Author: TThastings

  • The community garden in September

    The community garden in September

    Here are some of the fruits of our labour. Many thanks to Pea Pod Veg, Pannel Organics (Little Pannel Organic Farm between Winchelsea and Hastings) and Alexandra Park Greenhouse Project for donated produce.

  • Bohemia Walled Garden Heritage funded leaflet

    Bohemia Walled Garden Heritage funded leaflet

    Bohemia Walled Garden have produced the first edition of a Heritage Lottery Funded booklet. You can download it from their website. The final edition will be done during 2017 when the other deliverables have been completed.

    They do have a few printed copies available and if you would like one of these, please email via their “Contact us” page.

  • New local community swap shop of art, goods & services

    New local community swap shop of art, goods & services

    We’ve recently discovered a new place on Kings Road, St Leonards. Bargain are running a community swap shop of art, goods & services at Bargain, until late September (potentially longer).
    Open Saturdays 10am–5pm + by appointment
    More info: www.bargainstudio.co.uk
    Current offers: instagram.com/bargainstudio
    Could be a way to find a new home for unwanted items/materials but you can exchange pretty much anything – services & skills included.
    Happy swapping!

  • Donated plants now in the new raised beds

    Donated plants now in the new raised beds

    Last Saturday (August 6th) we planted beetroot, mint, tomatoes and more strawberries. We’ve got a number of volunteers giving up time during the week to water the plants. Let us know if you want to come along – all welcome.

  • Bohemia Walled Garden Summer Garden Party

    Bohemia Walled Garden Summer Garden Party

    Bohemia Walled Garden is having a Summer Garden Party on Sunday 3rd July, 10am-4pm.

    ADMISSION FREE! Includes music, tea and cakes, tombolas, plant sale and children’s activities.

    It’s a beautiful community garden/allotment hidden inside Summerfields Wood.
    The association recently had success with a Heritage Lottery Application. Read details of the project plan on Heritage Lottery Fund page

     

    Summer Garden Party

  • Can anyone smell garlic?

    Can anyone smell garlic?

    Down at the community garden we’ve uncovered a wealth of plants with culinary and medicinal uses.

    Here’s Naomi, a garden volunteer, trying out the Rosy Garlic. The bulbils are like miniature Red Onions and are wrapped in a thin papery skin that peels away. It’s not uncommon to find it growing in the wild on the south coast, in rough or cultivated ground.

    Our volunteers have taken some home to put in a vase or have a try at cooking with it.

    Rosy_Garlic
    Rosy Garlic

    We’re compiling a page of all the wild plants we’ve discovered so far and what you might do with them.

  • Disappointment at a year’s delay to bus improvements

    Disappointment at a year’s delay to bus improvements

    Bus lanes on the A259 between Glyne Gap and Bexhill Road will now not be completed until a year after the opening of the Bexhill to Hastings Link Road (BHLR), Campaign for Better Transport – East Sussex has learned.

    Speaking for the group, Derrick Coffee said:

    ‘Originally intended to begin construction in February, East Sussex County Council (ESCC) has revealed that the start date for construction will now be next October. This is bad news for the two towns as delay is likely to lead to:

    • lower take-up of the bus as a more sustainable means to travel
    • traffic beginning to grow back on Bexhill Road – taking advantage of the lower traffic levels
    • deterioration of air quality
    • higher climate change gas emissions
    • greater unhealthy ‘car dependency’
    • delayed advantages for cyclists who would gain by using the bus lanes

    The bus lanes, with better bus services, were promised in 2004 and were a condition of the Department for Transport (DfT) funding approval in 2012. That approval – surprising in the light of the DfT giving the BHLR a ‘poor to medium’ value for money rating – looks pretty disappointing now as the ability of an improved bus service to ‘lock in’ any traffic reduction benefits will be prevented: the bus lanes were a key part of that plan and, as the traffic grows back, their delayed operation makes the BHLR look even poorer value for the vast sum of taxpayers’ money spent so far. That’s around £130m.

    ‘The removal two years ago from transport plans of the long proposed new railway station at Glyne Gap by Rother District and ESCC is a further incentive to ‘carry on driving’ and a blow to any vision of a good mix of high quality sustainable transport for the residents, workers, tourists, young people and students of Hastings. The inevitable increase in traffic is also bad news for those for whom a vehicle is essential’, concluded Derrick Coffee.

    Image: © Copyright Oast House Archive and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence

  • Potential community use for the Old Town Hall

    Potential community use for the Old Town Hall

    A group of residents are asking the council if they can turn the currently vacant Old Town Hall on the High Street into an arts based community hub. The likelihood is that the local council will give it to the group at a peppercorn rent until they are up and running (if they can prove its needed).

    If you are interested in using the space for exhibitions, selling crafts etc, renting workspaces or running workshops, get in touch via the website.

    The hub will be not for profit and any rents/profit share will be at a rate affordable to all.  They plan to run a couple of craft retro fairs to get some initial funds at the beginning of July this year.
    At a later stage they want to pay a manager to run the building. The hope is it will be open 7 days a week all day and evening.

    You can attend weekly meetings about the hub at 6.30pm on Mondays at Old History House, 21 Courthouse Street.

  • Geoff Dann feature on transition movement and the community garden

    Geoff Dann feature on transition movement and the community garden

    Geoff Dann (fungi and foraging expert) from Transition Town Hastings features in a short documentary by Sadie Scarlett Smith submitted for her BA in Multimedia Broadcast Journalism final project. See Geoff at 7:12 mins into the film!

  • Progress on the community garden

    Progress on the community garden

    Another great sun filled garden session

    Last weekend, after making use of the donated compost from Gardenscape Direct volunteers enjoyed a cup of tea with doughnuts at Southwater Community Centre. They met a delightful Shiatzu practitioner who helped carry buckets of water out and pour it over the plants too! They also cleared some of the rubbish near the storeroom and planted wild flower seeds. See the gallery below.

    News on next steps

    The most urgent thing is getting raised beds made and in situ. We are in touch with Littlewoods fencing who are happy to donate materials. Then we need soil and plants to put in the beds. We have some plant donations ready and waiting but please get in touch if you have anything suitable such as edible plants, herbs and flowering plants.

    Several committee members recently met with the Station manager, Natalie Leister. She is looking into supplying various items including high viz jackets, ID badges for volunteers, a promotional poster for the platform we can update regularly and a bin for the north platform (to encourage people not to litter). They are also planning to refurbish the buildings on the south platform in the near future.

    They are also likely to give the go ahead for a mosaic on the wall to the left of the station entrance – more on that soon!