On behalf of the St Martin’s Guild Committee thank you to all who helped with and came to the Fete on Bank Holiday Monday.
Particular thanks go to Mr and Mrs Georg von Opel who allowed us to use their fields and also hold Garden Tours.
The fete was formally opened by our MP, Kit Malthouse, who was very complimentary about the set-up and especially the East Woodhay Silver Band! The rain stayed away which encouraged lots of visitors who found plenty to do and see, especially in the Central Arena which this year offered a dog show, children’s races and Ray Prior’s wonderful Falconry demonstration. The provisional figures show that we made over £10,000 on the day and hopefully, including donations and after expenses are taken out the total should be over £13,000.
A huge thank you must go to Mat Reece and his colleagues at Malverleys who did a wonderful job in helping us set-up the Fete, as well as running the Garden Tours.
Thanks should also go to Chris Wilkes and Mel Akhurst, who once again arranged the most wonderful display of vintage cars, with full notes on each car as well as a ‘guess the number of balloons’ competition. Thanks to our site manager Graham Heald, to the gate keepers, James and Lucy d’Albuquerque and Hugh Cobbe; to the amazing WI tea ladies who had a record year selling more teas than ever before. Thanks also to Kate Mervyn-Jones, Julie Smith and volunteers from St Martin’s School who ran the toy tent, the Wheatmans and their beer tent, Anne Aston’s Granny’s Attic, Rhona Everard’s cake stall, Clive Sanders, the Camerons’ Tombola, Sarah Porter’s wonderful plant stall and Jenny Sanders and Lisa King’s amazing raffle, just to mention a few, as well as the many willing volunteers who put up the tents, manned the stalls and sideshows all afternoon, put it all away at the end of the day and still had the energy to gather at the Furze Bush for a final celebration!
Thank you everyone.
Sarah Leventhorpe
