A BUMPER year for weddings at Wantage Parish Church has inspired its choice of summer concert.

With more marriages being held than in any other year in recent memory, the church choir will be celebrating that fact with a feast of music and poetry. Whitsun Weddings, an evening of music and 20th-century poetry celebrating the English way of love and marriage, will be held at the church off Market Place at 7.30pm on Whitsun Saturday, June 7.

The concert will feature poetry by Philip Larkin and late Poet Laureates Sir John Betjeman and Ted Hughes and favoutite pieces of wedding music.

The church’s David Richardson said: “At the heart of the event will be Philip Larkin’s wonderful poem The Whitsun Weddings. In the poem he describes a train journey on a hot Whitsun Saturday afternoon in the 1950s.

“The train’s windows are open because of the heat and he gradually notices the bustle on the platforms, created by wedding parties, seeing off couples who are boarding the train.

“Other poems will include the moving A Pink Wool Knitted Dress by Ted Hughes about his marriage to Sylvia Plath and, of course, an offering from local hero Sir John Betjeman.”

A special feature of the concert will be a set of wedding anthems commissioned by couples married in Wantage from local composer John Ridgway.

The choir will perform a selection of favourite wedding pieces which they are regularly asked to sing for Wantage weddings, including Bach’s Jesu Joy of Man’s Desiring and Handel’s Zadok the Priest, along with new favourites such as This Marriage by American composer and conductor Eric Whitacre.

Cathryn Stanton, of Wantage Parish Music Guild which is organising the concert, said: “Weddings are such special occasions for friends and family as well as the bridal couple.

“We hope this celebration concert will not only entertain people, but bring back lots of happy memories for them.”

Poet Sir John and his family lived in Wantage from 1951 to 1972, during which time he was a sidesman at the church. Following his death in 1984, Larkin declined the position of Poet Laureate which was then taken by Hughes. Sir John wrote two poems about Wantage — Wantage Bells and On Leaving Wantage — and the town also features in his book Archie and the Strict Baptists.

Tickets for the concert, which include a complimentary cream tea, are £7 full price and £5 concessions and are available on the door.