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United Reformed ChurchNewsletter for March 2006 |
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Alan Wood This is the biggest NewsLetter yet, with eight sheets. Any more, and we’ll need to get a larger collator! The reason, I’m afraid, is obvious: so much to say about Joan Denman and Peggy Eldridge by various people. I am indebted to the families of both these beloved people for the mass of detail with which I have been provided. I hope that these articles will help to keep them alive in your hearts and minds. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - I bring apologies from our Minister, Rev. Pat Hall, for the omission of her usual monthly letter. Over the past few weeks the unexpected extra work caused by the passing of not only our people, but also some at Ewell, and with increased hospital visiting, her input to the NewsLetter has had to take second, or even third place. I welcome the occasional articles by our other Rev., Geoffrey Dunstan, one of which fills the gap this month. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Over the past few months I have tried to get each month’s issue of this magazine out on the last Sunday of the previous month. Last month I delayed publication by one week in order to give time to report on the Service of Thanksgiving for Del, which took place on a day when I am usually slaving over a hot computer! I managed to get ahead and make an early start on this issue, and, with co-operation by various people, have managed to get it out on schedule. But now I would like to give advance notice that I intend to produce the April issue on 2nd April, with the copy date of 26th March. This is due to Valerie and I going to Cambridge for Diana’s graduation when she receives her Master’s degree. Fortunately, April is a 5-Sunday month, so we should be back on schedule to get the May issue out on 30th April. But watch this space, and listen to the notices! Don’t forget that the clocks go forward on Mothering Sunday, 26th March. Free to a good home: I have an elderly adult-sized Hercules bicycle with 26" wheels, 3-speed Sturmey-Archer gear, lights, bell and a carrier frame over the rear wheel. This is in good condition and is offered to anyone who can use it. If its new owner cares to make a donation, this would be given to a charity that the church is currently supporting. Contact me at Alan Wood We were sorry to learn of the death of Joan Denman and also of Peggy Eldridge. To Anne and Antony and their families, and also to the family of Peggy, we extend our sympathy and love. Mary Hallifax remains very weak and is finding life difficult. ‘Jock’ Beer has been in hospital following several asthma attacks. He is progressing and hopes to be home soon. Evelyn, too, is unwell. It was good to see Marjorie and Ann with us last Sunday. Marjorie also was pleased to be able to come to Joan’s Thanksgiving Service on Thursday. Daphne’s daughter, Pamela, is progressing slowly. She is following a strict routine and hopefully she will regain some lost weight. Many have had ‘chesty’ coughs and colds, including Pat [and me – Ed!] It is great to have Lynne with us, but she does need our support and love as she comes to terms with her immeasurable loss. We are grateful to her son, John, who is able to act as her chauffeur, and it’s good to see him again. And finally, some good news! Our congratulations go to James Menagh who has won a place at Loughborough University for a PGCE course. Well done, James! Jack o’ Lent When in 1863 the then Archbishop of Canterbury complained to Queen Victoria about the fact that the Prince of Wales was being married in the penitential season of Lent, she immediately replied, 'In my young days there was no Lent'. Dismissive, as Queen Victoria may have been, the forty days of Lent are observed from Ash Wednesday, which, this year, is on 1st March. Lent was once observed with ashes because it was the oldest kind of soap. Ashes, mixed with sand, were used because water was scarce in countries where there was little rainfall. But an ancient Ash Wednesday custom was the making of a Jack o’ Lent. The figure was made of straw and dressed in old clothes. It may have looked like a scare-crow, but it was supposed to represent Judas, the disciple who betrayed Jesus with a kiss. This figure was carried through the streets on Ash Wednesday and then set up in order that people might throw stones and sticks at it during the season of Lent. At the end of Lent, the Jack o’ Lent was publicly burnt. Charles Causley, a poet, puts his own interpretation on Jack o’ Lent: ' your yellow coat so ruined and rent? I'm going to the sea-shore as fast as I can to try and find the Galilee man. What will you have from him, Jack o’ Lent, How long will it take you, Jack o’ Lent, Should you not find him, Jack o’ Lent, What will you do then, Jack o’ Lent, Where will your lodging be, Jack o’ Lent, What can we do for you, Jack o’ Lent, What shall we do then, Jack o’ Lent, Secretary’s
Letter In the last Newsletter I said we had had a month of mixed emotions and this month has been the same. The passing of both Peggy Eldridge and Joan Denman was a shock to us all, and on the personal side so was the passing of a special Uncle. We attended the cremation of this Uncle last Monday. It was a Humanist Cremation, very thought provoking, like nothing I have been to before, full of lovely poetry, very peaceful, yet somehow empty. I must say I came away feeling something was left unfinished and yet it seemed so final. Very contradictory feelings. We shall all miss Joan Denman, especially not seeing her sitting in the choir. I know she had not been so fit of late, but my memories are of her rounding up volunteers to join the choir for any special events or Services, and of being behind the hatch in the kitchen serving tea and coffee, and a very faithful member of the Women’s Church Council. At the beginning of February I attended a meeting along with Pat and members of the Downlands Cluster. These meetings have not taken place for a long time as it is only recently that all the Churches in the cluster have a Minister. It was a very interesting meeting and here are some of the comments from that meeting about the purpose and the aims of the Cluster:
