As Teddington Parish gears up to celebrate its 800th birthday, event organiser Anne McTear outlines what’s in store
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When I meet new people in Teddington I often wonder, ‘are you from here?’ or ‘have you chosen to be from here?’
A lot of the time, like me, people have moved to Teddington, adopted it as home, chosen to bring up their families surrounded by the lovely parks, river, shops, schools and of course the people. And luckily, the families who have lived here for generations are generous enough to tolerate the rest of us because they can see that we appreciate all the things they already knew were great.
And so here I am, an ‘interloper’ myself, about to tell you all about this year’s special event: 2017 marks Teddington’s 800th birthday. It’s our Octocentenary, meaning that if King John had signed the Magna Carta just a couple of years later, he could have popped into a deli/café in Tedders for a posh hot beverage on his way home from Runnymede.
I am chair of the organising committee of celebratory events and like all the best serendipitous stories, we came across the 800 discovery by accident while we were trying to do something completely different and – despite the fact that it’s been coming for 800 years – it rather crept up on us.
There are lots of wonderful churches now in Teddington, I’m part of St Mary with St Alban, which happens to be the original Parish church. It’s beautiful, historic and Godly but highly impractical in that it has no modern facilities (as the heritage people call it). That’s a loo and a kettle to you and me. We were looking into whether a grant to build such essentials might be possible and decided to check out some historic documents. And this is what we found:
‘In 1217, for the first time the Abbot of Westminster was asked to present to the Bishop of London ‘a suitable chaplain, with maintenance, for ‘Tudinton’.’
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And so it was for the first time that Teddington became a parish and was established as a place with an identity of its own, a community with a church at the heart of it. Naturally we at the church thought that this was too good an opportunity to miss.
As an American friend of mine would say: “go big or go home”. Well, we’re doing both, we’re going big – at home! We’re celebrating with a six-month festival between June and November. And we’ve been lucky enough to receive a modest Heritage Lottery sharing grant to make that happen. Naturally we could always do with a bit more sponsorship, so if your business is feeling community minded and generous, do get in touch – we’d use it extremely well and be very grateful!
Fun aside, this year is about more than just a party. It’s about togetherness and helping everyone engage with local heritage. Hopefully it will also leave behind a legacy to strengthen the town so that when Teddington is 801, 802 or 810 we can confidently say that everyone here has a better understanding of its development – of who Traherne, Hales, Blackmore, Alan Turing, Noel Coward, Benny Hill, Lord North, Langdon Down and others were – that more people visit our historic buildings or Royal Parks and river and that more families engage in sport.
Perhaps most importantly of all, it will show that the community has grown significantly and established strong bonds to set us up for the next 800 years.
What’s on over June
Teddington 800 will officially begin at 6.30pm on Sunday June 11 and current Dean of Westminister Abbey – whose predecessor in 1217 created our new parish – will be kicking things off.
- Launch Service with the Dean of Westminister Abbey, June 11, 6.30pm,St Mary with St Alban
- Flower Festival & Churchyard Teas June 10–11, 2-6pm, St Mary with St Alban. View magnificent displays representing Visions of Teddington, hear talks from a local historian and sample delicious homemade cakes in the pretty churchyard.
- Teddington in Flower & Open Gardens June 11, 2-6pm. Thanks to The Teddington Society, showcase private gardens will open to the public fora small charity donation. See teddingtonsociety.org for details.
- From Every Seed Floral Art Exhibit June 1–17, Landmark Arts Centre.To compliment the Flower Festival – a celebration of floral art. M-F 9.30am-12.30pm, Sat 11am-3pm.
- Midsummer Mystery, June 22, 7pm, Teddington Library. Murder Mystery evening: The Glass Room. Contact the Library for tickets.
- The Teddington Pram Race June 27, 1pm. See teams dress up and race from The Masons Arms to the Village Fair. Our Teddington 800 team is called ‘Beer on a Bier’(we’ll be handling out beer from our old funeral cart – a ‘bier’).
- Teddington Fair June 25, 12-6pm, Udney Hall Gardens, Langham Road.Entertainment, ice creams, bouncy castles, pony rides, A day in a woman’s life in 1217 plus a Timeline of Science from NPL. Free.
Visit: teddington800.org.uk or see @Teddinton800 on FB.
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