NEWSFollowing a funeral at St Bototolph’s Grimston, memorial services for Bob McNeil-Watsonwere held at The Players Theatre, Lowestoft and on 30th October at Barsham, the latter attended by almost 70 people. Bob’s invaluable service as organist at Barsham was just a small part of an extensive and distinguished career in music. Bob graduated in Music at UEA, studied composition under Benjamin Britten and became a schoolteacher – of modern foreign languages as well as music. In due course he became a freelance musician, teaching piano, keyboard, flute and singing; and he became a prolific and popular musical director. His contributions to and leadership of community performances – in musical shows, pantos, plays, choirs and orchestras – in Norfolk, Suffolk and beyond, became legendary. In Lowestoft he was Musical Director of The Lowestoft Players for over 26 years. Bob touched many lives and he will be remembered with much fondness and gratitude. We offer our sincere condolences to Sheila, his wife. The Lowestoft Journal’s fine tribute to Bob is available online at: https://www.lowestoftjournal.co.uk/news/obituaries/touching-tributes-bob-mcneil-watson-lowestoft-9346546.The PCC hosted the annual clergy lunch on the 2nd November to express our appreciation and thanks to the team of clergy who enable us to maintain regular Sunday services at Barsham. The annual Service of Remembrance took place at the village hall on the Friday 11thNovember, followed by a further act of Remembrance in the church on Remembrance Sunday, when Neville Smith called the names of the Fallen. William Lindley’s fabulous Light Show returned to Barsham on the evenings of 18th and 19th November. At the time of printing we have only had the first evening, which was attended by 87 visitors, many of them returning after last year’s show to enjoy again this wonderfully atmospheric and immersive experience. Full report to follow next month. There will be no Wednesday Matins services during December and January. There will be a regular benefice bring-and-share lunch at 1pm in Mettingham Village Hall on the fifth Sunday of those months with five Sundays. 29th January is the next occasion. All are welcome. The Rectors and Patrons board has been updated and rehung. A super 248 items were donated to the Foodbank in October, including 78 items at Harvest Festival: thank you for your generosity. Following Sarah-Jane’s suggestion of donating teddy bears with chocolate coins to the foodbank in December, foodbank gifts of chocolate coins would be much appreciated.Collections at Sunday services in October amounted to £1,187 and the collection at Bob’s memorial service raised £152 for the church, for which we are grateful. The sales tableorganised by Chris Bardsley raised an impressive £183, a sum enhanced by the sales of her beautiful Christmas decorations. Thanks are also extended to Doreen Springall for the proceeds of her produce stall, which during the course of the year has yielded a remarkable £316. Barsham with Shipmeadow PCC very gratefully acknowledges donations of £200, £80, £625 and £125, the last being a contribution towards the cost of refurbishing the lychgate. FORWARD PLANNINGThe Christmas Carol Service will be held at 5.30pm on Sunday 18th December.Refreshments will be served afterwards – mulled wine, sausage rolls and mince pies! Our Eucharist Service on Christmas Day will start at 10.30am, not the routine time of 11.00am. The Archdeacon of Suffolk, the Ven Jeanette Gosney, will be preaching at morning Eucharist on Sunday 1st January. SNIPPETS – The Rede Communion SetChristmas Day this year marks the bicentenary of the gift to the church of the Communion set (pictured front) by the Rev’d Rede Rede of Ashman’s Hall, Barsham. The patten is in regular use and the cup will be used throughout December to mark the 200th anniversary. The legend around the base of the cup reads: Presented to the Parish of Barsham by the Rev’d Rede Rede, the 25th December 1822. The gift was made in memory of the Rev’d Rede Rede’s uncle, Robert Rede, who died on 13th August 1822 and whose remains lie with those of his wife Charlotte in the vault under the once imposing and now crumbling table tomb that is such a familiar landmark in our churchyard. Robert Rede (1763-1822) was a lawyer who built Ashman’s Hall between 1814 and 1820 on the Roos Hall estate, which had been bought by his father Thomas Rede in 1805. With no children of his own, Robert Rede left