Did you know that not mowing your lawn for a month can create a tenfold increase in nectar available to bees and other pollinators?  Between 1980 and 2013, every square kilometre in the UK lost an average of 11 species of bee and hoverfly. Well it’s up to us to make a difference. Leaving longer between cuts or even leaving a patch in your garden to grow beautiful wildflowers will make such a difference and help bring back the bees. So take up the challenge and leave the lawn mower in the shed for May and watch the beautiful wildlife thrive in your own garden. Find out more at: www.gardensillustrated.com or www.plantlife.org.uk.

Once again we are organising a family trail around the village at Easter. From today Otford will be overrun with rabbits, and they are laying their eggs all over the village - in shop windows along the High Street and at the Parade. Also in the trees and verges of the footpath that runs past the Palace. How many rabbits and eggs can you count? Children under 10 will be able to claim a small prize by reporting how many they’ve spotted to Fine & Country or Mille Fleurs in the High Street and Ibbett Mosely in the Parade. Look out for the posters! Note that the Pond is not part of the trail, so don't cross over there! The event will run until April 26th. NOTE: Like all the family activities we organise over the spring and summer, our Easter trail is completely free. If you haven't yet supported the work of the Otford Society, you can make a donation here. And if you have already, Thank You!

We very much regret that due to high rates of Covid locally, including among members of the Otford Society organising committee, we are once again having to postpone our much anticipated Race Night on April 1st. A new date in September will be announced in due course.

We hope to see lots of you at the Otford Society’s Race Night in the Memorial Hall on Friday 1st April. Doors open at 6:45pm and entry will be £5 per person, payable on the night. It promises to be great fun, with the first of eight races starting at 7:15pm and the chance to take home some winnings if the horse you back comes in first. There will be a cash bar with a good supply of wine, beer and soft drinks and snacks on offer. Why not get a party together for a convivial evening of horse racing, chatter and cheering? Your support will help fund our work in the village for the rest of 2022. The bookies are looking for extra helpers on the night; if you can volunteer your services please email patty@otfordsociety.org.uk (and of course you’ll get in for free!).

We want to acknowledge publicly some of those many individuals who give so much to our village. To this end, the Otford Society is asking for nominations from residents. It might be a neighbour, a local business, or even someone who until now was a complete stranger – anyone who’s gone that extra mile to support our community over the past year. Send your nominations to communitystars@otfordsociety.org.uk by the end of March and remember to include their name and, in 750 words or less, why you’re putting them forward.  We’ll be announcing the winner at our Annual General Meeting on 26th May as well as, with their consent, publicising their story in the local press and on social media. And don’t be discouraged if your nominee doesn’t get the award first time around, as we plan to repeat this every quarter from now on.

Happy New Year! When the Society was re-launched in September 2020 we decided that everyone in Otford would automatically be a member. We hope you feel we have done our bit for the community over the last twelve months: Christmas trees and lights to be enjoyed by all; fun-filled Otford Adventures for the very young over the summer months; the Easter chick-chase and Christmas elf jokes; our family friendly ‘Picnic at the Palace’; and the elegant late summer garden party. We’ve supported local campaigns to the benefit of our village and kept a watching brief on planned developments. And we’ve involved a whole new community of residents through social media and our website. We can only build on this work in 2022 if we have an assured income to cover our outgoings.  Now we need your support. A minimum contribution of £10 from every household in Otford will enable the Otford Society to continue its work in the community for the whole year.  DONATE NOW

The Otford Elves join all of us at the Otford Society  in wishing our village a happy, healthy and peaceful Christmas. The elves will be appearing in a shop window near you for a few more days, so there's still time for primary aged children to memorise a joke and claim their prize.

They have gone ‘CRACKERS’ and can’t wait to tell you their awful Christmas jokes. As part of our Christmas Elf Trail, shop windows throughout the village are displaying posters with Christmas jokes on them. Children from 3 to 103 are invited to look in the window and find the hidden elf holding the joke’s punchline. Those of primary school age can claim a prize by retelling any one of the trail's 25 jokes to a shopkeeper displaying a 'Free Prize' poster in their doorway. The event runs from Wednesday 1st December until Christmas Eve... when all Elves have to be back at base with Santa!  Like last year’s successful Snow Dome Trail, we hope this will encourage families to support Otford's valued retailers during this time of economic uncertainty.

Christmas is just around the corner and this year, with generous financial support from Otford Parish Council, we’ve been putting up warm Christmas lights on shops and businesses throughout the village: along the High Street, the Parade and up at Yvonne’s Shop. In line with our commitment to #greenchristmasotford, we have chosen LED lights that won’t be using up much money or electricity. We are staying as green as we can, and the warm tones of Yuletide will be there to cheer us all through the darkest months of winter.

With COP26 fresh in all our minds, the Otford Society wants to encourage you to make this year your most eco-friendly and sustainable Christmas yet. So look around our village and see where we have made changes to help, such as planting trees or installing environmentally friendly bins. You might even include an elf! Be creative and show us where our village could do more to help Planet Earth for our grandchildren. Nothing is off limits – just make sure it’s visually appealing. To submit your photo, upload it to Instagram, Twitter or Facebook using the hashtag #greenchristmasotford. In doing so you consent to entering our competition. If you should be chosen as one of the winners we reserve the right to display your photo on our website and social media. The closing date for the competition will be Sunday 28 February.