THE school and community of Bishops Cannings joined together to remember friend and parish priest the Rev Beth Brown on Friday December 7 with a service of blessing for a newly designed reflection area at the school.

The service, led by Rev Richard Curtis, involved the whole school, along with friends and family of Miss Brown.

The service was held in the school hall with songs chosen by the pupils and prayers written and read by pupils from year 6. The congregation then went outside for the blessing.

“We wanted to create a special place in the community for people to be able to come and sit and reflect,” explained headteacher Catherine Vardy.

"It was important to us that by siting the area on the school field, it would have easy access for the local community to also use out of school hours."

Working together with local landscaping team Aelle Limited, the pupils gave their ideas for what they thought the area should look like.

“The result is a unique grove of apple and cherry trees planted around a stone seat, using a variety of trees to create colour and eating interest,” said Miss Vardy.

“We look forward to watching this special area change with the seasons,” she added. “We truly feel we have created a very special place in memory of our dear friend Rev Beth.”

The memorial project was funded in part by funeral donations bequeathed to the school by Miss Brown’s family and money raised by the school PTA.

Miss Brown, who lived in the vicarage in Bishops Cannings, near Devizes, died aged 63 in February, after being involved in a car accident in December last year.

She was ordained during the early days of women priests in the Church of England, having trained at Trinity College. Miss Brown was ordained deacon in1995 and priest in 1996.

After retiring from full time ministry in June 2015, she took up a part-time post as an Associate Priest with the Cannings and Redhorn Ministry team covering eight parishes and living in the vicarage at Bishop’s Cannings.