History of Ayot Art Show
This year the Ayot Art Show celebrated a major milestone: its 50th birthday! The first Ayot Midsummer Festival took place in 1975 and was held to raise money for the restoration of the Palladian Church and to prevent it being made redundant by the Church of England. The Festival was spread over a week and included concerts, flower arranging, a barn dance, a clay pigeon shoot as well as the inaugural Art Show. It was so successful that the Festival continued for many years, with the Art Show becoming the most successful and eventually the sole annual fund raiser for the village. Profits from the Art Show are still used for conservation work at the village’s two churches and for other charitable purposes within the village.
History of the Show
It is a tremendous tribute to the original organisers of the Midsummer Festival and Art Show (Mrs Jo Lelliot and Mrs Elizabeth Ayliffe), the artists supporting the show and the quality of their artwork, and all subsequent committees and volunteers that the Art Show has gone from strength to strength since its inception in 1975. As the old photo below shows, the Art Show itself is remarkably unchanged, but other features of the original Festival are more surprising!
Midsummer Festival Events over the years included:
- A barn dance and the music was provided by a band called Leather Ferret.
- A Gymkana in the church field.
- A Hangi – a traditional New Zealand hog roast where the pig is roasted in a pit with pineapple and chicken for 5 hours.
- A Procession – re-enacting a parade 200 years before when the church was first consecrated and the Bishop of Hertford, led “the nobility and gentry who were preceded by a Band of Musick” or the modern version in 1979: the Bishop led the church wardens, neighbouring clergy, Lord Brocket, farmers and villagers with the members of the Harpsichord Camerata providing the music.
- A clay pigeon shoot
- Dwile Flonking – a rustic 15th century sport where beer sodden cloths are flung at an opposite team. If a thrower misses or a player is hit they have to drink a pint of beer!
- Musical Concerts – including an organ recital and an Evening of Voices and Music.
- Flower arranging demonstration.
- A competition within the Art Show for the picture most representing Ayot St Lawrence. Votes were cast by visitors putting pennies in jam jars (a good fund raiser in itself!) and the winner the first year was the show’s organiser; Liz Ayliffe’s painting of the Ruined Church! Liz was a talented artist and sculptor in her own right – hence her interest in organising the Show for the village.
- George Bernard Shaw’s plays and recitals.
- A cookery demonstration
