<br />
Tanyard. Watch this space!<br />
CRANBROOK<br />
GARDEN<br />
SAFARI<br />
Sunday 18th June<br />
10.30am – 5pm<br />
Tickets £5,<br />
showing locations of gardens<br />
on sale from 12th June, from<br />
Pages Newsagent<br />
Or from any garden on the day<br />
Open gardens are marked<br />
with signs & balloons<br />
Homemade cakes and<br />
Plants for sale<br />
Email marian.cumberland@hotmail.com<br />
The Cake • <strong>Summer</strong> <strong>2023</strong> 9
LOCAL NEWS<br />
News<br />
Car Wars!<br />
While it may not be at the top of everyone’s<br />
priority list in these straitened times, the<br />
roads around our villages are becoming more<br />
dangerous. The volume of traffic is higher than<br />
ever, we are developing our own ‘rush hour’,<br />
the lorries and bigger and faster than ever,<br />
people who know the roads well charge around<br />
assuming others know them too and don’t<br />
even get me started on the potholes!<br />
It is likely that wherever you live, whether<br />
it’s in Hartley, on Angley Road, in Stone Street,<br />
on the Sissinghurst Road, the A229, the A262<br />
or Golford Road, you have some kind of gripe<br />
about the roads around us. You may feel we<br />
may need a 20mph zone where children are<br />
likely to be crossing the road, a zebra crossing,<br />
a pedestrian refuge island, some traffic calming<br />
measures, speed limit reductions from 60mph<br />
to 40 and so on. Whatever your individual<br />
irritation, it is unlikely to be soothed by Kent<br />
County Council who are responsible for roads.<br />
So, Parish Council has decided to adopted a<br />
Highways Improvement Plan, a document that<br />
KCC will respond to.<br />
You are invited to open meetings at the<br />
Vestry Hall in Cranbrook on Friday 7 July from<br />
7pm to 9pm, the Parish Rooms Sissinghurst<br />
on Saturday 8 July from 10am to Midday and<br />
then again at the Vestry Hall from 1pm to<br />
3pm to tell us what highway improvements<br />
you, the community, would like to see made.<br />
We will have a locality map on which we will<br />
mark what you’d like to see and where. We will<br />
draw up a plan based on your suggestions and<br />
submit it. Having a plan does not necessarily<br />
mean we will get anything done, but not<br />
having one means we definitely won’t.<br />
If you are unable to attend either of the<br />
meetings, you can email your comments to<br />
kevin.rampling@yahoo.co.uk or clerk@CSPC.<br />
org.uk<br />
EV Charging in Cranbrook<br />
Those of you with electric and<br />
hybrid cars who are regular<br />
users of the EV charging<br />
posts in Jockey Lane car park<br />
will have noticed quite a few<br />
developments over the last 12<br />
months, some positive, others<br />
less so.<br />
Firstly, the units are now<br />
much more reliable than in<br />
previous years thanks to the<br />
installation of new software,<br />
which has resulted in far<br />
fewer visits from the (very<br />
friendly and informative) BP<br />
Pulse engineer. As a result,<br />
usage has increased notably<br />
over both 2022 and into <strong>2023</strong>,<br />
having a positive impact on<br />
Cranbrook’s efforts in moving<br />
towards cleaner energy.<br />
Unfortunately, this advance<br />
has been rather overshadowed<br />
by the present energy crisis<br />
and the impact this has had on<br />
electricity charges. Since the<br />
beginning of April this year<br />
the electricity tariff for the<br />
parish has almost quadrupled.<br />
Together with the expiration<br />
of the warranty covering the<br />
maintenance of the units, this<br />
has resulted in far higher costs<br />
to the council for retaining this<br />
vital facility for local people.<br />
Inevitably, these increased<br />
costs have had to be passed<br />
on to the consumer, hence the<br />
recent changes to the tariff<br />
charged to BP Pulse members.<br />
Nonetheless it is hoped that<br />
Cranbrook can build on the<br />
progress already made in being<br />
one of the first of Kent’s parish<br />
councils to secure government<br />
funding for the installation<br />
costs of the units. We are now<br />
therefore looking to expand<br />
our capacity with potentially<br />
more units added to the<br />
cabling infrastructure already<br />
in place in Jockey Lane.<br />
We also have interest from<br />
Tunbridge Wells Borough<br />
Council in looking to provide<br />
higher voltage 50kW RAPID<br />
chargers in the larger Regal/<br />
Co-op car park.<br />
In exploring these avenues,<br />
the parish council would<br />
very much like to hear your<br />
views on, not just EV charging<br />
in Cranbrook, but also in<br />
Sissinghurst and indeed on<br />
facilitating the switch to<br />
greener energy in general in<br />
our parish and the wider area.<br />
Please email any comments or<br />
suggestions to clerk@CSPC.<br />
org.uk. Linda Dyke<br />
Welcome Warmth for the Vestry Hall<br />
When the cost of energy went up, parish councillors realised we<br />
had to minimise our energy use. The curtains in the Vestry Hall<br />
were old and somewhat threadbare. We commissioned a local<br />
curtain maker in Staplehurst to help specify and make some<br />
new thermally lined curtains. They went up in April and the new<br />
colours blend beautifully with the colours in the room.<br />
We also took the decision to investigate secondary glazing<br />
and have commissioned Storm Glass to make 53 panels of heatreflecting<br />
K-Glass to fit into the stone window frames. Hopefully,<br />
they will be installed by next winter. This should reduce heat loss<br />
by three-quarters and will still open in summer.<br />
The costs of these two projects have been met through a<br />
grant from the UK Shared Prosperity Fund and from the parish’s<br />
financial reserves. With the gas bill for the Vestry Hall hitting<br />
£1,600 per month, reductions due to excellent insulation will be<br />
very welcome.<br />
10 The Cake • <strong>Summer</strong> <strong>2023</strong>
LOCAL NEWS<br />
Forest School in Cranbrook<br />
Primary Plans Vinny Clinch<br />
and Edward Smissen, Year 5<br />
Cranbrook Primary School is planning to build<br />
a new wellbeing hub. This will be part of the<br />
Forest School and used as a sensory space<br />
for children to explore and learn about the<br />
environment around them. Forest School is<br />
about learning physically and mentally. It is<br />
about knowing what your feelings are<br />
and accepting them. It is also about<br />
having fun and giving your mind a<br />
break.<br />
Andrea Hodgkiss, the Forest<br />
School leader, explains that the new<br />
wellbeing hub is going to be a place<br />
that the children can use outside the school.<br />
“It’s not a classroom, it’s a step between a<br />
classroom and a Forest School,” she says.<br />
The school has started to raise money for<br />
the project with the help from the Parents and<br />
Teachers Association. ‘So far we have raised<br />
about £4,500. But because we want to create<br />
an incredible place, we need about £30,000,’<br />
says Mrs Hodgkiss. “There’s not enough<br />
money to start building this year.”<br />
The most important thing about the Forest<br />
School is that it is child-led. The children<br />
decide what to do and the adults support that.<br />
75 Years of the Fire Service<br />
Saturday 1 April <strong>2023</strong><br />
saw Kent Fire and Rescue<br />
Service celebrate exactly<br />
75 years of service. The<br />
current serving Cranbrook<br />
firefighters and their<br />
families put on a delightful<br />
tea and cake afternoon to<br />
mark the occasion and the<br />
pump was adorned with<br />
garlands. Veteran Cranbrook<br />
firefighters and their families,<br />
the wives (Phoenix Ladies)<br />
– who play an enormous<br />
part in raising funds for the<br />
benevolent service – enjoyed<br />
a walk down memory lane,<br />
with old newspaper clippings,<br />
awards and photographs of<br />
what has become the multiskilled<br />
service that we all rely<br />
on today.<br />
Its historical journey takes<br />
us from the Second World<br />
War when local brigades and<br />
the Auxiliary Fire Service<br />
(AFS) served together – from<br />
valiantly coping with the<br />
consequences of the Blitz, to<br />
the parliamentary decision<br />
in 1941 that combined them<br />
to form the National Fire<br />
Service (NFS). This led us<br />
to 1 April 1948, when the<br />
fire service was returned<br />
to the local authorities and<br />
The Kent Fire Brigade was<br />
established.<br />
In October 2003, the Kent<br />
Fire Brigade was renamed<br />
as Kent Fire and Rescue<br />
Service to better reflect the<br />
requirements demanded<br />
‘We focus on learning about wildlife,<br />
new skills and managing their own<br />
risk. We are there to help the children<br />
keep themselves safe. Everything else is up to<br />
them,” explains Mrs Hodgkiss. “It’s all about<br />
nature, and feeling that you are only a small<br />
part of the world, so we have to look after it.”<br />
For her, Forest School is a place to have fun.<br />
Archie J, in year 5, said that he loves Forest<br />
School because of the nature and because he<br />
is able to be with friends.<br />
The school has raised part of the money but<br />
we still need more. If you would like to donate<br />
and help the school to build a new wellbeing<br />
hub, please go to https://gofund.me/e8f6495c<br />
or scan the QR code.<br />
of it over time. Apart from<br />
protecting life and property<br />
in the event of fires, fighting<br />
fires is now only part of the<br />
role. Greater emphasis is<br />
now placed on firefighters<br />
spending more time out<br />
in the community raising<br />
awareness. They are relied<br />
on at road traffic collisions<br />
along with unpredictable<br />
environmental events like<br />
floods and storms. These are<br />
just some of the challenges<br />
that our modern day<br />
firefighters face day-to-day.<br />
Current serving firefighters<br />
at Cranbrook fire station are<br />
Andy Parks, Ross Churcher,<br />
Steven Mummery, Elouise<br />
Johnson, Max Smith, Alice<br />
Oliver, Ben Neal, James Potts,<br />
Phil Gower, David Howell,<br />
Steven Tritton, Matthew<br />
O’Rourke, Paul Munday and<br />
Dom Moore.<br />
CUP CAKES<br />
• LUNCH BREAK!<br />
The Community Kitchen soup lunches will be<br />
taking a summer break from the end of May,<br />
starting again on 12 September. A big thank<br />
you to all the diners, volunteers, suppliers and<br />
cooks who’ve joined us to make this a really jolly<br />
occasion and we’re looking forward to meeting<br />
up with you all again for a chat and a bowl of soup<br />
once the days draw in.<br />
We have served over 1,000 bowls of soup this<br />
winter, to an average of 35 people a week.<br />
Cranbrook and District Age Concern’s other<br />
activities in the Vestry Hall on Tuesday mornings<br />
will continue. All are very welcome to join us for<br />
coffee between 10am and 12pm and for ‘seated<br />
keep fit’ next door in Church House from 9.45am<br />
and 10.15am.<br />
• CRANBROOK WINDMILL’S CORONATION<br />
STATEMENT<br />
You may have seen the windmill resplendent<br />
in red, white and blue in honour of the King’s<br />
coronation. It can now be lit up in any number of<br />
colours. Don’t forget, they are always looking for<br />
volunteers, and your name does not have to be<br />
Windy Miller!<br />
• TREE REMOVAL<br />
The No. 5 bus kept hitting the trees on Waterloo<br />
Road by the entrance to the Ball Field, so Kent<br />
Highways demanded we remove them.<br />
• VANDALS<br />
We have had casual vandalism<br />
in the public WCs in Crane<br />