As well as this, the Elder’s training in the Cluster takes place on the first Saturday of each month and is very well attended. I did enjoy the visit of the "Roughditch Band" on Sunday. It was so good to hear the Church full of music and I went home feeling uplifted. I am sure there are some who will not feel the same way, and I know we have a wonderful organ, but a change sometimes must be good for all of us, whatever age! I do hope they will come again. Don't forget the Church Meeting on15th March in the Longhurst Room. A Letter from Lynne Now that I have had time to gather my thoughts together after the sad loss of Del, I would like all you at church to accept my heartfelt thanks for the masses of letters, cards, support, help and love you showed me, Ceri and John during the sad time before and after the Thanksgiving Service on 27th January. It turned out to be a day to remember. So many friends came from far and wide to pay their respects to one it seemed they loved so much. I was married to Del for sixty-four years and to me it did not seem a day too long! The last five years of his life was not altogether a happy and serene time for him with the onset of dementia, although fits of humour still remained with him. He still loved company and managed to put his best side forward when anyone called. Frequently light would shine through, and he would relate some of his experiences in Ministry, and you would think there was nothing wrong with him. Sad to say, the light flickered and died away quickly and he was left as before. The end came quicker than expected, but I feel that God intervened at the right time and took him before he suffered any more pain, which was very distressing to watch for one week. My thanks for the donations received for The Alzheimers’ Society. It will help the research that is going on for this sad complaint. May it continue to bring some comfort and relief to the many who suffer in this way. My heartfelt thanks, too, to the Women’s Church Council for the refreshments they provided – may I say at very short notice. Many people spoke to me afterwards and remarked about the wonderful hospitality they were given at the end of the Service. It was good to be together and it helped to make a sad day bearable and almost enjoyable. And now thanks for the kind tributes paid to Del in the February NewsLetter. It was really heart-warming to read them. I have sent copies to those who wished to be at the funeral but were unable to do so. Finally I would like to thank our Minister, Pat Hall, for her visits to Del along the way – she seemed to have a rapport with him, and special thanks for her support to me at the hospital when Del was very ill. (top) Joan Emily Mabel
Denman; 19th August 1920
to 4th February 2006 
As many will know, Joan had been frail for the last year or so, and the family have been concerned about her health, and that she continued living on her own. But Joan was fiercely independent, believing that flats and bungalows were fine for others, but preferred to stay in own home, in the road in which she was brought up. Perhaps she was right all along, as she died peacefully in her favourite chair at home as she would have wished. Now she is released from her body, we can remember Joan as she was – a real "Martha". Joan was born in Islington on 19th August, 1920, before moving to Petersham, where brother, John was born 6 years later, and soon after that moved to 36 Copse Edge Avenue, Epsom. She talked recently of summers spent in the grandparents’ home in Bath, and then in Aunt Flo and Uncle Jack’s farm nearby. She scrumped in the orchard for apples, climbed trees and sat up in the branches reading books, and fed the piglets. She spoke of how the grandparents’ home was destroyed by a German bomb in the war. Joan went to school at Rosebery in the thirties, and remained proud of successive generations who followed her as both Anne and Beth followed in her footsteps. It is perhaps hard to believe that at school she was very high-spirited, and was reportedly told off for sliding down the banisters – but one teacher, who stayed at the school long enough to teach both Joan and Anne, asked Anne if her mother was the ‘naughty’ Joan Andrews! Joan remained in contact with one school friend, Joyce Willder (now Heyes), who is sorry she cannot join us, as she is unwell. During this period, her friends knew her as 'Andy'. After school, ‘Andy’ briefly joined the offices of SSAFA (Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Families Association), where her father, Captain Albert Andrews, CBE, was the administrative head for many years, before a happy period at Coutts Bank, in the Strand, London. During the war, she had a brief spell in nursing, but became too ill to continue in 1943, as she seemed to catch everything the patients had. She joined WRNS, HMS Pembroke, March 1943, rising to Senior Rating and released in April 1946. Joan spoke more of these years recently, which involved being in London during the air raids, and supporting the community there. Around 1935-6 she first met our father, and the other Denman boys, who already came to the Congregational Church – the precursor to