June 2015 is going to be amazing with the Magna Carta 800 Celebrations. Come and join us create a memorable, family event for people in Dedworth and West Windsor. ♥
♥ I will update this as I receive more information, so book mark this page, and visit again.
The birth of human rights?!
On the 15 June 1215 at Runnymede King John signed the Magna Carta. It was the first formal document stating that a King had to follow the laws of the land and it guaranteed the rights of individuals against the wishes of the King.
This event changed the course of history in Great Britain, and the basic human rights espoused in the “Great Charter (a translation of Magna Carta) has shaped both the UK, the USA, most of the countries of the British Commonwealth, and through them the modern world we live in.
Former Slough Grammar School Head Teacher, and once my boss, writes more about the Magna Carta in blog on this site entitled, “The Magna Carta – what’s it all about?”
A spectacular River Peagant cruising past Dedworth ♥
A ‘spectacular’ river pageant will be the highlight of the Royal Borough’s 800th anniversary celebrations of the sealing of the Magna Carta next year.
A flotilla of boats of all shapes and sizes will make its way downstream from Bisham Abbey to Wraysbury, and Spelthorne, over the weekend of Saturday 13 and Sunday 14 June.
The pageant is being organised in partnership with Thames Alive – which helped to organise the Queen’s Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant in 2012 – and Runnymede Borough Council. Costs will be covered by sponsors and underwritten by the Royal Borough.
Cllr Margaret Lenton, chairman of Wraysbury Parish Council and chairman of the Royal Borough MC800 stakeholders group, said: “While the main focus will inevitably be on Runnymede, the pageant and many other events will highlight the key role in the sealing of the Magna Carta of this side of the river, especially Ankerwycke in Wraysbury.”
And there’s more ♥
The MC800 group is also working on an action-packed calendar of events, activities and exhibitions leading up to the river pageant is being organised by
- libraries,
- the Windsor & Royal Borough Museum,
- schools
- and community groups.
There is a schools’ activity
- Primary children up to Year 5 will devise a Coat of Arms for their school or themselves, learning something about heraldry
- Year 5 and above up to Year 13 will write a Magna Carta for today.
The results will be displayed in St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle in the cloisters over Easter 2015 starting from 20th March.
Eton town is proposing to hold a fair the Brocas and hold a Liber Tea.
Wraysbury, which has within its boundaries an ancient yew and the ruins of a priory, has a schedule of events. (It has become increasingly likely that the Charter was written down by about 40 monks to dictation in the grounds of the priory and then sealed to make it legal. The finished Charters would then have been distributed to the sheriffs of the counties).
- Every child in the village school and family in the village will receive a booklet informing about Magna Carta
- A fanfare is being written to be performed
- 5th/6th/7th June 2015 a Flower festival will be held in St Andrew’s Wraysbury
- 6th June – an archery contest held between the Barons of England
- 11th June – the Wraysbury Players perform
- 13th June the Wraysbury Fair becomes a medieval fair and pageant.
- 14th June – a Peal of bells rung, a Liber Tea held at the Grange and a ‘Songs of Praise’ held in the evening
Plans are still being developed and there are still events to be slotted in but is hoped other communities will join in. Visitors will be welcome at events and it is hoped to decorate the town of Windsor and the village of Wraysbury.
Further details are available, as they are added, at www.rbwm.gov.uk/web/museum_magna_carta.htm and http://magnacarta800th.com/
Let’s do something amazing together. Come and join us.
Wisdom Da Costa