Lane. Here is a door ripped off<br />
its hinges, and we have had<br />
faeces smeared on the walls.<br />
We really want to keep these<br />
toilets open for visitors and<br />
elderly people. Please shout at<br />
perpetrators and call 999 or report it on 101. If it’s<br />
not reported, it has never happened. All praise to<br />
our cleaners who do a great job.<br />
• NEW PHARMACY FOR CRANBROOK<br />
The Ticehurst pharmacy are hoping to take over<br />
the Lloyds pharmacy in the High Street by the<br />
autumn. They are very keen to collaborate with<br />
local GPs to extend healthcare from the premises.<br />
They are highly innovative in their approach to<br />
local health and wellbeing, offering a range of<br />
NHS services, including face-to-face professional<br />
healthcare advice and home delivery of medicines<br />
to their most vulnerable customers.<br />
• PUB FOR SALE<br />
The White Horse pub is up for sale. The existing<br />
landlord did not have his lease renewed by<br />
Admiral Inns. The previous owners, before Admiral,<br />
sold off half the car park for two tiny new houses,<br />
and now Admiral are selling it on.<br />
The Cake • <strong>Summer</strong> <strong>2023</strong> 11
LOCAL NEWS<br />
CRANBROOK<br />
VISITOR<br />
INFORMATION<br />
Provided by Cranbrook<br />
Tourism Group<br />
• CRANBROOK MUSEUM<br />
Carriers Road, TN17 3JX,<br />
01580 712929,<br />
www.cranbrookmuseum.org<br />
Opening times: from 2pm to<br />
4.30pm, April to October, Tuesday to<br />
Saturday & <strong>Summer</strong> Bank Holidays.<br />
Also open on Sundays during<br />
August. No admission charge –<br />
donations welcome.<br />
Forthcoming events: Exhibition –<br />
50 Years of Cranbrook Museum<br />
• CRANBROOK UNION MILL<br />
The Hill, TN17 3AH, 01580 714557,<br />
www.unionmill.org.uk. Opening<br />
times: Times vary, please see<br />
website for latest information. No<br />
admission charge – donations<br />
welcome.<br />
Forthcoming events: The Windmill<br />
will be supporting all local events.<br />
• CRANBROOK IN BLOOM<br />
Floral displays at numerous<br />
locations in the town, including: the<br />
Library Pond, the Crane Valley, the<br />
Forge Orchard, the roundabout at<br />
Wilsley Pound and the Copse at the<br />
top of the High Street.<br />
Contacts: Linda Page (Chair) Pages<br />
Newsagents, 29 High Street, TN17<br />
3EE. 01580 713604 or Marian<br />
Cumberland (Secretary) 07780<br />
526766. www.cranbrookinbloom.<br />
co.uk (also on Facebook).<br />
Forthcoming events: Cranbrook in<br />
Bloom will be supporting all local<br />
events.<br />
St Dunstan’s Church “The Cathedral<br />
of the Weald”<br />
Stone Street, TN17 3HA (Church<br />
Office). 01580 715861 (Office),<br />
www.stdunstanscranbrook.org.uk,<br />
office@stdunstanscranbrook.org.uk<br />
Opening times: The church building<br />
is usually open every day. See the<br />
website for details of services and<br />
programme of forthcoming events.<br />
Cranbrook in Bloom<br />
Thank you to everyone who supported<br />
our plant sale in April, either by<br />
donating plants or buying them. We<br />
made a profit of over £900, which is<br />
quite amazing. The hanging planters<br />
on The Hill have been revitalised, as we had a few<br />
casualties over the winter. Too much rain and not<br />
sufficient drainage we think, but they are looking<br />
great now. The local residents do keep an eye on<br />
these throughout the year, which helps us.<br />
We are fortunate to have received a grant<br />
from Cranbrook & Sissinghurst Parish Council of<br />
£3,500, through a Community Grants Programme,<br />
to cover the balance of the new planters, which<br />
are replacing the old rather tatty ones, mainly in<br />
Stone Street. This valuable grant has enabled us to<br />
complete the project we started last year.<br />
The judge from South & South East in Bloom will<br />
be along to visit and judge Cranbrook sometime<br />
between 26 June and 14 July. Your help in making<br />
the whole town look clean and attractive for that<br />
visit would be appreciated. We do have several<br />
‘ghost litter pickers’ to whom not only Cranbrook<br />
in Bloom but the whole community are grateful.<br />
It makes so much difference to have a litter- and<br />
weed-free environment, helping us appreciate how<br />
we lucky we are to live in Cranbrook.<br />
The annual Cranbrook in Bloom Garden Safari<br />
will be on Sunday 18 June. Please come along<br />
and support us, when you can visit hidden away<br />
gardens in Stone Street and more landscaped<br />
gardens on the outskirts of Cranbrook. The whole<br />
day can be spent walking, talking, sitting, eating<br />
homemade cakes and drinking tea, in the sun, of<br />
course.<br />
Our whips from last year are now sturdy saplings<br />
and they will be on sale at the Garden Safari<br />
outside Horsley Place, at the upper end of the<br />
High Street. A choice of Acer, Hawthorn, Dogwood,<br />
Hornbeam, Wild Cherry or Hazel. Why not plant<br />
one to celebrate the coronation of King Charles III?<br />
Front Garden competition entry forms can be<br />
found on our website or picked up from Pages<br />
Newsagents. There are several categories and we<br />
would love to see some new gardens entered this<br />
year. Wildlife friendly gardens, hanging baskets<br />
and window boxes, that can be seen from the front<br />
of your house, can all be entered. Judging will take<br />
place week commencing 26 June.<br />
Cranbrook town planters are now ready for the<br />
summer with colours to match the regal theme<br />
again this year. The winter violas were a great<br />
success but we need a re-think on the daffodils.<br />
Gardening is a forever learning experience, and<br />
even after 20 years, Cranbrook in Bloom are still<br />
learning how to keep an amazing display in the<br />
town all year round.<br />
Please come and join us. New ideas and new faces<br />
are always welcome. www.cranbrookinbloom.co.uk<br />
12 The Cake • <strong>Summer</strong> <strong>2023</strong>
CLUB NEWS<br />
Cranbrook<br />
Juniors<br />
Football Club<br />
Needs You!<br />
CJFC is more than just a place<br />
for children to play football,<br />
it’s a thriving community<br />
of dedicated volunteers,<br />
enthusiastic young players<br />
and supportive families who<br />
come together to create a<br />
safe, nurturing and inclusive<br />
environment for our youth<br />
to develop their skills and<br />
passion for the beautiful game.<br />
However, behind the scenes,<br />
it’s the volunteers who truly<br />
make the club tick. From<br />
coaches and team managers to<br />
committee members and event<br />
organisers, our volunteers<br />
selflessly give their time,<br />
skills and expertise to keep<br />
the club operating smoothly.<br />
Volunteers are the lifeblood of<br />
our club and their importance<br />
cannot be overstated. Without<br />
Frittenden WI<br />
We are a small but friendly WI with a varied<br />
programme of events. We meet at 7pm on<br />
the second Tuesday of each month in the<br />
recently refurbished Frittenden Village Hall.<br />
Because of the inclement weather<br />
last December, our Christmas Party was<br />
postponed until January. The Headcorn<br />
Ukelele Band entertained us in February<br />
and in March we had a talk given by Andy<br />
Fairweather on Pro-Active Policing. In April,<br />
Peter Batty told us how influential the East<br />
Malling horticultural research has been on<br />
fruit growing around the world during the<br />
their unwavering dedication<br />
and tireless efforts, CJFC<br />
would not be the thriving club<br />
that it is today.<br />
Our volunteers show up<br />
early on match days to set<br />
up pitches and goals, spend<br />
countless hours organising<br />
fundraisers to ensure the club<br />
has the necessary resources,<br />
run the tea shop and work<br />
diligently behind the scenes<br />
to manage the club’s finances,<br />
administration and operations.<br />
As the chair of CJFC, I<br />
am immensely grateful for<br />
the incredible work that<br />
our volunteers do. They are<br />
the backbone of our club<br />
and their contributions are<br />
invaluable. However, as with<br />
many grassroots sports clubs,<br />
we are always in need of more<br />
volunteers to help shoulder<br />
the workload and ensure its<br />
continued success.<br />
To anyone considering<br />
volunteering at our club, I<br />
urge you to take the leap.<br />
Whether you have experience<br />
in coaching, refereeing,<br />
administration, events or<br />
simply a passion for football<br />
and a desire to give back to the<br />
community, there is a role for<br />
you at CJFC. Ant Tomlinson<br />
Want to find out more? Come<br />
along and visit us on Saturday<br />
mornings on Rammell Field or<br />
chair@cranbrookjuniorsfc.co.uk<br />
last hundred years. We are also in the process<br />
of planning a trip to the Darvell Community<br />
in Robertsbridge and a garden party.<br />
This year we celebrate our 75th birthday<br />
and plans are in hand for a celebration,<br />
probably during the summer months. As you<br />
can see, we have a variety of activities, which<br />
also include a lunch at a local pub/restaurant<br />
on the third Wednesday of each month.<br />
Our new year begins in May when we would<br />
be pleased to welcome new members. Come<br />
along and give us a try. For more information<br />
contact: Aneta Godwin (secretary) on<br />
01580 714150 or Anne Holroyd (president) on<br />
01580 893256.<br />
Tom Chantler<br />
This spring, Cranbrook Rugby<br />
Club celebrated the life of<br />
one of its great past captains,<br />
Tom Chantler. Tom’s<br />
commitment to Cranbrook<br />
rugby was total and carried<br />
out in his own quiet<br />
manner. He introduced<br />
people from all walks of<br />
life to the club, including me, playing rugby for<br />
fun and for the camaraderie it brought. As well as<br />
Cranbrook, he flew the flag for a number of pub<br />
teams too, the Pepperpot, Wild Duck, Drones, Mad<br />
Dogs and Maidstone Vets to name just a few.<br />
A leader of many men, on the field, in the<br />
field, in the water (he enjoyed a spot of salmon<br />
fishing) and to the bar. A leader of many women<br />
mainly to the dance floor – Strictly Come Dancing<br />
had nothing on Tom – the boy certainly had the<br />
moves. Many great grans, grans, mothers and<br />
their daughters have all had the pleasure of the TC<br />
experience!<br />
At CRC, he captained the Nomads (2nd XV)<br />
between 1993 and 1996 and the Old Gits (the vets)<br />
from 2003 to 2010. On 1 April, a memorial game<br />
was held against the local friendly rivals Maidstone,<br />
who had also lost one of their greats a week before<br />
the game. The Old Gits paraded onto the field with<br />
the oldest player, Alan Shorter – aged 72 – packing<br />
down for most of the game. A very disciplined<br />
and well-drilled Maidstone scored the first points<br />
– 12-0 at half-time. The Old Gits brought on some<br />
younger bodies to bring the final score to 12-12, a<br />
fitting tribute for the inaugural TC Challenge Cup, a<br />
game that will now be a permanent fixture in both<br />
clubs’ diaries. A true testament to the gentlemen<br />
that Tom was, over 800 people joined together at<br />
Cranbrook Rugby Club to celebrate a life lived and<br />
taken far too soon.<br />
The Farmer, the Fisherman, the Gamekeeper,<br />
the Game Shooter, the Agricultural Construction<br />
Installer, the Rugby Player, the Captain, of both<br />
rugby and shooting teams, the Marathon Runner<br />
(London), The Party Goer and Organiser, the<br />
Traveller, the Artist (who knew?), the Dad, the<br />
