News

Clean up our Village on Saturday 25th October. Please help with litter picking in Maresfield between 10am and 1pm. Meet in the Church car park. All welcome! Rubbish sacks, litter pickers and a hi-viz jacket will be provided. Please bring your own gloves.

There are three weeks left to get your entries in to the annual MCG Photo competition. Entries close at midnight on 21 September. There's a £50 Amazon voucher to be won for the best entry and the top 12 images will feature on the Maresfield Calendar for 2026. More details here: https://www.maresfieldconservationgroup.org/photo-competition

The planning application for the huge development at Owlsbury Farm at Little Horsted has now been submitted to Wealden. The proposal is for 1,700 houses in addition to around 2,000 already approved. Objections must be submitted by 22nd June. Please see https://sabreowl.com for guidance on commenting on the proposals.

SPRING LITTER PICKING: "Clean Up Our Village" 10am to 12noon on Saturday 12th April. Meet in the Maresfield Church car park. We will supply rubbish sacks, litter pickers and hi-viz jackets. Please bring your own gloves. All welcome!

The MCG March 2025 Newsletter has been emailed to all our members. Click on the NEWSLETTERS button on the home page to find it.

Everyone is welcome in the church at 5pm on 7 December for mulled wine, hot chocolate etc and to celebrate the lighting of the village Christmas tree. The outdoor lighting ceremony will not take place this year due to the strong winds and rain forecast. Do come to the church at 5pm where you will find Santa in his grotto!

After many years living in Maresfield, Rob and Peta Penfold are moving to Kent to be closer to family members. They have been strong contributors to village life with Rob serving on the MCG committee for the past nine years. Peta was the minute secretary for the MCG for several years. Rob has worked tirelessly on numerous matters including guiding MCG’s responses to development proposals, working with the Footpaths Group, project managing the new Village Map (shown on photo) and arranging the annual village Christmas tree. Rob was presented with a well-deserved gift from his fellow committee members at his last meeting on 18th November. He and Peta will both be greatly missed in Maresfield.

The 2025 Maresfield Calendar is now on sale at the village shop. They are A4 sized wall calendars, folding out to A3 when hung up with a beautiful photograph for each month of 2025. They would make brilliant Christmas presents! £8.50 each with all profits going to charity.

A big thank you to the 16 litter pickers who turned out on Saturday and collected 14 bags of rubbish between them. This is less than the amount collected in April, which is good news!

AUTUMN LITTER PICKING: "Clean Up Our Village" Saturday 26th October 10am to 2pm. Meet in the Maresfield Church car park. We will supply rubbish sacks, litter pickers and hi-viz jackets. Please bring your own gloves.

If you would like to help but cannot join us on the day, please contact Jo Lawrance, MCG Chair via email on jo.lawrance63@gmail.com

Thanks to a generous bequest left to the village by Joan Bailey, the MGC worked alongside her nephew David which culminated in the erection of a beautiful display board and footpath map in the centre of the village. The board and map are in memory of Andrew and Joan Bailey of Maresfield Park. The illustrated map depicts footpaths in and around the village for use by local walkers and visitors to our village.

Weald to Waves are hosting two training sessions on riverfly training where you’ll learn how to survey river invertebrates as an indicator for water quality, and become a certified riverfly monitor carrying out regular survey at locations within the Adur catchment. The sessions are taking place on the 13th June and the 6th July (9.30am – 4pm) at the Sussex Wildlife Trust headquarters: Woods Mill, Shoreham Road, Henfield, BN5 9SDU. Places are limited so if you’d like to reserve a place on one of the courses, please email: adurrecovery@knepp.co.uk