THE LEVERSTOCK GREEN CHRONICLE
an in-depth history of one village in Hertfordshire UK.
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This page was last updated: April 15, 2016
Photograph by Barbara Chapman
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Many of those attending gave high praise to both the displays and the slideshow and complimented those who had worked hard to set the whole thing up. As mentioned by Beverley on Page 1 there was a great deal of publicity prior to the event, including an item in the free local paper, posters and a great deal of coverage on Facebook.
I personally received comments from many local residents, friends and members of the Hemel Hempstead Local History & Museum Society who had been unable to attend but hoped it might be re-staged at some time in the future. Sadly this is unlikely to happen, and it was this fact which prompted me to create these web-pages so that many more could enjoy the costumes and other items.
Amongst those attending were a variety of VIPs including our Member of Parliament Mike Penning, and the current Mayor and Mayoress of Hemel Hempstead, Gbola Adeleke and his wife. Barbara Chapman
Mike Penning MP greets Maureen Bellett (above Left),Revd. Lizzie Hood & Lee-Anne Visagee (above right)on Friday 12th March.
Below centre Mike converses with Churhwarden Mike Hawtin. Photographs by Barbara Le Tallec.
I don't think anyone really expected the number of visitors who actually came to see the Festival.
Friday was the quietest day, but nevertheless saw 105 paying visitors and 5 children (free) come though the doors. Numbers were much higher on the Saturday and Sunday, with 294 adults and 25 children on Saturday and 144 adults and 28 children on Sunday. This meant that in total 543 paying visitors came and on top of that were the stewards,members of the Festival Committee and other members of the congregation who were helping on different days.
Each day there were 7 floating stewards from the Festival Committee and a rota of 4 sets of 3 stewards.
Sunday February 14th - St. Valentine's Day - (L) Churchwarden Beverley Burgess welcomes Gbola Adeleke, Mayor of Dacorum and his wife at the church door prior to the Service of Thanksgiving for Marriage. (R) The Vicar and Churchwarden Mike Hawtin welcome the Mayor and Mayoress once inside the church. Photographs by Barbara Le Talec.
BELOW: Photographs showing selections of the visitors enjoying the displays, taken by Barbara Chapman (BAC - on the Friday) and Barbara le Tallec (BLT -throughout the festival)
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Madge Field standing next to her wedding dress.
L-R Jean Saunders, Barbara Chapman & Madge Field
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Photo by Martin Chapman
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Gill Redman admiring the Regency Silver Tissue & white silk costume - the oldest on display.
Sarah Keisa and Pat Driver
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Rosemary Knight, Holy Trinity's Choir Leader and Organist visited on the Friday and stayed to give us a wonderful recital of typical Church Wedding Music.
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BELOW: Many local residents and Members of Holy Trinity's congregation had a great deal of enjoyment out of trying to work out who of their friends and acquaintances were depicted on the board in the Trinity Room showing the wedding photos of those of us from Holy Trinity who had married elsewhere. Mike Hawtin put the whole thing together, and for some reason put Martin & my photo right in the centre!
ABOVE RIGHT: Newly-weds Barbara & Martin Chapman, 7 April 1979 in the grounds of Oatlands Park Hotel, Weybridge where their reception was held.
We were married at St. Paul's Church Addlestone in Surrey.(ABOVE LEFT)
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Stewards Martin Chapman and Tim Bourn.
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As part of the wedding festival, it was decided to make full use of the new computer and screen acquired by the church to display a selection of photographs depicting weddings which had taken place at Holy Trinity since the 19th century. Churchwarden Mike Hawtin compiled a Power Point presentation made up of a mixture of the photographs which I had collected over the years and already depicted on my website (see yellow logo above right), recently acquired photographs from past and present residents after a Facebook appeal, and a general appeal to the current congregation, many of whose children had married at Holy Trinity, together with those current members who had also married at Holy Trinity.
Mike put these together in chronological order, together with interspersed "Thanks" to the numerous sponsors of the Festival, and the slide-show ran on a continuous loop throughout opening time. The screen, as you can see below) being high enough not to interfere with those walking around, and the pews being available for those who wished to sit down and watch the whole presentation.
Altogether over 120 wedding photos were on display in this fashion. Since that date I have obtained even more such photos, and will in time add them to the "Weddings at Holy Trinity" page, together with press-reports etc.
Below I have extracted the wedding slides from the slide-show and have posted them here in galleries with a few larger images interspersed. To view the pictures in the galleries,start at the top left of each new page's gallery and make a single click on the small gallery image. A larger sized picture will then pop up and you can select the right arrow to move along each gallery to its end.
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SCROLL DOWN THE PAGE BELOW TO VIEW ALL RELATED ARTICLES AVAILABLE , THEN CLICK TO VIEW. Please view @ 100% to ensure items don't overlap visually.
Gallery 1: 1896-1946
Gallery 2: 1950-1983
Gallery 3: 1986-1996
Gallery 4:2000-2006
Gallery 5: 2006-2012
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Click on the logo to see the final page on the Wedding Festival including: Maureen Bellett's talk, Wedding Flowers,
The Service of Thanksgiving for Marriage & "Tea,Toasts & Wedding Cakes "
If you have any further wedding photos taken at Holy Trinity at any time from 1850 to the present, please do contact me so that they too can be added to teh Church and Village Archive. Thank you Barbara Chapman
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RIGHT: Maureen Bellett displaying the Regency (1810) gown at St. Mary's Church Redbourn many years ago.
