St James 150

St James Church 150th Anniversary

We were thrilled to celebrate this wonderful anniversary for St James Church in 2025.

Do you like the “St James 150” logo opposite? We are most grateful to the Year 6 children of Welland Primary School who designed it, assisted by Mr Roger Haines.

We celebrated our anniversary with a series of events between April and July 2025. Read about what we did below

Richard Clements & John Martin, Churchwardens

Anniversary Celebration

The church was consecrated on 2nd April 1875. To mark the exact anniversary of its official opening, at 6pm on 2nd April we held a short service in the church followed by drinks and nibbles. At 7pm the bells rang out with a Quarter Peal lasting about 45 minutes.

Spring Bank Holiday Weekend

Viv Nelson, Beatles superfan, gave two talks on The Beatles on Friday 23rd May —3:30pm to 5pm and 7pm to 8:30pm. Both sessions were very well attended
On Saturday 24th May, at 7pm, we ran a fun quiz night based on popular tv game shows.

Concerts

We had two choirs visiting us to give concerts. Malvern Singers on 26th June and Malvern Male Voice Choir on 12th July, both concerts started at 7:30pm in the church.

Church History Exhibition

We were delighted that the Welland History Group mounted an exhibition in the church and gave an illustrated talk on the history of the old church, which was sited at Welland Court, and the artefacts brought from the old to the new church. The talk, with afternoon tea, was on Saturday 14th June at 2pm.

Welland Summer Bash

Cream Teas, Choirs Singing, Tower Tours & Bellringing Demos on Sunday 22nd June.
The church tower was open 12-2pm—offering a tour and a chance to see the bells being rung. Then Cream Teas were served from 2pm while three choirs took it in turns to sing for us—The Welland Primary School Choir, Tewkesbury Chamber Choir and Vox Rox

Services

Choral Evensong—Sunday 20th July 6pm with Upton Church Choir
Thanksgiving Service—Sunday 27th July 11am.The celebrations concluded with a special service of Thanksgiving attended by the Archdeacon of Worcester and was followed by a bring and share lunch in the church. A great turn out. Honoured guests included Lord & Lady Lechmere, Rev Frances Wookey (former vicar of Welland) and her husband Roger, and Sue Richardson, former lay reader of the church and wife of the late David Richardson, former churchwarden, Keith Gotobed, former churchwarden, and his wife, former crucifer and choir member.