Free one-hour workshops to make wreaths for all seasons, using sustainable or low-cost materials.These workshops are taking place at All Saints’ Church, Landbeach, as part of the Harvest Festival weekend of celebrations happening across the village on Saturday 20 - Sunday 21 September. Choose your workshop session:Saturday 20 September, 10.30 - 11.30amSaturday 20 September, 2.00 - 3.00pm Sunday 21 September, 2.00 - 3.00pmAll are welcome but booking in advance is essential. To book your places go to [LINK]. Children over age 8 may attend if accompanied by a responsible adult! Donations towards costs are welcome; please bring your own scissors, pliers and apron. Parking is at the Village Hall only.There will also be cream teas available for a small charge. We will look at three ways to make 20cm diameter door-wreaths suitable for Harvest/Creationtide. Some of the materials will be naturally sourced - handwashing will be available. Be inspired to create wreaths for other seasons and events, too; why not make a Christmas Wreath and enter it in our Christmas Tree Festival on 29-30 November?Look out for other Harvest Celebration events happening in Landbeach:Harvest Festival Dinner and Barn Dance - Saturday 20, 6.30- 10.00pmHarvest Festival Service at LAMB Church - Sunday 21, 3pmTithe Barn opening and events - various timesAll funds raised will help to support All Saints', including the Community Lunches and Community Food Cupboard.For further info, contact Angela Brown on angelastoryteller@gmail.com or 07884465648
Sunday 27th April 11:30 am FOALs AGM Thursday 8th May* 9:30 pm VE Day: Beacon Lit Friday 9th May* 5:30 pm Social Club BBQ 8:30 pm Beacon Lit. Bell Ringing Saturday 10th May* 10:00 am – 3:00 pm VE /VJ Day Flower Festival and Coffee Morning in All Saints’ by Landbeach Flower Arrangers & Coffee Morning Teams Saturday 17th May 10:00 am – 2:00 pm Garage Sale Saturday 17th May Gig and Concert by the St John’s Band: 1:30 pm Practice for those wishing to take part 3:30 pm Concert; All Welcome Sunday 18th May* 11:30 am All Saints’ Annual Parochial Church Meeting (i.e. AGM of the PCC) Sunday 29th June 11:45 am – 12:20 pm Choral Concert by St Augustine’s Singers Saturday 12th July 2:00 – 4:00 pm Garden Party and Bell Ringers’ Open Day Saturday 20th Sept. 6:30 – 10:00 pm Family Harvest Festival Dinner and Barn Dance (in Village Hall) Saturday 11th Oct. 7:00 – 8:30 pm (tbc) Concert by Accorde Chamber Choir Saturday 25th Oct. 7:00 – 9:00 pm Pudding, (Savoury) Pie, & Quiz Evening Friday 28th Nov. 6:30 – 9:30 pm Advent Gala Dinner Saturday 29th Nov. and 10:00 am - 5:30 pm Christmas Tree Festival Sunday 30th Nov. 11:30 am – 5:30 pm Christmas Tree Festival concludes Events marked with an asterisk are not FOALs events, but should be of interest to FOALs members, and are included as a courtesy to their organisers.
Head over to the Friends of All Saints' YouTube channel to view a recording of the Bells Concert and Blessing Service:https://www.youtube.com/@FOALSLandbeachFeaturing the St Augustine’s Singers:Sopranos – Audrey Caldwell, Mo Wah Chan, Amanda Eisenthal, Vincci Lau, Roisin Owens Contraltos – Sue Maratos Gray, Emma Higginbotham, Caroline Mead, Nicola Owen, Rachel Thomas Tenors – Tim Brading, Karl Sanderson Basses – Alan Franklin, Richard Hoadley, Tim Luffingham, Jasper Newbold Flute: Caroline Mead | Piano Philip: Mead | Organ: Mo Wah Chan St Augustine’s Singers is an auditioned chamber choir formed in September 2016. It is sponsored by St Augustine’s Church, Richmond Rd, Cambridge, and rehearses there every other Sunday 5.30pm–7pm and Thursday evenings 8.15pm–9.30pm. Anyone interested in auditioning for the choir should contact Philip Mead on 01223 357431 or at meadpj@hotmail.comAnyone interested in ringing church bells should contact Tower Captain Barbara Le Gallez on 07885 904827 or blegallez@yahoo.co.uk
A small but beautiful Grade 1- Listed parish church on the edge of Cambridge has this weekend produced a new set of bell-sounds to ring out across the Fen Edge. Over £70,00 needed to be raised to have two new bells cast, one to honour the King’s Coronation last year, one to celebrate the Landbeach Community itself. Its 500 year-old tenor bell, meanwhile, had a refit: the result is a perfectly-tuned peal of six bells which increases the sound-pattern range from 24 sequences to 720! Church and community felt honoured that Deputy Lords Lieutenant Edward Beckett, Baron Grimthorpe, and Christopher Walkinshaw, were able to attend the two commemorative events of the weekend, as well as David Way, High Sheriff of Cambridgeshire. Amongst other civic dignitaries attending was Professor Christopher Kelly, Master of Corpus Christi College in Cambridge; the college has had the patronage of All Saints’ Landbeach, since the 1350s, and a famous former Archbishop of Canterbury, Matthew Parker, was Rector there in Tudor times. Tower Captain Barbara Le Gallez feels that the Beach Bellringers of Landbeach and Waterbeach owe much to the enthusiasm of former generations in handing on the ‘Intangible Heritage’ [UNESCO term] of Method Ringing tower and hand-bells in mathematical sequences. The new team and bells welcome new ringers! Please contact Barbara on blegallez@yahoo.co.uk if you are interested. Acting Bishop of Ely, the Rt Revd Dr Dagmar Winter, ceremonially accepted the bell-ropes from Andrew Nicholson (whose foundry in Bridport was responsible for the new engineering). Bishop Dagmar then dedicated and blessed the bells as a symbol of open welcome to all who wish to join the life of church and community at Landbeach – and the new peri-urban developments beyond it. Like a flourishing grapevine, she hoped that sounds and service would branch out to the community. Unique and new sounds were heard within the church itself in a composition, ‘Landbeach Bells’ by Philip Mead: a chorale by the visiting St Augustine’s Singers cued an additional accompaniment by the newly-augmented peal of six bells, in harmony! The sound was relayed, with clarity, into the building by AVxpert’s special technology. The Coronation and Community bells were cast by the Eijsbouts Royal Foundry at Asten in the Netherlands, so made a double journey, firstly to Bridport, Dorset, for fine-tuning with the original Tenor bells which was at Nicholson Engineering for maintenance and a new headstock. Although this bell is dated at around 1520 it is possible that its origin may have been in Norfolk, two centuries earlier. Professional advice has been needed in order to install new ringing-mechanisms in the church tower: Volunteers willing to rig metal frames, thread ropes and shift half-tons of bronze have nevertheless been essential to the project. Whilst there is debate as to whether Bell-ringing is an Art, a Sport or a Technology, without doubt, everyone in Landbeach agrees that the bells old and new affirm community spirit and welcome! As evidence of that, the church itself provides a Warm Hub, Community Cupboard and Wednesday lunch-club as well space and time for quiet spiritual practice during the week. What isn’t certain is what the sometimes-resident bats think about all of this, or the swifts who tend to return to their designated nesting-boxes in the church tower. Up until now, the wildlife have always been welcome in church and churchyard – happily unaffected by the resonant bells which ring out again across the Fen Edge. Everyone hopes that the birds, like the bells, will continue to thrive for generations to come.
