About Where England Began
Welcome to ‘Where England Began’ for facts, history and interesting events around All Saints Church, Kingston Upon Thames
Where England Began Description
Read more about our historic church’s appeal below or click on the link to access our website and get involved with our ‘Buy a Tile’ appeal!
http://www. whereenglandbegan. co. uk /get-involved /buy-a-tile
All Saints Church, Kingston has been at the heart of bustling Kingston Upon Thames for centuries. Rich in history, it is the site of the original Royal Estate around which the town evolved and where the first King of England was crowned in the 10th Century.
Its sense of community has always been one of its greatest strengths, providing space for concerts, local groups and those in need of a sympathetic ear or just a place of peace. There is a daily morning service of tea, coffee and biscuits where all are welcome and on Mondays throughout most of year lunchtime concerts are given by a variety of young and established musicians. Twenty five Saturday evening concerts are also held throughout the year as well as a plethora or other events.
Our Where England Began appeal and development will create a Heritage project in the church- supported with a grant of £899, 000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund and £498, 000 from the Mayor of London’s Outer London Fund- to tell Kingston’s Royal Saxon story and explain the development of the town.
We will also bring essential improvements to the church’s facilities including toilets, light, heat, simple refreshments etc so that it can better serve as a place of community exchange, service, culture, reflection and worship.
On the north lawn we will erect a community building to deliver services for young people, those with disabilities, visitors, community groups and those with medical needs by working with a diverse range of partners including the Royal Borough of Kingston, Kingston College, the Primary Care Trust, the Business Improvement District and local voluntary organisations. The new building will house a social enterprise café and will be a venue for employment, education and volunteering.
The remainder of our grounds will be re-landscaped to enhance this largest piece of green space in the centre of the Town.
To get involved, visit our website or drop into the church…
http://www. whereenglandbegan. co. uk /
All Saints Church
Market Place
KINGSTON UPON THAMES
KT1 1JP
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Don't forget you can help us raise money at no cost to yourself by using http://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/askdeve lopmenttrust whenever you shop online. It's even easier now you can download a reminder app which means you never miss a fundraising opportunity.
Order tickets via Eventbrite: http://www.eventbrite.com/e/berkshire-bra ss-and-all-saints-…
Berkshire Brass and the renowned choir of All Saints Church Kingston join forces for a varied programme of music from Brahms to Rutter by way of Rimsky-Korsakov. The concert is in aid of the ASK Choirstalls Appeal. (ASK - All Saints Kingston Development Trust - is a registered charity, no 1416858.) A licensed bar will be available during the interval.
Much merriment is had at the annual ASK Burns Night celebration - even better than before this year in our wonderful new surroundings.
Local art group The Artful Dodgers are staging an exhibition of their paintings in All Saints Church during January. Many paintings are for sale, and the artists have kindly agreed to donate 20% of all sales proceeds to the ASK development fund.
Don't miss our Spectacular Stained Glass event on Tues 28th Oct, 10am-2pm. Create your own stained glass tealight holder, explore All Saints stained glass windows using our spotter sheets, design your own stained glass window and lots more! For accompanied children of all ages
A selection of photographs taken at the service to mark the completion of works on the church (and at the reception beforehand and the party afterwards!).
On 5 May all Kingston turns out in celebration and we won't be any exception! The main attraction in the stunningly redecorated church will be a huge book sale, with over 600 cookery books alone - many of them from the USA. There will also be a stamp counter, and (of course) tea and coffee and home-made cakes. Proceeds will be split equally between our development fund and the church's contribution to good causes.
Fantastic news that Viridor Credits have offered us a further grant of £196,000. Together with the news (received last month) that the Heritage Lottery Fund have agreed to give us a further £250,000, that leaves us within £100,000 of the sum we need to complete the building works this summer. Time for one last push! Good to see the Surrey Comet running with the story too - http://www.surreycomet.co.uk/…/11125300 .Further_funding_bo…/
The massed choirs sing Gary Barlow's "Sing" in a rousing finale to tonight's community choir concert in the refurbished nave. Many thanks to all involved for a fantastic evening.
