Thamesfield Residents Diary

We were very excited to welcome Jane Rowton-Lee to Thamesfield. You may not have heard of her but Jane played a very important part in the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton back in April.

Do you remember those amazing trees that lined the aisle of Westminster Abbey? And the stunning bouquet the bride carried?

They, and the rest of the flowers that decorated the Abbey, were the responsibility of Jane and her team.

She told us how most of the flowers were gathered from Windsor and Sandringham and so would have been very familiar to the happy couple – particularly the groom. She talked about the challenge they had getting those trees into the Abbey and how closely Prince Charles was involved in choosing the particular blooms used.

We were absolutely delighted to see some photos from the Royal Wedding which haven’t been on public show – indeed we saw some lovely close up shots of floral displays which weren’t shown on the television.

Staff, residents and friends attended Thamesfield’s The World’s Largest Coffee Morning earlier this month.

The event is an annual one in the charity calendar and has become the same for us here.

The money raised goes towards supporting the invaluable work of the Macmillan nurses. Our contribution this year amounted to £179 – not bad for an hour or so spent drinking coffee.

Robert Brain is an artist based right near us in Henley. He came to visit and brought with him a variety of his magnificent art pieces for our residents to see.

He talked about his background - how he went from teaching to designing an architectural piece for the Chelsea Flower Show and how his works are now bought worldwide.

While he was talking, we were all encouraged to pick up a pencil and doodle. Some of us managed a passable attempt at a drawing while Robert created a dramatic picture of an elephant.

Doreen Cook said: “Robert was so interesting to listen to - I can’t draw for toffee, but his words of encouragement convinced me to have a go!”

Residents and staff at Thamesfield were thrilled when popular comedian David Walliams paused during his marathon swim of the Thames to wave.

The Little Britain comic is attempting to swim 140 miles downstream from Gloucester to Big Ben in eight days. He reached Thamesfield on day four, treading water to wave to us.

We lined the riverbank to salute his efforts which have already raised more than £400,000 for Sport Relief.

David’s attempt has been hampered by severe weather and a bout of ‘Thames Tummy’. But he pushed on passed us to continue his epic challenge.

We wish him all the best!

We had to check we were allowed to tell you about a recent visitor to Thamesfield! The war work that was carried out at Hughenden Manor was top secret – there were lots of red ‘confidential’ stamps everywhere. Richard Nokes is an expert on the work that was done at the Manor and came to enlighten us, safe in the knowledge that 70 years after the War he wasn’t breaking the official secrets act.

The Manor is in High Wycombe and was the main base for all the maps that were plotted to enable England to bomb Germany.

Resident Anne Beausire said: “It was an extremely interesting lecture about the technicalities of how they made the maps. Richard also talked about top secret missions, including the attempted assassination of Hitler!”

We discovered a beautiful corner of England when we headed out into the countryside from Henley-on-Thames.

We travelled down some pretty country roads, driving past some red deer – a bonus for the wildlife fans among us.

We came across what can only be described as an idyllic country cottage offering afternoon tea.

The only thing missing was sunshine – but at least the rain stayed away.

We’re very lucky here at Thamesfield to enjoy one of the most beautiful settings, right on the bank of the river across from Henley-on-Thames.

We even have our own boat dock making it very easy to hop on a boat for a trip down (or up) the river.

The latest trip happened on the most beautiful summer’s day. We headed through Marsh Lock, passing Vince Hill’s house – he was a special guest at Thamesfield a few weeks ago. Downstream we passed a wedding party being held in an abundance of beautiful flowers and ribbons. The bride looked gorgeous which brought back a few memories for some of us.

To everyone’s delight we then flowed passed 16 ducklings all scrabbling to keep up with Mother Duck – who certainly had a large family on her hands.

On the way back to Thamesfield we enjoyed a wonderful array of homemade cakes – we really are spoiled!

(contribution from resident Doreen Cook)

With such beautiful sunshine at the moment, many of us are keen to spend as much time outdoors as possible.

So, when it was time for our regular Tai Chi session, we headed out to the shade of the trees – as you can see from the photos.

The day was transformed by the session and we all agreed the fresh air contributed greatly to the benefits of the exercise.

Thamesfield was visited by local celebrity Vince Hill who has had a very long and distinguished singing and television career.

He had some wonderful stories to tell – he knew Princess Margaret – and he shared some very funny stories about the times he worked with George Burns.

We were also honoured to be shown his ‘big red book’ which had us all sharing memories of the different stages of his career as we browsed the photos in ‘Vince Hill This is Your Life’.

Later, he had us all giggling away as he did impressions of some old favourites – Ken Dodd, Frankie Howerd and Tommy Cooper to name a few. That part was especially clever because he had no props whatsoever – he just seemed to morph into the different characters by brushing his hair differently!

Vince rounded off his visit to us with a rendition of his anthem Eidelweiss which of course had us all humming along.

A lovely afternoon of reminiscing.

Lizzie Webb, famous for her TV fitness routines, paid a visit to Thamesfield to put our residents through their paces with armchair exercise.

Lizzie – you may remember her as the one with the curly blonde hair - also talked about her time on TVAM in its heyday. She had a wonderful tale to tell about exercising alongside a then-up-and-coming boy band called Take That! And we could just imagine the scene she described when she mentioned Barbara Windsor, dressed as a pantomime fairy, getting the giggles!

Lizzie brought with her two young assistants who have trained and qualified as fitness instructors through her charity programme Creativity in Sport’. They played some hip hop and gave us a demonstration of some of their moves.

As the residents left afterwards, one was heard to say: “What a lively afternoon!

Those of us with ‘vertigo’ issues were very impressed to hear about the exploits of one of our residents John Spalding.

Mr Spalding is involved with the Jubilee Sailing Trust – a charity which supports and takes injured soldiers on sailing voyages.

He accompanied the crew on their latest trip to the Canaries – a trip which was the subject of a presentation by the Trust’s David Sage. We were rather impressed to hear that Mr Spalding climbed the ship’s mast!

David described how the voyages give soldiers the chance to come to terms with their injuries – helping them to find out what they can do rather than what they can’t.

A very worthwhile cause to hear and know about.

Quite literally in this case!

Spinners from Black Hill Yarns – our local wool shop in Henley-on-Thames – came to Thamesfield to talk on all the different wools which come from New Zealand, and also to give a spinning presentation.

Penny gave us a very interesting talk on the history of spinning which dates back to the 15th century.

Residents were given the opportunity to feel all the different wools and to get up close to the spinning wheels – and of course to quiz the experts.