the Hall to his nephew, the Rev’d Robert Rede Cooper (1794-1852), son of his sister Sarah Leman Rede. Upon inheriting Ashmans, Robert Rede Cooper assumed by Royal License the name Rede Rede.The Redes were originally a Norwich family and several generations had been Mayors there in the 15th and 16th centuries, but by the mid-16th century they were established in Beccles. A Rede daughter, Ursula, married Thomas Colby, who built the present Roos Hall in 1583. A daughter of the Rev’d Rede Rede, Louisa Charlotte Rede, married Frank Fowke, an officer in the Royal Engineers, who was a notable architect and engineer, much favoured by Prince Albert. Fowke designed various important mid-19th century public buildings, amongst them the Royal Albert Hall and parts of the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Museum of Science and Arts in Edinburgh, the National Gallery of Ireland in Dublin, and the exhibition hall for the 1862 International Exhibition in London. He also won the competition to design the Natural History Museum but died before it could be built and his designs were altered and finally realised by Alfred Waterhouse. The Rev’d Rede Rede of Ashmans had an uncle, Sir Astley Paston Cooper, who was a pioneering surgeon in the early 19th century and founder of the Medical and Chirurgical Society. He was Professor of Comparative Anatomy to the Royal College of Surgeons, President of the Royal College of Surgeons and surgeon to George IV, who created him 1stBaronet. His statue graces St Paul’s Cathedral.December DiarySunday 4th December – Second Sunday of Advent. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). RevJonathan Olanczuk.Sunday 11th December – Third Sunday of Advent. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Rev Canon John Fellows.Sunday 18th December – Fourth Sunday of Advent. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Rev Josh Bailey.Sunday 18th December – 5.30pm Carol Service. Sunday 25th December – Christmas Day. 10.30am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Rev Josh Bailey.Sunday 1st January – The Holy Name. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Rev Josh Bailey. Preacher: The Ven Jeanette Gosney, Archdeacon of Suffolk. Church correspondent: Robert Bacon 07867 306016, robert.bacon@yahoo.co.uk
NEWSAt Harvest Festival Evensong on the 2nd October we were delighted to welcome as our preacher the Rev Martin Bailey, father of our own Rev Josh. The church was looking beautiful, thanks to the flower arrangers, who excelled as always in creating spectacular displays of seasonal flowers (front cover) in addition to Colin and Margaret’s Turk’s turban squashes and their fantastic ornamental gourds. This year we were invited to bring tins of food for the Beccles Food Bank and these were duly blessed and subsequently dispatched. Harvest Supper that evening at the village hall was another welcome and successful collaboration between Barsham church and village hall. It was attended by 45 guests, who enjoyed excellent company and a choice of magnificent dishes. Huge thanks to all those who prepared the delicious food and provided the drinks, and those who decorated and laid the tables so beautifully and, likewise, to those who washed up and cleaned the following morning. On Wednesday 12th October the U3A History Walking Group enjoyed one of Barsham’s celebrated church teas, kindly provided by the ladies of the church. The U3A group had spent the afternoon looking at aspects of past and present landscape use, exploring evidence for the continuity of settlement in Barsham from the Mesolithic through the Bronze Age, Iron Age, the Roman period, and the Middle Ages up to modern times; and then hearing a little about the history of Barsham Hall and some of its former owners. Our congregation donated 143 items to the Foodbank in September and the generous gifts given at Harvest Festival on 2nd October will be reported in the next edition of the Newsletter. Warmest thanks to all who continue to support this vital service at a time when more people are struggling in the current economic climate. The Waveney Foodbank website says the most needed items at present are UHT fruit juice and instant mash, though other foods are equally welcome.Collections at Sunday services in September amounted to £1,163 and the sales tableorganised by Jenny raised a splendid £110. Thanks to the efforts of those who gamely took part, the total raised through Ride and Stride