History of Shippon and the Church
FOREWORD
The information on this history of Shippon was constructed in 2005 to celebrate the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the consecration of the present church of St Mary Magdalene at Shippon.
This history combines much that has been written in the past century and a half and I am grateful for access to these histories and for the help and advice of present-day friends. I appreciate that the bulk relates to the past hundred or so years, for sixty of which the church was in the charge of Royal Air Force Chaplains. We have registers of baptisms, marriages and funerals from 1855, but the only records of the present church date from the mid nineteen-sixties.
Much of the information about Shippon between the eleventh and nineteenth centuries has been culled from books in the Centre for Oxfordshire Studies at the Central Library, Oxford, from the Berkshire an Oxfordshire Record Offices.
It is appreciated that coverage is patchy, but this is because material was only available at different times.
Readers will note that spelling differs in places, eg St Nicholas and St Nicolas and St Hellen and St Helen. This is because quotations were taken from contemporary documents of the time, using the spellings then in vogue. It is interesting that in the case of St Nicolas, the London Gazette notice in 1928, of the joining of Shippon and Abingdon, uses Nicholas!
Peter King
2005
ELEVENTH TO FIFTEENTH CENTURIES
The earliest mention there is of Shippon is around 1086 when it was mentioned in the Administrative Lists that formed part of the Domesday Book. Whilst mentioning Abingdon Abbey as the only landholder in the Hormer Hundred in the time of King Edward (the Confessor), it indicates there was a five-hide estate at Shippon held by Eadnoth the Staller. It goes on to say that since the Conquest in 1066, it had been given by Earl Hugh of Chester to Abingdon Abbey.
“Concerning Shippon
Next to the borough of Abingdon is a hamlet called Shippon. In King Edward’s time, a constable of his named Eadnoth held it from the abbey. Afterwards, Earl Hugh of Chester acquired the extent of this man’s lands. When he learnt that the aforesaid hamlet belonged to the abbey’s property, at Abbot Reginald’s urging and advised by his own barons, on 31 March in the third year of King William the younger’s reign [1070], the earl stood in the church’s sanctuary, with the whole convent of monks there watching, and offered to God and his Mother whatever it seemed he could have in that place. He placed a knife on the altar by hand, and by words expounded that this offering should remain strong for ever. Present there with the earl were Engenulf and William his nephews, and Godard de Boiauilla, with Engerard and many others.”
This appears to be the result of a letter written by Hugh:
“Hugh earl of Chester to Reginald, venerable abbot and his dear friend, greeting. I inform you that I have spoken with my wife and barons about the land which you sought of me, and I have found inn my council that I should grant it to God and to the holy church, the pastoral care of which is placed on you, on the following terms:
That you give me £30 of pennies from your money, and that I may be your brother, and my wife and father and mother be in your prayers, and in such a way that we all be written in the Book of Commemorations, and that, wherever we die, there be such a funeral for us as there might be for one of the brethren of the church.”
In 1248 Shippon featured twice in the Berkshire Eyre Rolls (a record of all cases tried in the courts, where a man was wounded by robbers and subsequently died; and another case concerning land which was said to be leased from William of Schypen.
“Unknown evilddoers wounded Ricardo le Plummer near Shippon grange so that he died within a fortnight later. Ricardo le Punter was with Ricardo le Plummer when he was wounded and he was not attached, so to judgement on Roger de Widewere the steward of the abbot of Abingdon and on the coroner.”
“Walter son of Thomas of Abingdon claims against the abbot of Abingdon 7 ½ acres of land ad ¼ of 1 hide of meadow in Abingdon which master Roger of Buscot held from Thomas, Walter’s father whose heir he is, and which should revert to Walter as his escheat because Roger was a bastard and died without a direct heir.
The abbot comes by his attorney and denies this right. He says master Roger did not hold the land and meadow from Thomas on the day he died, but from a certain William of Schypen by a charter which the abbot proffers of William’s feoffment and which attests this. Because Walter is underage and cannot put himself on any inquest which can adjure him until he comes of age, it is adjudged that the abbot is without day until his coming of age.”
In 1272 Richard, Abbot of Abingdon, wrote a letter which suggests a chapel already existed at Shippon.
When churches were granted to the abbey and the convent it was agreed to separate shares and yields between the abbot and the convent. ...They further order and decree that the convent shall have in perpetuity...all tithes of sheaves and hay belonging or temporarily belonging to the abbot and the convent in the chapels of Radleia, Scupene and Samford lying near the said church of St Helen.”
