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The Taplow Christmas Tree
In 2006 the Parish Council organised a carol-singing event on the Village Green. It took place by the barn (the best light source) on the small green and was attended mostly by children and their parents as they left the school Christmas bazaar - but perhaps you didn’t know about it. In 2007 I think many more people knew about the Parish Council’s carol-singing event, the difference being that a Christmas tree had appeared on the Village Green. How could you miss it? The Village Green had been dark and bare every Christmas since we came to the village 30 years ago and at long last it looked as if the village was recognising and celebrating Christmas! The tree was funded through a legacy of £15,000, left in Jo Brooking’s estate, the trustees of which were asked to use this money 'for cultural or recreational purposes in Taplow Village'. Many residents will know that Jo Brooking lived for a number of years in Taplow, firstly with her mother Kate in an apartment in Elibank House and then in a cottage in Elm View, which is just off Rectory Road, opposite the village green. Jo died suddenly and tragically of bowel cancer in March 2005, just when she thought that she was in remission. She was 54 years old. The executors of Jo’s will felt that she would have loved the idea of a Christmas tree on the Village Green and she would have been pleased that so many families and their friends would come together at Christmas time to sing carols together out of doors. Every Christmas Jo had a little tree lit up and decorated outside her cottage. She especially enjoyed any singing event in the Church and was a regular supporter of the annual summer party on the Village Green. Jo’s friends and neighbours, including Alan and Gillian Dibden, and the Parish Council all approved the plans for the Christmas tree and with lots of help from Janet Wheeler (who organises the Christmas trees for Cookham) we went ahead and ordered a 20-ft tree and 400 lights. Finding an electricity source proved to be difficult but eventually we got permission to run a cable from a street light opposite the school to the middle of the green – the prime position!
Sheila Horton designed an appropriate plaque and Josie Corio managed to organise a specially designed fence to protect the tree and it provided a prominent place to display the plaque.
And so... on Thursday 29th November, with lots more help, the tree was delivered and erected in a specially prepared sleeve within a deep hole. We are grateful to the team of men from Cookham who (along with some passers-by) made the tree upright, hung the lights and erected the fence. The electricity was made live and by tea-time on the Sunday afternoon the tree was lit.
The Parish Council planned a magnificent carol-singing party for the early evening on 22nd December. Generous sponsors provided mulled wine and mince pies. We had a children’s farm on the small green, a hot chestnut and toasted marshmallow seller and the Salvation Army carolled us towards Christmas. Around 200 neighbours and their friends and families joined in and we collected over £250 for bowel cancer research in memory of Jo.
The Parish Council are now planning the carol-singing party for Christmas 2008. We expect Jo’s bequest to provide a Christmas tree for many years to come and trust that it will be the focus for any outdoor Christmas celebrations on the Village Green.
What a wonderful way to remember Jo’s life by bringing light to the village for Christmas!
Liz Forsyth
