HETHERSETT WEB

Faith, Folk and Festivity was the theme for the three day festival which was held in aid of the church development and repair appeal and the East Anglian Air Ambulance Service.

Colourful displays of every kind abounded as arrangers used their imagination to commemorate many famous Norfolk people from wartime heroine Edith Cavell who taught

Sunday School at Swardeston, Robert Kett who set out on his rebellion from Kett’s Oak on the B1172 on the outskirts of Hethersett, Norfolk’s most famous son Admiral Nelson, prison reformer Elizabeth Fry and singer Jenny Lind and the Gurney Family.

There was also an impressive display featuring slightly lesser known “folk” who have given time and their skills to the village. hen there were the displays celebrating the very areas of life including “Folk at Work,” “Folk at School,” “Folk Ringing Bells,” “Folk Making Music,” “Folk at Play,” “Folk of Worship and Witness,” “Folk of the Mothers’ Union,” and “Folk of St Remigius.” The latter of these categories are busy working to raise nearly £340,000 to improve access to the church along with a number of meeting rooms and repairs to the roof.



The Folk at Play area was also much admired as it celebrated the success of Norwich City and in particular director Delia Smith, who may live in Suffolk, but has pledged her allegiance unashamedly to the Nor Folk. The stages of life were also celebrated in the form of Birth, Holy Communion, Confirmation, Exam Success, Sporting Success, Marriage from the Wedding Day through silver wedding celebrations to ruby and golden, Retirement and finally death and the vision of glory. In these particular tableaux a number of former well known Hethersettians are featured. These included former Norfolk Lawn Tennis Association coach Frank Ong, the Rev Dan Shakespeare. The seasons of the church calendar were represented by the Nativity of Jesus, the Prophets, the Ten Commandments, Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Resurrection, The Ascension of Jesus, The Disciples, Pentecost and the New Jerusalem. Overall it was a wonderful testimony to faith, love, hope and charity and brought a much needed oasis of calm to our hectic and sometimes uncaring world.