Our 2022 in pictures

A post I meant to get around to writing in January but never did…

2022 was our first ‘normal’ year of events since the start of the pandemic, and it was great to see everyone out enjoying the town again after such a difficult few years. In March we celebrated Charter Day and June saw an extra special Midsummer Fayre, brought forward a week to coincide with the late Queen’s Jubilee and a visit from our French twin town. A big thank you to Wellington Town Council, Anthony’s of Wellington, Chadstone Accountancy and DB Roberts Estate Agents for being our sponsors and making these events possible.

The Jubilee injected some extra money into the Fayre with the town council extending the event up into New Street, so there was a real festival feel across the town as our French guests – and some of H2A’s own guests from across the globe – came to mark this historic weekend with us. There was, inevitably, a royal theme to our usual daftness – at midday a line of historic monarchs promenaded out of the church as the brass band played Rule Britannia, culinary with the Queen herself appearing on a rickshaw driven by a beefeater – yet in spite of all being a bit kitsch, there were moments when it was quite emotional. We honoured our twin town guests by singing La Marseilles – hands down the most stirring national anthem there is – and followed it with God Save The Queen. At the time I reminded the crowd that we’d been singing these words for 70 years but wouldn’t sing them for ever – just a few months later that moment came and we now sing God Save the King. I am so glad that on that day in June we got to say a public thank you to the Queen as part of our celebrations.

In the evening we headed up to Little Wenlock, again with the French contingent, for our annual post-Fayre ceilidh and supper night. The catering came courtesy of our main event sponsor and H2A colleague Tony Nicholls (Anthony’s of Wellington). Which is a good point at which to thank our other 2022 sponsors Chadstone Accountants and DB Roberts Estate Agents – we couldn’t have hosted the Fayre without them, the town council, or of course our friends at All Saints Church.

Later in the summer we partnered up with the town council again, this time to host our live music Saturdays ‘Sounds in The Square’.

So, just for the archive, here are some scenes from our 2022…