Every Easter Saturday, a short service is held at the grave of William Hubbard in the churchyard of St Mary in Arden. The small disused church stands near Market Harborough railway station.
Hubbard died in 1786 and this ceremony has been held since 1807, so the old boy has got good vale for the guinea he left to pay for it.
I suddenly remembered this service yesterday afternoon, so I went along to see it. There was a vicar, half a dozen women to sing, a man with a cross and I found myself one of a congregation of getting on for 20.
Not long after proceedings had begun, there was a loud bang behind us. It turned out one car and run into the back of another and closed Great Bowden Road. An ambulance was called for one lady, and I hope she is all right.
I was reminded a little of the christening of the new bell that went wrong in the BBC's 1982 adaptation of Iris Murdoch's novel The Bell.
St Mary in Arden was a place of pilgrimage in the Middle Ages, perhaps because it was close to the site of a holy well, and looked after a parish on both sides of the Welland. By the 17th century it had become somewhat disreputable. One day I shall find out more about it.
Anyway here are some photos I took yesterday. The gravestone is William Hubbard's.
