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St Peter’s Church in Parwich saw a good sized congregation to welcome the Bishop of Repton, The Rt. Rev’d Humphrey Southern, who dedicated the Annunciation or ‘Graham’ window and the replica tympanum and turned the first sod for the Garden of Remembrance.

The Service began in the churchyard beside the tympanum.

Where Christopher explained the significance of the original Parwich Tympanum, while the sun shone through a gap in the clouds.  We then returned into the Church.  The Service had as it theme “A thousand years of religious art in Parwich“, with an historical introduction to the Tympanum  by Andrew Robinson supported by Parwich children illustrating and explaining each of the animals depicted (see the board in the Church and St Peter’s Church web-pages for more details).  Then Denis Laycock introduced the new window with a fascinating account of the Grahams, which is reproduced in full here:

It is a privilege to have been invited to give a brief introduction to the new Annunciation Window.

I first met Miss Graham in January 1974. I had just taken up my appointment as the new Head at Parwich school and in those days we paid our dinner money takings into an account at the PO each Monday morning, I remember most clearly lifting the Suffolk latch on the side door of what is now Sunnyside, hearing a loud tingling from the bell and walking back into the past. A high polished counter with brass scales. A set of Raphael Tuck’s Parwich Postcards displayed on the wall opposite, various notices and the paraphernalia of a PO, a cat on the counter, but most of all, this rather tall, elegant lady with the most wonderful smile.

A few years later, when Hannah Hauxwell became such a celebrity, I always thought of her and Miss Graham as very similar: two quietly spoken, highly intelligent, caring people, who had both quietly got on with their maybe somewhat humble work, looking after in one case the family business, in another the family farm.

How well Gray put it in his ‘Elegy written in a Country Churchyard:
Full many a gem of purest ray serene
The dark unfathom’d caves of ocean bear:
Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,
And waste its sweetness on the desert air.

“So you will be the new Headmaster,” she said in that lovely soft voice of hers. I had met Miss Graham.

When the search began for an artist to create this window, we looked at a number of web sites of stained glass artists. One person stood out, and when Roger Graham, the Vicar, the Churchwardens and the PCC came back together, we were all agreed that Meg Lawrence’s work was just what we wanted.

And the subject seemed so apt. That pivotal point in the story of Jesus’ birth, when the Archangel Gabriel announces that God has chosen her, Mary, a simple country girl, to be the Mother of Jesus. How terrifying it must have been.

The window is a most beautiful representation of this story. It took a great deal of planning, with Meg submitting sketches, visiting and talking with us here in Parwich, adjusting sketches to satisfy the scrutiny of the Diocesan Advisory Board, until what we see before us was produced: a vivid beautifully coloured representation of Gabriel , delivering his message, leaning on the back of Mary’s chair. A rare picture produced with real sensitivity for the subject and the church in which it is now placed.

I doubt if Mary Graham’s parents ever announced to her in such a dramatic way that she was the one who would be expected to carry on the family business as postmistress and help run the home as they became older. It just became accepted, one of those things. They had already lost one son, John, in the full bloom of youth at the tender age of 18. The elder, Frederick William, known in the family as Billy, had gone off to train as a teacher and went on to follow a distinguished career in education, leaving Mary the one to remain at home helping her parents, and working in Parwich Post Office, as well as from time to time, several others in the area. In all Mary worked at Parwich Post Office from 1915 to 1984, a total of 69 years.

And her mother, the second person commemorated by this window, what of her? I never met her or knew her, but, of course, I have heard a great deal about her. She was a ‘big churchwoman’ and by that I mean she was very much involved with St Peter’s and its work: the MU, the PCC, church flowers, altar linen, and so forth. And she was very very fond of cats. Not a cat, but cats: up to 21 of them. She was a formidable lady, not to be trifled with. She did not like parents lifting children up and seating them on the counter, even though a cat was allowed to sit there all day long. And she was not afraid to roll her sleeves up and do things herself. When Roger lent me several family postcards – a real delight for me – I came across one to her son Billy which told how Slater (the postman) had returned from Alsop where he had been unable to open the post box. “I went to look at it, and soon had it open of course.’