Dancer… and most of all, the absolute Gentleman.<br />
RIP Tom. Chris Hambridge<br />
The Bun Penny Club, a registered charity, was formed in 1959<br />
with the object of giving a present to all people in the<br />
parish of Sissinghurst who were over 65 and were either<br />
single, widowed or widowers, or for some other reason,<br />
alone at Christmas. This has since developed into<br />
providing an annual Christmas dinner for members,<br />
with those unable to attend given a small present<br />
instead. The Bun Penny Club also takes out its<br />
members for a cream tea each summer.<br />
To raise money for these activities, the Bun Penny<br />
Club originally collected early Victorian ‘Bun Pennies’,<br />
the coins showing Queen Victoria with her hair done up in<br />
a bun. As these pennies became harder to find other means of<br />
raising funds had to be found. These activities now include<br />
an annual quiz, which is to be hosted by the Milk House<br />
pub this year on 12 June <strong>2023</strong>, stalls at the village fete,<br />
coffee mornings and sponsored events. Donations are<br />
also welcomed.<br />
If you live in the parish of Sissinghurst, live alone and<br />
over the age of 65 and are not currently a member of the<br />
Bun Penny Club, then please contact our chairman Pat<br />
Edwards on 01580 712118 for further information or email<br />
bunpennyclub@mail.com. Please also contact Pat if you would<br />
like to help or have any ideas for money-raising.<br />
The Cake • <strong>Summer</strong> <strong>2023</strong> 13
EVENT NEWS<br />
Big<br />
Help<br />
Out<br />
Coronation<br />
Capers<br />
Both Cranbrook and Sissinghurst had street parties on<br />
Sunday 7 May to celebrate the coronation. They were a<br />
great success as the sun shone and lots of people of all<br />
ages came out with their picnics. The beer did not run<br />
out and there was music in Cranbrook and street food.<br />
Many thanks to everyone who helped organise these<br />
events for the community.<br />
Monday, 8 May saw the ‘Big Help Out’ where people came out on mass to offer<br />
volunteer help in their community. Many came to help Cranbrook in Bloom with<br />
their new planters, preparing them for ‘Nuts in May’. An impressive amount of<br />
Brownies, Beavers, Scouts and the Cranbrook Junior Football club also did the most<br />
enormous litter pick. They said they really enjoyed it, and could we organise another<br />
sometime? The answer is yes!<br />
Thank you to everyone who volunteered and did something constructive. If you<br />
missed out, there are many volunteering opportunities of all sorts in the parish. If in<br />
doubt, ask the Parish Council office.<br />
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14 The Cake • <strong>Summer</strong> <strong>2023</strong>
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Sissinghurst Spring Flower Show<br />
The Society’s Spring Show was held in the<br />
Sissinghurst Primary School hall on Saturday<br />
25 March. The number of adult entries in<br />
the flower classes were disappointingly low,<br />
probably as result of the weather patterns<br />
early in the year although the warmth and<br />
rain during the week preceding the show<br />
helped a lot. There were some lovely narcissi<br />
and flowering shrubs but hellebores stole the<br />
show and provided a challenge for the judge,<br />
as did the camellias, the winning one was so<br />
perfect it could have been made of china!<br />
It was rewarding to see more floral<br />
arrangements but cookery and photography<br />
could have done with more entries too.<br />
The children managed to find more<br />
varieties for their collections of spring<br />
garden flowers in contrast to their absence<br />
in the adult classes. The children’s Easter<br />
cards, vases of flowers and biscuits<br />
decorated for the Coronation in red, white,<br />
blue, silver and gold also made an attractive<br />
background.<br />
The children’s artwork of Jack and the<br />
Giant’s Castle from Lion Class, Giraffe’s<br />
Spotty Animals and Elephant’s Spring<br />
Blossoms were all excellent. Rainforest was<br />
the subject chosen by Key Stage classes.<br />
Zebra’s Kyapo designs, Eagle’s collages<br />
based on Beatrix Milhazes’ and in particular<br />
Leopard’s computer painting after John Dyer<br />
drew special praise from the judge for the<br />
brilliant and superb designs.<br />
The afternoon was very well attended<br />
with everyone enjoying homemade cakes<br />
and tea and the raffle, and the children had<br />
fun on the sideshows.<br />
We were very pleased to welcome Mrs<br />
Sarah Holman who will be taking over as<br />
head teacher at the school next term. There<br />
was a surprise visit from councillor Kim<br />
Fletcher who kindly awarded the trophies.<br />
EVENT NEWS<br />
Trophy and Award winners<br />
• Lady Nicolson Challenge Trophy for the<br />
most points in the flower classes: Mrs Jan<br />
Ashley<br />
• David Marwin Trophy for the best entry in<br />
the flower classes: Ms Lynne Bancroft<br />
• Novices’ Award for the best entry in the<br />
Newcomers’ Class: Mrs Kerry Porter<br />
• Jan Agar Award for the best Cookery entry:<br />
Mitzi Newsom<br />
• Sissinghurst Oast Trophy: Mrs Beryl<br />
Bancroft<br />
Junior Trophy Winners<br />
• Percy Foreman Trophy for the best artwork<br />
in Key Stage 2: Enzo D<br />
• Queen Mother Trophy for the best artwork<br />
in Key Stage 1: Archie B<br />
• Easter Cup for the best entry in the Open<br />
Classes: Charlie Bu<br />
• Learning Tree Shield for the best Pre-<br />
School Exhibit: Charlie Bl<br />
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The Cake • <strong>Summer</strong> <strong>2023</strong> 15
EVENT NEWS<br />
Lambing weekend at Snowfields<br />
Snowfields Academy<br />
Cranbrook opened in<br />
September 2022 for students<br />
with a primary diagnosis<br />
of autism. Snowfields<br />
Academy offers the very best<br />
personalised approaches<br />
within an inspiring learning<br />
environment. Our students<br />
are taught and supported by<br />
exceptional staff who offer<br />
care, challenge and support.<br />
Snowfields Academy<br />
brings our values to life:<br />
‘Be Kind, Work Hard,<br />
Communicate, Stay Safe<br />
and Be Happy.’ These values<br />
permeate our building, our<br />
curriculum, our aims and<br />
our ethos and we work hard<br />
every day to ensure we bring<br />
our motto, ‘Where nurture<br />
meets aspiration, to life, and<br />
help our students to thrive.’<br />
We have enjoyed being a<br />
part of the local community<br />
and recently celebrated<br />
the 25th anniversary of<br />
the Cranbrook Farm. The<br />
Lambing Weekend was held<br />
on 18 and 19 March, the<br />
first one for three years.<br />
The effort and planning for<br />
this started the previous<br />
October when the rams went<br />
in – no rams no lambs! It<br />
is a wonderful family and<br />
community event with the<br />
lambs and lots of other<br />
young animals to see.<br />
The whole college staff<br />
and students all helped in<br />
the run-up to the event<br />
to make the farm and<br />
surrounding areas neat, tidy<br />
and safe. Staff also came<br />
in to help on both days as<br />
well as ex young farmers<br />
and farm supporters from<br />
the local community, they<br />
were all brilliant. Although<br />
the start of Saturday was<br />
a bit wet, the weather did<br />
improve. Sunday was a<br />
lovely day and the crowds<br />
MONDAY 12 JUNE<br />
Bun Penny Club Quiz<br />
did come. It was just like old<br />
times!<br />
We really appreciate<br />
the hard work everyone<br />
put in to make this event<br />
so successful, it was very<br />
useful for our students to<br />
be so involved in such a<br />
high-profile public event<br />
and was a real chance to for<br />
them to engage with the<br />
local community in so many<br />
positive ways. We hope to<br />
repeat it again next year<br />
and see many of you at the<br />
event. Many thanks again<br />
to everyone. Fi Bradbrook,<br />
vice principal, Snowfields<br />
Academy<br />
Please join us for a fun evening at The Milk House (TMH) on Monday 12 June to help<br />
raise funds for the Bun Penny Club.<br />
Start time is 7.30pm prompt. Entry fee is £36 per team, with a maximum team size of<br />
six people. The prize for the winning team has been kindly provided by The Milk House.<br />
There will be a raffle in aid of The Bun Penny Club, drinks available from the bar and<br />
pizzas if pre-ordered directly from the pub by midday on 12 June (where possible). The<br />
menu is on the TMH website. Please ring 01580 720200 or email fresh@themilkhouse.<br />
co.uk with your order<br />
The quiz will be held under the marquee on the terrace. Although it has outdoor<br />
heaters, please bring an extra layer if it is a chilly evening. The number of teams is limited<br />
so if you would like to join in and have not yet registered, please email bunpennyclub@<br />
mail.com as soon as possible. We look forward to seeing you at the quiz!<br />
AFP<br />
Writers<br />
are Back<br />
in Cranbrook!<br />
The Cranbrook Literature Festival is<br />
a two-day, community event held to<br />
celebrate Cranbrook’s literary heritage<br />
and to promote the joy of the written<br />
word to children and adults in and<br />
around the Cranbrook area. The event<br />
returns this autumn on Friday 13 and<br />
Saturday 14 October.<br />
This not-for-profit organisation, run<br />
totally by volunteers, will once again<br />
offer free author events for children of<br />
all ages plus a range of ticketed events<br />
for adults for which tickets will go on<br />
sale in July.<br />
Writers<br />
booked to<br />
appear this<br />
year include<br />
Christy Lefteri<br />
(Bee Keeper<br />
of Aleppo and<br />
Songbird),<br />
Alex Preston<br />
(Winchelsea),<br />
food writers<br />
Jenny Linford<br />
(London<br />
Cook Book,<br />
Kew Gardens<br />
Cook Book) and Cat Black (Sex<br />
& Drugs and & Sausage Rolls) plus<br />
Mary Jane Paterson and Jo Thompson<br />
(Rhubarb Rhubarb), Nicci French,<br />
husband and wife writing pair of over<br />
30 psychological thrillers, William<br />
Shaw (Salt Lane, Deadland, The<br />
Trawlerman), E Hannavey Cousen (Of<br />
No Consequence), Vanessa Nicolson<br />
(The Truth Game, Have You Been<br />
Good?, Angels of Mud) plus a creative<br />
writing workshop with Lulah Ellender.<br />
For the children there’s Monster<br />
Doughnut author Gianna Pollero,<br />
comedian and author Ben Miller,<br />
poet Joshua Seigal and author of the<br />
Jasmine Green series of books and<br />
others Helen Peters.<br />
More details from www.<br />
cranbrookliteraturefestival.com or email<br />
cranbrookliteraturefestival@gmail.com<br />
16 The Cake • <strong>Summer</strong> <strong>2023</strong>
WELLBEING<br />
Volunteering<br />
for Wellbeing<br />
Chief Scout, Bear<br />
Grylls, launched THE<br />
BIG HELP OUT on 27<br />
January <strong>2023</strong>, as one<br />
of the centrepieces<br />
of the celebrations for the<br />
Coronation of His Majesty King<br />
Charles III on Saturday 6 May.<br />
“Volunteering has always been<br />
a huge part of what makes this<br />
country great,” says Bear. “But<br />
it’s not just in times of crisis<br />
that we step up. Volunteering –<br />
whether formal or informal – is<br />
what powers our communities,<br />
from Scout volunteers to<br />
helping out at the school fete.”<br />
‘The Big Help Out’ put<br />
volunteering centre stage for a<br />
day and has given people who<br />
want to volunteer easy ways to<br />
join in. So, if you haven’t already<br />
done it, please put your hand<br />
up and join The Big Help Out<br />
