Hymnathon to Be Held at St. Michael and All Angels
150 hymns to be sung celebrating Betjeman and Bedford Park's 150th anniversary
A previous Hymnathon at St. Michael and All Angels
February 21, 2025
Hymnathon 150 is to take place in Bedford Park in which hymns will be sung for eight hours to mark two significant anniversaries.
The Betjeman Society and St Michael & All Angels Church in Chiswick are celebrating Sir John Betjeman’s love of hymns and heritage on Saturday 1 March .
50 years ago in 1975, the late Poet Laureate and conservationist began a series of broadcasts on BBC Radio 4 about his favourite hymns. The hymn-singing marathon is being held in his memory and to commemorate the 150th anniversary of Bedford Park, which Betjeman helped save from destruction by developers.
‘Hymnathon 150’ will start at 11am and will last until well into the evening, involving more than a hundred singers and several local choirs. It will begin with an hour of the best-known Christmas and Easter hymns and end with a countdown of the top 100 hymns. People who love singing are invited to join in for as long as they like.
The second hour from 12 Noon to 1pm will be devoted to hymns chosen by Betjeman for his radio series, The Sweet Songs of Zion, later published as The John Betjeman Hymnbook, edited by Stephen Games.
“Hymns are the poems of the people” said Betjeman in the opening programme on Sunday 6 July 1975. He wrote that Bedford Park, Chiswick “is the most significant suburb built in the last century, probably the most significant in the Western world” and that St Michael & All Angels is "a very lovely church and a fine example of Norman Shaw's work."
In the 1960s, Betjeman spearheaded the campaign to restore St Michael & All Angels Church and, as patron of the Bedford Park Society, to stop the destruction of Arts & Crafts houses in the area. In the summer of 1967, no fewer than 356 houses were listed en bloc for preservation.
“It was one of John Betjeman’s most successful campaigns” says Fr Kevin Morris, the vicar of St Michael & All Angels. “My predecessor Canon Jack Jenner invited him to launch our church restoration campaign and to lend his support to a new Bedford Park Festival, to raise funds for the church roof and rebuild a sense of community. That was the turning point. And true to that spirit, the Hymnathon will raise money for our Heritage Conservation Fund and bring the community together.”
A news article about Sir John Betjeman's campaign
Jonathan Ranger of The Betjeman Society said it will be, "a very special event not to be missed! Even if you're not a church-goer, come and find inspiration on many levels, artistically and spiritually, historically and environmentally! Come, throng the doors from coffee-time to dinner-time, and raise the roof with such singing that it's heard throughout West London and Old Middlesex!"
Hymns to be sung in The Betjeman Hour will include ‘For all the saints who from their labours rest’, ‘Onward, Christian soldiers’ and ‘Abide with me’, from the Radio 4 episode on Victorian hymns. ‘All things bright and beautiful’ and ‘There is a green hill far away’ will be sung from the edition on women hymn-writers. With customary humour, Betjeman began this 1975 episode with the words: “Unlike women preachers, who are still a bit suspect, women hymn-writers have been accepted and respected for a century and a half.”
The third hour’s hymns, from 1pm to 2pm, will highlight people and places in Bedford Park, including ‘The Church’s one foundation’, sung in 1879 when the foundation stone at St Michael’s was laid by Earl Nelson, grandson of the Trafalgar hero.
At 2pm, the singers will begin a five-hour Countdown of the Top 100 hymns, chosen by the public through donations for their favourite hymns. The church is listed Grade II* and donations will go to its Heritage Conservation Fund. More than £2,000 has been raised so far: the current No 1 hymn is ‘Dear Lord and Father of mankind’. See the latest Top 30 chart at JustGiving.
St Michael & All Angels held its first Hymnathon in 1987, singing all 542 hymns in the New English Hymnal which had just been published. That lasted over 30 hours and attracted national publicity. The church did the same in 2012 and 2017 to raise money for its new pipe organ. Read more and see the film of Hymnathon 2017 here. https://smaaa.org.uk/hymnathon150/
In May, St Michael & All Angels will hold another ‘Big Sing’ event with The Tabard, the neighbouring pub in Bath Road W4, which was also part of the original Bedford Park estate. The ‘Big Sing 150’ will take place from 4.30pm on Bank Holiday Monday 5 May , as part of the anniversary celebrations. It will also mark the 80th anniversary of VE Day, on the day when communities are being invited to hold street parties. St Michael’s and the Tabard are inviting people to save the date and await further details.
The Hymnathon and the Big Sing are part of a series of anniversary events in 2025 being co-ordinated by The Bedford Park Society and St Michael & All Angels Church. Celebrating the rich architectural heritage and social history of Bedford Park, the events will be open to everyone and will be widely promoted under the specially designed 150th logo.
This page is sponsored by Rocks Lane who support community initiatives in Chiswick.
