How this small market town created the world-famous famous hymn Amazing Grace
The words of the well-known hymn were first delivered in the Buckinghamshire market town of OlneyPeople are being encouraged to sing Amazing Grace on New Year's Day to mark the 250th anniversary of the day its words were first delivered. How did the famous hymn come to be written in a Buckinghamshire market town?, Olney also has an association with one of the world's best-known hymns., for his sermon at St Peter and St Paul Church on 1 January 1773.
"In Olney, they used to have services every New Year's Day and it was a tradition where they would look back and look forward. Dr Sean Lang, senior lecturer in history at Anglian Ruskin University, said Newton is now considered a "very important figure" in abolitionist history as he was one of the first people to point out the humanitarian problem with the slave trade.
He said he thinks it is the relationship between the words and the music that makes it enduringly popular.