To all our readers
Judy Taylor, Editor
Hello everyone,
Welcome to the 2024 Autumn edition of the BCF Newsletter. It’s been a rainy few months, even through the summer, where, as usual, we can celebrate how much we have done as a group.
We have news about our new organ from John Smith, two fantastic recipes, some reviews of our activities, a very special Hidden Treasure and the all-important future dates list.
This is my last Newsletter for Bisham Church Friends. It has been an honour and a pleasure to have been the Editor since 2021. In doing so, I’ve met so many interesting people, interviewed a few, and got to know so much more about this wonderful church and its community. I will still be a part of the BCF community team, working under the wonderful Chairmanship of Sean Wheeler.
I hope to see you all at coffee mornings and other events over the next couple of months as we head towards Christmas!
Chair’s Report
Sean Wheeler
Dear Friends
Welcome to Autumn – did we have a summer?
Since our last newsletter the Bisham Church Friends team have continued to successfully pursue our 4 key goals
Raise awareness of our beautiful church
Encourage new people through the door
Raise funds for the church & local community
Bring the community together
From January to the end of September this year we have hosted an incredible 31 events and had 1543 people attend them, many coming to the church for the first time, while raising just under £5.000.00 excluding costs & regular donations from friends
We have a real following now for our history coffee mornings, church tours, private church tours and National Heritage Open Days.
This year we tried out a tour of our graveyard and the stories behind the headstones at our summer Friends event which was very well received - so watch out for this being on our 2025 calendar, which we start looking at this month.
All our events are well attended, especially our history talks, because of the amazing effort Sheila Featherstone Clark puts into them. The energy and passion she puts into each and every one, bringing the history of the church alive, is exceptional. A BIG special thank you goes to her from us all.
Our relationship with Bisham School goes from strength to strength, with us hosting half term and end of term church services with coffee and biscuits, with at least 30- 40 adults attending each time, alongside the whole school.
We held a joint event with the school in June, celebrating the 130th anniversary of the Victorian classrooms, where we took the school back to those times with Victorian style classrooms, writing and spelling tests, even a dunce hat. Add to that the famous Marlow Ukulele band and Mandy Brar, the RBWM Deputy Mayor planting a King Charles coronation oak tree, all in all it was a great event for the village.
Marlow Riders continue to be BIG supporters, having coffee & cake in the church 3-4 times a year, with one of the riders asking to have her birthday celebration at the church because of the great cakes we serve them, and our relationship with the Jam Choir continues to grow with them holding a community Carol Evening in December and we are looking at how we can further work together next year. The Money raised is still going towards to the church and the costs of a new survery so we can continue to hold great events in the church and after the services.
Our number of Bisham Church Friends continues to grow; we are now at 145 Friends – thank you for your continued support.
I also want to take this opportunity to thank everyone in the Bisham Church Friends team, we couldn’t do what we do without your continued support, the amazing cakes and food you provide free of charge, as well as a great smile and welcome you give everyone who comes into the church. I also want to thank Judy and Peter for producing this great newsletter twice a year and all the work that goes into it bringing it together for you to enjoy. We are blessed to have such a great team.
Finally, All Saints Bisham, in my eyes, is now the hub of the Village Community, so thank you again for your continued support and we look forward to seeing you at our future events.
Sean Wheeler BEM
Chair Bisham Church Friends
Future dates for your diary
FRIDAY 25TH OCTOBER - 8.30AM-9.30AM - BISHAM CHURCH
Half Term school drop off coffee supporting MacMillan Coffee Mornings
Chance to meet up after dropping the children off
FRIDAY 1ST NOVEMBER – 7.30PM – BISHAM CHURCH
Organ concert – with internationally known organist - Iain Farrington
Celebrating the arrival of our new organ in the Church
Tickets are available £20 per person https://buytickets.at/allsaintschurchbisham/1411004
SUNDAY 3rd NOVEMBER -CHURCH OPEN FROM 2PM - ALL SOULS SERVICE 5PM - BISHAM CHURCH
WEDNESDAY 6TH NOVEMBER -6.30pm – 9.30pm - BISHAM ABBEY
**BOOK TICKETS ASAP – Nearly Sold Out!**
Quiz Night - Fundraising event for Bisham Church
Drink on Arrival & Supper included - £23pp plus raffle tickets on sale on the night.
Open to all villagers, family & friends, create a team of 8 or join a team on the night.
Book & Pay in Advance - contact Sean – swheeler12@mail.com – to book plus dietary needs.
