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CPRE Sussex Festival of Spring
From the comfort of your armchair, hear from inspirational people who love nature, the countryside and the Sussex landscape. Join our series of virtual events and help CPRE Sussex raise vital funds for a beautiful and thriving Sussex countryside that enriches all our lives
February
Sunday 21 February
Dr Geoffrey Mead – Hearth & Home
Opens 7pm for 7.15pm start
Dr Geoffrey Mead is passionate about the Sussex landscape, its history, building styles and communities.
Share Geoffrey’s deep local knowledge and enthusiasm and find out why our villages, towns and homes are so varied across the two counties – from the High Weald to Coastal Plain, Greensand Heaths to Coastal Marshlands, Sussex has it all!
Tickets: CPRE Members £5.00, Non-members £7.50. Concessions £1. Your Zoom invitation to join will be emailed to you shortly before the event.
Sunday, 28th February
William Shaw – A Life of Crime
Opens 7pm for 7.15pm start
Something very different – our very own website master, William Shaw, is also a brilliant crime novelist in his spare time!
As described in the Sunday Times, William Shaw ‘handles diverse plotlines brilliantly, demonstrating his ability to write about contemporary events with keen intelligence.’ He is ‘a superb storyteller’.
William’s latest novel, ‘Grave’s End’, involves unscrupulous planners and the natural history of badgers! He will talk about his work, inspiration and plots – often set in familiar landscapes. Don’t miss this opportunity to meet William and find out more.
Tickets: CPRE Members £5.00, Non-members £7.50. Concessions £1. Your Zoom invitation to join will be emailed to you shortly before the event.
March
Sunday, 21st March
Dr Geoffrey Mead – Viscounts & Chicken Stubbers
Opens 7pm for 7.15pm start
Want to hear and know more from Geoffrey – join his second talk which will explore the role of people and community diversity in shaping the Sussex landscape from our chocolate box villages to large scale housing. It is all down to the soil and who owns it, says Geoffrey.
Tickets: CPRE Members £5.00, Non-members £7.50. Concessions £1. Your Zoom invitation to join will be emailed to you shortly before the event.
Find out more about the talk:
Wednesday, 31st March
Charlie Burrell – Rewilding at Knepp Castle, West Sussex
Opens 7pm for 7.15pm start
Hear Charlie Burrell’s account of his amazing journey transitioning from intensive and unprofitable farming to an open-ended, low-cost, landscape-scale restoration project at the Knepp Estate in West Sussex.
All 3,200 acres of the Knepp Estate are now devoted to a process-led rewilding project involving free-roaming herds of cattle, horses, pigs and deer as drivers of habitat creation. Since 2001, when it began, numerous Red Data species have colonised Knepp and populations of common species are rocketing.
The success of this open-ended, low-cost, landscape-scale restoration project, where natural processes are allowed to perform, is now influencing thinking across the conservation world.
Tickets: CPRE Members £5.00, Non-members £7.50. Concessions £1. Your Zoom invitation to join will be emailed to you shortly before the event.
Proceeds will be shared equally between CPRE Sussex & the Knepp Wildland Foundation (Charity No. 1190335)
April
Wednesday, 14th April
Dave Goulson – Gardening to Save the Planet
Opens 7pm for 7.15pm start
We are delighted to welcome Dave Goulson, Professor of Biology at Sussex University, Author of Bumblebees and A Sting in the Tale and founder of the Bumblebee Conservation Trust.
Dave Goulson has turned his attention to our everyday gardens and how we can make them a haven for all insects in his new book ‘The Garden Jungle’. This is a wonderful introduction to the hundreds of small creatures with whom we live cheek-by-jowl and of the myriad ways that we can encourage them to thrive.
The Garden Jungle is about the wildlife that lives right under our noses, in our gardens and parks, between the gaps in the pavement, and in the soil beneath our feet. Dave Goulson gives us an insight into the fascinating and sometimes weird lives of these creatures, taking us burrowing into the compost heap, digging under the lawn and diving into the garden pond. He explains how our lives and ultimately the fate of humankind are inextricably intertwined with that of earwigs, bees, lacewings and hoverflies, unappreciated heroes of the natural world.
An unmissable opportunity to meet Dave Goulson and find out more.
Tickets: CPRE Members £5.00, Non-members £7.50. Concessions £1. Your Zoom invitation to join will be emailed to you shortly before the event.
Festival Pass
Five tickets for the price of four
For the price of four events, why not buy a Festival Pass to all five events? CPRE Members £20.00, Non-members £30.00.
