Saturday 13th July saw the opening of a two day art exhibition in St Michael’s Church as part of the Great Gidding Gala Week festivities. There was a wide range of high quality work from numerous villagers and also displays by Great Gidding School and the After School Club.
Thank you to all who took part and to the organisers for putting on such a good show.
A good number of Gidding residents spent a delightful morning attending the joyous ceremony of Aarti at the Bharat Hindu Samaj in Peterborough. Following the ceremony – in which we were all invited to take part – our very knowledgeable guide for the morning, Gita, explained the Hindu philosophy and gave us a brief introduction to the role of Brahma and the nine, so far, reincarnations of Vishnu.
Following drinks the party then departed to Spicelands for lunch (unfortunately I can’t report on that because we had to go back to work! But I bet it was lovely).
Krystyna
The first Giddings event of Gala Week kicked off with a wonderful tour yesterday evening of Anglo Saxon Great Gidding, led by archaeology historian Josie Barnacle and ably aided by Patrick Ellis.
Instead of peering over the gates, it was a delight to be able to walk across fields that had been opened especially for the event and to see the location of the old windmill, hollow ways and indications of Anglo Saxon housing platforms. The sun shone as we wandered along the old road, sloping down from the site of the windmill to where the open marketplace had once bustled.
Further round and we saw part of the moat that possibly once encircled an old manor house, from there leading on to St Michael’s Church via Church Lane – now commonly known to all as ‘the jitty’ (or should we spell that with a ‘g’ as we’re in GG).
Josie had handed out maps at the start of the walk – some dating from 1641 and others from a later date, so it was very interesting to follow our track and see how the settlement had expanded away from the original location. Many facts, stories and anecdotes were imparted throughout the walk and many thanks to the Gala committee and Michael & Julie for tip top refreshments at the end of the walk.
