Photography by Owen Chad Cox
On Sunday 5 October, St Edmundsbury Cathedral hosted the County Harvest Festival, drawing visitors from across the county for a day of seasonal celebration, community gathering, and thanksgiving.
Starting at 11.00 am, the Edmund Green was full with stalls, activities, and displays celebrating Suffolk’s agricultural tradition. Highlights included Suffolk Punch horses, Red Poll cattle, and Suffolk sheep on display, alongside a tractor and combine harvester for visitors explore.
At 3.30 pm, the Cathedral held a Harvest Service, bringing together worship, thanksgiving, and community spirit. The service formed the culminating point of the day’s celebration. Earlier services in the day had also celebrated Harvest, with attendees encouraged to bring non-perishable food items which were then taken to the town food banks, Gatehouse and Storehouse.
A special feature in this year’s Harvest Festival was the Love British Food Harvest Torch. Since 2014, the Harvest Torch has become well known as the emblem of Love British Food. The sculpture has journeyed around many of the cathedral cities of England since 2014 featuring at each county cathedrals’ harvest festivals. The torch was designed and sculptured by Andy Hall FWCB from Devon and Blacksmith and was National Blacksmith of the Year.
Her Majesty The Queen is Patron of Love British Food and said: “Years ago, in Britain, Harvest Festival was almost as important a part of our nation’s calendar as Christmas and Easter. I am delighted that the team behind British Food Fortnight are maintaining it as a prominent part of the nation’s year.”
The Reverend Clive Fairclough, one of the diocese’s rural chaplaincy team, was thrilled to be offered the harvest torch to travel around rural Suffolk. He said. “This beautiful sculpture is a wonderful symbol of British agriculture with its ears of corn, fruits of the earth, mushrooms and bullrushes of the meadows.”
This year, the torch travelled around Suffolk to several of the county’s agricultural shows including South Suffolk Show on 11 May, The Hadleigh Show on 17 May and the Suffolk Show from 28 - 29 May. At the County Harvest Festival on Sunday, the torch was processed up the nave by the chairman of Suffolk Young farmers and The Right Revered Graham Knowles, acting Bishop of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich, offered his blessing. The torch now continues on to Westminster Abbey for the National Harvest Festival on Thursday 16 October which celebrates British Food Fortnight.