The concert will include children from Cawston Primary Academy, Sing for All (a community choir from Weston Longville), David Shippey on the organ, and Joss Cooper and Sophie Van de Louw, accompanied by Andrew Mildinhall.

Tickets are £5 for adults (children free) and are available online, at All Things Nice, 9 High Street, Cawston, and on the door, which opens at 6.30 pm. Look out for posters and flyers with more information.

The concert forms part of Cawston Music Festival, which is taking place in the village throughout June.

If anyone is interested in singing with the choir, more information can be found on the website or contact the secretary, Naomi Horrocks, by email.

Established in 2021, Cawston Community Choir meets at 7.30 pm on Tuesday evenings in Cawston Parish Church, singing a wide variety of music from musicals, pop and folk songs to more classical pieces.

See our earlier story:

• Inaugural Cawston Music Festival to be held in June

The post Community choir summer concert appeared first on REEPHAM LIFE.

Parish Church of St Agnes, Cawston. Photo: Andrew Whitehead

Concerts in St Agnes’ church by Cawston Band, Cawston Community Choir and Pot of Gold Shanty Crew will provide the backbone of the festival, and as well as concerts there will be singalong sessions, special church services, workshops, a disco and a musically themed quiz night.

With its glorious acoustic qualities, the village’s medieval church will host a number of events and there will also be gatherings at Cawston Village Hall and the Bell Inn.

Cawston’s vicar, Revd. Andrew Whitehead, said: “Since the difficult times of Covid-19, when live music ground to a halt, we’ve been working hard in Cawston to bring back live music to the village.

“We’ve built a community choir from nothing and our friends at Cawston Primary Academy have been busy bringing back a culture of singing in the school.

“This new music festival is the culmination of several years of effort and we hope it will bring joy to audiences this summer.”

Headline performers at the month-long festival include Cawston Band, one of Norfolk’s oldest and most high-profile brass bands. It was formed in 1886 as the Cawston & District Silver Prize Band, when its first rehearsal room was based above the Bell Inn, which remained the band’s home until the 1960s.

In 1998 the band moved to the St Faiths Centre in Horsham St Faith, which has remained the band’s rehearsal room to the present day.

The festival will also welcome the Pot of Gold Shanty Crew: a group of 11 musicians and friends now in their ninth year of sprinkling shanty magic over audiences from Land’s End to the East Coast and points in between.

The Cawston Community Choir, which started after the Covid lockdowns as a way to encourage the return of singing in the community, will also be performing as part of the festival, bringing a mixed programme of music and a range of special guest performers.

The music festival is being co-ordinated by Cawston Parish Church, part of the Aylsham and District Team Ministry, and seeks to raise much needed funds for the groups and venues in the village that take part.

Full details of all the events and venues, along with links to buy tickets, can be found on the Cawston Music Festival website.

The post Inaugural Cawston Music Festival to be held in June appeared first on REEPHAM LIFE.

Over the past three years, the tradition has been reborn in Cawston by the local church, and on Sunday 5 January a procession of tractors, old and new, followed by more than 60 villagers, walked from Sygate to Cawston in the freezing rain.

Rather than singing and dancing in the inclement weather, the carols were reserved for the church where there was a short act of worship involving the horse-drawn plough that was once used in the fields around Cawston, and the Three Wise Men, who arrived at the church on the back of the vicar’s vintage tractor.

Rev. Andrew Whitehead, team vicar, said: “Plough Sunday is once again a firm fixture in Cawston’s Christmas calendar, and this year was the best yet, even in the rain.

“It was good to be part of the procession of tractors this year on my newly acquired, grey Fergie and a privilege to deliver the wise men to the church’s nativity scene.”

As well as drawing vintage tractor enthusiasts, the event also involved members of the local farming community. Prayers were said for those who work in agriculture, and the tractors and implements were blessed for their ongoing work to provide food.