Behind that lovely lilting gentle voice and that beautiful smile, Mary Graham had the same steely determination. Roger once offered to buy her a new fridge; Miss Graham felt she did not need one. He tried to insist. “You can buy me one, but I won’t use it,’ she told him. He gave in.

Of course, we have not mentioned Mr Graham yet: after all, this window is in memory of the two postmistresses of Parwich, Elizabeth but always known as Beatrice, & Mary Graham. But it would be remiss of us not to mention him at all, because he was always there, quietly in the background, working away on his smallholding and supporting the ladies. And he is, in his own way, remembered in the window. Look closely at the lovely little cameos around the margins. There are the pigs, for Fred Graham and his Parwich Large Whites were duly famed and much sought after. They even featured in a national advert for Silcock’s Pig Meals. And the cows are there too, the cows which Fred milked up at Townhead before carrying the milk home in pails on his yoke.

The other cameos also feature aspects for which the Grahams will be long remembered in the village: there are the cats, of course, post-boxes, and the robin. Why a robin? Quite simply because Miss Graham had a pet robin. It flew into the house, perched on the back of chairs, fed on crumbs off the table. Mind you, in a house of cats, it must have lived a somewhat precarious existence.

Meg Lawrence has truly produced a wonderful picture, illustrating that central point of the story of Jesus in such a beautiful and clear way. And at the same time it draws together strands of the two ladies in whose memory it was created. Those two ladies are very much a part of the tradition, the folklore of our village. They were two formidable ladies, strong and forthright, who lived out their lives in Parwich. Between them they ran the post office here for
no fewer than 69 years. With the passing of the years they may well have begun to pass from village memory. But not now, because we have this most wonderful permanent reminder of their lives and their work here in Parwich, in the form of this window.

Until now we have always referred to it in the PCC as the Annunciation window, bit I feel sure that with the passage of time, it will become to be known simply as ‘The Graham Window‘.

The actual dedications then took place (and while not wanting to to sound surprised, I was most impressed by the ammount of knowledge His Grace had gathered on the particulars of our local people, and our church and its history).

(photo taken after the Service)

Then followed with prayers led by Rev. Tim Morris, Minister of Ashbourne Methodist Circuit.  It is positive to see the continuing growth in the already strong links between the Methodist and Anglican communities in Parwich.

Bishop Humphrey’s sermon, starting from the point of the Flower Festival and the advertising slogan “Say it with Flowers“, explored the idea of communication through all the different mediums and including the ancient and modern art in our Church.  As he moved from the specifics of Parwich out into the wider world, we were reminded of the importance of communication both in the wider Church and in life in general.

 
(Roger Graham, whose generosity made this window possible, with the Bishop, the Vicar and Denis after the Service by the Graham Window)

Then the following the Blessing, the Service ended as it had begun in the churchyard; this time at the far (east) end of the churchyard where the new Garden of Remembrance is to be created.  Here people will be able to bring and commemorate the ashes of their loved ones.

The Bishop, complaining he was not suitably attired for manual work turned the first sod, and Christopher, the Vicar, gave an account of the plans and financial support which have made this Garden of Remembrance for all a possibility:

When Lynette Coyne moved to Parwich in 1986, it was with the enthusiasm of her parents Lyn and Joan Lloyd-Davies. Although they grew up in Yorkshire, they had made their home after the war, first in Canada and later in Maine and Florida in America.

But they returned to England most summers in their later years to see two of their daughters – Lynette and Pauline.

And Lyn and Joan were with Lynette when she discovered Church Cottage. They equally fell in love with Parwich and its community. During their visits, they became regular worshippers here at St Peter’s. They made good friends and Lyn made occasional gifts such as a donation for the repair of the church steps.

Joan died in 2004 and it was their joint wish that their ashes should find a resting place in this beautiful village and churchyard.

Lyn, on his last visit to Parwich after Joan’s death, spent his days drawing up a plan for this Garden of Remembrance. As an aeronautics engineer, he had learned the skills of a draughtsman at college at the beginning of his successful career.

Lyn, who died in 2006, has made this Garden of Remembrance possible for the village. Today, we mark the beginning of work on its creation

Thank you to John F-S for the excellent photos above.