In 1294 Richard de Shippon was one of the leaders of a riot in Abingdon which disrupted the St Edmund’s Fair. Later Richard seems to have prospered and in 1319, a one of the knights of the shire, became a member of parliament. However, he had not entirely given up his evil ways and in 1327 took a leading part in a break-in of Abingdon Abbey that lasted a fortnight.
The Victoria County History of Berkshire mention as papal confirmation made in 1401, which: “is of interest as showing with exactness the churches and chapel then within the control of that ancient foundation’ [Abingdon Abbey]. This shows St Helen’s Abingdon with the chapels of Drayton, Radley, Dry Sandford and Shippon.
One of the last acts in November 1411, of John Lye (Rector of St Nicholas from 1393 to circa 1400), was to direct his executors (John Chitterne and William Rouden, both clerks) that they should grant
“three messuages and aa carucate of land in Abingdon, Shippon, Sandford and Woton of the value of 40 shillings per annum to the Abbey and convent, to find a chaplain to celebrate divine service in the chapel of St Edmund of Abingdon for the soul of John Lye and his Ancestors.”
SIXTEENTH TOP EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES
According to the Victoria County History, amongst the cultivating classes in the sixteenth century, customary tenants were still by far the most numerous; the accounts of Shippon and four other parishes all show this. They also show that Shippon is included in places listed as ‘having a curate’ or ‘ought to have a curate’ since it’s a ‘chapel of ease’.
In 1538, following the dissolution of the monasteries, Ock Mill, which had served the Abbey, and which was
‘just without the town of Abingdon’
was listed in the crown accounts together with the hamlet of Shippon. Almost immediately afterwards the manor of Shippon and the mill were given by Henry VIII to the Duchy of Cornwall.
The following year John Asshenden of Shippon bequeathed in his will, dated 3rd October 1539: ” ½ a quarter [14lbs or just over 6kgs] of barley to St Nicholas’, St Helen’s, Sunningwell and his native Shippon.”
These bequests suggest that Church Ales were kept at the above places.
It is at this time that the first mention is made of Stowford as part of the Manor of Shippon and in Preston’s ‘St Nicholas’, we read that:
‘Thomas Tesdale of Fitzharris was in 1547 holding land within it’.
A survey of Abingdon for tithes due to the church made on 11 May 1553, included a survey of the manor of Shippon and showed that it appeared to be almost completely open with little enclose of land.
In 1595, property at Cholswell, leased by the Fettiplace family from the crown, was transferred to the Noke family. Reference to this was made more than two hundred years later in a subsequent transfer of the lease from the same property.
Following the execution of Charles 1, a survey of 1650 of the manor (now in parliamentary hands) mentions 71/2 yardlands (about 150 acres) of open arable land lying dispersed in the common fields of Shippon and Abingdon.
In a ‘Survey of Church Livings under the Commonwealth’ we read:
“April 23rd, 1655 – Hormer Hundred: Abingdon hath two churches within the said township, Saint Helen’s and Saint Nicholas. St Helens is a vicarage in the gift of the Lord Protectors, containing ... Shippon is a small vicarage but £3 yearly half a mile distant from the said town...”
[‘Vicarage’ means a church with a vicar]
On April 29, 1658, a jury reported that the Church of St Helen’s was insufficient for the people of Abingdon with four country villages of Shippon, Sandford, Northcourt and Barton, though the Commissioners reported that the parishes were best united.
It seems possible that the use of the chapel at Shippon may have stopped sometime around the end of the Civil War, when there was much unrest in churches. However, it appears that churchwardens were still appointed and the originals of their presentments between 1665 and 1749, made at the Visitation each April of the Archdeacon of Berkshire, are in the Berkshire County Record Office, Reading.
In the first, made on 30 April 1665, the wardens, John Hawkins and John Hutt write:
‘We the aforesaid have in our Chapel only a bible and common prayer book and all things else is wanting.’
Four years later on 23 April 1669, John North and Robert Gowering say: ‘We present that our Chapel I not made use of and that we have not had any prayer her for many years, but the inhabitants of Shippon do go to St Helen’s Parish church to have divine service and preaching when there is any.’
