Although born and brought up in Bembridge, many of my school friends came from Brading and it was with great joy that I came to live here permanently in 1975. I spent many years “doing up” a house on New Road and in 1983 when my twin sons were born I really became aware of what a special community Brading is.
My children went to the play group at the old church at the bottom of Bullys Hill and later to school at Brading Primary. I was privileged to be asked to join the Governing Body of the school and worked happily with many other busy parents at the summer and Christmas fayres and sat with tears in my eyes watching the wonderful nativity plays in the school hall. My boys flourished on Aunty Pats cooking and learned to play football under the tutelage of Mark Pearce and Bruce Matthews.
I had joined a women’s group in Brading in 1983 and it was when Lynda Smith, the then Brading Town Clerk came to speak at a meeting that I became involved with the Town Council. I asked about Beechgrove play area and how we could improve the facilities and fence the area off from dogs, and my enquiry was greeted with “ if you want to do that, why don’t you join the Town Council?” so I did and I have been happy to do what I can for Brading from then on.
I learned “the ropes” from Mr. Brian Walters and Mr. John Hunter and have worked with many excellent people over the years. They have been prepared to elect me as Mayor on six occasions and it has been heart warming to see projects to fruition.
With the generous help of the Town Trust, Cllr Lynn Jarman and I managed to design a new safe entrance tot he school and incorporate a place where parents could sit that wasn’t the bike shelter in the school playground! The grass area at the bottom of the Mall became the Tudor Garden with some brick laying help form the splendid “burglars” from Camphill. Parsonage Corner became a little garden and sitting area over looking out lively church and more recently the Red Cross Hut has changed form being a ruin into the Brading Centre which I hope you all use!
In spite of having to leave Brading in order to buy my “family seat” ( the house my Grandfather built for my Grandmother!) to save it from second home owners from England, my heart still remained in Brading. Its people have been good enough to re- elect me so that I have had nineteen unbroken years on the Town Council and I care more about those special people, who care about one another and always rise to the occasion (Brading Day each year) than I do about the strange aloof people who now inhabit Bembridge.
Brading is “on the up” no matter what central government say about the decline of rural towns and villages, and that’s largely because its 2017 residents want it to improve. You can rest assured that the Town Council will do all in its power to support and facilitate this rise and with everyone’s help; we shall all be able to watch it happen.