How to be alerted to new planning applications near you

If you are on the internet, the parish council would urge you to sign up to the My Wealden Alerts at https://my.wealden.gov.uk/en. You would then be notified via the weekly Wealden update (at the bottom of the email) of any new planning applications in your area. In addition to this the parish council will try its upmost to inform residents of new application as they arrive via its website. However, this does by no means cover the many residents who are not on the internet, so we would please ask everyone to spread the word as new applications are submitted.

Notifications to be discussed at 1st July 2025 HDPC meeting

WD/2025/1411/FA for FIVE BADGERS, STONEHURST LANE, HADLOW DOWN, TN20 6LL
VARIATION OF CONDITIONS 1, 2 AND 3 OF WD/2013/2348/FA (VARIATION OF CONDITION NOS. 1 AND 2 OF WD/2009/1456/FA.  CHANGE OF USE OF LAND FOR STATIONING OF TWO CARAVANS FOR RESIDENTIAL OCCUPATION BY GYPSY-TRAVELLER FAMILY) TO ALLOW FOR THE USE OF THE SITE FOR THE STATIONING OF 4 CARAVANS AS WELL AS, TO ALLOW E J MOORE TO ADD HIS SON, HIS PARTNER AND E J MOORE’S WIFE AS NAMED OCCUPANTS OF THE SITE.
Link to documents: Planning Register – Wealden District Council

🎉 Hadlow Down Village Fayre – Saturday 5th July – A Summer Celebration for All! 🎉

The bunting is being strung, the grills are being scrubbed, and the excitement is building… It can only mean one thing – the Hadlow Down Village Fayre is almost here!

Join us on Saturday 5th July from 1pm on the Playing Field for an afternoon bursting with fun, laughter, food, and community spirit. This year promises to be one of our best yet, and we can’t wait to welcome everyone from the village (and beyond!) to share in the festivities. Continue reading “🎉 Hadlow Down Village Fayre – Saturday 5th July – A Summer Celebration for All! 🎉”

Orbital, by Samantha Harvey

Raw space is a panther, feral and primal.

The 2024 Man Booker Prize went by unanimous decision to Orbital by Samantha Harvey. At 136 pages it is one of the shortest ever Booker prize-winners. It is an unusual book, fiction but not a conventional novel as it has only a very rudimentary plot. It follows six fictional astronauts over twenty-four hours on an orbiting international space station. The astronauts, from America, Russia, Italy, the UK and Japan are there to do vital work. Their days keep to a rigid pattern: preparing dehydrated meals, following a strict exercise routine to prevent muscle atrophy,  monitoring the effects of zero gravity on the mice, routine repairs and maintenance and occasional space walks.

As they travel at speeds of over 17.000 miles per hour, they watch their silent blue planet, circling it sixteen times in a single day, spinning past continents and passing through seasons, taking in the beauty of mountains, glaciers and seas. Although separated from their world, they cannot escape its pull as news comes from home bringing thoughts of their eventual return. They watch a typhoon, marvelling at its magnificence but fearful of the destruction it brings. They become increasingly aware of the fragility of human life – so far from Earth, they have never felt more part of it. It has been described as ‘mesmerising, ethereal and tender’, a beautifully written mediation on human aspirations and limitations.

Some of us had to get used to the lack of plot and character development and would agree with the Guardian reviewer that’ ‘thrilled reports of light effects start to fall a little flat’. Nevertheless, we found it enjoyable and worthwhile while the rhythms of the writing made it a compelling read.

Our next book is Strange Sally Diamond by Liz Nugent.

Heather Mines

Foreign Affairs, by Alison Lurie

‘How much nicer and less boring it would be if we were all still children.’

Our book this month was Alison Lurie’s Foreign Affairs (1984), winner of the 1985 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, also described as a perfect literary rom com.

Lurie herself was an academic at Cornell University. Like Vinnie Miner, her main character, she was a specialist in children’s literature and folk lore. In the early 1980’s she attended London University Institute of Education on a Fellowship and Foreign Affairs was a result of that time.