this one. The Andrews family worshipped at St Martins up the road, but Mum joined the Congregational Church because of the youth club and the Denman boys. Both Mum and Dad became Congregational Church members in December, 1936. They corresponded through war years, after Dick was posted to North Africa, was quickly captured and spent 1942/43 as prisoner of the Italians, escaping when Italy capitulated, and then living on the run in Italy. It was not until the end of the war, in 1945, that they became engaged, and letters from Joan’s friends at the time imply it was "about time". They were married here in 1946, at Epsom (in the old church before it burnt down). They moved to Bexley in June 1948, where Antony and Anne were born. Joan and Dick were both active in the church there, particularly in running the Youth Club, before returning to Epsom in July 1957. Helping in Junior Church was a major activity. Junior Church at this church was started in 1934 by Dr Constance Griffiths, and we know that Joan was already helping Dr Griffiths in 1939; correspondence suggests this continued through the war. Gwyneth remembers Joan coming to Junior Church in her WRNS uniform. It was not until the 1980s that Joan rejoined the Epsom Junior Church staff. She prepared her sessions with great care and the children enjoyed them. She said she was not good at Art and Handiwork, but sometimes surprised herself. Joan came into her own when the topic involved plants and nature. One morning part of the morning service was held in her garden and the children enjoyed home-grown produce – the strawberries were wonderful! Joan retired from Junior Church on Mothering Sunday 2004, when she was naturally presented with plants for her garden. Joan began helping with Guides from 1956, only stepping in for a few weeks initially, but continuing and gaining her warrant as Lieutenant in 1960. Marjorie Dover was Captain of Guides, and when "Lefty" started to help, she was interviewed by Mrs MacDonald, the Commissioner. Afterwards, Marjorie said to Mrs MacDonald, "Haven’t I been lucky in getting Joan to help!?". The answer came back, "My dear, you’ve struck gold!" Mum specialised in being the Quartermaster at camps, and one of her specialities was cooking a cabinet pudding in a hay-box (for method, please see Pam Galliers.). Marjorie and Joan retired in 1981, when they were presented with long service awards. Joan taught guides to remember the Guide Law using the verse: "Trusty, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous,
kind, This saying encapsulated her approach to life. Always musical, Joan studied the violin in her youth, and continued to enjoy playing that, and piano, until an arm operation in 1967. She sang in the Church Choir for many years, and took over from May Reeve as Choir Secretary in the 1970s. Loyal and dedicated, she really looked after the choir – ordering music and always bringing tea and milk to sustain us at practices. Occasionally, we held practices in her house – appreciated by all except Rob the dog. She hosted a farewell party for Allan Healey and for other who left us. She was a member of a small group from the choir who helped with the service at the Manor Hospital each month. We escorted patients from the wards and always sang for them. When we no longer had an resident organist and choir master, Joan arranges the Organists’ rota, and it was only when her health began to fail that she passed on these duties, and those of the choir treasurer. Joan led the Junior Choir for a period as well. This service contains many of her favourite hymns and music, and we are pleased that our cousin Alex will be singing a piece from Handel’s ‘Messiah’, which she always enjoyed listening to, and sometimes singing. Joan was an enthusiastic supporter of young musicians, encouraging them and taking great pride in their achievements. A high spot of each year recently was coming to Northampton to attend youth concerts that Sophie performed in. She was able to do this just before last Christmas. Joan returned to Rosebery for a spell as part-time office help, which she enjoyed. Ever thrifty, she brought home scrap paper, such as spoilt copies of open letters to parents, which we have found in the house, on the reverse of which were many notes about running junior church. Joan was a keen gardener – dare we say she took more pride in the garden than the house? She was a member of Epsom Garden Society for many years. She did not always enjoy housework. Indeed, we understand she learnt poetry whilst ironing, to make it a more pleasant experience. Combining the gardening passion with Church Activities, she ran a renowned plant sale every May for many years in the Church Foyer, with Marjorie Thompson, selling indoor items such as cakes and marmalade and providing teas and coffees. Each year around £600 was raised for Church funds (and we have found another £15 marked "plant sale" in little bags around the house). Joan did not talk to the family about her faith, although she imparted her faith to those in Junior Church. Rather she lived out her life, as a shining beacon of her faith. As Joan got older, she slowly and reluctantly stepped down from many tasks, although she helped in Junior Church until a few years ago, and her leaving party from the choir was only last year. Joan slowed down near the end of her life, and became forgetful. However, the core of her nature – "the lovely lady" – remained, and many who have only known her in recent years have been visibly distressed in learning that the lovely lady has passed on. It was time for her to go, and we celebrate her great contribution to our lives, and to the life of this church and the many young people who passed through its doors.
