Tag: tower

April 2023 News

Colin Dixon, Chair of the Friends of St Mary’s, writes:

Our Next Event

The first Friends fundraiser for 2023 will be on Saturday 22nd April and is the all-day Festival of Words.

This is thanks to the amazing kindness of Debbie Young who has organised the event to benefit the Friends of St Mary’s. Thank you Debbie. The full itinerary and the buying link for tickets is on the Hawkesbury Upton Literature Festival website here. It will be a full day from 10.30am to 5pm with a break for lunch. There will be an optional lunch of quiche, salad and fruit in the Malthouse for £10 per head, bookable only in advance. I shall be giving a talk on the language of bells at the event and there will be a demonstration of bell ringing.

Other Events for 2023

Other Friends’ events for this year will be:

  • An Open Tower Weekend, which was a great success last year – it will be held in the summer and the date will be announced next month.
  • The FOSM AGM will be held this year on Sunday 25th June followed by Evensong.
  • The renowned Friends of St Mary’s Pimm’s Tent which has become established in its new place on the far side of the show ground, on Show Day, Saturday 26th August.
  • We are anticipating a joint event with the Village Hall in the autumn, follow the success of the Gin Jolly last autumn.
  • The Friends of St Mary’s Nine Lessons and Carols will be held on Sunday 17th December.

We are hoping to run other events during the year and suggestions are welcome.

Our famous Pimm’s Tent at Hawkesbury Show on the last Saturday in August

Current Projects

The south side of the churchyard has been cleared by Tom Hodder’s crew and is looking very smart. We are currently debating whether to plant it with shrubs to break up the expanse or to leave it as grass. Any suggestions or help will be very much appreciated.

We have two tonnes of pea gravel ready to go on the paths as soon as the weather permits. We will need to kill off the weeds first to stop them growing up through the new gravel. All offers of help with the raking will be appreciated.

We will soon be restarting the monthly cycle of weeding and clearing up the churchyard and Peter Setterfield has been marshalling his troops to mow the grass during the summer.

The church will be open every day during the summer and we shall need to make sure that the churchyard is tidy as it is always the backdrop to visitors’ photographs. We don’t want the churchyard showing us up.

The discussions about the new eco-toilet for the churchyard are still ongoing. it is a PCC matter and the Friends have an interest but only because we are the fundraising arm of the church and may make a donation towards it in the future.

Please Join Us!

Finally, if there are like-minded people in the parish who are still not members of the Friends of St Mary’s, please join! Our sole purpose is to support St Mary’s Church to stay open and beautiful. You can join online here.

Watch St Mary’s New Bells in Action

To celebrate the successful inspection of our magnificent ring of eight bells, James Joynson has made this five-minute video providing a close-up view of the bells as they chime.

As Bell Master for the  Wotton branch of the Gloucester and Bristol Diocesan Association of Bell Ringers (G&BDABR), James is and responsible for technical aspects of bells and bell ringing training within the Diocese, and has been doing a terrific job training St Mary’s new band of bell ringers, led by Tower Captain Colin Dixon.

New bell ringers are welcome to expand our band – no prior experience necessary – so if you’d like to try your hand at bell ring, please don’t hesitate to email Colin Dixon for more information.

April 2021 News

Lisa Overton, Secretary of the Friends of St Mary’s, provides our latest news round-up:

Eastertime, spring on its way and winter behind us, all the conservation work of the church completed, the new bells soon to be hung and start ringing, this is surely a time of hope and celebration for the Friends of St Mary’s.

We hope that the ending of the lockdown will allow us to plan events for the summer and autumn, including a performance by the Bristol Male Voice Choir, so please keep an eye on our website, our Facebook page and the Hawkesbury Parish News.

We hope to hold the Friends of St Mary’s AGM on Sunday 25th July in the church, followed by choral evensong, so please keep the date free.

THANK YOU TO DONORS AND GRANT-GIVERS

At the end of our successful project on the tower, we would like to thank the following for their wonderful financial support:

  • The Friends of St Mary’s, who raised and donated £55,000
  • The Enovert Trust (£20,000)
  • Gloucester Historic Churches Trust (£8,000)
  • The Sandra Trust (£8,000)
  • The Headley Trust (£5,000)
  • The Cottam Trust (£4,000)
  • The All Churches Trust (£2,300)
  • South Gloucestershire Council (£500)
  • The Renishaw Trust (£1,500)
  • The Langtree Trust (£500)
  • The Rausing Trust (£8,000)

I must add John and Stephanie Appleby and many other individuals who have been so generous. Many thanks too must go to the energetic fundraisers, especially Peter Setterfield, who organised the highly successful Waterloo Ball in 2015, to our Chairman Sir Ian Macfadyen and to Colin Dixon.

LIKE TO BECOME A FRIEND OF ST MARY’S?

The Friends of St Mary’s, founded in 1980, exists to raise funds for the fabric and preservation of St Mary’s church, and is open to anyone to join (you don’t have to be a church-goer, though you would be very welcome!)

We have members from far afield who have particular affection for this special building and its history, and who value its place in the fabric of our village and community.

For details of membership, click here. 

APRIL SERVICES

Due to lockdown, all services will be online this month, hosted on the Badminton Benefice’s YouTube account here.

4th – 10am – Easter Sunday (from Hawkesbury)
11h – 10am – Easter 2 (from Leighterton)
18th – 10am – Easter 3 (from Didmarton)
26th – 10am – St Mark the Evangelist (from Lasborough)

PLUS Midweek services on Zoom – every Wednesday at 9.30am
(Please contact the Vicar if you would like to attend)