4th August Memorial Evening
Come rain or shine, on 4th August each year, The Orchard Tea Garden holds a memorial evening to remember all those involved in conflict over the ages. It is the one day in the year when you can enjoy your own picnic under its fruit trees and reflect on those we have lost and those who remain injured.
The Orchard starts playing a medley of conflict-related music at 7.30 pm.
At 8.43 pm, which is the time of sunset, candles are lit throughout the Orchard for “We Will Remember Them.”
One candle is lit for each anniversary since World War 1 started. In 2014, which was the first time the memorial evening was held, one hundred candles were lit. In August 2023, there will be 109 candles alight.
When the Grantchester Church clock strikes 11.00 pm, the candles are blown out as it is midnight in Europe, and in 1914, World War 1 had begun. Over the next four years, 9.7 million military personnel and about 10 million civilians were to lose their lives.
“The lamps are going out all over Europe. We shall not see them lit again in our life-time,” said Sir Edward Grey, British Foreign Secretary, on the eve of that war.