Some Pictures from Joan's Service of Thanksgiving
Joan Denman (2) Joan Denman seems to have been in the background throughout my life, to start with it was when she was the leader and I was the one led, but through the years I have found myself being involved in various activities with her and working alongside her. My very first memories of Joan Denman were as ‘Lefty’ in the Guides. Lefty was always responsible for all the new recruits and she would test them throughout the Tenderfoot till they were ready to be enrolled. It was necessary to visit Joan’s house, a very daunting experience for a shy young guide, so that she could see that you knew how to strip and make a bed properly. Joan soon put me at my ease and made the actual experience very simple, and I don’t remember anyone ever failing this task. One abiding memory from my time as a guide patrol leader was one evening when Joan had devised a game based on the ten guide laws. Each patrol had to match each one of the laws with ten different scenarios. For the law, ‘a Guide is thrifty’, my patrol had decided that reusing the stamp on a letter that had been through the post and had not been franked was the correct answer. Joan was horrified, and to this day I would never dream of reusing a stamp that had failed to get franked. Joan was a great outdoor person and always seemed to be in her element at Guide camp where she was Quartermaster. In the old days Joan would hire an Astridge’s lorry to take us to camp. After all the equipment and luggage had been stored in the back, all the guides and the leaders would climb on top and away we would go with the guides singing camp songs from the back of the lorry. Joan was very keen that nothing usable should get wasted and so she had special receptacles to recycle all the leftovers and rubbish at camp. During my later years at Rosebery Girls’ School I regularly encountered Joan as she worked part time in the school office for several years, and I would see her nearly every day. Back in the sixties the youth club at the church was in full swing, and with Anne and Antony as members, there were several occasions when we had get-togethers at their home where Joan would always make everyone welcome. I next encountered Joan on a regular basis when I joined the church choir. Joan was a long-standing member, librarian and secretary of the choir and had a lovely alto voice. When Marjorie was no longer able to provide refreshments for the choir, Joan happily took on the task herself, and still produced the cheapest cuppa in town! Joan remained a very faithful member of the choir until last year when she finally decided that she didn’t really want to go out on Friday evenings anymore, by which time the choir was reduced to a very few die-hards. The remaining choir members wished to acknowledge all the years Joan had served the choir and so we held a tea party at Gwyneth’s bungalow last summer and presented her with a book and token. In 1977 I married Alan and was surprised to discover that the Wood family and the Denman family were connected and that Alan and Dick Denman were cousins.When we were first married we used to visit with the Denman family at Christmas and have great fun playing games. Eventually the families got too large and this was no longer possible. Always one to promote music in the church, Joan, with the help of Tom Carr started the Junior Choir. This would meet every Friday in the Longhurst Room with Tom at the piano and a good number of children, including my own children, who loved to sing. This was an opportunity to introduce some new and modern children’s hymns to our repertoire as well as some fun secular songs. There were several years when the Junior Choir was a major item in Entertainment URC! Joan was always ready to help with the children and when Junior Church were looking for more staff she was quick to offer her assistance and so began her many years as a Junior Church leader which she only gave up a couple of years ago. I remember one Sunday morning when Junior Church visited Joan’s house to look at her garden and she provided us all with cress sandwiches. Joan never forgot her Guiding years and when I was helping Elaine with Guides Joan was one of the badge testers. Ten years ago, when I took over from Gwyneth at Brownies, I was very pleased to have Anne to help me. This, of course, meant that if there was anything that was needed for a Brownie badge or test, like someone to receive a phone call and give a message to, Joan was the one who was asked and would always make what she did meaningful to the Brownies. Throughout all the time I knew Joan she was a member of the Women’s Church Council, and every year for as long as she could she would put all her energy into growing vegetables and others plants for the annual plant sale which the Brownies were always happy to support. She was always grateful for any help on the day from the very willing Brownies who were always pleased to help her. Joan was always a very loyal member of the church, both morning and evening, and until last year she was the one who was totally responsible for the communion for the evening congregation once a month. She will be greatly missed by both young and old members, but remembered with much love. Joan Denman (3) It was with mixed feelings that I read of her death - in that she was a good age and I was glad to learn how peaceful and quick her going was, though a great shock for her family, but, another name from the ‘old days’ gone. My memories of her go back a long way, in fact to the days while husband Dick was still alive. For some time we were both on a news letter committee which met, amazingly on a Sunday afternoon in each other's houses, to discuss the items to be included in the next issue (which meeting ended with a good tea!) each person would edit the magazine two or three times a year which meant typing out, in magazine format, the material received, and then sending it to Sankeys in Lancashire to be printed, and amazingly receiving it back in time to distribute for the next month. At one time she and the late Marjorie Dover were very good friends and I felt it was a sad day for her when Marjorie and Ernest (Ben) moved away from Epsom and even sadder when Marjorie later died. I think the last time we met was while the Warners were in Ewell who very kindly held a coffee morning when I and a friend visited them and I thus met up with various friends including Joan and Gwyneth. Up to the end we exchanged Christmas cards, so it will be sad leaving her name off that list this year. My sympathies to her family and, of course, a sad loss for the Church. 