St Peter’s Church was buzzing on the weekend of 26th-28th June 2009, as we celebrated our annual Summer Festival. This year it took place on the same weekend as St Peter’s Day.
The theme was “Braunstone Through the Ages”, a look at the history of Braunstone (including St Peter’s Church) in the context of world history. The planning group – Brian and Janet Scott, Martin Burch and Chris Florance, mounted a time-line along the church wall, with events from 1066 to the present day, and added pictures of world events and leaders (such as Queen Victoria) with pictures of life in Braunstone through the ages.
On the other side of the church were displays of photos and written material supplied by friends, or gleaned from the Records Office in Wigston. One whole section of photos and history came all the way from Canada – Bob Topley has traced his family back to farm workers in the former Old Hall Farm (now Herle Avenue, Braunstone).
The Festival was opened on the Friday evening by Tim Stevens, Bishop of Leicester. Guests at the party included neighbouring clergy, the Town Mayor of Braunstone Town (Councillor David Widdowson) and Friends of St Peter’s.
Guests at the opening party
Looking at one of the displays of local history
On the Saturday, the quiet atmosphere in the church contrasted with the hum of activity in the hall, where young and old queued for home-made cakes, or bought raffle or bottle stall tickets. The “Friends of St Peter’s” stall included the newly-published history of St Peter’s Church, revised and updated by Brian Scott.
The home-made cake stall
Soon it was lunch-time, and the tables inside and outside the church became popular.
St Peter’s cafe
Waiting for lunch in the open-air cafe
In the afternoon a recorder group came and entertained us, recruited by Janet Scott who is one of its members.
The recorder group about to play
Meanwhile, the children enjoyed “Hook-a-duck”, or just chatted to each other.
Caitlin, Toni and Jemima – and some ducks
On the Sunday we celebrated St Peter’s Day, and Brian Scott and the group had prepared a presentation about the life of St Peter, as it relates to our own lives. We discovered that most of us have travelled further than Peter ever did in his lifetime, that we come from all over the world (not only Braunstone), and that Peter’s journey of making mistakes and being forgiven is as true for us today as it was for Peter back then.