was £869, to be shared equally between the Suffolk Historic Churches Trust and Barsham. The Harvest Supper yielded £525, and the tea provided for the U3A history walkers brought in a further £80. FORWARD PLANNINGBarsham Village Hall Curry Night, 29th October at 7pm in the village hall. All are welcome and tickets are available from Carol and Zane Blanchard (01502 711394, carolzaneblanchard@talktalk.net)Service of Remembrance at the Village Hall, Friday 11th November. The hall will be open from 10.30am and the service will start at 10.50am, with the Last Post, two-minute silence and Reveille starting at 11am. Wreaths will be laid at the village war memorial outside and the names of Barsham’s First World War dead will be called (there were none in the Second World War), as will the names of the American airmen killed when their aircraft was shot down at Barsham in 1944 (see below). Marking Remembrance-tide, on Saturday 12th November at 7.30pm in St Michael’s Church, Beccles the Beccles Choral Society with the Kingfisher Sinfonietta will be performing The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace by Karl Jenkins. The programme also includes George Butterworth’s The Banks of Green Willow and war poems read by Paul Heiney. Butterworth, who wrote his Idyll The Banks of Green Willow in 1913, was killed in action three years later in the Battle of the Somme. Tickets for the concert cost £20 each and are available through Cheryl (cherylcoutts468@btinternet.com) and Beccles Bookshop. The second Barsham Church Light Show will take place on Friday 18th and Saturday 19th November from 5.30 to 8.00pm. Free of charge, this art installation exhibition by artist William Lindley is a repeating display of digital artwork projections inside the church and includes projection of historic photographs of the local area. Do drop in at any time between 5.30 and 8.00pm. All ages, no booking and no tickets required, donations appreciated. Ample parking. Refreshments available. Holy Trinity Church, Barsham, Suffolk, NR34 8HA.SNIPPETS - The Barsham B-24 Liberator and a new American ConnectionWith Remembrance Day approaching, readers will, I am sure, remember the story of the American B-24 Liberator aircraft that fell to earth just opposite the village hall on the night of 22nd April 1944, killing seven members of the crew, just 12 days after flying their first mission. The aircraft was returning to its base at Rackheath, near Norwich after a raid on Hamm in Germany when it was attacked and shot down by one or possibly two German Me 410 intruders. That night the intruders destroyed 14 returning USAAF Liberators with the loss of 60 airmen (for further reading see Night of the Intruders by Ian MacLachlan, published by Patrick Stephens Ltd, 1994, ISBN 1 85260450 6). Thanks to the efforts of former church warden Denis Sporle, the crew of the Barsham B-24 are commemorated at the war memorial beside the village hall, and they will be remembered by name at the Remembrance Day service. I mention this because I was contacted earlier this year by Professor Al Claiborne, who is related through his mother to the wife of 2nd Lt Glen Ferguson, the aircraft’s navigator. Ferguson and his wife Helen had married just three weeks before he was deployed to England and three months before he was killed at Barsham. Now retired, Al has been involved in a good deal of historical research, including the stories of several relatives who came to England with the USAAF in the Second World War. He lives in North Carolina, where he was for 22 years Professor of Biochemistry at Wake Forest University School of Medicine. To further his research and add colour to his understanding of events, he has suggested that he might make a trip to England and to Barsham next year – in which case I am sure we shall have the opportunity of meeting him.NOVEMBER DIARYSunday 30th October – All Saints. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Rev Josh Bailey.Sunday 30th October – All Saints. 6.30pm Benefice Choral Evensong, Holy Trinity, Bungay. Rev Josh Bailey.Sunday 6th November – Third Sunday before Advent. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). RevJonathan Olanczuk.Sunday 13th November – Second Sunday before Advent. Remembrance Sunday. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Priest TBC.Sunday 20th November – Christ the King. Safeguarding Sunday. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Rev Josh Bailey.Sunday 27th November – First Sunday of Advent. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Rev Josh Bailey.Every Wednesday at 8.45am – Matins at Barsham Every Wednesday at 10am – Holy Communion (CW) at Holy Trinity, Bungay.Church correspondent: Robert Bacon 07867 306016, robert.bacon@yahoo.co.uk
