As 2025 draws to an end we wanted to send out a huge THANK YOU to everyone who has supported FoSP this year! Through events alone, we raised over £5,000 this year - a staggering amount - all of which goes towards the repair, maintenance and preservation of our St Peter's Church in the heart of Titchfield Village!
As a reminder of all of the wonderful things we have celebrated together this year, please see some of our highlights below:
We kicked off the year in March, setting sail to "Titchfield-by-the-Sea", an evening of Fish'n'Chips, sea shanties and a nautical quiz! A huge thanks goes to The Titchfield Whalers who treated us to a variety of traditional sea shanties familiar to many and with a good excuse to have an old fashioned sing song - Aye Aye Captain!
We held our annual AGM in June and it was great to see so many faces in attendance at St Peter's Church where we re-capped the 2024-2025 financial year and former Chair Mary Yearley handed over to new Chair Pam Pritchard who gave some really valuable updates in terms of what we raised throughout the year and what exciting and necessary projects we donated to too.
A huge thank you to Mary for her dedicated work to the FoSP charity! We also took the opportunity to formally say a big thank you to Pat Shirley for her years of service to FoSP!
In September we held a "Jazz in the Barn" evening - back for the first time since 2022 by popular demand! Another huge thank you goes to Atlantic Jazz who blew us away with a repertoire of classic and modern jazz standards in the beautiful venue of The Great Barn. I hope you can agree that it was a beautiful venue - do let us know if you have any ideas for more events you would like to see in the future!
The Madding Crowd in the Church
Then in December, we were treated to not one but two amazing festive events. Firstly we had our Georgian Christmas evening on 13th December - a wonderful evening of traditional music, readings and a mummers play, reminiscent of how the festive period would have been celebrated in Titchfield all those years ago. Another huge thanks goes to The Madding Crowd for entertaining us!
The conservation of these historic traditions requires a huge amount of time and dedication so not only was it a real privilege to see these efforts in action, we also felt it reflected the same values as we try to at FoSP; preserving history for future generations!
And lastly, to conclude our year, we held the annual Titchfield tradition of "Carols Around the Tree" - although unlike other years the weather tried to scupper our plans so it was held instead inside our beautiful St Peters Church! The committee did a stellar job in making lots of last minute changes to accomodate the inclement weather, setting up the church with a candle walkway entrance and the continued tradition of warm mulled wine and mince pies. Our last huge thank you goes to Solent Community Choir who treated us to a wonderful performance and got in the festive spirit.
Looking ahead to 2026, please pencil in your diaries the 7th June for the return of our Open Gardens! We have the return of many of last year's amazing gardens plus the promise of some new gardens to look around. Further details will be released in the New Year. Please start crossing your fingers for good weather!
Lastly, a huge thank you to the FoSP Committee and everyone who has volunteered their time and efforts to help arrange events during the year and help raise money for our beloved church building!
As ever we hope to continue to facilitate open communication, so please reach out if you would like to be involved, if you have any suggestions for next year or if you would like to hear any more about the work that we do!
From everyone here at FoSP, we hope that you have had a restful and joyous festive period and we wish you a healthy and happy year ahead. We hope to continue to bring you exciting new events that raise us money for St Peter's Church so that it can continue to be celebrated for generations to come!