It seemed the village had become the focus of the world as reporters and photographers from as far away as Italy and France descended with their enormous cameras and stepladders. And from every window and vantage point around the church they took up their positions, waiting for the bride to arrive.

* A couple lost everything when fire swept through their cottage at Lynchmere.

Tom and Paddy Eva were left with just the clothes they were wearing when they went out on Saturday.

Neighbours alerted the fire service shortly before 2pm but by then the couple's rented cottage in Danley Lane was an inferno and a ceiling had collapsed, sending first-floor rooms crashing down into the living area.

* CREASE is just a big softie according to owner Richard Green who has kept him as a pet at his Northchapel farm for the past six-and-a-half years.

To be precise he is a giant 3,300lb softie standing more than six feet tall and munching his way through some 80lbs of hay and maize every day. For Crease is a bullock and possibly the largest bullock in the country, standing taller than the family's Range Rover Discovery and weighing more than a BMW Three series.

* It took 60 firefighters to bring the blaze under control when fire severely damaged part of the Southdowns Country Hotel in Trotton.

Ten fire engines rushed to the scene including two from Midhurst, one from Petworth, two from Petersfield, another two from Chichester and firefighters from Liphook, Shoreham and Bosham. They were called when fire broke out in an annexe wing of the hotel containing bedrooms.

But all the guests had checked out on Sunday evening at the end of a weekend conference and the hotel was empty.

Anyone anticipating a big party this year to mark 100 years of the Pearson family at Cowdray is in for a surprise – it's not happening until next year. Although all the history books of the 20th century quote 1908 as the year Sir Weetman Dickinson Pearson bought the estate, it turns out they are wrong.

"It is just one of those things that has become folklore," says Robert Windle, Lord Cowdray's agent.

"Our records have always shown that the family purchased the Cowdray Estate in 1909, but due to the anticipation of a celebration in 2008, we have double-checked and confirmed that the date was indeed 1909."

* A PETWORTH couple are hoping they have triumphed in their battle against telecommunications giant BT.

Spike and Ann Durrant have been waging war against the company since they woke to find a 25ft telegraph pole yards from their bedroom window in Littlecote, last month.

They claimed it was an invasion of their privacy, blocked access to their front garden and despite being given 30 days to object, the job was completed before the ink on their protest letters was dry.

But they scented victory when an engineer admitted to them that BT had carried out the work without planning permission and in the face of strong objection he said the pole would be moved.

* Protesters were out in force on Saturday in defence of Redford post office.

The isolated hamlet near Midhurst has never in living memory seen a demonstration like it, prompted by the Post Office's threat to close the facility and replace it with a visiting mobile service. A similar protest was staged in a bid to save Easebourne post office. Both were later axed in the Post Office shake-up.

* THEY must have been very proud when they returned home to Rogate on that April evening 100 years ago with the judge's banner after their first performance at the Petersfield Musical Festival.

But who those members of the new Rogate Choral Society were, and how they celebrated, are details lost in the mists of time. Perhaps there is a dusty box somewhere in an attic which charts the beginnings
of the choir and holds that once-coveted banner.

Nevertheless Rogate Choral Society had been born in triumphant style under the baton of Miss Winifred Murray and today's members are preparing to celebrate the centenary of a choir that has sung for 100 years.

* SHOPPERS in Budgens at Midhurst on Sunday were horrified to see a car crash through the wall of the shop as they queued for the checkout.

Miraculously no-one was injured despite the fact the shop was busy with customers and there were queues at the tills just a few feet from where the wall collapsed.

MIDHURST Lions are teaming up with the Dreams Come True charity in a bid to breathe new life into the town's annual carnival.
And there will be a new venue for the traditional May Bank Holiday entertainment.

Making the announcement, Dreams Come True fundraising manager Philip Pride said after negotiations with the Cowdray Heritage Trust the carnival would move from its current site at Midhurst Grammar School to the Cowdray Ruins.

* Wisborough Green's renowned village fete has
been saved, fending off dire warnings it might disappear off the calendar.

A small group of villagers, supported by the parish council, has come to the rescue of the August bank holiday event, which attracts up to 8,000 people each year and raises thousands of pounds.

After a crisis meeting last week, Wisborough Green Fete Society was formed to take over the reins from the Sideshows Society which decided after many decades that it could not continue.

* Campaigners from NAME, the group protesting at the proposal for an academy at Midhurst or Easebourne, picketed a meeting at Lodsworth where a meeting of the North Chichester Local Committee heard the public's views in the Rother Valley education debate.

The celebrated Midhurst-based sculptor, Philip Jackson, has been appointed a deputy lieutenant for West Sussex.

The appointment, along with four other new deputies, was announced this week from the office of the Lord Lieutenant, Hugh Wyatt.

And Mr Jackson, whose current commissions include the memorial to the Queen Mother in The Mall, London, the Sir Alf Ramsey sculpture at Wembley Stadium and the United Trinity at Old Trafford, home of Manchester United, confessed he was 'astounded'.

"It is a great honour and a privilege. It was unexpected," he said. "I have lived and worked in West Sussex for a great many years and I am happy to be able to give something back to the county.