SUNDAY 10th NOVEMBER – 10.30am - REMEMBRANCE SUNDAY SERVICE - All Saints Bisham
MONDAY 11TH NOVEMBER – 10.45am-11.30am - SCHOOL REMEMBRANCE SERVICE
All welcome
Refreshments after
SUNDAY 15TH DECEMBER – TRADITIONAL CAROL SERVICE – 5pm – BISHAM CHURCH
All welcome
Refreshments after
FRIDAY 20TH DECEMBER - 8.30AM-9.30AM – BISHAM CHURCH
End of term - school drop off coffee
Change to meet up after dropping the children off
SUNDAY 22ND DECEMBER – COMMUNITY CAROL SERVICE - The JAM CHOIR - 5pm – BISHAM CHURCH
All welcome
Refreshments after
TUESDAY 24TH DECEMBER – CRIB SERVICE – 3pm – BISHAM CHURCH
All welcome
WEDNESDAY 25TH DECEMBER – CHRISTMAS DAY SERVICE – 9.30am –BISHAM CHURCH
All welcome
FUNDS RAISED GO TOWARDS COMMUNITY EVENTS &THE CHURCH
Book / Contact via BCF website www.bishamchurchfriends.org/ Sean 07808094777
Emma Brookman, Head Teacher of Bisham C of E Primary School
Tells us about the End of Term Leavers and Prize Giving Service, which had 99 children, 95 adults attending!
This service, in July, was a wonderful way to end the academic year. We are so fortunate to have Bisham Church Friends supporting the services and our families thoroughly enjoy the welcome they receive prior to the service.
The service celebrated the success of pupils across the year groups with a wide variety of prizes for achievement both academically and for personal development.
We also gave thanks for the members of staff that were leaving us and that they leave with our best wishes for the future. The service culminated in a look back over the last 7 years of our year 6 children, with photographs and personal memories shared by both children and their teacher.
Reverend John shared some inspirational words with the children and all children received a bible as they move onto to their next educational setting.
I am sure you will join me in sending them all our very best wishes for the future.
Friends Cheese & Wine Summer Get Together Including a Churchyard Tour with Sheila
By Janet Slatter
I felt very privileged to be asked to write an account of this much enjoyed evening, organised by Sean and the team on Thursday 15th August, to thank all those Church Friends who provide support during the year at the varied fundraising events for All Saints Church Bisham.
Brian and I were warmly welcomed and armed with a glass of wine and canapes we joined in the lively conversation whilst mingling with everyone.
Mid evening we were urged to wrap up warm and join Sheila, an avid historian, for a 45-minute familiarisation of the ancient churchyard with all its mysteries, intrigues and enlightening stories. We were certainly not disappointed!
Two more recent names that were familiar …….
The Randall family, who remain farming in the Bisham area. Initially as tenants of the Bisham Abbey estate who in the middle of the 20th century had a thriving milk round supplying the local area via a horse & cart. Dairying continued until 2002 when the farm began to focus on Arable crop production which continues to this day.
The Riley family - John Riley who founded the Recreation Ground Trust in 1914 – which is located behind the Sainsbury’s car park and much enjoyed by the local population to this day. This was but one of the many ways in which John improved the lives of Marlow residents. He and his wife are buried in the Bisham churchyard.
This is just giving a taster of what the talk and walk provided. Each time I visit my own family’s tablet I will stray a little further & satisfy my curiosity!
We returned to find a buffet supper awaiting, much more that the expected ‘wine & cheese’ so lots of eats, drinks, conversation and laughter.
All-in-all it was, as always, a fun and well organised evening making us feel ‘well thanked’!!
Our own thanks go to Sean and Gina and his team and of course to Sheila who provided the entertainment!
Richard Parsons, Member of the Jam Choir
Writes about the very popular 70’s Choir performance in our Church held in July.
Sunday 14th July, a quiet, not-so-sunny, not-so-warm mid-summer afternoon was transformed into a joyous and colourful scene when All Saints Church in Bisham welcomed our local JAM Theatre Show Choir to perform an hour of hits from the 70’s.
With our psychedelic skirts and tie-dyed shirts in abundance, the ‘That 70’s Choir’ entertained you with a series of well-known ballads, rock and disco hits from the time, from the lilting sound of the Bee Gees ‘How Deep is Your Love’ to the infectious singalong of ABBA’s ‘Dancing Queen’.
With an enthusiastic audience and our even more enthusiastic choir, the church was taken back to an era of love and peace, the sounds of the 70’s echoing around the rafters and dance moves remembered or hastily learned!
