It hasn’t been easy weathering the storm of a pandemic, however the one factor that has proved itself time and again is that the local community want to support independent businesses. We are therefore very excited to introduce The Ethical Emporium – a new business hub for creative independent brands, housed in our rent-a-shelf space in the former retail area at The Zero Waste Company.

This initiative will bring together local designer-makers and brands in an affordable venture, allowing flexible rental space on a weekly basis for a flat fee, with all product sales going to the maker. We hope to showcase a variety of items including homeware, toiletries, gifts and clothing.

Launching early April, The Ethical Emporium will become a must-go for local shoppers to find unique and beautiful locally made items!

For more information or to enquire about becoming a stockist email: info@thezerowastecompany.com

Family fun takes centre stage at Trinity this April, with light-hearted engaging daytime events for little ones and early evening activities aimed at young adults and avid readers alike with our NEW author-led talks’ The Open Page with…’ series. Ben Aaronovitch joins us on the 7th to talk about the ‘Peter Grant/Rivers of London’ series and discuss the latest book in the saga with actor and fan Patrick Warner. Tickets are only £8+, including a Q&A and book signing! 

Storytime, our FREE weekly family get together, opens April on Friday the 1st. The weekend rocks with the Kids funfest that is SPLAT (ages 3-6); we then roll into I Spy With My Little Eye on Tuesday 5th and the wonderfully sweet The Hogmoor Trail on Thursday 7th. There’s more, so much more! We click our Ruby Slippers with glee as The Wizard of Oz lands at Trinity for two shows on the 16th, and we close the month with Comedy Club 4 Kids. 

Gigs, gigs, gigs! Coldplace, the renowned Coldplay tribute act kick off our listings on the 2nd, swiftly followed by three nights of music. Starting with Flanders & Swann, including all the classics, The Hippopotamus (Mud, Mud, Glorious Mud), The Gnu, The Gas Man Cometh on the 8th and Strictly Dan and Band without Boundaries moving into the spotlight on Saturday the 9th. Why not wind down with us on the 10th and join us for our sublime Sunday sessions –The Breathing Room Presents.

Do not forget our theatrical and cinema programme, which bursts with brilliance this Spring. Highlights include Watson: The Final Problem on the 24th and NT LIVE: returns with Henry V (Kit Harington in the lead role) beaming onto our screen on the 21st April!

For full listings, membership deals and announcements, please visit: trinitytheatre.net or call our box office on 01892 678 678. #MoreThanATheatre

·      Easter fun with Queen Victoria’s hidden egg trail and ‘Hunt for Easter Island’ panto storytelling

A royal theme will be running throughout the events programme at Penshurst Place and Gardens this year, marking Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee year.

The historic home and listed gardens are open to visitors at weekends throughout March, with the bright spring bulbs making a cheerful and very welcome entrance, heralding the start of the warmer weather. Penshurst Place will then open daily from 2^nd April for the 2022 season.

April sees the return of the Tremendous Tulips at Penshurst, when literally thousands of tulips make a bold entrance. From the gloriously yellow ‘Jewel of Spring’ in the Italian Garden, to the bright polka red varieties in the long grass of the Nut Garden and the formal boxed white tulips in the Paved Garden, the grounds feature a fabulous display of flowers, producing a delicate mix of scents and styles. 

On Sunday 10^th April, the Queens from Tudor Legacies will be back in the gardens at Penshurst Place to talk with visitors and share tales about life as one of Henry VIII’s wives. Their authentic period costumes and engaging stories help to bring history to life, while putting in context the wonderful backdrop of the Grade I listed gardens that were laid out during the Tudor period and have remained largely unchanged since.

Easter at Penshurst Place is always a fun and special time, and this year is no exception with the addition of an exciting new egg hunt trail and the return of panto-style storytelling from the ever-popular team from Aardvark.

