“I loved the activities,” said one of the children who came.
There were a lot of them: for a start there was outdoors art and indoor brass-rubbing with an indoor animals treasure hunt and an outdoor hunt for historical facts. Alongside these there were traditional garden games and the curiosity which is Hezekiah’s Tunnel – come again another time if you want to know what that is!
Inside the church building, the church registers were available for inspection so families could trace their forebears or be reminded of friends. Labels bearing information about some of the different parts of the church building were studied as people walked around, some for the first time. A noticeboard display told the story of St Dunstan, including the legends about his run-ins with the devil that made more than one person say, “I didn’t know any of that about St Dunstan!” There’s no doubt about it; his is an interesting biography and there is yet more that could be told.
A detailed presentation of the history of the church was given, revealing the connections between the building and the Tudor royal family that was for so long part of the school curriculum. I think we all lost count of how many monarchs have been connected with Hunsdon – and who would, therefore, have worshipped within the walls of our church.
All through the afternoon, cream teas and cakes and coffee were served, accompanied by quiet jazz performed sensitively by a professional pianist who teased listeners by weaving snatches of well-known tunes into his repertoire. Friends from neighbouring villages and towns were reacquainted with one another, and local residents were pleased to meet with others who share an interest in the heritage of our beautiful church.
At 3pm, the crowds moved outside to see whether any teddy-bear would be brave enough to take parachute jump from the top of the 15th century tower. The churchyard, largely untouched for hundreds of years, looked glorious with its blanket of wildflowers stretching their heads up towards the warm afternoon sun. Soon, like them, the faces of people of all ages were facing upwards watching the first of the teddies being winched up to the tower roof.
That first volunteer was the churchwarden’s teddy, Goldie, who descended stylishly to the sound of much applause. Goldie was soon followed by others. One naughty little monkey steered the parachute into a tree, the duck did its best to fly off towards the road and one ted managed to get snagged on the wall itself before being rescued with the church’s huge extendable cobweb brush! All in all, 12 precious teddies dared take the plunge, the last of which was a stocky monkey called Bond: Big-Jack Bond. His parachute swirled round the south side of the tower, then swooped to the north and dived into the open west door like a soldier from the parachute regiment on an urgent mission.
It was a happy gathering with something for all tastes and there’s no doubt that a similar event could be hosted again. We hope you will consider joining us next time. Watch this space for a date!