Friends of St Peter's - Forncett

16/06/2026

16/06/2026

Mists of Time
If we discount the flints and rocks and soil beneath our feet, then by far the oldest thing in Forncett is St. Peter's. There is the river of course, "Ever coming, ever going," and it is possible that on the margin of a lonely field there is an ancient oak, which could rival the venerable old church in years. This is unlikely though as it's girth would need to measure at least 8 metres, a great prodigious hulk of a tree that would surely have been noticed. Then there is that other great arboreal survivor, the yew tree. But in Forncett nothing is quite as ancient as the church. The oldest houses still existing, were probably built hundreds of years after those anglo-saxon labourers toiled long ago, (back in the mists of time), to erect their round-towered masterpiece. And now the church has been afforded a new existence, perhaps for another ten centuries. Last Sunday, the bells rang out their peals and the church filled with smiling people, delighted to see so many other friends and neighbours, as the first service for some years took place. The atmosphere was joyful, there was a sense of something profound having been achieved, even if the need for decoration and essential loos means fund-raising must continue.

03/06/2026

Friends of St Peter’s June Market is this Saturday, 6th, from 10am at Forncett Village Hall. Following the wonderful re-opening of the restored church, we continue to fund raise for the cosmetic finish. Come along on Saturday, we have cakes, quiches, sausage rolls, books, jigsaws and much more. The cafe will be open for a coffee and a chat with your neighbours.

28/05/2026

ST PETER'S IS REOPENING!
Yes, that's right! After many years and much effort by the Friends of St Peter's our beautiful church will be taken off the Heritage at Risk Register. And to celebrate, we'll have our first service at 10.30am on Sunday 31 May, with the bells ringing out from 10am. Do come along and celebrate this wonderful event.

Whilst this is great news, our work is not yet over. We will be decorating the inside of the church, providing disabled access and hope to install toilets and a kitchen. We still need to raise funds and to this end, our next market is at 10am on Saturday 6 June in the village Hall.

21/05/2026

Many of our footpaths and quiet lanes are at their best at the moment, flushed with the livid greens of Spring, rich with wild flowers and beautiful with bird song. Along with Forncett Nature Matters, Saul Penfold, our Activities Consultant, has been checking out our Heritage and Nature Trail - an integral part of our National Lottery Heritage Fund Project. Due to launch in October, this will join up public rights of way and quiet lanes to form 3 trail loops starting and ending at each of the churches, accompanied by a printed guide, on-line resources and trail markers featuring our 'Rook over Forncett' motif. Walking the trails recently we were captivated by the wide and rolling views of the Tas Valley, with its precious chalk stream, verdant water meadows and rare plants. Ragged Robin and Crosswort are especially beautiful in late May - the majestic spires of purple loosestrife and native orchids will follow. The short and scratchy song of the Whitethroat accompanied us most of the way from hedgerows overflowing with the heady scent of Hawthorn May blossom. The change of use at St Edmunds church, which had been one of the richest and most bidiverse corners of our parish thoughtfully managed to provide a riot of wild colour - a pollinator paradise, is certainly a loss to the community in this respect. Wild things need their space to thrive and so do we. The Heritage and Nature Trail will help more of us to enjoy the quiet beauty of our landscape, to rest in the tranquility of nature and to learn more about it.

14/05/2026

We now meet Marie Sanders, an integral member of Friends of St Peter’s.

Hello Marie, have you always lived in Forncett?
No, I was actually born in Sutton Coldfield and then moved to Stevenage and St Neots as a child when my father was a Project Manager at British Aerospace. Unfortunately, I failed my A-levels and started work rather than retaking them the next year. I got a job at S.H.Harrold, a local optician, studying on day release to become a Dispensing Optician. After a couple of years, one of the lecturers advertised for a branch manager and I got the job! This meant a move to Plumstead in South East London where I lived in a flat above the shop. Whilst I loved the job, there were a couple of traumatic incidents. One was that Steven Lawrence’s family was registered with us, and it was desperately sad when he was murdered. The other was that I witnessed a gang of youths breaking into a shop and reported it to the police, after which I was threatened by the gang.

That must have been very frightening.
It was and I decided to move back to St Neots where I rented a house and while I enjoyed the safety, I found it all rather quiet after the hustle and bustle of London. I moved jobs to Robert Hutchinson in Cambridge, which was eventually taken over by Scrivens. I’d always had an interest in archaeology and decided to do an evening course GCSE in Archaeology, then went on to do an A-level and then a degree in Archaeology and Landscape History through what is now Peterborough University.

And you did this while holding down a fulltime job?
Yes, it was busy and to add to it all one of my fellow students and I got married, but the relationship didn’t last that long. It was a tough time and I threw myself into other activities and became a purple belt in kick boxing and did five ultra-marathons. I wanted to move to Norfolk which I’d grown to love as part of my job as an assistant regional manager and really liked the North Walsham branch. A series of lucky coincidences meant that not only did I get the branch but an annexe for accommodation nearby became available – the stars aligned perfectly for me!

