An iguanodon returns to Lewes

When we landed on this year's theme 'A Night in the Museum' we knew we absolutely had to have a dinosaur in the Parade.

We are very lucky to have an incredible iguanodon skeleton puppet on loan to us for the Parade from the 'Wonky Palaeontologists'. We feel very honoured to be given the opportunity to show the amazing puppet in public again. The original project was the brain child of three artists at the Crescent Studios in Brighton, Katherine Griffin, Elizabeth Jardin and Carinan Blijdenstein. Read more about the puppet here!

One of our amazing Trustees, Abbie Stanton, who is also a brilliant artist spent an afternoon putting the skeleton of the iguanodon back together and making sure she is Parade ready for July!

This year's Moving On design features an Iguanodon as part of the 2025 theme 'A Night in the Museum'.  Gideon Mantell who lived in Lewes is famed with finding the fossils of the Iguanodon. However, new research has been unearthed which actually points to his wife, Mary Mantell as the discoverer of the Iguanodon. So our Iguanodon is named Mary!

Discovered in Sussex in 1822, a collection of teeth was the first evidence of the gigantic herbivore reptile, Iguanodon. This dinosaur and its closest relatives lived during the Early Cretaceous, between 140 and 110 million years ago.

To find out more about the Iguanodon and the Mantells head to the Natural History Museum's website

A cracking afternoon making dinosaur eggs for the parade

We had an absolutely cracking afternoon down at Human Nature's warehouse on the Phoenix estate on Saturday 10th May with artist Katie Griffiths making special dinosaur eggs for this year's parade.

We had parents and some children from each of the school's taking part in this year's Moving On Parade who under the guidance of Katie made their dinosaur egg and baby dino from willow withies, tape and wet-strength tissue.

We enjoyed the gorgeous sunshine outside to make the structure of the eggs and baby dinosaurs. We then moved inside for the messy bit, adding wet-strength tissue to the willow structure. This is applied with a watered down mixture of PVA glue. Each egg needed at least 4 layers to hold its shape.

The finished eggs were then able to dry out in the sunshine and were delivered to schools ready to be decorated.

We call these pieces our collective make. Each school will carry their dinosaur egg at the front of their group in the Parade and whne we arrive back in the Paddock at the end of the Parade they will form a collective art installation. This will be available to come and see at our free evening event on the day of Moving On, Friday 4th July at Twilight Tales.

We can't wait to see how the schools decorate the eggs!

A big thank you to our wonderful artist, Katie!

Dream Team Football Fun

On Wednesday 7th May Patina descended upon Lewes FC's Dripping Pan for the annual Dream Team football tournament.

This was the 11th tournament - it's been going since 2014! It's one of our most popular fundraisers for the Moving On Parade.

Teams arrived around 4pm where they registered and team managers were given a briefing with our match manager, Sauro Scarpelli who does an excellent job of organising the teams into groups and managing the Year 9 and 10 Priory students who come and referee and score keep for us.

This year we had 19 teams made up of 7 players for a 5 a side games. Teams were asked to come up with team names drawing inspiration from our theme of "A Night in the Museum" They didn't dissapoint, here are some of our favourites: 'Exit through the gift shop', 'Roosevelt Rooks', 'GOAT-Busters', 'Going down in history', 'Team Rex', 'The Angry Saxons' and 'The Exhibitionists'.

Teams were not school teams, they are friendship groups. Promoting friendships across the Lewes District. There has to be a ratio of 2:5 gender split either way in each squad, with one boy or one girl on the pitch at any one time. This has been our rule since the competition started 11 years ago and we are very proud to have been associated in progressing football for all and being part of Equality FC over the years.

The football kicked off at 4.30pm and it was amazing to see all four pitches playing at the same time.

During the tournament we ran our Patina Cantina which was run by our lovely year 6 parents and carers and this year were joined by two lovely team members from The Enjoolata Foundation. They sold many delicious home baked cakes, hot dogs, soft drinks and more.

We also ran a raffle, the prizes this year included two signed Lewes FC shirts, a football from Intersport and a voucher for a coaching session with the coach from Queen's Park Rangers!

It was a tense final between the T-Rex Tacklers and the GOAT-Busters with the GOAT-Busters winning the Patina Cup. Isn't their kit brilliant! Well done to the team and to all the teams who entered.

We were delighted that the Mayor of Lewes Councillor Imogen Makepeace came along to present the Patina Cup. It was her last day as Mayor and we would like to thank her for everything she has done as Mayor this year!

Our thanks also go to Shrey Nilvarna from Lewes FC for lending us the Dripping Pan for the event and helping to co-ordinate the event. Priory School Sports Leaders for kindly being our referees and score keepers. Sauro Scarpelli for organising the match play. To all our wonderful volunteers on the gate, cafe, setting up and clearing away - we absolutely couldn't run this event without their help!