NEWSFollowing the death of the Queen on Thursday 8th September, special prayers and a Collect for the Queen were said at Sunday service on the 11th, and Rev Jonathan Olanczuk’s sermon was crafted around snippets taken from the Queen’s 90th Birthday Book, in which she discussed her views on faith. At the end of the service the National Anthem was sung for our new king, Charles III, who succeeds the Queen as Supreme Governor of the Church of England. It is with great sadness that we record the death of Bob McNeil-Watson, our faithful organist of some years. Almost fifty church goers attended the last Eucharist celebrated by the Reverend Roy Wormald on Sunday 18th September and all enjoyed tea or coffee and cakes afterwards. Bridget spoke eloquently of Roy’s sterling service over the last twelve years and presented him with a card and cheque, whilst Margaret bestowed Audrey with a colourful bouquet of flowers.The annual Suffolk Historic Churches Trust Ride and Stride event went ahead on Saturday 10th September. For many participants the day out gave them an opportunity to reflect on what the Queen’s life and reign meant to them and the country. Thanks go to the riders and striders who represented Barsham, and to their generous sponsors, as well as to the volunteers who greeted and signed in the riders and striders at Barsham and other churches, and to Dick our local organiser. The sum raised for the upkeep of Suffolk’s beautiful churches, and ours in particular, will be announced in due course. The re-thatching of the lychgate roof was completed on schedule at the end of August and looks splendid (front cover photo). Some repairs to the flintwork of the lychgate wall have also been carried out. Many thanks to the five volunteers – Bridget, Sarah Jane, Reverend Roy, Dick and Colin, who attended for the annual brass cleaning. Between them they cleaned or polished the chandeliers, the pascal candle and various pieces of brass furniture.On the day of the Equinox the bright sunshine that had promised so much in the late afternoon was swamped by cloud at the critical moment and there was no ‘light show’. Nonetheless there was tea and talk for the small gathering of visitors who attended. As part of the church’s Health and Safety Policy, we are required to have a named and qualified First Aider: this is Malcolm Bardsley.The beehive in the churchyard will shortly be removed. The lime honey (some say the ‘king of honeys’) from its bees will be sold by auction at Harvest supper.Warmest thanks to Amy for continuing to manage our Foodbank donations, and to all who contributed to August’s 180 gifts. The current need is particularly for tinned meat, pasta, instant mash, rice puddings and microwavable puddings.The August sales table organised by Cherry yielded £120 and Sarah Jane’s splendid efforts to sell the legacy teddy bears have added another £111 to the cumulative total, which now stands at £1,893.FORWARD PLANNINGHarvest Festival is to be celebrated with Evensong at 5.30pm on Sunday 2nd October, and with Harvest Supper at the village hall afterwards at 7pm. Tickets are available from Bridget and Diana. A date for the winter diary: Will Lindley will be presenting another Light Show in Barsham Church on the evenings of Friday 18th and Saturday 19th November. SNIPPETS – Waveney Foodbank Every week Amy collects our donations from church and delivers them to the Waveney Foodbank, which hugely appreciates our commitment to support them. The Waveney Foodbank is part of a nationwide network of 428 foodbanks supported by The Trussell Trust, which aims to combat poverty and hunger in the UK. The Trust provides an Area Manager for the 11 centres of the Waveney Foodbank, each of which is individually organised. Beccles has two foodbanks, at St Luke’s Church and Hungate Church, both under the organisation of Pam Bayliss, assisted by some 28 volunteers. Donations are collected at supermarkets and direct donations are received from a range of charities, individuals and organisations, including churches, schools and businesses. Donations are sent to a warehouse, where volunteers check ‘use by’ dates, sort and pack up boxes of