What is an advertorial page in Cuckfield Life magazine?

Potential customers often ask us what is an advertorial?

Quite simply, an advertorial is a page that is made up of a story and images and set just like all the other pages in the magazine (news, feature, etc) but it is a page that has been paid for, and you can therefore 'sell from the page'. 

Businesses with great stories make great advertorials. For instance, a new business that has just opened on the High Street, where they want to tell the owners’ backstory is ideal. Similarly, an organisation that has more complicated services on offer, may find it easier to explain what they do with an advertorial. Another great opportunity for advertorials in our magazines is a business that is based in, or has a specific connection to, the community itself. This makes the story very much relevant to the readership and more or less guarantees it will be read by a keen audience who love the place in which they live.

Advertorials are a great way for businesses to start their advertising with us in our community magazines. It allows for a story to be told to their potential audience, and then follow it up with repeated and consistent messages and branding, in the form of standard advertising... 

“Advertorial pages allow you to sell from the page”

Standard Advertising

What we would refer to as standard advertising is traditional display advertising. A specifically designed advert with clearly defined edges that has been branded to match the company or person it is advertising. These are sold - in our magazines, at least - in either quarter, half or full page slots. Plus, we also sell the premium positions of Inside Front Cover and Outside Back Cover. 

Editorial

Editorial content is all the other content that make up a magazine (news articles, features, what's on, competitions, write-ups, reviews, etc). Editorial content is not paid for and does not normally promote a profit-making business. 

For advertorials in our community magazines, we do limit the number per issue, in order to ensure that our readership doesn't feel like it is being sold to on every page. We think it’s right and proper that a magazine like ours should have plenty of community news and information, and this doesn't have a price tag attached to it. We just want to tell the stories of the village. 

High Court victory for Cuckfield Play Meadow Campaign

Campaigners fighting o save Cuckfield’s ell-loved play meadow have moved a step closer to victory after receiving backing from the High Court.

Flis Irving, who has fought tirelessly to keep the meadow as a community space, was delighted to receive news that the High Court had quashed Mid Sussex District Council’s grant of planning permission to build  a substantial house on the land at the end of  Courtmead Road.

Leading planning judge Mr Justice Gilbart found that the council had acted unlawfully as the planning consent breached planning policy. He focused on the harm to the Cuckfield Conservation Area, which the Council had actually identified before it went on to grant planning permission.

“It proves that if an individual fights had enough for a just cause, it is possible to win against powerful government bodies with huge financial resources,” reflected Flis. “It is the first time in almost three years that there has been full scrutiny of the Council’s actions by an independent, qualified expert, and he found that the Council had acted unlawfully.  It is significant that M Justice Gilbart highlighted the importance of preserving The Play Meadow as part of the Cuckfield Conservation Area for the benefit of local people. I hope that the Council will finally take note and stop fighting or a third party to develop it.”

Flis, along with support from owner of Next Step Nursery School Janet Beales, has led the high profile campaign to keep The Play Meadow open for use by local people. In a recent interview with BBC Radio Sussex, Flis explained why the meadow is of such value to the village. “It is so rare to have an area of green in the centre of a village that can be of benefit o the whole community,” she said. “With all the building that’s currently going on all around… every little bit of green area being gobbled up, it is an absolute delight to have this Play Meadow here.” When asked why she had engaged in this battle with the Council, Flis responded: “It was morally wrong what they were doing. They were acting as judge and jury… against what the local people had voted for in the Local Plan, which was to keep the meadow as a green space.”

A  Mid Sussex District Council spokesperson said the land had been identified as a building plt as far back as the 1980s and added: “We are pleased that the court has clarified the complex legal position around one of the applications on this site.”

Flis is aware that her fight is not yet over as the Council is likely to appeal the decision. 

The first train to Cuckfield & LIndfield - Haywards Heath Railway Station celebrates 175th Anniversary

The fist train arrived at the ‘Station for Cuckfield  Lindfield’ in 1841 … at Haywards Heath!

175 years later, the newly refurbished station will be completed, and to mark this anniversary, on Sunday 18th September, a huge celebration is planned with lots of Victorian fun for all the family. Commemorative legacies will be unveiled in the station, showing the fist train as well as a mosaic made by all local schools and another by our local Twinning Association.

In 1825, John Rennie’s proposed ‘direct’ London to Brighton railway was vigorously opposed by the town and parish of Cuckfield. Lindfield also oppose the railway, so the line passed between them, shortly named Hayward’s Heath; this was the terminus until the line opened to Brighton, putting the ‘new town’ firmly on the map.

Building began around the station immediately, with a timber merchant’s yard and a beer shop probably on the site of the later, now demolished, Liverpool Arms, and the Station Hotel (now Hayworthe House) completed by 1843. By 1887 Haywards Heath was recognised as a town.

On Sunday 18th September The Bluebell’s Stepney will be at the station. There will be train rides, land trains, horse and carriage rides, Children’s Train Station Adventures, Marching Bands, a Grand Procession, Films in Victoria Park, Victorian Fun Fair and much, much more; so truly a great day out for all the family - don’t forget your Victorian costume!

Join in the fun! For more details or to get involved, contact Ruth de Mierre on 01444 453399 or Tim Briggs on 07799 643 721.