in your community. Whether<br />
it’s calling in on someone who<br />
needs a bit of company or<br />
sparing some time for charity<br />
work, there will be something to<br />
suit helping hands of all shapes<br />
and sizes! Go to the website:<br />
thebighelpout.org.uk for details.<br />
Wellbeing in the Weald will<br />
turn four this year and we are<br />
proud to say we are making a<br />
difference in our community<br />
– from funding mindfulness<br />
courses in local primary schools<br />
to teaching cookery to older<br />
men. On the weekly walks<br />
and at our Wednesday dropin<br />
afternoons we can see firm<br />
friendships being made among<br />
those who might otherwise be<br />
isolated. Our newest initiative<br />
is helping to host the Tuesday<br />
‘Community Kitchen’ whereby<br />
“Volunteering for<br />
the Wednesday<br />
drop-in has been<br />
a great way to<br />
meet people and<br />
make friends. As<br />
well as providing a<br />
listening ear, it is so<br />
rewarding to feel you<br />
have helped others.”<br />
any family with a child under 12<br />
may join for a free hot meal.<br />
Don’t just take our word for it,<br />
here’s what our volunteers have<br />
to say:<br />
“I like walking but because my<br />
husband could no longer walk<br />
with me I joined the Wellbeing<br />
Walks. I have now trained as a<br />
walk leader. This has improved<br />
my appreciation of the nature<br />
around us and I have also met<br />
lovely people.”<br />
“Volunteering for the<br />
Wednesday drop-in has been<br />
a great way to meet people<br />
and make friends. As well as<br />
providing a listening ear, it is<br />
so rewarding to feel you have<br />
helped others.”<br />
If you can spare some time<br />
regularly or just occasionally,<br />
here is a list of a few<br />
volunteering opportunities with<br />
Wellbeing in the Weald:<br />
• Use your own skills – IT,<br />
administration or social<br />
media support<br />
• Learn new skills – people<br />
management, grow vegetables<br />
on our allotment or become a<br />
walk leader<br />
• Help with volunteer<br />
recruitment and publicity<br />
• Welcome families to the<br />
Tuesday Community Kitchen<br />
• Help at events like fairs, quiz<br />
evenings, open gardens<br />
• Fundraising support – cake<br />
and jam making, sewing,<br />
knitting or crocheting items<br />
to be sold at summer fairs.<br />
We want to make sure you get<br />
as much out of volunteering as<br />
you put into it. That’s why we<br />
work hard to match your goals,<br />
personality and available time<br />
with the activity.<br />
Please contact us at hello@<br />
wellbeingintheweald and we’d be<br />
delighted to help find something<br />
that suits you. Trust me. You<br />
won’t regret it.<br />
Dr Dineli Charlesworth, GP and<br />
founding member<br />
The Cake • <strong>Summer</strong> <strong>2023</strong> 17
WELLBEING<br />
Wealden<br />
Men’s Shed<br />
(Cranbrook)<br />
The Wealden Men’s<br />
Shed opened on<br />
21 March last year<br />
and has grown<br />
consistently since<br />
then. We often get asked ‘what<br />
exactly is it and what do you do?’<br />
A ‘men’s shed’ is like your own<br />
garden shed – a place to pursue<br />
practical interests at leisure, to<br />
practice skills and enjoy making<br />
and mending. The difference is<br />
that pottering in your shed at<br />
home is often solitary in nature<br />
while the Men’s Shed is about<br />
building social connections and<br />
friendships, sharing skills and<br />
knowledge and lots of laughter!<br />
And, of course, at the same time<br />
it’s a boost to your mental and<br />
physical wellbeing.<br />
The term ‘shed’ is used loosely,<br />
as many of the UK shed are<br />
based in village halls, disused<br />
warehouses, empty offices, a<br />
barge on the Thames or even, in<br />
one case, a disused mortuary!<br />
Each ‘shed’ is run by a small<br />
committee who decides how they<br />
wish to run and what they would<br />
like to do and achieve. Some have<br />
workshops, some are just social<br />
groups and some have both.<br />
Some meet daily, weekly or once<br />
a month. Some admit women<br />
and a few are women only. That<br />
Stanley<br />
Painting & Decorating<br />
Internal & External<br />
Residential<br />
Offices<br />
Commercial<br />
Listed Buildings<br />
Quality Assured<br />
01580 892255<br />
07788 588905<br />
info@stanleypainting.co.uk<br />
Est. 1992<br />
is what makes each of the 500+<br />
‘sheds’ in the UK totally unique<br />
from each other.<br />
The Wealden Men’s Shed is<br />
open to men over the age of 18.<br />
Currently we have 40+ members<br />
from all over the Weald and<br />
membership is free.<br />
ACTIVITIES<br />
Currently we run a very good<br />
social group in Cranbrook on a<br />
Monday morning from 10 until<br />
about 12.30, either in the Coach<br />
House at Cranbrook School or<br />
in the George Hotel when the<br />
Coach House is unavailable. You<br />
can simply chat over a cuppa<br />
or bring in your own projects<br />
to work on or help others with<br />
theirs! Pool, dart and table<br />
tennis can be played too.<br />
We run events such as talks,<br />
short learning courses and<br />
attend fetes to promote the<br />
shed and to raise funds. We<br />
have lunches out and encourage<br />
members to join in with local<br />
events and activities.<br />
We also work in the<br />
community by:<br />
• helping out in the<br />
Community Kitchen<br />
• doing small DIY jobs for those<br />
people who struggle to do this<br />
• running a repair shed<br />
recycling/mending broken<br />
items for local residents<br />
• visiting Hartley Care Home<br />
to play dominoes and cards<br />
with residents who live with<br />
dementia.<br />
PLANS FOR <strong>2023</strong><br />
• We are looking forward to<br />
the opening of our own<br />
workshop, storage space<br />
and outside working area at<br />
Cranbrook Rugby Club.<br />
• Upskilling sixth formers at<br />
Cranbrook School by running<br />
short lunchtime classes in<br />
basic car maintenance and<br />
DIY.<br />
• Holding a talk on prostate<br />
cancer and running a short<br />
first aid course.<br />
MEMBERSHIP<br />
If you are interested in seeing<br />
what we do and perhaps joining,<br />
then why not pop in and meet<br />
us on a Monday or give the<br />
membership secretary, Paul<br />
Chapman, a ring on 07702<br />
842585. New members are<br />
always welcome. We are a<br />
friendly bunch and there is<br />
always someone to meet and<br />
greet you.<br />
Liz McLaren, WMS secretary<br />
18 The Cake • <strong>Summer</strong> <strong>2023</strong>
Renovated Village Hall<br />
Opens in Frittenden<br />
OUT & ABOUT<br />
If you are looking for a venue with<br />
a difference, Frittenden Memorial<br />
Hall has just been given a £340,000<br />
makeover to provide top-class facilities<br />
in an enviable village setting. The<br />
original hall, built to commemorate the<br />
men from the village who fought and died<br />
in the Second World War, had served it well<br />
for over 60 years. However, the space was<br />
looking tired, was hard to heat and in need of<br />
modernisation.<br />
The biggest decision the village faced was<br />
the remove or keep the old stage, a useful<br />
asset, but one that took up a huge amount<br />
of space and blocked the beautiful views out<br />
of the back. It was decided it would go and<br />
be replaced with portable staging, making<br />
the whole hall far more versatile. This,<br />
together with the dedicated lighting and<br />
new sound equipment, still makes the hall a<br />
fabulous place to put on shows and musical<br />
events, with the added bonus of being able<br />
to enjoy the magnificent vista of the Weald<br />
countryside.<br />
The revamped hall interior is now lightfilled<br />
and contemporary with a separate<br />
multi-use meeting room. It also boasts a fully<br />
equipped professional level kitchen, new<br />
cloakrooms with disabled access, together<br />
with custom-built storage space for local<br />
societies. External upgrades have included reroofing,<br />
a new entrance, picture windows and<br />
an exterior deck at the rear to make the most<br />
of the views. A large, free car park provides<br />
easy access. It’s now an ideal setting for<br />
weekly clubs, special events and celebrations.<br />
Funds for the renovation were secured<br />
through several national and local grants<br />
including the National Lottery and Action<br />
with Communities in Rural England (ACRE).<br />
Additional money came from individual<br />
donations and enthusiastic village fund<br />
raising.<br />
To book the hall visit its website https://<br />
frittendenmemorialhall.co.uk<br />
or call the bookings secretary on<br />
01580 852563.<br />
The Cake • <strong>Summer</strong> <strong>2023</strong> 19
Larchmere House is set in the pretty<br />
Wealden village of Frittenden providing<br />
24-hour nursing Care. Our team of friendly,<br />
qualified Nurses and Care Staff are<br />
committed to providing the highest<br />
standards of nursing care for up to 30<br />
residents in a safe & caring environment.<br />
• Delicious home cooked food, all dietary<br />
needs catered for • Daily activities,<br />
entertainment & regular outings •<br />
Consistently ‘Good’ CQC Inspections.<br />
Please feel free to contact the home on the<br />
number below if you have any questions<br />
and take a look at our Face Book page for<br />
an insight of activities at Larchmere House<br />
BIDDENDEN ROAD, FRITTENDEN, KENT TN17 2EN<br />
Find us on Face Book • www.larchmere.co.uk<br />
Please contact Nikki (Manager) on<br />
01580 852335 OR<br />
admin@larchmere.co.uk<br />
20 The Cake • <strong>Summer</strong> <strong>2023</strong>
The story of Jaeger’s Field<br />
Researched by Brigid Longley & Derek Smith<br />
LOCAL HISTORY<br />
Known to all as “Bill”,<br />
Bernard Lytton Jaeger<br />
was a teacher at<br />
Cranbrook school,<br />
founder member of<br />
Cranbrook Rugby Club and a<br />
horse whisperer. He lived in a<br />
stable at Angley Park with his<br />
horse called Horace.<br />
Jaeger’s Field was originally<br />
called the Walnut Field.<br />
Bill Jaeger purchased it and<br />
used it for rugby, which he<br />
introduced to the school,<br />
as well as growing feed for<br />
Horace. Kent County Council<br />
ended up owning the field,<br />
and transferred it to the<br />
school in 1993.<br />
Brigid Longley remembered<br />
Bill well, “His home was<br />
different, the stall and fittings<br />
of the stable remained. The<br />
mangers were heavy red<br />
earthenware, with wooden<br />
divisions topped with metal<br />
grills.<br />
“Horace’s domain was a<br />
loosebox at one end, with the<br />
harness room and sheaves of hay.<br />
At the other end was a table and<br />
chairs, a ‘Tortoise’ stove with a<br />
chimney disappearing through<br />
the ceiling and a small brown<br />
sink with a cold tap, where Bill<br />
cooked and washed. He slept<br />
upstairs in the hayloft.<br />
“He was a regular visitor to<br />
our house. As a horse minded<br />
teenager I admired his way of<br />
life and the way he dealt with<br />
Horace. I had a difficult pony.<br />
One day he said, ‘I’m joining up,<br />
Horace is going I’m afraid. Try<br />
this, and he gave me a ‘3-in-1’<br />
bit. I’m only lending it to you<br />
mind, but if I don’t come back,<br />
it’s yours.’ This was 1942 when<br />
he went to join the RAF.<br />
“I saw Bill once more, when<br />
after a cheery supper we were<br />
sitting around the fire. Perhaps<br />
BAE SYSTEMS<br />
he forgot I was there, or thought<br />
that at 14 I was old enough to<br />
hear of the horrors of war. He<br />
