2023 is our 300th anniversary year and we’ve got lots of events planned to help everybody to join in and celebrate with us.
You can find many of these details below but please bookmark this page and keep coming back as more items and updates will be added regularly.
On Wednesday 26th July we celebrated St. Anne’s Day with a special service followed by afternoon tea at which the Vicar cut the special anniversary cake.
On Friday 28th July we held our Trivia, Treasures and Treats where as well as enjoying tasty snacks and drinks we enjoyed a quiz and held our super auction where some spectacular lots were up for grabs. Many thanks to the local businesses and people who have so generously donated these auction lots.
Our church was decorated with many wonderful flower displays specially created by our talented team of flower arrangers. You can enjoy them again on our special Flower Festival gallery.
On Sunday 30th July our events came to a climax with our special Civic Service where we were joined by the Mayors of both Fylde and Wyre and the choir sang the specially commissioned anthem, Shout for Joy by Declan Molloy.
The Hunt for St Anne’s Copp Rose Queens
This year on July 26th St Annes Copp Church is celebrating its 300th anniversary (1873-2023) and as part of our celebration we are trying to compile a full list of St Annes Copp’s Rose Queen. The first Rose Queen in 1936 was Stella Halsall and since then 83 children have held the title, including Ethel Parr crowned in 1953 the year of Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation.
The culture and flowering of roses has been celebrated since at least Ancient Roman times, when the lavish Rosalia (also known as Rosatio, meaning rose adornment) carnival was staged, and rose growing nations have held various themed events ever since. From the 1880s, the rose queen festival, mostly held in June, became a major annual event in towns and villages across the UK, especially in Lancashire – known as the red rose county, following the Wars of the Roses (1455-87).
Rose queen festivals share similarities with May Day, which originally marked the dawning of the Celtic summer and fertility rites, but – like many British ‘traditions’ – was re-presented by the Victorians. The Rose highness was chosen for her scholarly and/or religious diligence, popularity and/or beauty, it is suggested that it was even created, by clergy and respectable churchgoers as a piece of safe and controlled pageantry.
A Rose Queen is crowned for a year, and it is her honour to lead a procession through a village/ town as part of ‘walking day’, often accompanied by maypole dancing and a fancy dress competition.
In 1936, Mrs. Jessie Parkinson organised the first Flower Queen Festival at St Annes Copp Church, something she then did annually for over 40 years. Kath Shipley took over organising the Rose Queen and it continued until 2019 when it ceased due to Covid restrictions.
We can only currently map 23 names against the 83 dates with 20 names known but no date known. Please help us!
The currently known Rose Queens (23) and names that need to be matched to a date (20) can be seen on the St Anne’s Copp website, and a hard copy is displayed in St Anne’s Copp Church porch notice board BUT we are missing 40 names! Please correct the list in the church porch or drop me an email with any known names and dates.
Judith Ellis (ellisjm@aol.com)
Churchwarden
St Annes Copp Church
83 years of St Annes Copp Rose Queens: PLEASE HELP US COMPLETE OUR TIMELINE
We have tried to slot in names to dates as given but there is certainly some uncertainty as to exact dates!
Rose-Queens-table-as-of-August-2023docx