St. George's Day 2006

Hello

Well, decked out in our England shirts yesterday, we had hoped to see pubs decorated with St George bunting and flags - how disappointing it was - the place was Epsom, a town quintisentially English, and howm of the World Famous Derby, and recently voted the best place to live in England by  a poll for Channel 4. Resigned to the fact that all but one pub had failed to recognise the day, we still intended to makew the most of it.

Things sadly took a turn for the worse - two young men, around 17 or so approached my finance (who was wearing an england rugby top) and asked him what England foortball game was on today, the reply being firm, but perhaps not so polite, to the effect that it was St Georges day - but nothing seemed to click.

Next stop, one large town centre hostely, sat there having our first drink of the day when around 8 or so men and a women who had gone the whole hog with home made St g Day shirts and flags etc. walked quietly in the pub, ordered their drinks, and stood quietly, until they recognised our attire, and started friendly conversation. They were then told that they had to finish their drinks and they would not be served anymore, whne asked why, they were told it was pub policy not to allow FANCY DRESS ....  incredible, the only folks to make an effort turned away. We followed the party along, and they were met with a few appreciative car horns but sadly a few stern expressions and a number of pubs refusing service.

Anyway, your campaign to recognise the special day is making the difference, but we must continue the effort! I certainly have commended your site to all that I met yesterday, so hopefully we can go from strength to strength to build on the English Pride.

Best Wishes

Rachel

hello chaps,

trust you all had a great St Georges Day, just a little note on the event that we try to put on every year. A very good friend of mine runs a bar in North Cheam, Surrey called Tones Bar and in association with many local scaffold firms(RBC), organise a St Georges Day parade. It has been running for a few years now and the plan of the day is to parade from north cheam and back via various parts of London, most notibly Trafalgar Square. Last year we travelled on the back of the scaffold lorrys( obviously with safety rails!) with many revellers dressed for the occassion in knights outfits or dressed as dragons, with the lead lorry headed by a 7ft smoke blowing dragon and English music at maximun sound, i.e Jerusalem, They'll always be an England etc....The proccession must be at least half a mile long. Along the way we are always cheered on by people coming out of houses or offices to line our route, especially the elder generation who seem to understand a bit more about our great history. Unfortunately this year our friends the police got involved, and while they can never spoil such a great day, put a serious dampner on the event, insisting we could not follow our normal route and no one was to be allowed to travel on the rear of the lorrys. There was 2 open top buses hired for women and children to travel on so only men would travel on the backs of the lorrys. Now while we understand the decision of not following the normal route because of the London Marathon, we had already devised an alternative route many weeks before which would not have interfered with the Marathon or surrounding area in the slightest, but thats the police for you I suppose, if we had been of a different ethnic minority I don't think we would have had a problem!! We ended up marching the route they would allow which only totalled approx. 6-7 miles( lots of sore legs this morning) so we didn't get to spread the message as far as we would have liked. As well as celebrating St George, we also raise money for the British War Widows, the last 2 years we have raised nearly £11,000. We have many photo's of the event, we even had a proffessional photographer this year, so when they are developed I will send you a selection and if there's a place on your website maybe you could showcase them and tell everyone to be ready for next year when we plan(police permitting!!) to make our parade bigger and better then ever before!!

Keep St George In Your Heart.....

Bill Donovan 
Worcester Park

HAPPY ST GEORGE'S DAY TO YOU TOO
THIS IS OUR HOUSE ALL DECKED UP FOR OUR PATRON ST.
WAES HAEIL

JAN AND GENE MASHLAN

Going for a countryside walk with 20-30 basset Hounds. A 3 mile trundle with a pub half way. Weather fine, many hounds and owners with Saint George flags.
Regards

Mike Oliver
Whitby

Hi Myself and my friend are celebrating St. Georges day out here in Thailand. Cheers.
Have a good one.
Robert

In a small village like Porlock it is good to see 6 St George Crosses flying from the shops (mine included)!
Regards on this special day.
Gary

Thanx, Waes, and a very happy day to you too!
I like the info about Danny Boy very much.
Planning a relaxing day flying the flag.
Keep smiling!
Alan Mynall

Same to you Sir.
I travelled from London to Wrest Park, just south of Bedford for an English Heritage event, apparently it was the biggest St Georges celebration in the country, and I have to say, my 2 young girls and I loved it. Every year St Georges day gets bigger.
Keep up the good work from your end.
3 Lions

By the way, any news on the white dragon car stickers? I am taking the white dragon flag on the trans siberian express in June. – Tommy 3Lions