'Nanna’ Peggy Eldridge I would like to remind us all of what warmth, love, and happiness Nanna brought, and to jog some memories of times gone past, or to tell you little treasures about Nanna that you may never have known. She was nearly 92 years old, which, in turn, leaves time for many happy memories, and each and every one of you will have fond memories of your own. She was known variously by six names: Peggy Constance Lee, Bobby, Mrs Eldridge, Mother, Nanna and Great Nanna – all names chosen through love in one way or another . . .Peggy Constance Lee: in 1914 Constance and Leonard Lee had a beautiful baby girl, and the name they lovingly chose for her was Peggy Constance. She grew up as an out-going only child of a bank manager and his wife. Her mother, Constance, always dressed Nanna impeccably. And, as we all know, Nanna continued to take great pride in her appearance, even to the point of asking me only a couple of days after going into hospital with her suspected broken neck, wearing her neck brace and hardly able to move, to get her make-up for her, and the very next day she was wearing it. When I commented on this, she gave me a wry smile and said, “I had to look good for the doctor this morning.” Up to Nanna’s early teens she had maids, and one story Nanna referred to was remembering as a young child getting into trouble for giggling at one of the maids who had just fallen into a rice pudding. Bobby: As a young lady with the initials P.C. Lee, Nanna picked up a cheeky nickname – Bobby, which stuck with her for many years. I believe she carried this name with her into her job working in the claims department for Pearl Assurance, where she met and fell in love with a handsome young man, Douglas George Eldridge. This cheeky name, which creates an image of keeping on the right side of the law, being good and the like, seems a bit tongue-in-cheek when you realise that Bobby never took the typing test that all potential employees at the time were required to take. Instead, the secretary of the Personnel manager completed the test on Bobby’s behalf, because Pitman-trained Bobby was used to a 3-lined keyboard, not the 2-lined one that was put in front of her on the day. During her time with Pearl Assurance ‘Bobby’ played table tennis and was a speed Walker. The young fit tennis player and sportswoman that she was obviously became quite a twinkle in Bobop’s eyes, because in 1939 the Company News letter –The Pearl Gazette – said: “Peggy and Douglas have forsaken the freedom of single blessedness for the mystical joys of married life.” I would rather say ‘the Magical joys of Married life’ as I now introduce….. Mrs Peggy Eldridge: For over 60 years Nanna and Bobop were devoted to each other, missing their Diamond Wedding Anniversary by less than a year. When they married Mr and Mrs Eldridge moved in to their marital home, 45 Holmwood Road, where they stayed for 59 years, creating many happy memories bringing up their two children, Paul and Dilys, who would like me to share some of their memories of their Mother, with you. Any one who visited Nanna and Bobop would have noticed how house-proud they were, but Nanna in particular. She would have urges to move the furniture around, and often you would visit and find the chair that habitually one would have sat in over a year or two, was all of a sudden in a completely different place. Paul especially remembers one morning, waking up in bed and trudging off to school, and later bouncing back home, running up stairs back into his bedroom and jumped straight on his bed, as usual. Only this time instead of having that nice bouncy boing you get when you leap face forward onto a bed, he got a rather abrupt thud as he landed face down on the floor. Dazed, he got up and saw Nanna had had that urge that day, and it was his bedroom’s turn to be rearranged. As I have mentioned before Nanna was very always very well dressed, taking great pride in her appearance. She often shopped in the sales which some of you may remember were quite an experience, fighting for the air space as well as the clothes. Dilys was always told that should she get lost to meet Nanna at the Tudor Restaurant. The thought of getting lost terrified the little girl as Dilys was then. So she remembers taking the White Knuckle ride around the stores clinging on as tightly as she possibly could to Nanna’s coat, so that she never, ever got lost. Paul and Dilys grew up and flew the nest. Both married, giving Nanna a bigger family to treat to tasty food, and good company. These marriages, Paul to Lesley Smith and Dilys to Sean Brosnan, gave their mother four – even if I say so myself – rather cute grandchildren. Our Nanna… Dominic, like us all, remembers vividly Nanna’s garden and spending our youthful time rampaging round, while the Grandparents looked on in despair or delight – maybe both. He also remembers Nanna’s hospitality. She fed us all so well. Her cooking was delicious and she was a great hostess. We, as grandchildren, would always clear the table and would open the sideboard and smell its distinctive smell of polished silver as we put the cutlery away. Helen remembers with affection arriving at Nanna’s house and being told she could have a sweet. At the end of the lounge on the windowsill sat a little oriental jar with a lid. This jar was, without fail, filled with jellies, boiled sweets or chocolate. Helen remembers legging it to the end of the room, almost racing, to get to the jar first to get the pick of the bunch. Once we kiddies had had our fill of sweeties, the next race began – up the stairs to get to the toy cupboard first, with delights of Kerplunk, Etch-a-sketch and many more games Nanna had bought to entertain us. Sunny days in the