Christmas Tree Festival at Coleshill Parish Church

I haven't really had much to blog about recently. We went to a Concert of Festive Music and Carols at Middleton Hall and to see Jack and the Beanstalk at the Core Theatre, Solihull, but I didn't take a camera to either event. Yesterday, however, D and I went to a Christmas Tree Festival and I did take a camera along.

Coleshill is a market town in North Warwickshire and the church of St Peter and St Paul is built on the highest point of the town and the spire can be seen for many miles from the surrounding countryside. The oldest part of the present church may date from 1380 but there is documentary evidence of a place of Christian worship on the site in 1280. There may well have been a a minister church from 799 which could have been built on a site of pre-Christian religious significance.

Some of you may remember that last year we went to St Leonard's Church in Marston Green to see a 28 foot woollen Christmas Tree decorated with thousands of toys and 7000 knitted leaves and it was a surprise to see it here at Coleshill Parish Church. So much work must have gone into creating the tree and apparently it takes days to put together. Next year I think it is going to put in an appearance at another local church at Castle Bromwich.

Elsewhere in the church there were around 30 decorated real Christmas Trees.

Timothy came too and here he is posing in front of my favourite tree.

The Norman font is believed to date from the mid to late 12th century. It is carved from Caen stone with an arcade of arched sections around the sides.

The central panel depicts the Crucifixion with Christ and on one side his mother Mary and on the other St John the Evangelist who is wiping a tear from his eye. Other figures may include St Peter, St Paul and St Mary of Magdalene together with a clerical figure. It is reputed that the font was plastered over during the Civil War of 1642-51 to hide the precious stones that then surrounded the Crucifixion scene. The images on the font were re-discovered in 1859 by the Reverend J D Wingfield-Digby.

I've done a detailed post on this church in the past so just a few other images from around the church.



Monument to John Digby (died 1558) and his wife Anne. When John died he left his eldest son a standing cup of silver and gilt, a gilt spoon, a signet ring, a gold chain, a basin and ewer, £100, all his armour and weapons and the majority of his estate although he also provided for his younger children.

Monument to Reginald Digby, son of Simon and father of John mentioned above. Reginald died in 1548 and in his will left 20 shillings to the "poore men's" coffer of the church.

Stained glass in the Chancel is 19th century.

Time for cake - mine was Ginger Cake and very tasty it was too.

Timothy loved the tree with the knitted toys - it was hard persuading him to leave!

War Memorial

All the photos were taken with my new camera a Panasonic Lumix FZ330 (a joint Birthday and Christmas Present from B, D and E). Apart from a few snow pictures last weekend it was the first time I had really used it and so far I am really pleased with it - it performs much better in low light than my Olympus dslr and, being a bridge camera has a super zoom and a macro facility all in one lens. So I think I am going to have a lot of fun experimenting with it.


If you would like to see the previous post on St Peter and St Paul please see here

Food and Craft Fayre, Looking for Hawfinches and Recent Reading

There was a Christmas Food and Craft Fayre at Middleton Hall last weekend so on Sunday morning we popped along to have a look.

The Hall and grounds had been decorated for Christmas.

As you can see it was very busy there and there was a good range of stalls - I did make a couple of small purchases for Christmas :)

Before leaving we walked over to the Courtyard where there are several independent little shops including a Cheese and Ale Barn which sells the most delicious cheeses.

Timothy came too - you will notice I have knitted a brightly coloured scarf to keep him warm. It didn't match his jumper so I knitted him a new one!

Part of the courtyard had a lovely section with Christmas decorations including lots of "fairy garden" type items.

Some of you may know that there has been an influx of Hawfinches into the country. This is yet another of my "bogey" birds - the nearest I have ever come to seeing one was many years ago at RSPB Nagshead when we walked into a hide overlooking a pool only to be greeted with those dreaded words " You should have been here five minutes ago there was a Hawfinch drinking in the pond"! I'd spotted on a local bird blog that a couple of Hawfinches had been feeding in yew trees in Berkswell churchyard the day before. Berkswell is not far away so on Sunday afternoon I went along to see if I could see any - it seemed too good an opportunity to miss.


St John the Baptist Berkswell

The birds had been spotted in these yew trees near the church. I stood in the freezing cold for an hour and managed to "dip" yet again on this species although it was good to watch dozens of Blackbirds and Redwings feeding on the berries along with a few Fieldfare, Mistle and Song Thrush so it wasn't a wasted journey.

Just a few photos of the church as I have done so many posts on St John's in the past.

Back at home and, despite the cold weather, calendula and cosmos are still flowering.

B over-watered my Christmas Cactus in the summer and it really did look on its last legs - he pruned it right back and it seems to have recovered well as it is now covered in blooms as is the cyclamen.

A few books read recently......


I loved this book and, although it is a bit long, I couldn't put it down. If you love nature and were born in the 1950's I think you would particularly enjoy it - I laughed out loud so many times when reading this book.

Sadly, I have now read all the Vera Stanhope books in this series. I loved every one of them and hope it isn't too long before Ann Cleeves brings out another.