Wrexham County Borough 56 - Bangor on Dee/Last Christmas /a coffee morning at the church/the village treasure hunt

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Christmas has been going on a long time . Buy your sofa for Christmas adverts have been in the TV for months . We will deliver it before the festive season . Well ours has gone somewhere and is not arriving anytime soon. Ordered the back end of August it was promised for the last week of November . Then it was cancelled and rearranged for the first week of December. Something happened in China and it was put off again . Should arrive next week . Well guess what . It wont be happening. Sorry we cannot deliver before Christmas . It is looking like the first week of January . Do I believe that I walk the village streets.

Pick the best veg or turkey adverts and the battle of the Christmas Adverts . Arguements about copycat adverts, companies using music without acknowledging the use and some very dubious adverts that should be resigned to the dustbin. Kevin the Carrot , Marcus Radishford they are all there and driving me mad. And then there is the music . Every supermarket has been playing Christmas songs for months . Last Christmas was the rendition I heard on the radio on the 27th November . Why have we started to celebrate Christmas earlier every year? . Or at least that is what it seems to me . Keep the adverts until at least December 1st and I would be happy. Keep the songs off the radio until a few days before the big day . But no each year everything gets early .

Today was the first day that I had chance to walk around the village to search out the village Chrsitmas Tree . We moved here last year on the week before Christmas and I had not realised that the village put up a Christmas tree . Nor did I realise we had a treasure hunt . I left the house in the early morning light . It was cold and miserable and I had no intention of walking far this morning . I wanted to see the tree and earmarked another visit at night to see it lit up . It had been placed in the area near to the bridge close to the war memorial . It was officially opened if that is the right word by someone official . I had missed that . The tree was large , covered with lights and decorations and looked perfect in the dark light of early morning . The star cut out and place on the top . It was a welcome sight and I suppose stopped me thinking of the fact that we still had Covid and that we would not be travelling anywhere this Christmas . 2 years since we travelled to Normandy for Christmas . This year no sofa to sit on and Christmas at home .

I decided to try to hunt out the clues for the treasure hunt . To be fair I need to nip to the pub , pay my £1 for the entry form before I walked the village . Last year I found a few boards around the village sponsored by local companies . The children I think had painted them . One was a reindeer with the word Eve on the board . No doubt Eve was part of the clues for the treasure hunt . I noticed she was not on the lamppost around the corner , I wondered where she was . I found her outside the local school . Hinged on the railings she was no longer Eve but had a couple of letters tied to the board . I guessed I should collect the letters and they would spell something out . My next board was up one of the cul de sacs - a sleigh . Two were placed by the river , Santa. and a wrapped christmas present .

The church railings had been decorated . An appropriate angel was affixed to one part of the railing and the rest were decorated with giant golden bows , red berried wreaths , and stars made from cut paper . They looked jolly . The lyche gate was decorated too .

I wandered up the Overton Road and found no more boards . So headed up towards The Graig surely there would be something there . Nothing . I saw no-one searching. My last stop the playground. . The village had received monies from the Postcode Lottery fund and used it to replace the old play equipment . I was tempted to sit on the swing . NO-one would have seen me . In the Spring the council are investing in gym equipment . Now that is a good idea . Instead of my walk around the village I could use the gym equipment for my daily exercise .

The rest of the morning was spent at the coffee morning at the church . I paid my £1 for my coffee which I took over to a pew . I sat quietly admiring the church architecture . I had been in before but missed much. Sipping the coffee - I refused the cake - I spotted the endowment boards on the back wall . They made for interesting reading . Miss Ellis left 40 shillings (£2 in current money ) yearly for ever . 40 shillings was a serious sum of money when it was endowed . I wondered if there was still money left as interest rates are so low now and it would be worth very little in todays worth . Thomas Lloyd left £60 per year forever and a sum of 14/= for the very poor . The list of the wealthy of the parish went on with Mr Price of Pickhill bequeathing £50 yearly and the rector in his will leaving £10 for the needy of the parish . I read down the board and then found a second board with further donations . Lady Jeffries of the infamous hanging judge Jeffries fame left money for the children of the parish to be educated in reading and writing and learning their catechism . Peter Lloyd left a tenement with the instructions that the rent should be used for the poor of the parish . I knew nothing of the bequests now and wondered if the money had run out . I had at the back of my mind the information read somewhere that children of Bangor on Dee parish could access the fund from Dame Jeffries to pay for school trips , school uniform and such like so that one still has a monetary value .

I finished my coffee and took one last walk around the church . I found the Virgin carved in a light oak in a style that echoed the 1920's stunning . She echoed the figure on the top of the war memorial . I picked up raffle tickets on my way out and hoped that the coffee morning was a success . The church needed the money for urgent repairs to the stone pillars . I hope they did well and made enough money to help with the repairs . The church was too beautiful to fall into disrepair .

Home again - the walk took me up and around Friars Field . I found no more treasure hunt clues . Perhaps I shall have to go and search more tomorrow .

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