THE FRIENDS OF ST MARY S CHESHAM NEWSLETTER NO. 36

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1 THE FRIENDS OF ST MARY S CHESHAM NEWSLETTER NO. 36 NOVEMBER

2 Officers and Committee 2016/2017 President Rev Simon Cansdale The following officers and committee members are standing for re-election again at the Annual General Meeting on Sunday 27 th November 2016 which is to be held at 4.45pm in the Church. Chairman and DCC nominated Member Mr Martin Paxton 16 Lindo Close Chesham HP5 2JP Secretary, Membership Sec DCC nominated Member Mr Tony Molesworth Staddlestones Barn Pednor Road Chesham HP5 2JU Treasurer Publicity DCC Nominated Member Mrs Avril Sherratt Homefield, Brays Close Hyde Heath. HP6 5RZ Dr Martin Graham Dr Nick Lewis Miss Sarah How Additional members Mrs Eileen Way Mr Richard Ogden There are still vacancies on the committee and nominations may be proposed and seconded by any member of the Friends of St Mary s. Nominations must be received in writing by the Secretary prior to the AGM and signed by the person nominated, the Proposer and Seconder. 2

3 Agenda Sunday 27th November at 4.45pm in the Church 1. Welcome 2. Apologies for absence 3. Minutes of previous AGM 4. Chairman's Report 5. Treasurer s Report 6. Appointment of Independent Examiner 7. Election of Officers and Committee members 8. Members suggestions & questions Following the meeting, you will then have the opportunity to attend at 6.00pm an Advent Service of Evening Prayer after which wine and mince pies will be served 3

4 Chairman s Report 2016 Dear Friends Another year has nearly flown by but during its speedy passage we have enjoyed some interesting events. The first of these was our Annual Organ Concert on 19 March, which was given by Christ Church Organist, Robert Foster, and was preceded by Supper. It was a really good evening and thanks are due to Eileen Way and her catering team for providing such a delicious Supper as well as, of course, to Robert for a super Organ Concert. On 23 April, 27 people spent a very interesting afternoon at St Albans Abbey. A fascinating tour was followed by tea for many taken in the Abbey Refectory then an excellent Choral Evensong. Following our annual 'keep fit' event the walking of the Parish Bounds (or part of it). On 7 May we held our annual Market Stall in the High Street on 8 June where everything sold out very well! My thanks to those who provided contributions and who helped on the day. We were delighted, on 9 July, to welcome back the trio 'In Voice and Verse' who performed a fascinating and uplifting concert of words and music to celebrate Her Majesty's 90th Birthday; the audience was spellbound!' On 11 September the Church was opened as part of the town's contribution to Heritage Open Days. The afternoon was significantly enhanced by combining with the Church's Open Day. We once again borrowed back the Parish Records from Aylesbury County Records Office and arranged Tours to the clock chamber and around the Church. We were very pleased to welcome back Clive Sullivan who provided tours around the churchyard and Garry Marshall who explained the Graffiti in the Church. We also arranged a 'Children's Trail'. Visitors were most appreciative and of the cream teas! My thanks to all those who worked so hard to make the afternoon so successful and enjoyable. Our final event was a Quiz on 8 October run by our Committee Member Richard Ogden, assisted by Sarah How with Fish & Chip Supper. A good time was had by all and some of us (well, me at least) left better educated! Thank you to all who have supported the Friends in many and varied ways this year. Firstly, to the Committee who have, as always, worked very hard to ensure the smooth running of the Friends and who have ensured all our activities were well organised. Particular thanks to Nita Summerfield who will be standing down from the Committee at the AGM. I would also like to record my sincere thanks to Eileen Way who will be standing down as our catering team leader at the AGM; we have all benefited from Eileen s conscientious and well-organised approach - as well as from some delicious meals. My thanks, also, to those who have provided practical support by offering to help in various ways and for being prepared to be called upon as and when required; it has been much appreciated. Finally thank you to you, our members, for your continued support this year; it is really appreciated. 4

5 There is, as always, an on going need to raise funds in order to be able to support projects. This year the Friends are contributing 5,000 towards the refurbishment of the Church Rooms. Plans for events next year are well in hand and details will be provided at the AGM - when we will also welcome further ideas for future events. Finally, a reminder about this year's Annual General Meeting. It will be held on Sunday 27 November at 4.45pm in St Mary's Church. This will be followed, at 6.00pm, by an Advent Service of Evening Prayer after which wine and mince pies will be served; I do hope you will be able to be there. Martin Paxton Treasurer s Report 2015/16 It s been another successful year for Friends of St Marys. This year we raised 5,909 and after deducting 2,244 expenses had a healthy surplus of 3,665. Subscriptions were more or less the same as last year at 1,235, the organ concert raised an impressive 614 and donations totalled 1,130, which included a bequest from the estate of Francis Locker of 1,000 for which we were very grateful. Miss Locker was a member of FOSM for many years and a keen supporter. Other fund raising events have included Beating the Bounds, Voice and Verse and the Market Stall in June and a trip to St Alban s Abbey. All went off well and helped swell our coffers. So at the end of September 2016 we have a healthy bank balance of 9720 with 2754 on deposit with the CAF bank and 6966 in HSBC Avril Sherratt 5

