Newsletter No.1

By Vic Lander

East Brighton Bygones Local History Society

"Newsletter"

Issue No 1 July 2008

Introduction                                                                                                                                                                                                                           Should the members agree it is intended that the society issue a Newsletter once a month to be issued at the regular meeting.  The advantage that this will introduce will give those members who do not own a computer or those that are not quite computer literate, a means of keeping up-dated on the activities of the society.

It is intended that there will be regular items listed under set headings with extra items added on an ad hoc basis.  Members will be asked to submit any items they think are worthy of publication to the editor.  These items must be submitted by the end of the month in question to give the editor time to produce the newsletter.  Items submitted late will be included in the next months issue.

As a example these next items have been produced

News of members
Bob and Betty Nutley have returned from their holiday in France and it will be good to see Bob at our July meeting.

New members

We had no new members join us in June.

General news
The move from the shop to the office at the Valley Social Centre has now been completed.  We now have a telephone, the number of which is 01273 608807.  We have an answer phone facility whereby anyone contacting us outside of office hours can leave a message and contact can then be made at the next opportunity.

The office hours are the same as they were at the shop, 10am until 2pm Wednesdays and Fridays.

Discussions have taken place with the manager of the Valley social centre regarding Beryl's bashes, the tea meetings between the regular meetings.  The manager is sure that the meetings can take place in the café between 2pm and 4pm.

Recent activities
There have been no major activities as most of the recent effort has been towards the move to the new offices.

Articles and stories received
We are well on the way to publishing stories from two of our members in booklet form.  The first will be Betty's story that first appeared at last years East Brighton Seen exhibition.  Since then Betty's daughter Sue has extended the story and once this is complete we will go ahead with publication.

The second is Pam Piercey's story of her childhood in Sussex Square.  Pam gave a talk on this subject earlier in the year and everyone hearing her presentation agreed that we must put the story into print.

As you may know Vic and Brenda Lander often go to France to stay with the girl they call their "French Daughter".  On their most recent visit in June Vic made enquiries about local history.  Dominique, the "French daughter" had met a resident of the village who had been a member of the French Resistance, acting as a nurse.

The lady had written her story and on hearing of our society gave Vic a copy.  She also said that she would be most honoured if we printed her story.  Dominique offered to take photo's of the lady outside of the farm that served as the resistance HQ for the area.  The original story is written in French and Dominique has said she will interpret it for us.

External contacts
During June we supported St Mary's Hall School in their attempt to obtain lottery grant to refurbish St Marks chapel, better known to most of us as St Marks Church.

The school has exiting plans to refurbish the fabric of the building and modernise its facilities.  Once complete the chapel will form a centre for diverse activities associated with the surrounding area.  The new centre would be offered to different organisations for their use.

Sadly despite a first class meeting with the lottery representatives and their enthusiasm for the scheme, at the final hurdle the grant was not made.  Currently the school is reconsidering it's options and we have offered any support and assistance we can give.

We were nominated and short listed for an award sponsored by the Nationwide Building Society, in the community group category.  Unfortunately although being short-listed we failed at the final judging.

Jack Latimer had made contact asking for members to submit items for the "Letters in the Attic" project.  He specifically said he would like to speak to Pam Piercey and Charlie Coverdale

Forthcoming events
On the 16th of July we will be visiting the Chalk Pits Industrial Museum at Amberley.  Details of times and meeting place will be made at the meeting on the 9th of July.  Members willing to transport passengers will be most welcome.

Requests for information

A request has been made about information regarding the Land Army in Peacehaven during the war.  Coincidently a lady made a comment on one of our histories and referred to Peacehaven and the Land Army.  We are putting the two parties in contact with one another.

Extra items

Subject and date of next meeting.

The next meeting will take place on the 13th of August when the subject will be the development of Radio Brighton.  The speaker will be John Henty.