provisions. These usually comprise a three days’ minimum emergency supply of healthy and balanced meals, and are made up for single, couple or family use. A food box might contain breakfast cereals, soup, pasta, pasta sauce, rice, tinned foods – beans, meat, vegetables, fruit – as well as tea, coffee, sugar, biscuits, and snacks. Each foodbank centre then requests supplies from the warehouse. At Beccles there are farmers who donate sausages, bacon and eggs, and the two foodbank centres can issue vouchers for the purchase of fresh vegetables at Field2Fork in Blyburgate. The Beccles foodbanks go well beyond the provision of food, supplying toiletries, laundry powder and cleaning products, bedding and clothing for all sizes and ages (new and good quality second-hand – particularly hoodies and jogging bottoms); and to help reduce energy costs, they are now providing slow cookers. Beccles also provides sleeping bags and tents for homeless people and makes up special ‘kettle boxes’ of foods that only need hot water added. People in crisis can access support from the foodbanks via vouchers issued by agencies including Citizens Advice, doctors, health visitors, social workers, the Police, children’s centres and so on. These agencies can also identify the cause of the crisis and offer guidance and signposting to further agencies that can provide help and support.OCTOBER DIARYSunday 25th September – Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Rev Josh Bailey.Sunday 2nd October – Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). RevJonathan Olanczuk.Sunday 2nd October – 5.30pm Harvest Evensong. Rev Josh Bailey.Sunday 9th October – Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Rev Canon John Fellows.Sunday 16th October – Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). RevJosh Bailey.Sunday 23rd October – Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Rev Canon John Fellows.Sunday 30th October – All Saints. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Rev Josh Bailey.Sunday 30th October – All Saints. 6.30pm Benefice Choral Evensong, Holy Trinity, Bungay. Rev Josh Bailey.Sunday 6th November – Third Sunday before Advent. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). RevJonathan Olanczuk.Every Wednesday at 8.45am – Matins at Barsham Every Wednesday at 10am – Holy Communion (CW) at Holy Trinity, Bungay.Church correspondent: Robert Bacon 07867 306016, robert.bacon@yahoo.co.uk
NEWSRoy Wormald (photo) will celebrate Eucharist for us for the final time on Sunday 18th September. He has supported Barsham by celebrating our Eucharist service once a month for the past 12 years, and during the two years of Covid shutdown he continued to provide a monthly sermon for church members. We are most grateful to him, and we shall miss him officiating on the third Sunday, but we are delighted that he and Audrey will continue to be regular attenders at Barsham church. The Summer Lunch Party at St Bartholomew’s Church, Shipmeadow on 3rd August was a memorable occasion, enjoyed by over 70 people. Very many thanks to everyone who contributed to the organisation, logistics and catering, and special thanks to our hosts, Nick and Jenny Caddick. The churchyard is looking splendidly tidy following haymaking on 5th and 6th August: Colin reckons smarter than ever post-haymaking. As he points out, the sixteen people who toiled over two hot days were undoubtedly incentivised by the prospect of the excellent lunch provided by Chris Bardsley, who was assisted on the Friday by Carolyn. Many thanks and well done to ‘The Sixteen’, amongst whom were five young and energetic haymakers whose contribution was especially appreciated: thank you Annabelle, Louisa, Tilly, Josh and Tom. Janet has kindly prepared a variety of plants for sale at Old Hall, Barsham, with all proceeds going to the church. Warm thanks to everyone who donated to the Food Bank in July: you gave an impressive 259 items.The July sales table organised by Jenny yielded £100. Sarah Jane’s remarkable endeavours in selling the legacy teddy bears continue with further sales of £195, bringing the total to a splendid £1,782. The Barsham PCC gratefully acknowledges donations of £150 and £100, the latter being made in memory of the late Roy and Marian Pike. FORWARD PLANNINGThis year’s Suffolk Churches Ride and Stride is on Saturday 10th September. The Autumn Equinox Event takes place on Thursday 22nd, Friday 23rd and Saturday 24th September at 5.50pm with