Centenary of Unveiling of Tercentenary Memorial

In a new essay to commemorate William Byrd, K Dawn Grapes writes of the Tercentenary events that "The most meaningful service of the day may have taken place at Stondon Massey in Essex, where Byrd lived for some thirty years.  ... In March 1924, a tablet with Byrd's coat of arms was presented at an Evensong service."#

The following is an extract from 'The Life and Times of William Byrd: A Local History'.

The memorial, funded by a surplus from the London celebrations includes “the words, in raised lettering, “A Father of Musick”, these being taken from the Byrd entry in the ‘Cheque Book’ of the Chapel Royal”[1].

Its unveiling was marked by a Service on 12^th March 1924, reported in The Times and locally in the Essex Review and the Essex County Chronicle and was attended by twenty men and boys of the Chapel Royal who sang a selection of Byrd’s work. The officiating preacher was Dr Gary Warman, the Bishop of Chelmsford, who unveiled the memorial: “Things were so arranged that the Bishop could easily manipulate the light cord from the pulpit”[2]. 

“Considerable local and general interest was taken in the historic event [on Wednesday] and the church was filled some time before the service started. An imposing touch of colour was provided by the long scarlet and gold-braided coats of the boy choristers, with the white laced ruffs as were used in Byrd’s time”.

“The service (which was conducted by the Rev. L. J. Percival) took the form of evensong, with sung responses by Byrd. Psalm 84, ‘O how amiable are Thy dwellings’, was chanted, and the first lesson read by Canon Reeve, was from Ecclesiastes. 44, verses 1-16. In the place of the Magnificat, Byrd’s anthem, ‘O praise the Lord, ye saints above’ was finely rendered, followed by the second lesson, read by Canon Galpin [of Faulkbourne, also president of the Essex Archaeological Society[3]], from Revelation 7, verses 9 to the end. For the Nunc Dimittus, the anthem, ‘Come to us we beseech Thee’ (Byrd), was substituted. After the third collect, ‘Justorum Animae’ (Byrd) was sung, followed at the close by the hymn ‘For all the Saints”, sung to the tune by Vaughan Williams. Practically all the singing was unaccompanied. The choir, led by Mr Stanley Roper[4], gave faultless renderings.

“The Bishop of Chelmsford, in the course of an address, said William Byrd’s gift was marked by three main features, each of interest.  He gave his best music for the rites and ceremonies of his own Church. His Church was not theirs, but they respected him. In his day, the English Liturgy was in the process of revision. Men were wanted to give musical settings for the new versions, and William Byrd gave them”[5].

“Canon Reeve [who from the outset took a keen interest in the erection of the tablet] thanked the committee for a beautiful gift in memory of the distinguished parishioner of by-gone days and said that he was honoured to accept the tablet”[6].

Reeve later wrote, “I little thought, twenty years ago, that I should have witnessed such a Service … or found Stondon so generally accepted as Byrd’s home and burial place”[7].

---

# The extract comes from the essay 'Reviving Byrd. The 1923 Tercentenary' contained within a new book entitled 'Byrd Studies in the twenty-first century' edited by Samantha Bassler, Katherine Butler & Katie Bank. (Clemson University Press, 2023)

[1] The Times. 17 March 1924

[2] ERO T/P 188/3 f688

[3] Canon Francis William Galpin was not only a professional colleague of Reeve but also a gifted musician and leading authority on ancient musical instruments. He wrote many articles and was co-author of ‘Church Plate in Essex’ (1926). He was a handsome man with dignified bearing, who never discarded his frockcoat and broad-brimmed hat of the Victorian age.

[4] Stanley Roper was organist and leader of the Chapel Royal choir and the director of the Elizabethan Madrigal Society. Also present was Dr. Charles Macpherson, organist of St Pauls Cathedral. The Service was conducted by the Rev. L J Percival, Preceptor of the Chapel Royal. (Source: The Times. 17 March 1924)

[5] The Times. 17 March 1924

[6] Essex Chronicle. 14 March 1924

[7] ERO T/P 188/3 f699

Repeat of 'The Life and Times of William Byrd: A Local History'. Thursday 27 July 2023.

There will be another opportunity to hear 'The Life and Times of William Byrd: A Local History'. Andrew Smith will be giving a PowerPoint version of the talk at the High Country History Group.