Plough Sunday was, at one time, a major event in the towns and villages of East Anglia. On the first Sunday or Monday after Epiphany, a plough would be drawn through the streets accompanied by singing, dancing and drinking. The plough would be blessed as the agricultural community began a new season of ploughing and growing in the fields.

In medieval times, Cawston had a Plough Guild which met at the nearby Plough Inn in Sygate. On Plough Sunday or Monday, the guild would process the plough from Sygate into the village of Cawston with great ceremony and festivity, raising money for the guild and highlighting the importance of agriculture to the village community. They would also light candles and say prayers for a fruitful harvest in the year to come.

St Agnes in Cawston is one of many churches in Norfolk to house a horse-drawn plough – a reminder of the way we used to work the land. The church also contains other artefacts that tell the story of the traditions involving the plough.

When the Plough Inn closed in the 1960s, the pub sign was given to the church and is still proudly displayed above the plough.

The church also has a gallery dedicated to the Plough Guild, with an inscription carved on its edge:

God spede the plow and send us ale corn enow oor purpose for to make:
At crow of cok of the plowlete of Sygate:
Be mery and glade wat good ale yis work mad.

See our earlier story:

• Plough Sunday tradition revived in Cawston

The post Village ploughs on, in spite of the weather appeared first on REEPHAM LIFE.

Each concert will take place on the third Saturday of the month from April to September at 11 am following the regular jigsaw and book exchange, with drinks and cakes, which starts at 10 am.

The concert programme offers a variety of music from classical to folk music, songs from the musicals and some poetry, prose and verse:

• 20 April: Alexandra Sasha Bryant, a local teacher and performer, and her friends are coming together to share their talents. They include her group singing class, folk duo Laura Huston and Ben MacDiarmid, and a children’s band led by Amir Jamal.
• 18 May: Serendipity return after the success of their concert last year. Expect an eclectic mix of vocal music ranging from Renaissance polyphony to Abba, Schubert to the Beatles and lots in between – something for everyone.
• 15 June: Aeolus Winds is a wind quintet formed in 2021 from a group of like-minded friends.
• 20 July: Cawston Community Choir: everyone is welcome to join our choir where we sing a wide variety of music. Expect to hear us sing songs from the musicals, folk songs, sea shanties, popular songs and lots more.
• 17 August: Songs for Summer – Joss Cooper and Andrew Mildinhall, well-known Cawston-based musicians, will entertain with a wide range of songs in a variety of styles.
• 21 September: Verse & Worse – last year’s presentation of poetry, prose and music proved popular so a welcome return of something similar. Expect to be moved and amused in equal measure.

Contact Naomi Horrocks by email for more details.

The post Coffee morning concerts at Cawston church appeared first on REEPHAM LIFE.

Rev. Andrew Whitehead, Team Vicar for the Western Parishes of the Aylsham & District Team Ministry, blesses the ploughs’. Photo: Rebecca Whitehead

Once a major event in East Anglian towns and villages, the tradition involved ploughs being blessed and drawn through the streets, accompanied by singing, dancing and drinking. on the first Sunday or Monday after the Christian festival of Epiphany.

The practice fell in and out of fashion over the years, but in recent times there has been a revival of the rural tradition.

On Sunday 7 January a procession of horses, tractors and more than 50 villagers walked from Sygate to Cawston, singing carols as they walked though the village.

In medieval times, Cawston had a Plough Guild which met at the Plough Inn in Sygate.

On Plough Sunday or Monday, the guild would process the plough from Sygate into the village with great ceremony and festivity, raising money for the guild and highlighting the importance of agriculture to the village community.

The guild would also light candles and say prayers for a fruitful harvest in the year to come.

Team Vicar, Rev. Andrew Whitehead, said: “It’s been a real joy to revive the tradition of Plough Sunday in Cawston.

“It gives us a chance to remember and thank all of those people who work in the fields around us to provide our food, and it allows us to pray for them as they go about their important work.”

