Teenage Cancer Trust

This year, the Sunningwell Festival is delighted to support the work of the
Teenage Cancer Trust, to make an online donation click here or on the logo below.

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About the Sunningwell Festival

The Festival takes place Friday 28th May to Sunday 6th June 2010 in the idyllic South Oxfordshire village of Sunningwell, just five miles from Oxford City centre. It is in a unique setting: on a stage built at the centre of the village, on a pond.

It offers an exciting line-up of Pop music, opera, theatre, choral and instrumental concerts, Morris Dancing, art exhibitions, mini iron man competitions and even a dog show. During most days a Cafe will be open full of lovely goodies and a reviving cup of tea or coffee and during the evening performances a fully licensed bar will be available. We positively encourage picnics and hampers.

See what's on and to avoid disappointment you are advised to purchase tickets in advance through the WeGotTickets website.

How it all started

The concept of the Sunningwell Festival started within a working party at a Sunningwell Parish Council Meeting back in 1999.

The then parish clerk, Norman Baird, inspired us all to think 'outside the box' and 'think big' with our ideas to help the village celebrate the Millennium. The 'crazy idea' of building a stage on the pond to present Opera was mooted and with Norman's enthusiasm and Anna Lever's encouragement we staged two very successful proms concerts on the pond.

The idea was developed further to celebrate the Jubilee in 2002 and this time, under the leadership of Geoff Manning and again with Norman's enormous enthusiasm, we created a real 'festival atmosphere'.

We gained permission to close the road from the Vale Of White Horse District Council which enabled us to accommodate larger audiences. The 2005 festival was bigger and better and for the first time incorporated a schools performance of a musical, a folk band and a local bands night, as well as the regular Le Burn feature and the 'Proms On The Pond' evenings.

The 2007 festival was the largest to date, spanning 10 days and was managed and directed by its founder, Mike Woodward of Opera Anywhere.

The 2010 will be even bigger and better than ever before and represents 10 years since the first festival in 2000, the Sunningwell Festival team are actively looking for sponsorship partners to enable this very special series of events to make a massive impact on the wider community and throughout Oxfordshire. Please email or call Mike Woodward on 01865 735910 to discuss further.

About the Pond

The village pond and its spring source are of great antiquity, the spring comprising the primary source of the River Stert - associated with the legendary foundation of Abingdon Abbey.

In common with many local villages the settlement of Sunningwell appears to have evolved around the spring - the village name featuring such, being derived form an Old English personal name 'Sunna', coupled with the words 'inga' (people of) and 'wella' (spring or stream) - first recorded in 811 AD and later mentioned in the Doomsday Book of 1086AD. To date, the earliest known reference to the pond itself is contained in a local deed pole of 1447AD.

In former times the source waters of the pond were reputed to be a sovereign remedy for sore eyes, whilst local Catholic references record a shrine in this area visited by many people in the Middle Ages. Especially those who had travelled from abroad to visit the once famous "Sunnyg's Well", which apparently cured the blind!

The following item entitled "The Watercress Man" was written by Jean Williamson who was born in Sunningwell in the 1920's and has lived here all her life. In the 1930's she attended the primary school, which is now the art school, and one of her main sources of entertainment was seeing the watercress man on one of his regular visits to the pond.

The Watercress Man

We were all excited when we were attending Sunningwell primary school during the 1930's. Not much happened to our every day life so the pond became our central focal point to our very idyllic village. Every child went fishing for minnows and stickle backs, the water was so clear one could see the waving green plants under the water, many children fell in - but it wasn't very deep and never ever froze over, even in the coldest winters.

The Watercress man came during the summer months, where he came from or where he went to, nobody knows, he never spoke to a soul.

He arrived on a bike with a pair of waders and a huge piece of sacking and a sharp knife. After propping up his ramshackle bike he spread out the sacking, put his waders and armed with knife walked into the clear water. He cut arms full of watercress, spread it out on the sacking and then tied up the four corners tightly - then heaved the wet mass onto the bar of his bike, took his waders off and then cycled into the blue, he most likely had a very good offer from someone who was willing to buy his wares.

Perhaps they didn't know about the small mixed herd of dairy, shorthorn cows, belonging to Mr Stanbridge who lived at Church Farm next to the school.

When he brought them back from a different pasture they would be driven through the village at a very leisurely pace and would make for the cool water of the pond for a long drink, by wading in up to their bellies, - this was another event that excited us children - we gave each cow a name, one cow I remember was pure white.