St. David's Day Dinner March 2022

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ST DAVID'S DAY

The Society celebrates St David's Day with a dinner held at Chelmsford's County Hotel on the Friday nearest to St Davd's Day . The event is impeccably organised by Cynthia Styles and the County Hotel has been our venue for 50 years

We invite a "Guest of Honour" and Chelmsford City's Mayor to a dinner which attracts around 100 members, relatives and friends.

Guests are welcomed by children in national costume who give a daffodil to each guest.

We have had a rich variety of Guests of Honour ranging from Lord Llandudno to the newscaster Huw Edwards.

We have for some years now been entertained by the Bartels family, Ken on flute, saxophone and guitar and Rachel on harp. She also gives some of her humorous stories.

The evening invariably ends with a "sing song" of favourite Welsh songs and hymns and ends with an emotional "Hen wlad fy nhadau"

On the Sunday following St David's Day we meet for a service in the delightful chapel at Little Baddow which was a stronghold of Puritanism.  Thomas Hooker and John Eliot, preachers and colonists of North America originate from here. Thomas Hooker founded the Colony of Conecticut and is said to have been instrumental in the laying down of the American Constitution. John Eliot was missionary to the Massachusetts Native Americans and translated the Bible and other books into the Algonquian tongue.

The chapel was built as a  "Meeting house for the public worship of God by the dissenting congregation of Protestants". It is one of the oldest United Reformed Chapels in the country.

The photos below are taken from several year's celebrations to give an idea of these joyful events.

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