Village church near Banbury invites people to welcome spring with nine-day music festival

From Saturday March 16 until Sunday March 24, St James Church for Newbottle and Charlton is celebrating the changing of the seasons with Springfest 2024.

Over nine days, different musicians and public speakers will perform at the church with the aim of raising money for essential repairs to the historic building.

Organiser of Springfest, Roger Neill, said: “Newbottle church is a beautiful, small country church with marvellous acoustics, so it makes sense to use it as a venue for community music events.”

To start proceedings, principal clarinet of the Philharmonia Orchestra Mark van de Wiel will be performing Mozart’s clarinet quintet alongside the Adderbury Ensemble.

Following this, on Sunday 17, landscape historian Deborah Hayter will lead an illustrated talk about how plague, desertion and depopulation have affected the history of Newbottle.

On Tuesday 19, the Stowe School String Ensemble will be playing Bach, Schubert and Walton, and on Thursday 21 the Sheppard Singers will be singing songs from madrigals to modern.

Roger said: “I did research into which of the local schools had the best music, and Stowe’s string ensemble came out on top, and then we have the Northamptonshire-based Sheppard Singers.

"To finish off the music at the festival, we have best-selling classical guitarist Craig Ogden on Saturday 23, who will be playing an enormous range of different music.

"The church is a fantastic place to hold concerts, and if people want to hear music in perfect condition, then Newbottle Church is a good place to come.”

For information and tickets visit, https://www.springfest-newbottle.uk/