St Botolph’s Millennium

Prize winning entries from the Millennium Poetry Writing Competition, 2020

As part of the Millennium celebrations for St Botolph’s Church, a Poetry Writing Competition was launched, organised by Maggie Hartley. This was open to all ages and the theme was linked to the church’s ancient door, which is believed to be the oldest working door in the country.

Doors can often be seen as an opening into a different world, a move from one era to another, passing from the present to the future or the present to the past. They can be a symbol of a barrier that may need to be overcome- ‘one door closes another opens’.

Four villagers kindly volunteered to be on the judging panel and they received anonymised copies of the poems that were submitted. It was a close call but the overall winner was Doors written by James A Mufty. Three other poems were highly commended and all four of these entrants received a prize.

The poems are now published and we hope you enjoy reading them.

Millennium Poetry – the podcast poems in writing

Millennium Poetry – the podcast poems in writing

Thirty three classic poems and play extracts were selected by Maggie Hartley for a special reading weekend at St Botolph’s Church during Millennium year. Because of Covid restrictions, the readings had to be cancelled but instead many were recorded in a sound podcast by Parish residents. This post presents the 17 recorded poems in their written form. The companion podcast can be found on the St Botolph’s Millennium website page.
Produced by Maggie Hartley and licenced under CC-BY-NC: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ “

War Records – the stories behind our WW1 war memorial, by Roger Mance

War Records – the stories behind our WW1 war memorial, by Roger Mance

Read this fascinating research by Roger Mance into the background stories and family history of 18 men who gave their lives in the Great War, 1914-1918 AD. The names of the 18 are to be found on the village war memorial in the south transept of St Botolph’s Church, Hadstock. All were born in Hadstock or had families with a close association to our village. Roger’s account was created as a tribute to the memory, courage and sacrifice of these men and produced as part of the 2020 Millennium celebrations for the Church.

Hadstock Histories – Episode 1

Hadstock Histories – Episode 1

This is the first of three podcasts in which young Hadstock residents reflect on their experience of living in a small rural village and learn about previous village life from interviews with four long-time residents. The podcasts are narrated by Dylan Abbiss and Tabby Hannam, who carried out the interviews along with Freddie Doel. Transcribing was by Poppy and Lil Woods, scripts by Lil Woods and the series produced by Saul Woods.

Parish Boundary Walk, May 2021

Parish Boundary Walk, May 2021

On Rogation Sunday, May 23rd 2021, and organised and led by Gill Butterworth, a group of Hadstock residents ‘beat the bounds’ and walked 7.5 miles round the Parish boundary as part of the 1020-2020 Millennium celebrations. Starting on Linton Road near the zoo, the group walked anticlockwise, had a lunch break in Nunn Wood, and finished in the Grip at Linton.

Millennium Poetry – a podcast of 17 poems read by local people

This is the sound podcast of the reading of 17 poems by village residents to celebrate 1000 years in the life of a village. Selected by Maggie Hartley, they were recorded by Saul Woods in June 2021. A companion post on the St Botolph’s Millennium web page presents the 17 poems in their written form and lists all the 27 poems originally selected by Maggie for a special weekend of readings in St Botolph’s Church. The readings had to cancelled due to Covid restrictions.

1020-2020 Millennium Service and Sermon, 18th October 2020

The Revd Paula Griffiths, Priest at Hadstock, led the service and gave the sermon on 18th October 2020 to celebrate the Millennium of the consecration of St Botolph’s Church. Due to restrictions caused by the prevailing Covid 19 pandemic, the congregation was limited to 30, each person spaced 2 metres apart, except for family groups. Singing was not possible.
St Botolph’s church is thought by many experts to be the minster built by King Cnut to commemorate all the dead on both sides of the Battle of Assandun in 1016 fought between the English and the Danes.

Prize winning entries from the Millennium Poetry Writing Competition, 2020

As part of the Millennium celebrations for St Botolph’s Church, a Poetry Writing Competition was launched, organised by Maggie Hartley. This was open to all ages and the theme was linked to the church’s ancient door, which is believed to be the oldest working door in the country.

Doors can often be seen as an opening into a different world, a move from one era to another, passing from the present to the future or the present to the past. They can be a symbol of a barrier that may need to be overcome- ‘one door closes another opens’.

Four villagers kindly volunteered to be on the judging panel and they received anonymised copies of the poems that were submitted. It was a close call but the overall winner was Doors written by James A Mufty. Three other poems were highly commended and all four of these entrants received a prize.

The poems are now published and we hope you enjoy reading them.

War Records – The stories behind our WW1 war memorial, by Roger Mance

War Records – The stories behind our WW1 war memorial, by Roger Mance

Read this fascinating research by Roger Mance into the background stories and family history of 18 men who gave their lives in the Great War, 1914-1918 AD. The names of the 18 are to be found on the village war memorial in the south transept of St Botolph’s Church, Hadstock. All were born in Hadstock or had families with a close association to our village. Roger’s account was created as a tribute to the memory, courage and sacrifice of these men and produced as part of the 2020 Millennium celebrations for the Church.