Recently, St JohnsBedwardine organised and enjoyed two history-based events in their socialcalendar. Aspiring code-breakers piled on to a coach on a recent Saturdaymorning, heading (not so secretly) to Bletchley Park near Milton Keynes. DuringWorld War 2 (WW2), Bletchley Park was home to men and women who broke German codes(most notably the Enigma code) and the estate reopened as a museum in 2014 thanks toLottery Funding. Congregation members from St Johns not only discovered muchabout code-breaking in WW2, but also about the lives of those who lived andworked there during the six year period. Many of the visitors were struck whenthey found out that approximately nine-thousand people worked there during thewar, but that this remained a national secret for fifty years. Saddeningpersonal stories of those who used to work there were also found to be verytouching as the group moved around the museum.
Some congregation membersalso had the time to visit the National Museum of Computing, which is attachedto Bletchley Park. The museum houses examples of Alan Turings machine which was used tobreak the Enigma code, Colossus (the worlds first electronic computer), andthe worlds oldest working computer which was used to support the mathematicsof building nuclear reactors in the early 1950s. It was shocking to realise theextent of technological development over recent decades, especially in that the1950s computer would take 273 years to complete a task for which a moderniPhone takes one second.
Colin Nash, congregationmember at St Johns Bedwardine, said, Yet another wonderful trip organised byour great team and our thanks for their efforts in finding a place where Ithink people will be going back to again in the future.
Travelling further back intime, seventy-five people from the church heard all about Plague and Pestilenceat their highly entertaining March History talk, led by Paul Harding ofDiscover History. The congregation were dismayed to find out how the Plague waspresent in Worcester in the seventeenth-century, courtesy of the Civil War, inaddition to the Mediaeval period. In the Mediaeval period, Worcester was one ofthe first places in the country to suffer from the Plague, as the city was amajor inland port home to much trade. The parishioners of local churches StCuthberts and Lower Wick are believed to have died out and it is at this pointSt Johns Bedwardine became the main church for the parish.
At this time,because people did not understand the disease, they gathered together to prayand this increased the spread of the illness. In their ignorance, people thoughtthat they could ward off the Plague by completing pilgrimages and wearingtalismans, neither of which worked. The site of St Oswalds Hospital inForegate Street is believed to be one of the main Plague burial pits in thecity. Congregation members weregrateful for another very interesting, gruesome talk accompanied by lots ofprops and artefacts which brought the local and national history to life.
StJohns Bedwardine will host their next history talk on Friday 12thApril, which will focus on the commercialisation of Easter. To read more about trips andother events at St Johns Bedwardine, visit their website: https://www.stjohninbedwardine.co.uk/news/.