garden leave a warm feeling for all us grandchildren, with charging down to the vegetable patch at the end of the garden to see the trains go by, and picking the fallen fruit from the apple tree. Judy has fond memories of sitting on the tidy lawn, surrounded by Bobop and Nanna’s beautiful flowerbeds drinking a chilly, delicious glass of Lemonade float (ice cream in a glass of lemonade!) Nanna was a superb seamstress, smocking dresses for Dilys and making the bridesmaids’ dresses for both Paul’s and Dilys’s weddings. I particularly remember a special time with Nanna. I was slouching on the floor in the lounge, and Nanna was sitting elegantly beside me cutting out the pattern of a black pair of trousers. By the end of the day we were covered in fabric, tracing paper pattern and thread, yet, we emerged with a lovely pair of trousers, in a style, which I continue to wear to this day. Sarah, Steve and David have joined Nanna’s family as they married Dom, me and Judy respectively. Then in 2003 Nanna became a great Grandmother. Great Nanna: Since then, Nanna had become a Great Grandmother to Archie, Emilia and Niamh all of whom brought her tremendous joy and she was overjoyed at the prospect of being a Great Grandma to her fourth great-grand-child later this year. This eulogy is far too short to demonstrate the wide variety of pleasures Nanna enjoyed and brought to people, including dedicating 37 years working voluntarily for Oxfam, in Epsom High Street, from the day the shop opened to the day it closed, including organising the leaving-do for all the remaining staff. Nanna dedicated much of her spare time assisting the Conservative party, and she was the chairman of more committees than I could mention, and ran many luncheons and coffee mornings. You may find that the day you heard about Nanna’s death a sad day, and today you may shed a tear, but please make that tear a happy tear, because today we want to celebrate Nanna’s wonderful long life. Peggy Eldridge Peggy was a born organiser and was a great asset to many charities. Apart from knowing Peggy through church, my main contact with her was in the Oxfam Bookshop in the Upper High Street. We used to have good discussion about various authors and I welcomed her advice on reading and enjoying books which I would have otherwise overlooked. By the number of people at the crematorium, Peggy’s passing will affect many people, not only her family, but the many friends she had. To them all we offer our condolences and prayers. Christmas Day by Yourself? Some people prefer to spend Christmas Day by themselves, others choose to spend the day with family and friends and then there are others who have no-one to be with on Christmas Day and imagine everyone else is having a wonderful time. This is why 14 years ago a group of people at Epsom Methodist Church started to arrange a lunch on Christmas Day for people from Epsom and Ewell who would otherwise be alone. After a couple of years the numbers had grown and I talked to the Churches in Ewell who have since then provided a similar lunch there, while we have continued in Epsom. A friend of mine from Wallington used to help with our lunch but has now involved the Wallington Churches in providing a lunch in that area. When we started Christmas Alone in1992 we had hoped that it would be an ecumenical event, as has happened in Ewell and Wallington; however this has never materialised but I hope this is going to change. The purpose of my writing now to all the Churches in Epsom is because this year will be the 15th Christmas Alone Lunch I have co-ordinated and it will be my last. I believe this is the right decision for me but I also believe that this outreach to the community must continue as our guests really appreciate the opportunity to share the day with others. We have a small team of people who plan the lunch, the most important being Pam who organises the cooking and she is happy to continue. As the co-ordinator, I have always been around on Christmas Day but otherwise we have always worked on the understanding that helping one year doesn’t commit you for life. Some people help regularly, others occasionally and some just once for the experience, but God has always provided us with the help we need. It seems that this would be an ideal time for the Churches to work together to make the lunch an ecumenical event and I am really hoping that one or two people will come forward to co-ordinate the lunch and work alongside me this year. I’m suggesting one or two people as the things I organise can easily be split and "many hands make light work". It would also be great if we had people from other Churches as part of the planning group. We only meet 3 times a year and most of those in this group cannot be around on Christmas Day but want to be involved in some way. Please, I do hope that every Church will talk and pray about this and that there will be people who feel they can get involved so that the people of Epsom can see that the Churches in the town can work together for the good of the community. My telephone no. is 01372 745313 and I just pray that I will get lots of offers of help. Carol Stringer The Brigitte Trust The Brigitte Trust is a registered charity offering a free service of emotional support and practical help to local families facing life-threatening illness. They are holding Complementary Therapy Open Day on Saturday, 11th March 2006, from 10:30 a.m. to 5.00 p.m. This will be held at the Christian Centre, St. Martin’s Church, in Dorking High Street. I have some tickets if anyone would like to attend this Open Day. The Brigittte Trust is proposing a Llama Walk of 5 miles around
the Surrey hills. Pairs of walkers need to raise sponsorship in order to join
in. The llamas carry your packed lunch while you walk; I understand that it is
more of an amble than ramble, as the llamas are very laid back and don’t like
to hurry! FAIR TRADE FORTNIGHT. 6th-19th March Make Fairtrade your Habit. Buying Fairtrade products is a commitment everyone can make to challenge unfair international trading practices. 50% of shops now recognise the Fairtrade Habit with over 1000 Fairtrade products now available. What is Fairtrade?
