Church search for longest married pair

That is the question being asked by organisers of this year’s Church Festival.

They are looking for the Horncastle couple who married in the parish church, the longest time ago, to help celebrate ‘100 years of weddings’.

Main organiser Linda Patrick said: “We know there are lots of people in the town who have been married for a very long time, but many have moved into the area.

“We want to find the couple who married in St Mary’s the longest time ago, whether that is 40, 50 or 60 plus years ago.

“It will be a great thing to celebrate as part of this year’s Festival.”

The festival will run over the weekend of September 8 and 9 as part of the Horncastle Churches Festival, which will feature 54 churches around the area.

The couple will be special guests at a ‘pre-wedding’ event too and it is hoped to have the relevant wedding register on show from the archives.

Couples are asked to contact St Mary’s office as soon as possible on 01507 525600

The organisers are also looking for items to be used in the display.

Linda said: “We would be pleased to receive any wedding related items on loan for use in the exhibition.

“These could be wedding dresses, bridesmaids dresses, lucky charms or even funny stories of what happened on your wedding day.”

Items will be needed from September 6 to September 10 and collection is possible if required.

And as always with events at St Mary’s, there will be a project for all the community to get involved with.

Linda said: “Everyone in the town is being invited to come along during the festival and add to the timeline when they were married at the church, christened at the church, were a bridesmaid etc.

“We also want town residents who weren’t married at St Mary’s to add their dates too.

“The bells will be ringing out at the event too to make it a real celebration of weddings.”