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Sentinel

Local Matters

Sandgate

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February 2022

This magazine is compiled and edited by David Cowell who is totally responsible for content. If you do not wish to receive these magazines please email UNSUBSCRIBE to him at david@thesentinel.org.uk

Sandgate Farmers Market Saturday, 5th February Catherine Jordan Cakes Delightful treats from a professional patisserie

Usher's fruit and veg are based locally with lots of fruit, veg and salad sourced locally. For example their potatoes are sourced from O&P Gowers In Acrise.

Dutch Cheese Master

Is proud of the quality of the products and is flexible and can customise your needs. Just ask. Her mission is very simple: to let our customers experience and enjoy our artisan products. she is sure that you will.

NEW

Arkwrights Pantry Lovely foodie gifts including a range of Chilli based products from Carrington Foods Ltd. who are based in Faversham.

This Free Spirit original handmade knitwear, clothing and gifts.

Pauline's hand made toys Conventional and wrap style masks, soft toys and so many more wonderful hand made gifts Gill Thompson Jewellery

Anji's Interiors Working for local, national and international clients and companies from her studio based in sunny Sandgate, on the South Kent coast, Anji creates beautiful bespoke quality curtains, blinds, soft furnishings and interior decor to suit your requirements.

* Unique gifts - Gill makes only one piece * Commissions accepted * Gill can bring broken jewellery back to life * Gill uses precious, semi precious gems,freshwater pearls, glass and crystal beads

What better time to chat about your energy and internet supply...and a chance to win £20,000

Marsh soap is vegan friendly, made from quality organic products. Each soap is made from 90% olive oil, coconut oil,100% natural fragrances, seeds, petals/buds added for decoration.

We’ve been sourcing ingredients and accessories from expert producers and artisans in exchange for a fair price for over 30 years.

Hand made clothing and greeting cards

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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. There might not be much going on at the garden these days, but there certainly is plenty happening as regards planning and organising in the background, for the year ahead as well as beyond. This article was in the Guardian this week, stating that the ‘UK could grow up to 40% of its own fruit and vegetables by using urban green spaces’. https://www.theguardian.com/food/2022/jan/24/uk-could-grow-up-fruit-andvegetables-urban-green-spaces Apparently only about 1% of urban green space is made up of allotments. The thought is that we should be using more of our gardens, parkland, playing fields and open grass spaces to grow more food. Well, our Community Gardens, and the work of the Incredible Edibles is already using and growing in public spaces. However perhaps there are a few other issues which need to be addressed first. It seems quite shocking that currently much less than 40% of our fruit and vegetables come from the UK. Perhaps the main sticking points are that we expect to be able to buy certain foods all year round and out of season. We expect food to: • look perfect and therefore probably sprayed with all sorts of chemicals; • be cheap and plentiful • include exotic fruits and veg from abroad we cannot possibly grow here; And of course, some do not even eat any fruit and vegetables in the first place, or very few. An interesting article but a complex subject which will certainly not be changed unless there is a considerable threat to our food security and we are forced to. The last time this happened was during the two World Wars. Let us hope we never have to cross that bridge even in these interesting times. Golden Valley planter mulched 4

However if you are the kind of person who likes sharing ideas and inspiring change, then this event could be just up your street. Hosted by thenextstep.org.uk at the Eleto Café in Rendezvous Street, Folkestone, a chance to find out about local green initiatives: ‘whether you’re just curious about what you could do in your own life to become that one step greener, or you want to learn about something exciting and new, we want to offer a comfortable space for us all to share ideas and learn from one another in our community’. This is a new initiative in Folkestone, and the second Romanesco beauty meeting was held this week where the discussion was around the possibility of a ‘Repair Shop’ in the locality, and aspects of recycling. There were representatives from many walks of life, from businesses to councilors, to community groups, and interested individuals, young and old. We are certainly looking forward to the next meeting which will be Wednesday 23rd February 6-8pm. The group can be found on Instagram and Facebook too. Enough of the soapbox lecturing and advertising for now. January is drawing to a close, we are fast approaching the time when we will be sowing the first of the seeds for the year, and we can look forward to longer, warmer days. We have had several enquiries about new projects being planned, and if we can advise on starting Community Gardens or spaces. We are always delighted to share what we have learnt along the way, the pitfalls as well as the good bits, and hope we can in some way help new groups to get going. Some jobs did get finished this week. The last of the compost at the lower wall was bagged up, and the final little bit we have in the garden is all but gone. Happily we do have plans to enable us to collect more compost to keep us in good stead for the rest of the year. The large planter at Golden Valley did get mulched with a good layer of cardboard and compost, as did some of the growing space at Fremantle Park. And our pond was cleared of leaf debris, a fabulous Romanesco cauliflower was found and picked, and there was much surprise in the clump of rhubarb which has appeared above the mulch layer already. What’s next? • Bag up the last of the compost for Fremantle • The pond edges still need weeding • New signs need painting and putting up • There are some flower seedlings which need potting up • Do not forget to water the cold frames! 5

https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/thesentinelbooks

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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 dash So-called "quotation marks" The colon: and on and on. Kindle edition The shouty exclamation! £9.99 Hardback The three dots of... £12.50 (Not forgetting the brackets) Great gift And even more 12

All now available in paperback and on Kindle 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. 14

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.

A Loose Cannon tales of a lapsed activist

Ted Parker

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. 15

Us he rs no fru w it a on nd -l i n v e eg

You can now order on-line at: https://www.usherswholesale.com/box

or by telephone on: 07515 529425

DE D

We deliver to Folkestone, Cheriton, Hawkinge, Capel, Alkham Valley, Saltwood, Sandgate, Seabrook, Hythe

SU SP EN

To advertise in three The Sentinels with circa 2300 targetted readers and growing please email me at:

The editor of The Sentinel is also responsible for sending Hythe, Newington and Sandgate related event information to the Folkestone Herald. If you have an event you wish to publicise it is needed by Tuesday at 17:00. The information should appear in the edition two weeks later although it is not gauranteed.

david@thesentinel.org.uk

for a rate card. Thank you. 16

F O L C A Folca is the old name for Folkestone We celebrate all activities in the Folkestone and Hythe district also known as Shepway See our comprehensive Directory and Blog pages

folca.co.uk

Great gift only £11.00 including P&P (UK mainland) www.the-find-online.com

Please support your local Farmers' Markets in 2021/22

ll wi as t g ke n t ar s lo an w M e for a ho h t at ide rs w e. h d t s e d out rad l tra e op ing ith t stil h n w n is It run le, d ca ep sib an ke pos

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KSS

AIR AMBULANCE CHARITY KENT SURREY SUSSEX

Book a KSS talk

Do you belong to a group or club? • Learn about the amazing life-saving work being done by your local air ambulance 24/7 • Hear real life stories about the people we have helped • Find out how you could help support our work • Talks can be given by video call or in person, adhering to the latest government guidance

Book your free talk today Email: talks@aakss.org.uk

Call: 01634 471 900

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If you would like to submit an article or letter please email it to me. I will print almost anything as long as it’s not libellous, racist or unkind. Name must be supplied but can be withheld if requested. Please put your articles etc in plain text or Word and images should be in .jpg, .tiff or .png. My contact details are: Address: Clyme House, Hillside Street, Hythe, Kent CT21 5DJ

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Mobile: 07771 796 446; email: david@thesentinel.org.uk