TREE OF REMEMBRANCE

Friday 12th December 8pm-9pm
Saturday 13th December 10am–4pm
Sunday 14th December 11am–11.30am

Following the death of a loved one, Christmas can bring intense feelings of loss and loneliness.  If you want to remember someone dear to you, do visit the Tree of Remembrance in St Giles’ Church on 12th, 13th or 14th December at the times above.  There you can write the person’s name or a message on a star to be hung on the tree. 
           
The stars will be taken down from the tree at 11.30am on 14th December and placed on the altar in the St John’s Chapel where they will stay until after Christmas.  During this time we will give thanks to God for those named on the stars and pray for those who are missing them. 

Ickenham Churches’ Bereavement Support Group

KEEP WARM WITH CHARLOTTE

No Ickenham resident needs suffer the cold this Christmas because of concerns about the heating bill, thanks to Charlotte Gell.  Charlotte, Ickenham’s best known benefactor, not only cared about people’s homes (Ickenham Cottages) and their water supplies (Ickenham Pump) but also their personal warmth.  So in her will she bequeathed a sum of money to provide an income to enable free coal to be distributed to up to 20 persons at Christmas.
           
Surprisingly, the charity whose full name is ‘Charity of Charlotte Gell for the Relief in Need’ continues today and is administered by three trustees, the Chairman of which is the Rector of St Giles’.  Coal is no longer distributed of course, but small grants are available to subsidise home heating costs of deserving Ickenham residents.           
           
If you live in Ickenham and would like to apply for a grant or know someone who is struggling with paying their heating bills, please contact the Revd Felicity Davies on 01895 622970 to request an application form.  All applications will be treated in strictest confidence.  Stay warm!
           
The picture (published by kind permission of Pat Cryer) shows a horse-drawn coal delivery cart in the early 1900s loaded with sacks of coal.  Each sack would typically contain a hundred weight (112lbs or 8 stone) of coal and cost about one shilling (5p).  How these particular coalmen manage to look so clean is a mystery since delivering coal was a filthy job and the men responsible were usually seen with coal black faces and clothes!  They also wore caps with long, leather back protectors attached, since the sacks would be carried on their backs.  Not a lot of people these days would fancy carrying hundredweights of lumpy, dusty coal, on and off carts, into people’s houses, often up narrow staircases!
AFN

WHAT’S IN A NUMBER?

As part of the Festive Community Night the Ickenham United Reformed Church will be open from 6pm until 9pm.  Those of you who have visited the church in the last few years will know how beautiful the church looks in candlelight and as usual there will be a display, this year entitled 'What's in a Number?'