Elaine Baker - Village People

An ancient Chinese art dating back to the Tang Dynasty is alive and well in the heart of Cuckfield village!
     Working from home, porcelain painter Elaine spends hours meticulously working on each piece and producing antiques of the future. 
     She’s passionate about her work, is keen to encourage others to have a go, and would love to share her talent at a village Art Trail/Open House event.

By Claire Cooper
Elaine’s love of porcelain painting started 25 years ago when she signed up for a china painting evening class at Oathall Community College in Haywards Heath. “I was given a tile and a brush and I was hooked!” she says.

Elaine carried on for three terms before the teacher decided to leave. “I knew then that I would have to buy my own kiln or give up altogether,” she recalled.

Elaine started working on the dining room table at home. “My children got very used to coming home from school and being told to keep away from the table and not to touch anything!”

She then progressed to her garden ‘sheddio’, “it’s more than just a shed, but not quite a studio!”

Elaine was delighted to discover a porcelain painting club in Crawley with members from all over the South East. “At that time there were around 50 of us,” said Elaine. “Now there are only 9, but 2 of us live in Cuckfield!”

To paint on porcelain Elaine uses powder pigments mixed to a consistency similar to oil paints that can be painted onto a shiny surface. When heated, at about 800 degrees, the colour sinks into the glaze and by the time it has cooled is totally permanent.

“You can also mix the paints as ink and draw fine outlines with a mapping pen, fire, then build up the layers of the design,” said Elaine. “But the real beauty is that if you make a mistake, you can just wipe it off and start again. The paint doesn’t sink through the glaze until it is fired.”

“I like to mix lavender or clove oil in with the paint. It helps the paint stick to the china but also provides instant aromatherapy while I work!”

Sometimes Elaine uses pure gold. “It is mixed with oil, and when the piece is fired, the oil burns away and the gold is left. But at £40 for 5 grams I only use it on very special pieces.”

Read full story on pages 16/17.

Welcome to Cuckfield

by Kate Fleming

On 26th February Rev Michael Maine was collated at Holy Trinity Church. That doesn’t mean that he was placed in order as the sheets of a book for binding, but that he, officially, became Vicar of Cuckfield.

The church was packed with parishioners past, present and possibly future who had come to welcome Michael Maine and to participate in the ancient and yet strangely significant ceremony which admitted him to the ‘Cure of Souls’ in this parish. The bells rang, the choir sang, the ritual was rich and appropriate, and we applauded the induction of our new vicar.

After having been without an incumbent for nearly a year, this was surely a time for village celebrations. 

Michael Maine is a Cornishman by birth but now truly embedded in the heart of West, East and now Mid Sussex. He is a musician, singer and organist, indeed known in The Netherlands as The Singing Organist, a teacher and comparatively recently an ordained priest. After a successful, albeit unexpected ministry at St Mary the Virgin, Willingdon, he has left the seaside and travelled North across the Downs to become part of our community, take responsibility for our beautiful reordered church and be there to guide us along the rocky path of 21st century societal change.

Michael Maine ‘fills the room’. He is tall and broad but also possesses that unusual personality trait that makes you feel that you have known him forever, not exactly dé jà vu but wavering around that sensation. He has a great sense of humour, laughs with genuine verve and appreciates innuendoes, jokes and anecdotes. As a child of the manse I do know the importance of this quality in a vocation where sorrow and joy ride precariously in parallel and the ability to embrace both, often simultaneously, is essential.

Read full story on page 14.

70th anniversary celebration

Members of Royal British Legion Women’s Sections from all over Mid Sussex gathered at The Old School last month to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Cuckfield Branch.
     Guests included Denise Carr, County Chairman, Mary Reed, County Treasurer, and members of the Women’s Sections from East Grinstead, Horsted Keynes, Lindfield, Lowfield Heath, Burgess Hill and Clayton and Keymer.
     The group enjoyed tea and cake, and several members were presented with branch and county certificates of appreciation. All those who attended the celebrations received a commemorative bookmark.
     The guests also enjoyed hearing Cuckfield member Evelyn Stenning give her account of the history and achievements of the branch over the last 70 years. Many thanks to Evelyn for providing us with information for the following account.

Cuckfield Royal British Legion Women’s Section started on 5th February 1945 when 21 ladies attended an inaugural, meeting at the Congregational Church Hall. By the time of the first meeting on 23rd February, 62 people had paid their subscriptions. Sadly all the founder members have since died, leaving the longest standing member as Tina Owen, vice-president, who joined in 1948.

The first Branch Standard was donated by Mrs Mowatt-Giles in memory of her husband and to thank the Royal British Legion members for their support. The Standard was dedicated on 3rd June 1945, when Standard bearer Mrs Humphrey escorted Mrs Howard and Mrs Mckenna, were joined by 18 other Branch Standard and representatives from 21 branches, to march from the Queen’s Hall to the church.

By the end of the first year the branch had more than 200 members.

Meetings, held on the 4th Friday of each month, have been held in various village locations including the Congregational Hall, WI room in Ockenden Lane and the parish room/church hall until 1994.

When the old school became vacant, following the building of the new primary school in Glebe Road, the branch moved its meetings to the new community hall.

Read full story on pages 12/13.