6 Membership Secretary s Report 2016 It is a pleasure to report yet another successful year for the Friends of St Mary s and our membership numbers have remained stable. We have 100 entries on the database covering some 145 individuals (146 in 2015). However it is an ongoing concern that we have few new members joining, especially younger members of the Church, nor have we attracted membership from outside our congregation. It is also encouraging that almost all our members have paid their subscriptions. There are 20 that have not been paid this year, several of these for known reasons. Subscriptions fall due on the first day of October each year and we draw this to your attention in this annual newsletter. As in 2015 the Treasurer will send out reminders in January to those who have not paid as it easy to overlook. It is much easier if you pay by standing order and please do not forget Gift Aid, a valuable source of extra income. Please let me know if there any changes in your contact details so that I can keep the database up to date. In particular most of you probably have an address now, a few of which I have no record of yet. Please send it to me at tony@molesworth.me. We are now using to over half our members for all regular communications to avoid the high postage costs. This includes sending the annual newsletter and AGM notice and also notifying you of events throughout the year. Finally I must refer to Heritage Open Day in September when St Mary s Church was opened by the Friends in conjunction with our own Church Open Day. The Chesham Society organises Heritage Open Day in Chesham every second year, as part of this national event. This year there were 21 venues open in Chesham and over 3,500 site visits, more than twice the previous record. It was encouraging that there were a lot of visitors to St Mary s and I do hope you had the opportunity to visit some of the other sites. Tony Molesworth Some information about St Mary s oldest Parish Registers The old registers of baptisms, marriages and deaths at St Mary s Church are now stored at the Centre for Bucks Studies in Aylesbury. The significant date in church registers is Thomas Cromwell had noticed the keeping of registers whilst living in the Low Countries in the late C15th and on becoming Henry VIII s Chief Minister he decided to introduce them in England an edict dated 5 September 1538 decreed that they should be kept, on penalty of a fine. There was early reluctance to start keeping registers there was suspicion that they might be a way of introducing additional taxation. (Possibly Cromwell did have thoughts on these lines, but it never happened!) Less than 800 registers start in 1538, but Chesham s begin on 10 October 1538 (baptism of Anne, daughter of John Chenney), only five weeks after the edict. Records were not made immediately events occurred, but were recorded periodically Cromwell s edict said they should be recorded every Sunday by the minister or clerk probably the only literate person in the parish with a churchwarden in attendance. (There must have been a danger of some inaccuracy creeping in if events of even the past week were not remembered properly they would not be written down until then, of course.) It became 6

7 the practice for the vicar to then publicly read out the entries that had been made, so that everyone knew what was being recorded. Copies of records had to be sent to the Bishop yearly. Not all have survived, but Chesham s, sent to Aylesbury, mostly have and are reasonably similar to the originals. Most early registers (pre 1597) are in fact transcriptions of the originals (as a result of an order that all existing records on paper were to be transferred to parchment). This is the case with Chesham s earliest records, transcribed in 1598 by William Sanders (or Saunders), Vicar of Chesham Leicester (and later also vicar of Chesham Woburn) from Once the old records had been transcribed the book continued in use, with most entries still by Saunders, and those from mostly by his successor, Richard Woodcock. This volume continued in use until 1637, when it was filled up. A notable feature is that records for the reign of Queen Mary I ( ) are entirely missing. There is no definite explanation, but almost certainly linked to the temporary return of England to Roman Catholicism in that period. Keeping of registers was presumably considered to be linked to the Reformation and thus was halted in this period Chesham is certainly not unique in having such a gap. The writing in these early records, though in English, is very difficult to read, and it is fortunate that in 1904 one J W Garrett-Pegge published a further transcription of the records which retains the eccentric, variable spelling of the era, but, being printed, makes them much easier to read. He also made some analysis and comments on the records, which must have taken a considerable time and are invaluable to a study of the records. Amongst the facts he highlights are OCCUPATIONS - most common shoemakers, followed by weavers and tailors. Also wheelwrights, turners and other woodware makers, millers, maltsters, tile makers, cutlers, smiths, carpenters, joiners. There are few apparent husbandmen (farmers) probably identified more by their place of residence. MOST FREQUENT NAMES Byrch (786 records), Weedon (668), Cocke, Ga(a)te, Dell, Gardner, Grover, Harding, Ware (343). (Most of these names still recognisable Cocke has become Cox, but Ga(a)te has disappeared.) ODD NAMES Raakestrawe, Watercaryer, Roughbeard, Sarvegood, Sweetsur, Horsnaile, Silfew, Silfo, Lochremas. There is much more to be gleaned, not only from this first volume, but also from the later ones. Perhaps we can look at some of these in another newsletter. There are even some surprising facts to be gleaned about the private life of Rev William Saunders! Richard Ogden 7

8 Friends of St Mary s Church Chesham Registered Charity No