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11.30pm Christmas Sung Eucharist and sung Holy Communion. Christmas Day, 9.30am Family Christmas Service. Help needed: Daphne Springett would appreciate some help in making up the Christingles on Friday, December 23 at 6pm at her house. Give her a call on 01622 728167. Once again, thank you to Tesco at Tovil for providing the oranges. sible. Correspondent: Joan Drury, Weirton Villa, Headcorn Road, Grafty Green, ME17 2AP Tel: 01622 853766 jdrury23@ btinternet.com Messy stable: Families are invited to the next Messy Church on Saturday, December 17 from 4pm6pm. St John the Baptist church is the venue and the action will take place in a special stable. As usual there will be food. Carol Service: The service will take place in St Nicholas church Boughton Malherbe on Sunday, December 18 at 3pm. As has become traditional, mince pies and mulled wine will be served. Tuesday Prayers: The next prayer meeting will be on Tuesday, January 3 at 9.30am in St Nicholas church Boughton Malherbe. Correspondent: Rosa Sams, Uplands Hogbarn Lane, Harrietsham, Maidstone, ME17 1NZ Tel: 01622 859412 rosa.sams@ googlemail.com St John the Baptist church: The Christmas Tree Festival on December 3-4 was a great success and raised much needed funds for church projects. The Friends would like to thank all the sponsors, contributors and volunteers. Soup Saturday: Held on December 10 at the church, the piping hot home made roasted Mediterranean vegetable soup and crusty bread warmed up everyone nicely on a cold and miserable day. Denise, Helen and Pat worked very hard to make the event a success and they and the other volunteers are thanked for their efforts. Correspondent: Daniel Lavender, 1B Forge Lane, Headcorn, TN27 9QG Mob: 07496 137109 danlav@ymail.com Carols by candlelight: On Sunday December 18 at 6.30pm join in singing familiar carols and hear Bible readings. Mince pies are served afterwards at the baptist church. Film: On Saturday, December 17, White Christmas (U) will be showing at the village hall. Doors open 6pm, film 7pm. Mulled wine and minche pies available. Correspondent: Liz Willy , 108 Eyhorne Street, Hollingbourne, ME17 1UA Mob: 07928668924 elizabethwilly@ btinternet.com Seniors’ tea: All senior villagers are invited to attend afternoon tea in the school hall on Monday, December 19 from 2-3.30pm. The school choir will sing for you and the children will provide the entertainment. Services: There will be a Christingle Service especially for children on Christmas Eve at 4.30pm. All children attending are given an orange with a candle inserted at the top with sweets attached. The Christmas Eve Midnight Communion Service starts at 11.30pm. The Christmas Day Family Service with Carols will be held in Kingswood Village Hall starting at 10.30am. There will be no service in Hollingbourne. Mobile books: The library van will visit on Wednesday, December 21 from 11.55am-12.35pm at the village hall. Cards available: If you still need a few Christmas cards, there are beautiful cards available featuring local images including All Saints Church. Go along to Christopher’s Village Shop in Eyhorne Street. Correspondent: Helen Ward Tel: 01622 820810 herald@hunton.org.uk Christmas market: Despite the rather murky weather, visitors to the Christmas Market on December 10 were not deterred. The well-attended event was a wonderful start to the festive season with just over £1,300 being raised in total, which will be distributed to the Friends of St Mary’s, the church and the village hall, as well as funding the purchase of new advertising boards for future years. Many thanks to the stallholders for making it the magical event that it is, and to those who baked cakes and pastries, donated bottles so generously, helped out before and on the day, to the Huntones for leading the community singing of carols and Christmas songs, but most importantly to everyone who came along to shop. A big thank you also to Ann Sawtell, for all her hard work. Ancient trees presentation: At their meeting in November, members of the gardening club were treated to a presentation by Hadlow tree warden David Carey on ancient trees, their maintenance and the diseases they suffer from. He showed slides including examples of Hunton trees taken when he and Mike Summersgill, our own tree warden, recently carried out a local survey. The next meeting and supper will be on Friday, February 17. For information contact lesley.a.lee@btinternet.com Speeding on the increase: The Speedwatch team was out 20 times during the year with each hourlong session being held in West Street, just along from the school entrance. They recorded details of 1,713 vehicles and the average speed over the year was 26.3mph in this 30mph limit, with an advisory 20mph limit during school hours. In 2015 the average speed was 26.7mph so no significant differences there. Speeding, however, was a different matter. A vehicle is deemed to be speeding along this stretch at 35mph and in 2016 10.9% (almost one in every nine vehicles) were recorded at 35mph or above. This is much higher than the 3.8% recorded in 2015 and worryingly a small number of these were recognised as actually living in the village. Just over 2% (40 vehicles) were travelling at 40-44mph and a further 0.5% (8 vehicles) were travelling at 45mph or above, with 55mph being the highest recorded speed. The detailed information recorded by the team is being passed to the parish council to help with their work on improving road safety in Hunton. Carol Services: A traditional Candlelit Carol Service will be held at St Mary’s Church on Sunday, December 18 at 6pm taken by the Revs David Jones and Peter Callway. The White House pub will host its annual Christmas Carol evening on Friday, December 16 from 8pm, which will also be a folk night combo. All welcome. Forensic investigations at WI: The WI was pleased to welcome both members and non-members to the open meeting in November with a fascinating talk from David Tadd, retired head of forensics at the Metropolitan Police. His first talk was about the identification of victims of the Boxing Day tsunami that hit SE Asia in 2004, particularly those in Thailand. Robust methods were needed, as of the 21 bodies returned from Thailand initially two were wrongly identified. David spoke about the IRA’s attempt to kill Margaret Thatcher and her Cabinet and how the rubble from the Grand Hotel was forensically examined for traces of explosives which led to the conviction of Patrick Magee. The next meeting is on Tuesday, January 4 at the Village Club, doors open 7.15pm. New ladies welcome. Darts success: Congratulations to Mark Ward, captain of the Village Club darts team, who won the Maidstone Town Centre Darts League Singles Knockout Cup. Despite facing some stiff opposition from players in higher divisions, Mark took the title without losing a single leg. Festive entertainment: A variety show called Six Impossible Things will be performed at the village hall on Thursday, December 29 at 6pm for 6.20pm showtime. At heart, it’s a variety show about messing around with science experiments and features a revolving stage, projection, conjuring, acrobatics, live music, animatronics and special lighting. It’s timed to finish by 8pm so is suitable for children (over eight years old). Tickets cost £10 for adults, £5 children, or £25 a family of 4/5 available from Mike on 01622 820429 or Steve on 820403. Correspondent: Martin Hider Tel: 01622 736327 mhider5@ gmail.com Lessons and Carols: A traditional service of Lessons and Carols will be held in St Nicholas Church on Sunday, December 18 at 6pm.