Datchelor carols in the heart of London

Those of my regular blog readers will remember that some years ago I attended the 125th anniversary of my old school's old girls club in London. It was such a lavish occasion held at the Clothworker's Hall in London. If you missed that post this is the link

My wonderful old school sadly shut its doors forever in 1981 and every year since then there has been an annual carol service held at St. Olave's Church in London. This article is a lovely write up of my old school.  

Every year I have tried to make the service and every year something has come up or the weather has been awful (last year it snowed) but this year I was finally able to make it. I was originally going with my Mum and my BF Karen (both fellow Datchlelor old girls). Sadly both had to pull out but I was determined to go anyway so I set off on Sunday afternoon to make the journey to St.Olave's church.

This amazing medieval church is nestle between modern skyscrapers round the block from Tower Hill tube.

This road name had me giggling to myself.

How unassuming is the entrance to the church yard.....but how cool are those skulls! Charles Dickens described this as "The churchyard of St. Ghastly grim!"

I did study a bit of Latin but even my husband who has an excellent command of Latin struggled to translate this. Google came to the rescue and it means"For me to live is Christ, to die is gain". The date is 1658 when the church yard was rebuilt. Samuel Pepys walked though this gateway into the tiny churchyard, with his wife on his way to the Sunday service. It is an incredible hidden gem in London and the church is thought to date from 1056 however the original building was wooden. It was rebuilt in 1450 in stone and survived the great fire of London in 1666. 300 plague victims were buried here which is why the South entrance is below ground level. The church was severely damaged by bombing in the 2nd world war but enough survived to restore it to full glory in the 1950s. This is now a listed building. 

 Samuel Pepys and his wife are buried in the church. 

He even has a street named after him

This was the entrance I took to the church

a lovely Christmas tree greeted me in the porch

and then the glorious interior was revealed.

We sung some wonderful carols and yes us Datchelor girls do sing rather tunefully.

Sadly Moira got stuck in a traffic jam so wasn't able to lead the service but in true resourceful Datchelor spirit the organizers stepped in and lead a wonderful service.
The opening carol was one of my Datchelor favourites, "Hills of the North rejoice" and our voices lifted into the air of this medieval wonder of a church.
There were Christmas readings, prayers, Hosanna was sung by the Old girls' choir, a fun prize giving (I won a little prize for attending for the first time) and we finished the service with the rousing "O come all ye faithful".

It really was the most splendid way to spend the 2nd Sunday in advent afternoon. It brought back so many fond memories of my Christmas years at Mary Datchelor from 1972-1979. Memories of Dorcas Day (a charity day where we filled boxes for good causes), knitting squares for blankets, copying carols into our Christmas Carol books, decorating our form rooms (which usually involved lots of tinsel), having a "post box" in every form room to put our Christmas cards, singing such wonderful carols and the piece de resistance; Christmas dinner when the Boar's Head carol was sung during a procession through the dining room. Datchelor girls have very good singing voices!

After the service there was welcome tea and mince pies and lots of chat. I didn't see anyone there from my year but it was fun to exchange memories with several lovely old girls and old teachers I spoke to.

As I stepped out of the church to come home, the church yard looked even more beautiful to me in the crisp darkness.

As I made my way back to Tower Hill tube London was looking her usual stunning self.

 The Shard was lit up on the skyline.

Looking across to the Tower of London made me feel so proud to be a part of this wonderful city.

 There is just so much history here.

Even the tube entrance was warm and inviting on a crisp December evening.

So my card today just had to be one to remember such a joyful occasion.

The image is one of my old Nicecrane (sadly no longer trading) digis. I thought the joy die, carol sheet of O come all ye faithful and the deers (or harts as deer were known in medieval times and Hart Street is where St.Olave's is situated) were very appropriate. The red and green colour scheme reminds me of the trees inside the church.
This card is up for sale at Dotty's Teahouse, Carshalton High Street, SM5 2AE

I would like to enter my card into the following challenges;

Card Mania 4/5 Christmas
Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas anything goes
ABC Christmas 3/3 Y is for your favourite things mine just has to be the joy of Christmas.
Crafty Catz 2/3  anything goes
Moving along with the times 2/3 anything Christmas
Crimbo crackers 3/3 anything goes
Winter wonderland 3/3 anything goes
Alphabet challenge 1/3 s is for season's greetings
Time out 1/3 Joyful

I would like to thank the organizers for rekindling my Datchelor Christmas school memories again. I really hope to make the service again next year.