So how did you eventually come to be in Forncett?
Well, one day I answered the phone at work and it was an agency looking for candidates for a job at Cecil Amey Opticians. I hadn’t thought of moving, but got into conversation with the agent. I was asked what would make me move, I said more money and before I knew it, I was hired and started work in Wymondham!

Wow that worked well!
Yes, I moved to Tivetshall St Margaret with my then puppy Brian, but the accommodation wasn’t available long term. Luckily the owner knew Becky and Andrew Ryan who were building an annexe and in 2019 I moved to Forncett!

And I think you’ve got involved in a lot of local things?
Yes, I’ve been involved in Friends of St Peter’s, I’m on the Parish Council and I’m also a Village Hall Trustee.

That’s amazing – you can’t have time for much else!
Well, I do like to explore our wonderful island, so I bought a VW Transporter van from a colleague and have kitted it out with a floor, bed and cupboard so that Brian and I can hit the road and go exploring! Andrew Ryan helped me with some of the van work and Brian and I have been north, south, east and west. I found Cornwall rather too busy for my liking and am more spiritually drawn to Scotland. I think that’s due to my ancestry. My mother’s family all came from Scotland. I’ve done some research and my great grandmother came from Campbeltown on the west coast of Scotland and she was pregnant when her husband Charles, my great grandfather, went to Gallipoli and was tragically killed. When my grandmother was born, she was called Charlesina in memory of her dead father.

Gosh what a sad story, but I can understand why you’re drawn to Scotland.
Yes, and I’m still very much interested in archaeology and Scotland is a very rich source of archaeological sites and the stories they tell of our distant ancestors’ lives. You know, I’ve often wondered about setting up a Forncett Archaeology Group! Maybe we could do something with the History Group!

That’s a lovely thought! Thank you so much for all that you do here in Forncett’s vibrant community.

07/05/2026

We’re lucky to have a rich wildlife habitat at St Peter’s and Claire Jordan has explored it, particularly the birds, using the Merlin App on her phone – here’s what she says:

Birds love St. Peter's churchyard. Why is this? Well, several reasons: to corvids and kestrels, the tower looks like a conveniently tall rocky outpost. Then there are tall trees, shrubs, and ancient hedges - inviting nesting sites, plus, areas of short grass, long grass, wildflowers, and, the churchyard is undisturbed for much of the time. An inviting mix of habitats. Long grass is rich in pollinators who are there in number, attracted by the nectar and pollen on offer. The song of the corvids, especially the rooks and jackdaws, is dominant yet they have backing from many song birds. The blackbird provides arias of matchless beauty and at different times I have recorded blackcaps and chaffinches, greenfinches and the diminutive wren. The tiny long-tailed tit, that has such a struggle to survive the winter, is there, and of course the robin, whose ancestors were bold enough to flutter into the Rectory sitting-room, tempted by the morsels on offer from Dorothy Wordsworth.

For just a few months of the summer a group of swifts will be heard above St. Peter's, unruly and screaming, tearing around like over-exuberant teenagers. Sadly, this infinitely courageous bird, who has been known to travel 17,000 miles without stopping, who spends the first 4 years of its life living, sleeping and feeding high in the troposphere almost out of the range of the human eye, without touching earth, is declining rapidly in number - for every 10 birds in 1995, there are only 3 today. Habitat loss is one reason. They pair for life and always return to the same nest. However modern house building doesn't offer the nesting sites needed. Renovations of old buildings increase their difficulties. But not St. Peter's. The beautifully restored church includes nesting sites such as swift bricks and boxes beneath the eaves, the very best practice to allow buildings to accommodate this wonderful bird. We hope in years to come to see generations of the swift returning to nest here. One more reason to be proud of St. Peter's

Friends of St Peter’s will be holding three Conservation Skills Days in June – everyone welcome and it’s free! Details on the accompanying picture.

Here's more about the Merlin App: https://merlin.allaboutbirds.org/

30/04/2026

30/04/2026

St Peter’s market will be at Forncett Village Hall this Saturday from 10-12noon. There will be a great variety of bakes both sweet and savoury to tempt you as well as plenty of books and jigsaw puzzles. Our cafe will be open for tea, coffee, cake and a chat with neighbours.
Do join us for this lovely community event.
Also, a date for your diary. We are having a Cheese and Wine evening at Gilly Barnes’ home on Friday, 15th May from 7.30pm. Tickets are £15 each to include a welcoming glass of wine and plenty of cheese and accompaniments. Tickets will be on sale at the market or from Gilly on 01508 813055.

23/04/2026

We now meet April Carlin, a key member of Friends of St Peter’s.