* Petworth is bracing itself for major disruption from next Monday because of drainage works which will cause the complete closure of the main A285 Station Road.

Cars and other light vehicles which would normally use the A285 section from its junction with Dawtrey Road to Haslingbourne Lane will be diverted on a wide detour through town streets and using part of the Petworth lorry route.

And the works will have a knock-on effect as HGVs which are banned from Petworth's narrow streets are sent on an extensive diversion through Midhurst, Fernhurst and Haslemere.

* A family firm is closing down after 61 years of keeping other people's home fires burning.

Hellyer and Sons, based at Elsted Marsh, Elsted, will be delivering their last sacks of coal at the end of next week and saying their final goodbyes to customers spread over a wide area, from Rudgwick to Rogate.

Brothers Barry and Colin Hellyer – sons of the founder Reg – and their brother-in-law Norman White will be looking for jobs which don't leave them with aching backs and blackened by coal dust every day, while sister Sue White, who has run the office, is hoping to retire.

Several factors have influenced their decision to close the business which Reg Hellyer, helped by his father, started in Bognor Regis in 1947.

A brass band provided the fanfare on Sunday for the rebirth of a crucial amenity for young people in Midhurst – its Scout and Guide headquarters hut in Carron Lane.

Betty Millins, one of the original Guide leaders who got the headquarters up and running several decades ago, cut the ribbon to signal the re-opening of the hut following an extensive upgrading and refurbishing programme which cost nearly £30,000 and saved it from permanent closure.

Although the Midhurst Scouts section, with its accompanying Beavers and Cubs, closed several years ago through lack of numbers, a big effort is now under way to bring the section back to Carron Lane in the new-look premises.

* A 23-YEAR-OLD Trotton designer has been chewing over the sticky and unsightly problem of discarded gum.

And Anna Bullus thinks she has come up with a solution.

She is hoping to produce a bin, partly made of recycled chewing gum, which can be attached to lamp-posts so that chewers can dispose of their gum in an environmentally-friendly way.

Anna, who studied at Bedales School and went on to gain a degree in
three-dimensional design at Brighton University, said: "I was walking back from uni one day when I started to think about the unsightly splodges that litter streets of towns and cities globally."

* HERBERT Shiner Intermediate School students at Petworth in the top two years will move to Midhurst Intermediate School from September due to staff shortages.

Governors at the Petworth school have met parents to discuss their difficulty in finding enough specialist teachers to start the new academic year.

Discussions are also under way over the possibility of transferring Year 6 pupils.

For some children, say governors, this will avoid the need to change schools twice in two years.

Sandra Jones, headteacher of Herbert Shiner, said: "This is a very difficult decision that the governing body has had to reach. We are currently short of two teachers."

SAFETY worries have been blamed for a last-minute decision to cancel open-air music events which were designed to ensure this year's Petworth Festival opened and closed in an explosion of free entertainment.

Festival directer Peter Bolton, already in hot water with some factions over the pre-festival scheduling of its customary church service, announced the decision with just a week to go to the start of the two-week arts event.

He said: "With much regret, Petworth Festival has decided to cancel the open-air events, which would have taken place in Market Square on June 7 and 21, following health and safety advice from official bodies.

"The advice has raised a number of concerns about the safety of the public and this has led to the decision, which the festival organisers believe is the responsible course of action."

* WEST Sussex County Council has decided to go ahead with plans to replace Midhurst Grammar School with an academy.

New cabinet member for education Pat Arculus made the formal decision after two months of public consultation meetings.

But the opening date for the new academy has been put back, one term, to January next year. In addition all three schools – the two intermediate schools at Easebourne and Petworth as well as the grammar school – will now form the new academy from its opening date.

* Fuel stations ran dry in Midhurst and at Northchapel at the weekend as the tanker drivers' strike sparked panic among motorists.

A rural garage at Iping saw its usual Saturday sales at its Texaco pumps almost quadruple and motorists were travelling from Guildford to fill up with diesel at Northchapel.

* VISITORS will find a warm welcome in the downland village of Sutton, near Petworth, this Saturday when its residents hold their 30th hospitality day.

A fun feature of the day will be the variety of scarecrows on display in many of the gardens – made by village children and adults.

* A DOG-OWNER snatched eight young puppies to safety when fire engulfed her home.

Jo Hewison twice braved thick acrid smoke to bring the five-week-old flatcoated retrievers down the stairs, carrying four at a time.

The pups' mother also escaped the inferno but Mrs Hewison was unable to get back a third time to rescue two remaining puppies from the litter, who perished in the blaze at Hammer, near Camelsdale.

Mrs Hewison and her husband, Richard, who was at work, lost virtually all their possessions in the fire, which gutted their semi-detached house and caused serious damage to the next-door property occupied by an 87-year-old woman.

* BUSINESSES in Midhurst are in shock this week after the sudden closure of the town's newest estate agent, Henry Adams.

It came as a bolt from the blue on Monday morning when staff arrived for work at their new West Street premises – opened just three months ago – to be told the office was closing immediately.

The shutdown was followed within a week by the closure of the Posy Bowl flower shop founded in Knockhundred Row 28 years ago.


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