Nonetheless the wardens continued to watch the parishioners because they continue:
‘Robf Horatio Shaw & Sarah his wife and Sarah the wife of John Whyatt for not coming to church to hear divine service and communion at Easter’.
In 1673 it is reported ‘...We have had no divine service nor preaching in our chapel for a space of twenty years and upwards’.
In the 1705 presentment, the writing is not particularly legible but contains the words
‘...repair...the work is still carrying but not finished’.
It is possible some repairs may have been done since the presentment for 18 May 1713 reads:
‘is in very good repair for the use that is made of it’.
About this time printed forms began to be used for presentments and for the next twenty years or so most of the forms contain the words:
‘We present all things in good order’.
But in 1749, the wardens, Robert Coster and William Salisbury,
Seem to have stated the truth:
‘We present that our chapel to be out of repair. So that it is not fit for the worship of Almighty God.’
[William Salisbury was possibly an ancestor of Albert Salisbury who died in 1940 and bequeathed £500 to the church (the Salisbury Trust)]
While disagreeing with earlier statements, this last presentment agrees with a comment by Browne Willis in his ‘Parochial Anglicanum’ in 1733 that:
‘the ruins at Shippon were still visible’.
It is uncertain exactly where these ruins were located but it is thought that they were possibly just behind the black painted thatched barn that lies on the north side of Barrow Road, almost opposite the old vicarage. This area may have also contained the village green.
The seventeenth and eighteenth centuries saw the beginning of the enclose of former common land. That which had been enclosed at Cholswell (the modern Cholswell Court) was held by the Franklin family and in 1770, the lease was transferred by John Franklin, yeoman of Cholswell, (the executor of the late Elizabeth Franklin), to Robert Bunce. On his death in 1790, probate was granted to his daughter Ann Bunce, who subsequently married Thomas Aldworth in 1796. Was he a descendant of John Aldworth, mentioned in the Chapel of Wardens’ accounts for 1466? Robert Bunce’s name was commemorated by Bunce’s farm on the 1875 map.
In a further assignment (transfer) of the lease in 1826 from a Thomas West, executor of the late Francis Bunce to another Thomas Aldworth, reference is made when describing the property as:
‘...at one time in an indenture of lease dated 13th March in the 37th year of the reign of Queen Elizabeth [1595] by Fettiplace to Noke.”
THE NINETEENTH CENTURY
The nineteenth century, after the Battle of Waterloo, was a period of church revival when many new churches were built. Following an act of parliament in 1817, a crown commission was appointed to look into the needs of the country. One finding was that some hamlets, who inhabitants had till then walked to the nearest town for worship, merited separate churches.
It was agreed that new churches were necessary at Shippon and at Dry Sandford and the erection of these new churches began towards the end of 1853. A that time Shippon, according to the census of 1851, had 111adults and 103 children. The of Cornwall on behalf of the then Prince of Wales (later manor of S still belonged to the Crown and was administered by the Duchy Edward VII). The land on which the new church was built was leased by the Duchy to John Stacey who farmed some 461 acres of land from Manor Farm. He was an enthusiastic supporter of the plan for a new church and agreed to convey the lease for that land to the Church Commissioners.
The first work at Shippon was the construction of a surrounding wall in 1854 (the stone with the date is still there!), and the church soon began to take shape. It was in the fourteenth century decorated style, built to the designs of Sir Gilbert Scott (1811 – 1878). This eminent architect produced
‘an early, well proportioned, serviceable and unpretentious work in his usual middle-pointed style’.
The Bishop of Oxford, Samuel Wilberforce, consecrated the church on Wednesday 12 December 1855. A cutting from Jackson’s Oxford Journal estimated that no less than five to six hundred people were present, and that the collection raised £100.
Shippon continued as part of the parish of St Helen’s for some ten years, under the Vicar, the Revd Nathaniel Dodson and for most of that time was served by the Revd Dr William Alder Strange DD, the first Boden Sanskrit scholar at Oxford and also headmaster of the Grammar School (Roysses or Abingdon school), whose tomb is at the east end of the churchyard.
Meanwhile other wheels had been turning to re-organise the parishes within the diocese so that both Shippon and Dry Sandford would be considered separate parishes from Abingdon, though they would share a single vicar for whom a new vicarage was to be built at Shippon.
The new vicarage was built in 1866, and the Revd James Hodges became vicar the following year. He died I about 1874 and a memorial stained-glass window was placed in the church.
