Great Wymondley

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Sat 16th July

Great Wymondley Christening Gown Display

£60 Raised in donations and a lovely display of historic gown

What's happening in GW in June 2011

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Come along to the Village Hall on Wednesday June 1st from 2.00 -4.30 for a chat and some tea and cake. If you want to bring your knitting, sewing etc at the same time please do so. You never know you may inspire someone to take up their needles etc!

Great Wymondley Summer Fete: Sunday June 12th
The Summer Fete will take place on The Green on Sunday June 12th starting at 2.00 pm with the church bells ringing.
Please put this date in your diary and come along for the afternoon.
There will be a variety of stalls and sideshows for your entertainment both familiar and new, including a Cake, Bric-a –Brac and Plant Stall. The Clog Dancers will be there as well as a Barrel Organ and delicious Cream Teas will be on sale from Castle Cottage.
If you are a Dog Owner bring your dog or dogs along to take part in the Fun Dog Show to be held during the afternoon.

The Art Exhibition and Sale will be held in the Village Hall during the Fete Weekend from 11.00. -6.00 pm each day. Why not come along on either of those days and admire the Art Work and perhaps find just the picture that you are looking for.

If you have Christening gowns to display please contact Sarah Cannon (01438-352124) or Michelle Stokes ( 01462-434234).
Please spread the word about the Christening Display if you know of people who were baptised in the Church here. They may have something for us to display and like to come along to the church.

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PLANT SALE

The plant sale will take place on the green on Sat 21st May from 10am until 12.30pm.

Come along and stock up with plants for your garden.

Great Wymondley Village Royal Wedding Party

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An amazing day was had by all at our village Royal Wedding Party
We watched the wedding on a huge screen in the church and on the green. There was a glass of sparkling wine straight after the wedding followed by delicious hog roast and salads. The women of Wymondley (WOW!) created an amazing spread of regal cupcakes and a centre piece wedding cake with a hand knitted Kate and William to decorate it.
We had the pleasure of listening and dancing to a fab local folk band Tam lin.
The after dinner entertainment came in the form of kids treasure hunt, wacky races (egg and spoon, sack race, water obstacles, 3 legged etc) and finally we played a royal game of wheelbarrow polo!
Some of the men of the village also were daft enough to attempt the yard of ale contest!!!

A fantastic day. Thanks to everyone who was part of it in anyway what so ever. Without having a village full of people willing to get involved we would never of had such an amazing day

Great Wymondley Village Fete & Art Exhibition

2009-06-09T22:09:00.002+01:00

Our annual Village Fete is being held on Church Green as usual, at 2pm until 6pm on Sunday 14th June 2009.

Bellringers will open the Fete at 2pm with welcoming peals from the tower of St. Mary's Church, and we hope everyone will take the opportunity to visit this very special old church, which has been extensively restored with funding from a major appeal last year. (The funding for this work was also bolstered by the contributions of many previous visitors to the Fete over recent years...).

The Great Wymondley Fete is a traditional, family-friendly occasion with something for everyone, from Splat the Rat and Maggot Racing, to guess the Name of the Doll and Tossing the Bale. Our teas, with home-made cakes and scones are legendary! - as are Cherry Carter's amazing fudge and elderflower cordial, and very special home-made jams.

New events this year - or back from the past - include Pony Rides and a Nature Trail and Quiz. Old favourites include a Bouncy Castle, Coconut Shy and Chocolate Fountain. There will also be a Fun Dog Show (does your dog have the waggiest tail?) and Clog Dancing.

Also for the first time this year in conjunction with the Fete we are holding an Art Exhibition in the Village Hall (almost opposite the Green) with a range of pictures and images available to see and buy. This will include a demonstration on using pastels, given by Beryl Perriman, who teaches pastel drawing at Tim's Art Supplies in Hitchin.

Car parking is conveniently provided in the centre of the village in the field next to Church Green.

Although we are a very small village, the Great Wymondley Fete has a long history of success, and is open to everyone who'd like to join in and enjoy with us.

