HASSOCKS COMMUNITY ORGANISATION
A Registered Charity, Number 1183097
WHO WE ARE
BOARD OF TRUSTEES
Jeremy Wakeham
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Jeremy is our current Chairman and has lived in Hassocks for over 20 years. He and his wife, Beth, have 3 daughters who attend the local schools. Jeremy is a partner in international law firm, Withers and first became a director of the then Hassocks Community Partnership on 17 Nov 2011.
Erika Woodhurst-Trueman
Erika is our deputy Chair and Secretary and a former Trustee of HAA. Erika worked at the Home Office for eleven years in the fields of asylum, operations management, private office and finally improvement programmes. Nowadays her time is taken up with voluntary work, being a stay at home parent, and ‘home/life engineering’. In addition to her HCO roles she works for the Beacon Parish producing its fortnightly E-newsletter and managing its website and Facebook pages. She also runs public events including Jazz, Picnics & Pimms and the Jingle Bell Jazz Club. Erika has two young children and has lived in Hassocks with her husband, Chris for over 13 years.
Bob Kenhard
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Bob was our Treasurer and a former Trustee and Treasurer of HAA. Bob served as an engineer in the RAF and then enjoyed a second career with various manufacturing companies until forming his own company in 2001.Now retired he first became involved with HAA in 2011 where he led the project to refurbish Spitalford Bridge and helped run the successful village lottery for three years. Married to Amanda, who also helps out with village planting, they have lived together in Hassocks for more than 25 years, although Amanda considers herself a local having moved here with her parents when she was five!
Catherine Cassidy
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Catherine was a director of HCP and a Trustee of HAA. She has led our Rail Group for over 12 years where improvements have been achieved with a new station and the installation of lifts and improvements to the train services, notably an increased number of trains at the weekend on Sundays and later at night. She regularly attends GTR stakeholder meetings on behalf of Hassocks rail users. She is a solicitor and has worked in high street practice for over 35 years. She has lived in Hassocks since 1999.
Colin Wilsdon
Colin is a past chair of HAA and of HCP. A physicist by training he worked as a lecturer at the University of Brighton for most of his career. He was a councillor on WSCC until 2013. He now manages the Hassocks Community Cycle Hire facility. Colin has been the major driving force behind the cycle project, formerly part of the HCP. He has been a small ‘c’ cyclist all of his life and that ‘c’ has been getting progressively larger over the last 10 years, although he has not yet been seen in Lycra shorts!
Fred Maillardet
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Fred was an HAA Trustee where he led the restoration of Oldland Windmill. He now chairs Oldland Mill Trust which maintains and runs the fully restored mill. Fred’s first degree was in Mechanical Engineering and his PhD was in the Design of Artificial Legs. He worked in the Marine and Nuclear Division of GEC as a Structural Design Engineer before entering the academic world, finishing his career as Dean of the Faculty of Science and Engineering and Professor of Engineering at the University of Brighton.
Jonathan Soper
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Jonathan has lived in Hassocks since 2012 and immediately immersed himself in various village activities including the HAA as a trustee. He is also the Neighbourhood Watch representative for Woodsland Road. Having spent his life overseas, living and working in fourteen countries, he is still adapting to the many quirks of life in calm and stable England, but he and Johanna, his Dutch wife of forty five years, have now made Hassocks their 26th home and they have lived here longer than any of their other homes or postings! A career spent in the international hotel business outside of the UK enables him to bring a fresh approach to many of the issues we now deal with in the newly formed HCO and he looks forward to contributing to keeping Hassocks a much desired place to live.
Alison is our new Treasurer and a trustee of HCO. Alison spent most of her career in
construction project management at Gatwick Airport heading up large teams and
delivering major infrastructure projects. Alison finished her career as Associate
Director of a Project Management Consultancy focussing on delivering projects within
the NHS, and education sector. Alison lived in Hassocks for 33 years with her three
children all attending the local schools in the Village. Alison was Chair of Governors at
Windmills School. Alison is married to David who was a Parish Councillor, school
governor and trustee of Oldland Mill.
Alison Cumberland
Shaun Lee
Shaun moved to Hassocks in 2021, together with his wife Linda, to be close to their children and grandchild. He is a retired Project Manager from the Oil and Gas industry where he travelled and worked internationally including Japan, Norway, Holland, Egypt and Qatar. He initially volunteered to help out with the Light Up Hassocks event and has now joined HCO as a trustee. He is looking forward to supporting the Organisation and all it's associated charities and events.