Hastings Bonfire Society chairman honoured by town with top community award

Heather is the chosen recipient of the Bowskill Award which recognises contributions to Hastings Week.

Heather, known to many in the area as a secondary school teacher, is not only the chairman of Hastings Borough Bonfire Society, but plays an active role in the Jack in the Green event and organised the closing ceremony of Hastings Week.

During Hastings Week she also presented her one-woman play King Harold’s Mother. Heather is also part of a local puppet theatre group that works with local children and schools.

The Trophy is presented annually in memory of Cyril Bowskill who, with his wife Joan, was a great supporter of Hastings Week. It is traditionally made from a majority vote, based on public nominations.

Kevin Boorman, from Hastings Borough Council, explained: “The Bowskill Trophy is awarded to an individual, group or organisation who has made a special contribution to Hastings Week. Heather was unable to make the awards evening at Hastings Museum and Art Gallery as she was at a Jack in the Green volunteers’’ evening. So after the main presentations at Hastings Museum, a small delegation of Hastings Week committee members led by the Mayor and Reg Wood, chair of the Hastings Week committee, went to the East Hastings Sea Angling Association, where a Jack in the Green meeting was being held. They gate-crashed the meeting to make the award to a surprised and bemused Heather, who had no idea she was the winner.”

Mayor James Bacon, said: “Heather also happens to have been one of my teachers.”

Hastings Week is held each year in October to celebrate the town and commemorate the anniversary of the Battle of Hastings. It ends with a bang as the town holds its traditional Sussex bonfire celebrations.

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