Talk and Buffet with BBC's Michael Wood

2008-02-07T15:42:00.000Z

Great Wymondley: 2000 Years of History

Thursday 13th March at 7.30 pm

The Priory Barn, Little Wymondley

In aid of the Great Wymondley Church Restoration Appeal

For more than 20 years, historian and broadcaster Michael Wood has made compelling journeys into the past, which have brought history alive for a generation of readers and viewers. He is the author of several highly praised books on English history including In Search of the Dark Ages, The Domesday Quest, in Search of England and In Search of Shakespeare. He has over 80 documentary films to his name, among them Art of the Western World, Legacy, In the Footsteps of Alexander the Great, Conquistadors and In Search of Myths and Heroes. His most recent work is the epic 6 part television series The Story of India which aired on BBC2 in August 2007.
Michael was born in Manchester and educated at Manchester Grammar School and Oriel College Oxford, where he did post-graduate research in Anglo-Saxon history. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.

Book online at www.art-amis.co.uk

Series of Lectures/Talks

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In aid of the St Mary’s Church, Great Wymondley, Restoration Fund

On Sunday 2 December 2007
Prosecutions: the Anatomy of a Crime – “the Soham murder case”
- a talk by Charles Ingham, Chief Crown Prosecutor, CPS Hertfordshire and Marion Bastin OBE, District Crown Prosecutor, CPS Cambridgeshire.

On Sunday 20 January 2008
How to Choose and Buy Wine
Speaker Rhiannon Chapman ran a 'hobby' business for 10 years importing & selling wine, which was featured in the 'Which Wine? Guide'. Throughout her career she has been a popular speaker at conferences on a wide range of business management issues - her radio and television appearances have included 'Question Time', 'Any Questions', Women's Hour, Business Breakfast and being interviewed by Jimmy Young about business ethics.

On Sunday 24 February 2008
A Teenager in War Time Belgium
- A very popular talk from Mrs. Madeleine Phillips about her own experience.

All the lectures/talks will be at 7pm in Great Wymondley Village Hall. Tickets are £5 and this will include a glass of wine. Tickets must be bought in advance!
Please telephone Sharn on 01438 311974 for tickets

RESTORATION UPDATE

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St Mary’s Church Great Wymondley

Restoration update

We started our campaign to raise vital funds for our church restoration just 9 months ago with a challenging target of raising £75,000 by Christmas to enable us to achieve our Stage 2 funding from English Heritage and start work in 2008

We are delighted to be able to report that with the great support we have received from everybody we have submitted the full set of documentation by our deadline of the 19th December

Even though tenders received were above the original estimates we have been able to provide confirmation that we have the money in place- a great achievement as well as full specification of the works tendered prices and a preferred contractor

We now await English Heritages confirmation that all is in order for a late spring /early summer start on site

The PCC and Fund raising team are very grateful for the generosity and support we have received from personal donations, support for our many functions (some 25 in total) and other grant bodies such as Herts and Beds Churches Trust in helping us reach this milestone.

The last month has seen further grants, personal donations as well as successful events –the promises auction raised over £6,000, the Orpheus Choir, Quiz night and further autumn lectures

We planned to raise funds for a year and our remaining programme is both exciting and necessary to provide additional funds

More information later but dates for the diary include

9th Feb St Mary’s Hitchin for a concert by the Royal College of Music

13th March for a talk by Michael Wood famed BBC historian on 2000 years in Great Wymondley

Our Lecture series continues

Rev’d Ann is seeking 100 people to pay £1 per day for a prayer a day for our church for the 31 days of January

With Many thanks for everybody’s support in helping us reach this key milestone in our restoration project and Best Wishes for Christmas and The New Year

St Mary’s PCC and the restoration fund raising team

Classical Music Concert at St. Mary's Church, Hitchin

2008-02-04T14:17:00.000Z

ST MARY’S CHURCH, GREAT WYMONDLEY
RESTORATION FUND APPEAL

An Evening of Popular Classical Music by musicians from the Royal Academy of Music
On Saturday 9th February 2008 - 7.30pm, St Mary’s Church, Hitchin

Including pieces by J S Bach, Samuel Barber (Clarinet Concerto - 1st movement) Mozart (Clarinet Concerto – 2nd movement), John Williams (theme from Schindler’s List), Rimsky-Korsakov (Flight of the Bumblebee) and Tchaikovsky (Nutcracker Suite)

Tickets: £10 with a glass of wine. Children under 16 accompanied by an adult free

Tickets available from:
HITCHIN INITIATIVE, 27, CHURCHYARD, HITCHIN
CHERRY CARTER: 01438-724919
CHARLES INGHAM: 01438-727814

Christening in St. Mary's

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Fifteen months' ago after closing its doors St. Mary's has re-opened with a baptism.