refreshments served from 30 minutes beforehand. Weather permitting, the spectacle is best on the middle day.Harvest Festival will be celebrated with Evensong at 5.30pm on Sunday 2nd October, with Harvest Supper at the village hall afterwards at 7pm. Tickets will be available in due course from Bridget and Diana. A date for the winter diary: Will Lindley will be presenting another Light Show in Barsham Church on Friday 18th and Saturday 19th November. He describes it as a ‘refreshed’ version of last year’s show. SNIPPETS – God’s AcreChurchyards are sometimes referred to as God’s Acre, an expression borrowed in the early 17th century from the German Gottesacker (Dutch Godsakker) – Field of God. I like that ancient Saxon phrase, which callsThe burial-ground God’s-Acre! It is just;It consecrates each grave within its walls,And breathes a benison o’er the sleeping dust.(From Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem God’s Acre)Our churchyard at Barsham is a beautiful place whatever the season: trim and neat as now after summer haymaking, bathed in the dew and mist of autumn, dressed in white in winter, or lush with wildflowers in spring. The existence and bounds of our churchyard are almost certainly as ancient as the church itself – nearly a thousand years old – but its current appearance has been forged largely over the last two centuries. A very small number of headstones began to appear in churchyards in the late 17th century, but the rows of headstones and ledgers that characterise churchyards today are predominantly later and at Barsham they are mostly of the 19th and 20th centuries. Previously, a burial might be marked at most by a wooden cross, but the norm in churchyards was the unmarked grave. One thing that has not changed over the centuries is the focus of responsibility for the upkeep of the churchyard, which lies today with the churchwardens and laity, as it has done since it was decreed by the Lateran Council 800 years ago in 1215. Perhaps the adoption of the term ‘God’s Acre’ in the 17th century reflected a new reverence for the churchyard imposed by the Protestant reformers, particularly the Puritans, during the Reformation. Prior to this and throughout the Middle Ages, the churchyard had been a community space used in part for devotional purposes – processions, preaching, mystery plays etc – but also for secular entertainments including games and sports, fairs and feasts, dancing and celebrations. In particular, churchyards were the venue for church ales: traditional festivities which took place regularly in the medieval church calendar, especially in spring and summer. Their purpose was to raise money for the upkeep of the church, in a loose sense perhaps the precursors of the modern church fete – or even our summer lunch. At church ales there would be food and drink, entertainments, music and dancing. Church ales were regarded by many as the embodiment of the ideal of community, and they enjoyed wide support at local level as well as from the Establishment in both Church and state. Like the critics of the 13th and 14th centuries, however, the reformers of the 16th and 17th centuries saw in church ales only gluttony, drunkenness and moral danger, and they attacked them on religious and moral grounds. Despite the support of the Stuart monarchy for the tradition of church ales, the 17th century reformers had their way and church ales were suppressed, to be replaced as a means of raising funds for the church by the less colourful and more sober church rates!September DiarySunday 28th August – Eleventh Sunday after Trinity. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Rev Canon John Fellows.Sunday 4th September – Twelfth Sunday after Trinity. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). RevJonathan Olanczuk.Sunday 11th September – Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Rev Josh Bailey.Sunday 18th September – Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity. 11am Sung Eucharist (CW). Rev Roy Wormald.Sunday 25th September – Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Rev Canon John Fellows.Sunday 2nd October – Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). RevJonathan Olanczuk.Sunday 2nd October – 5.30pm Harvest Evensong. Rev Josh Bailey.Every Wednesday at 8.45am – Matins at Barsham Every Wednesday at 10am – Holy Communion (CW) at Holy Trinity, Bungay.Church correspondent: Robert Bacon 07867 306016, robert.bacon@yahoo.co.uk
