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Restoration & Refurbishment-
Roof Our drive for the restoration and refurbishment of
St. Peter's started in 1999, when rainwater leaked through a part of
the roof and stained the walls. We spent around £20,000 (all our
reserves) to cure this leak but the quinquennial church survey of
July 2001 identified the need to repair the entire roof. An initial estimate for the works
required was £86,500, a huge sum for our small congregation.
Nevertheless we founded a restoration and refurbishment committee to
explore ways of raising the money we needed.
A shaky start
An appeal to the
village was launched in the autumn of 2002, with a leaflet delivered to every
house in the villages of Draycott and Nyland. As well as statement
of need, this was also an invitation to attend a fundraising launch
on October 6th. However this event failed to attract any but
established church members. Nevertheless we did receive some one-off
contributions and some covenanted giving.
Local fundraising events
More successful have been a series of fund-raising events organised
by the restoration and refurbishment committee. Each year we held a
major fund-raising event, with a prize draw, and our endeavours have
included: a French Evening; Pig Roast and Barn Dance; a celebration
of the 60th anniversary of VE Day; musical evenings by our celebrity
organist, Barry Rose; concerts by the Cheddar Male Choir and the
Wells Cathedral Junior School. We have also raised money by the sale
of second-hand books, a photography exhibition, plant sales, and
jumble sales Since
the launch we have raised over £12,000 from such fundraising efforts,
in the face of competition from other fundraising campaigns for the
school and for the village hall.
Grants
In spite of the success of our own fundraising efforts, we needed to
look elsewhere to attract the scale of funding that completion of
our roof repairs required. Mainly due to the efforts of the
fundraising chairman, Victor Skinner, we have secured a number of
grants from different bodies, as shown in the table. These are the
few successes amongst a great many unsuccessful applications:
|
Source |
Amount
(£) |
|
English
Heritage |
48,000 |
|
Friends
of Somerset Churches Preservation Trust |
2,000 |
|
Historic
Churches Preservation Trust |
2,000 |
|
Wyvern
Environmental Trust |
1,500 |
|
Garfield
Weston Foundation |
3,000 |
Completion of Roof Repair
Our roof repair is now complete. This has not only included renewal
of the fabric of the roof to make it watertight, but the re-painting
of the chancel ceiling and repairs to the bells. We have saved our
church, at least for the time being. However it is still in bad need
of further refurbishment work, and our need for funds is as great as
ever.
December 2006 |
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