It takes a whole village to map such a special space as Chiddingly. What an incredible response there was from every corner of the parish at the Special Spaces event at the end of February. Well over 100 people came along to help to map the past, present and future of the rural spaces, green resources and native species that make Chiddingly such a unique landscape.
 
With three gigantic maps of Chiddingly laid out in the village hall, lots of postcards to fill in and coloured dots to be added to the maps, I and the whole Greening Chiddingly team wondered if the maps would fill up.  But people came and stayed and mapped and wrote and chatted and reminisced. Then, after coffee and cake, many stayed even longer in the Creative Corner (ably supported by Eleni and Amber) to paint, digitally draw and sculpt birds, butterflies and bridges. All day long, people joined in from the village and beyond.  Some returned to Chiddingly especially for the event to map memories, and wow, what memories people shared. I particularly treasured hearing about: 

• The fairies who live in an old oak tree in Bolt Wood and reply to messages from children of the village.    
• The tug-of-war competitions that happened near Chiddingly Parish Church every year using locally produced rope. 
• The banks and verges once blanketed by primroses.
• The glow worms that lit up Thunder’s Hill before solar lights were even invented.

 
Mapping logistics were led by our resident Geography Professor Dave. The complicated on-the-day logistics and village hall traffic management flow between the three mapping zones was thankfully well planned and executed by our highways and transport logistics expert Mark. The Greening Chiddingly Team baked cakes and Tina and Peter kept the refreshments flowing with warm conversation all day. Ryan, Bob, Sheryl, Lucy and others helped steer people through the mapping zones and to the Elder’s Corner to listen to recently recorded interviews with some of the long term residents of the Parish (part of The Elders Project).
 
In Speaker's Corner, Sally Ashby, our Greening Chiddingly ecologist, gave an insightful talk about eDNA testing and the resulting multitude of vertebrate and invertebrate species living in our rivers and streams, including the critically endangered European eel. Charlie Peverett, an ornithologist working for the Sussex Wildlife Trust, spoke about the vital bird survey work he continues to carry out in Chiddingly. Dave also talked about research undertaken by University of Brighton student Ben Williamson to map landscape change in the parish from old Ordnance Survey maps.
 
“Why map now?” people asked.  With development encroaching on the parish from all sides, the aim of the day was to invite the community to celebrate, record, map and protect the places that they love in Chiddingly. By making the invisible visible, we can plan and advocate for the resources needed to maintain and balance our fragile natural rural landscape.
 
“What will happen next?” people also asked. Using the template provided by greenmap.org, which has enabled communities all over the world to map their own rural and urban landscapes, the Greening Chiddingly team will produce a digital map and printed walking route maps from the results.
 
By the end of a busy day, it was exciting to see the maps lit up with a whole rainbow of coloured dots. Thanks to the kind support of Souper Saturday and the Saturday Market teams, Dave, Mark and I were able to roll out the giant maps on two further occasions and enable others to add their Special Spaces dots.
 
Support for the event and mapping has been provided by the Lund Trust through the High Weald Nature and Community Fund. Thanks to everyone who came along to make it such a memorable day.
 
Gail Giles

Back in March we launched a competition for children at Chiddingly School to 'Design-a-Logo' for the Greening Chiddingly group. The children were given a simple brief: to "create a logo inspired by our local environment that gets people thinking about climate change".

We had some fantastic entries from each of the three classes at the school: Beech (Years 1 & 2), Willow (Years 3 & 4) and Sycamore (Years 5 & 6). The competition was judged anonymously by local artist Tony Mills, who said it was "incredibly hard to single out the best designs as all the entries had great ideas". After much deliberation, Tony was able to identify three winners:

Winner in Beech Class - Frances Wood-Evans
Winner in Willow Class - Sophie Gurr
Winner in Sycamore Class - Arthur Veasey

Each received a special Bug Hotel so that they can do their bit for biodiversity in their garden and learn more about our local invertebrates. As there were so many high quality entries from the children in Beech Class, Tony recommended that Eliza Veasey be awarded a  Runner-Up prize - a set of environmentally-friendly gardening tools. All the children who took part received a special certificate. Prizes and certificates were presented by our Secretary, Mark Valleley, at the School Assembly on Friday 9 June.

Thanks to all the children who took part, to Tony Mills for judging the competition and to Chiddingly School for their enthusiastic support. We will be giving the winning designs to a local graphic designer, who will use them as inspiration for the final logo for the group. We’re hoping that the best entries will be displayed on the Art Wall in the village shop in Muddles Green later in the year.

One of the First Chiddingly guides is trying to earn her Craftivism badge and decided to create a collage poster for the Greening Chiddingly group. She didn’t want her name to appear by the poster, but she is very passionate about nature and the environment. She is also a former pupil of Chiddingly primary school.
 
Thank you so much from everyone at Greening Chiddingly. We think you have done an absolutely brilliant job at capturing some of our local wildlife and biodiversity. That Craftivism badge is well deserved – if we had a Greening Chiddingly Gold Star to award, you would be our first recipient!
 
What does everyone else think?