On the 11th of November the afternoon starts off at 2.30 pm. Afternoon tea will be served at 3 pm and this will be followed by an afternoon of Reminiscing, Singing , Poetry, Slides/film. The afternoon finishes with playing of the last post and the lighting of the beacon at 7 pm.
Please feel free to come along to the whole afternoon or just part of it. If you wish to attend the afternoon tea please could you either contact Catherine on 270360 or Jill on 714164. We look forward to seeing you.

Saturday 17th November is Heathlands’ Christmas Fair and Saturday 24th November is Blofield Church’s Christmas Fair. We will have a table at both and we look forward to seeing you there.

On Saturday 3rd November there will be a work party to tidy up the churchyard (trim hedges, cut back the brambles etc) from 10.30 am to 1 pm. All help will be gratefully received – no previous experience necessary! Coffee, cake & hot soup provided.

Please get together with friends and book a table for the “Music Mania Quiz Night” plus a light supper to be held at Heathlands on Saturday, 1st December (from 7:15 pm). Tables of up to six people to identify artists and song titles from live intros, film themes and album covers – all from the 1940s – 2000s (so nothing too modern!) THis event is organised by the Friends of All Saints Hemblington and proceeds go to Heathlands and Hemblington Church Repair Fund. Tickets £7.50 from Heathlands or Sue (715804) or David (715933).

At 6 am on Sunday November 11th outside Hemblington Church our organist Rory Marsden will be playing “Battle’s O’er” on the Great Highland Bagpipes. This is part of an event called “Battle’s Over – A Nation’s Tribute” organised by the College of Piping, whose aim is to get 1,000 pipers from all over the world to play this march at 6 am local time.

Please come and listen to the pipes as we join in this solemn and fitting tribute to the sacrifices made by so many people 100 years ago. You’ll need to be at the church by 6 am, as Rory will start promptly. The playing will last only a few minutes. It will go ahead, whatever the weather.

Afterwards there will be a convivial and reviving breakfast in Hemblington Church coffee, croissants, butter, jam etc. Everybody welcome! We will be taking a collection for the “Battle’s Over” charities: The Royal Naval Association, The Royal Air Force Benevolent Fund, The Soldiers’ Charity and The Merchant Navy Association.

On Wednesday, 21st November 12 noon our popular Travellers’ Tales returns starting with an illustrated talk about South Africa, followed by a themed lunch. This event will be held at Hemblington Hall (close to the church), from 12 noon to 2 pm. Tickets £10 each including lunch. Call 270542 to book tickets.

Once again we are throwing a party to celebrate “Light”. It seems such a pity that the darkness of Halloween should be made so much of and the beauty and meaning of light ignored, so for the fifth year running we will be celebrating “The Light”.

This year we are doing things differently. The party will be at Heathlands Community Centre on Sunday October 28th from 4 pm – 6 pm.

There will be the usual mix of games and crafts, including lantern making, apple ducking and marshmallow bobbing followed by a few songs, a prayer and something positive and bright to think about. The party will end with afternoon tea. This event is suitable for everyone aged between 0 and 110 but children must be accompanied by an adult.

For more information contact Jennifer on 01603-716970, email jennifer@prospero3.co.uk.

The next Make and Mardle will be on Tuesday 20th November at Gables Farmhouse, Hemblington Hall Road, Hemblington. It will be at the usual time of 10 am to 12 noon. As always there will be coffee, cake, chat and craft (optional); all are welcome. Call 270360 for more information.

We hope you managed to visit the exhibitions staged in church during Open Churches Week in August, and the Heritage Open Days in September. Joyce Burtenshaw kindly displayed information she had collected about the local men who had fought and died in the conflict and are remembered on the memorial inside the church. We were very fortunate in being able to borrow from the Norfolk Heritage Centre, based at The Forum in Norwich, an exhibition about The Battle of The Somme, starting from Lord Kitchener’s enlistment appeal, through training and equipping the men, to the battle and its aftermath. The Centre also offered a series of photographs and a “handling box” which included a uniform which could be tried on, a cap, a helmet, an entrenching tool, wire cutters and other memorabilia – all very evocative. On Saturday 15th September members of the church community, The Friends of All Saints, and others with a personal interest in the conflict, came together to offer personal family reminiscences and to read poems written during the war and later.

Further commemorations will take place in November, when the actual centenary of the Armistice will be honoured on Sunday, 11th November. Various services and events will be held both at All Saints Church, and at Heathlands Community Centre in Blofield Heath. Details will be publicised shortly.

The First World War memorial in the church will be rededicated in November, as the mis-spelling of one of the combatants’ names has now been rectified. The surname of James Browne had the final “e” missing until funds were recently raised for this to be amended – a small but vital operation to show our respects to this brave man.

The Friends committee is very pleased and proud to let you know that The Friends has won the above award, which was presented on Tuesday 16th July by the sponsors at a ceremony held at The Abbey Conference Centre in Norwich.

The Norfolk Community Biodiversity Partnership offers awards which “celebrate groups and individuals whose voluntary efforts lead to improvements for biodiversity and to greater community engagement with local nature sites. Winning an award is a recognised accolade for efforts to improve the local environment.”

Receiving the Award on behalf of The friends, Joyce Burtenshaw confirmed that managing the churchyards at Hemblington has been a combined effort over many years with groups including Blofield & District Conservation Group (BADCOG), Bure Valley Conservation Group, Friends of All Saints, members of the congregation, Duke of Edinburgh award scheme volunteers and many others all contributing their time, knowledge and experience to make the churchyards a haven for a large variety of wild flowers as well as safe habitats for birds, bees, butterflies and mammals. A huge vote of thanks also goes to the officers of Norfolk Wildlife Trust, for their energy, enthusiasm, knowledge and training sessions which have inspired many to become involved in such projects.

A link to an article in the EDP is: http://www.edp24.co.uk/business/farming/norfolk-community-biodiversity-awards-winners-2018-1-5611953

if you fancy a walk around Hemblington and Pedham, looking out for the answers to the clues, you can find the trail forms in church. £2 ensures a fun couple of hours with some useful exercise thrown in! Give it a go!

If you want to check your answers or find the answer to that clue you could not work out then you can see all the answers here.

As a retirement project, Andrew Hawkins is building a website which takes a virtual tour of places of interest in and around the historic city of Norwich, presented as a series of interactive 360-degree panoramas in which you, the viewer, can ‘turn the camera’ to look left and right and up and down. He has just added a section about Hemblington Church which contains beautiful views of our church. The Hemblington Church entry can be found at:

http://norwich360.com/hemblington.html

But have a look round the rest of the website for interesting insights into our local heritage.

For anyone who is researching family history in the Hemblington area we have a page explaining how you can access our church records.

This can be found here.

Thanks to Paul Brittain of Norfolk360.co.uk you can now experience a 360 degree tour of the inside and outside of our church by using the following links:

View inside All Saints, Hemblington Church on Google Tours

View outside All Saints, Hemblington Church on Google Tours

This is video shows our beautiful church on a lovely summers day in June. Music by the Octagon Singers of Norwich.