spoke of our enormous losses<br />
in the air, the small chance of<br />
his personal survival and the<br />
appalling destruction of the<br />
German cities he had known and<br />
loved.<br />
“I listened confounded. All my<br />
childish beliefs in heroes going<br />
off to war were shattered. I grew<br />
up more in that half-hour than<br />
ever again.”<br />
Graham Holmes takes up the<br />
tragic denouement, “In 1944, Bill<br />
Jaeger was a Sergeant Navigator<br />
based at RAF Ford with No. 96<br />
Squadron, flying Mark XIII De<br />
Havilland Mosquitos, against the<br />
V1 Flying Bombs.<br />
“When Bill had joined the RAF,<br />
he was considered overage for air<br />
crew and was offered a position<br />
as an intelligence officer. This<br />
was not what he wanted and his<br />
persistent complaints paid off<br />
when he was eventually accepted<br />
and subsequently qualified as<br />
a navigator. Over the coming<br />
months he and his regular pilot<br />
were credited with a number<br />
of V1s destroyed. Sadly, on the<br />
night of the 26–27 July 1944,<br />
their Mosquito was reported<br />
missing on operations over the<br />
English Channel. His body was<br />
never found.”<br />
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The Cake • <strong>Summer</strong> <strong>2023</strong> 21
LOCAL POLITICS<br />
Boundary Commission Changes<br />
Do you believe that<br />
democracy a good<br />
thing? I do, which is<br />
why it is important<br />
for everyone to<br />
understand that we will have<br />
a new member of parliament<br />
to represent us after the next<br />
General Election in two years’<br />
time. To explain why this is, I<br />
need to describe the impact of<br />
proposed constituency boundary<br />
changes.<br />
The Boundary Commission is<br />
appointed by law to review the<br />
boundaries of the parliamentary<br />
constituencies every eight years<br />
and to make recommendations<br />
for changes to ensure that<br />
each constituency has a<br />
similar number of electors. The<br />
latest review has resulted in<br />
recommendations, which are<br />
Tonbridge<br />
Marden<br />
Tunbridge Wells<br />
Staplehurst<br />
Frittenden<br />
and Sissinghurst<br />
Cranbrook<br />
and Beneden<br />
Maidstone and Malling<br />
Headcorn<br />
Bexhill and Battle<br />
Faversham and Mid Kent<br />
Ashford<br />
Hastings and Rye<br />
“You may be thinking, ‘but I thought we<br />
were part of Tunbridge Wells?’”<br />
due to be approved in July<br />
and come into force at the<br />
next general election. The<br />
constituencies are to have<br />
between 70,000 and 77,000<br />
electors.<br />
Currently Cranbrook,<br />
Benenden, Frittenden<br />
and Sissinghurst are all<br />
in the Maidstone and the<br />
Weald constituency with<br />
a Conservative MP, Helen<br />
Grant. You may be thinking,<br />
‘but I thought we were part of<br />
Tunbridge Wells?’ Confusingly<br />
we are part of Tunbridge<br />
Wells Borough, but not part of<br />
Tunbridge Wells parliamentary<br />
constituency. The Tunbridge<br />
Wells MP is Greg Clark.<br />
The anticipated changes at<br />
the next general election will<br />
mean that we are allocated to a<br />
brand new constituency, to be<br />
called The Weald of Kent.<br />
The Weald of Kent will be a<br />
physically large constituency,<br />
stretching from the Isle of<br />
Oxney in the south, northwards<br />
to Marden and Yalding, and<br />
eastwards to Leeds, Charing and<br />
Chilham, but excluding Ashford<br />
town. It includes large chunks<br />
of the current Maidstone and<br />
Ashford constituencies, but<br />
neither of the two sitting MPs<br />
will be standing as candidates<br />
for the new one. It also includes<br />
a small part of the existing<br />
Faversham constituency.<br />
As there is no sitting member<br />
of parliament, the field is<br />
wide open for a new person<br />
to be elected by us at the next<br />
general election. What sort of<br />
person and with what views<br />
do you believe would be best<br />
to represent such a physically<br />
large and predominantly rural<br />
constituency? The choice is ours<br />
to make.<br />
Bridget Veitch<br />
22 The Cake • <strong>Summer</strong> <strong>2023</strong>
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The Cake • <strong>Summer</strong> <strong>2023</strong> 23
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24 The Cake • <strong>Summer</strong> <strong>2023</strong>
OUT & ABOUT<br />
Walking with Dogs!<br />
Many of you enjoy<br />
our wonderful<br />
countryside,<br />
walking the<br />
public rights<br />
of way around Cranbrook and<br />
Sissinghurst and perhaps in<br />
neighbouring parishes. The<br />
health and wellbeing benefits<br />
of walking and connecting with<br />
nature are well documented and<br />
we are all encouraged to enjoy<br />
those benefits in a safe and<br />
enjoyable way.<br />
If you take your dog on a walk<br />
with you then there are various<br />
things to be aware of so that<br />
you and others can enjoy the<br />
countryside safely:<br />
• Anticipate where livestock<br />
may be on your walk and keep<br />
your dog on its lead near to<br />
and in the fields with livestock<br />
in, even if you believe you can<br />
control your dog off the lead<br />
• Cows can become protective of<br />
calves and see a dog in the field<br />
as a threat. In this case, and the<br />
dog is on the lead, the cows will<br />
run at the owner and the dog<br />
so let your dog off the lead and<br />
walk calmly to safety. If you let<br />
the dog go it can keep ahead of<br />
a cow, or a herd of cows<br />
• Always clear up your dog<br />
faeces on all farmland as dog<br />
faeces can pass worms and<br />
parasites onto sheep. These<br />
worms and parasites can exist<br />
for a long time so even if the<br />
field is not currently being<br />
grazed you should clear up<br />
the faeces in a ‘poo’ bag and<br />
dispose of it at home or in a<br />
suitable bin. Please do not<br />
leave faeces in the hedge or<br />
leave full poo bags behind.<br />
Please also respect other<br />
crops such as cereals, fruit and<br />
vegetables<br />
• It is a legal requirement that<br />
all dogs must wear a collar<br />
with an identity tag that shows<br />
the owner’s name address and<br />
telephone number, and the dog<br />
must also be microchipped.<br />
Please ensure that the<br />
microchip database is updated<br />
if you move to a new house.<br />
This is important as wherever<br />
you are, if you lose your dog,<br />
anyone who finds it can firstly<br />
call the number on the collar<br />
and as a backup can take the<br />
dog to the local vet who may be<br />
able to read the microchip and<br />
contact you. If the finder of the<br />
dog is unable to contact you,<br />
it is likely that you will end up<br />
paying a release fee from the<br />
dog warden and may be fined<br />
for not being compliant<br />
• Respect other public rights of<br />
way users: if they also have a<br />
dog and it is on a lead then also<br />
put your dog on a lead to pass<br />
• Take care on bridleways and<br />
byways. Although walkers have<br />
priority, and cyclists and horse<br />
riders should give way, horses<br />
can be unpredictable so dogs<br />
should be kept on a lead as<br />
they pass.<br />
SOME OTHER<br />
USEFUL THOUGHTS<br />
• Obtain a map and read it:<br />
know where you can walk and<br />
know where you are on the<br />
map.<br />
• Follow the way markers and<br />
any other signs.<br />
• Follow the countryside code<br />
Respect – Protect – Enjoy.<br />
Chair of the Kent Countryside<br />
Access Forum, access.forum@<br />
kent.gov.uk<br />
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Lawn Care<br />
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Office: 01580 713495<br />
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The Cake • <strong>Summer</strong> <strong>2023</strong> 25
OUT & ABOUT<br />
Almost everyone you<br />
see at the Kent &<br />
East Sussex Railway<br />
is a volunteer and<br />
behind the scenes<br />
there are many more. Without the<br />
commitment of these volunteers,<br />
this fine heritage railway would<br />
simply not exist. The K&ESR is<br />
currently recruiting – so can you<br />
help? There are some incredible<br />
volunteering opportunities<br />
available that will broaden the<br />
mind, expand your circle of<br />
friends and teach new skills too<br />
– from drivers, guards, signalmen<br />
and crossing keepers to engineers<br />
and locomotive maintenance<br />
teams – the list is long and<br />
varied.<br />
Studies have shown time and<br />
again that volunteering is good<br />
for you – providing a fantastic<br />
sense of pride and achievement.<br />
And it is something that King<br />
Charles III was keen to make part<br />
of his Coronation celebrations<br />
through The Big Help Out.<br />
One particular K&ESR<br />
volunteer can certainly attest<br />
to its positive impact. Chief<br />
stationmaster Geoff Colvin is<br />
one of the friendly faces greeting<br />
passengers and helping to create<br />
wonderful memories on their<br />
days out, as well as keeping the<br />
railway running smoothly behind<br />
the scenes. He has just been<br />
announced as the winner of the<br />
VisitEngland Tourism Superstar<br />
Award. Now in its 11th year,<br />
the accolade is awarded to an<br />
Helping to keep the<br />
Railway Running<br />
AFP<br />
individual who goes the extra<br />
mile to ensure visitors to English<br />
venues and attractions have<br />
an amazing and unforgettable<br />
experience.<br />
Geoff says: “Running the<br />
station is not just a job, it’s<br />
a pleasure to be helping our<br />
passengers as they travel back<br />
in time aboard our trains and<br />
discover more about our past. My<br />
aim, and that of every member<br />
of the K&ESR family, is to make<br />
sure our visitors create great<br />
memories on their days out – to<br />
experience or learn something<br />
new, have lots of fun and, who<br />
knows, even think about getting<br />
involved themselves … I am<br />
particularly honoured to be<br />
the first representative from<br />
a heritage railway to win [this<br />
award] – a real recognition of<br />
how the preservation movement<br />
has grown to be a vital part of<br />
local tourism, bringing value to<br />
the communities it serves and to<br />
those who give their time.”<br />
So, whether it’s one day a week<br />
or one day a year, everyone’s<br />
contribution is gratefully<br />
received and will help ensure<br />
that the railway can continue<br />
to bring both enjoyment and<br />
understanding about our<br />
industrial past to visitors,<br />
keeping history alive for many<br />
years to come.<br />
Anyone interested in volunteering<br />
at the Kent & East Sussex Railway<br />
can find out more by visiting<br />
the website https://kesr.org.uk/<br />
volunteering/<br />
Alison Miles, press officer, Kent<br />
& East Sussex Railway<br />
26 The Cake • <strong>Summer</strong> <strong>2023</strong>
Staplehurst<br />
(Restaurant & Takeaway)<br />
01580 890 420<br />
17 The Parade, High street<br />
Staplehurst, Kent, TN12 0LA<br />
Branches<br />
Cranbrook<br />
(Restaurant & Takeaway)<br />
01580 493 812<br />
3 High street, Cranbrook<br />
Kent, TN17 3EB<br />
Wadhurst<br />
(Takeaway only)<br />
01892 785 873<br />
High Street, Wadhurst<br />
East Sussex, TN5 6AQ<br />
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Your culinary adventure begins.<br />
bleusteakhouse.co.uk<br />
High Street, Staplehurst, TN12 0AH | 01580 890 106<br />
Due to the overwhelming demand, please kindly book in advance to avoid any disappointment, thank you.
