My name is Carol Elizabeth Ardley and my date of birth is 14/8/1947.

I have always liked amateur dramatics. As a child I was star struck. When I came down here there was an am-dram group going so I thought I’d go along. So I did and ended up with the lead role. It was a play called ‘Here we come gathering’ and it was all the oldy people. The old stalwarts such as Burt and Hilda May Moore, Percy Hodgson and the play was produced by Jenny Hatfield. There was Aubrey Sinden and Ann Graham who was one of the real original players. She was in the play as well. From there, I enjoyed myself so went into another play and carried on. Then I went on to the Committee about 1984 /85 and got really involved doing organising and publicity. I directed and produced plays as well. We put on a play, probably only the 3^rd or 4^th play we did called ‘Pardon me Prime Minister’ and on the Friday night, the director came in a little harassed because the playwright (Edward Taylor) was in the audience with his wife so it all went into panic mode – better get this right tonight then! He had a holiday place in Bexhill and he’d seen it advertised so he and his wife came over. They watched the play and then introduced themselves afterwards and we became good friends with them. They are actually honorary life members. We did another of his plays called ‘Rise in the Market’ which I was in and that was also a very good play .He was a very nice chap. He was a BBC producer / director /playwright. He did mainly comedy and actually produced the ‘Men from the Ministry’ which a lot of people won’t remember but was a very popular programme. It was the forerunner of  ‘Yes Minister’. He also produced things like ‘Just a Minute’ and ‘I’m Sorry I haven’t a Clue’.

And then we had various changes on the Committee because people died or moved away and I had the pleasure of knowing Di Davidson who was a funny, funny lady. She was so talented and Linda Lee. A lot of people will remember them. They directed and acted. The Players at one time were on quite hard times – we didn’t have a lot of money in the bank so we decided we would have fund raising events. Mainly Keith and Marian Pollard got the fund raising events going but our best one was Afternoon Tea with Donald Sinden who was related distantly to Aubrey Sinden who was our President. We organised this with Sir Donald – it was his 88^th birthday so we got a birthday cake for him and we got one of those icing sugar pictures on it. So he arrived but sadly Keith Pollard had been poorly and was in hospital and missed the afternoon and  I was in charge of meeting and greeting. We expected a 45 minute talk and then a couple of questions afterwards but he spoke for an hour and a half. He was fascinating and then he asked ‘What time shall we have tea?’ so we told him that it could be when he was ready. So he came with us and had tea and we brought out the birthday cake and everything and had questions and answers. He had all these photos spread out on the chairs and the questions and answers lasted another hour and a half! He was with us for about 4 hours and he waived his fee because he knew that we were on our uppers. So we got him a gift. So Keith Pollard, Aubrey Sinden and myself went over to his house expecting him to say thank you very much but we were there for 4 hours. He was such a lovely chap. He lived in Tenterden, just before you get to the garden centre.

We did several fund raising evenings when we either had a supper or a talk or a demonstration of something or other. So we got into the position then that we could up our game because the old days of am-dram where you had to make do and mend everything had gone and you can’t get away with that now. You had to pull your socks up! So we got all that things we needed to do our productions which also meant for certain productions, hiring vast quantities of costumes which puts a strain. You’ve got to have enough money in the bank to cover all this in case the production folds. So there have been many people who have passed through the doors.

We spent a fortune on the lights and we upgraded the bar and kept the price of the tickets down but there was always a real local following by people for the Players. We have done all sorts of things – dramas, sad things, funny things, slightly off the wall things. My last play was ‘Cat and Canary’ which was 6 /7 years ago but I left the Players two AGMs ago and passed it on to the new people. My father was one of the set builders for a while before he retired and Esther Devries and her husband and Joy Wren was one of the real stalwarts. She passed away last week. Sue Trueman who lived in the Garage.

I joined Fairlight Tennis Club in the spring of 1994 and there was a grass court then, so everyone had to take turns mowing it and doing the white lines which was bit of a bore. The court was where it is now. The idea was that it would eventually be two courts and it was at a pepper corn rent – something like £5 a year. We did lots of fund raising to build our own hard court. We did several slightly naughty reviews – two day things. The Friday was sitting as an audience but on the Saturday it was dinner and a review. It was all sketches, songs and recitals which went down very well. I visited the first one which was in musical dress. I made huge hats for my mother and I. In those days the paper covered things like this and there was chap called Ted Rayner who lived in Waites Lane, he did a wonderful rendition of ‘Got to Pick a Pocket or Two’ with Linda Lee’s daughter and Jason Jay who was the son of Terry and Maureen Jay – real old tennis club people. It was a really good evening. There was also the magic act that Terry and I did which was supposed to be a mind reading act and nobody knew how we did it…We also had sales and crazy whist drives.

