In 1875 a Choral Festival was held at the recently newly opened St Peter’s Church
The Rector, David Wauchope wrote to the local press to clarify the above article
The Rectory, Church Lawford, Rugby.To the Editor.—Sir,—Will you kindly allow me to correct one particular in your notice of the Choral Festival held here last Wednesday. In stating that the gardens and greenhouses for miles round had been put under contribution for exotic and other flowers, you convey the impression that valuable plants had been lent or hired from noble or other great gardens in the neighbourhood; whereas the truth is that, with a single exception, which ought scarcely to be excepted, the decorations of the Church were entirely parochial. Ladies, farmers, and cottagers alike, willingly brought their best flowers to the house of God. The hedgebanks furnished most of the ferns ; reeds were cut from the river side, and a beautiful cactus, which held the place of honor in the centre of the east window, was the offering of a poor widow, whose tumble-down cottage it now again adorns. This may seem to you a trivial correction, but to us who are concerned, and perhaps to others, the value of the decorations is greatly enhanced by the knowledge that they are all our own, neither hired nor made to order, but offered by willing hearts, and arranged by willing hands.