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Santa’s making the kids cry, a vast organ finds its voice and letting the saltwater into Gloucestershire

James Fisher James Fisher

Plus a very peculiar Northumberland property and the quiz of the day.

Bad Santa

It’s the most wonderful time of the year. Christmas might be a season for giving, receiving and sharing love and thanks with close friends and family, but it’s also the season for people going to a knock off ‘Santa’s Grotto’ and getting upset. It happens every year and it never stops being funny.

To Hampshire then, where visitors to the medieval Great Hall in Winchester were in uproar over a Santa Claus who was not ‘jovial’ and who had a beard that was ‘blatantly fake’. Complaints have been made. Refunds have been offered. The richest Christmas tradition carries on for another year.

Per the Guardian, adults and children alike were incensed at the knock off attempts of this year’s Father Christmas. Matthew Fernandez went on the record to say that the new St Nick was ‘nothing like the last one’. ‘This was just a guy dressed up in a cheap red suit with a blatantly fake beard and he wasn’t very talkative at all — he didn’t seem very jovial,’ he said. ‘It ruined the experience.’

Naturally, it’s at this point that I express concern that grown adults (Mr Fernandez is 38 years old) are complaining about whether a Santa Claus is real enough, but that feels like low-hanging fruit, even for me.

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‘Honestly I wanted to laugh, I’ve seen better Santas rolling around town on their way to Christmas parties,’ added another visitor, Lisa Catherine.

Hampshire Cultural Trust, which organised the event, was naturally disappointed that its Arctic offering was received so badly. ‘We are aware some of our customers have expressed disappointment that the Santa’s Grotto at the Great Hall is a different experience to the one offered last year, particularly that the Father Christmas is not the same one who has greeted children previously,’ it said in a statement.

‘As a gesture of goodwill for any customer who has not yet visited and who booked tickets on the assumption that the experience would be the same as previous years, we are offering a full refund.’

With this winter tradition out of the way, we wait for another classic, which is when the police bust a cannabis growing operation by raiding the one house in a street that doesn’t have snow on its roof.

Quiz of the day

1) In anatomy, what is the patella more commonly known as?

2) What is the date of St Swithin’s Day?

3) How many hearts does an octopus have?

4) Who is the Greek god of music?

5) In the sitcom Dad’s Army, what was Capt Mainwaring’s first name?

The old girl has some pipes on her

Credit: Old Royal Naval College

Hopes of hearing the Old Royal Naval College’s chapel organ sing again are no longer pipe dreams after extensive restoration work breathed life back into the 235-year-old instrument. The Greenwich organ, built by leading maker Samuel Green (1740–96), had been silent since 2020, when its increasingly unreliable sound rendered it unsuitable for use. Thanks to the skill of Mander Organ Builders, who installed the late Queen’s organ at West-minster Abbey in 2013, the Grade I-listed Chapel of St Peter and St Paul’s organ is about to rediscover its voice — if all goes to plan, it will feature in this year’s Christmas services.

The organ is thought to be the largest of Green’s works still in situ; the instrument sits in a purpose-built gallery at the west end of the chapel, rebuilt in 1779 following a fire. The interior features a richly decorated ceiling and a distinctive altarpiece by Benjamin West, now fitted with protective blinds as part of the refurbishment. Notable organists have played the instrument, as well as a pianist: Sir Elton John can be seen pulling out all the stops in the 2017 film Kingsman: The Golden Circle. The UNESCO world heritage site is hosting British artist Luke Jerram’s Mars sculpture in the Painted Hall (until January 20, 2025). 

A round peg in a square hole

Any property that you have to enter via a clocktower is always worthy of our attention.

Houses come in all shapes and sizes. However, usually it is one shape. At this property in Northumberland, designed by a student of Robert Adam and listed Grade I, it is in fact two shapes. Find out more about this remarkable place.

How to restore a saltmarsh

Credit: Daniel Bosma via Getty

A new saltmarsh and nature reserve is to be created in the the Forest of Dean, thanks to a purchase of 148 hectares of land by the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT). The land, on the low-lying Awre peninsula, will be transformed from farmland into a ‘mosaic of wetland features’, such as ponds and creeks, via engineering a breech in the current sea wall, the charity said.

The WWT says that breaching the sea wall will allow salt water from the estuary to re-establish the saltmarsh habitat that was likely to have been present on the site ‘centuries ago’. The low-lying farmland has already been flooded in recent years and continues to be at high-risk of future flooding, as the flood defences are no longer being maintained. 

‘Saltmarshes support a huge variety of wildlife, slow down floodwater and store vast amounts of carbon – up to 40 times faster than forests,’ said Kevin Peberdy, WWT deputy CEO. ‘We are delighted that, following extensive research, early conversations with the local community, two public events and successful negotiations with landowners over the last two years, we have agreed the purchase of land on the peninsula.’

The announcement follows previous saltmarsh restorations undertaken by the WWT, with the first being at Steart Marshes in Somerset. The restoration and research of the Awre peninsula is possible thanks to a £21 million donation from Aviva, according to the WWT.

That’s all for today, we’ll be back tomorrow

Quiz answers

1) Kneecap

2) July 15

3) Three

4) Apollo

5) George

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