Charity Farm Countrystore<br />
Swattenden Lane<br />
Cranbrook, Kent<br />
TN17 3PS<br />
01580 713189<br />
Weekdays 8:30am - 5:30pm<br />
Saturday 9:00am - 5:00pm<br />
Sunday 10:00am - 4:00pm<br />
www.charityfarmcountrystore.co.uk<br />
charityfarm_cranbrook<br />
Charity Farm Countrystore<br />
Get ready for a summer of fun<br />
at charity farm!<br />
Caring for you at home<br />
Well established, family run business,<br />
providing care for people living in the Weald<br />
of Kent. Our tailored service allows you to live<br />
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Call Karen Irving at our Tenterden office to<br />
arrange a no obligation visit.<br />
01580 762202<br />
www.carecompany.care<br />
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We offer free delivery for orders over £75, under this amount incurs a £5 charge.<br />
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For Information contact Paul Jempson on<br />
Tel: 0800 954 5081 Mob: 07957 822110<br />
Email: mail@sponjem.co.uk<br />
Formerly known as Hartley Dyke Farm Shop<br />
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Charity Farm, Swattenden Lane, Cranbrook, TN173PS<br />
Tel: 01580 712546<br />
www.cranbrookfarmshop.co.uk<br />
28 The Cake • <strong>Summer</strong> <strong>2023</strong>
FARMING<br />
Farming Matters<br />
Even if you don’t<br />
subscribe to<br />
Amazon Prime, it<br />
is likely that you<br />
will have heard<br />
about the No. 1 most popular<br />
series in their schedules. And,<br />
surprisingly, it isn’t murder<br />
or mayhem or Marvel Comic<br />
heroes. It’s about Jeremy<br />
Clarkson trying to make a<br />
going concern of his Diddly<br />
Squat farm in the beautiful<br />
Cotswolds.<br />
Love him or hate him,<br />
this documentary series<br />
has highlighted the severe<br />
difficulties that British farmers<br />
are facing today as Clarkson’s<br />
big personality humbly comes<br />
to grips with the regulations,<br />
the weather, the markets, the<br />
workers and local council<br />
hostility. Farmers throughout<br />
the UK are applauding his<br />
efforts as they desperately<br />
struggle to maintain any sort<br />
of living while continuing to<br />
provide British food for the<br />
British population.<br />
Going forward, Cake will<br />
be running regular articles on<br />
farming matters, starting here<br />
with the parlous state of local<br />
apple growing. We would love<br />
to hear from local farmers with<br />
news and views on farming<br />
matters and the challenges<br />
ahead. Email: clerk@<br />
cranbrookandsissinghurstpc.<br />
co.uk<br />
What is Happening to our Orchards?<br />
The local TV news recently showed acres of<br />
young apple trees being grubbed out and burned.<br />
The view shown, from Brenchley across the<br />
Weald, was reminiscent of foot and mouth pyres,<br />
but all apple trees. Surely apple trees have a long<br />
life, what has gone wrong?<br />
It turns out that last year was a disaster<br />
for apple farmers, all along ‘The Ridge’ from<br />
Goudhurst to Cranbrook, and further afield.<br />
Fruit growing is a long-term investment<br />
that has involved risks with the<br />
weather, but right now, the balance<br />
of risk and reward no longer adds<br />
up.<br />
The drought last summer<br />
depressed the expectation of a<br />
normal crop, so farmers lowered<br />
their expectation of storage space.<br />
At the critical time, the rain came<br />
and gave a bumper crop. That sounds<br />
good, but the apples had to be picked.<br />
Traditionally, experienced Eastern European<br />
pickers would come and pick four boxes a day.<br />
Usually they are paid £25 per crate, £100 per day<br />
piecework.<br />
Due to migration pressure and the war in<br />
Ukraine, they were denied access to the UK or<br />
fighting, so farmers sought pickers from further<br />
afield – Nepal and Indonesia in some instances.<br />
To these people, £25 is a king’s ransom, so they<br />
only picked at half the rate. You may think that<br />
they only earned £50 per day… but no, farmers<br />
have to pay the national minimum wage, so they<br />
still had to pay them £100 per day. In fact, the<br />
government imposed an additional premium of at<br />
least 13 per cent, only on farmers, to discourage<br />
the use of overseas workers, so the cost of picking<br />
more than doubled.<br />
As energy prices have tripled, the cost of<br />
storage has also gone up dramatically, so the<br />
farmers were hit yet again with storage cost<br />
increases and no guarantee of sales.<br />
At the same time, the apple size on the<br />
continent was more affected by the drought, and<br />
our European neighbours prefer larger apples.<br />
The twist is the UK prefers smaller apples, so the<br />
glut of unwanted apples were perfect for<br />
UK supermarkets, whose main aim is<br />
to supply ‘cheap food today’.<br />
Although British apples<br />
were programmed to be sold<br />
direct from harvest, some<br />
UK supermarkets chose to<br />
ignore these programmes<br />
and substituted the slightly<br />
cheaper imported fruit. Retail<br />
prices were unaffected, so they<br />
made improved margins, while UK<br />
growers were left to store the local<br />
fruit even longer. Effectively, UK supermarkets<br />
supported European growers by taking their<br />
drought stricken crop without the costs of early<br />
storage.<br />
A further twist comes because many farmers<br />
rent their land, and if they want to cancel their<br />
lease they have to give the land back ‘bare’, i.e.<br />
with no vegetation. As a result, the orchards are<br />
being grubbed out.<br />
Given the current agricultural policy, the slow<br />
speed at which DEFRA moves, the demand for<br />
cheap food and the Brexit foreign trade deals<br />
(which disadvantage UK farmers), about the only<br />
land use that is profitable is solar farms, as we see<br />
beside the railway line in Marden.<br />
Not a great look for the ‘Garden of England’, is<br />
it? Nigel Wickham<br />
The Cake • <strong>Summer</strong> <strong>2023</strong> 29
Call Cranbrook<br />
01580 715 904<br />
Call Ashford<br />
01233 660 851<br />
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30 The Cake • <strong>Summer</strong> <strong>2023</strong>
LOCAL HISTORY<br />
MUSEUM<br />
MATTERS<br />
Although some of<br />
you may not have<br />
yet discovered<br />
the delights<br />
of Cranbrook<br />
Museum, it is, thanks to its many<br />
supporters, celebrating 50 years<br />
of its existence! Safeguarding<br />
our incredible heritage, it<br />
continues to develop and offer<br />
custody of everything that<br />
enlightens our understanding of<br />
the past and informs our present<br />
and future.<br />
The museum, located in a<br />
beautiful 15th-century building<br />
off Carriers Road, was founded<br />
in 1973 thanks to the vision<br />
and hard work of the Local<br />
History Society and of local<br />
townspeople. Cranbrook Rural<br />
District Council, as it then was,<br />
owned the building, which<br />
at the time was rented out as<br />
four cottages. As these fell<br />
vacant, the council made them<br />
available on a long lease for the<br />
purpose of creating a museum.<br />
Initially, volunteers transformed<br />
the interior, with the final<br />
conversion being carried out<br />
by Tunbridge Wells Borough<br />
Council once all the cottages<br />
had been vacated in the 1990s.<br />
Council support has continued<br />
along with a dedicated team of<br />
volunteers who have, over 50<br />
years, developed a beautiful and<br />
fascinating place in the heart of<br />
our historic town.<br />
The Local History Society<br />
has been in existence for a<br />
good deal longer than the<br />
museum and enjoyed the<br />
support of Nigel Nicolson as<br />
its president and before that<br />
his mother, Vita Sackville West<br />
was its vice president. Since<br />
1973, the museum’s curators<br />
and archivists, all volunteers,<br />
have done an amazing job of<br />
organising the extensive amount<br />
of material and exhibits to<br />
nationally accredited standards,<br />
with visitors, both locally and<br />
from all over the world using the<br />
resources to discover more about<br />
their family history, their homes<br />
and a town which was once one<br />
of the largest in Kent!<br />
We are open from 2pm to<br />
4.30pm, April to October,<br />
Tuesday to Saturday and<br />
<strong>Summer</strong> Bank Holidays. Also<br />
open on Sundays during August.<br />
This year’s exhibitions are:<br />
Cranbrook and Sissinghurst’s<br />
Old Pubs (April–May); 50 Years<br />
of Cranbrook Museum (June–<br />
July) and The Russell Family and<br />
their Windmills and Watermills<br />
(August–October).<br />
Free entry, activities for<br />
children – we look forward to<br />
welcoming you!<br />
Cranbrook: 01580 714411<br />
Tenterden: 01580 764344<br />
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The Cake • <strong>Summer</strong> <strong>2023</strong> 31
32 The Cake • <strong>Summer</strong> <strong>2023</strong><br />
High Street, Cranbrook,<br />
Kent, TN173RB<br />
Telephone: 01580 715008<br />
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HOME<br />
Let’s Cook<br />
Coronation<br />
Chicken<br />
The big day may have passed, but<br />
what better way to celebrate the<br />
coronation of King Charles III this<br />
summer than with a delicious dish<br />
of Coronation Chicken?<br />
This dish was originally created<br />
by Constance Spry – an English<br />
food writer – and Rosemary<br />
Hume, a chef, both principals<br />
of the Cordon Bleu Cookery<br />
School in London. They were<br />
asked to prepare the food for<br />
the banquet of the coronation of<br />
Queen Elizabeth II in 1953 and<br />
Spry proposed this recipe of cold<br />
chicken, curry cream sauce and<br />
dressing, which later became<br />
known as Coronation Chicken.<br />
It may also have been inspired<br />
by Jubilee Chicken, a dish that<br />
was prepared even earlier in the<br />
century for the silver jubilee of<br />
George V in 1935, which also<br />
mixed chicken with mayonnaise<br />
and curry.<br />
INGREDIENTS<br />
SERVES 6–8 PEOPLE<br />
6 skinless chicken breasts<br />
A few peppercorns/pinch of salt<br />
Bouquet garni<br />
One carrot<br />
2tsp of mild curry powder or<br />
paste (korma/rogan josh/madras,<br />
according to taste)<br />
150g (5oz) mayonnaise<br />
125g (4oz) crème fraiche<br />
3tbsp mango chutney (Geeta’s is<br />
particularly good)<br />
1tsp Worcester Sauce<br />
2 celery sticks finely chopped<br />
75g (3oz) dried ready-to-eat<br />
apricots chopped<br />
50g (2oz) sultanas<br />
50g (2oz) flaked almonds<br />
(optional – and be wary of nut<br />
allergies if cooking for a party)<br />
Large handful of fresh coriander<br />
finely chopped<br />
METHOD<br />
1 Put the chicken breasts into<br />
a large pan of water with a few<br />
peppercorns, a pinch of salt, a<br />
little bouquet garni and a carrot.<br />
Bring to the boil, then turn down<br />
the heat to simmer and gently<br />
poach for 15 mins. Slice through<br />
a breast just to make sure it is<br />
cooked right through. Drain and<br />
leave to cool. Of course, you can<br />
used leftover roast chicken if you<br />
have enough.<br />
2 When cold, cut or tear the<br />
chicken into bite-sized pieces.<br />
Take a large mixing bowl and<br />
combine all the ingredients in<br />
the list and add seasoning to<br />
taste. Add the chicken pieces to<br />
the mayonnaise mixture and stir<br />
well. Save some of the coriander<br />
to garnish. This can be prepared<br />
the day before, leaving out the<br />
nuts and coriander, cover with<br />
clingfilm and chill in the fridge<br />
overnight.<br />
3 To serve, add the coriander<br />
garnish at the last minute.<br />
Excellent served with a cold<br />
dressed rice and pepper salad or<br />
fresh Cos lettuce.<br />
It’s a dish fit for a King!<br />
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The Cake • <strong>Summer</strong> <strong>2023</strong> 33
BADGER’S PLOT<br />
and prepared for a second crop of vegetables<br />
that should survive until the first frosts arrive<br />
in the autumn. French beans are a particularly<br />
good choice.<br />
Sowing in the greenhouse or outside<br />
Spinach or chard that, when ready, will<br />
