The Church Fête 2009

St Mary's Whaddon Church Fête

Saturday 18th July 2009

Our Vicar, Donald McFadyen, wrote an introduction to the programme for this year's fête, entitled "What holds Whaddon together?". It is well worth reading on its own, and has thus been placed on its own separate page.

After a very wet Friday the organisers of the church fête were relieved to see Saturday dawn a bright, breezy day, with the fine weather lasting right through to the evening. In spite of the wet day on Friday the ground was so dry that all the rain quickly soaked away, helped by the strong breeze.

The gentle art of croquet

Ploughman's lunch in the church...

or outside under the trees

The Rt Rev Dr David Thomson, Bishop of Huntingdon,
arrives to open the fête

Hannah presents a bouquet to the Bishop's wife

The usual ploughman’s lunch in the church gave villagers a chance to meet and chat before the fête was formally opened at 2:00pm by the Rt Rev Dr David Thomson, Bishop of Huntingdon. The PCC took the opportunity to present Clare Byatt with a sketch of the village in recognition of her 23 years of work as PCC secretary and to publicly wish Clare and Martin all the best in their move to Huntingdonshire.

The Bishop Opening the Fête

Donald McFadyen presents Clare Byatt with a picture in recognition of her 23 years service to the PCC

Clare with her picture of Whaddon

Waiting for the dog show

The Dog Show

The fete included the usual range of stalls and events, together with teas in the church, while this year the Dog Show was judged by John Houlton and the Produce Show by Brenda Standen of Hillview Farm Shop. The afternoon concluded with a virtuoso performance by Neil Gallery as auctioneer, selling off the produce. Overall the fete raised £2,700 for the church, funds which will be much needed in helping to address a crack identified in the tower during the course of last autumn's quinquenial inspection.

Neil Gallery's tour de force as auctioneer

Bowling for a prize

The target shooting