We had a special Messy Church for Remembrance on Wednesday 6 November thinking about God’s message of love and peace.  There was a Messy congregation of more than 60 people, aged from 3 months to some who were, well, quite a bit older!  We were very honoured to have Ann Perry, Ian Silcox and Pat Alexander with us who shared some of their wartime memories of a very difficult time, reminding us how important it is for everyone to work for peace. They told us how everyday life was completely changed by war; here are a few of their memories:

Home

Ann: We didn’t go to bed in our bedrooms…instead we dressed in our sirens suits, an all in one type of thing. Mine was green corduroy.

Pat: Heavy curtains at windows and doors. Never putting a light on in a room after dark without pulling curtains across first.

Rationing

Pat: Every aspect of food strictly rationed. Vegetables grown on every available bit of land. A Mars bar would be cut into 7 pieces to last the week.

Ann: Most foods were rationed. As a child of that time sweet rationing was what concerned us most….

Bombing

Ian: as an 8 year old I was frightened when an aircraft was overhead. An incendiary bomb came through the window of the bedroom where my younger brother and I were asleep. It caught the bed alight, waking us up. We rushed downstairs and quickly left the house with our mother. Our father was on fire watching duties elsewhere and seeing the blaze, rushed home and thankfully with neighbours managed to extinguish the fire.

Pat: We would hear the throb of enemy bombers and wonder if they were passing over on their way to Bath, Bristol or even Coventry. Next morning we would collect the silver foil streamers they had dropped to confuse the defence system.

Ann: We were very scared when we heard the drone of the German bombers overhead…then the whine of the falling bomb… the loud bang on landing and the awful smell of fire and destruction. The exciting bit for us was going out in the morning to hunt for pieces of shrapnel for souvenirs!

School

Pat: As school children we were expected to do our bit of war work – helping the farmers where we could – potato picking, stoking hay or just leading the horses. VE Day was the day I was sent away to boarding school.

Ann: We had to leave Plymouth during the blitz and schooling was almost impossible. I went to three different first schools and three different grammar schools, which meant we never made lasting friendships. But we survived!

During the session children made poppy crafts, including delicious biscuits and Chris led a very moving worship time of prayer and praise, which started with a rousing sing-a-long of some wartime songs.

We enjoyed a tasty wartime meal of bangers and mash and took part in an unusual sausage quiz, devised by Sue Eve. See if you can answer some of these questions…..

1. Where does the good old sausage originate from? Is it: a) Iraq b) Germany c) Britain
2. How many sausage recipes/flavours are there in Britain? Is it a) 800 b) 200 c) 500
3. How many tonnes of sausages were eaten in August 2016? Is it a) 175,713 b) 50,620 c) 239,426
4. When were sausages introduced to Britain? Was it: a) 1532 b) 400AD c) 920AD
5. How much is spent on sausages per year? Is it a) 25 million pounds b) 389 million pounds c) 717 million pounds
6. What size is the largest sausage ring? a) 2.6m b) 4.1m c) 3.3m
7. What year was this world record made? a) 1575 b) 1738 c) 1894
8. When did rationing start? Was it a) Feb 1940 b) Jan 1940 c) March 1940
9. During rationing how many eggs were you allowed per fortnight? Was it: a) 1 b) 3 c)5
10. Who banned the sale of sausages in 320AD? Was it a) the Catholic Church b) the Queen

Sarah Pendle

A Pure Heart

I do not ask for a life of luxury,

The world’s gold, or fine pearls.

All I ask for is a happy heart,

An honest heart, a pure heart.

A pure heart is full of goodness,

Lovelier than the pretty lily.

Only a pure heart can sing,

Sing by day and sing by night.

This prayer is a translation of the first verse and chorus of the much loved Welsh hymn, Calon Lân, which many of you will have heard sung with great passion by Welsh rugby supporters. Indeed, it is said that to be truly Welsh, you must sing the hymn by heart whenever an opportunity arises! The words are by Daniel James [1847-1920], known by the bardic name, Gwyrosydd, and the hymn is set to a lovely tune by John Hughes [1872-1914].