The meeting will be held on Thursday 27 July 2023, beginning at 8pm at Toot Hill Village Hall, Toot Hill Road, Toot Hill, Ongar. CM5 9SD.

Visitors are very welcome. The entrance fee is £5.00 and will include after-talk refreshments.

For more information on the High Country History Group visit High Country History Group

The talk is available for booking. Use contact form on this site.

'Sunday Worship' on BBC Radio 4 recorded at Stondon Massey Church

William Byrd is regarded as one of England's greatest composers. He lived through turbulent times through the Sixteenth and early-Seventeenth Centuries, witnessing both significant religious and political change. Despite this, he composed some of the finest music of his time for both the Catholic and Anglican Church.

  In the week of the 400th anniversary of his death, The Revd Dr Jonathan Arnold reflects on William Byrd's contribution to Christian music and worship. Jonathan visits the Church of St Peter and St Paul, Stondon Massey in rural Essex - where Byrd is thought to be buried - and also the nearby Ingatestone Hall, the home of the composer's patron, Lord Petre. Jonathan speaks to the current Lord Petre about the connection between Byrd and his patron through their Catholic faith.

  

Harry Christophers, founder and director of The Sixteen, reflects on the sense of longing and faith in Byrd's music, expressed in the composer's particular attention to the texts he set from scripture, and there are contributions from Byrd scholar Professor Kerry McCarthy, music historian Dr Katie Bank, and singer and conductor Dr David Allinson.

  

Byrd remained a Catholic throughout his life, which for many at the time was a dangerous thing to do, but his contribution to music for the Anglican church remains central to music and worship in many churches today.

  

The readings are Isaiah 64 vv.9-10 - read by our Vicar, Revd. Sam Brazier-Gibbs - (the Latin text of which Byrd set in his motet Ne irascaris, Domine), and Colossians 3 vv.12-17, in which St Paul encourages his readers to 'sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God'.

  

Byrd's music featured includes Ne irascaris Domine, Tribue Domine, the Nunc dimittis from the Second Service, and movements from his three Masses.

 

The programme was first broadcast on BBC Radio 4, Sunday 9 July 2023, 8.10-8.48am. Available on BBC Sounds for 30 days: BBC Radio 4 - Sunday Worship, Psalmes, Songs and Sonnets

Crowds Flock to William Byrd 400th Anniversary Concert

 The Stondon Singers held a special concert at St Peter and St Paul Church, Stondon Massey last night (Tuesday 4 July) to mark the 400th anniversary of the death of William Byrd (c1540-1623) in the parish where he lived. The calendar seemed coincidentally arranged because the singers, formed in 1968 to sing the great composer's work, always have the first Tuesday in July for the Anniversary Concert.

Hilary Punnett is now their conductor having now led for a season, and this was her first at Stondon Massey.

The programme, entitled 'Patronage and Persecution' considered the theme of royal patronage throughout the ages as well as pieces which reflected the persecution Byrd faced as a recusant Catholic.

The pieces performed were:

Byrd: Vigilate

Thomas Tallis (1505-1585): Miserere nostri

Judith Weir (b. 1954): Love bade me welcome

Andrew Balfour (b. 1967): Ambe

Byrd: In winter cold (prima pars), and Whereat an ant (secunda pars)

Byrd: Tristitia et anxietas

Orlando Gibbons (1583-1625): O clap your hands together

interval

Byrd: Sing Joyfully

J.F. Woolley: Rest

Byrd: Miserere mei

Andrew Balfour: Vision Chant

Robert Carver (1485-1570): Missa dum sacrum mysterium - Sanctus

Robert Parsons (1535-1572): Ave Maria

Byrd: Haec dies

BCP Evensong - "A Vote of Thanks"

 

Centre: Lord Petre, Martin Stuchfield Deputy Lord Lieutenant of Essex, and Revd. Sam Brazier Gibbs Vicar of Stondon Massey following the special service to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the death of William Byrd.

A Vote of Thanks (concluding the Service).

"Lords, Ladies and Gentlemen. Thank you for coming today - and thank you to the Stondon Singers for performing some of William Byrd's greatest hits.

"As a Byrd nerd if I was exiled to a desert island with eight Byrd records and could save only one it would be the 'Agnus Dei' from the Four Part Mass. The final words "Dona nobis pacem" - "grant us peace" invoke the pain of persecution which rescusants faced and a plea for peace in an uncertain time.  The music is timeless.

