I had a telephone call on a Monday afternoon recently from Mrs. Coles, who is the year 4 teacher at Turvey Lower School. ‘Can we come to church?’ she said ‘This week? It’s really the building we want to look at – what about Friday?’ ‘Well, I said, I’m not sure I can manage Friday, but come anyway.’

In the event, on a lovely, breezy, but quite warm morning I heard the noise outside in the churchyard as year 4, clutching clipboards and pencils, began their tour and I went out to join them. What a time we had! ‘How high is the tower?’ asked one boy - he might as well have asked me how to say ‘my penguin is swimming in the pool’ in Chinese – but quick thinking saved the day – and we measured the tower in ‘Jessicas’. Jessica knows she is 1m50 tall – so we did lots of estimation and a fair amount of mental arithmetic. We counted crosses – and talked about Celtic crosses and why they are different. We looked for the Saxon remains on the outside of the tower – then later for those in the nave. That led to a discussion of the fact that Turvey must have been quite important in Saxon times to have such a big church. Still outside and we discussed styles of architecture and the development of pointed arches. We did a bit of engineering as we discussed the purpose of buttresses – we had a long talk about the Mausoleum, about our fears of the dead – or not – and about whom might have been buried in the mass grave behind the Mausoleum. Was it a plague pit or the result of cholera? For our botany we avoided the cowslips!

Inside it was even more fun – lots of history obviously – social and political – and how well the children had learnt their lessons in school – we even got round to Henry and his wives and the manner of their deaths. We managed a bit of physics as we used the candle snuffers and remembered flames need oxygen to burn. (Or is that chemistry?) There was some theology – ‘Jesus is not buried anywhere – why?’ The children drew and recorded, learnt new words and worked out meanings of most of them. We looked and we talked and we shared ideas and thoughts – no question was too small and most were pretty big! I think we could all have gone on for longer – but our time just ran out.

I hope the children enjoyed it as much as I did; I came away feeling invigorated and happy to belong in such a special community. I should like to say thank you to the children – and especially to their parents and teachers for preparing them to be interesting, questioning and caring members of our society.

Yours in Christ

Jo

Each year we elect a new Parochial Church Council to ‘govern’ the church. It has been suggested that readers of this Newsletter might like to hear of some of our business.

Routine maintenance and care of the fabric is always important – especially with an ancient church like ours. This year we have updated the lighting in the chancel and continued with the cleaning and restoration of lead in the windows. Our next big project must be the South Aisle roof. Beetle damage can be seen just by looking up at the ceiling and we know the lead is in very poor condition. The Churchwardens are hoping to access an English Heritage grant, but in the current economic climate we will be competing with many other similar churches! FAST continues to raise money, for which we are grateful, but we shall need about £150, 000 to do the work.

The PCC has also been considering boundary changes to Deaneries in the local area and reporting back to the Diocesan and Deanery Synods. This is concerned with maintaining the most effective representation of ordained staff and lay ministers in our part of North Bedfordshire.

We have updated our Child Protection Policies and made sure that all who work with children and/or vulnerable adults have the correct CRB clearance. Polly Gough is our appointed Child Protection Officer - if you have any worries regarding the safety of children in church it is to the Priest in Charge or the Child Protection Officer to whom you should speak.

We receive a report on the financial state of the church each time we meet – our day to day running costs are frightening and we need to consider how to increase our regular income as opposed to funds for capital expenditure.

We monitor the suitability and effectiveness of our worship from time to time – does it meet the needs of our congregation and how can we reach out more effectively to others in our village?

This is a flavour of what we do – for more detail, or to discuss any of these issues, please contact me or one of the churchwardens

Jo Spray

Loving God, the birth of your Son Jesus Christ brought great joy to Mary and Joseph. We give thanks to you for everyone whose birthday we celebrate this month. May they ever grow in your faith, hope and love. We ask this in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen

11.00am Baptism of David Nichols Cook. David is the youngest of Adrian and Maria’s six children. He is a regular member of our church – and, I think, loved by all who know him! Maria has kindly asked the whole congregation to join the family for lunch in church after David’s baptism. If you know in advance you will be staying, please will you put your name on the list on the Tithe Table? But Maria hopes you ‘will just stay anyway’ – she does not want anyone to feel they cannot stay if they have not let her know in advance!

RSCM Festival in church. Combined Choirs, who are affiliated to the Royal School of Church Music (including members of our own choir), will be singing Choral Matins at 11.45am. Do come and hear them

TATS presents an evening of music in the gardens of Chantry House in aid of FAST.

