Lindfield Front Garden Festival launched

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Last year the Lindfield Open Garden event attracted more than 800 visitors and raised over £9,000 for St Peter and St James Hospice. The event has been cancelled this year, but to raise much needed funds for the Hospice, Lindfield gardening groups have teamed up to arrange a ‘Front Garden Festival’ through the summer. Full details are shown on our advertisement on page 57 and on our website at: https://lindfield-gardens.co.uk

The idea is for lots of the beautiful front gardens around the village to join in the Festival and for the whole community to view these from the pavement at a safe distance. A map of those selected for the ‘People’s Choice’ stage will be made available in mid-July and the public will make a People’s Choice for their favourite garden in each part of the village - and there will be a special prize for the best planter/window box/hanging basket. So, owners of all front gardens - large or tiny - are invited to join by sending an email with your name and address to fg@lindfieldhorts.org.uk (or phone Sue and Jim Stockwell on 01444 459363).

We hope to raise as much as possible, so please make a donation to the Hospice via this Just Giving page www.justgiving.com/fundraising/lindfieldfrontgardenfestival2020

What content goes into Lindfield Life magazine?

In this video editor David Tingley flicks through the March 2020 edition of Lindfield Life and shows just what the variety of amazing content goes into each issue of the magazine.

If you’d like to advertise your business on our pages - get in touch here

If you have an idea about content, we’d love to hear from you by email to editor@lindfieldlife.co.uk in the first instance please.

Mathilda Rose: Behind the Counter in Lindfield

Behind the Counter is a series of articles we started back in 2017 to take a look at the inner workings of Lindfield’s most-loved shops, and get to know the people who run them. In this latest edition we meet Nicola O’Rourke – the mastermind behind #thewindowat62 and the worldwide renowned bridal shop, Mathilda Rose.

By Joe Wayte

Born and bred in Lindfield, Nicola’s parents owned land near Lyoth Lane. She was educated locally both at Great Walstead School and Ardingly College before moving to London to study Textile Design. “I started at Chelsea College of Art and Design to complete my foundational year,” Nicola explained, “before getting a prestigious place on a degree course at Central Saint Martins School of Art.”

If you want to be well-known in any form of art, Central Saint Martins is the place to be with courses that are incredibly sought after and incredibly competitive to get in to. “There were only eight of us on my course,”

Nicola added, “and as part of the selection process my group of applicants had to create a runway look for a model using only a deck chair, and within a very short amount of time!” Included in the eight studying with Nicola was Alice Temperely, now MBE and once described by American Vogue as ‘the designer making the biggest waves in British fashion’.

After attaining her degree, Nicola started work in the commercial world by accepting a place on the Marks and Spencer graduate scheme. She gained experience across a variety of departments and then settled as a Buyer – a role she stayed in for over ten years. She spent another six years as a Buyer for many well-known retailers before realising her dream of owning her own bridal store. “In those days, if something went wrong in a factory that was supplying your fabric you were expected to get on the next plane to go and fix it,” Nicola said with an air of exhaustion. “At that time most of my suppliers were in China and balancing being a mum while frequently flying to China became too much.”

[Full article printed in the September 2019 issue of Lindfield Life magazine]

Sussex Mineral and Fossil Show 2017

On 18th November at Clair Hall, the Sussex Mineral and Lapidary Society (SMLS) will put on probably the best one day mineral and fossil show in the country. It is filled with wonderful minerals, crystals and fossils and is perfect for a fascinating family day out or just a quick visit to see some of nature’s finest wonders. The show is put on by the members of SMLS, a local society which meets to discover more about the beautiful world of minerals, fossils and lapidary work. Chairman and local resident Nick Hawes writes more…

By Nick Hawes

The grey limestone cliffs rose above my head, tiered in benches by the quarrymen so that they could quarry safely deeper into the hillside. We were on a Sussex Mineral and Lapidary Society (SMLS) field trip to the limestone quarries of South Wales.