Both shows were well attended, the second of which was beautifully timed to finish before the start of the European Cup final…unfortunately!
A very happy occasion for us as a choir and you as our audience hopefully – we look forward to being welcomed back in a slightly different guise to join you for Christmas Carols on the 22nd December.
Richard is the tall one in the middle of the centre photo!
The New Organ Has Arrived!
John Smith
On September 2nd and 3rd, Viscount Organs delivered and installed our new organ and speakers. They also “voiced” the organ (that is ‘tuned’ for those of you who like me did not know the term). The whole process was completed in two days.
By all accounts it is a fine instrument. A number of events have been planned to give us some appreciation of the organ’s potential, and on Friday November 1st at 7.30 to 9.30 a Recital will be given by the internationally acclaimed organist, pianist and composer, Iain Farrington.
You may have heard one of Iain’s compositions at the coronation of King Charles and more recently, Iain’s piece weaving together TV sports themes performed at the Last Night of the Proms. Iain promises us an evening to show off the possibilities of the new organ with music by a range of composers and in a variety of styles. We will hear Bach, Handel, Vaughan Williams and Widor. Iain is known particularly as one of the very few composers of jazz for the organ. We hope he will also play some of his own compositions.
Our wonderful head baker, Gina, gives us two more of her wonderful recipes for you to try.
Coffee and Walnut Cake
1 Tbsp instant coffee. 175g (6oz) soft margarine or butter
1 Tbsp hot water. 3 large eggs, beaten
175g (6oz) Self Raising Flour. 75g (3oz) walnuts finely chopped
1 and a half level tsp baking powder
175g (6oz) caster sugar
Decorate with coffee buttercream and walnuts
Method
Preheat oven to fan 160C conventional 180C, gas 4. Grease and line the base of two x18cm (7 inch) sandwich tins with baking parchment. Dissolve coffee in the hot water, cool. Sift the flour and baking powder into a large bowl, add the remaining ingredients and whisk together, using an electric whisk until all the ingredients are thoroughly blended. Turn into prepared tins and level. Bake for 25/30 minutes until well risen and golden. Allow to cool in the tins for 5 mins. then turn out and cool fully on a wire rack. Sandwich together with coffee buttercream and walnuts.
Enjoy!!
Madeira cake
225g (8oz) Self Raising Flour
150g (5oz) Caster Sugar
150g ( 5oz) Unsalted Butter softened
3 eggs beaten
1tsp vanilla essence
Method
Preheat oven to fan 160C conventional180C, gas 4. Grease and line the base of a deep 18cm (7inch) cake tin with parchment paper. Sift flour into a bowl and set aside. Using an electric whisk cream sugar and butter together until light and fluffy. Gradually add the beaten eggs and vanilla essence with a little of the flour after each addition. Whisk in lightly the rest of the flour until all the ingredients are combined. Pour the mixture into the tin and level. Bake for 1 hour until golden. Cool on a wire rack.
Good Luck All!!
Autumn’s Hidden Treasure is Sheila Featherstone-Clark
Everybody knows Sheila, our wonderful BCF member, pillar of the community, Church historian and all-round ball of energy. Her commitment to Bisham village, its school, its church and everybody living here is obvious, but she has had a very interesting life, both before and after her arrival here.
Sheila was born and grew up in Kent, where her family-owned Featherstones’ Ltd, Kent’s version of Selfridges. Sheila’s father was the grandson of the entrepreneurial founder, he worked in the retail business all his life and was still attending Board Meetings aged 89. Sheila’s mother was originally a fabric buyer, met Sheila’s father when they were both training at Bentall’s in Kingston. Her mother, who had to give up work on marriage (as you did in the 1950s), later poured her energy into ‘under-fives’, and being a county councillor. This must be who Sheila inherited her boundless energy from!
Sheila’s History Degree extended her A level studies of the Tudors and the Great Dictators. She studied the politics of the Cold War, the formation of the EU (she speaks French and German) and had the privilege and excitement of studying Cabinet papers that discussed the US’s entry into World War II. Her innate fascination of all things historical was later applied to learning about the history of Bisham, our Church and Abbey, and the village. More of that later.
Beyond Bisham, Sheila’s appetite for understanding the historical context of places and the people included her research into the town of Rochester and her family business. After the death of her father, Sheila uncovered a great deal about her great grandfather and the history of that business, which had been on the High Street in Rochester since 1904.
