Invitation

The Organising Committee for the

2010
United Kingdom Sacred Harp Convention

formally invites all
Sacred Harp and other singers
(including anyone else interested in this music)
to foregather at

The Village Hall
WEEDON BEC
in the County of Northamptonshire

between
Friday 10th September (evening)
and Sunday 12th September 2010

There will be an informal gathering at the Maltsters' Arms (some 200 yards back down the main street from the Village Hall) on the Friday evening. There is a gas BBQ in the garden, which will be in use from about 7 pm onwards, and to which people are invited to bring their own food, if they would like to do so. (The local food shop closes at 10 pm). There is also an upstairs room  which can be used if wet.

Camping is available from 6 pm (when ) - caravans/campers in the car park - tents on the grass at the rear. There is a kick-boxing session in the Hall between 7 pm and 8 pm, so expect a few other car park users. Caravan owners please be aware that there are two accesses to the car park, both steep, and it is advisable look at the turning room at the top before driving in.

Saturday

In the Evening, here will be a social event (a "Variety Ceilidh") at the Village Hall - people should bring their own drinks - there will be a fish and chip van outside from 7.30pm until 8.30pm. We will need some ideas of numbers in the morning for sufficient fish (or whatever) to be brought.

As well as some dancing, there will be other items of entertainment - chiefly "your own". We  will need names of people volunteering to play in the band so Mick Verrier can make sure everyone knows what music is going to be played - and we would like volunteers for other items of entertainment (not necessarily folk music - the wider the variety the better). Please email Mick at mickverrier06 -at - aol.com  with any offers and contributions.
 

To give some indication to those who do not necessarily know the usual format of the days, the preliminary time table is as follows:

Saturday

10.00 - Open Singing, including a Welcome from the Chairman of Daventry District Council, Councillor Kevin Perry.
11.30 - Tea/Coffee Break
11.45 - Open Singing
12.45 - Lunch
2.00 - Open Singing
3.00 - Tea/Coffee Break
3.15 - Open Singing
4.15 - Business Session including Locations Committee report.
5.00 - Close
7.00 - Variety Ceilidh (finishes at around 11.00)

Sunday
10.00 - Open Singing
11.15 - Tea/Coffee Break
11.30 - Open Singing
12.00 - Memorial/Sick and Housebound/Celebration Lessons
12.45 - Lunch
2.00 - Open Singing
2.45 - Tea/Coffee Break
3.00 - Open Singing
3.45 - Parish Notices
4.00 - Close

The 15^th UK Sacred Harp Convention will take place in Northamptonshire – the Rose of the Shires - in central England, at the village of Weedon Bec, where North meets South.

Weedon Bec is located on the river Nene, which has traditionally been seen as the point of change between the north and south of England.  It has been popular with visitors for a couple of thousand years, Watling Street (now the A5 road), built by the Romans, passes by to the east, and the Grand Union Canal glides over the village via a glorious Georgian aqueduct, constructed at the beginning of the 19^th century.

Conveniently situated close to several motorways, (nearest - Junction 16 on the M1) and accessible by a regular bus and rail services from London, Weedon Bec is two hours’ drive from London Heathrow, an hour by car from Birmingham International Airport. If you have travel problems, please ask and we will see what lifts might be available.

There is plenty to see and do in the area – Stratford-upon-Avon and Oxford are within an hour’s drive, and Weedon Bec itself has plenty of local history to interest singers visiting for the first time.

Weedon was first recorded in an Anglo-Saxon charter in 944 AD. The parish church of SS Peter and Paul still has a Norman west tower and has associations with the King of Mercia’s daughter, Saint Werburgh. She is said to have saved the village’s wheat harvest from the ravages of flocks of geese. The weather vane at the top of the church tower is in the form of a flying goose.

With the threat of invasion from the forces of Napoleon in 1803, plans were laid by the Government to muster ordnance supplies, principally of gun powder, as far inland as possible. Weedon Bec was chosen as a site for this depot, which was also assigned as a possible refuge for the Royal Family. The buildings constructed for the purpose still remain on the hillside opposite the Village Hall.