Our speaker in May was Pip Burley. Pip’s production of Viva La Costa was performed on the Nomad stage in May 2008. His talk was entitled The Darling Buds of May – History and the Making Of Television’s Most Successful Comedy Drama Series Of All Time.
Our June meeting will be the last before the summer break. The speaker will be Tim Harrold who has recently retired as the Chairman of the Surrey branch of The Campaign To Protect Rural England; but remains Chairman of the Guildford Branch and is on the board of Surrey Hills Area of Outstanding Beauty.
Our speaker in April was Bob Spackman. Bob has been involved, from the beginning, in the community fruit and vegetable growing co-operative for East and West Horsley. This project is aptly named Grace and Flavour and is situated in Dene Place on land owned by the National Trust. After two years of negotiations, planning permission has finally been granted. The project is open to every resident in the village, and anyone outside the village, wishing to take part, can do so by invitation. Sixty people have started the hard work of clearing the ground of rubbish and nettles. Bob said the ground was a wilderness and he had never seen nettles like the ones that had become established. He handed round photographs of the garden before the clearance and subsequently during and after the efforts of those involved. One of the photographs showed our Chairman, Charles Hope, hard at work. Work has involved planting up pots, clearing land which has revealed established paths, and making the garden safe. A photograph featured one of the founder members – Des Hollier, who sadly died recently. Des was extremely supportive of the walled garden project alongside many other projects in the village. The central path in the garden will be named Hollier Avenue in his memory as this was one of the areas that was cleared by Des. In the orchard there are a great variety of apples, many of them with the old flavours that are no longer to be found in our supermarkets. The old greenhouses have been turned into a herb garden and the bricks will be used to construct a car park. There are plans for a picnic and playground area. The potting shed is to become a meeting area for members with a creche etc. A pond is planned to encourage toads and newts . On behalf of our Prompt Corner members, I should like to wish Bob and all his volunteers the great success that they all deserve and trust that all the work that has gone into this superb venture will become a great asset to the Horsleys.
If any member, due to attend the next luncheon is unable to do so, please telephone 01483 283507 by Sunday, 13th June .
Mary Brooks
