A New Venue but Bugger Bognor!

Hello Ladies,

A new venue for our monthly meeting has been confirmed!

Thanks to Jackie, our official venue for the monthly meetings will now be ‘Seasons’ at Bognor Regis Town Football Club, Nyewood Lane, Bognor Regis, W.Sussex. PO21 2TY. We feel that the Seasons club room will be far more conducive to our needs. We are also very grateful to Caroline who, via her contacts, negotiated a reduction in hire charges for us. However, we will still need to do some fundraising to pay the monthly hiring fee but it’s what every other WI has to do and I am sure it will be worth it! Seasons will provide staff to man the bar for us and I encourage you to use it in order for them to pay the staff; use it or lose it!

By way of thanks to Bognor Regis Sports Club for letting us use their venue free of charge for over 12 months, I sent the following letter to their Management Committee:-

To: The Management Committee of Bognor Sports Club From: Aldwick Revival WI Date: 05.08.22 Ref: ARWI use of Bognor Sports Club On behalf of ARWI, I’d like to offer our grateful thanks for allowing our group the use of your Sports Club for our meetings for the past 18 months. The timing of our move to your venue for our meetings tied in perfectly with encouraging members to return to face-to-face meetings, following the Covid restrictions. We’ve managed to keep our WI going when many others, both locally and nationally have folded. Consequently, our membership is now growing and this forced the Committee to look for an alternative venue which has now been found. We will begin using the new venue forthwith, for our next meeting in August. I hope that our donation of £100 to the Sports Club can be added to your fund-raising effort towards the refurbishment of the balcony and new fire escape. With grateful thanks, Aileen A. President of ARWI

Summer Party

I can confirm that the first event we will hold in the new venue will be our Summer Party on 18th August at 19.30. We have organized some lively entertainment provided by ‘Vintage Candy Singing Duo’. Carrie and Jay will not only be singing an exciting pick ‘n’ mix of swing, rock ‘n’ roll and musicals but they will also be providing a table quiz for you to complete during the evening. Carrie has assured me that there’ll be plenty of opportunities for you to get up and dance the night away!

Your Hub leader will be in contact with you regarding the provision of refreshments for us to share on the evening and the Seasons Bar will be open. The plan this time is for everyone to bring along a platter to share with your neighbour, in order to give the Hubs and the Committee a night off to enjoy the party. I do hope that as many of you as possible will be able to come to the party but please let your Hub leader know if you are unable to attend on the 18th.

Thank You

· To Gill for organising the Postman’s walk around Arundel

· To Lindsay for organising the Afternoon Tea

· To all who’ve signed up to receive information about the ARWI Mini Cruise. So far, we have 22 people who’ve expressed an interest. Please continue to let me know if you are interested.

· To the Committee for a productive meeting last Thursday

· To Sarah H for booking the trips with Wood’s Coaches

· To Sarah S for keeping our ARWI Website updated

NB. We have decided to postpone our Fundraising Quiz on Friday 23rd September due to an apparent lack of enthusiasm and a conflict with the Ardingly trip on the 24th.

Future fundraising ideas will be discussed at the September meeting.

FINALLY…

Facts about Bognor Regis

(Bognor Seafront 1911)

Bognor is one of the oldest recorded Anglo-Saxon place names in Sussex. In a document of AD 680, it is referred to as Bucgan ora meaning Bucge's (an Anglo-Saxon name) shore or landing place.

Bognor Regis was originally named just "Bognor", being a fishing (and smuggling) village until the 18th century, when it was converted into a resort by Sir Richard Hotham who renamed the settlement Hothamton, although this did not catch on. It has been postulated that Hotham and his new resort are portrayed in Jane Austen's unfinished novel Sanditon

“Bugger Bognor"

King George V had become ill, with surgery carried out on 12 December 1928. His recovery was slow and on 22 January 1929 Buckingham Palace issued a statement saying "it has been realised by the King's medical advisers that, prior to the establishment of convalescence, there would arrive a time when sea air would be necessary in order to secure the continuation of His Majesty's progress". The statement went on "a careful search was made for a "residence" not only suitable in itself but possessing the necessary attributes of close proximity to the sea, southern exposure, protection from wind, privacy and reasonable access to and from London." The residence selected was Craigweil House, (demolished in 1939) placed at His Majesty's disposal by owner Sir Arthur Du Cros. A long line of Royal visitors came to Bognor - including the King's three-year-old granddaughter, Princess Elizabeth. As a result, the King was asked to bestow the suffix "Regis" ("of the King") on "Bognor".[14] The petition was presented to Lord Stamfordham, the King's Private Secretary, who in turn delivered it to the King. King George supposedly replied, "Oh, bugger Bognor." Lord Stamfordham then went back to the petitioners and told them, "the King has been graciously pleased to grant your request’.

World War II

During the Second World War about 3,000 houses were damaged and 58 were entirely destroyed by the German bombing. 33 people were killed and 251 injured.

Butlins

Billy Butlin made his first appearance in the town with his Recreation Shelter, which was situated on the corner of Lennox Street and the Esplanade. The Recreation Shelter was to prove to be a popular entertainment venue,

containing one-armed-bandits and dodgem cars. This was eventually followed on 5 July 1933 by the Butlin Zoo on the seafront, which contained a wide array of animals, including brown, black and polar bears, hyenas, leopards, pelicans, kangaroos, monkeys and "Togo the snake king". Eventually, in 1958, the Bognor Regis town council announced that they had reached an agreement with Butlin to take on the 39 acre Brookland site to build a holiday camp, the site on which Butlins still stands today. The camp first opened to the public on 2 July 1960.

In 2020 the population of Bognor (including Bersted, Felpham, Middleton, and Pagham) was 63,000.

Have a good week everyone… and keep cool, there’s another heatwave coming!

Aileen x

N.B. in the interest of Covid security, I would ask all members to continue to take a lateral flow test before joining any WI activity. Payments for all ARWI events from now on will go through Jackie and the ARWI bank account “Aldwick Revival WI, Sort Code: 60-03-08, Acc. No. 74259172.” Please make a note of this for future reference.