"Byrd composed the Four Part Mass in 1592, and two other settings in 1595 - and they were sung illegally in Catholic households such as the Petre family of Ingatestone Hall where they may have been used for the first time.

"After three centuries of Catholic suppression following the Gunpowder Plot of 1605 Byrd's work is better known now than it was a hundred years ago when the memorial which you see to the Tercentenary was erected.

"Byrd was a keen musician, tutor and composer. These were his gifts.

"He was also a man of great faith at a time when his beliefs and traditions were suppressed.

"Byrd though composed not only religious music but for a variety of settings: songs, sonnets, and keyboard work.  In the preface of his 1588 'Psalmes and Songs of sadnes and piety' he wrote, "Since singing is so good a thing I wish all men [and women] would learn to sing".

"I hope that you will wish to learn more about this great composer.  Please buy a book to support the church's project. I this way you will be killing to Byrds with one stone."

A New Memorial to Byrd at Stondon Massey? Celebrating his 400th anniversary

 

William Byrd Memorial 2023

We have experienced such delight in celebrating the life and music of William Byrd in this 400^th year since his death.

The long connection between William Byrd and St. Peter and St. Paul Church Stondon Massey is one we hope to continue to celebrate in the years to come. In light of this, we have plans to erect a memorial to William Byrd on the outside of the church.

The proposed plan is for a slate memorial with free-flowing script to be situated on the wall to the left (west) of the porch. We hope that this will become a draw and delight for those interested in William Byrd, in history, in church music and in the local area. We hope to have this memorial in place during this anniversary year.

We would very much appreciate your support in fundraising for this work of art. You can contribute with a gift at one of our William Byrd events during July 2023 or you can give online by bank transfer using the details below. Thank you for your support.

Reverend Sam Brazier-Gibbs, and Jan Mackintosh churchwarden.

Bank Transfer

Go to our benefice website: Priory Church of St Laurence, Blackmore |  William Byrd 400 Year Anniversary (blackmorechurch.org.uk)

Please use BYRDMEM in the reference field.

Stondon Massey Church

Sort Code: 40-35-22

Account: 91097415

Stondon Singers William Byrd 400th Anniversary Concert

 The Concert is sold out. Returns only.

A Service of Evensong celebrating William Byrd on the 400th anniversary of his death.

 

A Service of Evensong celebrating

William Byrd

on the 400^th anniversary of his death

Sunday 2^nd July 2023

St. Peter St. Paul

Stondon Massey 3pm

 

Please stand, as you are able, at the entrance of the ministers.

All people that on earth do dwell,

William Kethe (d. 1594)

 DEARLY beloved brethren, the Scripture moveth us in sundry places to acknowledge and confess our manifold sins and wickedness; and that we should not dissemble nor cloke them before the face of Almighty God our heavenly Father; but confess them with an humble, lowly, penitent, and obedient heart; to the end that we may obtain forgiveness of the same …Wherefore I pray and beseech you, as many as are here present, to accompany me with a pure heart and humble voice unto the throne of the heavenly grace, saying after me:

 A general Confession to be said of the whole Congregation after the Minister, all sitting or kneeling.

 ALMIGHTY and most merciful Father, We have erred, and strayed from thy ways like lost sheep, We have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts, We have offended against thy holy laws, We have left undone those things which we ought to have done, And we have done those things which we ought not to have done  … Amen.

 The Absolution or Remission of sins to be pronounced by the Priest

 ALMIGHTY God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who desireth not the death of a sinner … that the rest of our life hereafter may be pure, and holy; so that at the last we may come to his eternal joy; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

 

Then the Minister lead the people in the Lord’s prayer

 OUR Father, which art in heaven …

Priest.     O Lord, open thou our lips.

Answer. And our mouth shall shew forth thy praise.

 

Priest.     O God, make speed to save us.

Answer O Lord, make haste to help us.

 Here, all standing up, the Priest shall say,

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;

Answer. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

 Priest.     Praise ye the Lord.

Answer. The Lord's Name be praised.

 

PSALM 8

 

The Stondon Singers - William Byrd: Kyrie. Mass for 4 voices.

 

The first reading                                                    

Isaiah 64:1-12

 

Reader    This is the Word of the Lord.

All         Thanks be to God.

 

The Second reading

Matthew 6: 25-34

 

Reader    This is the Word of the Lord.

All         Thanks be to God.

