Sunday January 8^th Plough Sunday 11am  (followed by Plough Sunday lunch)-   Church

Sunday January 29^th at 6.30pm  Candlemas   and Benefice Service – Church

Saturday February 4^th at 7.30pm -  PVH

Highland Fling

Saturday February 18^th at 7.30pm  - Church

MUSIC AT ST MARY’S  1 – Music for Brass

Crosswinds Brass Quintet

Wednesday March 14^th at 7.30pm  - Church

PELDON HISTORY LECTURES 1 – Flatford and Constable Country

Simon Gallup

Sunday March 18^th Mothering Sunday 11am – Church

Tuesday April 3^rd Passover Feast 7pm – Church

Sunday April 8^th Easter Day.

Carols up the Tower at 10.30am before 11am service –Church

Wednesday May 16^th at 7.30pm  - Church

PELDON HISTORY LECTURES 2 – Quires in our villages from the 18th century onwards

Bill Tamblyn celebrates the work of local music historian Chris Turner (from Fingringhoe) in revealing the wealth of music sung in West Galleries in our area. We might ask you to join in a song or two!

Friday June 1^st – Sunday June 3^rd – Plough, PVH and Church

PELDON JUBILEE FESTIVAL-

Sunday June 3^rd Trinity Sunday and Pet Service 10am  – Church

Peldon Jubilee Festival Closing Event

Sunday June 3^rd at 7.30pm   - Church

MUSIC AT ST MARY’S 2 – Concert of traditional music and cabaret songs

from Breton singer– Gwendal Moele and local singers The Medlars with guests from previous concerts at St Marys.

Saturday July 14^th –afternoon and evening PVH and Church

Food, drink, games and an evening concert at 7.30pm

MUSIC AT ST MARY’S 3 – A celebration of Le Quatorze Juillet

with the Colchester Anglo-French Society, Essex Petanque, Breton Dance band Bof, Gwendal Moele, and guests

Saturday September 22^nd at 7.30pm – Church

MUSIC AT ST MARY’S 4 – Piano recital

Daniel Law – a frequent guest at concerts in St Marys who now returns by popular demand to give a solo piano recital.

Saturday September 29^th at 7pm – Church

Harvest Supper

Sunday September 30^th Harvest Festival at 11am  – Church

Friday October 3th at 8pm – Church

MUSIC AT ST MARY’S 5 – Roman River Festival concert – tbc

Wednesday October 24^th at 6.30PM

FRIENDS AGM – Church

followed by

PELDON HISTORY LECTURES 3 – History through Beers brewed in Essex

Rev Keith Lovell tells the story as it is! We hope to have a local brewer to help us confirm the quality of Essex beer!

Sunday November 11^th Remembrance at 10.30am – Church

Sunday December 2^nd Christingle  and Toy Service  11am – Church

Saturday December 8^th Christmas Bazaar??? – 9am – 2pm – Church??

Tuesday December 18^th

Village Carols – at 6.30pm – begins at PVH

Sunday December 23^rd Carols by Candlelight –at 6.30pm – Church

Tuesday December 25^th at 9.30am

Carols up the Tower

before  Christmas Communion at 10am – Church

After a hectic day of erecting marquees, hanging the bunting, putting up signs, tables and displays, how lovely it was to see so many local people supporting our opening event: ‘Folk at The Plough’ on the Friday evening. Although a little chilly, it proved to be a very enjoyable evening, sitting in the beer garden over fish and chips and a beer, listening to the very talented Elaine and her partner, the recently formed Shantyclere group, and the amazing voice of Gwendal Moele entertaining us with a repertoire of folk songs. Thank you to all who supported the Friends in this event and to Jane and Pete for their hospitality. This, to me, is what community is all about.

Saturday started fine but cool, and with the promise of showers, our main festival day was slow to get going. However, by lunchtime, trade in ploughman’s lunches was good and the afternoon saw a steady flow of visitors through the gate, with takings up on last year.

The fairground organ and Punch and Judy show never fail in giving a traditional festive atmosphere in and around the village hall, and it doesn’t seem to matter how many times they’ve seen the show, young and old alike still enjoy it – although Professor Polson was not keen on the water pistols apparently! The Owl Man proved to be a big hit once again, with more owls on display and the six-week old baby eagle owl stealing the show. Meanwhile, the kidzone and bouncy castle were busy throughout the day, as was the tank, giving children the rare opportunity to explore a military vehicle.

Many of our faithful stall-holders returned to support the day because they ‘really like the Peldon Festival’ and because we like the quality of the goods on offer. They reported good trade in the afternoon. The second-hand book stall also proved popular, while the cake stall did good business, particularly in individually wrapped cup cakes. Just how many of these can you buy for a pound? And how many can you possibly eat in a day?! The tombola is always popular – although we’ll probably change the format a bit next year, but the most surprising hit was ‘Name the Gnome’, whereby people came along and suggested names for the gnomes who were to be part of the Open Gardens event on the Sunday. The chosen names for the bridal pair, incidentally, were not the rather too predictable Kate and Wills but … Gnomeo and Juliet!! Don’t forget to look out for the gnomes again next year.