Thanks for stopping by today,

Billy my cat has managed to finish typing up his annual Christmas post which I know you all enjoy. He will be here tomorrow to share the mayhem of the annual arrival of the Christmas trees 😼

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

...and all through the house not a creature was stirring, not even.....

Billy....

my sweetest boy is dozing as we wait for the family to arrive. I opened the last window of my nostalgic German advent calendar, no surprises what was was there ;0) It has been such a joy to see these vintage pictures behind every door for the last 24 days.

Everything is ready. My food delivery arrived on Friday night and the fridge is stacked full. My parents, my daughter and son-in-law, my son and his girlfriend will join us tomorrow for lunch at 1pm. Christmas is such a special time for me. Today is actually quite relaxed and I have made some more mince pies. I have used lots of different cutters this year to decorate them (and yes of course there has to be a pig amongst them, thank you dear Mia x)

Yesterday, despite the flooding on the A27, we managed to make it to the Christmas Carol service in Chichester Cathedral. My son in law was a chorister there between the ages of 7 and 13 so it holds some old memories for him. I do like to attend a carol service at this time of year too and we were invited to join him and my daughter there. The cathedral was packed and it was the perfect place to sing the carols I have known and sung since I was a child.

Afterwards we walked to the cloisters and enjoyed a glass of mulled wine and a mince pie in a very atmospheric setting

My last challenge card before Christmas has a special greeting.(A quick edit added, do you remember my Tradition Santa card here... I just found out it made Top 3 on one of my challenges I entered..woop woop!)

I have used one of my dear Lili of the Valley stamps called Angels with crib. What a sweet stamp this is, just so peaceful. I coloured it using my Promarkers and highlighted with Prismacolor Pencils. I added stamp dimension to the wings to make them stand out. The pine branch die cut is Marianne and the snowflake is from my stash. The papers are Papermania from last year...Enchanted Forest. I so loved them and now have very little left. I added some lovely new ribbon I bought in festive red and green with a gold fleck. I would like to enter my card into the following challenges;

Sweet Stamping Seeing Double my double are this sweet pair of angels but I also have 2 pine branches here too so perhaps I am seeing double double!
Lili's Little Fairies something new my new is my new festive ribbon I bought.
Totally Gorjuss Easy does it #163 I think that the baby Jesus is really taking it easy in his manger ;0)
Stampin for the weekend anything goes #24
Natalie and Amy Anything Christmas
Cutie Pie #34 Christmas
Really Reasonable Ribbons anything goes #34
Simon Says Stamp Merry Christmas
Divas by Design anything goes #66
Papercrafting Journey anything goes
Winter Wonderland wish upon a star
Crafts and Me Bumper Christmas Challenge
Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challengeanything goes #104
Woopsi Daisy Celebrate
A+T Emerald Faeries #38 Christmas

This is my last post before that most wonderful day of the year for me. Thank you for sharing my Countdown to Christmas 2012 and for all the wonderful comments you took to time at this very busy time of the year.I would like to wish each and everyone of you a very Merry Christmas. I hope that wherever you are in the world and whoever you share the day with, as my card sentiment says,

"May Christmas bring friends to your fireside,
Peace to your pathway
And success in your New Year"


My daughter and her husband will arrive around 5pm and my Hb has a half day at work so he will be home soon. We are going to wander down to the pub for a winter warmer and then watch the new Snowman and Snowdog animation on TV.
On Christmas day I will raise my glass to everyone in this world and also remember those who are no longer with us. Celebrate the joys of all the Christmas' past, present and yet to be.  Cheers!
All is at peace in Jane's World.

See you all very soon and I hope that if you have been good that Santa slips something very special in your stocking tonight ;0)

Bye for now,

Jane x