This is mentioned by the Abingdon and Reading Herald in October 1875:
“On Sunday last the Harvest Thanksgiving was observed at Shippon. The church was prettily decorated with fruits, flowers and vegetables, as well a corn of different kinds. On the walls were appropriate texts and banners, the work of the ladies who had kindly undertaken the decoration. The churchwarden, Mr H.P. Peyman, Miss Peyman and the ladies at the vicarage were the chief workers. The chancel screen, font and pulpit were also tastefully ornamented. A memorial window, too, has been put into the memory of the late vicar, the Rev. James Hodges, and of his wife, which added to the beauty and attraction of the occasion. The services throughout the day were hearty and joyous. The offertory amounted to £3.13s.”
[It is thought this was the window in the south wall, directly opposite the main doors, and most of it was destroyed in 1941 when the church was damaged by nearby enemy action]
In 1872, a plan was drawn by the churchyard by one of the churchwardens, H.P. Peyton, together with William Stacey (a former churchwarden). It can be seen that there was no vestry then and this was built six years later for a total of £125.
[The original plan was found in a store-room at Dalton Barracks in 2003 and is now displayed in the church hall. The original builder’s quotation for the vestry is in the Oxfordshire Record Office.]
Henry Childs was vicar until 1889 and was succeeded by Henry McCreery. Soon after his arrival photographs were taken of the church. On thee the vestry may be clearly seen. Also visible is a chimney protruding through the south slope of the roof and it seems there was a large stove inside the church.
[We still have the faded originals, as well as copies, re-photographed in 1976.]
THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
Henry McCreery died in 1910 and two years later John Kirby was appointed vicar. He had previously been at Sandford St Martin and we have the original fire insurance policy which he held there dated 1904, endorsed in 1912 for Shippon vicarage with three renewal receipts, the last dated October 1932. The sum insured was £225 and the premium, payable each Michaelmas, was 5s 3d a year!.
In common with most parishes, Shippon lost several of its young men in the first world war. Immediately after the war their names were shown on a wooden plaque, still in the church, but a year or so later the war memorial was erected inside the gateway.
The first world war marked the end of an era and during the twenties the numbers attending church declined, nationwide. It seemed no longer practical for Shippon and Dry Sandford to continue with a shared vicar and an order in council, published in the London Gazette for 2 April 1926 authorised the benefice of Shippon to be united with the already united benefices of St Helen and St Nicholas. The incumbent of the new united benefice would live at Abingdon and a curate would be appointed, to live at Shippon. A separate order of the same date authorised the benefice of Dry Sandford to be united with that of Bessels Leigh, mentioning that the eventual incumbent would reside in the ‘parsonage house’ at Bessels Leigh.
The new arrangement would take effect whenever one of the posts became vacant and in our case this appears to have been in 1934 when John Kirby retired and Robert McKeown who had been vicar of Abingdon for some years, became also vicar of Shippon.
Throughout this time of change Tom Austin served as churchwarden. He had settled in Shippon after serving in the Berkshire Regiment and for some years in the Camel Corps of the Sudan Defence Force. Following his death a stained-glass window was erected to commemorate his forty-one years of service to the church.
THE ROYAL AIR FORCE AT SHIPPON
Apart. From the changes in church, Shippon was to experience a great physical change as, towards the end of the twenties, the government began seeking sites for new aerodromes for the Royal Air Force. Such a site was identified on the flat field lying to the north of the main Faringdon road, which then ran from Shippon to Gozzards Ford and onto Tubney and Faringdon (a milestone still stands ner the junction with Cholswell Road and another near the Black Horse at Gozzards Ford). Soon buildings began springing up near Williams’ Farm at Cholswell and 1932 the road from Shippon to Dry Sandford was close, the area fenced and opened as Royal Air Force Station, Abingdon.
Later the main road was also closed as the airfield extended, and a new road was constructed from the west end of Barrow Road to Gozzards Ford (it is still possible to detect the joins in the underlying concrete strips when driving on it!). A number of houses were built as married quarters, all then within the camp boundary with officer in the present day Sycamore Close and airmen in two crescents of houses that were demolished in the seventies.
At that time it was usual for most AF stations to have several chaplains and there would be churches within te camp. Here within a short time the C of E chaplains began assisting with the running of St Mary Magdalene. It is known the church was being used by RAF families in 1936 when a chair, now in the north side of the sanctuary, was presented by a Flight Sergeant and Mrs Robbins.
