Through the Decades: Flower festival at St Michael's Church celebrates Queen's Platinum Jubilee
Historic events of the last 70 years around the world – and even beyond it – as well as significant occasions in the Royal Family are depicted in a church flower festival in Bishop's Stortford.
"Through the Decades" at St Michael's in Windhill celebrates the Queen's Platinum Jubilee in the form of 44 floral arrangements. It was organised by Claire Conquest, who created nine of the displays, and Jenny Klincke. It opened on Thursday and runs until Sunday (June 2-5).
There are arrangements by 21 other members of the congregation as well as by professional florists Amy Saunders, of Newtown Road's Floral Desire, and Caroline Gent at Blush Flower Hut at Millers Three, Southmill Road.
The festival features the creative input of schoolchildren and Rainbow Guides.
Two Stortford primaries took part: St Michael's CofE has three displays representing the births of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's children, George, Charlotte and Louis, while Hillmead's arrangement honouring England's 1966 World Cup win in football is one of three that celebrate the nation's sporting successes, along with the Rugby World Cup triumph in 2003 and cricket's Ashes series of 2005.
And Dee Owen and the 1st Thorley Rainbows made two displays, one denoting the moment in September 2015 when the Queen became the UK's longest-reigning monarch – surpassing her great, great-grandmother Queen Victoria's 63 years – and the other marking her 90th birthday in 2016.
The conquest of Mount Everest, the world's highest mountain, by Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary on May 29, 1953, is depicted. News of the expedition's success reached London in time to be released four days later on the morning of the Queen's coronation, on June 2.
Other notable global events represented include the first Moon landing in 1969, the 1956 Suez crisis, Jamaica gaining independence from the UK in 1962 and Hong Kong reverting to Chinese rule in 1997.
Closer to home, milestones in entertainment, science, technology and religion from the 1960s to the 1990s are remembered, from the release of The Beatles' first album and supersonic aircraft Concorde's first transatlantic flight to the world's first test tube baby, the launch of the internet and the introduction of the ordination of women priests in the Church of England.
Some divisive and tragic events and subjects are covered: the 9/11 terror attack on New York's World Trade Center, the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, the funeral of wartime Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill, the Windsor Castle fire, the UK joining the European Community and the miners' strike.
Key chronological milestones in the Queen's life represented include her Silver Jubilee, her 60th birthday, her 60th wedding anniversary with the Duke of Edinburgh and her Diamond Jubilee.
There are displays for Prince Charles' weddings to Lady Diana Spencer in 1981 and Camilla Parker-Bowles in 2005 as well as for the nuptials of Prince William and Kate Middleton, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle and Prince Edward and Sophie Rhys-Jones.
The Queen Mother turning 100 in 2000 and then, two years later, her death within seven weeks of that of her daughter and the Queen's sister, Princess Margaret, are recorded florally.
Finally, perhaps the only time it will be classed as a global event, the launch of the Bishop's Stortford Independent, in October 2017, is represented in an arrangement by Claire Conquest. Its appearance followed intense negotiations involving sponsorship and a home-made lemon drizzle cake