The novel is about two American academics who also came to London on a Foundation Grant to further their research. Vinnie, the main character of the novel is researching children’s playground rhymes and Fred Turner is writing a PhD on John Gay. Vinnie is plain and middle-aged and, although academically successful, suffers from self-doubt and self-pity which pursues her in the form of an imaginary dog called Fido.

Fred on the other hand is young and extremely handsome, an up and coming academic suffering from a rift in his marriage. Both characters become involved in romantic attachments. Vinnie with Chuck, a brash Texan engineer, who to her dismay is sat next to her on the flight to England.

Initially Chuck is everything that Vinnie despises about Americans, from his naivety, his lack of education, his wide hat and fringed jacket, and, above all, his plastic raincoat. However, as their paths in London cross and she comes to know him better, she is drawn to his generous spirit and surprising sensitivity and insight and they become lovers.

Vinnie herself is just the opposite – a confirmed Anglophile, staying in a tasteful Notting Hill flat. Now resigned to a single life, she has ordered things as she likes them. Perhaps not totally likeable, a bit of a kleptomaniac at moments of stress or unhappiness, taken for granted by others who think that as a single woman she is always available to help them. Chuck is her first experience who sees beyond the waspish exterior and loves for herself.

The novel is full of humour, in fact book club members described it as great fun and hilarious. I particularly liked the scene in which Vinnie first encounters Chuck sitting next to her on the plane and to keep him from disturbing her she gives him Little Lord Fauntleroy to read and to her surprise he finishes it.

It is not hard to detect the influence of Henry James – there are references to him and the novel echoes James’s own theme of the naïve American encountering the more sophisticated and duplicitous European. Fred’s actress lover is such a character, although there is a twist In this story.  We enjoyed the novel – the scenes of London in the 80’s, the humour as well as the sadness. We recommend it,

Next month: Confession With Blue Horses by Sophie Hardac

The Women, by Kristen Hanna

‘There were no women in Vietnam’

We chose this month’s book, The Women, by Kristen Hanna on the recommendation of a friend in the village who had enjoyed it and also found it informative. About the role of the women nurses in the Vietnam war, it was both horrifying and enjoyable – one member described it as ‘unputdownable’.

Frances, known as Frankie, has had a privileged life, sheltered by over-protective, conventional and affluent parents In California. When her brother enlists he is treated as a hero but when she signs up to join the Army Nurse Corps, her family is horrified.

With little or no preparation apart from rudimentary nursing training, she finds herself in the middle of a warzone in which unimaginable atrocities are a daily occurrence – think Mash without the laughs. Her training had not prepared her for this type of nursing and the hard decisions she would have to make and she is constantly exhausted as yet more wounded and dying men are helicoptered in. She is determined not to fail and through sheer grit, she becomes a sought-after nurse noted for her competence and compassion. In this she is helped by her friends and tent-mates Barb and Ethel as well as the camaraderie and the laughs and drinks around ‘the Pool’.

But the novel is not only about the atrocities of war:  the second half is about what happens when Frankie and the Veterans (‘Vets’) return home, not to a hero’s welcome but reviled and spat upon as ‘baby killers’. Clearly suffering from PTSD, many took their own lives or suffered addiction and homelessness. For the women, there was an additional rejection: – Frankie’s parents refuse to acknowledge or talk about her wartime experiences, they were regarded as something to be ashamed of, concealed from their social circle. Working again as a nurse, her expertise is not recognised, and she becomes increasingly frustrated. Also suffering from PTSD, she is refused help because she is told ‘there were no women in Vietnam.’

The novel follows her downward spiral, through unwise and broken relationships to addiction but then her courageous fight-back with the support of Barb and Ethel to an independent and fulfilling life. She proudly marched as the Veterans were finally honoured with The Memorial Wall in 1982, followed by the Vietnam Women’s Memorial 1993 and she was able to help other women suffering in the same way.

The book is an easy and enjoyable read, and we learnt a lot from it. We felt that at times the writing needed tightening up and the second half was too long. We also raised an eyebrow at the ending – but no spoilers. I am sure other readers in the village will also enjoy it.

Next book: French hats in Iran by Heydar Radjavi