overwinter outside. You might also sow<br />
lettuce varieties that are hardy enough to<br />
withstand the cold.<br />
<strong>Summer</strong> Harvests<br />
As I sit writing this column<br />
(it’s actually mid-April ), I am<br />
distracted by the rain beating<br />
against the windows. Looking<br />
back, this year’s early spring had<br />
been predominantly wet, interspersed with<br />
some rather frosty nights. Hardly the right<br />
conditions to encourage seed germination,<br />
although weeds still manage to thrive! It’s<br />
therefore difficult to predict what sort of<br />
summer we can expect.<br />
If all has gone well, the early harvests in<br />
the kitchen garden should be encouraging.<br />
Good pickings of rhubarb can nearly<br />
always be guaranteed along with the early<br />
lettuces. Elsewhere, broad beans and early<br />
peas should be approaching maturity and<br />
you might also have lifted some of those<br />
delicious early potatoes. Keep an eye open for<br />
blackfly appearing on broad beans, though<br />
hopefully you will have some nasturtiums<br />
growing nearby to act as a sacrificial plant by<br />
attracting the insects away from your beans.<br />
Some gardeners pinch out the growing tops of<br />
the beans as a deterrent. So, what else should<br />
we be doing?<br />
EARLY SUMMER<br />
Sowing outside<br />
French dwarf and climbing beans. Runner<br />
beans, beetroot, carrot, further sowings of<br />
lettuce and salad leaves, plus spring onion,<br />
radish, swede and turnip. Rather than direct<br />
sow most of these, I prefer to sow into multicell<br />
seed trays and, when the plants are ready,<br />
they can be popped out together with their<br />
root system, directly into the soil. This gives<br />
them a greater chance of survival.<br />
Planting outside<br />
Basically, anything that is ready to go<br />
straight into the soil; Brussels sprouts, leeks,<br />
sweetcorn and beans. This is quite a busy time<br />
on the plot.<br />
Harvesting<br />
The first real harvest of the year! Hopefully,<br />
if things are going to plan, you might be<br />
enjoying those early potatoes along with<br />
salads, broad beans and early peas.<br />
MID-SUMMER<br />
Sowing outside<br />
A succession of lettuce and salad leaves.<br />
Planting outside<br />
Kale, swede, savoy cabbage, cauliflowers and<br />
purple sprouting broccoli.<br />
Harvesting<br />
July generally marks the pinnacle of the<br />
year’s harvests. Potatoes, peas and the first<br />
pickings of beans. There should also be<br />
plentiful supplies of all those tasty salad<br />
crops. It’s usually the time when onions,<br />
garlic and shallots are lifted. If not required<br />
immediately, store them inside where they<br />
can dry out.<br />
LATE SUMMER<br />
If some of your early harvests are coming to<br />
an end, the ground can be cleared of debris<br />
Harvesting<br />
Tomatoes should be in abundance by now<br />
(provided you have avoided blight) together<br />
with cucumbers, peppers and aubergines.<br />
JOBS ON THE PLOT<br />
One of the major problems<br />
for gardeners during this<br />
period can be slugs. Many<br />
a promising crop has been<br />
decimated by these pests.<br />
What options are available<br />
to deal with them? If you want to<br />
use slug pellets, please buy the organically<br />
approved brands, but they are not always<br />
effective. An expensive way to deal with the<br />
problem is the introduction of nematodes<br />
into the soil. They are tiny eelworm-like<br />
creatures that infect slugs with a fatal<br />
disease.<br />
An old tried-and-trusted method is the<br />
setting of beer traps in old bowls or saucers.<br />
The number of victims attracted to this<br />
method can be quite staggering. Ask your<br />
local landlord to fill a carton with ullage (the<br />
correct name for beer dregs) rather than<br />
tipping it down the sink. A word of warning;<br />
don’t be tempted to drink it!<br />
Before deciding on what method suits<br />
your situation, it is worth making sure that<br />
you are not encouraging slugs by allowing<br />
your kitchen garden or plot to become<br />
untidy. Slugs like nothing more than to<br />
spend the day under discarded flower pots,<br />
old buckets, old fertilizer bags or general<br />
rubbish, only to emerge at night and<br />
feast on your crops. Slugs dislike abrasive<br />
surfaces so broken eggshells or grit around<br />
vulnerable plants can act as a deterrent.<br />
Woodchip pathways can also be effective.<br />
Don’t forget that other visitors, like<br />
pigeons, can also do a great deal of<br />
damage. Netting is the only real answer.<br />
Hopefully, in between all these jobs you’ll<br />
still have time able to enjoy some bumper<br />
summer harvests!<br />
34 The Cake • <strong>Summer</strong> <strong>2023</strong>
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The Cake • <strong>Summer</strong> <strong>2023</strong> 35
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36 The Cake • <strong>Summer</strong> <strong>2023</strong>
LOCAL HISTORY<br />
It’s 1381 and<br />
Cranbrook is<br />
Revolting!<br />
You might be<br />
surprised to learn<br />
that the people of<br />
this peaceful, and<br />
normally tranquil,<br />
rural area have<br />
historically been known to rise<br />
up against our leaders in anger at<br />
their decisions about Cranbrook,<br />
Sissinghurst and Frittenden.<br />
After the Black Death (1346–<br />
53), life in Britain had slowly<br />
returned to being pretty stable,<br />
though it had resulted in a lack of<br />
available labourers, which caused<br />
wages to rise. It should all have<br />
been fine but the government of<br />
King Richard II decided to impose<br />
a poll tax of 4 pence on every<br />
adult to help pay for a long and<br />
drawn out war with the French,<br />
now known as the Hundred Years’<br />
War.<br />
The country, and especially<br />
Kent, went mad! Wat Tyler<br />
(possibly from Maidstone) led<br />
a group of rebels from this area<br />
and Canterbury in the Peasants’<br />
Revolt. It wasn’t just about<br />
money, they wanted to abolish<br />
serfdom (a form of slavery where<br />
farm peasants could be sold<br />
along with a farm). Over 100,000<br />
Men of Kent and Kentish Men,<br />
including our local ancestors,<br />
marched to meet the king in<br />
London They crossed London<br />
Bridge, destroying legal records<br />
on the way, opening prisons<br />
and setting villains free, sacking<br />
homes and removing the heads<br />
of a few government officials who<br />
got in their way. They met the<br />
“The country, and especially Kent, went<br />
mad! Wat Tyler (possibly from Maidstone)<br />
led a group of rebels from this area and<br />
Canterbury in the Peasants’ Revolt”<br />
king’s army at Smithfield.<br />
The king (aged 14 at the time)<br />
and Wat Tyler spoke personally<br />
on the issues. Richard II is said to<br />
have agreed to the rebels’ terms,<br />
but Tyler and some of the king’s<br />
servants got into a brawl, Tyler<br />
was slashed with a sword after<br />
trying the stab the Lord Mayor<br />
of London (William Walworth)<br />
and the rebellion fell apart. The<br />
crown went back on its promises<br />
and hunted down the rioters. Wat<br />
Tyler’s head ended up on a spike<br />
on London Bridge.<br />
Many of the rioters were<br />
prosecuted and records state<br />
that men from the towns<br />
of Cranbrook, Tenterden,<br />
Biddenden, Staplehurst and<br />
Frittenden were accused of<br />
‘pulling down houses, stealing<br />
property and compelling people<br />
to hand over their money.’<br />
Nothing new there then!<br />
It’s no coincidence that in the<br />
1300s the people of Cranbrook<br />
and Sissinghurst, along with<br />
the rest of the country, had<br />
experienced the plague as we<br />
have gone through Covid (the<br />
Black Death killed 50 per cent of<br />
the population of Europe back<br />
then; we still don’t know the<br />
figures for Covid) and that there<br />
was a shortage of workers, not to<br />
mention a war in Europe.<br />
The general public are less<br />
trusting of their elected leaders<br />
these days and are questioning<br />
their decisions affecting our<br />
lives; TWBC beware. What<br />
starts with potholes and a lack<br />
of KCC funding for Cranbrook<br />
Parish compared to other similar<br />
sized towns in Kent (right when<br />
we desperately need it) might<br />
escalate into more co-ordinated<br />
protests. My head won’t end up<br />
on a spike on London Bridge, but<br />
leaders in parliament might again<br />
feel the wrath of the people of<br />
Kent. Ann Historian<br />
The Cake • <strong>Summer</strong> <strong>2023</strong> 37
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38 The Cake • <strong>Summer</strong> 2022
LEGAL ADVICE<br />
Ask our Friendly<br />
Experts<br />
I have been notified that I am an executor<br />
under the will of a relative or friend who has<br />
recently passed away. What do I do?<br />
An executor is a<br />
person named<br />
in the will of the<br />
deceased who is<br />
responsible for<br />
carrying out the deceased’s<br />
instructions, administering the<br />
estate properly and ultimately<br />
ensuring that the estate is<br />
divided in accordance with<br />
the will’s provisions. Being<br />
an executor is an onerous<br />
task in light of the duties and<br />
responsibilities afforded to<br />
you, and the deceased would<br />
likely have appointed you on<br />
the basis that they felt that<br />
they trusted you and that you<br />
would be willing to take on the<br />
responsibility of the role.<br />
As an executor, you have<br />
a number of responsibilities,<br />
which include, but are not<br />
limited, to:<br />
• Notifying government<br />
organisations of the death,<br />
either by contacting the<br />
organisations (e.g. DWP,<br />
HMRC, the local council)<br />
individually, or by ‘mass’<br />
notification using the Tell<br />
Us Once service, details of<br />
which will be provided by<br />
the registrar to whomever<br />
registers the death<br />
• Attending to the funeral<br />
arrangements (although in<br />
certain circumstances it may<br />
be more appropriate for a<br />
close family member or friend<br />
to see to the arrangements<br />
depending on your<br />
connection to the deceased);<br />
the deceased may have<br />
indicated any funeral wishes<br />
“If you are appointed to act as an executor<br />
of an estate, then you may wish to<br />
undertake the administration yourself and<br />
choose not to instruct professionals to act<br />
on your behalf”<br />
in their will, so it would be<br />
wise to check this<br />
• Ensuring any property owned<br />
by the deceased is secured<br />
and appropriate insurance<br />
cover is in place as soon as<br />
possible after the death<br />
• Ascertaining all assets and<br />
liabilities in the deceased’s<br />
name and obtaining<br />
appropriate valuations<br />
• Reporting to HMRC, if<br />
required, in respect of<br />
inheritance tax and ensuring<br />
that any tax due is settled<br />
• Applying for a Grant of<br />
Probate, to give you the<br />
legal authority to collect in<br />
assets and settle liabilities – a<br />
Grant of Probate may not be<br />
needed in all circumstances,<br />
but you should check with<br />
the individual asset holders<br />
if they require a grant before<br />
they can close the accounts<br />
• Collecting in the assets<br />
and settling the liabilities,<br />
together with ensuring that<br />
the deceased’s personal<br />
tax affairs are finalised to<br />
the date of their death, and<br />
for the period of the estate<br />
administration if income has<br />
been generated during this<br />
time<br />
• Distributing the estate in<br />
accordance with the terms of<br />
the deceased’s will.<br />
If you are appointed to act as<br />
an executor of an estate, then<br />
you may wish to undertake<br />
the administration yourself<br />
and choose not to instruct<br />
professionals to act on your<br />
behalf. While this is an option<br />
available to you, we would<br />
advise that you consider<br />
carefully before deciding to<br />
conduct the administration of<br />
the estate yourself, particularly<br />
if there is a complex will or<br />
a complex estate, ongoing<br />