In those days, those involved were Terry and Maureen Jay, David and Ann Lee who lived in the village for many years, John Sewell who moved to Hastings and couple who lived in Farley Way but their name escapes me. There were a lot of members then – Jill Golding, Rachel and Derek Bliss from the Post Office. There were also members from outlying villages. There was always a membership of about 25 or so which for a club that size was enough. You could always get a court. In those days we used to have competitions in the summer – handicap competitions where we were all pitched against each other. It was a thriving club and kept going even in the Covid times. As soon as they were allowed, they were up there. Because of my eyesight I can’t play anymore.

The fund raising paid for the court plus possibly some grants but I’m not sure about that but I know they have had grants to upgrade it. I think it may have been all due to fund raising. In 1984/5 there wasn’t the Lottery but they have had one from the Lawn Tennis Association but we might not have been big enough to have been registered then.

Table tennis was mostly the same people as the tennis club but when it was dark winter evenings we played table tennis. There was actually a league at one point and there were some really serious players and they had matches but the hall wasn’t really big enough for the matches to go on so the league people moved on and the people who just wanted to play didn’t want to pay the high cost of the league people’s expenses so the league people went and gradually the numbers got less and less and they said it would have to close. The club started probably in the early 1980s and I joined in 1985/6. Terry Jay who is now deceased was big in the club.

When I joined in 1985/6 there was a children’s section. They would go first and I used to stay down there with the kids and they would be pushed out a 8pm and the grown-ups would come on. There’s no children’s section now. The club nearly folded but four of us decided that it wasn’t going to fold (probably 1996/7) so we decided to advertise for new members and they came. Before we knew it we had enough money to buy another new table and then another. In the end we had enough funds for 4 new tables. So they are all good tables and although I don’t play because of my eye sight there are still people there from when I was a member. Sometimes both halls were used. It depended. If we used the other hall then we had to pay for it. So what we did – membership for the year was £5 (initially it was less and money was collected each week) with a weekly sub. We could get 3 tables in the big hall and we played doubles. We got up to about 24 members and of course not everyone goes every week. We advertised for men and women. Usually the tables were full and just sometimes we had a fourth table in the small hall but the floor in there is appalling so it wasn’t particularly safe. And the club is still going. Kath Barron (the previous vicar’s wife) joined and she was a very keen player.

The Art Club was originally part of the WI but for whatever reason which I don’t know, the Art Club came away from the WI. Perhaps they were restricted in what they could do or they could only have WI members and no men and things like that. There were artists in the village who wanted to join. So I joined in about 1986 which was not long after the split and it was Margaret Charrot who lived in the village for many years (her husband was a teacher at William Parker), she was a teacher and the couple were well known in the village, she ran it with Maureen Brody and we had a tutor. We had two halls going. One was for freelance painting and the other was tutored. I stopped going because the boys were off my hands and I had to go back to work but then I started going again in about 2000 when I had time. Both Maureen and Margaret were involved still and there was a tutor. We had some nice tutors – professional artists and there were men there then. There was Norman Dengate and Debbie Morgan’s father. I can’t remember his Christian name. It was Hugh Morgan!! And Jim Duffy was in the club. It was decided that the tutors had become too expensive so we now have one a month whereas it had been weekly before. The class is still weekly. It was either a demonstration or a workshop with landscapes or something like that or just talks. So it has changed. Also we have a satellite group since the end of Covid where a tutor Mark Fisher will come and do 6 weeks of a weekly thing. Although it’s associated with the art club it’s not the art club itself. It’s all under the same umbrella but it’s for people like myself who are prepared to pay extra to have the tutor.

We have exhibitions. To start off with it was just coffee mornings which were very popular. There was always a raffle or a game plus pictures for sale. Then we branched out and we had an evening do – a wine and cheese do which is in May which is a big exhibition and a big charity raffle. The ticket gives you a glass of wine or a soft drink and a cheesy nibble supper. From there we progressed to from the evening do to having the hall the next day with an open gallery. We have as many members as we can cope with because of the space for all the tables. Julie Marshall is the organiser – she’s the Chairperson. It’s a very active group. We had Richard Adams come a couple of times. Once he just gave a talk and another time he gave a workshop. He was really good fun actually. Another artist Mike Funnell comes and there’s a lady who does bugs and bees and owls. Members can bring a guest to the talks. It’s a thriving group. We have also done several pop up exhibitions at the Pett Level Lifeboat in aid of them where they have taken the boat out of the boathouse and we have set up a gallery in there. It depends on the weather – last year it was so hot that people arrived with a towel and swimsuit and off to the beach. They didn’t want to bother. We have also had an exhibition at the church for the flower festival so we had flowers as a theme and pictures as well. There were cream teas of course and that was a 2 day event. That went very well. And also we’ve done a few with the Pett Methodist Church in the chapel there – we’ve done some exhibitions in line with their flower festival. We’re pretty much up to capacity. There’s a waiting list but we can usually squeeze them in. It’s all levels of work. Sometimes we have people who come who have never done a thing. I got Andrew to go because he has a great interest in art so I told him that I’m going to put your name down for the art club and he’s done some nice paintings.