IT was standing room only at St Mary’s Parish Church, in Staindrop, when the village’s primary school held their annual harvest celebration.
Parents, grandparents and other members of the community packed into the historic church to enjoy the festival and to wish the long-serving vicar, Revd Ken Steventon, a happy retirement.
Children from all years took part in the celebration performing harvest-themed songs, readings and poetry recitals which included autumnal readings.
Mr Steventon expressed his delight at being able to host a service inside the church with the children again following the relaxation of pandemic restrictions.
He added restrictions had put paid to last year’s harvest celebration as well as Christmas and Easter services.
He said: “How lovely to see you all in church.
“I love it when the children can come into church and it just seems so long ago
since they were able to come in.
“I officially retire in 14 hours and this will be my last service.”
Headteacher Steve Whelerton said: “We were going to do the service on Friday but when we realised it was Ken’s last official day on Thursday, we moved it.
“We wanted to make sure he didn’t go out quietly and we wanted to give him a little bit of a send-off.”
Head boy James Shepherd and head girl Lily Cook presented Mr Steventon with a special painting – a caricature of himself in the church – to remind him of his time at St Mary’s. He was also given a luxury hamper by the school governors, who thanked him for his work in the community.
Mr Whelerton added: “He has been an absolute rock for the school.
“He appointed me 13 years ago and the support we have always had from Ken has been amazing.
“Personally, I’m going to miss him a lot but speaking on behalf of the staff and children he is going to leave a very big hole to fill.”