The JT Featherstone’s philosophy was that of an early Credit Union, making sailors’ uniforms that they could pay for on credit. On joining the Featherstones’ Club, buyers could choose how often they paid and could draw goods up to 26 x the amount they owed. As a result of this early form of credit being invented by Sheila’s great grandfather and proving so successful, he was awarded an MBE for services to the credit movement and charity work.
The business became a fully-fledged department store, selling almost everything except food, even running excursions in the 1920s, through its peak in the 1950s until 1983 when it moved away from retail and the premises were let to small businesses. Sheila took on management of the business during the pandemic, additionally project managing the restoration of a Grade II* Georgian Brewery mansion with Historic England, which was part of the Featherstones’ estate. It was sold last year, and she remains an advisor to the new owners. Her father was obviously a wonderful character and Sheila spent some very precious time with him before the pandemic, which she valued so much because as well as being with him, it reconnected her with Kent.
Now onto how Sheila became part of the village...
Despite her degree in History and International Relations her career was in Business Development and Marketing particularly with the retail and media sectors in the developing IT industry. When working for a company called Digital Equipment Ltd in 1991, Sheila took on a European role which required regular travel to Europe, so she needed to move nearer to Heathrow airport. Her father suggested she look at Marlow, but on sight of Bisham she fell in love with it and bought her first home there at no. 24. It was a 17th century house and reminded her of her parents’ home in Kent. “Bisham felt like it was ‘in a time-warp’ distinct from Marlow, like an island. I loved it.”
She married Stewart in 1993 – only on the condition that they lived in Bisham. Luckily, he agreed! Their first daughter Isla arrived in 1994, and during maternity leave, Sheila - being Sheila - decided to do the CIM (Chartered Institute of Marketing) Diploma during this time.
After her first maternity leave Sheila moved to a new job which included managing the launch of the first 64-bit computer.
In 1994 she saw her current house on the market, no. 30, part of which dates to the 1500s. It was originally lived in by the comptroller of Bisham Abbey. She and Stewart fell in love with it and bought it. They’ve remained there ever since.
Ailsa was born in 1996 and during this break from work Sheila took a vernacular architecture course - all about how houses are influenced by the way people live. She applied what she learned to managing the extension of her historically important home.
Sheila has always taken great interest in local architecture, taking a notebook out on walks with her babies in their Silver Cross pram and talking to all the local people whose families had lived in the village for generations. “My interest in history has always been about the people and how they lived. People influence the buildings”.
Sheila talks about small but such interesting details of the village, such as the morgue being on the slipway, which became Gordon’s decorating hut! No. 17 used to be a shop. She intends to write it all down one day soon and make it into a book.
After a battle with the planning department, she and Stewart built the eco-friendly extension with an oak frame and vernacular infill, using sheep’s wool for insulation and protecting the roots of the 300-year-old yew tree that sits in the garden. They succeeded in realising their vision and it is something Sheila is very proud of. ‘It has a lovely feel’.
Around the time they extended the property, Sheila took a job with Ask Jeeves for Business and was moved to California for a year with Stewart and the girls in 2000, moving back in 2001.
On her return, and after years in IT Business Development and Marketing, with small children, she decided to retrain as a teacher. She completed on-the-job teacher training at Furze Platt where she taught IT and Computing and completed a Master’s. She continued as a teacher for 15 years, also teaching at Beaconsfield High School and LVS Ascot from where she finally retired in 2018. She is also a Governor of Wycombe High School.
At the time she retired she received a phone call from Peter Harding, just 6 weeks before he died, who gave Sheila a picture of her house in 1947, with floodwater in the garden, (but the house safe and dry). He had a brilliant recall of everything about her house, as he was the 3rd generation to live there, and the village. He gave her a book of Parish reports from the early 1900s as his father had been churchwarden, that she used as the basis for her understanding of, and talks about, Bisham in the 1st world war years.
Closer to home, Sheila has always been involved in the local school and the Church. She was married to Stewart there, with Charles Chadwick marrying them. Her daughters went to Sunday school and attended Bisham village school, where Sheila remains Chair of Governors.
During the pandemic Sheila delivered podcasts about the village and its people, called In The Shadow of the Abbey, Sheila thought it was important to shed light on the surrounding village and the people who have shaped it, however she realised it was also necessary to include the Abbey as the family was central to village life. After the podcasts came the Church tours.
Bisham Church Friends became more active and Sheila’s curiosity about the human stories behind each plaque and monuments led to her uncovering more and more about Bisham and its historical inhabitants which has given all of us a much richer grasp on the village and its community, with her coffee morning talks that are so well attended and highly praised by those who hear them.
