Pupils show their class by surprising teacher on her wedding day

WEDDING BELLS. A large crowd gathered outside St George’s recently to see the new Mr and Mrs Frederick come out of the church. The bride, Esther Hollamby, was born in the village in 1993 and has lived in Weald all her life, going to the village school and then Weald of Kent where she was deputy head girl.

She studied law at UEA but decided that teaching was her calling. She did her training year and NQT year at Chiddingstone Primary School and taught the year 4 class. Therefore it was a lovely surprise for Esther when she found the pupils waiting outside the church to give her their best wishes on her wedding day.

Harry Frederick, Esther’s new husband, went to Penshurst Primary and Judd and Edinburgh University where he studied architecture. His family have farmed in Penshurst for at least three generations and Harry went back to help when his father was ill and has continued farming sheep. Esther and Harry will begin their married life on the farm.

A tractor with trailer was waiting outside the church to ferry the couple, bridesmaids and groomsmen to the reception for 200 in a beautifully decorated barn at Coldharbour Farm in Penshurst.

VILLAGE WALKS. Following a summer recess, the monthly village walks will be resuming on Saturday 6 October. The group will be leaving from the Memorial Hall at 9.45am and walking for approximately for one and a half hours, returning for some well-deserved refreshment – either a coffee in the Community Shop or something a little stronger at the Windmill!

AUTUMN GLORY. The Memorial Hall was full with vegetables and flowers recently during the Weald Horticultural Society’s Autumn show. Despite this year’s challenging weather conditions, the ‘allotmenteers’ and village gardeners still put on a magnificent show.

Carol Ryman’s entries were particularly impressive and she was named as the winner in 25 of the individual categories.

A Winter/Christmas show will be held at the beginning of December.

WONDERFUL WINDMILL. Eight years ago Weald residents breathed a huge sigh of relief when Matt and Emma Rudd came to the rescue and bought the Windmill – the only pub left in the village – which was in danger of closing. Following a significant re-vamp, a lot of hard work and a focus on ‘real ale’, local ciders and good food the pub was ‘re-born’. In 2013 it won CAMRA’s award for, ‘Most improved’ pub of the year. The following year the couple won the award for ‘Best pub in West Kent’ and by 2016 the pub was one of the four finalists for ‘Pub of the Year’.

Now Matt and Emma are taking up a new challenge of a pub in Tonbridge and have passed the mantle to new landlords who moved into The Windmill last month.

DON’T BE A LITTER LOUT. Villagers in Weald turned into Wombles for a weekend recently. Hilary Allen, with the support of the parish council, came up with the idea of a village ‘Litter Pick’ and a plea went out for people to meet at the Memorial Hall to help out. The pickers filled 10 sacks full of rubbish from around the village which was a great effort. But disappointingly the pickers also discovered several bags of building waste that had been ‘dumped’ behind bushes on Hubbards Hill.

The village looks much tidier as a result of the litter pick, but it has been noticed that some pet owners are still not picking up their dog’s poo when they are out walking. Please dispose of your litter and dog poo responsibly.