2025 – Still to come!
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2025
As part of Leicestershire Heritage weekend, St Peter’s church, Thornton was open to the public, boards displaying the history of the village and local historian, Pete Leadbetter were available and created a great deal of interest for the visitors.96 visitors came to the church over the 2 days and over £200 donated for tea and cakes.
2024
Past events
Thornton Christmas Craft Fayre
Another very successful and happy day raising £1500! Wow! A huge thank you to everyone who supported it. And a massive thank you to the lovely team who helped put the event on, and of course all the stall holders without whom the event could not happen.
Cafe ladies, Raffle, Cakes, Games, Santa and his elf, Colin and his engines Gemini, Folk on the door, Stall holders, and all those behind the scene – Thank you!
Thornton, you are amazing. So many stall holders commented on how friendly and happy the fayre is, and how much they enjoy this craft fayre above others.
Thank you everyone. Thank you.
The Friends of St Peter’s (FOSP)
OPEN GARDENS 2024
THORNTON OPEN GARDENS – a blooming success!
Despite the stormy weather forecast and the couple of heavy showers that materialised, this year’s Thornton Open Gardens proved popular once again. On the afternoon of Sunday 7th July, 302 visitors came to enjoy our 13 contrasting open gardens. As well as the gardens themselves to admire, there was a variety of refreshments on sale, a plant sale, a quiz and a fun animal hunt. Locals, friends and acquaintances rubbed shoulders with visitors from further afield, many of them regularly seeking out summer open gardens events all over the Midlands. Everyone seemed to enjoy all that Thornton had to offer. The event made an impressive profit of £1697 which is to go towards the maintenance of St Peter’s Church.
Friends of St Peter’s would like to thank all those who opened their gardens, served refreshments, directed the car parking, donated and sold plants and manned the church. Our thanks, too, to The Brickies, the Shop and Thornton Nurseries for selling programmes. Also, to The Garden Design Company, who generously supported the event, which was organised by Friends of St Peter’s.
QUIZ NIGHTS – various
2024
A huge thank you to everyone who supported the Clear Out Sale on Saturday and helped make it a lovely village day. £459 (wow!) was raised, thanks to everyone’s hard work, support and generosity.
All of this will go towards the repair and care of our lovely church.
2023
The Christmas Craft Fayre 2023 raised £1700
Amazing! This includes two very generous donations.
A huge thank you to everyone who helped or supported the event in any way.
Saturday 19th November 2022
A blooming success!
Thornton Open Gardens 2022 – Sunday 10th July
Thornton residents opened their gardens ‘for real’ this year, after two years of ‘virtual’ open gardens, due to Covid restrictions and concerns.
There were 14 gardens open for visitors during an extremely hot and sunny Sunday afternoon. The gardens opened offered real variety – from a large rambling nature garden with intertwining paths to a courtyard garden to pretty compact cottage gardens. Many offering stunning views of the reservoir and the National Forest. Stops included the lovely cool of the church and also of the village hall, where there was a roaring trade in cream teas.
The event was considered to be a great social event with many locals getting to know one another on walking around the village.
As well as locals and immediate neighbours, there were a large number of people from further afield, with some visitors recorded from Nuneaton and Coventry, having seen us listed on the national Open Gardens website.
There was a quiz sheet on sale with answers to be submitted by the end of the month. Five people got full marks and the winner ‘out of the hat’ was Muriel Walker.
The soaring temperatures and the Wimbledon final inevitably kept some people away, but the gardens were kept busy and the event made a profit of £1144.54 for the Friends of St Peter’s for the maintenance, restoration and improvement of our beautiful historic church.
The organisers would like to thank all the villagers who opened up their gardens; The Bricklayers Arms, Thornton Club and Thornton Nurseries – who allowed use of their facilities; the volunteer first aiders; The Community Centre and those who served cream teas there (especially Mary for organising that end of things) and to local firm, the Garden Design Company for supporting the event – http://www.thegardendesignco.co.uk.
2021 events
Thornton 