ASCENSION DAY MEMORIES

Ascension Day has always been very special to me. When I was a child I went to Horndean Church of England Primary School and every Ascension Day the children accompanied by their teachers would walk about a mile to the historic 12^th century All Saints Parish Church Catherington for a Sung Mass taken by the then vicar Father Sheppard . We joined with the children from Catherington Church of England School for the service and afterwards it was on to the downs for lunch and games. If the weather was a little unsettled we had lunch in the Catherington School class room. (In those days there were only two classrooms, divided by a sort of sliding doors) My memory may be dim after all these years but I only remember once having lunch in school. As far as I can remember, the sandwich lunch was provided by the schools and we had BUNS!!!!!. Now to have a bun might not seem very special to today’s kids but this was just after the end of WW2 and buns were a rarity. After games on the South Downs we were let of early and it was then the walk back home. In those days you walked!!!!! In fact I don’t think buses ran into Catherington then. For many years Catherington was considered to be moderate Catholic but that now seems to have changed. Several years ago the beautiful Catherington Vicarage was sold and a new vicarage constructed.

The history of Catherington Church can found here