 

Stondon Singers - William Byrd: Agnus Dei: Mass for 4 voices

 

I BELIEVE in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth …

 

 

Minister.  The Lord be with you.
Answer   And with thy spirit.

Then the Priest standing up shall say,

Priest.      O Lord, shew thy mercy upon us.
Answer.  And grant us thy salvation

Priest.      O Lord, save the King.
Answer    And mercifully hear us when we call upon  thee.

Priest.      Endue thy Ministers with righteousness.
Answer.  And make thy chosen people joyful.

Priest.      O Lord, save thy people.
Answer   .And bless thine inheritance.

Priest.      Give peace in our time, O Lord.
Answer.  Because there is none other that fighteth for us, but only thou, O God.

Priest.      O God, make clean our hearts within us.
Answer.    And take not thy Holy Spirit from us.

Then shall follow three Collects: The first of the day: The second for Peace: The third for Aid against all Perils, as hereafter followeth: which two last Collects shall be daily said at Evening Prayer without alteration.

The Second Collect at Evening Prayer

The Third Collect, for Aid against all Perils

A Prayer for the King's Majesty.

A Prayer for the Royal Family.

A Prayer for the Clergy and People.

A Prayer of Saint Chrysostom.

 

Care for thy soul as thing of greatest price,

      Made to the end to taste of power divine,

Devoid of guilt, abhorring sin and vice,

      Apt by God’s grace to virtue to incline.

Care for it so as by thy retchless train

It be not brought to taste eternal pain.

 

Care for thy corse, but chiefly for soul’s sake;

      Cut off excess, sustaining food is best;

To vanquish pride but comely clothing take;

      Seek after skill, deep ignorance detest.

Care so, I say, the flesh to feed and clothe

That thou harm not thy soul and body both.

 

Care for the world to do thy body right;

      Rack not thy wit to win thy wicked ways;

Seek not to oppress the weak by wrongful might;

      To pay thy due do banish all delays.

Care to dispend according to thy store,

And in like sort be mindful of the poor.

 

Care for thy soul, as for thy chiefest stay;

      Care for thy body for thy soul’s avail;

Care for the world for body’s help alway;

      Care yet but so as virtue may prevail.

Care in such sort that thou be sure of this:

Care keep thee not from heaven and heavenly bliss.

William Byrd

 

The Stondon Singers - William Byrd: Ave Verum Corpus

 

2 Corinthians 13.
THE grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Ghost, be with us all evermore. Amen.

 

 For all the saints who from their labours rest …

William Walsham Howe 1823-1897

 

Andrew Smith – A “vote of thanks”

 

The Service will be followed by resfreshments.

Byrd on Record

 

Preparing the talk about William Byrd for Stondon Massey has been a labour of love, reading books and listening to his music. Here then is my record review of mainly new discs bought for Christmas and birthday, and personally in very necessary research.

In recent years much of Byrd’s music has come out from the obscurity of the clandestine domestic settings of the Elizabethan era.  Most of the music is now available to hear in the comfort of our own homes.   Byrd was a prolific composer, writing many religious works but also madrigals, songs and pieces for the organ, the virginal and consort of viols which would have been used for entertainment in the houses of the gentry.  A lot of the music is in manuscript form, set in parts, copied, and collected privately. Depending on who was available these parts could either be played on instruments or sung. The viola de gamba, which comes in various sizes and played like a cello ‘between the legs’, was often a perfect substitute for the human voice.   Many pieces can be sung a cappella or with a solo singer as a Consort Song. Robert Dow, who collated part books, wrote “You who are a glory to our race, and a nightingale to our people. Byrd, I pray that you may make music with voice and hand for a long time”.

One of the tests for Byrd authenticity is whether the recording reflects the domestic setting of the time.  The still to be released disc by Chelys Consort of Viols with mezzo-soprano Helen Charlston certainly does, entitled ‘The Honour of William Byrd’. Mine has received several plays since obtaining a copy at a recently attended concert at Ingatestone Hall where Byrd, of course, visited and performed. Fantasia a6 No 2 is an example of Byrd’s non-choral output which starts austerely on the consort of viols but develops into a wonderful Elizabethan dance tune. This sweet and merry month of May is performed on the recording by the consort of viols, taking the place of human voices, with the beautiful and clear diction of Helen Charlston. The piece comes from Byrd’s ‘Psalmes, Songs and Sonnets, 1611’ which has recently been released in its entirety on two discs by The Sixteen with Harry Christophers accompanied by viol consort Fretwork. Here the choir alone perform the madrigal. Fretwork also appears on ‘Tom and Will’ the new disc from The King’s Singers commemorating the deaths of both William Byrd and Thomas Weelkes 400 years ago. Six voices perform the same piece – differently to The Sixteen.