The hymn-writer’s prayer for a pure heart [calon lân] with which to praise God day and night, reminds us of the words of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, ‘Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God’ [Matthew, 5,8].

And, here are the words of the first verse and chorus in Welsh:

Calon Lân

Nid wy’n gofyn bywyd moethus,

Aur y byd na’i berlau mân:

Gofyn rwyf am galon hapus

Calon onest, calon lân

Calon lân yn llawn daioni,

Tecach yw na’r lili dlos:

Dim ond calon lân all ganu-

Canu’r dydd a chanu’r nos.

John Rea    

Appeals for a volunteer fund-raiser have so far been unsuccessful, and so we thought that we would rerun the article which first appeared in the July Parish Magazine.

There have been some developments since July, most notably the fact that funding for Phase 2 of the Heating Project is now in place, and work on this will take place in the very near future.  This means a reduction of about £7000 in the total fund-raising requirement, which might make the position of volunteer fund-raiser more attractive!

As before, Chris Hardwick, Martin Pendle and John Rea will be delighted to talk to anyone who might be interested in this important post.

The article, slightly revised to take account of developments since July is set our below.

Tavistock Parish Church has ambitious plans to improve its facilities, and to ensure that its existing facilities are properly maintained. We are now seeking a volunteer to lead the fund-raising which will be needed for the implementation of these plans. The person concerned will join the strong team already involved in the delivery of the programme, and will:

• lead the fund-raising for the programme
• help to define the funding targets for the projects which make up the programme
• work with others in organising activities to raise funds
• oversee the design and production of promotional materials
• organise and coordinate approaches to potential major donors
• work with others to raise awareness of the church’s work, goals and financial needs
• acknowledge donations through thank you letters, updates on the fund raising campaigns and so on

Previous relevant experience is not essential. We are looking for a friendly, articulate, computer literate team-worker who enjoys a challenge and who is committed to the future well-being of Tavistock Parish Church.

Some information on the development programme is given below, and Chris Hardwick, the Vicar of Tavistock, Martin Pendle, the Development Programme Manager, and John Rea, Chairman of the Church’s Finance Committee will be delighted to provide further advice.

A Note on the Church’s Development Plans

The P700 Programme

The P700 Programme, so called because it was launched in 2018, the 700^th anniversary of the dedication of the church, is an ambitious programme for the development of the fabric of the church. It is intended that the Programme will be implemented in phases over a number of years.

The Management of the Programme

The Programme is being managed by Martin Pendle who chairs the P700 committee which reports to the Parochial Church Council [PCC]. The PCC Finance Committee is responsible for the financial control of the Programme.

There is a strong team involved in taking the developments forward. As well as the arrangements for the management, implementation and financial control of the Programme, there are excellent arrangements for the identification of potential sources of grants and for the submission of applications for grants; there is already a significant programme of fund raising events; and the Friends of St Eustachius are supporting the Programme financially and in other ways

Achievements so far

In 2018, the vestry roof was repaired, and a new boiler installed at a total cost of £121,000. These projects were funded by generous donations from the Friends of St Eustachius and by fund raising which together produced a total of £81,000, and by a contribution of £40,000 from the Church’s unrestricted reserves.  The resultant depletion of the unrestricted reserves means that the cost of future projects will have to be covered by grants and by fund raising.

The Next Stage: Funding Requirements

The PCC has approved two projects for early implementation:

• Upgrade of the Sound System
• Provision of Kitchen and Toilets

Although the planning approvals for these projects are not yet in place, and the final costs will depend on tendering on the basis of detailed specifications, we estimate that delivery of the projects will cost about £170,000, including VAT. There are already funding pledges from the Friends and from private donors amounting to about £55,000, and the VAT on at least one of the projects should be recoverable to a value of about £25,000, leaving approximately £90,000 to be met through grants and fund raising.

