Wedding dresses dating back to 1870s go on display

A village church is exhibiting wedding dresses through the ages, with the oldest dating back to the 1870s.

More than 30 wedding dresses from years gone by will go on display in St Catherine's Church in Drayton, Somerset, on Saturday.

The oldest dress is from 1887, while the newest is from 2022. Jacqui Price, who is organising the exhibition, said her favourite dress was from 1961.

"It's quite short and it's A-Line, the lady who wore it is in a local nursing home now, that's my favourite dress," Price said.

The exhibition also features 130 photographs of couples getting married in the church, dating back to the 1870s.

Karen Donaldson, who is helping to set up the event with Sally Worby, said they got the idea when they put on an exhibition last year showing the "treasures of St Catherine's".

"We displayed lots of artifacts belonging to the church," Donaldson said.

"We included a couple of wedding dresses. They were really popular. Jacqui came up with the idea of doing a wedding dress exhibition and the response has been fantastic.

"We had to widen it from people married in the church to people who live currently or have lived in Drayton."

Donaldson said the exhibition only featured dresses and not menswear, since grooms often hire their suits.

"The oldest dress is from 1875. It's purple because that was a new dye which was all the rage in the Victorian era," Price said.

Additionally, three generations of dresses from the Trevilian family, who have lived in Drayton since the 1500s, are on display, dating from 1936 to 2004.

Helen Adams got married in the church in 2006 and has included her dress in the exhibition.

"It was a privilege to bring my dress back into the church where I got married," Adams said.

"We were living in the village for a year at the time, so it was very special because it was a village event. I lived opposite the church so didn't need a village car and my father and I just walked over," she added.

She said there was a longstanding tradition in Drayton to tie up the church gates during the ceremony. When the couple leave the church, the groom has to pay the waiting children in coins in order for the gates to be untied.

The exhibition has been funded by a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

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