Etchingham

Father Christmas will be at the Etchingham Shop and Deli on Christmas Eve. He will be there from 2pm until 3pm, go along and celebrate Christmas with Sian and Neil, and enjoy a glass of mulled wine and a mince pie while the children visit Father Christmas. If you have not got children, go along anyway and celebrate Christmas with Sian and Neil. All welcome.

Refuse collections over Christmas and New Year, a reminder that during week commencing December 24 the collection day will change to Thursday December 27, this will be the normal black bin collection. In week commencing December 31 the collection will be Thursday January 3, this will be the recycling boxes, there will not be a green waste collection, but you can put your black bin out again, green waste collection will resume on your first normal collection day after January 8. Week commencing January 7 collection will Wednesday January 9 and is normal black bins. All collections return to normal days from January 14.

Rother District Council offices will be closed from 4.30pm on Friday December 21 until 8.30am on Wednesday January 2, if you need help or advice during this period a lot of information is available on the Rother District Council website www.rother.gov.uk in an emergency the number is 01424 787868.

Etchingham Church continues to arrange a weekly services, Sunday Services have returned to 11am. Children’s services will continue on the second Sunday. If you have ideas about how the popularity of the Church and services can be improved, contact a Churchwarden.

The Church is now open to visitors every day from 11am to 4pm. If you have any queries regarding the Church contact the Churchwardens Mary Barnes 01580 819142 or Geoffry Lucas 01580 819439.

Etchingham Church Services over the Christmas period will be as follows; Sunday December 23, 11am, Holy communion led by Reverend Simon Gurd. December 24, 4.30pm, Crib and Christingle Service led by Ruth Waller. December 24, 11.30pm, Midnight Mass led by Reverend Peter Clark. December 25, 10am Morning Service led by Sue Greener.

Carol Singing in the village will take place this evening, Friday December 21. Meet by the Christmas Tree at the Church at 7pm, the group will then sing at the Christmas Tree and at the station before moving up the High Street. Everyone is very welcome to join in, collection will be for a local charity, remember to take a torch.

Etchingham on Facebook, several village organisations have a presence on Facebook, where you can keep up with what they are doing. There is a general Etchingham page where details are posted of things happening in the village http://www.facebook.com/EtchinghamVillagePage, Etchingham Club is at http://www.facebook.com/etchinghamsocialclub, the Bistro can be found at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Bistrothestation/, Neighbourhood Watch http://www.facebook.com/etchinghamwatch, and the Shop & Deli can be found at http://www.facebook.com/etchinghamshopanddeli , Christmas trading hours for the shop are on the page.

A date for your diary, the Etchingham Singers are presenting a concert in Hurst Green hall on Saturday March 16, more details here nearer the date.

For details of Hurst Green events, see the Hurst Green column.

Get information for this column to me as soon as possible, if you have a diary of events planned for the year let me have the dates and I will put in a list of village events for the year so that people can put the dates in their diaries. There are several ways to get your info to me, but email is preferred because there is less chance of errors during copying. I need information by 10pm on Monday to be sure it will be in time for inclusion, I can sometimes add extra items on Tuesday morning, but this cannot be guaranteed. Just a little reminder, I get plenty of information about events that are taking place, but I get very little follow up information, after your event try and remember to send me brief account of how successful your event was, it can be as simple as a thank you to those that attended and how much money was raised etc. You can deliver to 2 Park Farm Close, telephone 01580 819532 or 07941 786244 or email [email protected]

All that remains now is for me to wish you all a very Happy Christmas.