Staying with The King’s Singers the varied programme on ‘Tom and Will’ includes O Lord Make Thy Servant Elizabeth. Sung respectfully its duration is 3’09, which compared to Chelys sung solo with viols comes in at 2’13 – a bit quick for my liking but excellently performed.

‘The Honour of Byrd’ has so much wonderful music that I select Why do I use my paper, ink and pen which are verses from a poem by Henry Walpole recalling the execution of Father Edmund Campion, of which more will be written in another blog entry.

It is said that the poet Walpole attended Campion’s execution. Afterwards he wrote twenty-one verses beginning ‘Why Do I Use My Paper Ink and Pen’ naming the martyr. Byrd set the first three verses to music in his 1588 collection without naming Campion.  It was probably sung in the Petre household also in remembrance of John Payne. Maybe the additional verses were sung in secret?

By way of illustration Byrd’s seemingly innocuous piece ends:

“… That we, therefore, their virtues may embrace,

pray we to Christ, to guide us with his grace”.

Compare this with the sixteenth verse of the poem:

“… and every drop of blood which he did spend,

hath reaped a joy which never shall have end”.

The Chellys version with Charlston is magnificent, and it is interesting to compare it with a more mournful rendition by Nicholas Todd, tenor, who is the soloist with (again) Fretwork on the album ‘Byrd 1588. Psalmes, Sonets and songs of sadnes and pietie’ released in 2021 with Alamire under David Skinner.  A further version from 1997, somewhat dated now in my opinion, is ‘The Caged Byrd’ released by Chandos with I Fagiolini and Sophie Yates under director Robert Hollingworth. Here two countertenors perform – Robin Blaze and Richard Wyn Roberts – employing different verses reflecting the time of persecution.

‘The Caged Byrd’ also includes Byrd’s response to Philippe de Monte when he sends Super flumina Babylonia (by the rivers of Babylon) with Quomodo cantabimus? translated from later in the psalm ‘how do we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land?’.  Eight soloists perform but this is eclipsed by the tonal quality of The Sixteen under Harry Christophers in their outstanding new album ‘A Watchful Gaze’ released to accompany their Choral Pilgrimage of concerts in 2023.

The final piece on ‘The Watchful Gaze’ is Vigilate written for the season of Advent. The setting uses text from St Mark’s Gospel: “Keep watch, for you know not when the Lord of the house will come”. It includes reference to a cock crowing, and you can sense the urgency in The Sixteen’s reading. I made much of the piece in the talk. Were the recusants being vigilant of Christ’s second coming, or of the risk of being caught practising Catholic worship?  Or was Byrd being defiant warning these Anglicans about their new religion? It is the opening piece on ‘The Caged Byrd’ the clucking and crowing of the cockerel perhaps more obvious but The Sixteen wins the overall comparison.

Our review of these records continues with a couple of further recommendations from the ‘Byrd 1588’ double album being the first release of the entire collection. Lullaby a Christmas song was known to be popular during Byrd’s era.  Our own Revd. Reeve of Stondon Massey wrote in 1900: “In a letter from the Earl of Worcester to the Earl of Shrewsbury, Sept. 19^th, 1602, we have an interesting passage respecting one of Byrd’s part-songs. The writer says:

“’We are frolic here in Court, much dancing in the Privy Chamber of country dances before the Queen’s Majesty, who is exceedingly pleased therewith. Irish tunes are at this time the most pleasing, but in winter ‘Lullaby’, an old song of Mr. Bird’s, will be more in request, as I think. The Lullaby song is printed in the author’s Psalmes, Sonets and Songs of Sadnes and Pietie, 1588’”.

My other choice is Come to me grief forever which is an elegy written by Byrd as a funeral song to Sir Phillip Sidney. Chelys and Charlston also perform the piece, perhaps less elegiac over a minute faster than Skinner’s ensemble and maybe the line ‘Sidney is dead, dead’ is not quite as poignant but what a recording.

