Thank you to everyone who come along to the Hockley Christmas Lights show on Saturday night, the Parish Council did a great job in attracting 3500 people to the event to enjoy fabulous entertainment, food and of course, our Village Christmas lights.

It's highly likely that you or someone in your family has had to work from home at some point in the last few years. Most bosses have realised that, without the chit-chat and distractions of the office environment, productivity is actually higher. But it isn't practical for you to work from the end of the kitchen table permanently.

We all do it. Every year we overfill our schedule in the run-up to Christmas. Children's school commitments, staff parties, gift shopping - there's just so much to do. If you are considering moving house, there is a strong chance that it is not a particularly urgent move, and you will push this to the AFTER Christmas category.

Nativity plays, shopping, present wrapping, and staff parties. It's all go in the run-up to Christmas. There is so much going on at this time of year. Preparing for viewings on your property, on top of everything else, could be enough to send you over the edge!

If you're trying to sell your home, you might wonder what to do around Christmas time. Should you take it off the market for a month or so? Or try to juggle the viewing appointments around your other commitments?

We are getting ready for the Hockley Christmas Lights switch on outside our Hockley branch on Saturday 26th November. The weather is looking dry so we are expecting a big crowd to welcome the festive season to the Village. Well done to Hockley Parish Council for putting it together, Ho, Ho Hope to see you at our stall.

Are you ready for a cascade of gorgeous Christmas Lights to brighten Hadleigh this weekend, its a double feature of community Christmas fun as the Hadleigh Community Group are also hosting their Christmas Market on the same day. The fun starts at 11am at the Hadleigh Old Fire Station with the Carols and lighting up taking place at 4.15pm.

To help get everyone in the World Cup mood we opened our very own market stall in the Village handing out hundreds of A1 size wall charts to youngsters to enjoy. The early morning optimism of a dry day soon disappeared beneath an afternoon of pouring rain leaving the stall a damp, wet mess. Hopefully that isn't an omen!!

Our support for the Samaritans Purse 'Operation Christmas Child Shoebox' has continued this year and we have been distributing and collecting lots of boxes full of gifts to brighten the Christmas period for youngsters across the world, in particular youngsters in and around Ukraine will be receiving the majority of the boxes.

We are getting very excited with just a few days until the three lions take to the field for our opening World Cup game against Iran. To help everyone map our route to the final on the 18th December we have produced a World Cup wall chart for youngsters to collect from our two branches. Find out more below.

Financial uncertainty continues though November with price drops in line with the norm. The average price of property coming to the market dropped by 1.1% (-£4,159) this month, which despite the weight of financial uncertainty is in line with the average 1.1% drop recorded in November during the pre-pandemic years of 2015-2019.

We are very proud that our Hockley Remembers project of thousands of knitted poppies displayed within the shopping area at Hockley generates some much community goodwill and draws many visitors to Village helping to raise funds for The Royal British Legion. This is the third year of the display and we received over 2000 new poppies this year.