The church of St Agnes in Cawston is one of many in Norfolk to house a horse-drawn plough − a reminder of how farmers used to work the land – and contains other artefacts, including the pub sign from the Plough Inn, which closed in the 1960s, and a gallery dedicated to the Plough Guild.

Plough Sunday coincides with the church’s celebration of Epiphany − the time in the Nativity story when the wise men visited the infant Jesus.

Last weekend’s celebrations in Cawston blended the two traditions, with the wise men catching a lift in the cabs of the tractors. They were safely delivered to the church and installed in the Nativity scene.

The post Plough Sunday tradition revived in Cawston appeared first on REEPHAM LIFE.

The event was staged by the churches in Cawston and Matlaske and their respective deaneries, and it welcomed the Rt Revd Graham Usher, Bishop of Norwich, as a guest speaker alongside Professor of Theology Richard Bauckham.

The event attracted around 90 participants from local churches and across the world, with people joining from Finland and Vancouver, Canada.

The event aimed to draw attention to the church’s responsibility to be part of the wider environmental movement and it touched on the practical ways in which churches can make a difference, such as the Norfolk Wildlife Trust’s Churchyard Conservation Scheme and the national Eco Church movement.

The webinar was chaired by Team Vicar Revd Andrew Whitehead of Cawston, who said: “It was fantastic to have so many people join us for this debate, and our guest speakers were insightful and inspiring in the way they helped us through the issues.

“There was so much interest that we’ve made a recording of the webinar available on the Cawston Parish Church website and we’re already thinking about the next thing we might do.”

Bishop Graham added: “I welcomed the opportunity to join many others online for a really interesting conversation about our responsibilities as Christians to care for the environment.

“Creation is a gift from God and humans are part of a whole web of interconnectedness. To live well on this planet, and to enable others to live well, means that we must face the alarm calls with urgency and do all we can to reduce our carbon footprint and protect biodiversity.”

The event was held in the same week as the synod of the Diocese of Norwich overwhelmingly supported a motion declaring a biodiversity and climate emergency, which sets out a route towards a greener church.

The post Cawston church eco-debate draws global audience appeared first on REEPHAM LIFE.

In what has now become a village tradition, local residents took to the streets on Sunday 15 December wearing dressing gowns, improvised angel-wings and tea-towel headdresses as they re-enacted Mary and Joseph’s journey to Bethlehem.

This year, following an appeal in the local paper, villagers were joined by a pair of donkeys, Jack and Lulu, along with owner Karen Rust from Sculthorpe.

The event started at Cawston primary school, where everyone got into their costumes. As the story of the nativity was retold, the assembled cast wended their way to the village pub, the Bell Inn, where they found there was no room in the inn.

Fortunately, the landlady allowed the villagers in for refreshments. The event finished with carols in the church as the first nativity figures were place in the crib scene.

Team vicar Revd Andrew Whitehead said: “The walking nativity is now a firm fixture in Cawston’s Christmas calendar.

“It’s so much fun for everyone to get involved and even the adults seem to like dressing up. It’s great to take the story of Christmas out onto the streets.

“The addition of live donkeys this year was truly magical and we’re so grateful to Karen for bringing Jack and Lulu to be part of the day.

“I’m sure the donkeys helped to bring in even more people than ever to this year’s event, with over 70 people taking part.”

To find out more about Christmas events at Cawston Parish Church, please visit the Facebook page or contact Revd Andrew Whitehead on 01603 872236.

The post Donkeys star in Cawston’s walking nativity appeared first on REEPHAM LIFE.

Spokesperson Chris Monk of Cawston Parish Council said there are solutions that would significantly reduce the risks to health and disruption to the county’s communities, businesses and the countryside.

“These could readily be adopted by the government and wind farm developers if they take a long-term strategic approach rather than a short-term profit-driven one,” he said.

“Individual communities have their own specific issues, including huge buildings and structures disfiguring the landscape, many years of traffic disruption with severe road safety and public health implications, the loss of jobs as local businesses are forced to close and the impact on tourism.