This is organised through such groups as the Coffee Co-operatives in many parts of South America and the Tea Growers Co-operatives of Central Africa. There is also the Small Organic Farmers' Association in Sri Lanka. These not only market the products at fair prices, but help to organise improvements on the farms, training in diversification and so on and new ideas for areas of traditional production. So get the Fair Trade Habit & Pass it on! Phyl Cary Epsom & Ewell fairtrade forum 6th-19th March I am a member of Epsom & Ewell Fairtrade Forum and this year we are running two events around Fairtrade Fortnight. It is all part of a raising-awareness campaign as a follow-up to our persuading the council last year to pass a resolution to support fairtrade with a view to making Epsom a Fairtrade town/borough. Events are as follows: 1. A taster stall in Epsom High St. on the pavement outside the Halifax Building Society. We need help manning the stall by serving tea/coffee etc, help handing out leaflets and talking about fairtrade and we would also welcome a few goodies e.g. fairtrade cake, choc or biscuits, juice for sampling. If anyone interested can spare us an hour or so 10am – 2pm. Saturday March 4th Contact tel. no. is 020 8393 6907 or email: annekamm@supanet.com
Many thanks ANNE KAMM
"Roughditch play a mixture of traditional MOR (middle of the root!) Celtic, Brit and Oz folk songs, jigs, polkas and good fun music with flair, passion and harmony" Hello from Pete, Robert, John, Kathy and Barbara (aka Roughditch Band)! Alan has asked us to draft a little article for your church newsletter so we hope this "foots the bill"!
We all had a great time playing for you at your morning service on 19th February 2006. It was a great opportunity to meet new people and to see Pat in full swing in her "new" parish! We used to play quite regularly at her all-age worship services when Pat was minister at Farnham URC and it was a real treat to do so again for Epsom. We really appreciated your welcome and were particularly glad to hear you enjoyed the music.
We all bring different things to the band line-up. Pete is an extra-ordinary muso, singing and playing guitar, mandolin, harmonica and percussion (when Barbara doesn’t have a free hand to keep the beat!) Robert is our virtuoso accordionist (very nimble fingers and a passionate allotment grower of onions for pickling, so green fingered as well!). John, our bass guitarist now hails from Reading way and can play a cool bass riff even without the music! Kathy is a real artiste, singing and making playing the violin and recorders look really easy! Barbara adds a "colonial" (or should that be "convict") flavour to the band. She’s originally from Australia’s sunny shores, singing and playing guitar, irish whistle and percussion…so was kind of auditioning for the band on the flight over all those years ago! We play throughout the year at birthdays, charity fetes and fayres, weddings, church services and are frequently booked to play barn dances, which give everyone a good excuse to jig about a bit to our music! We hope to be able to play again at Epsom URC sometime. Cheers all! Contact the band via our website: www.roughditch.comor telephone Robert on 01252 794860 All-Age Service, 19th February. "Exciting...cheerful..worshipful...went well..catchy hymn tunes...came from a long way off so we ought to have had more people to hear them.... jolly good idea to have them...when will they come again?..." These are just some of the comments I picked up after the service on 19th February when the Roughditch Band came to play all the music for our morning service. Roughditch is an early version of the name of the village Rowledge, near Farnham, from whence the band comes. Their playing very was professional with that totally-at-ease confidence which can only be achieved by a great deal of diligent practice and a musical bonding of the players. Looking with interest at the amplifiers and sound system for the band, some more reticent souls were heard to murmur "hope they won't be too loud." Too loud the band was NOT.... reverent and encouraging it definitely WAS, infectiously foot-tapping too. Please come again, Roughditch Band, and perhaps next time it will be an occasion on which we can dance to your lovely music. The pleasure's all mine … It's only February, and we have had a number of cracking services in 2006 - the success of the Worship Group in putting together something very special - with a powerful and memorable message for the children - it's okay to be you - God will support you in whatever you feel is right, even if it's not what the rest of the herd are up to. Sharing worship with our friends at Ewell last week was wonderful - the music had me singing ‘Seek Ye the Lord’ for 24 hours afterwards (not a good week to be my neighbour), and today the Roughditch Band who arrived with their joyful voices and instruments and made me want to sing from the rooftops. These services make me wish that every day was Sunday. Thank you to Pat and the others who put so much thought and effort into what they do. Spring Event – Advance Notice I know that we have got cold temperatures and snow around at the current time, but may we remind you of warmer times and give you advance notice that the Spring Event – an event very dear to Joan Denman’s heart – is scheduled for Saturday, 20th May. Although I am no gardener, I understand that it may be time to start your seedlings – whatever they are – so that they’re ready in time!
