The Harvest Supper returns to Thursley: 2024 & 2025

Sep 26, 2024
3 min read

Updated: Mar 14

The Harvest Supper was celebrated in the village hall to great acclaim on Saturday, 21st Septermber 2024. The idea of resurrecting the event came from Susanne Hunter, Sally Scheffers, Tamsin Taylor Matthews, Lisa Woods and Lizzie Young (who also selected the readings). Sarah O'Brien spoke on behalf of her father, Michael, who unfortunately could not attend. His well-chosen words are below. (It was so successful that it was repeated in 2025)

Welcome.

I am not the only one here who will remember the first Thursley Harvest Supper in 1972 - 52 years ago - but we are becoming fewer.

That first supper was the idea of the then vicar, Kenneth Matthews, who had a distinguished service record serving as the padre onboard HMS Norfolk during her major actions during WWII. During that time, he witnessed the important role ‘community spirit’ played in bonding everyone together.

One of my roles that first year, and many times after, was to organise the seating plan. It was hard to please everyone, and a certain Brian Camp was often very critical! I am happy to have relinquished that task. So, if any of you have complaints about who you are seated next to this evening - I am not your man!

This leads me to thank everyone who has worked so hard to revive this wonderful supper.

The committee: Lisa Wood, Lizzie Young, Sally Scheffers, Susanne Hunter and Tamsin Taylor Matthews and the many others of you who have cooked the food and helped set up the hall. It all looks wonderful and I hope this custom can be continued for many years to come.

Michael O’Brien, The Lodge

A huge effort had been made to make the tables attractive and the night sky joined in to help

Photographs by Alex Smart

Between the main course and dessert, these readings were given by villagers:

Photographs by Alex Smart

The event was such a success that it was repeated in 2026

Photographs by Valérie Ferris

This article written by Lizzie Young on the 2025 Harvest Supper, first appeared in the November 2025 issue of the Parish Magazine:

Saturday 4^th October was the second revival Harvest Supper. Lit by the harvest moon, villagers converged in the hall for an evening of comfort food, convivial company, and a light entertainment on the eve of Harvest Festival at St Michael and All Angels.

Seating is deliberately mixed to give us all the chance to meet new friends. It gave us a deep sense of joy to look around the room at 10pm, to see every seat still filled, and to hear the delightful hum of good conversation.

James Maclean, Jackie Malton, Peter Hunter, James Mendelssohn, Tricia Horwood, Tom Taylor-Matthews, Valerie Ferris, Jane Howard, David Beechey and Hannah Moore were our brave readers, and their poems, letters and lists gave us all a chuckle, a moment of gratitude and a pause for thought. Thank you to each of them for their willingness to take to the mike.

So many thanks are due. It’s a wonderful thing that when a call for assistance goes out, it is answered warmly by so many. The committee – Susanne Hunter, Sally Scheffers, Tamsin Taylor-Matthews, Claire Dailly and Lizzie Young – are more than grateful to the many cooks who delivered their delicious cottage pies, cheese straws and apple crumbles to the hall, to the willing and hardworking crew of young women washing up behind the scenes, to the unsung heroes who arrived to help with tables and chairs, and with flowers. As ever, the phenomenal group effort to take down at the end of the evening makes light work of a mammoth task, and gets the committee into their beds before midnight.

The evening is not a fund raiser, as such, but thanks in no small part to the generosity of our home cooks, we made some money to add to the collection taken the following morning. All profits go to Step by Step, our Parish’s chosen charity. Step by Step works with young people across Surrey, Berkshire, Dorset, Wiltshire and Hampshire, meeting their needs in accommodation, advice, and well-being, and aiming to help those who are lost back onto paths that will lead to happier, safer lives.

We hope to see you all again next time.