Screenings of the Queen's funeral across Oxfordshire

The funeral of the late monarch, who passed away peacefully in Balmoral at the start of this month (September 8), were played on large screens across Oxfordshire.

The events were intended for people who wanted to mourn together and “reflect collectively as a community”.

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Christ Church Cathedral in Oxford had a screening with only subtitles playing in the cathedral today (September 19) as well as screenings with sound in rooms around the cathedral.

Christ Church Cathedral (Image: n/a)

About 135 people attended this morning to watch the proceedings which started in London at 10am.

Clare Hayns, College Chaplain at Christ Church Cathedral, said: “We thought it was important to make a screening available because having seen what has happened over the last 10 days we realised how much people valued being able to gather together in a community.

“It seemed that people were going to want to do that during the funeral as well so we have the funeral on all our screens in the cathedral which were just subtitled so it could be a quiet place to watch it.

“We also had it in sound in rooms around the cathedral.”

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Ms Hayns said they had chaired up about 25 places but “more and more people” arrived.

Wallingford Castle Gardens (Image: n/a)

“It was absolutely packed,” she said. “It was full of families, young children, and older people who didn’t have a television or who lived alone and wanted to watch it with others.

“It was really moving seeing people coming and wanting to gather together. We were really surprised, we had no idea how it would go, we’re really glad.

“I think it brought up a lot of memories of people’s own loss and they just wanted to be with others.”

The cathedral will also be hosting a special service of Choral Evensong at 6pm today (September 19).

A screening was also held on a projector in Wallingford Castle Gardens, as organised by the town council.

Christ Church Cathedral (Image: n/a)

More than a hundred people gathered around the projector, which had the artwork of Corgis underneath it as created for the Platinum Jubilee in June, with chairs, blankets and picnics.

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The town council said: “Wallingford Town Council has arranged for live coverage of the funeral to be shown in the castle gardens to give residents and visitors the opportunity to watch the historic moment and reflect collectively as a community.”

There was also a minute of silence organised by the town council which was held outside the town hall last night (September 18).

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Read more from this author

This story was written by Gee Harland. She joined the team in 2022 as a senior multimedia reporter.

Gee covers Wallingford, Wantage and Didcot.

Get in touch with her by emailing: Gee.harland@newsquest.co.uk

Follow her on Twitter @Geeharland

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