Prime Minister Theresa May was among hundreds of visitors who flocked to the Christmas Tree Festival in St Mary’s Church last week.
The festival ran from Thursday until Sunday and Mrs May took time out from her Brexit issues to inspect every one of the 79 decorated trees on display.
“Mrs May is a loyal supporter of the festival,” explained Paul Bromley who, with wife Pam, organises the biannual event at the Station Road church in Twyford.
“Together with our vicar, the Revd Anna Harwood, I showed Mrs May round.
“She took a great interest in the different organisations that had decorated the trees and, in total, spent close to an hour with us, staying to listen to the Polehampton Infants School Choir sing carols before being presented with a traditional Christingle orange to mark the 50th anniversary of The Children’s Society.”
He added: “This has probably been our most successful festival yet with around 3,500 visitors. When the event first started we went out to village groups and invited them to take part. Now they approach us asking to be given space for a tree.”
More good news for the organisers was that a Saturday evening concert, entitled A Taste of Christmas, was sold out in advance with nearly 200 people snapping up tickets.
The concert was a mix of seasonal and year-round favourites. Performers included classical singers accompanied by Jo Miller-Shepherd, soloists from Berkshire College of Agriculture’s performing arts group and the Thames Valley Chorus male barbershop choir.
Proceeds from the festival are distributed among a number of charities.
