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St Swithin’s is essentially a village
church and is particularly pretty as the venue for a traditional
family wedding. Having said that, they don’t occur very often but
perhaps that is just a sign of the times!
As many as 120 people have been fitted
into the body of the church, which of course now has a loo for those
who have travelled some way to the celebration, and when the roses
are out round the entrance to the church it is a lovely backdrop for
photographs.
We have been collecting such photos as a
pictorial record of our couples starting off their lives together.
We were unable to trace any photographs before 1945, and the first
one in the Wedding Album (Volume One) was of the wedding of Stanley
Haigh to Barbara Ivory in June 1945, followed in July that year by
Francis Haigh to Joan Biggs. Interestingly, the last picture in
Volume One was taken in May 1997, of Richard Kingston to Sarah
Langford, the granddaughter of Stanley and Barbara.
With the new millennium Volume Two was
started. Only eight weddings so far, but each very special,
particularly when the flower arrangements reflect the nature of the
venue, the country church, and the two bells, dated 1275, are rung
to announce the completion of the ceremony, thus continuing the 750
year tradition of the English Wedding.
The most recent wedding celebrated in
Thorley was that of Mark Dyer and Laura Barsdell on 6th
September 2014. This was really special as Mark is the local
Chimney Sweep and has “Weddings attended” painted on his van in
keeping with the old thought that a sweep in attendance would bring
luck to the couple. Mark gathered his friends for
the occasion, made sure that his brushes |