Until now the roof of All Saints Church has been one of its hidden glories. The combination of poor lighting and dreary decoration meant that few visitors discovered the wonderful angels and other carvings that have looked down on us for so many years. Now, as part of our refurbishment project, we are putting that to rights. The angels are being gilded and we are painting some of the timbers to bring out the detail of the carving more clearly. You can see the early results in our picture - although the full effect will not be apparent until we have our new lighting scheme in place.
If you haven’t been watching the BBC4 series on King Alfred and the Anglo-Saxons you’ve been missing a treat. It is excellently researched, with lots of new material and insights, and extremely well presented. Later tonight, Tuesday 20 August at 9.00 pm, the series reaches our own King Athelstan – crowned at Kingston, and the first man who could properly be called King of England. If you’ve ever wondered why we call ourselves the place where England began, this programme will tell you why. Definitely not to be missed!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b038118n< br>
Many thanks to Karen Mayo and Sweetbriar Cakes, Bakes & Makes for this amazing cake for our Angels Tea Party. It tasted as heavenly as it looked!
We're on TV - again! Don’t miss Michael Wood’s excellent series of programmes for BBC4 about King Alfred and his successors. Athelstan, the subject of the third programme, was of course the first man who could properly be called King of England and he was crowned right here, on the site of what is now All Saints Church. The series starts on Tuesday 6 August at 9.00 pm and the second and third episodes are at the same time on subsequent Tuesdays (13 and 20 August). - See more at: http://www.whereenglandbegan.co.uk/tv-aga in…
A peep behind the hoardings currently shrouding the north wall of the church shows the new North Porch taking shape. For years people have overlooked this magnificent church in the centre of Kingston because it presents a blank wall to the main shopping street. No more - from now on the welcome that we have always offered visitors will be more evident no matter which side of the building you approach!
Work is also proceeding apace inside the church: the organ has been remov...ed to storage and we are now starting to prepare the floor for replacement. We still hope to be back into the nave for Christmas - but we still need help to complete the final stage of work in the East End. If you've been thinking of supporting us by buying a tile or, even better, becoming an angel, now is the time to turn your intentions into action - just follow these links:
To buy a tile: http://www.whereenglandbegan.co.uk/get-in volved/buy-a-tile
To become an angel: http://donate.whereenglandbegan.co.uk/
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Listen out for the bells of All Saints this evening as they ring to welcome the Royal arrival.
We can also reveal that to mark this auspicious occasion we will be making the new Prince an honorary cherub. If you have a new arrival of your own to celebrate, what better way of marking it than make the babe a cherub? More details at http://donate.whereenglandbegan.co.uk/
We have a new door! Well, not a door exactly. But a doorway, certainly. Behind the scaffolding can be seen the masonry of the new north entrance to the church. A couple of weeks ago this was simply a hole, and for two hundred years before that it was solid wall.
With work now proceeding apace in the nave, we are still on target to complete all the works west of the crossing - new doors, new vestry/information room, new floor, new heating, decoration and (of course) toilet...s - before Christmas. That will leave only the East End. We are now tantalisingly close to completing the renovation of this magnificent church, but we still need to raise about a million pounds to be able to keep the contractors on site when the present phase is finished. You can help by becoming an angel (http://donate.whereenglandbegan.co.uk/) - we have vacancies at all levels from cherubs and seraphs to archangels and kings - or by encouraging friends to support this historic project.
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If you're not doing anything else this Sunday evening, come along to sip a glass of wine by the side of the Thames while the Arcadia Quartet play Haydn and Mendelssohn as the sun goes down. (And just in case the sun stays in, we're indoors.) 7.30 at the Tamesis Club, Trowlock Way, Broom Road Teddington TW11 9QY. Tickets only £15 (£6 under 16) to include your first glass of wine and a light bite. If you've been to previous Strings by the River events you will need no urging: if you haven't, come and see what you have been missing.
See our banners at the Kingston Business Expo at Kingston University Business School, Kingston Hill. Open till 3pm today only.
Here the mayor of Kingston opens the Expo introduced by Jerry Irving Chief Exec of Kingston Chamber and Neil Latham of Kingston University