Biggleswade Campus Uplifts Milton Ernest Care Home
A choir of some current and former Focus Students from Biggleswade School Campus revisited Milton Ernest Hall Care Home to encourage and uplift the elderly residents. The care home staff and residents enjoyed the music and asked the choir to come back, maybe in the summer.
The students practise together and some of these sessions are held at the school campus, with the doors open for all to attend and enjoy the music.
Most visitors find Milton Ernest Hall fascinating. It is the only country house designed and built by the noted Gothic architect Sir William Butterfield whose “structural polychromy” with variegated brick banding became the fashion of the late Victorian period. The Gothic Revival was in its heyday between 1855 and 1885 and this Grade 1 listed building built in 1865 is a good example of the era.
The students also learnt that Milton Ernest Hall was used as a HQ by the Allied Forces in WW2. They found the small plaque that remembers those who served at this grand yet covert building close to Thurleigh Airfield. RAF Thurleigh hosted American B-17 Flying Fortress aircraft of the 8th Air Force during the war. 171 aircraft failed to return and there is a small museum on the airfield containing a Remembrance Book to all the young men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice.
Some of the student’s ancestors were in the Allied Forces and the conductor’s elderly great grandfather is a former WW2 medic who spent most of the war in uniform. He was on the last boat out of Dunkirk, landed in Normandy D Day+3, survived Arnhem and carried on into Germany, finally caring for the emaciated survivors from Bergen Belsen. The British were the first to enter a death camp and first-hand accounts of mass graves, piles of corpses, and ‘living skeletons’ spread quickly around the world.
fantastic choir-amazing singing!
keep it up:)
Excellent work and singing all, splendid job and thank you for your efforts. Good on you for encouraging these elders!
WOW, awesome singing!!! very impressed with the high notes sopranos… 😀
keep it up!
would be great to have some mp3’s as well…
Awesome singing, especially the high notes – reminds me of my younger days!
The conductor has deserved a round of applause.
Well done, Nikki.
All the singing is awesome.
When can we have the recordings?
I really enjoyed listening to this. Well done all of you.
A lot of hard work involved!
Keep up the good work!
Well done Narelle 😉 Well done all of you, very good singing and excellent solos.
well done narrelle tom and nikki and sue also robert:-}
lovelly voices 🙁
sorry it was my sis!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
why does that girl at the end on the second video keep on looking at the ground?
shes got a problem granny!!!
Hey, don’t be tight 😉 she most definitely doesn’t have a problem… and it’s not exactly the best to point things out like that!!
why the sad face granny???? I think all of the soloist singers are very talented, and you should be proud if one of them is your sister!! Just make sure that head doesn’t get too proud….. 😉
And about that girl who kept looking at the ground, I know exactly how she feels because whenever I sing I either have to look above everyone’s heads or glance downward, otherwise I get savage stage frights, so… seriously that was being a bit picky granny….
Sorry, gran, this probably sounds like a scolding, it’s not, I promise, just think before you type 🙂
the whole choir is incredible, and all the parts blend beautifully. Not forgetting the conductor and pianist who brought the whole choir together!
and finally, the choice of songs and hymns are excellent…
very well done, and can’t wait to see another blog with you lot on!!
end of essay 🙂
Well done – very impressive! Keep it up – be nice to hear it live!
Brilliant stuff!! With all the different parts and solos its pretty awesome.
Wonderful singing!!
Gr8 work all of u and brilliant solos too!!
are any recordings going to be put on?? Pleazz
Awesome singing Georgi!!!!! Good to see your face again!!!!
v. good choir!! parts sound cool….
georgi & rozzy….u sound insane :);)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hey what about the boys solos too – Well done Jordan and whoever it was who did the other solo – absolutely epic!!! 🙂
Good solo Rozzy…….!!!!!! 🙂 🙂
dude, what a tear jerker! loving those songs, could have spiced up with a few drums but sweet singing eh? Les Miserables ‘ere we go
well done all of you especially Cheyenne, Rozzy and Georgi.
Georgi- your hair looked different today………… had you done something to it??? 😉
hey guys……
i like this sooo much
have you got the rest of the recordings?
Georgie you voice is amazing!!!!!!
AGREE??????????
i totally agree! sweetest voice ever! very well done……
Great stuff BC!! Lets hear it at the MD !?!
The soloists are absolutely amazing.
lucky to have such a good conductor!
fab, well done
what a brilliant choice of songs/hymns
You don’t realize how much it means to us!
Keep up the excellence! I wish I could join your choir.
Nothing like singing a song in a day of trouble.
excellent clear voices, the harmony is perfect.
keep up the brilliant choir – it is balm to the soul.