Wedding string quartet at Eastnor church
Also in the lake, there's an
island which is evidently the remains of the original house, Castle ditch, but
I'm not sure which this is, I've only read about it. I've deviated again, haven't
I. Sorry. Let's get back to weddings. Eastnor church is in the small village
that was built as part of the Eastnor Estates, which lies right at the entrance
to reasonable Castle itself. The full title of the church is, the church of St
John the Baptist, Eastnor, Herefordshire. At a guess, though I don't know the
real statistics, about one third of the weddings seem to be church weddings, and
most of these are held at Eastnor church, though some church weddings take place
at Ledbury parish church and other churches in the area.
Indeed, the church in Ledbury,
St Michael and all Angels, is a very attractive building that can be approached
from the town centre by passing Ledbury's historic market Hall, a
black-and-white building on stilts that once used to host civil wedding
ceremonies, (I've played with my string quartet there for civil weddings many,
many years ago), but sadly no longer in use because of ever more stringent
access requirements for wheelchairs and the like. The market Hall is accessed up
a stairway that is relatively steep, and there's no way of getting a wheelchair
there. I believe the local authority considered putting a lift to the upper
level, but fortunately, because it would have totally ruined this historic
building, they didn't do that. Instead, they stopped using the room for civil
ceremonies. To my way of thinking this is tragic and not right. It is vital to
have access for everyone, but in my belief this has to be tempered to being
where it is practical. As long as it is made clear that if there is a wedding
ceremony held in the market Hall, that there is no wheelchair access, then it
should be up to the bride and groom to determine whether this would affect any
of their guests and whether it is appropriate to hold the ceremony in the market
Hall audition alternative venue. Because of the rules and regulations it means
that nobody under any circumstances can have the delight of using this historic
building. This seems totally unfair, as if the pendulum has swung from one
extreme of perhaps thirty or forty years ago when disabled access was rarely
considered, to the other extreme. Surely we should have something that is the
best compromise for all concerned? So, back to Ledbury's parish
church, St Michael and all Angels. Having passed the market Hall that I've just
been ranting about, you walk up this totally ridiculously picturesque and
wonderful cobbled street that leads to the church. It is a favourite view for
artists, and there must be innumerable depictions of the street with the church
just visible at the end, in watercolours, oils, acrylics, pastels and just about
any medium that you can think of. (The street also does pass an excellent
patisserie and coffeehouse that is run by a genuine French pastry chef, and on
the other side an excellent old-fashioned pub that sells a range of superb local
real ales and some really good continental lagers, not the insipid stuff that is
brewed in this country and sold in so many pubs around the UK.) I've played for a few weddings
at this church over the past years, but also have given chamber music concerts
at various times in the chapel that is to one side of the main body of the
church. It's a large chapel and conceit quite a decent sized audience, but has
the intimacy that is necessary for chamber music. But most of the wedding
ceremonies take place at Eastnor church. St John the Baptist's is just a little
way of the village green, and has litigate and a nice walk up to the church door
which is made use of by the wedding photographer that hopefully takes lots of
pictures of the bride, groom, family and guests to give time for the string
quartet to pack up their instruments and move, father side door, back to Eastnor
Castle to set up in the great hall for when guests arrive. There is evidence that there
has been a church on the site since the twelfth century, though it is likely
that there had been an earlier wooden Saxon church either on the same site or
nearby, and there is a Saxon church building in Ledbury, just a couple of miles
away. Most of what can be seen today dates from the fourteenth century, but much
of it was taken down and rebuilt in 1851. As one would expect stately homes and
their estate villages, the restoration and rebuilding was funded by Earl Somers. Of particular relevance, from
the musical point of view, is the Nicholson organ that was presented by the
third Earl Somers and was built locally in Worcester in 1867. More and more
churches are losing their original pipe organs because the cost of maintaining
them and are going over to electronic organs, many of which are extremely good.
At Eastnor church they have stuck with the pipe organ and had it restored by the
original builders in 2005 after having raised £40,000. It is still in good
condition, but it is a small organ compared with the cathedral organs that
brides and grooms listen to their favourite piece of musical when they buy a
wedding CD. We often play at the church with one of our string quartets, either
in conjunction with the organ, or sometimes instead of the organ. Typically the
string quartet would play for half an hour as guests arrive, for the entrance of
the bride (processional), during the signing of the register which sometimes is
long enough for a couple of piece of music to be played, and then as the bride
and groom make their exit (recessional). If there is an organist, they would
place the hymns, though we have had string quartets playing for the hymns at the
church on a few occasions. If there is an organist, it is
usually better for them to play the hymns because congregations are notoriously
reluctant to sing, or if they are enthusiastic singers they tend to drag and
slow down so that the whole him can grind to a halt. The organ, by dint of its
volume and location right by the first row of congregation, is a good tool to
drag people along and force them to keep going. If the string quartet is doing
this task. They really need to be positioned at the front of the church, close
to the first row of the congregation so that the leader can eyeball the most
enthusiastic looking people, and use their bow to conduct them and can give them
encouragement looks to persuade them to sing loudly and drag everybody else
along with them. It can be an interesting collaborative effort. When the last guests leave the
church, there is a small door hidden by curtain through which the quartet can
escape their instruments, back music and music stands, to take a small path
through graveyard and escape the wedding photographer and the posing happy
couple and proud parents, to get their car which is normally parked on the green
in the centre of the village and shoot up to the castle to get ready. For those guests and couples
who choose to walk from the church to the castle, and for those bride and grooms
who make the choice and are lucky enough to get good weather, the walk from
Eastnor church to the ground entrance of the castle takes about 5 minutes and is
of a drive flanked by impressive mature trees, turning left through a portcullis
gate (that was also used until a few years ago as the estate office), to the
gravelled area in front of the castle. The view is imposing and picturesque,
designed and built in the best and most extravagant Victorian artistic and
architectural styles. As I said earlier, castle was
built between 1810 and 1824 in the style of the Norman revival, attempting to
create the impression of an edge of the first of all mediaeval fortress of the
type that guarded the Welsh borders. It was an assertion of the power in a
period of fear and uncertainty following the French Revolution and the
Napoleonic wars. I wonder if people start building castles like this again in
the light of BREXIT and the country's desperation to make itself great and
independent as it used to be. A hard call in a world that has changed almost
beyond recognition since this castle was built. The castle does have electric
power and remarkably good heating now, but as if to assert itself and keep
itself in the 1800s, there is no mobile phone signal whatsoever at the castle. More..........