Chris and Michelle Stokes, who were the last couple to get married at St. Mary's in April 2006, were the first to use the re-opened church to have their baby Emily baptised.

The building had been closed for repair work and villagers have been working hard for the last 14 months to raise the money to finance the work.

Around £16,500 has been raised so far but the current repairs are only TEMPORARY and approximately £58,000 STILL NEEDS TO BE RAISED for the church to be eligible for a top-up grant from English Heritage.

Great Wymondley Parochial Church Council would like to thank those who have supported the church and who have made donations or helped with the various fundraising activities.

Open Gardens - Sunday 8th July 2007

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This year's Open Gardens was a great success and raised £2025 on Sunday thanks to the great weather!!!.

Well done to everyone for their help and consideration. I know many people stayed helping in the kitchens much longer than they had anticipated and I am not sure how we would have managed without you - many many thanks.

All the visitors were very complimentary about the gardens, the teas and lunches especially the cakes and the variety of people presenting things on the green. This was a very big effort by the whole village. We hopefully will be updating the board on the Green - we can move up another box.

Well done everyone!

Village Fete - 24th June 2007

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The fete this year in spite of the bad weather raised an excellent £1,550 towards the Church Restoration Fund.

Well done everyone who helped run it and provided things to sell and things for people to see and do. Thank you very much.

The BBQ after the fete made a profit of £186 even in the rain. This makes the grand total of £1,736. This will move the red up the
scale on the appeal board!

Plant Sale - 26th May 2007

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The plant sale with a produce stall raised an impressive £443.65 and the remaining plants were put out each day on The Green for the next week inviting donations from the passers by in exchange for plants. The honesty box collected a further £111.00 making a grand total of £554.65!

Thank you to everyone who grew and provided plants for us to sell, lent greenhouses to bring them on, made cakes etc to sell on the produce stall and helped run the sale on the day.

A special thank you to St. Ippolyts Church who gave us all the remaining plants from their plant sale - a real help.

Please note - we are hoping to run an Autumn Sale with divided plants and potted on seedlings.

Shakespeare Marathon

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Mike Cannon raised £247 running the Shakespeare Marathon in 4 hours 46 minutes. Well done Mike!!

Mike was unable to run the 3 Peaks Challenge due to being called into urgent business at work - he was very disappointed and keen to set another date for the challenge later in the year. Those of you who have sponsored Mike for this challenge, we will contact you soon with further details.

Money raised so far!

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We have raised over £16,500 so far. We are absolutely thrilled with our initial success and this has spurred us on for the rest of the year.

Many, many THANK YOU'S to everyone who has supported us in every way - donating money, cakes, plants and bric-a-brac. Setting up and running stalls in Hitchin and Great Wymondley and of course all of you who have supported us by buying all our various commodities, sponsoring our athletes and attending our events!

PLEASE PLEASE KEEP IT UP!

Latest Restoration Information

2007-06-04T22:21:00.000+01:00

The scaffolding is up! The engineer and architect have been viewing the walls in the cherry picker and marking up every elevation that needs work. So far, broadly, things are as they had anticipated – the parapets will have to come down to the 1st arched window. There are concerns about the buttresses and some excavation will be required in order to investigate further. When a report is available, the building committee will meet and a draft report will be sent to English Heritage. The access audit and the maintenance plans have been completed. Finally, as soon as temporary repair to the roof is done we will be able to reopen the church.

Donation from the NHMD

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The North Herts Metal Detecting group have kindly donated £200 following Cherry’s presentation at their meeting. Cherry went on to say that the NHMD group sell off their finds and that we may have another donation from the proceeds of the sale. One of the group will attend our fete and offer people a chance to do some treasure hunting with his metal detector, as well as organising a 2 day treasure hunt under their guidance. Finally they very generously offered to do one of our Autumn lectures.

Barn Dance

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The Barn Dance was huge success raising £1180; everyone enjoyed the evening and said they are looking forward to the next one. Cherry went on to say that Mrs. Keech offered her band as a possible option for another Barn Dance in the Autumn.

Hitchin Market

2007-06-04T22:06:00.000+01:00

The Hitchin Market raised £285. The St Mary’s Square charity stall was very busy and managed to raise £464. Numerous plants, kindly donated by St Ippolyts parish, where also sold during the day. Jackie reported that they had enjoyed running the stalls and are looking forward to doing more.