I didn’t get to see Frank Walker and his dog training on the green in front of the church, but I understand that it was an interesting and informative display. Unfortunately, the turnout for Gardeners’ Question Time was rather disappointing, although some interesting questions were put to our invited specialists. I think we could do with more events like this at the Festival, so if you have any suggestions for next year, please let us know.

The Mayor of Colchester, Helen Chuah, attended the Festival in the afternoon and was delighted to see all that was going on in our small village. She spent time looking at the recently completed Village Design Statement boards and was suitably impressed. (I’m sure that these will be on display again sometime for those of us who didn’t get the opportunity to look at them.) Bill then gave the Lady Mayor a guided tour of the Church and its various Festival exhibitions and talked to her about the Friends achievements and future plans. The church, as usual, looked wonderful with all its beautiful flower displays, whilst the art and photographic exhibitions attracted much admiration. The church tower was less busy this year, maybe due to the rather cloudy conditions or perhaps because most people have already ‘done it’. Hopefully, by this time next year, there will be more for visitors to see: a tower exhibition and the reinstalled Miles Gray bell perhaps…

Festival Saturday drew to a close with the announcement of the Grand Draw winners. (See list of prize winners somewhere in this issue.) With so many fantastic prizes donated, we made a profit of over £500 on draw tickets alone.

And so we went home to rest … or prepare for Sunday!

Sunday turned out to be a lovely day in more ways than one. Whilst some of us were putting up Open Garden signs and making the finishing touches to our scarecrows and gardens, others attended the pet service: 8 dogs, a late arrival rabbit and a blackbird, I believe, caused much merriment, but hopefully not too much mayhem, in church. Apparently the blackbird enjoyed it so much that he returned to church the week after!

The church remained open throughout the day for Sunday visitors to view the flower festival and exhibitions or to go up the tower. It was from here that programmes for the ten Open Gardens were also sold – about 75 in total and mostly to people from outside the area. Again, there were not many visitors before lunch, but the afternoon was busy with garden enthusiasts and those just wishing to enjoy tea and cake before making their way to ‘Englesbatch’. I understand that this garden was the highlight of the afternoon and was much talked about. Thank you, Jill, for opening your garden and please will you do so again for those of us who were unable to get there.

Interestingly, there were more scarecrows than in previous years – maybe this idea is gradually taking off… so why not start planning for next year’s scarecrow now? Scarecrow winner this year? – ask Bill. As for the gnome hunt, it was a lovely idea and it did mean that people felt somewhat obliged to visit each of the gardens, if only to find the gnomes. However, the gnome hunt rather backfired in its attempt to attract more children – or perhaps they were just having too much fun at the village hall playing pétanque!

The pétanque proved to be a real hit, with both adults and children joining in, resulting in a number of requests to set up a club in the village.  Cream teas, beer and Pimms were served throughout the afternoon and I’m sure that our many visitors would have been happy to continue their tour of the gardens into the evening, had we not had to call time in order to prepare ourselves for the Festival finale.

Sunday evening’s concert in the church, ‘Riotous Assembly’, promised ‘a lively account of the Essex Riots of 1790-1820, presented with folk music’.  Perhaps the title or the theme put people off, perhaps a would-be audience didn’t know what to expect, or maybe it was too much ‘folk’ in one weekend, but the audience numbers were disappointing, especially compared to last year’s concert. For those of us who did attend, it was a good  evening. The stories told were, as one might expect, harrowing and incredulous, holding the audience captivated throughout. The band was excellent and how cleverly the stories were interwoven with a mixture of traditional and modern folk music. Many people missed an unforgettable experience, but probably the subject matter was rather too depressing for an end of festival concert.

The performers and audience mingled afterwards, enjoying a lovely finger buffet, the last of the beer or Pimms and rejoicing in the atmosphere of another successful Peldon May Festival.

A very big thank you to everyone who gave of their time and energy to make the Festival happen, and to everyone who supported us over the weekend. We hope to see you again next year.

Sally

Ps. Your ideas, suggestions and willingness to be involved are always welcome.

Contact Bill 735770 or Jane 735505

Meet at the Plough and walk round the village.

Service at 11am

Howells Rhapsodic Quintet; Bartok String Quartet no 5; Mozart Clarinet Quintet

The performers are:

Matthew Hunt – Clarinet and the Engegard Quartet

tickets are £17.50 and £7.50 concessions

this event has had to be postponed due to Electrical Work in the church in the month of September. We will update the Web site as soon as we have a new date.

Pre-concert talk and Concert  by ‘Riotous Assembly’