Herbert Finn (Paul Shave) ©FNRC Herbert Finn (Paul Shave)

June Welcome Weekend

Cemetery opens for two days

On 11th and 12th June the Friends opened the cemetery on Saturday and Sunday. Saturday morning three tours started at 11.15am and with the visitors from the National AGM more than 40 people enjoyed hearing about social and military history in Newbury. In the afternoon Joan Stacey lead a tour which identified the many flowers and grasses which now grow there.

Sunday began with William Corden the Younger telling his life story in the Chapel, ably assisted by his son Victor at the epidiascope (Michael Huxtable and David Clow). Lydia Massey as Sarah Louisa Hopson moved her audience to tears once again and Paul Shave shared some of the mysteries of brewing and his reasons for buying the Phoenix Brewery. This was a reprise of the Residents Resurrected performances last October and we are really grateful to these three actors who remembered theri lines for more than seven months.

The afternoon nature tour was even better attended than the day before.

And over the weekend people trying to trace their family history provided us with new information on over 20 more residents.