Southern Culture
Did You Know?
Ballet
Margot Fonteyn was born in Reigate on 18 May 1919 as Margaret (Peggy) Hookham. She made her debut in 1934 with the Vic-Wells Theatre, and died in 1991. A statue to honour her is in Castlefield Road in the centre of Reigate.
Wealden Historic Environment Champion - Identifying Buildings of Local Importance
Wealden District is a large, rural part of East Sussex where local people feel passionately about well-loved and distinctive local buildings, which define their surroundings. Many such buildings, particularly from the Victorian period onwards, however, are not formally listed but do form part of a continuous local historic environment that each generation should be able to appreciate. Councillor Chantal Wilson, who is Historic Environment Champion for Wealden, has promoted and achieved the adoption of a planning policy that recognises the importance of such buildings and work is underway to identify the criteria for designating a building as being of local importance and distinctiveness. The district council is working closely with parish and town councils to achieve this and to ensure that local people are determining what buildings are of local importance to them. Councillor Wilson has attended all brainstorming workshops, as did the councils Conservation Officer, and she has succeeded in enthusing and encouraging the participation of the parishes. Councillor Wilson will now oversee the formal adoption of the criteria for listing these buildings that came out of the workshops, with a view to compiling the local list as soon as possible. www.helm.org.uk/server/show/nav.8299