Tomorrow’s History Today

As the whole nation took time to celebrate our sovereign Queen’s 70th anniversary as head of Britain and the Commonwealth, we in Appledore were no different with events throughout Thursday, 2nd June at both our Village Hall and the Recreation Ground.
The culmination of the day was the lighting of the beacon in line with the 3,500 others around the world.

The Appledore Beacon was installed for the 100th year anniversary of the end of the Great War (see page on our website here) and stands on top of Mill Hill, ensuring it can be seen many miles away.

On Thursday, a small band attended to light the Beacon, both from the Appledore Local History Society and the Northiam Bonfire Society (https://northiambonfiresociety.co.uk/).  A small crowd gathered just before the lighting and amongst that crowd was Emily a ten year old visitor to our village from Tonbridge Kent, who had found her way up to the beacon, along with her family.

With encouragement from everyone, Emily said she was happy to help light the beacon; she did a wonderful job well wrapped up and in the safe hands of Lee from the Bonfire Society.*
The beacon burned for almost half an hour and more people joined the crowd to take photos and remember where they were on the Queen’s 70th Jubilee Celebration evening.

We would like to thank Emily and her family for their help and interest and we look forward to lighting the Appledore beacon again on the next special occasion and for many more years to come.

*also featured in the image is Duncan Gray, a life long villager and instrumental in both erecting the beacon and setting it for the occasion.