Well done Wangford
When Wangford puts it's heart & soul into something we can do miracles.
What a great weekend, the variety show sold out on Saturday, a steady flow of people into the Church to view the art & crafts all weekend. On Sunday lots of children walking around the village on the trail of clues & looking at the historic plaques along with some us oldies. In the evening there was a wonderful turnout for the Haydn's Creation Concert. (Sadly there was no cricket match as there were not enough players)
Bank Holiday Monday, wonderful weather, great holiday spirit, magnificent
turn out. All the stalls did great trade & the Carriage Tours were busy all day.
I can not thank the people of Wangford enough from the people on the committees
to the people who helped here and there and not forgetting all those lovely folk who put their hands in their pockets to make it all worthwhile and make it weekend to remember....................... THANK YOU ALL.
Rod. (Chairman Wangford 850 Committee)
When all bills were paid and all the money was counted the total for the
Church Roof Fund was £6,500 raised in just one weekend.
To be added to that sum are the profits from the Harvest Supper donated by the P.P.C.
another £601 making a grand total of £7,101 for the Church Roof Fund.
The planting of a commemorative tree and plaque in Millfields
to mark 850 years as village
took place on November 29th. At 2.30 pm. Refreshments were made available in the Community Centre after the short ceremony.
For Pictures of the 850 Pageant
Lots of people have asked about the carriages so to find out more
Why Wangford 850?
850 years from what?
Although there has been people living in this place for many thousands of years and Wangford is indeed mentioned in the Doomsday Book, Wangford as a place gained in both size and importance once the Clunic monks set up a priory here. As part of the priory they built the first wooden church in Wangford in 1159. So 1159 until 2009 gives us the Wangford 850 Celebrations.
It gives us all a chance not only to celebrate our present day community but also to celebrate (and possibly learn about) the history of this wonderful village where we live.
As you can imagine over the last 850 years there have been many changes.
Back in 1159 Wangford was moving from being a small Anglo-Saxon hamlet to a thriving village. The monks from the Priory would have acted as scribes, teachers and treated the ailments of the community around them. Most of the villagers would have worked for the Lord of the Manor on the land, doing things such as milling corn, black smithing, tile making, brick making and thatching. Crafts were generally handed down from father to son.
As the village of Wangford was situated on the road to London traders started coming to the village and eventually started setting up shops. At this time Wangford might have had as many as 100 people living and working in the village. It is thought the first public (or ale) house was built in the late 15th Century and would have been owned by the Earl and run by tenants. As time went by the Angel became a coaching house, then a post house, and is still serving hungry and thirsty travellers and villagers to this day.
Wangford had its heyday in the Victorian era. It was full of shops, had two mills, a blacksmiths, farrier and wheelwright, a skinner and tanner, harness maker, timber yard and post office with a sorting office. The Wangford post office served Reydon, Southwold and the surrounding villages as well. (What a change from today!)
The centre of village life would have been the Church and the pub. Feast days were great events and the whole village would turn out to celebrate. Everybody would have known each other and if anyone needed help it would have been up to others in the village to provide whatever assistance was required.
This ‘Spirit of Wangford’ can be seen in many aspects of village life, the building of the reading rooms, the WI hut, the playground and the Community Centre. It can be seen as well in those who turn out to organise and help run events such as the Wangford festivals, the nativity plays and all the volunteers who help out, year in year out, at the Henham Steam Rally.
The whole village became involved and help to celebrate ‘850 years of Wangford’. The main events where on the August bank holiday weekend 29th. 30th. And 31st. August. There was something for everyone and of course as we already know ‘Wangford’s Got Talent’ and it showed
Not everybody gets to celebrate a 850th Birthday
We did and how!