Bank Holiday Weekend - August 2011. Great Witley Church

The weather over the B.H. weekend was neither good nor bad. A few light showers at times, but essentially dry, though with a chilly breeze at times and not a lot of warm sunshine. I began with a stewarding turn on the Saturday afternoon which was interrupted by a power failure at about 4.p.m., panic from John Jenkin but all was restored to order by Ian Holland after about fifteen minutes, simply by resetting a trip switch in the vestry. At 5 o'clock there was an organ recital given by Mark Purcell, organist from Charlbury, Oxfordshire. Sunday afternoon was spent giving assistance to Ruth Butler who nowadays covers the whole day on her own, followed by Evensong at five. On the Monday I was booked to welcome visitors to the church crypt in the morning before Roger Perkins arrived to cover the afternoon turn. After lunch in the tea-room I gave duty steward Angela Snow a break, as she was also covering the whole of this very busy day on her own as "Billy No-Mates" yet again; when I left for home at just turned 4 o'clock there had been well over four hundred visitors counted in. The tea-room did extremely well over the whole period; at these busy times Gill ropes in the whole of her family for assistance, all in the very best Foley tradition !

A Busy Weekend

A busy weekend for Ruth and myself, commencing with a church stewarding duty on the Saturday morning, followed by a quick lunch in the tea-room before heading off to a family history fair at Worcester Rugby Club. The "usual suspects" were present at this event and we had some very interesting chats with a number of representatives on the various stands; we also bumped into fellow steward Angela Snow and a number of other familiar faces. On Sunday morning we drove over to south Lincolnshire to Harlaxton Manor near Grantham which is only open to the public on one day in the year. It is here that a number of statuary ornaments can be found which were originally to be found at Witley Court before the 1937 fire which devastated the building. See separate article in the Pages section which will appear soon.