The SDFS go ‘To The Woods’ and then ‘To The Shore’

Update 20th September: For anybody planning to use the trains this weekend, please be aware that there will be replacement buses between Littlehampton and Chichester/Bognor on both days due to engineering work at Ford. Read more.

A celebration of the heritage of the South Downs is being held in Midhurst on Saturday 24th September followed by the Southdowns Folk Festival in Bognor Regis on Sunday 25th September.

Midhurst Saturday 24th September

The celebration marks the end of the Secrets of the High Woods project and will be held at the headquarters of the South Downs National Park Authority in North Street, Midhurst opposite the main bus departure point, with various activities and performances (details here) taking place from 10.00am.

We will be singing two song sets, at 11.00am and 1.45pm. Please arrive by 10.30am.

Buffet lunch and drinks will be provided, and parking will be available on a ‘first come first served’ basis in the visitors parking at the front of the Centre. If all parking places are taken, further parking is in the main municipal car park opposite (pay and display).

Download a sketch plan (pdf file) of the venue.

In case of precipitation the Memorial Hall will be available to the side of the ‘arena’.

For those of you who would like to learn more about this three-year HLF-backed project culminating this autumn, the travelling interactive exhibition will be on site with a précis of that information (further information here).

First set:

1. Country Life
2. Pleasant And Delightful
3. On Sussex Hills
4. Rolling In The Dew
5. Rosebuds In June
6. Run Of The Downs
7. Smuggler’s Song
8. West Sussex Drinking Song
9. Hard Times Of Old England
10. Green Grow The Laurel
11. The Turnip Hoer

Second set:

1. Oak, Ash And Thorn
2. Twanky Dillo
3. The Magpie
4. The Woodcutter’s Song
5. The Nightingale
6. Fathom The Bowl
7. Ebernoe Horn Fair
8. Life Of A Man
9. Thousands Or More
10. Sussex By The Sea
11. Jolly Good Song

Bognor Regis Sunday 25th September

The Southdowns Folk Festival is on all weekend but we will be singing only one song set at 12.40pm outside on the patio of (or if raining inside) The William Hardwicke pub in High Street, Bognor. The street will be pedestrianised for the event and the William Hardwicke will have a Real Ale Festival in full swing. We will be preceded by Bellacapella and followed by the two-hour Sussex Young Folk Competition.

Please be there by 12.10pm. Parking will be at a premium, especially if the weather is as good as in previous years. I will again be parking in a residential road to the north of the A259 and walking in. There is of course the bus or train if you intend to imbibe some wobbly juice!

The song set is:

1. Country Life
2. West Sussex Drinking Song
3. On Sussex Hills
4. Pleasant And Delightful
5. Smuggler’s Song
6. Ale, Glorious Ale
7. The Magpie
8. Thousands Or More
9. Life Of A Man
10. Sussex By The Sea
11. Jolly Good Song

See you there
John C.