Hello April, have you always lived in Forncett?
No, I was actually born in Gillingham, Kent, in 1946, just after the end of the war. It was a hard time because my parents had split while my mother was pregnant with me, so my mother brought me and my older sister up single-handedly, while working. It meant that I left school as soon as I could at 16 to earn some money. I got a job at Phoenix Assurance based in King William Street, London, where I worked for six years.

What sort of work were you doing?
I was doing the payroll. I had always been quite good at maths which really helped because there was a lot of adding up to do under a time pressure. In the payroll office there was one very primitive adding machine, but no-one liked using it in case they were seen as being a bit dim! It was actually a lovely time for me because Phoenix had a social club at Catford, where there were lots of activities including sport, and of particular interest to me, amateur dramatics. This sparked a lifelong interest in acting and the theatre.

By this time, we had moved to Winchmore Hill in North London, but I’d also met my future husband Hugh at Phoenix, and together we moved to a flat in Doughty Street, Bloomsbury, above the Dickens Society, where we lived for 18 months before moving to Winchmore and then Ruislip.

Gosh, a busy time for you! And were you able to pursue your interest in theatre?
Yes, I joined the Ruislip Dramatic Society and was in a number of their productions, amongst them, ‘A Pack of Lies’, a play on the true story of Peter and Helen Kroger who were Russian spies, who actually lived and worked for Russia from Ruislip! Another play was ‘The Heiress’ adapted from the Henry James novel ‘Washington Square’ in which I played the central character Catherine Sloper. We also did a production of ‘I Have Five Daughters’ an adaptation of ‘Pride and Prejudice’ in which I played Lizzie Bennet – we actually took this play to Hamburg for three nights!

By now I had to leave work as we’d started a family, our twins Clare and Emma and two years later, our son Mark. As you might imagine maternity benefits weren’t quite as advanced as they are now and so I had to leave my job! My husband’s passion was sports, rugby in particular and he played for London Irish 2nd team, whilst my passion was for acting and theatre so eventually, we separated when the children were about 10 and 11. In 1985 I moved to Pinner and got a job at Initial Services where I learnt to use a computer – computers were only just beginning to appear in workplaces

That really was the early days of computing! Did you stay at Initial Services?
No, I then got a job at Wagon Finance looking after the payroll and personnel records. Eventually Abbey National took over Wagon Finance and I had to travel to Norfolk among other places to advise staff about their pension rights. I fell in love with Norwich and was thinking of leaving Pinner and relocating, but was asked to stay on for another six months to help with the transition. This finally became 4 years after which I was offered a generous redundancy package. By then I had a new partner Geoff whom I met through amateur dramatics and who was semi-retired, so we took the plunge and decided to find a home near Norwich. We found our house in Forncett, moving here in 1997.

I then worked in Norwich as HR Manager at Topps Estate Agency part-time, three days a week with Geoff working at Fine and Country Estate Agents. I was quite happy there but when the financial crisis of 2008 happened, I took retirement at the age of 62.
Geoff sadly died in 2013.

That must have been hard.
It was, but I was lucky in that Forncett has a great sense of community and my friends rallied round. I also got involved in village activities including being the treasurer for the Village Hall.

And talking about community what’s your involvement with Friends of St Peter’s?
I’ve been involved since the start when Mary Yule asked if I’d like to help. I’ve got a number of roles, including being on both the Steering Group and the Events Team, bookkeeping, and baking and selling at our Saturday markets.

Gosh, you are busy! What drives you to do so much?
Well, it’s about the great sense of community we have here in Forncett. I never lost my love of the theatre and decided it would be nice to put on some murder mystery plays in the village. Looking at available plays I couldn’t find any that I felt were suitable or possible given the constraints of the space in the hall. So, I decided to write a play.

Wow, that is brave!
Well, it helped that I’d always loved theatre and knew what could work in terms of plot twists and turns. The first play that I wrote and directed was ‘Murder in the Village Hall’ in 2017. It seemed to go well so I wrote another one, ‘St Flora of the Lake’ also staged in 2017. And then in 2018 I wrote ‘Murder in the Crystal Ball’.

All of your plays were really successful and people loved them. Will you be doing another one?
Possibly. I started writing another one but then Covid happened so I may get it out, dust it down and see if it still works!

Well, that would be really great! And I did hear that your interest is not just confined to the stage, but also TV – is that right?
I’ve always had an interest in crosswords, sudokus and puzzles so decided to try some of the TV quizzes. In the late 1990s I did ‘Fifteen to One’, in 2005 I did ‘Countdown’ on which I was unlucky to come up against the eventual champion, who also then went on to be Champion of Champions. And finally in 2021 I did ‘Who Wants to be a Millionaire’ where I was just beaten on the fastest finger part of the show.

There’s no end to your talents! Thank you so much for all you do in the village – we’re lucky to have you here!