With the outbreak of the second world war in 1939 many more servicemen came to RAF Abingdon and at the same time aircraft were parked in the fields around the airfield where they could be camouflaged in an attempt to prevent enemy attacks. One such ‘dispersal’ was the field to the south of the old vicarage and church and a number of single story huts were quickly erected from blocks, rendered with cement.
In early 1941 a bomb was dropped, possibly somewhere in the area of this dispersal site. Certainly it was close by because the church sustained damage and wad closed for several months. It is thought that part of the damage included the memorial window that had been installed in 1874 to the former vicar, James Hodges. The Marriage Register records six weddings held at St Helen’s, each with a note
‘This marriage was solemnised in St Helen’s Abingdon, as Shippon Church is unusable owing to enemy action (4 George vi ch 76 #13)’.
THE SALISBURY AND THE JAMES BEQUESTS
In 1940 the church was left a legacy in the will of Albert Salisbury who was probably a descendant of Thomas and Drusilla who are listed in the 1851 census and of William Salisbury, the 1749 warden
‘...I give the following pecuniary legacies viz: - ...To the Vicar and Churchwardens of the Parish or Hamlet of Shippon near Abingdon the sum of five hundred pounds upon trust to be invested by them in Government or Colonial trust securities and the income of the fund (which is to be known as “The Albert Salisbury Trust”) applied in their absolute discretion in half yearly payments for the benefit of poor and aged persons of such Parish...”
A record of the bequest was kept in a small blue notebook by Tom Austin between 9 December 1940 and 19 December 1960 when entries cease and recommence from December 1971 to 1974. All these details were transcribed by Padre Malcolm Jones in 1975 into a large ledger and continued until 1 January 1980. The trust continues to appear in each year’s church accounts.
A memorial window to Albert Salisbury was subsequently placed in the north wall, probably some years later.
In 1978 the church received a further bequest, of £2,000 to be used for its upkeep, from the will of William James who had at one time worked as s civil servant at RAF Abingdon.
THE CHURCH BUILDING
In 1964 a new stained-glass window was installed to commemorate the links between the RAF and the village.
In the left window is the Sower, scattering his grain, representing the village and in the right St Michael with his sword, his wings emblazoned with red, white and blue RAF roundels. The top light contains the crest of RAF Abingdon. A brass plate is inscribed:
‘Presented by the People of Shippon and RAF Abingdon as s symbol of the bond of fellowship between them.’
Also that year the church roof was entirely replaced for about £2,6000, an appreciable sum at that time.
By 1970 the pipe organ was showing signs of its age and difficulty was experienced in getting it repaired. The RAF made an offer of an electronic organ at no cost to the church, and after some correspondence with the diocesan organ adviser (who thought ‘modern’ organs an abomination), one was eventually installed at the front of the nave, immediately adjacent to the lectern.
In 1972 it was suggested that the old pipe organ be removed from the archway that lead to the vestry to the rear of the church and that the space be filled by a wooden screen, the church paying only for the materials. This resulted in a larger vestry. The old organ was disposed of a year or so later.
By 1990 the electronic organ had become unreliable, despite several repairs and, after some correspondence a replacement was provided. Also a decision was taken to replace the thirty-year-old overhead heaters, at a cost of £3,500.
THE VICARAGE AND THE NEW CHURCH HALL
The former vicarage which remained church property appears to have been rented to Radley College for some time and the Headmaster, Alfred K Boyd, lived there in 1939. There is some recollection that it was then used as an RAF hospital before becoming vacant at the end of the war. The main building eventually sold in 1953 to Joan and Jack Savage.
Adjacent to the vicarage was Church room or hall with a door onto Barrow Road and another into the vicarage garden. This was also joined to the former coach-house. It continued to be in use by the church even after the vicarage building was old off thought it began to deteriorate and from 1964 onward mention was often made to its state. It was thought possible that Arnold Binning, the then owner of the field behind the church, may donate the building there for church use but the idea was shelved.
Some years later the owners of the vicarage made enquiries about purchasing the church room and for several years this was looked into while it was established exactly who owned it. Eventually it was sold in 1984 when they converted it, together with the old coach-house into a separate dwelling for themselves, following which the main vicarage was sold to the Whitmarsh family.