“The cumulative effects across the region will impact the county of Norfolk as a whole. These projects are designated of national importance; the implications require a national solution rather than the piecemeal approach currently in train – a regional policy and strategy is required.

“We fully support the drive to renewable energy, but argue that the implementation needs to be – and could be – managed so that local communities are not damaged,” said Mr Monk.

Alternatives proposed by the parishes most affected, such as Cawston, Oulton and Necton, include an offshore ring main, which would connect all offshore wind farms to one coastal facility as it joins the National Grid.

This is arguably the best strategic solution, but would require government direction and the co-operation of National Grid and the wind farm developers to accept some rescheduling of work while it is set up.

Other suggestions are to reconsider current onshore cable route plans to avoid site traffic and materials distribution along unsuitable roads, and to review construction methods.

Mr Monk pointed out that much of the heavy lorry traffic will carry materials for a “running track” along the cable route. However, the parishes have found products that offer a pre-formed track, potentially reducing HGV numbers by a significant percentage.

And while the Hornsea Project Three development insists on most deliveries running into and out of a central construction site, the Norfolk Vanguard and Norfolk Boreas projects propose a rolling approach along their route, which means less disruption at key points.

See our earlier story:

• Offshore wind farm decision delayed six months

The post Alternative solutions proposed for wind farm developments appeared first on REEPHAM LIFE.

The Potterfest event has now taken place over the past three summers and is part of the 12 Towers Festival, which sees the parishes of the Aylsham & District Team Ministry hosting events throughout June, July and August.

After two successful events on the primary school playing fields, Team Vicar Rev. Andrew Whitehead felt it was time to bring the festival into the church building.

“When I took my family to the Warner Brothers Studio Tour earlier in the year, I reflected that the film-makers spent millions trying to recreate convincing medieval buildings, but we have an amazing example of medieval architecture right here in the village,” he said.

“As the event has always been run by the church community, it made sense to bring Potterfest into the church.”

Nearly 150 children and their associated adults spent the afternoon doing Harry Potter-related craft activities, and sampling butter beer or the delights of Honeydukes sweet shop.

Visitors also had the chance to get a professional photograph of their children, complete with Harry Potter props.

Rev. Whitehead said: “We’ve been bowled over by the enduring popularity of this event, and it’s great that we could host it in the church building, allowing first-time visitors a new way of seeing our heritage.

“Our organisers and young people did a fantastic job in planning and leading the day.

“The world of Harry Potter is so engaging for fans of all ages, and we’re delighted to be involved in helping imaginations to run wild.”

The post Harry Potter fans flock to Cawston church appeared first on REEPHAM LIFE.

There were 20 entries across five categories and the cakes were sold off at the end of the day, raising £190 for the school. The contest was judged by Emma Mould from the education department of the school’s catering provider, Chartwells.

The winner of the Showstopper challenge was a replica of Cawston Parish Church (pictured above), made from gingerbread, complete with “stained glass” and a gingerbread vicar.

The snow-covered church was created by two families, who joined forces to complete their grand design.

Josie Baker, who chairs Friends of Cawston Primary, said: “It was wonderful to see the whole school community support this event, either by making an entry or by joining us to have a cuppa and slice of cake after.

“We clearly have an amazing group of bakers at Cawston Primary and I cannot wait to see what next year brings.”

Team Vicar Andrew Whitehead added: “It was a fantastic event and I was so delighted to see the church used as inspiration for the winning showstopper.

“In fact we liked it so much that church members bought the gingerbread church so we could share it at our Walking Nativity on the following Sunday.”

On the morning of Sunday16 December, Cawston’s Walking Nativity saw a festive throng of villagers dressing up as characters from the nativity story (pictured below). As they walked through the village they joined in singing carols as they heard the famous story retold.

At the village’s pub, the Bell Inn, the budding actors were first told there was “no room in the inn”, before the innkeeper relented and invited them in for some Christmas hospitality, which included a piece of the gingerbread church.

The post Star bakers shine at Cawston primary school appeared first on REEPHAM LIFE.