Arborfield
Local History Society

 Memories - Centenary Weekend, 1994

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Street Market on Saturday

Flower Festival

Five-a-Side Football

Tug of War

Barn Dance at Farley Farms

Open-Air Church Service

Festival of Motoring

Victorian Cricket Match

Parish Councils across the country celebrated their centenary year in 1994, and Arborfield and Newland did so in style, putting on a full weekend programme on Saturday 9th and Sunday 10th July. It provided a magnificent spectacle and was a truly memorable occasion, as recorded in these sets of photographs.

A competition had been held at the schools to choose artwork for the front and back covers of the programme, and these are shown here:

The theme was a Victorian Weekend, and many people dressed up for the occasion.

The Parish Council Chairman, Martin Cleaver, explained in his Introduction:

"The funds raised will be put into a trust fund to help all our local groups, clubs, schools and organisations as the Parish Council recognises the increasing problems of finance that they face. If we can repeat this weekend on a smaller scale each year we can keep the fund topped up and provide a focus for the village each summer."

However, in spite of massive crowds, fully-booked concerts and barn-dance, the weekend didn't raise this money. It was also at a time when hanging baskets were more of a novelty than they are now, and persons unknown took the lot on the Saturday night. Shame on them. 

Among the activities were:

• Street Market on Saturday (Eversley Rd. closed from Melrose Gardens to Crossroads);

• History Society Exhibition in the Village Hall all weekend;

• Flower Festival at Arborfield Church all weekend;

• Five-a-Side Football at the Park on Saturday;

• Tug of War - after procession of teams to the Park, 3:45 pm Saturday;

• Barn Dance at Farley Farms on Saturday evening;

• Sunday morning Open-Air Church Service at the Junior School.

• Festival of Motoring on the Green, Sunday;

• Victorian Cricket Match at the Park, Sunday;

• Gardens Tour, Sunday afternoon;

• Pet and Dog Show at the Park, Sunday afternoon;

• Musical Evening, Sunday 7 till 11:30 pm at the Garrison.

The Local History Society has hundreds of photos - though it doesn't have any 'still' photographs of the History Exhibition or the Musical Evening - if you have any, we'd love to hear from you.  Also, if you can provide fuller descriptions for photographs, please let us know.

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