East Farndon celebrated in style for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee and the Organising Committee would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who attended and to everyone who helped to organise such memorable events.
Our multiple village events were very well attended and included: Beacons and Beverages on Thursday evening; Coffee Morning and Exhibition on Friday; a large afternoon and evening Family Festival on Saturday; and a Church Service on Sunday.
Every child in East Farndon had the opportunity to attend the special Jubilee Picnic Lunch and has received a commemorative Jubilee book token and water bottle. In addition, many thanks to all of our local sponsors who made multiple donations – we could not have achieved this without you.
On this page you can read more details about how East Farndon celebrated and browse photos of these special events. If you have questions, please email Mervyn Curtis or Caroline Burton.
Photos
Many thanks to everyone who have sent in their Jubilee Celebrations photos and allowed us to publish them. Extra special thanks to Felix Wilson for being our talented roving photographer and allowing us to pubish a large number of his excellent photos. This website has lower definition images and so if you would like a full definition copy, please email Mervyn Curtis.
Jubilee Beacons & Beverages Event
On Thursday evening, two of our local farmers, Nigel Haynes & Richard West, kindly lit beacons to open the celebrations. Richard invited Villagers to gather at Wheathill Farm, at the top of the hill, to get a panoramic view of all of the beacons in the area. Everyone enjoyed coming together at this informal event, with Beacons being lit across the UK at 9.45pm.
Click this link to view more photos of the Beacons & Beverages Event.
Jubilee Coffee Morning & Exhibition Event
On Friday morning, a Jubilee Coffee Morning was held in the Village Hall. This included a special historical display, created by Alan Langley, Judy Hodgetts and Russell Burton, that featured past Royal Celebrations in the Village and details of 200 years of Parish Council (and its predecessors) Village support.
Click this link to view more photos of the Coffee Morning & Exhibition Event.
The Exhibition content is available to view on this website by clicking the links below:
https://eastfarndon.org/platinum-jubilee-exhibition-royal-celebrations/
https://eastfarndon.org/platinum-jubilee-exhibition-parish-council-support
Jubilee Family Festival Event
On Saturday, everyone enjoyed a fantastic afternoon and evening of family friendly fun, located on the field owned by Nigel Haynes, at the bottom of the hill, on the junction of Main Street and The Lealand. The event included a Jubilee Fete from 1pm to 5pm and a Music Festival from 5pm to 10pm.
Jubilee Fete
The traditional Village Fete with a Jubilee theme, opened with a special Jubilee Children’s Picnic Lunch, including pass the parcel, royal themed crafting activities, biscuit decorating, and entertainment from Mr. Custard our local clown and magician.
We were treated to a wide range of tasty offerings at the main refreshment stalls, including tea, cake, soft drinks, Everard’s Brewery Jubilee Ale, Pimm’s and a BBQ. Other stalls included, Jute Coffee, Welland Valley Vineyard wine tasting, an Ice Cream Bike specially made by John & Aaron, a Tombola, a pre-loved shop, a plant stall and royal face painting.
There were also lots of fun games to play including, Booze or Boos, Wellington Wanging, Sovereign Slipper Skimming, Goalie Kick Out, Princess Ping Pong, Bat the Royal Rat, Royal Bag Face, Guard Skittles, Sovereign Speed Run, and Guess the number of Balloons in the Tractor.
There were 226 balloons in the tractor and Philip Cowan won the prize with the closest guess of 222.
Winners of the longest throw for Wellington Wanging were, Polly B (U10), Alfie Nourish (11-16) and Duncan Wheatley (17+). Winners for the Sovereign Slipper Skimming were, Alex Wheatley (U10) and Charlie Aston (11-16).
The Market Harborough Army Cadets attended and performed an excellent drill display, with their salute taken by Richard Everard, OBE DL, former Vice Lord Lieutenant of Leicestershire. All present then gave a hearty rendition of the National Anthem.
Throughout the afternoon, Cameron did a great job announcing and keeping everyone up to date with what was happening in his own legendary style.
The Jubilee Raffle was a major success with lots of amazing prizes including a Match Day Experience at Leicester City, a Light Aircraft Trip, Tickets for Romesh Ranganathan, Tickets for Russell Kane, a £100 Joules Voucher and a long list of others. A full list of Raffle prizes, with links to the websites of the businesses that kindly donated, can be accessed from the link below,
Click this link to view more photos of the Jubilee Fete Event.
Jubilee Music Festival
A wide range of local talent took part in an exciting evening of live music. This included the Farndon House Band, with Bernie Fallon on drums, Russell Burton on bass guitar & vocals, Marc Winfield on guitar and Adam Bugla, special guest guitarist from the Clipston All Stars.
A number of local perfomers braved the stage including, the Market Harborough Core Dance Group, Polly Burton, Oli Burton, and the Farndonaires, (Laurel, Jess, Judy, Sharon, Sam and Kate). The music event was headlined by the Stereosonics, an exciting local Stereophonics Tribute Act. Bernie Fallon took overall responsibility for the sound, ably assisted by Joe Hyde.
