MONTHLY UPDATE FROM SIMON

January 2026

Dear Friends

Happy New Year to you all!

The year 1576 was not a happy one here in Harting.  Sometime that year a fire broke out at the parish church, and it was quickly engulfed by flames.  We can imagine everyone looking on in horror, powerless to intervene.  The church was the centre of their life and the most prominent local building.  But now, before their eyes, it was reduced to a roofless, smouldering shell. 

1576 was about midway through the reign of Good Queen Bess.  Shakespeare was still in his adolescence.  Francis Drake was about to sail round the world.  During the next decade he would defeat the Armada.  Life for most people was nasty, brutish and short.  Disaster always lurked around the corner.  And there was no means of insuring against it.

Somehow, the people of Harting found the will and the resources to rebuild their church. They could have abandoned it, but instead they chose to enlarge it and make it even more beautiful than before.  The nave was made taller.  The crossing was remodelled.  And - most glorious of all - a magnificent new chancel roof was constructed, supported on a framework of beams reminiscent of a great Tudor Hall. 

How did they accomplish something so ambitious?  Was it their own work or did they recruit craftsmen?  How did they pay for it?  One of the chancel beams still bears the date 1577.  How did they complete it so quickly?  We will never know the answers to these questions, but their achievement was remarkable.  450 years later we are privileged to have a parish church of immense dignity and distinction.

The PCC wants to celebrate this anniversary – 450 years since the fire of 1576 – in a way that will involve the whole local community.  The church is your church; it was your forebears who enabled its renaissance.  You may not be C of E, you may not be religious, but the church still belongs to you.  It is the symbol and the container of our local history.  Its doors are open every day of the year.

Special events will be taking place at the church this year under the heading of ‘Harting 450’, and we hope that you will come and enjoy them.  They have been designed to appeal to a wide variety of tastes, from choral evensong to Pink Floyd, from maypole dancing to a string quartet.  It will be exciting to use the church in such different ways and to enable more people to come and feel part of it.

Below is the programme of events.  Please note them carefully and look out for details as the year progresses.  Shakespeare himself said that ‘ruin'd love when it is built anew / grows fairer than at first, more strong, far greater.’  450 years ago our ruined church was built anew, and from the ashes of the fire emerged a building ‘more strong, far greater’ than its predecessor.  For that we are profoundly thankful.

With my prayers and best wishes

Simon

Harting 450

Here are the special events that have been planned to mark 450 years since the restoration of the parish church after the disastrous fire of 1576.  Exact timings of the events will be given in due course.

Saturday 14th March at 4pm

Choral Evensong sung by the Choir of Chichester Cathedral at 4pm. The Dean of Chichester, Dr Edward Dowler, will preach. Drinks will be served after the service.

Friday 24th April

‘Elizabethan Sussex’: a talk by Dr Caroline Adam, preceded by Tudor music played by the Hampshire Recorder Sinfonia.

Saturday 23rd May

First Eucharist of Pentecost celebrated by the Bishop of Chichester.

The weekend of 23rd to 25th May (the Festivities weekend) will be marked by a Flower Festival and by the ringing of a Quarter Peal of Bells.

Saturday 20th June

‘Strings and Pimms’: a midsummer concert by acclaimed London quartet, Icon Strings.

Saturday 4th July

Elizabethan Family Fun Afternoon, with a storyteller, children’s archery, maypole dancing and more...

Saturday 18th July

Elizabethan Holy Communion (1559 Prayer Book to the setting of Merbecke) celebrated in conjunction with the Prayer Book Society.  The Archdeacon of Chichester will preach.

Saturday 12th September

Atom Heart Floyd:  a performance by the South Coast’s leading Pink Floyd tribute band. 

Saturday 4th October

Decorating the church for the Harvest Festival followed by the planting of 450 bulbs in the churchyard (also the 800th anniversary of the death of St Francis of Assisi).

Wednesday 7th October

‘The Annunciation – a Pilgrim’s Quest’: a talk by Mark Byford, former Deputy Director-General of the BBC - preceded by drinks.

October/November

A Shakespeare performance by members of Winchester Youth Theatre.