Continuing with the ‘fit for a queen’ theming, the new Queen Victoria Easter Egg Hunt trail will run throughout Easter weekend and the school holidays, running daily between 10am and 5pm from 2^nd April to 18^th April. Cleverly concealed in the Penshurst Place gardens are several large Victorian eggs, each containing a secret.  Participants will need to find the eggs and make a note of the secret they discover hidden within each on an accompanying trail sheet. Once all have been discovered and the trail sheet completed, the mystery will be solved.

Queen Victoria is credited with popularising the Easter Egg hunt, having enjoyed egg hunts organised by her mother when she was a child, living at Kensington Palace. Subsequently, she and Prince Albert continued the tradition with their own children and, as a result, the activity grew in fashion and became the hugely popular activity that youngsters have enjoyed at Easter ever since. 

Penshurst Place and Gardens is open between 10am and 5pm at weekends in March. It will open daily on 2^nd April 2022 until 30^th October 2022.  For more information and ticket prices visit www.penshursplace.com.

As pretty noisy neighbours their presence on our office blocks and rooftops is rarely welcomed. Yet this change in habits is largely driven by our own activities. As a trip to the local recycling centre makes very clear, food availability is the key here. As fishing has become more industrialised and more efficient in reducing waste, gulls have increasingly looked to the land for food and what they have found there are our huge landfill sites full of readily accessible supplies. Whether it’s a bag of leftover chips or other food waste, our urban streets often also offer tempting goodies for a hungry gull. And why choose to bring up a family on a cold, windswept cliff when there’s a warm office block near the larder?

       Once upon a time finding gulls nesting inland was a very rare event. But these are intelligent and adaptable species, quick to respond to a changing world even if it brings them into conflict with us humans. It is thought the first record of gulls nesting far from the sea is of a pair raising a brood on an old Cornish mill in 1909. Like it or like it not, our Landgulls are now here to stay.

The situation was not helped by the arrival of Storm Eunice in the middle of February, which caused considerable damage. Mostly it was only relatively minor trees that came down and we were able to re-open the great majority of footpaths within a couple of days. As ever, it was predominantly Birch trees that were affected but we did lose a few major trees as well, the most prominent being the large, triple stemmed Oak that came down by Brighton Lake and partially blocked the A26 for a while. Nothing had been visible above ground but after the storm, it was clear that the root system of the tree had been infected with a rotting fungus for some time. The road was quickly re-opened and we made the rest of the tree safe in the ensuing days but the wreckage of the tree had to stay there until contractors were able to chip the branches and remove the trunks, which we will use to reinforce the Commons verges in vulnerable areas. Hopefully that will be the last of the storms for this year but that is by no means certain.

The Volunteers have also now finished cutting and clearing but the litter group will continue under Gemma’s guidance. The final conservation task was the clearance of a few footpaths restricted by fallen branches and the removal of self-sown seedlings from the grassland near the Tarry Path Pond. It was nice to see quite a bit of frog spawn in the pond already. As I write this, Fir Tree Pond, Cabbage Stalk Lane Pond and the new Marlpit ponds also have frog spawn in them and Toads are gathering in Brighton Lake; I have not seen any newts yet but they will surely not be far behind.

As the seasons change again, our focus moves to the renovation of our infrastructure, such as benches, bins and surfaced paths. Within the next couple of weeks, we will of course also be starting to cut the amenity grass areas and so the whole cycle of work starts again.

Although there is always plenty to do, the next few months are traditionally my quietest time of the year and the time that I get to watch the Common re-awaken. This year will of course be my last as Warden, so I intend to absolutely enjoy it to the full and savour every minute of it. My successor has now been appointed and will take up the post of Commons Ranger at the start of June. I will retire as Warden at the end of June after a month’s handover period. I am not entirely sure why the title of my post is changing from Warden to Ranger but it would seem to mean that I will remain the first and only Warden of the Commons, which is rather a fun thought!

Steve Budden – Commons Warden