The Robin…Britain’s favourite bird
January Thursday 16th 1:45 pm Little Lights Thursday 9th, 23rd and 30th 1:45 pm Tower Tots Every Tuesday 10 am Said Communion in the Lady Chapel 10:30 am -12 noon coffee morning Every Friday (During Term Time) 9 am - 10:30 am coffee morning
Christmas Fayre Thanks to all who attended Probus Church’s Christmas Fayre raising the incredible sum of £1,923.52. A good time was had by all.
Robins are one of the commonest birds in Britain. They are a bird of woodland and glades, a habitat almost perfectly replicated by millions of gardens, of all shapes and sizes, the length and breadth of the country. It follows then that we are very familiar with them. On the continent however the relationship between man and robin is very different and British birdwatchers on foreign trips are surprised by how hard they are to find, confined normally to woods and hedgerows. Here, of course, they adorn countless Christmas cards every year. Why robins? Well, the answer is in the colour of every Royal Mail van. Red. In Victorian times the uniform of postal workers was red and they had the nick-name ‘robins’. They, of course, delivered Christmas cards and a few clever artists started putting a real robin on a card, some even carrying an envelope in its beak. This association with Christmas was clearly popular and it has stuck to the present day. Strangely, a card usually depicts a robin in a setting of thick snow, which for the robin would be decidedly harsh but cute to look at for us! Continued on page 16 15
