To commission a painting by talented Sandgate residing artist Malcolm Ritchie costs less than you think and provides a valued, timeless and unique gift Malcolm has been painting and drawing for most of his life and works in all mediums and subjects. My subjects, he says, inspire me. You're just a click away from looking at some more of his work and arranging an informa nd
From the cutting-edge London design agency Here Design - writer and poet Philip Cowell, and award-winning designer Caz Hildebrand, author of The Herbarium, this playful, original, beautifully designed book brings to life the punctuation marks we use every day, including: The dashing dashSo-called "quotation marks" The colon: and on and on The shouty exclamation! The three dots of (Not forgetting the brackets) And even more
I have just been made aware of this very talented singer/ songwriter.
As poet John Rice said: (Jack Pound is) a highly skilled guitarist and songwriter, his bluesy, often quirky style is particularly appreciated by discerning literary audiences…whilst the rest of us just enjoy the music.
You can buy this album on Spotify, Amazon, iTunes and All Download Sites
You can get a taste at his web site at: https://www.jackpound.com
We are a small family run business, trading for over 30 years in the heart of Hythe High Street at number 51 (CT21 5AD) and we pride ourselves on customer service and of a range of products with high quality produce We cater for all needs, whether it's a small treat for your pet, tapioca to make your favourite nostalgic pudding, or some of our delicious, local, free range eggs, perfect for cooking, baking and breakfasting!
At U-Weigh we have more than 400 items in store, ranging from cupboard essentials to sweet treats and snacks We have a large selection of herbs, spices and seasonings to take your meal plans to every corner of the world, and to cater for the home bakers and amateur chefs, some cupboard staples; flours, sugars, cake mixes, pastas and rices. As dried food specialists, we all have a wide knowledge and will not hesitate to help with any queries or questions you may have. Take a look at our many products, write your list and pop into the shop We're also doing our bit for the planet by introducing paper bags, and don't forget, if you are trying to be more green, you can bring your own tubs, jars and containers to fill up www.u-weigh.co.uk
www.facebook.com/uweigh/
KCC Leader Roger Gough’s New Year message published on 31 December is well worth a read and I sent it in full to the meeting of Newington Parish Council which I attended on 09 January. The message is still available at kccmediahub net and sets out the challenges that we face in our county as a result of the war in Ukraine, the effects of the pandemic, the breaches of our border along the coast and more. Roger doesn’t just list problems but sets out how we are tackling them and the first step is making sure we set and deliver a balanced budget.
One of the ways we will do this is by reducing the number of buildings we run so that we have an estate that we can afford to maintain properly and which is fit for our residents and staff to use. It’s also an opportunity to make sure our services are in the right place and to invest in outreach and digital services rather than expect people to make a journey to a council building. We’re starting with our community services – children's centres, facilities for adults with a learning disability, adult education, youth hubs etc. (Some services are proposed to be co-located at our libraries but library services are not directly affected by these proposals.)
The consultation on the proposals started on 17 January and will run for 10 weeks. (If you need a paper or other format, email alternativeformats@kent.gov.uk or call 03000 42 15 53 text relay service number 18001 03000 42 15 53). Do please take part in this consultation and make your views known
We’ll be debating our budget proposals for 2023/24 on 09 February. This all day meeting is webcast live and budget papers are already published and being discussed by councillors at various committees. We’ve been hard hit by inflation and balancing the budget has been exceptionally challenging We have statutory services such as adult and children's’ social care where we are legally obliged to provide services when someone is eligible. As the demand for care rises less money is left for our other services and every year they are squeezed yet further. All councils with responsibility for social care have been lobbying the Government to find a more sustainable way
to fund such social care other than council tax. All are agreed that we can’t go on as we are but sadly there is no agreement on what to put in its place
Part of my special responsibilities at KCC includes our Heritage Team and the Minerals Planning Team and both were involved when the remains of a sixteenth century shipwreck were found in Denge Quarry on Romney Marsh. The story of the find featured on the BBC and you can still watch it on i Player – it’s the first episode of Series 10 of Digging for Britain. It was good to see Kent’s heritage receive this attention.
I was delighted and excited to learn of the District Council & Hythe District Council successful bid and award of £19.8 million from the government’s levelling up funding.
The money will enable a sustainable, attractive and welcoming gateway to be created for Folkestone town centre with a green park replacing the bus station in Bouverie Square.
The exciting and ambitious project will see Shellons Street become two-way with bus stops and bays replacing the bus station. Better signage and obvious walking links will connect visitors to a greener, more vibrant Sandgate Road and Guildhall Street shopping area.
The funding will also enable the second phase of Folca to be progressed by establishing new uses for the site, with an intended focus on public services, retail, leisure and business uses for the rejuvenated building.
The council has to move quickly with partners, including Stagecoach, Kent Highways and Kent County Council, as the funding has to be spent by the end of March 2025.
The bid was submitted in early July and followed extensive public consultation earlier in the year on possible projects to deliver the priorities set out in the Folkestone Place Plan.
It was agreed that the focus would be on three projects for the Levelling Up Fund bid and the council will continue to work with partners on the other projects and seek further funding opportunities
Find out more about the Place Plan on the council website folkestone-hythe.gov.uk/folkestoneplaceplan
Cllr David Godfrey Cabinet Member for Housing and Special Projects
Set in Folkestone in the heady days of the late 60s. They say if you can remember it, you weren't there!
