Patrick Comerford
I was singing with the Choir at the Autumn Concert in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church in Stony Stratford this afternoon (10 October) with a full programme that involved the parish choir, the parish band and the handbell-ringers.
It has been a busy, enriching week for me culturally, including this afternoon’s concert, watching the installation of a new sculpture in the Market Square in Stony Stratford, and seeing the use of two of my photographs in a local news magazine.
The choir in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church is directed by Jacob Collins and as contribution to the programme this afternoon included John Rutter’s setting of ‘For the Beauty of the Earth’ by the poet and hymnwriter Folliott Sandford Pierpoint (1835-1917); ‘My Beloved Spake’ by Becky McGlade, based on the Song of Songs 2: 10-12; and the ever-popular South African hymn ‘Siyahamba’.
The composer and conductor Sir John Rutter founded the Cambridge Singers who have recorded many of his works for his own label Collegium Records. His compositions, extended pieces for choir and orchestra, such as Requiem and Magnificat, and his many choral works include For the beauty of the earth, Christmas Carol and A Clare Benediction. He is known for Christmas carols and his Carols for Choirs anthology series compiled with David Willcocks.
FS Pierpoint was a classics schoolmaster and a devout Tractarian, and he wrote ‘For the Beauty of the Earth’ in 1864 at age of 29. He was born in, Bath, was educated at Queens’ College, Cambridge, taught at Somersetshire College, and spent most of his life in Bath.
Becky McGlade studied music at Royal Holloway, University of London and leads a busy musical life as a composer, cellist and teacher. Her music has been performed throughout the UK, including by the Choir of St John’s College, Cambridge, the London Oriana Choir, the Choir of Ely Cathedral, and the BBC Symphony Chorus.
‘Siyahamba’ or ‘We are marching’ dates back to 1952. It became an anti-apartheid liberation song during the struggle against racism and segregation in South Africa and its worldwide popularity grew after it was published in 1984 in a collection Freedom is Coming: Songs of Protest and Praise from South Africa arranged by Anders Nyberg.
This afternoon’s autumn concert also included the church band, conducted by Fiona Collins, the church handbell ringers, directed by Kath Hindley, and children from Saint Mary and Saint Giles School.
During the week I have also been watching the installation of Mapstone, a new sculpture by Broadbent Studios in the Market Square in Stony Stratford. The sculpture was commissioned by Stony Stratford Town Council and I was involved in this project from the beginning through the Town Centre Working Group, including the choice of location, the community engagement meetings, the commissioning and the tendering process.
Stony Stratford has a strong civic identity with a long history with a vibrant town centre that looks to the future, all celebrated in this new artwork by Stephen Broadbent and Peter Davidson and the stonemason Ade Wright. They conceived it as a symbol for Stony Stratford and have divided it into three zones expressing the past, present and future.
Stony’s origins as a fording point are reflected in the choice a river stone, suggesting endurance across changing times and standing upright so it might be seen from some distance.
The bottom zone represents Stony’s past. It is often said that the past is ‘mapped out’ or ‘carved in stone’, so a map of Stony is carved in this bottom zone, reflecting many maps of Stony from the Middle Ages up to today.
The top zone represents Stony’s future. The future has yet to be written, so nothing is carved into the stone there. Instead, slices of stone have been removed and replace them with translucent resin that refracts the light in different ways.
In between these two zones, the middle zone represents Stony’s present. That zone is very thin because the present is so fleeting. Yet the present is life, the beating heart of Stony. Here Stony speaks with its own voice in the words of a poem written by schoolchildren of the town, with the final line reading like a continuous loop.
The Mapstone was installed in the Market Square by Broadbent Studio this week, and is being officially unveiled next Saturday (17 October).
In addition, I have made the front page of the Autumn edition of the local news magazine Town Crier, published and distributed by Stony Stratford Town Council.
My front-page photograph, and a second photograph inside on page 5 are of York House, and illustrate a report on how York House, a Grade II listed building and a part of community life in Stony Stratford for generations, is trying to raise £20,000 by December 2026 to secure its future.
The centre’s stable block, dating back to the 1850s, is unsafe and must be removed before it causes damage to York House itself and to make York House more accessible and useful for the whole community. A programme of fundraising events in the coming weeks include quizzes and playreading evenings.
More details are available on the York House Centre website: www.york-house.org.uk
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