I scanned the cliff side and saw a small gash in one of the benches at the bottom of the quarry and went over to investigate. I could see where the latest rock blast had opened up what appeared to be a small hole in the rock and went over to investigate. It was what we call a vug – a space that has opened up in solid rock enabling crystals to form within. In this case the crystals were of calcite, usually a whitish mineral but in this case the crystals were coloured red by a covering of the mineral hematite – an iron mineral. The crystals were in clusters and were in groups up to 10cm across with crystals up to 5cm. They were perfect in every way, not a mark on them – something very important in mineral collecting. I finished cleaning out the cavity, and as I was wrapping the specimens to keep them in good condition, I saw another small hole in the wall of the bench above me and walked to investigate.

I found another small hole in the rock, but this had no crystals showing, however, you could see a bigger cavity within. With trusty sledgehammer and an array of chisels I began to open up the entrance to the cavity. As I did so, the hole within appeared to be bigger and bigger. Eventually I realised I had stumbled upon a whole cave, lined with calcite crystals up to 30cm long. It was an amazing sight. I eventually opened up an entrance big enough to crawl through and was able to retrieve beautiful crystals from the cavity floor where they had been broken off by blasting in the quarry. 

Other club members came across, encouraged by my hammering and we had a great time, all gathering as many specimens as we wanted. With rucksacks bulging with our finds, we were eternally grateful for a lift out of the quarry. Thus ended another great day’s collecting with the SMLS.

Sussex Mineral and Fossil Show
Clair Hall, Haywards Heath
18th November 2017, opening at 10am.

The show is, we think, the best one day mineral and fossil show in the UK - and it’s right on your doorstep!

[Full story in October 2017 issue of Lindfield Life]

The Wind in the Willows - Wakehurst Place - 2017 a review

By David Tingley

Wakehurst Place, in Ardingly, will play host to The Australian Shakespeare Company later this month when The Wind in the Willows opens its run on 31st August. I was lucky enough to go along for a sneak preview at Kew Gardens earlier in the summer.

I have to say, I was impressed. I was impressed with the whole thing, actually.

From a technical point of view all the actors had microphones – so we never had a problem hearing the dialogue. But, more than that - and something I wasn’t expecting, all of them played an instrument of some kind during the performance and these came over the mic or had a pick-up of their own in the case of the guitars.

I arrived to sit on the grass (note to self, take something to sit on, we didn’t and got slightly damp bottoms!) with two of my girls and awaited the action. As soon as Head Chief Rabbit, played by musical director Zachary Cooke, stumbled across the audience on his walk for adventure – we were taken in to a new world.

Zachary’s enthusiasm was infectious and I found myself quickly entering the spirit of piece and waving my hands on my head to mimic a bunny rabbit on cue! And here is a good point to note; you all have to take part! In truth my girls (at 10 and 12) were a little too cool for the ‘rub your nose like a bunny’ gesticulations and singing along with the songs, but I definitely saw a few laughs and smirks on their faces as the comedy-laden script unfolded. We thought aged eight would be a good top end for the smaller visitors. For adults, on the other hand, well, there was plenty to keep me entertained and amused during the 90 minute or so performance.

The musical numbers were very well done indeed. Tamlyn Henderson played the character of Weasel, and when he added his guitar and vocals to Zachary’s it worked wonderfully. At one point, in the second act, there is a break-out jam session with these two characters as they played versions of Ruler (Lorde) and Up All Night (Daft Punk) the likes of which you’ve never heard before! I don’t think I stopped smiling throughout this interlude!

The story was easy to follow, of course, with each new cast member bringing in a new energy to the piece when they were introduced. I think, for my money, I particularly enjoyed the dryness of Badger (played by Chris Killik) but, I suspect, a five year old may not agree!

The Wind in the Willows begins its run on Thursday 31st August and plays at Wakehurst Place until Sunday 3rd September.

Book your tickets here...

What's in our 100th issue?

Lindfield Life magazine is the community magazine for Lindfield, and this is David Tingley, editor, talking through the content in this celebratory issue in 100 seconds! Nearly!