Hey tonight i went out to a st georges day drink. me and my mates got so drunk, but we were celerbratiting the best thing in the world. We R English. But as all my mates, but one went home, that one mate wanted to go to the Kings Head in Wisbech.  In Wisbech that aint a good idiea becuase its known as a foreign pub owned by foreigners and the only people who went there were  foreign. But my mate was sure to go and to show them he aint scared. This ment I had to go in with him so he aint on his own. I Love ENGLAND as much as the the most patriotic guy but to me this aint a good idea, so I had 2 go in. Not not because I wanted to but because i couldn't allow my mate to go in there on his own. The thing what anoyed me was that the owner was friendly to us but the eastern Europeanens who were drinken made it known we were not welcome there. There is a problem with this place we call home and its time we should stand our ground and fight back. we got out of the alive but it ment we had to talk our way out. and it want as easy as it sounds 

I dont know if you can use my story but if you can just email me or call this number 079*******188

Gary

Following my email i sent last night. I was a bit drunk so im just apologising about that. also that mobile number i gave was the number to the phone i lost so the only way you could contact me is by email.
Sorry
Gary

HOPE YOU HAD A GREAT ST GEORGE'S DAY

I ORGANISED A STREET PARTY AND THERE WAS ABOUT
60 OF US AND SO IT RAINED ALL DAY BUT WHO CARED
 WE PARTYED OUTSIDE FROM 2-10 IT WAS GREAT AND EVERYONE THAT WE WILL DO IT EVERY YEAR AND HOPE THAT OTHERS WILL DO THE SAME.

WE WANT IT AS A BANK HOLIDAY

FROM FIONA CARTWRIGHT

Thanks for that.

Myself and a few patriotic mates decided to go and watch our mate run the
London Marathon, via a few drinking holes on route. We all managed to drink
a variety of Enlish ales ciders and finishing on jugs of Pimms.

I had my rose on all day, and was disgusted that out of the thousands of
people that I saw only two other roses.

However it was good to see that some of the runners had entered into the
spirit of it being St Georges day and actually dressed for the occaision,
many vests sporting the cross of Saint George.

The boozers were also a let down, many in the capital of England not
sporting any insignia to Saint George, but that you can imagine on Paddy's
day being adorned with green!

My mate Luke finished in a time of 3.43, don't think I could do it in 3
days!

All the Best.

Mark

Hello there ! who ever you may be !
Love the newsletters and always look forward them !
Was looking at a lot of sights and pleased to see that the celabration of St
Georges day
is becoming more and more popular ! Bout time we started holding our heads
high again and proud to be English ! Why not ! We've been around for a while
!
Just thought I would send a photo of our flag flying on the roof over here
in Masterton NZ !
We few of had a few lagers in the sun on the verhanda and a lovely roast
dinner !
Take care all and keep up all the great stuff ya do !
Tony

http://www.st-georges-day-club.co.uk/thumbs/index.html
Kind Regards
Jeff Andrews

Hello,

I went to a Local Event in the London Borougher of Waltham Forest which was
in Walthamstow Town Square and that was a Traditional Jazz Dr. Bones & the
Rhythm Boys and also had the morris dancers

Also in Leyton Town Square, Leyton had Female Duo
"Drop Dead Divas"

And Leytonstone Town Square had Blues Band
"Small Change"

Will be good to see what else was on in London and Essex.

Mark West

Dear Sir, just wanted to let you know about our St Georges day in London, supposedly the capital of England!!! As is tradition, some likeminded colleagues and I (approx 20 with more joining up later, some from Durham!!!) met up to celebrate our Englishness in what is an important day to us all. We started off in a friends pub having a meal and moved towards the centre of London stopping off in Putney and trying a few bars. We were shocked to see not one St Georges cross on bar walls and bar staff asking what we were celebrating. This disgusted us. We found one pub covered in crosses so had a good drink there but as it was quiet (apart from us!!!) so we moved on. We then moved towards the king's Road area and again seemed to be the only group of people celebrating this important day. We then thought back to last year and remembered how great Covent Garden had been so headed there. Again we arrived at "The Sussex" pub which we had spent a lot of time and indeed money in last year celebrating. Still no sign of many people celebrating!!!! After ordering a drink a "bouncer" approached one of the group and told him to take off the hat he was wearing (big hat with St George's cross all round it.) We asked for what reason to which he replied because hats were not allowed. When we pointed out there were french in the pub wearing berets and a guy in a cap he changed his mind and stated it was because flags were not allowed. When we pointed out that it was St George's day and we were in London, in England and there were crosses on the wall and on the beer pumps encouraging customers to "drink for St George" the bouncer said just take it off. We of course as true Englishmen refused asking what he was going to do. He walked away. The bar staff were then instructed by the manageress not to serve us so we moved on. This put a real downer on what should have been a happy day. Again we moved on but we were so dispirited by the total lack of celebration that we started to all go home pissed off and feeling let down by the large majority of our countrymen. To make matters worse on the way home a taxi driver's radio was on and some twat was bleating on about dressing up for St Georges day to celebrate what a diverse country we have become. At this point I was ready to go to war!!!! I would be very grateful to hear that many other people had a great day and that ours was an isolated day, unfortunately I fear this is not the case. Perhaps your website could publish and organise some meeting sites in London so likeminded people can celebrate together next year. I hope so.
Cheers,
A pissed off but still very proud Englishman.