Displaying a lit Christmas Tree in Titchfield Village started in the Mid 1970’s when the Bonfire Boys provided some red tubs with trees and lights; these were displayed outside the businesses in the Square and on a few flat porches in South St. The tubs were donated by the Southern Echo.

Moving forward to 1983 Ron Knee who ran the Antique/Chocolate shop in South Street, encouraged a few houses and shops to put up Christmas Trees, white lights preferred.

This idea caught on and in 1987 Tessa Short and Sheila Mayes organized trees for West Street, the first year 12 trees were put up, the second year word spread round the village and 40 trees were purchased and today its over 300. In the early days the Trees were supplied by a local nursery but this proved to be expensive.

At the start the bottoms of the trees were shaped by hand to ensure they fitted securely into the brackets, axes, a planer and finally electric saws were all used. In the early days individual light bulbs could be replaced and Ron Short would frequently be seen up a ladder replacing bulbs that were faulty.

“Titchfield Ablaze reminder...
collection of Trees on Saturday 5th 9.30-3.30pm...at Tessa’s Yard West St.,”

The Team of volunteers start at the end of August when the ‘price list’ arrives from the supplier, the trees are then advertised through October and the orders/payments are received from ‘village residents’. The order is placed at the beginning of November. In addition Trees are purchased for the Parish Rooms and the Church.

The first Saturday in December has always been a hive of activity in ‘Tessa’s Yard’ in West Street with the preparation and collection of trees. For older residents who are unable to put on lights and climb ladders we have a team of volunteers who help, at lunch time we gather together for a bowl of soup and lots of home-made cake so we are refueled for the afternoon tree collections closing the yard around 4pm exhausted.

The ‘Christmas Tree’ on the Green has been supplied by the Bonfire Boys and other local doners over the years but it is now purchased by ‘Hadlows’ the Butchers, Titchfield Village Trust pay £200 for the insurance, the lights are provided by ‘Freemantles’ transport by Mark Harris and the ‘Star’ was made by Tony Traces. It is always a magnificent tree that comes from the same Plantation as the village trees.

As the number of orders grew it became harder to prepare the trees by hand, even for the willing group of volunteers, so in 2017 we approached our Christmas Tree supplier with the problem of ‘trimming the bottoms’ they purchased a machine and now the trees arrive trimmed which saves lots of work and is safer!.

The price of the trees has always been important, our aim is to have as many houses in the village taking part and to source trees grown locally. In 2010 we found a supplier who has allowed us to fulfil these aims… we hope Titchfield residents will continue to support us,

‘Merry Christmas’ from the Titchfield Ablaze Team. (Tessa, Grace and Annette)