Church history, art and crafts and floral displays based on St Michael's heritage - the exhibition in the church had everything. Backed up by a themed event for each of the three days it was a festival to remember.
Visitors were welcomed by an exhibition banner in the churchyard with a display of sunflowers painted by the Guides. The porch was lined by a magnificent display of natural foliage created by the Church Flower Arranging team. There was also the first of a series of posters by Rosemary Keele that drew attention to the architectural features of our church, in this case the south door and doorway. .
NLHF funding under the PEACH Project allowed us to do preparatory work on the exhibition material. Judith Champion, our Project Artist ran two art workshops in the run-up to the event. The first was for adults and the second involved school children. These displays were augmented by her own sketching work which has formed the basis for an illustrated Timeline booklet produced specifically for the exhibition.
Anita Peach also ran workshops to produce ceramic images of the Green Men to be seen in the N aisle ceiling and elsewhere in the church. These varied enormously and produced a colourful display. To see a video of our workshops click on this link (789) Green Men and Ceramic Workshops - YouTube
A special banner of St. Michael and the dragon had been produced by the Parish Banner Group, and was displayed with past banners around the church. One of these was a large wheel representing the Church of England annual religious calendar of colours.
Local quilters, led by our Barefoot Quilter Sarah MacLean, went "down to the wire" to produce a beautiful quilt themed around carvings in the N aisle ceiling. We were also fortunate to have another large quilt based on Somerset church carvings provided by Jane Harwood of Wells. A video of making the quilt can be accessed on this link https://youtu.be/RdbI8KL0eHY
The Elton family produced a display of wooden craft goods built around computerised carving techniques.
Reclamation of wood was a theme we were able to build on and Brian Elton produced a rustic bench from wood salvaged from our roof work in 2020. We were also able to select a number of strange and exotic “natural” sculptures from splintered wood that was also salvaged from the roof work.
A gift of some pictures taken of the Baptistry window in the N aisle created an opportunity to set up a display on elements of the window that was donated to St Michael’s in the 1970s. Tony Gilbert helped with the photography in this and other sections of the exhibition.
Finally, Margaret Smith led the WI Craft Group in producing some fine, and very saleable items on a commercial craft stall.
Our daily themes worked well. On Saturday, following a Blessing by our Rector, Kevin Wright, the All Sorts Choir performed a beautiful melody of heritage themed hymns and tunes and Pauline Chadwick played the organ. On Sunday, Sally Virgin spent the whole day demonstrating how wool is carded, spun and dyed. Despite the dull weather on Monday people enjoyed the tree and flower trails in the churchyard set up under the PEACH Project and the Somerset Wilder Churches project.
We did not set out to raise funds for St Michael’s church but, with the help of cream teas and cakes, we were able to raise the magnificent sum of £1,300 over the whole weekend. One big ‘ thank you’ to all who contributed to this memorable event.