The archives in Reading have helped her, but Sheila remains our driving force in understanding so much more about our village than we otherwise would know. She understands so much of what is inside and around the church, including the graveyard and the land.
I asked Sheila how the church makes her feel. She said:
“It’s an incredibly tranquil space. You can breathe. It’s a sanctuary, a space that’s calm and quiet....” She added, “It’s good to be part of the church with Stewart. When he was church warden, he was formal custodian of the church. He’s now a very good understudy for the tours! It is up to all of us to take care of this beautiful and important building for future generations.”
Thank you, Sheila, for all you do.
Sheila’s favourite church treasure is Lady Hoby (1539-1609)
She says...
There are many interesting things in the church but Lady Hoby is the one who has drawn me in. Bisham church was important to her and it is her final resting place.
She started designing her final detailed monument 8 years before she died and I love the way she used the canopy in the monument to gather and snapshot her family around her – everyone under it had pre-deceased her, everyone outside it lived on.... Elizabeth used what she’d been taught to push for her family. She was an incredible woman, classically educated when women weren’t, courtesy of her father, Sir Anthony Cooke, tutor to Prince Edward, mentor to King Edward.
Not afraid of breaking social rules, but skilled at using them, Lady Hoby was an early feminist, determined, confident and influential. Very courageous; as a young widow, she closed down the embassy in France and brought her family back with 3 young children and pregnant. She had a plan; produced a child every 2 years – had 7! - and grieved for those she lost. She had money from smart marriage settlements, assisted by her brother-in-law Lord Burghley, Queen Elizabeth’s chief advisor, which gave her freedom. The strongly protestant family used their skills to increase their status and to support the Protestant cause.
You could view the monument like an early Instagram post; showing her and her immediate family’s status in 1609.
To end my run as editor, one more poem from me. I’m sharing what I’m guessing is a familiar poem to many of you, by one of my favourite Poets, Sir John Betjeman CBE.
He was an English poet, writer, and broadcaster. He was Poet Laureate from 1972 until his death in 1984. He was a founding member of The Victorian Society and a passionate defender of Victorian architecture, helping to save St Pancras railway station from demolition. He and Sheila have something in common!
He is buried in the Churchyard at St Enedoc – near where my family and I take many holidays. It’s the most beautiful Churchyard, overlooking the sea in North Cornwall. He holidayed as a child in nearby Trebetherick.
Diary of a Church Mouse by John Betjeman
Here among long-discarded cassocks,
Damp stools, and half-split open hassocks,
Here where the vicar never looks
I nibble through old service books.
Lean and alone I spend my days
Behind this Church of England baize.
I share my dark forgotten room
With two oil-lamps and half a broom.
The cleaner never bothers me,
So here I eat my frugal tea.
My bread is sawdust mixed with straw;
My jam is polish for the floor.
Christmas and Easter may be feasts
For congregations and for priests,
And so may Whitsun. All the same,
They do not fill my meagre frame.
For me the only feast at all
Is Autumn's Harvest Festival,
When I can satisfy my want
With ears of corn around the font.
I climb the eagle's brazen head
To burrow through a loaf of bread.
I scramble up the pulpit stair
And gnaw the marrows hanging there.
It is enjoyable to taste
These items ‘ere they go to waste,
But how annoying when one finds
That other mice with pagan minds
Come into church my food to share
Who have no proper business there.
Two field mice who have no desire
To be baptized, invade the choir.
A large and most unfriendly rat
Comes in to see what we are at.
He says he thinks there is no God
And yet he comes ... it's rather odd.
This year he stole a sheaf of wheat
(It screened our special preacher's seat),
And prosperous mice from fields away
Come in to hear our organ play,
And under cover of its notes
Ate through the altar's sheaf of oats.
A Low Church mouse, who thinks that I
Am too papistical, and High,
Yet somehow doesn't think it wrong
To munch through Harvest Evensong,
While I, who starve the whole year through,
Must share my food with rodents who
Except at this time of the year
Not once inside the church appear.
Within the human world I know
Such goings-on could not be so,
For human beings only do
What their religion tells them to.
They read the Bible every day
And always, night and morning, pray,
And just like me, the good church mouse,
Worship each week in God's own house,
But all the same it's strange to me
How very full the church can be
With people I don't see at all
Except at Harvest Festival.
So it’s goodbye from me on the keyboard. I’m sure whoever takes on the Newsletter will bring you even more news and delights about this wonderful community and its heartbeat, the Church. It’s been an privilege to connect with you all.
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