Click this link to view more photos of the Jubilee Music Festival.
Jubilee Competition – Best Decorated Village House
The Village looked great as a large number of residents took part in the competition for the Jubilee best decorated house. It was a keenly fought and close competition, judged by Lynn and David Deacon. Congratulations to the winner, Twin Elms, decorated by Sam and Neil Beesley.
Click this link to see more photos of the Best Decorated Village House Competition.
Jubilee Competition – Best Home-Made Crown
A number of local residents created some special home-made crowns. They were judged by Sheila Fox. The winner in the adult category was Sam Beesley, with Kitty O’Connor winning the child category.
Children’s Jubilee Book Token & Commemorative Water Bottle
The Trustees of East Farndon United Charities have kindly given each child in East Farndon a book token to commemorate the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. In addition, each child has received a special Jubilee Water Bottle, donated by Andy Cleary.
Jubilee Church Service
On Sunday evening, to round off the village celebrations, a special Jubilee service was held at the East Farndon church. This was held in celebration of the Queen’s 70 years of service to the nation. It was a very enjoyable, family oriented service, with patriotic hymns and readings to fit the occassion.
East Farndon Jubilee Circular Walks
The Parish of East Farndon is very fortunate to have a wealth of rights-of-way, providing both locals and visitors a fantastic opportunity to explore the surrounding countryside. Alan Langley, our resident Footpath Warden and historian, with support from Caroline Burton, our Parish Clerk, and Andy Cleary our resident design expert, has put together a special collection of three walks around East Farndon to celebrate the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.
A small number of printed walks booklets were made available at the Coffee morning event. You can click the link below to open a new page that contains details of these walks, including a leaflet that you can download to take with you as you enjoy the countryside around East Farndon.
https://eastfarndon.org/east-farndon-jubilee-circular-walks
Money Raised – Thank You!
The events produced proceeds of £4,738.87 that have been distributed in line with the Jubilee Committee Constitution as follows:
£1,542.87 to the East Farndon Parochial Church Council, the proceeds to be used for repairs to East Farndon Church.
£848.00 to the East Farndon Amenity Land Trust (Marriott Green).
£848.00 to the Market Harborough Jubilee Foodbank.
£1,400.00 to the East Farndon War Memorial maintenance & improvement fund to create an ongoing Jubilee physical legacy. Monies held by the Parish Council.
£100.00 to the Market Harborough Army Cadets.
Jubilee Organising Committee
A huge thank you to the Organising Committee, Caroline Burton (co-chair), Mervyn Curtis (co-chair), Sam Beesley, Russell Burton, Bernie Fallon, Paul Hodgetts, Tom Knott, Elaine Pepler, Julia Prew, and Jo Shaw, for giving their time and skills to organise and deliver such memorable events.
Events such as these require lots of support and donations. A huge thank you to the wide range of people and organisations that contributed.
View the Thank You speech given by Mervyn, during the Music Festival, by clicking this link.
View the Committee Constitution by clicking this link.
Queen’s Green Canopy Tree Planting
On Remembrance Sunday, November 13th 2022, East Farndon completed it’s Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations with the planting of a tree on Marriott Green.
Villagers gathered together to attend the ceremony, part of the Queen’s Green Canopy initiative. East Farndon decided to plant the tree to celebrate the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee year and also to pay tribute to Her Majesty the Queen following her sad passing in September.
Many thanks to Richard Everard OBE DL, who planted the tree on behalf of the village. Also many thanks to Judy Hodgetts, JessIca Oakden, the Jubilee Committee, the Parish Council and the Marriott Green team for their support in making this happen.
Judy and Jessica, our resident tree wardens, chose an English native tree, a crab apple (malus) called Comtesse de Paris with white blossom and yellow fruit.
On the sad passing of the Queen, a number of residents placed flowers under the Beech Tree near Marriott Green. These were collected and composted so that they could be included with the soil used to plant our Jubilee tree.
Celebrating East Farndon Booklets
A big thank you to everyone who has purchased one of our Celebrating East Farndon booklets. The 100 copies of the one off limited edition booklet have all been sold (June 2023) and the funds raised distributed. The Jubilee Committee agreed to distribute £695 to the War Memorial Renovation Fund, £100 to the Foodbank, £100 to the Church and £100 to Marriott Green.
The sale of the booklets completes the excellent work of the Jubilee Committee which was formed to organise our very special Queen’s Jubilee events in 2022.
Huge thanks to our Jubilee Booklet production team, Neil Beesley (design), Judy Hodgetts, Alan Langley, Russell Burton, Mervyn Curtis (content editors), Caroline Burton (sales & keeping us on track), Bernie Fallon (printing), together with the generous support of Trio Offset Ltd.