Chris Hardwick, Martin Pendle and John Rea

Devonport Naval Base Volunteer Band

Join us on Saturday 28 September for our ‘Last Night of the Proms’

 The HMS Drake Royal Naval Volunteer Band effectively formed in the late 1970s when a small group of Engineers started playing for weekly prayers at the Royal Naval Engineering College (RNEC) at Manadon on the outskirts of Plymouth.  The band thrived and not long after, a Royal Marine Bandsman was appointed to the band as their full time conductor and instructor with the band becoming one of a number of recognised “Volunteer Bands” within the Royal Navy, mainly in shore establishments but extending to include the groups on the Carriers (Ark Royal, Invincible and Illustrious) and more recently on the new HMS Queen Elizabeth. When RNEC Manadon closed in 1995, the band became the Devonport Naval Base Volunteer Band and moved into HMS Drake, where it continues to be based today.

In the early days, the band was primarily made up of Service Personnel but as the Navy reduced in numbers the membership widened as did the number and type of gigs undertaken.   Nowadays, as the name implies, the band is made up of unpaid volunteers consisting of serving and retired members of the armed forces, their families, members of the emergency services and a wide range of civilians all bound by a love of music and desire to perform in a military wind band.

Last year, unfortunately the decision was taken to withdraw the instructors from the volunteer bands although the Royal Navy and RM Band Service continue to support us in a number of ways.  The Royal Naval Volunteer Band Association (RNVBA) has been formed to cover the activities of the 9 remaining volunteer bands (spread from Faslane to Culdrose) and support them as they struggle to maintain their musical standards, military ethos and in some cases, their existence. All of the bands have been forced to change the way they operate and have followed slightly different models depending on their location and availability of funding.  A number have been able to fund part time conductors via sponsorship or through grants, however, in the case of the Devonport band, we have had to become fully self-funding, needing to earn enough through our performances and any local sponsorship we can find to support our activities.   HMS Drake has continued to provide us with a venue and support us administratively, the Band Service provide us with instruments and we now manage ourselves through a committee.  A year after these changes came in, we are pleased to report that we are still actively performing and are planning a number of high profile gigs in the coming year on top of our normal “bread and butter” engagements.

Within the band, we are lucky to have a strong and very capable Corps of Drums who perform with us for big events but also stand-alone providing drummers and buglers for a range of events around the Plymouth area.   You may have seen them recently performing a sunset routine on the Hoe or dressed in period costume leading dancers and pirates through the Barbican.  Their bugling was rightly picked out for special mention by the RM Band Service Director of Music at the Volunteer Band inspection in Portsmouth, as being as good as some of his professionals!

We continue to support the Royal Navy, providing background music for both Naval and Civilian functions in the Wardroom and Senior Rates messes, as well as performing “Beat the Retreat” and “sunset” ceremonies not only within HMS Drake but also in Stonehouse barracks and HMS Raleigh.  We have also managed to support the local community with highlights of the last year including support to the naming ceremony of their new RNLI lifeboat (televised), the Plymouth Mayor Making Ceremony, Torpoint carnival (and their Armistice Day parade) and “Proms in the Park” in the bandstand in Devonport Park.

The next few months sees the band reprise their “Proms in the Park” (Devonport park on Sunday 1^st September) and then build up to a big event with their version of the “Last Night of the Proms” in St Eustachius’ Church in Tavistock on Saturday 28^th September.  

The coming year also has some exciting events currently in the early planning phase, with potential performances by the band in the Tower of London and at Jersey in the Channel Islands being obvious highlights.  There are also plans for massed band performances bringing together elements from all the volunteer bands with the RNVBA providing a band for the RNA (Royal Naval Association) parade in London and an aspiration to bring a massed band event to Plymouth as part of the Mayflower 400 celebrations; all in all, 2020 is building to be an exciting year for members of the HMS DRAKE Royal Naval Volunteer Band.

A Photo Album of St Eustachius’ Church showing the ‘700’ events will shortly be available to view at the back of the church. The hard-backed, 28cm x 21cm, full colour, glossy, landscape book was designed by Juliette Bowers and is printed by Bonusprint. Anyone interested in ordering a copy can either see Juliette in church or leave her your contact details in the “B” pigeon hole, again at the back of the church. An exact cost cannot be quoted just yet as the more orders she takes the less it will cost!

Should anyone wish to view the book online or contact her please email: juliettebowers@btinternet.com