Details of local concerts are carried in our pages from time to time, but now you’ve got a chance for a WORLD PREMIER!! Yes, Kingston Youth Concert Band has received permission to transcribe the music for Concert Band and to give two performances of Jeff Wayne’s musical version of HG Wells’ ‘The War of the Worlds’. Back in 1978 Jeff Wayne released a record that still stands the test of time as a fantastic evocation of ‘The War Of The Worlds’, benefiting as it did from the perfect narrative tones of Richard Burton and the singing talents of David Essex. Over the past few months Michael and others have been slaving over hot computers re-arranging the original score, which was for keyboards and percussion, for the instrumentation of the Concert Band, with all its woodwind and brass, a rock ensemble and voice. I heard the first run-through (sight-reading!) last autumn and it certainly sounded very impressive! We know that Jeff Wayne has got a nationwide tour of TWOTW on this spring, but you have a chance of seeing it almost on your own doorstep, at the Leatherhead Theatre. Tickets are available now, at £12:00, and £7:50 for children and concessions, with reductions for members. If you would like me to get tickets for you so we can go in a block, please let me know by 12th March. If you can’t make up your minds so early, the Box Office telephone number is 01372-365141. Pump Aid Sunday – 19th March You will remember the magnificent fund-raising for Pump Aid that was achieved in connection with our Harvest Festival last Autumn. Well, for Pat’s next All-Age Service we have been very fortunate in getting one of the team, Tom Mercer, to talk to us. He is the son of Karen Mercer, who is Pump Aid's Sponsorship Coordinator in the UK. He has spent time with the pump builders in Zimbabwe and now travels the country giving talks in churches and schools leading to sponsorship of new pumps.
I am sure we will all be interested in hearing about the way our sponsorship will be used – and we may even give you another demonstration of our own Elephant Pump!
Women’s Church Council With the passing of Joan Denman, I feel that the Women’s Church Council has reached yet another stage in its long history. Joan was the last remaining member of those serving on the Council when I became a member many years ago. Through all the years she served so loyally in her quiet, reliable, efficient way. You knew all was well, with Joan in the kitchen! For so many years, since the introduction of the Spring money-raising effort, she worked tirelessly, raising seedlings and plants. She was happy to be responsible for the organising and manning of the Plant Stall each year. We give thanks for her devoted service, It was a pleasure to welcome several friends from ‘Hearing Dogs for the Deaf’ at our recent Coffee Morning, together with one member’s loyal dog, Iris. It was a very pleasant sociable occasion, and thanks to the generosity of those present and also from welcome donations from friends unable to be with us; we raised £125 for this very worthy project. The Coffee Morning on Tuesday, 14th March, will be for ‘The Royal Marsden Cancer Appeal’. We hope you can be with us and help to raise a lot of money for the on-going work fighting cancer. Evening Church Fellowship We had a very informative and interesting evening with the visit of WPC Jane Bellingham. She was a real expert on ‘Neighbourhood Watch’, with 30 years’ Police service. She is retiring in August. On 6th March we welcome again Mrs Betty Hurley, with her programme of ‘Selections of Unknowns.’ Do come and join us for what is always a very interesting and melodic evening. Afternoon Fellowship We shall meet in the Longhurst Room on Thursday, 23rd March at 2.30 p.m. A warm welcome is extended to all. Phyl Cary is going to delight us with an illustrated talk, ‘The Mediterranean – Ancient and Modern’. (top)Monday Club There have been only two meetings of the Monday Club since the last Newsletter as we have had half term. At the meeting before the break the children each made a pack of sixteen cards to play animal snap. Unfortunately we ran out of time so were unable to play the game that evening. This Monday we had an Egyptian theme and each child made a door hanger with their name on in hieroglyphs. 12th Epsom Brownie Guide Pack The Brownies spent a second week showing how to keep their homes safe and showing us what they would do in an emergency. Most of the Brownies have now gained their Home Safety badge. A colleague of Tawny Owl will be spending two years working at a school in South Africa, being paid for by her church in England. The school is very poor and Anne told us, for example, that each child is given a glue stick that has to last them for a whole year.
We decided that we would send our Thinking Day collection to them this year, together with a photograph of the Pack (above), and the special cards that have a simple message and a picture that each of the Brownies made on Wednesday. The amount raised so far is £35.05p so far, but some of the Brownies forgot their collection and wish to bring it next week. Our other Thinking Day activities were to design an outfit to wear at the place the Brownies would most like to go and decorating their own cardboard baseball cap. We were very pleased to welcome Pat at our meeting on Thinking Day. Organists’ Rota for
February 5th Sheila Carpenter Church Flowers 5th Sheila Smith There will be a special Lent House Group Meeting at the home of Sheila and George Smith on 20th March
Ballroom dancing
Choral Concert at St Martin’s Epsom Choral Society is presenting a concert at St Martin’s Church on Saturday, 18th March, starting at 7:30 p.m. The works to be performed are ‘Hymn of Praise’ by Mendelssohn and ‘Musick’s Jubilee’ by Andrew Carter. The Musical Director is Robin Kimber, and the organ will be played by Paul Plummer. Tickets are £10:00 for adults and £5.00 for students and those under 18. The Box Office can be contacted on 01372-277205. Copy for the next issue should be with the Editor by 26th March for publication on 2nd April 2006. And Finally . . . If you believe, there are no questions . . . If you don't believe, there
are no answers. |
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