trusts or where entitlements<br />
under a will are in dispute. We<br />
understand that suffering a<br />
bereavement is a distressing<br />
time for everyone involved and<br />
the penalties involved in the<br />
administration of an estate<br />
should you quite innocently<br />
fail to perform your duties are<br />
extreme and accountable to you<br />
personally.<br />
We would therefore urge you<br />
to give serious consideration<br />
to using an independent<br />
professional, like ourselves, to<br />
assist you. If you require any<br />
advice or assistance in this<br />
regard, please do not hesitate to<br />
contact us.<br />
AMY TURNER-IVES<br />
01892 502 396<br />
01580 712 215<br />
info@bussmurton.co.uk –<br />
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Clermont House, High Street,<br />
Cranbrook, TN17 3DN<br />
01580 712 215 or info@<br />
bussmurton.co.uk<br />
www.bussmurton.co.uk<br />
The Cake • <strong>Summer</strong> <strong>2023</strong> 39
Update<br />
Parish Council Annual<br />
Report 2022/23<br />
The parish councillors have had<br />
a lot of work this year as we<br />
have recovered from the Covid<br />
shutdown. The clerks have done<br />
a great job keeping everything<br />
working and enabling us to do new things.<br />
These are mentioned in each committee<br />
below. Kim Fletcher, chairman<br />
PROPERTIES AND BURIALS COMMITTEE<br />
SUMMARY – Cllr Colin Gilbert<br />
Responsibilities include the two cemeteries,<br />
St Dunstan’s Churchyard, the Vestry Hall<br />
Complex, the War Memorials, bus shelters,<br />
noticeboards, cycle racks and red telephone<br />
boxes.<br />
Vestry Hall Complex – Exploring options<br />
to replace the old central heating system,<br />
lighting systems etc. with a view to consider<br />
the use of alternative technology. New<br />
thermal curtains have been installed into the<br />
Vestry Hall. Looking forward we are exploring<br />
the possible installation of secondary glazing.<br />
Public toilets, Crane Lane – We have<br />
managed to keep the toilets open despite the<br />
attempts of vandalism. Our thanks go to our<br />
cleaners who have done and continue to do a<br />
great job.<br />
ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT<br />
COMMITTEE SUMMARY – Cllr Alan Kings<br />
Responsibilities include managing recreation<br />
grounds, allotments, streetlighting and car<br />
parks.<br />
Electric vehicle charging points, Jockey<br />
Lane – Due to the increased electricity<br />
charges, the EV units have moved to a private<br />
network. The reimbursement rate from BP<br />
Pulse would not cover the electric costs if they<br />
remained on the BP Pulse Public Network.<br />
Streetlights – Numerous lights have<br />
required maintenance, with some needing<br />
replacing.<br />
Plans for <strong>2023</strong>–24 – Include recreation<br />
grounds and nature reserve tree safety audit<br />
and Highway Improvement Plan.<br />
PLANNING & PRESERVATION<br />
COMMITTEE SUMMARY –<br />
Cllr Alison Bunyan<br />
The parish council are statutory consultees,<br />
with TWBC the decision-making authority.<br />
The main responsibility of the committee<br />
is to consider and make comments on<br />
planning applications, appeals and other<br />
planning documents including consultations.<br />
The committee dealt with 142 planning<br />
applications during the year.<br />
The Secretary of State for Housing,<br />
Michael Gove, turned down Berkeley Homes<br />
application to build 165 houses adjacent<br />
to Turnden. Under planning law, building<br />
in Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty<br />
should be avoided except in exceptional<br />
circumstances. Mr Gove concluded that<br />
“exceptional circumstances do not exist to<br />
justify the proposed development in the<br />
AONB and that the development would not<br />
be in the public interest.” Berkeley Group<br />
has launched a legal challenge against the<br />
housing secretary’s decision.<br />
COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT<br />
COMMITTEE – Cllr Lee Hatcher<br />
The committee’s aim is to promote events,<br />
tourism, social cohesion and facilitate<br />
community involvement.<br />
The committee has facilitated the<br />
reinstatement of the weekly Citizens Advice<br />
outreach sessions in Cranbrook Library. A<br />
‘New Year, New You’ event was successfully<br />
held in the Vestry Hall. This was to showcase<br />
local organisations who were looking for new<br />
members or volunteers.<br />
Looking forward, the committee plans to<br />
develop effective liaison with outside bodies<br />
on car parking and traffic issues, create and<br />
develop parish voluntary organisation liaison<br />
and develop a public consultation policy for<br />
the council.<br />
NEIGHBOURHOOD DEVELOPMENT<br />
PLANNING COMMITTEE SUMMARY –<br />
Cllr Garry Pethurst<br />
Following the Regulation 16 consultation<br />
last September, an independent examiner<br />
was appointed and his Clarification Note was<br />
received at the beginning of the year and,<br />
working jointly with TWBC, a response was<br />
sent. It is hoped that the plan will be at the<br />
Referendum Stage in September.<br />
POLICY AND RESOURCES COMMITTEE –<br />
Cllr Garry Pethurst<br />
The P&R committee is made up of the chairs<br />
of all the other committees, including the<br />
chair of the PC. It is, in effect, the finance<br />
committee with responsibility for ensuring<br />
that the council’s finances are managed<br />
prudently, to try to obtain best value for<br />
money for all our parishioners.<br />
We are aware that everybody will be<br />
impacted in some way by the cost-of-living<br />
crisis, and the parish council was determined<br />
to try to do its bit to keep its impact down.<br />
Therefore, we took the decision to maintain<br />
the precept at last year’s level by budgeting<br />
cautiously and, where necessary, using some<br />
of the reserves put by in previous years.<br />
40 The Cake • <strong>Summer</strong> <strong>2023</strong>
Finance Report<br />
Precept cost each Band D<br />
houshold for <strong>2023</strong>-24<br />
£139.34/year or £2.68/week<br />
Total Expenditure 2022/23 – £418,587, includes:<br />
Expenditure<br />
Amount<br />
Insurances £10,309<br />
Street Lighting £15,566<br />
Vestry Hall & Info Centre - including rates, running costs,<br />
general maintenance, roof repairs and external decoration £31,424<br />
General maintenance of Cemeteries, Churchyard and War Memorials £7,602<br />
Contracts for upkeep of Recreation Grounds, Cemeteries & Allotments £35,793<br />
Recreation Grounds – maintenance, litter clearance, play<br />
equipment reports & repairs, incl. new piece of play equipment £23,167<br />
Car Parks including business rates and repairs and costs associated<br />
with the EV charge points. £43,379<br />
Grants to Voluntary Organisations £9,854<br />
Public toilet refurbishment and running costs £12,100<br />
Total Revenue 2022/23 - £519,162, includes:<br />
Source<br />
Amount<br />
Bank Interest £6,136<br />
The Cake – advertising revenue and sponsorship £17,363<br />
Vestry Hall & Council Chamber Hire £21,577<br />
Burial Fees £11,869<br />
From Tomlin Murton Playing Field Trust £6,000<br />
Rents & Wayleaves received £2,118<br />
EV Electric reimbursement £5,986<br />
Allotment rents £1,420<br />
Introducing our<br />
new Councillor<br />
Christine Newman<br />
Christine has lived in Cranbrook<br />
for 30 years and in the Weald of<br />
Kent all her life and hence has a<br />
strong affinity with the town and its<br />
surrounding area. She has recently<br />
retired from Cranbrook School<br />
where she was librarian and head of<br />
careers for 20 years. She was educated<br />
locally, has a degree in English and a<br />
masters in creative writing and is the<br />
founder of the community Cranbrook<br />
Literature Festival, which was set up<br />
in 2016.<br />
Christine’s leisure time is spent<br />
walking footpaths, both locally and<br />
further afield, cycling, sea swimming,<br />
reading and spending as much<br />
time as she can with her grown up<br />
daughters!<br />
Christine has always been a<br />
supporter of the community and set<br />
up student community links with<br />
the elderly and litter picking while<br />
at the school. She is also part of the<br />
CranFest organisation, a committee<br />
member for the Cranbrook Museum<br />
and the Local History Society and<br />
volunteers in Oxfam regularly.<br />
The Cake • <strong>Summer</strong> <strong>2023</strong> 41
THE CAKE MEETS...<br />
Carol Gower<br />
The Cake meets Carol in between trips she has<br />
organised for CBA Millennium Outings<br />
Carol grew up in<br />
Sissinghurst and has<br />
worked in Cranbrook<br />
throughout her<br />
adult life. She<br />
was instrumental in bringing<br />
J. Perigoe & Son, funeral<br />
directors, to Cranbrook in 1986<br />
and was a mainstay of their<br />
operation until she retired<br />
from full time work. As an<br />
active member of the former<br />
Cranbrook Business Association<br />
(CBA) she has always been<br />
involved in town life.<br />
In January 2000, she was<br />
taken to the newly opened<br />
Millennium Dome in Greenwich,<br />
and afterwards mused how<br />
many other people from the<br />
Cranbrook area might like to<br />
go. She made enquiries and<br />
organised her first coach trip,<br />
along with the late Nita Stemp<br />
(Stoneydale). The trip was a<br />
great success and, as she left<br />
the coach, one<br />
gentleman asked<br />
‘where are you<br />
going to take us<br />
next?’<br />
This galvanised<br />
Carol into<br />
organising a<br />
trip to the new<br />
London Eye, and,<br />
when people<br />
asked to go back<br />
to London again<br />
for a night-time<br />
experience, she<br />
did that too! This<br />
made a small contribution to<br />
the charitable donations of the<br />
CBA, but the big project in Carol<br />
and Nita’s minds was the town’s<br />
Millennium Project – a new<br />
community centre – that had<br />
received universal approval at<br />
a public meeting back in 1999.<br />
As a result, the trips are called<br />
CBA Millennium Outings. These<br />
ladies were aware that Lottery<br />
funding needs local ‘Match<br />
Funding’ and thought that<br />
establishing a regular outings<br />
programme might help provide<br />
this in the long term.<br />
Carol now runs about 15 day<br />
trips a year, covering a wide<br />
range of events and venues<br />
including theatre, concerts,<br />
gardens etc, along with UK short<br />
breaks and holidays, picking<br />
up passengers in Cranbrook,<br />
Sissinghurst, Hawkhurst and<br />
Staplehurst with supporters<br />
joining from other villages<br />
around too. Over time the<br />
group has ocean-cruised the<br />
Norwegian Fjords and rivercruised<br />
much of northern<br />
Europe too… all organised from<br />
Carol’s front room!<br />
This summer’s trips include<br />
The Savill Garden & ‘Royal<br />
Heritage’ Tour; ‘Strictly Come<br />
Dancing – The Professionals’<br />
in Brighton; Duxford Aircraft<br />
Museum or a guided tour of<br />
Cambridge; Annie the Musical<br />
at the Churchill Theatre in<br />
Bromley and a short-break<br />
based in Bury St Edmunds.<br />
Bookings are also being taken<br />
for a 2024 Baltic River Cruise<br />
(attracting a group discounted<br />
price and including travel to<br />
Dover), and Carol is currently<br />
working on her Autumn/Winter<br />
day-trip programme.<br />
We estimate that Carol has<br />
organised over 25,000 day visits<br />
for local people, enabling them<br />
to have a care free experience<br />
with door to door travel.<br />
Carol runs a slick operation,<br />
all by mail or hand dropped<br />
leaflets, as not all supporters<br />
use email. Allocation of tickets<br />
is ‘First Come, First Served’.<br />
To hear more, or to join the<br />
mailing list, please telephone<br />
Carol on 01580 712521 between<br />
7pm and 9pm on weekday<br />
evenings.<br />
When asked if she has ever<br />
lost someone, she assures she<br />
has not! This is a wonderful<br />
story of a small idea taking<br />
root and bringing enjoyment to<br />
hundreds of people. Thank you,<br />
Carol, and your band of helpers!<br />
42 The Cake • <strong>Summer</strong> <strong>2023</strong>
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