10 years of festival

THE Watlington Christmas Tree Festival will be 10 years old this year.

The festival is held at St Leonard’s Church in December when community groups and individuals decorate trees to a theme, which this year will simply be “Christmas”.

Janet Vaughan, who chairs the church’s Friends group, said: “Over the last 10 years the Friends have funded many restoration projects at the church, including the repair and professional cleaning of the beautiful stained glass windows, the repair of the lifting mechanism of the wooden font cover and the interior old stonework and commissioning the beautiful new oak lych gates.

“Without the generous support of the community, none of this work would have been possible and we do thank everyone.”

Cards featuring photos of last year’s trees will be on sale in the church from the end of September and at a fund-raising cake stall at Watlington town hall on October 13. All proceeds will go towards church restoration projects.

Organisations or families wanting to decorate a tree this year should contact Mrs Vaughan by the end of September on (01491) 612788 or email k.vaughan@sky.net