Interesting Ceremony at Adderbury Church

A large representative congregation assembled at Adderbury Church yesterday (Wednesday) afternoon to take part in the wedding service of Mr Ronald Herbert A. Holbech, son of the late Colonel Holbech and Mrs Holbech of Farnborough, and Miss Catherine Emma Hoskyns, youngest daughter of Sir Leigh and Lady Hoskyns of Cotefield House, Banbury. The majestic church had been tastefully decorated for the occasion, with palms and white flowers. The day was beautifully fine, and the sun shone through the stained glass windows as the congregation was assembling, and from the organ pealed forth inspiring festival music…

Shortly before the hour appointed for the wedding the bridegroom, accompanied by his best man, Mr J. K. Swire of the Essex Yeomanry, arrived and took a seat near the chancel. The service commenced with the singing of a processional hymn, ‘The Voice that Breathed o’er Eden’, and the bride, who was accompanied to church by her father, Sir Leigh Hoskyns, entered the church by the west door and followed the choir up the centre aisle. She was beautifully dressed in a bridal gown of ivory satin with a Medici collar and the bodice was draped with old Limerick lace, lent by Lady Hoskyns, similar lace hanging gracefully from the shoulders. She wore a tulle veil over a wreath of myrtle. Her ornaments were a string of pearls, the gift of her father, pearl earrings, the gift of her mother, and a pearl and diamond brooch, the gift of the Hon. Mrs Molyneux. She carried a sheaf of Madonna lilies, presented by the bridegroom. The Vicar of Adderbury read the preface to the marriage service, and the Bishop of Southwell performed the nuptial ceremony. As the bride and bridegroom approached the altar to receive the blessing of the Church, the choir chanted the Psalm, ‘Blessed are they that fear the Lord.’ The Rev. Cannon Hugh Holbech officiated at the service at the altar, and the Bishop of Southwell gave a short address, the bride and bridegroom being seated in specially provided chairs placed there by two of the choristers. The Bishop emphasised the thought that this was a moment in our national history when the value of the home was great to the country, and, addressing the bride and bridegroom, said they had come there to ask God’s blessing on the formation of their new home. The English home had been the great hope of the country for many years, and he knew nothing that they should pray to God for more at the present moment than that God might form new Christian homes, and that those who were born in those homes in the future might serve God and the nation. Therefore they watched with intense interest the formation of every home, and it was their duty to pray that amongst all the classes of people the home might be the centre of pure and devoted love. They could be well assured that England must go down if the English home deteriorated. The English home in a country village was a wonderful influence for good, and his brother and sister in Christ could look forward with great hope, faith, joy and thankfulness, in the home they were now forming that day. Before the pronouncing of the Blessing,  the hymn ‘Come any way, my Truth, my Life’ was sung, and during the time the register was being signed the hymn, ‘Ye watchers and ye holy ones.’ The bells rang out a merry peal as the bridal party left the church. There was no reception at Cotefield, only the near relations of both families being present. The bride and bridegroom left later in the day for a motor tour in Devonshire. The Farnborough tenants presented the bridegroom with a handsome silver rose bowl bearing the following inscription:

Presented to R. H. A. Holbech, Esq., on the occasion of his marriage, by the farm tenants. April 14, 1915

The wedding cake was supplied by the firm of F. W. Brown, Parson’s Street, Banbury. It was in two tiers, the top tier resting on four pillars and surmounted by a vase filled with real flowers. The ornamentation represented marguerites and wheatsheaves with true lovers knots and the initials of the bride and bridegroom.

Banbury Guardian, April 1915