The Horningsea Residents Association and the church organised an event packed Jubilee weekend.
Starting with the lighting of the beacon on the Village Green, a concert showing the talents of Horningsea, the viewing of the Jubilee concert on Laney Meadow, a picnic and finishing off with a service in the church.
Here are a few photos of the weekend followed by a report of the long weekend.
Thanks to Helen Harding- Male, Debs Wade, Nicola Gibbs, John Wilson, Claudia Goodbrand and Catherine Morris for the photos
After the Silver Jubilee in 1977 the HRA newsletter contained reports about their impressions of the from people in the village of all ages. So this is a report on what Horningsea got up to between Thursday 2nd June and Sunday 4th June 2022. The photographs on the Village Website tell part of the story.
Thursday 2nd June was spent by some of the hearty men chopping wood and hauling it up the ladder to fill the beacon on the Village Green. At 9:00 the village gathered, bottles of Prosecco were opened and the celebrations began. Red, white and blue outfits were worn with sone even managing tiaras! At 9.45 by some ingenious device the light at the base of the beacon raced up the pole and set fire to the wood. The whole village green was bathed in a red glow. Eventually people wandered home to build up their energies for the next busy days.
By Friday 3rd bunting had appeared along the High Street, down St Johns Lane, around the playground. Flags were flying randomly from a number of houses. The marquee was standing at the top of Laney Meadow.
At 9:00 the village children gathered in the church to rehearse for the concert. At 10:00 the bellringers began, joining in the National Bell Ringing cycle. At 11am the exhibition in the church was open. People had provided wonderful items of memorabilia and photographs of themselves meeting Royalty … Michael Harrison’s invitation and Order of Service to the Coronation in Westminster Abbey, Clare Harding’s photograph of herself aged four presenting something to Queen Mary (our Queen’s grandmother) Prince Philip with Andy Clarke and also with Michael Hellowell. Rita Fishpool’s 1960s photos of the Queen at Addenbrookes, Toby Gibbs receiving his Gold DoE at Buckingham Palace. Vee’s brother shaking hands with the Queen …There were medals and invitations to Buckingham Palace Garden Parties. Rather unexpectedly A Royal Signals Corps motorbike appeared, with pictures of the Display Team. The highlight of the memorabilia was John Wilson’s original poster of events in Horningsea for the coronation. I think our predecessors would have been proud that the traditions they began still carried on in 2022.
The concert was great fun, starting off with the Horningsea Young Persons Orchestra playing Juba Dance on a wide variety of instruments, with the assistance of a few musical adults. There were poems and readings from AAMilne, Queen Victoria, Sue Townsend, Alan Bennett, John Betjeman, Rae Langton’s mother in Australia, Kashuo Ishiguro and Richmal Compton. Our new Vicar tried to steal the show by dressing up as Just William! The musical contributions included madrigals from Queen Elizabeth I’s day, a minuet written by a musician’s great grandfather, a trio, Recorder solo, song written for the occasion, a G & S song …finishing with a Ukrainian folk song and the Ukrainian National Anthem on recorders. There was a huge amount of enthusiasm for the talent our village can produce.
Saturday’s events at Laney Meadow began late afternoon with the lighting of the barbecue, the delivery of beer from our two pubs and the arrival of the horsebox selling gin and wine. During the afternoon Carolyn Truss walked her magnificent shire horse, Max, down to the meadow, his mane plaited with red white and blue ribbons and decorated with Union jacks. The large screen in the marquee started showing the events outside Buckingham Palace as people settled down to enjoy the Jubilee Party. There was some “singing along”, some cheering and some critics! Once the Buckingham Palace Party finished the Horningsea Party began, with music and dancing late into the night.
Unfortunately on Sunday the weather turned and we had a damp day but the spirits were still high! A large number of children and adults had accepted the challenge to make a pudding or cake fit for a Queen picnics were shared, bottles opened, a Royal quiz distributed, children braved the weather to take part in games outside. The planned Dancing couldn’t get going because of the weather but nevertheless a good time was had by all. The Vicar judges the cakes and puddings, the winner of the flower arrangements was announced, prizes were distributed and eventually we packed up and went home.
The final event was the Jubilee Church Service on the Sunday evening. A fitting way to round off a splendid weekend of sociability. We had reminded ourselves why Horningsea is such a good place to live! New families, old families, babies, elderly people in wheelchairs, children, adults … everyone took part with enthusiasm.