The Hurst Rethink

28/09/2026

Places are going fast for the screening of the People's Emergency Briefing on October 15th at the Players Theatre in Hurstpierpoint, 65 of 80 places booked.

If you want to come along to see the film and join in the discussion afterwards, book your place on Eventbrite, https://www.eventbrite.com/e/peoples-emergency-briefing-screening-tickets-2001064509816.

In November 2025, the National Emergency Briefing brought together leading experts to present the latest evidence on the climate and nature crisis to politicians and other influential people in Westminster. That evidence is now on the public record - this film has details on the briefing and reactions from those who watch it. After the film, we will discuss our thoughts on the issues raised and how we respond as a community.

Here's what one person said after seeing the film:

“I’ll be honest — I’m sceptical of climate doom-mongering… But this film is different. Really different…. Stark facts, yes. But also a genuine sense of agency and even optimism... If you get the chance to attend a screening, I’d strongly encourage it.”

See the trailer here: https://youtu.be/5x2XhvEbz24?si=m4pPisUmckqE1u6o

22/09/2026

Join us to watch the People's Emergency Briefing - Thurs 15th Oct 7.30pm at Players Theatre - https://mailchi.mp/d23300837861/peoples-emergency-briefing

15/09/2026

We are organising a screening of the People's Emergency Briefing on Thursday 15th October at 7.30pm. This screening is in partnership with Hurst Village Cinema and Hurstpierpoint Players.

All the details are on Eventbrite where you can book tickets.

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/2001064509816?aff=oddtdtcreator

You can see the trailer for the film here: https://youtu.be/9tLUnWHkGG4?si=V5caZ0oXg3G_-Jy5

The screening will be followed by a facilitated discussion. We hope you can join us and please feel free to forward this email onto anyone you think might be interested.

A new film featuring Chris Packham, leading scientists, a former ge...

11/09/2026

SOFT PLASTIC BINS UPDATE:

Our volunteer team are increasingly finding rubbish such as coffee cups, b**r cans and other waste polluting our soft plastic recycling bins outside the charity shop.

In addition to this, people are putting loose plastic in there, which is difficult to collect and blows about in the wind.

PLEASE ONLY USE THESE BINS FOR SOFT PLASTIC, TIED IN PLASTIC BAGS.

If these bins continue to be used for other items, we may need to suspend this service as our team doesn't have the resource to deal with this extra waste. This will be a last resort as we know how many people really value being able to recycle their plastic here - and are often told this when we're collecting. Let's keep the bins for what they are meant for!!

15/06/2026

Our amazing team has taken over 2,000 sacks of soft plastic to Co-op from the collection bins outside the charity shop since 2022. That's quite a mountain of plastic! We collect between 60-70 sacks each month now.

A huge thanks to the team at Co-op for taking it and sending it off to be recycled... and of course our amazing band of volunteers who empty the bins 3-4 times a week.

It's a wonderful service to the village. If you fancy helping the team out now and again, please let us know, we're always on the lookout for more people to help 😉

♻️

03/06/2026

We will be holding our popular swift and house martin evening walks again in June to showcase our new nest cups & boxes - and to talk about our local populations of these birds.

Spaces on each walk are limited to 20 places so we've set up an Eventbrite to manage bookings. The walks are free to attend, just register your place on Eventbrite for one of the two walks, either Tues June 23rd or 30th at 7.45.

These events are likely to be fully booked so if you want to come along, please register sooner rather than later 😉

Here are the booking links:

June 23rd: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1989209047810?aff=oddtdtcreator
June 30th: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1989209231359?aff=oddtdtcreator

Hopefully see some of you in June :)

11/05/2026

We will be holding our popular swift and house martin evening walks again in June to showcase our new nest cups & boxes - and to talk about our local populations of these birds.

Spaces on each walk are limited to 20 places so we've set up an Eventbrite to manage bookings. The walks are free to attend, just register your place on Eventbrite for one of the two walks, either Tues June 23rd or 30th at 7.45pm

Here are the booking links:

June 23rd: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1989209047810?aff=oddtdtcreator
June 30th: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1989209231359?aff=oddtdtcreator

Hopefully see some of you in June 🙂

08/05/2026

Here's the map of addresses taking part in the Hurst Jumble Trail this Sunday 10th May 10am-2pm. We really hope you enjoy wandering around the village looking for treasure and meeting the community! If you want a downloadable version, head to our website, hurstrethink.org.

Happy Jumbling! 😍

05/05/2026

🦇🦇A HUGE thank you to everyone who came to our sell out woodland wildlife talk and bat walk last Thursday in Sayers Common, hosted by the brilliant as ever Michael Blencowe. We had over 40 people at the event, sharing bat detectors and the visit to the churchyard didn't let us down. Thanks to Sayers Common Village Hall for welcoming us for our first ever event there, we will be back!

We hope a few of you have ordered your own bat detectors - it is quite addictive.

15/04/2026

Our 2026 Hurst Rethink Swift and House Martin nesting project is well underway for Spring 2026 with Phase 3 seeing the installation of 22 House Martin nest cups and a further 12 Swift nest boxes in the village.

This year we decided to focus on supporting the House Martins who have a small stable colony of 12 natural nests along the High Street. We are very lucky to have this colony of birds nesting in the village and they urgently need our help to maintain and boost their nesting numbers.

In 2021, these sociable birds were placed on the Red List of Birds of Conservation Concern (BOCC) in the UK following a 72% decline in numbers over the last 50 years leading to the risk of extinction.

By putting up artificial nest cups we are giving the returning birds permanent nesting sites and this will encourage them to stay and boost their breeding numbers. It saves the birds a lot of time and energy after their long migration that would be used gathering mud to build their nests with and artificial nests reduce the risk of mud nests collapsing during the breeding season with subsequent loss of broods.

Local ecological expert Paul Stevens, who is the Hirundine Champion for Sussex Ornithological Society (SOS) has made bespoke house martin nests carefully designed to fit various different types of eaves ; these nests will provide the best chance of the nests being successfully used by returning House Martins.

Paul spent a busy two days in the village last week fitting the house martin and swift nest boxes. We were lucky to see the arrival of the first house martins on April 9th who immediately started visiting their nests above the row of shops on the High Street.

The 12 swift boxes have been fitted to houses within the successful swift nesting area to provide more nests for the years to come as we expect the colony to continue to expand across Western Road, Cuckfield Road, Weald Close and Wilderness Road. Since the project started in 2023, we have fitted 35 swift boxes. In 2023 one box fledged swift chicks, this increased to 3 boxes in 2024, and 9 boxes fledged in 2025 with a further 5 boxes hosting pairs of young swifts choosing their nest site for 2026. It is now said to be one of the most successful swift nesting projects in the County.

We would like to thank all the householders who have shown so much enthusiasm for the project by agreeing to host nest boxes on their houses and we are very grateful to HPPSC Parish Council and Sussex Ornithological Society (SOS) who provided grants to help us fund the nests. A huge thanks to Rebecca Rees for all of her work on this project - and for writing this update!

Hurstpierpoint & Sayers Common Parish Council