Gates open at 6.00pm and the entertainment starts at 7.30pm – there will be songs from the shows, light music and one or two other surprises! There will be a marquee (for if the weather is not kind) and a bar – bring your own picnic! Tickets £8.00 – accompanied children free.

St Paul's, Bedford, visit Turvey. St Paul’s Church, Bedford are to visit Turvey and sing Choral Evensong. Sheila and Anthony Ormerod have kindly invited members of our congregation to join them, and our visitors from St Paul's, for tea in the garden at Chantry House from 4.00pm. Please will you sign the sheet at the back of church if you are able to accept this invitation?

Real difficulties can be overcome; it is only the imaginary ones that are unconquerable.

Theodore N. Vail

All children and their parents

Our schools and their teachers

Children in the developing world who have no chance to go to school.

The next coffee morning will be at 10:15am on Saturday 12th June, at 9 Carlton Road, Turvey, by kind invitation of Cindy Woods. There will be a raffle and a bring-and-buy stall for which contributions, especially of cakes and produce would be very welcome. Last months coffee morning raised £167.50 towards church finds. A big thank you to Dawn Riddle for her warm welcome in hosting the event and to all who helped with and supported it.

Georgina Elliott, a profile by Cindy Woods

Georgina was born in Barrow in Furness, Cumbria. Her father was an engineer inspector for the Submarines and her mother was a secretary until the children came along. Georgina has two sisters, one who sadly died aged 53, the other still lives up north. When her father died suddenly aged 58, Georgina’s mother went back to secretarial work.

Georgina lived on Walney Island and attended the local school after which she attended Barrow Girls Grammar School. On leaving school she trained at a local hospital as a nurse, gaining her SRN (State Registered Nursing). During her training she met her future husband, Gordon Elliott. They met while he was a patient in the ward in which she worked, he was in for a cartilage operation. They fell in love, and friends teased her that they had met in bed! (His hospital bed). Gordon was also from Barrow and worked in the paper industry. They were married at St. Mary's Church, Walney Island. After they had been married for six months they moved to London due to Gordon’s work with Barrow Paper Mills and Georgina went to work at St.George’s hospital. On leaving London they moved to Stopsley (near Luton) for a short while before moving to Turvey. It was purely by chance they ended up here. When Gordon was travelling through Turvey he saw their present house for sale and had also heard that Turvey was a nice place to live. Consequently, the couple moved here in 1974 with their two young children.

Georgina says the village was very different back then, the school was in the high street and she said the Post Office was opposite the Three Fyshes, she also says there were lots of shops and one did not need to go outside the village for food shopping. Also all five drinking place were still open, The Three Cranes, The Three Fyshes, The Laws Hotel, The Kings Arms and Station End.

Georgina says that there were several families with young children that moved into the village about the same time as the Elliott’s and she made friends with them and their families, they still meet on a regular basis even though several have moved away from the village now. Georgina and Gordon have two children, the eldest is Simon who works as Head of Research for a finance company, he and his wife live in London and have three children. Their daughter Vanessa now lives in Emberton with her partner Mike, they have two children. Vanessa works part time with her partner in their business, Drury Travel, which specializes in day trips and holidays. She also sings in our choir. Georgina says she sees a lot of her grandchildren and is lucky to live near them. Four of her grandchildren have been christened at Turvey Church and the 5th grandchild's christening is imminent.

Georgina went back to nursing when the children were older and she did night duty at South wing before moving to Texas Instruments as an Occupational Nurse. Gordon then had an opportunity to start up his own paper company (since relocated to Oxford) in the Granary, Turvey, and Georgina went and worked with him. Georgina says she used to come to our 8:00 am service and leave the children with Gordon, but as they got older they all came to Church and the children went to monthly Sunday School. Gordon was for many years one of our church wardens. It was during his time as church warden that he had a triple by-pass operation which was successful but sadly he became ill with an aggressive form of prostate cancer. He was unwell for about 4 years before he died 10 years ago. She said he was a very private man, so much so many did not know of his illness. His funeral was held here in Turvey Church.

Apart from the grandchildren, who keep her very busy, Georgina says she loves gardening, Golf (although not often now), pilates, the theatre, swimming and walking. She has also been involved with FAST and is on the committee. She organises and helps with the Christmas lunches and is also helping to organise the event taking place at Chantry House next month. Make a note in your diary for the 19th June, it is going to be a fun evening and will help to raise funds for church repairs. Tickets go on sale soon. She certainly keeps herself very busy, keep at it Georgina it keeps you young!