(In case you wondered why there was no 'live' coverage, I've been away)
The best thing about the All Saints
Church Flower Festival was that so many people in Nocton and
Potterhanworth got involved. Whether it was growing plants and
selling them, arranging flowers, doing the Preview catering, baking
cakes and refreshments and serving them, stewarding, making a
donation towards the flowers or the wine, doing a reading at the
Songs of Praise – the age range was from 4 and upwards. The second
best thing was that the week-end of 29 June to 1 July was fairly
sunny with just a few showers. The worst thing was that while the
flowers were being arranged, the heavens opened up, and the south
aisle roofs leaked like sieves. Out came the buckets and mops –
reminders that although the main roofs have been renewed, the south
aisle, vestry and memorial chapel roofs all still leak very badly.
As Sheila Redshaw, one of the organisers of the plant stall said, you
can keep patching up, but eventually, after 150 years, you just have
to do things properly. The south roofs are for a later stage of
repairs, but the week-end raised an impressive amount towards the
target of £40,000 needed to pay for just the current repairs. Work
has stopped on the chancel wall paintings, as they will cost over
£20,000 to put right. Our beautiful church is high maintenance!
The theme of ‘our village in 1862’
was just right to celebrate the church’s 150th
anniversary. The flower arrangers had learned that there were no
pedestal arrangements at the time of the church’s consecration, so
other equipment came into use as flower stands: a milk churn for the
farmers; a cradle for the children baptised at the font; logs for the
game keeper’s window; Victorian plant stands to represent the
cottage gardeners; and tiered stands, using cake stands one on top of
the other, on the high altar and in the housewives’ display in the
vestry. The miller, wheelwright, village shop, hall gardeners, the
Vicar, stonemason and the Royal Ripon Lodge were all represented by
the imaginative use of flowers and period objects.
Nocton School did a lovely display on
the theme of the Victorian school room. As well as their garden
flower arrangements, the children’s own embroidery contrasted with
the Victorian sampler made by a village child that hangs on the walls
of Nocton School. Like the church, the school was the gift of just
one family – the Earl and Countess of Ripon and their son, the
Marquis of Ripon. We felt privileged to have with us during the
week-end the Earl of Buckinghamshire. He represented the Countess’s
family, the Hobarts, whose estate of Nocton and Dunston the Countess
of Ripon inherited. Hermione, Aaron and Holly read an extract from
Lark Rise to Candleford in the Songs of Praise on Sunday
evening, which like the Flower Festival had the theme of our village
in Victorian times. Afterwards, Hermione asked the Earl of
Buckinghamshire for his autograph!
The Lincoln Minster School Chamber
Choir gave a concert on the Saturday evening in which the singing was
quite amazing by any standard, especially considering that the
performers were mostly aged 16 and under. The whole week-end was a
rich mix of history, artistry, music and entertainment. It helped to
put Nocton on the map with visitors from near and far. Our thanks go
to all who helped to make this such a successful and enjoyable event.
[Photos below are by Richard Free.]
