Parish Jottings

Cream Teas for an Awaited Prince

On the afternoon of 20^th July cream teas were served at tables set out in the lower churchyard to celebrate the awaited arrival of the royal baby. However, it was to be another two days before the Duchess of Cambridge gave birth to a son, who has since been named George Alexander Louis who is Prince of Cambridge. Many people called in to enjoy a cream tea during the course of the afternoon and the weather stayed fine. The celebration was organised by Simon and Sarah Cook and we thank them together with all their helpers and contributors for providing such a delightful and successful event.

Glenys Gaskin (1923 - 2013)

Glenys at the Harvest Supper in 2008

It was with sadness that we learnt of the death of Glenys Gaskin who was one of the long-standing members of our church. She died peacefully in her sleep on 29^th July at the age of 90. Born in Monmouthshire in 1923, Glenys Williams, as she was then, moved to Henley to work during the war and it was here, in 1941, that she first met Ray Gaskin, her husband to be. For the remainder of the war years their paths did not often cross, but they kept in touch with each other until they were eventually able to be married at Glen's home parish church in Blaenavon, in 1946. For the first five years of their marriage, Ray and Glen lived in Henley but moved to Assendon where they lived for the next sixteen years when Ray worked at the sawmill. Glenys bore two sons, Roger and Steven. When the sawmill closed down Ray obtained a job at Brakspears Brewery and the family moved back to Henley. Ray died in 2004.

Over the years, Glenys has attended Trinity church during the incumbencies of five vicars - the Reverend Willis who died in 1944, the Reverend Wormald who moved to Highclere in 1953, the Reverend John Clarke who retired in 1977, the Reverend Paul Le Sueur who moved to Hastings in 1990 and our present vicar, the Reverend Duncan Carter, who presided at Glenys’s funeral service which took place at Reading Crematorium on 7th August.

Glenys was a keen gardener, but her particular expertise was found in the kitchen end of the gardening cycle, in jam-making and vegetable and fruit preservation. In her later years she became a member of the Henley ‘Over Sixties Club’ and during her spare time used to knit profusely for the ‘Feed The Children’ charity.