The Reepham Three Churches Project has received donations of more than £8,100 in its efforts to raise £12,500, following the award of a development grant of £18,300 from the Heritage Lottery Fund.
Photos: John Tym www.tympix.com
The first phase of the project is expected to cost £32,000 and the total cost of the project will be more than £300,000, mostly to fund major urgent repairs to St Mary’s church tower.
The project also includes some reordering of the interior of St Mary’s, and the discovery and landscaping of the site of the now ruined All Saints Hackford – one of the three churches in the churchyard.
The Reepham church community said it is immensely grateful for the generous contributions by so many to the Three Churches Project at the Gift Day on 27 June.
“Lots of people came to St Mary’s with their envelopes and also enjoyed the Strawberry Feast next door in St Michael’s,” explained Tony Foottit. “The total contributed to date is £7,738, and a further £433 from the Strawberry Feast.
“We are very grateful to Steve Jenkins for graphic work, to all who distributed the leaflets, to the Post Office and Motts Pharmacy for receiving them, to David Richmond for his informative display boards (which remain in St Mary’s for all to see), and to our events team and all who helped welcome people and serve the delicious strawberry feast.”
Plans are now well in hand for the development stage of the project. Rector of Reepham Revd Margaret Dean said: “While the main repairs to the tower of St Mary’s should be made in 2016, we hope to have a geophysical survey of the area of All Saints Hackford later this year.
“There is also a fundraising team working hard to arrange more events in the next year to ensure that, in due course, we meet our final target.”
The next fundraising event is a quiz night on Friday 23 October at Reepham High School.
To find out more about the Reepham Three Churches Project or to make a donation, contact: Revd Margaret Dean, The Rectory, 26 Station Road, Reepham NR10 4LJ. Tel: 01603 879275. Email: margaretdean@cnet.org
See our earlier news stories:
