The 2005 Alabaster Gathering was held over the weekend of 23–24 April 2005, based at the Old School, Hadleigh, Suffolk.

Saturday programme

• 10.00 am — Arrival and coffee; displays, memorabilia, raffle tickets
• 11.00 — General Meeting of the Alabaster Society
• 12.00 — Holts — Another Alabaster Home — Sue Andrews
• 12.15 — How the Alabasters lost their Wealth — Tony Springall
• 1.00 pm — Lunch: quiche and salad, fruit salad, fruit juice
• 2.00–4.30 — Afternoon activities: visit to Hadleigh Church and Art Exhibition (Hilary Griffin), Alabaster archives in the Guildhall, the Deanery Tower (Roger Kennell), visits to Kersey Mill, or simply catching up with family and friends
• 4.30–5.15 — Tea, biscuits and the raffle

Evening dinner

Dinner at 7.00 for 7.30 pm at the Old School. Menu: mushroom soup; Hungarian goulash with noodles; lemon meringue soufflé or poached pears with cream. Licensed bar. After dinner, Roy Tricker gave a talk: Some Norfolk Churches.

Sunday

Sunday 24 April began with a family church service at Snape, Suffolk, where George Alabaster (Branch IV) served as churchwarden from 1754 until his death in 1759. His gravestone — the oldest in the churchyard — still stands by the church door.

Lunch followed at the Castle Inn, Framlingham, before a visit to Framlingham Castle, where Dr William Alabaster was imprisoned in 1601, having been transferred from the Tower of London.