Season of Awards
King’s Award
It has been announced from Buckingham Palace that the Friends of Rye Harbour Nature Reserve have been honoured with a King’s Award for Voluntary Service.
Trustees of RHNR Friends
The Harbour Nature Reserve is managed by the Sussex Wildlife Trust (SWT), but the award recognises the outstanding contribution that the Friends have made in supporting and developing the Reserve and its wildlife for the benefit of local and wider interests.
Over recent years they have helped to improve visitor access and facilities, including raising a generous contribution of £1.5million towards the award-winning Discovery Centre that opened in 2021. Acting in concert with the SWT, they made other significant contributions including supporting the purchase of Castle Water, transforming it from a gravel-dredging site to a wildlife-rich reed bed, funding five wheelchair-accessible bird hides at the reserve and delivering a variety of talks, walks and events. Visitor numbers have risen over the past 20 years from 100,000 to 400,000 per year.
Chris Corrigan, CEO of SWT said: “We are thrilled that the Friends have been selected for this well-earned and prestigious Award. They are an exceptional group of volunteers who have given an extraordinary amount of time and financial support over many years to the management of the reserve.”
Equivalent to an MBE, the King’s Award is the highest given to local voluntary groups in the UK, and it is awarded for life.
A local award ceremony will take place early next year, with the Lord-Lieutenant for East Sussex, the King’s representative, presenting the Friends with a certificate and a commemorative crystal.
Museums Association Award
Hastings Museum & Art Gallery has won a Best Small Museum Project Award for its partnership project with the Refugee Buddy Project, Illuminating Invisible Histories: Flavours Without Borders.
The project sought to raise awareness of refugee experiences in Hastings and St Leonards. Two dinner parties took place at the museum, where 20 participants brought homemade food and personal objects. Through food and facilitated conversation, an intergenerational and multinational community shared their untold stories of their culture and life in Hastings. Their insights were captured on film for viewing during Refugee Week in the summer. Alongside the film screening, the guests’ objects were displayed at the museum along with testimony about their journeys as told through their personal objects.
The project will continue to develop through 2024/25 with two 20-day placements by members of the community, working with museum staff on reinterpreting the gallery’s permanent display about life in Hastings.
Fiona Slater, Head of Access and Equity at London’s Science Museum, one of the four judges, said: “We absolutely loved this inspiring project – it worked with Refugee Buddy Project to bring people together to tell their stories of migration over shared food…to highlight, as they so beautifully put it, that we have more in common than divides us.”
Alice Roberts-Pratt, Museum & Collections Manager at Hastings Museum, said: “We’re immensely proud to have won this prestigious award, it really reflects the hard work the team have put in to ensure Hastings Museum & Art Gallery is a welcoming place for everyone. Our work with the Refugee Buddy Project is incredibly valuable, and we are so grateful to Rossana Leal, her team, and the participants for sharing their personal stories with us and being so open to collaboration.”
Good Food Award
La Bella Vista restaurant on St Leonards seafront has won a Blue Ribbon award from the national Good Food Award website. Awards are bestowed according to customer feedback, online reviews and voting on nominated establishments.
Restaurateur Aldo Esposito opened La Bella Vista in 2015.
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