St Michael's Open House Project

Well done - 80 miles completed!

James duly finished his marathon series of walks on 22nd June, clocking up a total of 82 miles over 9 walks. Thanks go to all who accompanied him on the walks and on the training walks which were necessary to build up his fitness.

But, most of all, thanks must go to all those of you who have sponsored him. He originally aimed to raise £1,000. The ultimate aim is to build an extension to St Michael’s to provide a disabled friendly toilet with access from inside the church, as well as a proper kitchen. However, that cannot go ahead with this until essential repairs are carried out on the building as it is today. This includes replacing the lead on the leaking south aisle roof (with tern-coated steel that isn’t worth stealing!), re-plastering the east wall with lime render where the 19th/20th century cement render fell off last year, repairing crumbling stonework and rebuilding a buttress.

All this work (including the extension) will cost in excess of £500,000 and, in order to attract grants from charities, the church has to show that it is doing as much as it can to raise funds itself. So far, about £40,000 has been raised and, in addition to this, the Turpin Charity have pledged the cost of removing the two blocks of pews at the back of the church. The first stage of creating a Disabled and Dementia Friendly church is now going ahead with the lowering the floors to eliminate trip hazards.