Published on 1st July 2025

St Mary’s Church in the Causeway, Horsham, hosted a flower festival on 19 – 22 June. About 40 displays were placed around the historic church, with contributions from local flower arrangers, churches, schools and clubs.

The festival has traditionally been an annual feature of the St Mary’s calendar. However, it was not held in 2024, so for this year’s event, the organisers collaborated with two other town churches. 

Angie Hyde, Secretary of Holy Trinity Horsham, said: ‘The team at St Mary’s has always done a fantastic job in organising the flower festival. However, it was becoming increasingly difficult to find enough people to make arrangements. There are only so many flower clubs and arrangers out there, and some need to be gently cajoled into helping out at such events! So, St Mary’s reached out to Holy Trinity and St John the Evangelist RC, and we’ve helped spread the word among our own congregations. Several others churches added their support by contributing arrangements, including Brighton Road Baptists, London Road Methodists, St Mark’s and St Margaret’s in Warnham. 

‘As a NADFAS demonstrator and a member of Warnham Flower Club, I was happy to be involved, contributing an arrangement of my own and helping others with their displays if needed too. It has been a wonderful thing to be a part of, as it has brought the community together. I’m sure that we will continue to collaborate in future, especially as we have learned a lot from this year’s event. I’m confident it can become even better and hopefully we can encourage more people to make arrangements in future.’ 

POET’S CORNER

St Mary’s Church has been hosting flower festivals for more than 60 years and traditionally arrangements are set to a theme. This year’s inspiration came from For the Beauty of the Earth, a hymn composed by John Rutter.  

The hymn’s content provided scope for a wide variety of arrangements, with some featuring land animals and insects to symbolise the ‘beauty of the earth’, some incorporating birds and butterflies to represent the ‘beauty of the skies’, while others were based on references to ‘hills and vales’ or the ‘moon and stars’.

Carol Stalley, one of the St Mary’s organisers, said: ‘Several years ago, we selected a hymn called Let All The World in Every Corner Sing as our theme for the festival. People liked the concept and it inspired some excellent arrangements. So, this year, we chose my favourite hymn, For the Beauty of the Earth. To ensure good variety, we assigned a line or segment of the hymn to each of the flower arrangers. Some needed to be quite broad, so the children of St Mary’s CE Primary School were given the theme of ‘animals’ and they produced a vibrant, colourful display. The pupils have really enjoyed bringing their families into the church and showing them their part of the arrangement. The pupils at QEII Silver Jubilee School in Horsham created a display on insects, filling and decorating planters during visits to The Butterfly Project. We’ll be donating these to local alms houses when the festival ends.’

‘We tried to give experienced arrangers more challenging themes, perhaps focusing on a continent or an abstract part of the hymn. Several displays utilise prominent church features too, including a beautiful arrangement by Warnham Evening Flower Club around the font. My arrangement is based around the pulpit (opposite) with a variety of flowers and doves to symbolise love, joy, peace and the divine gifts of the Holy Spirit.’

TREE OF LIGHT

One of the most thoughtful arrangements came courtesy of Judy Brinkworth. Judy has been on the festival committee for more than a decade and this year helped organise the event alongside Carol and Nigel Stalley, Jo Benson and Sue Keegan from St Mary’s, as well as Angie from Holy Trinity and Irene Innes from St John’s. 

For her arrangement, Judy took inspiration from a line in the hymn about ‘friends above’. She said: ‘I thought it was an opportunity for people to think about loved ones that they’ve lost by making a tree of remembrance. My grandson made the frame and we made labels in the shape of doves, hearts and stars for visitors to write messages to friends or relatives above. They could pray for them too, if they wished to. The arrangement incorporates some lighting elements, so it added something different to the festival.’ 

St John’s Church took inspiration from the ‘moon and stars of night’ for its floral arrangement. This included a crescent moon and origami stars, and was one of many displays demonstrating a sustainable ethos. Irene Innes of St John’s said: ‘Before the festival, we held a workshop on sustainability and tried to incorporate eco-friendly methods into the event. We have moved away from using floral foam as it contributes to micro-plastic pollution. Instead, the team at St Mary’s has made coir bags (growing bags made using natural fibres) for the arrangements and flowers at the end of pews.’

COMMUNITY PRIDE

The event relied on the support of many local business, with sponsors making small yet important contributions to the displays. The organising committee also relied on the support of volunteers, who not only worked on arrangements but helped steward and serve refreshments. Although entry was free, donations were welcomed and split between The Fabric Fund at St Mary’s and Holy Trinity churches, with 10% going to Horsham Matters, a Christian charity that aims to relieve hardship in the town and district. 

In addition to the flowers, pupils of St Mary’s CE Primary School enjoyed dancing around the maypole in the Causeway on 19 June, while there were musical recitals throughout the weekend on the church’s Father Willis organ. Vintage Afternoon Tea was served in the Leslie Room, a welcome addition to the usual Bethany Café. The festival ended with a Closing Celebration Concert, but for Revd Canon Lisa Barnett, Horsham Parish Team Rector, the highlight came earlier in proceedings… 

‘It was wonderful visiting the church on Tuesday and Wednesday, just prior to the opening service. All of the flower arrangers were working on their displays and you could see them helping one another with presentation and placement. There is a wonderful sense of community to the festival and of course, the church looks even more beautiful when it’s bursting with colour.’ 

WORDS: Ben Morris / PHOTOS: Alan Wright

Further information: To find out more about St Mary’s, including services and events, visit www.stmaryshorsham.org.uk