Ye Sacred Muses an elegy on the death of Byrd’s friend Thomas Tallis is performed on both ‘The Honour of William Byrd’ and The King’s Singers’ ‘Tom and Will’.  My final piece is Browning returning to a very domestic setting as a fun folk-song piece with the catch ‘The leaves are green. The nuts are brown. They hang so high that they won’t come down’. Here my choice track is with ‘Tom and Will’ because The King’s Singers sing the lines accompanied by Fretwork. In ‘The Honour of William Byrd’ the Chelys Consort of Viols perform without their magnificent soloist. Maybe it could serve as a karaoke track for our own domestic gatherings. There’s a thought.

 

BBC Radio 3 In Concert

Wednesday 12 July. 7.30-10.00pm

BBC Radio 3 - Radio 3 in Concert, The Sixteen at York Minster

The Sixteen Choir under their director Harry Christophers sing Byrd as part of their Choral Pilgrimage.

Record Review

Saturday 1 July. c10.30-11.15am

BBC Radio 3 - Record Review, A survey of William Byrd with Kirsten Gibson and Andrew McGregor

The best of Byrd on CD and to download.

Record Review Extra

Sunday 2 July. 9.00-11.00pm

BBC Radio 3 - Record Review Extra, Kirsten Gibson's Byrd

Hannah French offers listeners the opportunity to hear in greater length the pieces discussed in Record Review.  A Byrd fest!

'The Life and Times of William Byrd: A Local History'. Programme

 Curtain up for the special event at our Church.

Here is the Programme.

Programme

Welcome to the first of three events celebrating the life and work of our local composer and musician William Byrd who died here in 1623.

Let us take you this evening back to the sixteenth and early 17^th centuries. This was a time when worship in the Church of England was compulsory and refusal to attend subject to large fines. William Byrd was a recusant Catholic. Tonight, we will explore his life and times and the company he kept.

The script has been especially written for the occasion and we invite you to buy a copy of the accompanying book, price £5.00, which is a longer version of the research in support of a project to raise money for a memorial outside the church to mark Byrd’s quatercentenary.   

Our “cast” in order of appearance are:

 

Narrator                                                  Andrew Smith

Revd. Reeve                                          John Hughes

William Byrd                                           John Cannon

Narrator 2                                               Anne Springate

Roy Hattersley                                        Kevin Wood

Minister                                                  Gail Hughes

Queen Elizabeth I                                  Revd. Sam Brazier Gibbs

Father Edmund Campion                       Steve Drinkall

John Stow                                               Kevin Wood

Father William Weston                           Steve Drinkall

The Times reporter                                 Sandra Wood

Stondon Massey churchwarden             Jan Macintosh

Father Henry Garnet                              Steve Drinkall

Earl of Northampton                               Kevin Wood

Non-speaking parts:

Mrs Jane Shelley                                    Sandra Keeble

Mrs Bellamy                                           Elaine Smith

 Still to come:

Sunday 2 July:    3.00pm.   William Byrd Commemorative Service.

Tuesday 4 July:  8.00pm.   Stondon Singers Concert – all seats sold.

 Listen to ‘Composer of the Week’ on BBC Radio 3 at midday every day week commencing 3 July. Andrew Smith was interviewed ‘on location’ about Byrd’s time at Stondon Massey and will appear in the programmes on Monday and Friday.

 Our story unfolds as follows:

The Prologue

1.  Introduction

2.  Queen Elizabeth I

 3.  William Byrd. Biography

 4.  The Paget Family. A web of intrigue

 5.  Priests and Plotters. Father Edmund Campion and others

 6.  Questionable Company

 

-      Interval -

Our Byrd table may have

seeds and nuts but there will be wine to partake,

and other drink.

We will be hawking Byrd books:

“The Life and Times of William Byrd: A Local History” £5.00

“William Byrd: Some Notes” £3.00. (or buy both for £7.00)

 7.  The Petre Family

 8.  William Byrd at Stondon Massey

 9.  Gradualia and the Gunpowder Plot

 10. William Byrd Tercentenary Celebrations

 11. Epilogue

For more information about William Byrd, our church, and our project please visit: www.williambyrdfestival.blogspot.com .

This Evening. Our Special Talk to commemorate Byrd

 Fri. 30 June: 7.30-9.30pm The Life and Times of William Byrd: A Local Histo Tickets, Fri 30 Jun 2023 at 19:30 | Eventbrite A final opportunity to buy tickets online for our event to be held at Stondon Massey Church this evening.

A limited number of tickets may be available at the door, price £7.00.