Mid Sussex District Council news - February 2025

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Mid Sussex Applauds Awards are back!

Nominations are now open for the Mid Sussex Applauds Awards 2025. Organised by Mid Sussex District Council, this annual event celebrates the fantastic work carried out by individuals, groups and businesses across the district.

Cllr Anne-Marie Cooke, Cabinet Member for Communities and Communications, said: “We want to hear about all the unsung individuals and groups who play such an incredible role in our community. There are so many across the district who deserve a big thank you for everything they do. Now’s the chance to give them that recognition!”

Nominations for eight categories can be made until 7th March with the winners to be announced at a special awards ceremony in May.

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The award categories for 2025 are - Volunteer of the Year, Community Project of the Year, Young Hero of the Year, Business in the Community, Community for All Award, Environment and Climate Champion, Community Hero of the Year and Lifetime Achievement Award.

The amazing achievements of last year’s winners included a lifetime’s dedication to improving the lives of those with dementia, setting up a new coffee lounge as a hub for community support, running a youth club that had served the community for over 22 years and a community driven initiative addressing the climate emergency.

We’d love to hear from you. Your nomination could be one of this year’s winners! To nominate, visit: www.midsussexapplauds.co.uk

To read the full newsletter, please pick up February’s Cuckfield Life or click the images to enlarge them.

Cuckfield Bonfire and Fireworks

Welcome to Cuckfield Life’s Cuckfield Bonfire and Fireworks event page. Here you will find our most recent information for everything bonfire and fireworks.

See also, Cuckfield Bonfire

2025’s Bonfire Night will take place on 1st November at Cuckfield Park. More information to come.

© Hugo Blewett-Mundy

Cuckfield Bonfire and Fireworks 2024

One of the annual highlights of the Cuckfield calendar is once again going to dominate our skies… for one night only.
With a spectacular display set to a pulsating soundtrack, the Cuckfield Bonfire has not only raised the roof every November for 37 years, it’s also raised the bar for community fundraising in aid of local good causes.
And with many neighbouring displays being run on different nights this year and some not running at all due to rocketing costs, it’s hoped this year’s event on Saturday 2nd November, will be a big highlight for families in search of a traditional night out.

“People do come from far and wide which is great for us and we work hard to ensure it’s an event to remember,” said Michael Moore, chair of the Cuckfield Bonfire Society.
“We’ve also diversified our fundraising with the election of Jem Lee to be the village’s Bonfire mayor for the last two years, which has been a huge success,” he added.

Funds raised go to a variety of local causes like Holy Trinity and Woodlands Mead schools along with the Dame Vera Lynn Charity.
At his last cheque presentation recently in the splendid mayoral robes, Mayor Jem Lee, a former long time chair of the bonfire committee, reflected on an amazing tour of duty.
“I have very much enjoyed being the Bonfire Mayor meeting a huge range of people across the community and especially because of all the money raised,” said Jem.

There is a variety of catering available on bonfire night and various parking options but it’s advisable to book in advance, via the event website.
Tickets are available from www.cuckfieldbonfire.co.uk – Ticket prices are: families £28, adults £10 and children £5. Gates open at 5.30pm, bonfire is lit at 5.45pm and fireworks to music start with a bang at 7.30pm.

Gideon Mantell and the ‘Cuckfield Dinosaur’

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By Phillipa Mallin

In around 1820, a particularly interesting fossil was discovered at one of the quarries on Whitemans Green, Cuckfield, and was shown to Lewes doctor and palaeontologist Gideon Mantell. From boyhood, Mantell had been fascinated by the shells and fossils he found in the chalk quarries near his home in Lewes. He had studied medicine and anatomy in London before returning to Lewes to be a doctor but in his spare time he studied the geology of Sussex. When he was introduced to the Whiteman Green quarries in 1817, he realised the rock here was much older than anything he had seen before, dating from between 65-130 million years ago, the period we now refer to as the Cretaceous era. He wrote that the ridge on which Whitemans Green stands was once part of a huge river delta ‘a mighty river flowing in a tropical climate over sandstone rocks through a country of palms and tree ferns inhabited by turtles, crocodiles and other reptiles’ Mantell was often accompanied by his wife Mary on his visits to Cuckfield.
She shared her husband’s interest in geology and was a skilled artist, illustrating his book ‘The Fossils of the South Downs’ with engravings taken from his sketches. The site of the quarries is now marked by a plaque near the main Whitemans Green car park, the quarries having been probably filled in around 1847 but in the regency period they were an important source of stone for amongst other things the transformation of Brighton from a small fishing village to a fashionable resort. Stone was also needed to upgrade local roads with increased stagecoach traffic, Cuckfield being an important staging post at the time.

The unusual fossil (pictured) that Mantell was shown in around 1820 appeared to be a tooth - Mantell had instructed Leney, his quarryman, to concentrate on finding teeth and this was found with other teeth and large bones, all from the same creature. Mantell thought it was likely to have been a plant eater because of the heavy pattern of wear on the teeth. A visit to the Hunterian Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons in London convinced him that the animal was a reptile when he saw the teeth of an iguana that matched his fossil teeth.

He named his find Iguanodon or ‘iguana teeth’ in an academic paper ‘Notice on the Iguanodon, a newly discovered reptile, from the sandstone of Tilgate Forest in Sussex’ which was presented to the Royal Society on 10th February 1825. It was only the second dinosaur to be named. It is this 200th anniversary that is being celebrated in Sussex this year, centred in Lewes but with a talk by Lewes Town Guide Debby Matthews at The Old School in Cuckfield on Thursday 6th March at 2.30pm where she will look at the importance of Cuckfield, its quarries in Mantell’s career and of its place in the study of palaeontology. Debby has long had an interest in Mantell as she is a Lewes Town Guide and lives in the house in which he was born in Station Street. For a list of events and more information about our Cuckfield talk, see the Cuckfield Museum website: www.cuckfieldmuseum.org

“6th March at 2.30pm
The Life and Times of Gideon Mantell
Old School, Cuckfield RH17 5JZ
Talk about the discoverer of the Cuckfield iguanodon by Debby Matthews. Organised by Cuckfield Museum ”
— (£5 ticket, events@cuckfieldmuseum.org)

Mantell went on to discover other dinosaur species at Whitemans Green including Megalosaurus, Hylaeosaurus and Pelorosaurus but it was his first named species, the Iguanodon, with its distinctive thumb spikes, used as a herbivore to crack seeds and nuts and also to defend itself, which is always thought of as ‘The Cuckfield Dinosaur’. Many people will be surprised to know that the original Iguanodon tooth given to Gideon Mantell by quarryman Leney is now in the Te Papa Museum in New Zealand. It was taken to New Zealand by his son Walter, a keen natural scientist, who went to live there after his father’s death in in 1852.

Cuckfield Museum will reopen on 15th February with its permanent dinosaur exhibition including original bones from the Whitemans Green quarries and fossil activities for children. Opening hours are WednesdaySaturday 10am-12.30pm.