Friends of St Mary's Hawkesbury
Raising money towards the upkeep of our beautiful Grade One listed church, to safeguard it for generations to come.
Thanks to our bell tutor James Joynson for kindly providing this impressive video of St Mary’s singular medieval bell being rung just before Christmas.
Both the bell and its frame are listed and will remain in place after our new ring of eight bells is installed later this year. The new bells will sit comfortably beneath it in our tower.
The 2020 AGM of the Friends of St Mary’s took place on Sunday 29th November by Zoom, delayed from the regular date in June by all the problems of the pandemic. Full minutes of the meeting will be circulated in due course.
Extracts from the Chairman’s address are given here. As he said, “Quite a lot has happened since our last AGM nearly 18 months ago”, and he reported on all the work that has been carried out to the tower, the vestry, and the commission of the new bells.
He reminded the Friends that 2020 was the 40th anniversary of their foundation and thanked all those who have guided the work of the Friends down the years. He remembered Friends of St Mary’s who have died during the past year, and a minute’s silence was held for them, including:
Canon Iain Marchant
Mary Broad
Judy Chancellor
Tony Harris
He paid tribute to the excellent work carried out by Carrek Conservation, and to the generous support of many individual donors and organisations, and especially to the Gloucester and Bristol Association of Bellringers and the Appleby family. He thanked Debbie Young for revising and expanding the Friends of St Mary’s website, Mike Bendry for his unstinting work as Treasurer and Colin Dixon for his persuasive fundraising.
The Chairman was delighted to announce that Mr John Appleby had been invited, and had accepted, an invitation to become a Vice-President of the Friends.
The Treasurer gave his financial report for the year 2019-20, which consisted of the substantial funds raised and received towards the major project of the tower conservation, while expenditure had been kept to the regular work of yew clipping and maintenance of the mower. The Friends had received donations towards the conservation of the Jenkinson banners and the installation of the new bells, which had been passed to the PCC. Mr Peter Setterfield was reappointed as Auditor of the Accounts which had been sent to the Charities Commission as usual.
The meeting reelected Sir Ian Macfadyen as Chairman, and the members of the committee en bloc:
Prof William Fairney (Vice-Chairman), Mr Michael Bendry (Treasurer), Mrs Lisa Overton (Secretary), Mr Peter Setterfield, Rev Pauline Setterfield, Mrs Linda Fairney, Mr Neil Fozard, Mrs Mary Beresford, Mrs Hilary Rogers, Mrs Debbie Young, Mr Michael Cox, Mr Colin Dixon.
And finally, finally: remember to continue supporting us through membership.
Membership
Membership assists us to support the church in a vital way, by helping to keep its fabric in good repair, while hopefully once again enjoying many different fund-raising events during the year, from mulled wine and mince pies in December to the delights of Jazz on the Lawn in July, and all sorts of other events along the way.
Annual Single Subscription: £10
Annual Double Subscription: £15
Annual Single Life Membership: £200
Annual Double Life Membership: £250
For further details of membership, see the “Join Us” page of this website.
A happy, safe and peaceful new year to all Friends of St Mary’s.
THIS MONTH’S SERVICES
3rd January – 9.30am – Holy Communion
10th January – 6pm – Evensong
17th January – 10am – Morning Praise
24th January – 5pm – Evensong
7th February – 9.30am – Holy Communion
Lisa Overton, Secretary of the Friends of St Mary’s, provides our news round-up for December 2020:
The 2020 AGM of the Friends of St Mary’s took place by Zoom on Sundy 29th November at 4.30pm. We had hoped to be able to hold the meeting in the church, but Lockdown 2 frustrated our efforts. A report of the meeting will be circulated to all Friends as soon as possible.
Ian Macfadyen, Chairman of the Friends of St Mary’s, writes:
By the time the December Parish News is delivered, we hope that much of the work to the vestry will have been completed. With the new bell-ringing chamber accessed via the old tower staircase, elegant oak vestry storage cupboards, much improved lighting and a beautiful glass screen soon to be installed in the Nave. All parts of the project envisaged and funded by much help from FOSM fundraising along with numerous grants and donations.
Our construction company, Carrek Ltd, whose excellent stonemasons have worked in all types of wind and weather upon the scaffolding, has been raking out decayed mortar, replacing worn away stone drip mouldings and applying fresh lime mortar to opened joints and cracks between the stones. The work is truly impressive, and it will be a wonderful day when the cladding and scaffold come down and we see the tower in all its glory early in the new year.
At the same time the new bells, which without Mr John Appleby’s immense generosity we could never have funded, should have arrived in this country from Milan by the end of December and will be prepared for tuning and hanging by Matthew Higby Ltd, our bells engineering company.
None of this great work would have been possible without the energetic support of the Friends over the last eight years, and many others in the parish and beyond, so I would like to extend heartfelt thanks to all of you.
May I also extend Christmas greetings in the hope that we can all be with family and loved ones.
Ian Macfadyen
At the time of writing, we have no knowledge of changes to services for December, which are listed below, but there may well be alterations as government restrictions change, so please keep an eye on the Badminton Benefice website for up-to-date information, especially for our Christmas services.
Inevitably some of our best-loved Christmas activities will be cancelled or limited this year, but there will be no lack of goodwill from all on the PCC towards parishioners, regular worshippers and visitors. Let us hope that the new year will bring a return to regular worship.
St Mary’s will be open for visitors on Christmas Eve between 4 and 5pm. There will be simple Christmas decorations and families will be especially welcome. Let us hope to be able to return to regular Christmas worship in 2021.
Friends of St Mary's Hawkesbury 