Village people - Dawn Hall & Janine Watts

The controversial sale of The Ship and opening of the new Co-op store has been the talking point of the village for the last few months. And while many villagers have been lamenting the loss of the pub, their biggest concern has been the future of the much loved Wealden Stores.

But rest assured – store owners Dawn Hall and Janine Watts have no intention of shutting up shop. On the contrary the pair are fighting back with exciting new products and plans for the future, spurred on by the support and good wishes of the village community.

By Claire Cooper

Dawn and Janine came to Cuckfield from Colchester in September 2000, buying the Wealden Stores and moving into the adjoining house with their five young children.

“We shared a dream of moving to a village and running two ‘lifestyle’ businesses,” said Dawn. “We began looking in Sussex and when we came to Cuckfield we fell in love with the location. The Wealden Stores had everything we were looking for – two businesses (the post office and shop) and huge accommodation with seven bedrooms - plenty of space for our two growing families.”Despite having no experience in running a shop, the pair took the plunge. “It was a very steep learning curve and we relied on the existing staff to show us the ropes,” said Janine.

Initially Dawn and Janine kept the shop as it was, focusing on getting up to speed with running the business. Then it was time for a few cosmetic changes. “The shop was a little run down and tired, sort of shabby without the chic!” said Dawn. “We spruced it up and then began to change and increase the stock.”

Then there were the early starts to get used to! Dawn and Janine’s day starts at 5.30am when the daily papers are delivered and sorted. The doors open at 7am, to catch the early morning trade, closing at 5.30pm. The store is open every day, including Sunday from 8am to 12 noon. “What we originally thought was a lifestyle business actually took over our lives but it’s been worth it!” said Dawn. 

Read full article on pages 10 & 11.

Tony Wilson honoured with an MBE

A Cuckfield man who led a £135 million project to extend the British Museum, and create state of the art research facilities, has been rewarded with an MBE.

Tony Wilson, of Ledgers Meadow, travelled to Buckingham Palace last month to receive his award from Her Majesty the Queen, accompanied by his wife Mandy and sons Eoin, 16 and Ben, 13.

“It was quite surreal,” said Tony. “I have spent so much of my working life driving past the Palace without ever thinking I’d have the opportunity to go inside, and there we were, walking in through the front gates, with tourists taking photos of us wondering who we were!

“It was a great experience and one we will all remember for a very long time.”

Tony recalled how the honour came as a complete surprise. “I remember sitting on the edge of the bed staring at the letter and wondering who was having a joke at my expense!

“I never thought anything like this would come my way.”

The ceremony took place on 11th November -

Remembrance Day. “We travelled to London the day before and went to see the poppies at the Tower of London, which certainly added significance to the day,” said Tony.

Recipients don’t find out until the morning of the ceremony which member of the Royal family will present the honours, so Tony was delighted to hear that he would be meeting the Queen.

Read full article on page 15.

A classic winter BBQ

By James Gaydon

I’d like to introduce you to Christian Stevenson aka DJ BBQ.

Christian has been a local resident in Cuckfield for 11 years. He was raised in Maryland, America and spent some time in Colorado before moving to the UK. Christian and his wife Naya were looking for a warm friendly community with green surroundings and once they visited Cuckfield they knew they had found the place to plant their roots and make a home for themselves and future Stevensons (there are now three more!).

Sitting in The Talbot with Christian it is clear to see his appeal. With bucket loads of charisma, Christian makes everyone feel like an old friend and a part of what is going on. It is this Stevenson American charm that has made him an obvious ‘face’ to lead the Save The Ship campaign which has hit the local and national news. Christian, Jo Roche and the whole Cuckfield community have been doing all they can to preserve the local amenities and highlight the PR errors made by the Co-op in this latest acquisition. The campaigners did their best, battling to keep the village and its services accessible to all and keep the Co-op where it is. Christian said: “We feel totally cheated; we were lied to. Clearly the Co-op doesn’t care about our community.” Indeed the talk of the pub while I sat with him revolved around this ongoing situation. Everyone I spoke to seems concerned for the future of Cuckfield’s High Street but they are trying to remain positive. 

Christian has always been quite focused on the Cuckfield community and is keen to get stuck in. You might have heard of Christian some years ago when he pushed through the project to build a skatepark (The Bowl) at Whitemans Green. Some local mums had recognised the need for kids to have somewhere to skate and made an appeal in the Parish news requesting further expertise. Christian – a skater/BMX rider and surfer since childhood – had just finished a BAFTA award-winning series called Rad for Channel 5 at the time. Some might say a perfect match! He was happy to step in and pull some strings to make it happen. After some design work, negiotation and some friendly arm-twisting, Christian presented the skatepark that still (seven years later) gets used by 5-50 year olds. I suggested that, in my experience, of skateparks there can sometimes be young troublemakers making the place intimidating. Christian joked saying that problem has never been an issue as the troublemakers don’t like to stray far from fried chicken so tend to stay in Haywards Heath! The facility still looks good as new, despite being used by local skaters both large and small. Apparently the park is occasionally visited by dads who refuse to think they have ‘lost it’ desperately trying to teach their unimpressed seven year old son how an ‘Ollie’ should be done on an antique skateboard... so I am told!

Read full article on pages 12 & 13.