Report from Erica Bowler at the Baptist Church

We’ve just celebrated Harvest during the Community Festival weekend, with our own litter-picking scarecrows, a “Rubbish” Coffee Morning on Saturday and Messy Harvest Festival on Sunday. At the Coffee morning we had food, fun and friendship on the theme of looking after this world. Kids made “rubbish” monsters, Nicola from Plastic Free Shefford, spoke to us about reducing our single-use plastics, and we had information from the Tearfund “Rubbish” campaign for a global plastics treaty. At the Messy Harvest we had lots of activities celebrating God’s good creation and we thought about how to care for creation, before sharing lunch together. Big thank you to everyone who contributed and everyone who came.

Also, in the Community Festival we were privileged to join with all the churches in Shefford to take part in the ‘Why believe in Jesus?’ evening. The marquee at the Brewery Tap was beautifully decorated and welcoming, and there were lots of questions for our panel of four Clergy, a Physicist, and a retired Judge. It was a great evening of exploration in a warm atmosphere.

FInally, it was good to throw open our doors for ‘Sanctuary’ – a calm space for exploring Christian meditation. A time of deep communion with God.

The Shefford Craft Fair was a great success, with a steady stream of visitors all night and the STMA bar busier than ever! Every stallholder that I spoke to said they’d had a good night. If you want to find out about the upcoming Winter and Christmas Craft Fairs,go to www.riverdreamevents.co.uk

This year’s Garage Sale Trail was busier than ever. We had 35 houses taking part and SO MANY people came out to grab a bargain! Our stall took over £100, which paled into insignificance compared to the £250 that someone else raised, and the whopping £343 taken by another household! We’ve already pencilled in a date for next year, so put 22nd Sept 2024 on your calendar now! The event raised £190 for our fabulous Shefford Christmas Lights which are created and managed entirely by volunteers, and are guaranteed to put a smile on your face!

This year was a slow burner for the Festival but once it got going things went with a bang – especially starting with a new event – the opening ceremony which, courtesy of our Mayor was a great success  Ken brought some giant party poppers and together with the Prince and Princesses got the festival off to a flying start. With the rain now abating many of us then went across the road to sample the EatFeast food stalls.

Personally, I only managed to get around to a few of the events during the week, but the ones I did visit were great – like the Scarecrow Festival, the Garage Sale Trail and the Art Exhibition – a threesome that seemed to work well together as there were loads of people moving around Shefford on foot or in cars and were able to do all three events in a day. Judging from the photos there were lots of people getting a healthy walk joined by Mayor Ken, Mary from Good Neighbours and Mike, the organiser of the Well Being Walks in Bedfordshire.

I got to one or two of the Church events like the Baptist coffee morning and Plastic Free Shefford talk – also the St Michaels Community Café and the Thanksgiving and Celebration of the Poetry of Robert Bloomfield, again with our mayor our Ken who certainly works hard for our community – well done and thanks for all your efforts.

Other events included the Greenspace Conservation Group work party at Bellcote Meadow Millennium Green and the Majorette’s taster evening at the STMA – which was also host to a brilliant Craft Fair and a delightful Family Fun Day – just across from the Bowls Club annual tournament.

I have already been asked to agree on dates for next year and have confirmed the Art Exhibition, Garage Sale Trail and the Scarecrow Festival so please do think ahead what you might like to do – I had lots of late notifications this year which sadly means that these events missed the main publicity. The Festival was one of those slow burners that really came to life as our town came into its own recovery from Covid and the financial disaster that has followed it. An example being the support from local businesses who have faith in Shefford and are putting their money where their faith is – already I have another new sponsor for next year – more news to come.

News just in we are delighted to pass on details of the Family Fun Day which is being held Sat 30 Sept – have a lovely day!

Shefford Community Festival opened on Friday 22^nd with a confetti-fueled bang – thoughtfully provided by our Mayor Ken Pollard who officiated the ribbon cutting itself ably supported by our Shefford Prince and Princesses, plus a celebrity Pepper pig and a good number of spectators who assembled in the High Street.  The ceremony took place outside Shefford Tandoori restaurant and Rose’s café and coffee shop.

Fortunately, the weather was kind to us as after the ceremony many of the group went across the road to sample the excellent EatFeast street food and to chat about the forthcoming festival events. It was noticeable that we were joined by one of the candidates for the local by-election (complete with a film crew) who was talking to people enjoying a selection of food from different genres. It is great that local politicians are now actively reaching out to the people of Shefford and we are delighted that the festival was able to offer an opportunity for this interaction – a great example of community communication in action.

A Service of Thanksgiving at Harvest Time

Celebrating our Gifts, especially

the Poetry of Robert Bloomfield, the Rural Poet

You are invited to attend a Service of Thanksgiving to celebrate our Harvest Festival
and to commemorate the 200^th anniversary of the death of Robert Bloomfield, the Rural Poet
who was a resident of Shefford from 1812 until his death in 1823.

The service will be held at 3pm on Sunday 1^st October 2023
at St Michael and All Angels Church, High Street, Shefford, SG17 5DD.

We hope you will join us for refreshments after the service.

Shefford Town Council

10.00 -1.00pm Family Fun at Shefford Children’s Centre, School Lane, Shefford. We are delighted that Shefford Children’s Centre will be running this free community event for the whole family, Find out about your local children’s centre. Join in the fun with Inflatables, Crafts, Animal handling,  baby area, refreshments and more. Contact organiser Kirsty Maxwell on 0300 300 8112 or at [email protected].

We have been inviting many people to our opening ceremony – including the local press who have responded by spreading the word.

You can see here the response from Biggleswade Today