Two plays One an imaginary meeting between Dylan Thomas and Brendan Behan in a Fitzrovia pub The other is Caitlin Thomas reminiscing after the untimely death of her husband.
This is the tale of Hana, a young girl who moves from where she was born in London, to the Kent coast. They discover a wonderful area called Prince's Parade which is full of amazing animals, has a beautiful canal and is right next to the sea too! By buying this book you will be helping to protect it. All profits from it will be donated to the Save Prince's Parade campaign which aims to halt plans to develop the area into a housing estate.
Very funny, and surreal story about a man and a woman on their first date: Bolton Brady and Veda, set in London, November 2001. Bolton is forty, not into assets, has never lived with a woman and looked into the future and seen loneliness. So he decides to do something about it. He advertises in a lonely-hearts column, and receives six replies, but after experiencing one disaster after another only Veda remains between him and his sanity As the day unfolds the line between reality and fantasy becomes blurred, building to a surreal, yet poignant, conclusion.
All now available in paperback and on Kindle
This walk through the history of Sandgate to the present day was first performed at the Chichester Hall a decade ago on Wednesday, 9th June. It is now available on Kindle or in paperback
Now available on Amazon. Great evocative yarns of worldly travels.
The title of the book hints at how, as a ‘loose cannon’, Folkestone born Ted’s risk-taking got him into trouble on a number of occasions whilst being a considerable advantage in his working life.
As a young journalist, Reg Turnill met most of the prewar political personalities and later became the BBC's space correspondent being the only one in the press room when the historic Houston we have a problem message came from Apollo 11.
All now available in paperback and on Kindle
Janet Holben Paperback Folkestone Cemetery has around 15,000 graves (27,000 people) there are stories of skulduggery and innocence, murder and bravery, grandeur and squalor – but mostly there are stories of everyday people living their lives This account brings some of those stories back to life and will perhaps bring an understanding of how Folkestone was shaped by terrible wars, widespread disease, the unforgiving sea, the new railway and fashionable society – but mostly, by the people who lived, loved, made their livelihood and finally died here
When
run things happen. When you change your environment, things happen. Mostly the details are mundane, but I have been a witness in certain places and moments in time to things that I found interesting, intriguing, amusing, poignant and memorable Through my career in the global sports industry, mainly in athletics, for the best part of thirty years, I have had opportunities to run and race in some interesting places around the World, in the UK, and close to home Those thirty “working” years were a unique time of dramatic growth for global sports with many fundamental changes and I wanted
capture the flavour of living in the goldfish bowl of world sport in a unique period of time I have chosen 160 different locations in which I have run and raced over the years and let them become the framework for the tales that I tell in these pages. I wanted to allow each tale to be a door into memories and associations with a time and place; sometimes quite straight forward, others are more labyrinthine, with connections leading off at tangents I wanted to share them; I hope
enjoy the journey?
Our thanks to the Sandgate Parish Council and the Community Gardeners for allowing us to reproduce this diary page. We hope to make this a monthly feature in the magazine but you can read all the diary entries by clicking on this box.
It is way too early to start planting your seeds. It has certainly been a great deal drier this week with much more in the way of sunshine and bitterly cold. As usual in Sandgate we missed the snow which was a feature inland and across the country. It was so cold that many of the gardens had become frozen quite solid which made it impossible at times to do anything, except admire the flowering gorse by our pond at Enbrook Park. During our Wednesday morning session the sun was shining and just managed to warm the ground enough for us to be able to put down some more compost on the empty beds as well as lay more compost along the wall where there are permanent plants and trees growing.
We are motoring through much of our compost stock in our quest to get it down before the spring arrives. On Monday a volunteer group came out from the Napier Barracks to help move some compost from our stock pile up to the garden That’s uphill, this time with the addition of slippery grass. We are really grateful for the extra help with heavy tasks, which most likely would have taken us twice as long to do. Afterwards, and with time left, we took two barrow loads of compost down the hill to the village green outside the chip shop and mulched the long border there We then tidied some of the debris and
Compost on the beds and along the wall
planted a few spare primroses
Chris and Theresa got stuck into the emptying of the last of the compost needing turning in the composting bins. No mean feat, it can be a smelly and stomach turning job in high summer. Fortunately in this cold and with noses being frozen, it proved a little easier. We now have a completely empty first bin ready to be filled once more with waste from the garden and kitchen peelings
Already some folk are champing at the bit to start sowing seeds. IT IS WAY TOO EARLY! Far better to wait for the slightly warmer and longer days when new sowings will catch up with and often overtake anything sown too early. It is time to practice some patience. The only thing we could prepare for in the way of seeds was to buy some seed potatoes. Now is the time to consider the varieties on offer and decide. This year we have, as usual, first early varieties, three in total, plus a few Pink Fur Apples to harvest at a later date. They are all sitting in front of a window in cardboard egg boxes ‘chitting’ away (the term used for sprouting potatoes) until later on in March. Hopefully it will be warm and sunny enough then to plant them out
Seed potatoes for ‘chitting’
What’s next?
• The raspberry patch needs weeding
• Has everything been mulched?
• The path up to the bench needs weeding
• There are still strawberry plants to take out
If
have any
publication please do email me. I would be very interested in the things you like and the things you don't like and the things you'd like to see included.
Thank you.
Visit our web site by clicking on our logo on the left Our family includes over 1,600 important historic houses, many with open doors, waiting to be explored Typically, Historic Houses properties remain lived-in homes, and all of them have fascinating and distinctive stories to tell
Great Christmas gift
you
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