Thank you for voting for our Festival Tree

Unlocking Warwick’s tree at the Christmas Tree Festival in St. Mary’s Church was declared the Runner-Up after the votes of visitors were counted. This year’s Festival, which closed on December 9th, had 43 trees provided by local businesses, organisations and schools. 

The trees around the church nave and in the Beauchamp Chapel were arranged against the back-drop of the amazing Warwick Poppies display marking the centenary of the end of WW1and commemorating the 11,610 members of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment who died in that conflict.

The Christmas tree decorated by Unlocking Warwick had the names and pictures of the Warwick men (and one woman) who died in the Great War attached to key-bobs hung on the tree by keys. It was the culmination of a year-long project to find the personal information behind the names on the war memorial next to St. Mary’s churchyard, and to post their stories on a special Warwick War Memorial website. 

So if you voted for our tree, thank you very much. We see each vote as a tribute to those from the town who died 100 years ago, as well as appreciation for our research project. 

This year’s Christmas Tree Festival saw about 4,500 visitors voting for their favourite tree and entering the prize draw.  The tree with the most votes was provided by the Warwick Woodloes Town’s Women’s Guild, which had decorations with a cuppa tea theme. The winner of the young people’s category was the tree created by King’s High School. 

The organisers of the Tree Festival said, “This was our best festival yet and raised much needed funds for the St. Mary’s Restoration Fund”. Unlocking Warwick hopes to sponsor and decorate another tree at next year’s festival, so if you have a suggestion for the theme of the decorations in 2019, email info@unlockingwarwick.org