Friends of St Peters Winchcombe

During 2009 the Friends have continued to make a significant contribution to the church, with benefits that should last for decades. The most costly by far has been to the new heating system, this year £13,000, making £23,465 over two years. We have contributed £1404 towards the refurbishment of the servery and have set aside a further £3,000 for the refurbishment of the toilet and the redecoration of the whole space under the tower. The remainder of the £15,832 we paid to the PCC was for sundry less costly items, such as the whimsical elephant posts, which go so well with the humour of the grotesques.

As you will see from the Treasurer's Report and the Accounts, members of the Friends have continued to help with and take part in various fund raising events - outstanding among these are the Open Gardens in June. We are most grateful to Leo Doyle for arranging this event, to those who opened their gardens, contributed to and served the teas. This annual event is always eagerly anticipated as a significant social occasion in the town.

This year, the Friends have been the beneficiaries of three bequests £23,674 from Phyllis Kind, £50 from Brian Simmonds and £1000 from Marjorie Breekveldt. I am sure that our members remember well the latter two but may not know so much about Phyllis Kind. She was the great-great-grandniece of Mary Lates, whose husband, John James Lates, was vicar of Winchcombe from 1793 to 1831. When she was a girl, Phyllis spent happy holidays staying at Church Cottage which was owned by her grandmother. Her great-aunt, Sarah Medland lived at the Abbey House. The family was closely involved with St Peter's. Mary Lates's sister Sarah and her husband, John Maggs, and the names of two of their children are inscribed on the lectern: 'To the glory of God & in loving memory of Elizabeth & Sarah Maggs - Easter 1905'. The fine eagle was given to St. Peter's shortly after Easter that year, the gift of the Misses Maggs. The processional cross was given in memory of Phyllis's grandfather James Whaley Malyon, and an altar book in memory of her grandmother. Her mother and grandmother also embroidered altar frontals and bookmarks. The Friends are very grateful that Phyllis remembered us in her will

year I wrote that the Friends' Committee had agreed in principle to support financially the extensive re-ordering of the west end of the church and I had imagined that it would have been nearing completion by now. But although the diocesan body responsible for authorising this work welcomed the proposals, they quite properly required detailed scaled plans of the proposals, before they could give formal approval. At the end of last year the PCC commissioned an architect to do this. These plans will need to be approved and estimates sought and approved, before work can start. Meanwhile the overdue electrical inspection has taken place and revealed serious deficiencies, which must be remedied before a safety certificate can be issued, and improvements effected. This could prove a very costly project, but at the time of writing we have no idea of what it may amount to. With two major projects on hand, we have put the proposal to commission an overall plan for improving the churchyard on hold, until we know how much these projects will cost and our limited human resources are released from over seeing them.

You will appreciate from this that although we have very substantial funds in hand, these two major projects, combined with some smaller ones will make a significant hole in them.

John Stevinson