A new RAF chaplain, Padre Mike Roemmele arrived in May 1985 and was somewhat dismayed to discover there was no church hall in which Sunday School children could be taught. The need for was of such importance that he even considered asking the landlord of the local pub, the Prince of Wales, for the use of his lounge on Sunday mornings!
Within a few weeks, a portakabin was found on the RAF station, available for £1,000! In August a Church Fete was held and the necessary cash was raised. By November it was installed in a corner of the churchyard and the Sunday School, which had grown to over a dozen and had met in the RAF Families Centre, at last had somewhere to meet, adjacent to the church so that they could join in the end of services.
Thoughts turned once more to the building behind the church, overgrown with ivy. On closer inspection the sub-structure was found to be sound and of a pattern found in many such buildings hastily erected during the second world war. Negotiations were soon under way with Arnold Binning, who subsequently agreed to rent it to the church for a peppercorn rent.
In April 1987 a planning application was made to re-furbish the building for use as a Sunday School Hall and Committee Room for the benefit of the parish. Permission was given and two months later the first meeting was convened of the Shippon Parish Hall Committee, compromising church members and members of the Shippon Residents Association. A draft constitution was agreed, the project was advertised in the Summer Parish Newsletter and volunteer were requested to help each week. Soon fund-rising was begun, assisted by a grant from the Vale of White Horse District Council.
Through-out the summer a loyal band of volunteer workers began work under the direction Gordon Measurers, then as churchwarden. In October it was learned that Padre Mike and his wife Adrienne were to leave us the following month. Soon we welcomed Padre John Morley and his wife Kathie and two teenage children, Nicholas and Frances. He quickly showed his support for the project and took over a Chairman of the Hall Committee.
In the New Year things really began to move with external doors, a kitchenette with a counter, a carpeted floor and a quantity of used but good quality chairs and coffee tables.
There had been soe concern about the lack of car-parking spaces but Arnold Binning came to the rescue by offering the land between the west wall of the churchyard and the old vicarage garden, retaining access to his field by a trackway across the centre. It was overgrown at the edges and took soe time to clear but was worth the effort.
A hedge was planted within the boundary fence and the task was just about complete. A derelict shed had been converted into a very pleasant and acceptable hall and was finally opened and dedicated 24 April 1988.
Subsequently the project was entre for the Oxfordshire Village Ventures Competition for 1988-89, and received a commendation.
[A copy of the submission made for the competition is in a folder, available for inspection].
THE ARMY, NON-STIPENDIARY MINISTERS AND THE FUTURE
At the end of July 1992 the Royal Air Force left Abingdon after sixty years. Eight weeks earlier it became known that the RAF station would be taken over the army. Two regiments of the Royal Logistic Corps would move here from Germany and the base would be re-named Dalton Barracks (after a holder of the Victoria Cross, won in the late nineteenth century).
Links with the army were soon established and it was agreed that they would support the church as much as possible.
Meanwhile a non-stipendiary curate, the Revd Michael Sams was appointed to take responsibility for the day to day running of the parish. He worked closely with the army chaplains, acting as an officiating chaplain when they were on duty overseas.
On his retirement in 1999, Shippon became the first parish in the archdeaconry to have two married NSMs licensed as joint curates-in-charge. They continued to build up relationship with the army chaplains, while beginning co-operation with the parishes of St Peter’s, Wootton and St Helen’s, Dry Sandford.
The day-to-day life of the church continues to flourish. The churchyard is tended very Thursday evening during the summer and is a credit to the village. A lively Luncheon Club meets every six weeks and new members are always welcome. Occasional coffee mornings are also held in the hall. Two main fund-raising events are held each year and have included Fetes, A Victorian Street Fayre. Flower Festival, Book Fairs and Quizzes. Mother and Toddler Groups have been held when the need arose.
Services are varied with a Parish Communion at 10.30 am most Sundays, except for the fourth in each month when there is a book of Common Prayer Communion at 09.30 with a Family Service at 10.30. When there is a fifth Sunday there may be an informal evening Communion in the hall. One Palm Sunday saw a processions through the village with a donkey! Both Remembrance Sunday and Battle of Britain Sunday are marked with parade services attended by contingents from either the army or the Air Training Corps.
[Since this history was written there has been a change to services. These can be found
On the notice board in the churchyard].
The congregation at St Mary Magdalene’s now looks to the future with confidence, commitment and a well-maintained church building.
VICARS, CURATES AND SERVICE CHAPLAINS FROM 1855
