Parish Jottings

Mystery Vault Found in Churchyard

After the heavy rain, a six-feet deep hole appeared in the lower churchyard during the middle of January. It was found that underneath the ground there was what can only be thought to be an old brick-lined family burial vault which was some nine-feet long. No evidence of past burials was found to be present as the soil had fallen into the void to cover up whatever was there. To prevent passing members of the public from investigating the occurrence and possibly slipping into the hole, it was temporarily covered up with whatever materials came to hand and enclosed with marker tape and the adjacent footway closed. Soon afterwards, the hole was filled in with eight tons of gravel by a local contractor. The task was a laborious undertaking as the gravel lorry had to be parked in the road and the gravel moved into the void by hand.

It is likely that this vault had a memorial of some sort above ground level. Unfortunately no record has been found in the church archives giving any indication of who was buried there, but presumably it was one or more persons from some notable local family. In the 1960's most of the old headstones in the lower churchyard were moved to the sides and the ground levelled. Should anyone know of any information about this memorial, please contact the vicar; it would help to solve this intriguing mystery.

Choir 'Dream' Workshop

On Saturday 23^rd January a Henley Choral Society workshop was held in Holy Trinity church. The society's singers were joined by many others as they rehearsed for Sir Edward Elgar's oratorio 'The Dream of Gerontius' which is to be performed at the Hexagon in Reading on 5^th March. The performance will be Benjamin Goodson's last production as director of The Henley Choral Society, as he will soon be taking up his new post at Somerville College in Oxford.

Early Spring 2016

Spring flowers have been appearing in the churchyard since last year's mild autumn. Throughout the parish flowering trees have been in blossom since soon after the start of the year. What has happened to the winter; is it yet to come?

The extent of the short-lived dusting of snow that we had in Holy Trinity churchyard on Sunday 17^th January.