Robot Wars star will open centenary exhibition

Bexhill Museum Association has taken the lead in the town s Centenary Year celebrations by staging a mini-version of its year-long centenary exhibition in the pavilion on Saturday, February 9.

Complementing this look back at the Bexhill of 1902- the year the town gained its Charter of Incorporation, built a railway line and three new stations and staged the nation s first international motorsport event - will be an exhibition featuring the life of Bexhill in 2002.

Pride of place at the event will be taken by the replica of the Serpollet steam car, winner of the 1902 Bexhill Motor Trials. Pupils of St Richard s Catholic College and Bexhill High School helped build parts of the car in its early stages.

The rest of the replica including the engine and boiler have been built and installed professionally and the replica is expected to be in running order by the Spring.

Rother museums curator Julian Porter will give illustrated talks at 11am and 2.30pm on 1902 - a pivotal year in Bexhill s development.

Museum volunteers have been working for months to put together the centenary exhibitions.

The main exhibition in the museum will open to the public on Tuesday, February 5. It will remain open throughout centenary year with specific elements updated as the year progresses to reflect the events of 1902.

The mini-exhibition will have its debut at the De La Warr event and then be made available for venues about the town throughout the year.

The February 9 events at the pavilion will be opened by Rex Garrod. The creative genius was the brain which spawned robots such as Cassius and Brum, has featured in the popular and acclaimed Robot Wars tv series and is renowned for his work with children, encouraging them to put their inventive talents to work.

Details of Rex Garrod s programme are still under wraps, but Deputy Town Mayor Cllr Peter Fairhurst at whose suggestion he is visiting the town, hopes he will be using the pavilion terrace for one of his brain-storming sessions with local schoolchildren.

As Town Mayor, Cllr Gadd will be formally launching Centenary Year in the pavilion theatre before touring the stalls.

Megan Traice said this week that local organisations have been clamouring for stall space.

"We can only pack in 35 stalls and 30 have gone already."

Julian Porter says of the February 9 event: "It has certainly created a lot of interest.

"The emphasis of the day will be on raising interest in the host of things that will be going on later in Centenary Year. Many town organisations are taking advantage of the opportunity to publicise themselves and attract membership and preview the events they will be staging during the year."

Rother chief executive Derek Stevens is also clerk to the town s Charter Trustees.

One of the features of the early years of the Borough was the ancient ceremony of Beating the Bounds. Once there were 63 boundary posts marking Bexhill s limits, from Normans Bay up around the north of the High Woods, across Watermill Lane by the old watermill itself, through Buckholt across Crowhurst Marshes and down to Glyne Gap.

A few of the old stones remain along the 12-mile route. The former marathon runner plans to take in as many as possible and to involve the Bexhill councillors who make up the town s Charter Trustees in a re-enactment of ceremonies carried out in 1909 and 1925 and last undertaken in 1929.

*The first Centenary Year event will be Wednesday s De La Warr Pavilion Concert by the Lucknow Band of Prince of Wales s Division, staged by Town Mayor Cllr Joanne Gadd in aid of her mayoral appeal on behalf of the friends of Mais House Royal British Legion home.