Since the first Oakley Holiday was held at Ardingly, Sussex in the summer of 1919 the Holidays have taken place without interruption each Easter and Summer ever since. In 2009 Oakley members are celebrating the past, present and future of the Holidays with a variety of events. This page sets out some of the ways in which we are celebrating this special year.

Centenary Mugs

Richard Flower, pictured with his prize, was the winner of the competition to design a special 90th Anniversary mug. Everyone connected with the Oakley Holidays will receive one of these mugs during 2009 as a souvenir of this 90th Anniversary year.

Limited edition Oakley merchandise

A range of merchandise embroidered with the words ‘Oakley 90 years’ has been produced to mark the anniversary. Each garment is £5 and this price includes a donation of 50 pence for The Vine Trust, a charity which funds two boats to bring medical services to remote communities on the River Amazon.

Signing the Oakley record

A new record book was established at Easter 2009 in which all the members of each Oakley Holiday will be invited to sign their names. This will supplement the practice of each individual signing one Oakley hymn book which was established in 1961.

Tournaments

To mark the 90th anniversary the names of the winners of Oakley’s two regular and very distinctive tournaments golf and tiddlywinks will now be recorded. Helen Bradbrook and Russel Bailey were the first winners of the tiddlywinks shield at the Easter Holiday. Mike Falconer and Chris Troughton, who overcame Maria Bowles and Mark Rowley to win the golf tournament, began the practice of signing a special book which will also contain a photograph of the finalists at each holiday. Summer golf winners were Chris Roberts and Abby Baxter who beat Rachel Hay and George Jolliffe, whilst Ian Jones and Julian Wilde were victorious in the tiddlywinks.

Wednesday 29 July – 90th Birthday

Members of the summer holiday awoke to find that Summer Santa had delivered special birthday badges to their dormitory. Lewis Kent led a morning service in the Bilton Grange chapel to mark the occasion and two magnificent cakes, baked by Beverley Kent, were consumed at tea. On a beautifully still and clear evening eleven Chinese Lanterns, to commemorate Oakley members, past, present and future, were launched at the conclusion of the anniversary of the first Oakley day.

Planting of daffodils

The Bilton Grange grounds team will be planting hundreds of daffodils in the shape of ‘Oakley 90’ in the autumn. These will be an annual reminder, to be enjoyed by all each spring, of a significant year in Oakley’s history and development

Celebration Service in Birmingham

All Oakley members from every era will be invited to attend a special service at 2pm on Saturday 12 September at Carrs Lane Church Centre in the very centre of Birmingham. A number of Oakley members are writing special poetry and choral and orchestral music for the occasion. Invitations and further details will be sent out in June and group travel by train will be arranged from Preston, Newcastle, London and Fareham.

Publication of book

‘The story of Oakley’, written by Lewis Kent, has been published in the summer of 2009, with the skilled help of a former Oakley member Bob Weaver who is a publisher. The 68 pages cover the whole 90 years of the Holidays from the first summer at Ardingly, led by Edgar Willis and ‘Sunny’ Henderson to those held at Bilton Grange, Rugby in 2009. Lewis Kent has collected and edited information, photographs, opinions and reminiscences of many Oakley members, past and present, in the book – you can read how to obtain a copy on a separate page of this Oakley website.