You can donate to our project online by clicking this link. 

Our lovely church tower needs repairing. The stone has weathered in places, the mortar is becoming loose, and fragments of stone are falling off. This presents a risk to people entering the church and those walking past along the adjoining pavement. St Botolph’s gets no funding from the Church of England. We have to find the money ourselves.
Our architect has drawn up a specification for the work and we have invited tenders from stonemasons for the repairs. The best price we have found is £175,000……
We are extremely fortunate to have a Trust specifically for the maintenance of the church.
The trust was established with legacies left to the church by parishioners in their wills. The trust can give us 50% of the costs, and we have some money set aside at church for repairs.
We still need £65,000……
At the moment I am busy applying to charitable organisations for grants. We hope to hear soon about the outcomes from the first two. Others will take longer.
Our first fund raising event is our ‘Harvest Festival of Talent’. A display and sale of local arts and crafts will be held in the church on Saturday 12 October 10am-4pm. There will be 4 demonstrations by artists and craft persons during the day and entry is free. Refreshments are available in our Community Link Room. All proceeds will go to the Tower Appeal Fund.
Please do come along and support us!
Why should we repair the Church Tower?
The first stone church dedicated to St Botolph was built in the C13 and there are still traces of this early church to the north of the building in the area known as The Lady Chapel. The
tower we can see today is primarily C15, though it has been repaired a few times over the years. The latest repairs were undertaken in the mid-to late C19 at the same time as the church was re-modelled. Hence the church has a look and feel of Victorian style. Click here if you want to know more about the early history of the village.
The church is an important village building and a feature of our village history. English Heritage has classified it as Grade 2*, alongside Aspley House, Guise House and The Old House in The Avenue. These buildings, and over 20 Grade 2 buildings, are an intrinsic part of our heritage and, for many, they define the character of the village.
As well as holding regular services, the church provides a beautiful venue for weddings and christenings! It is always open during the day for visitors to look around, or for private reflection. It offers solace and a sense of peace for funeral services. Many villagers have memories of St Botolph’s.
We also use the building for community events- concerts, festivals, plays and the like. There are activity groups in the church – flower arrangers, bell ringers, craft group, which can help develop interests and traditional skills. We have a church hall (Community Link Room)
where we hold our fortnightly Community Café and events, and you can hire the hall for private use.
Why we need your help
As a small practising Christian community, it is becoming increasingly difficult to pay for the maintenance of the church building ourselves. We rely on legacies, donations and grants to keep the building going.
We need you to help us. We hope you feel that you need and value the church too and will support us in our quest to keep the building in good repair and open.
If you want to donate, please click here.
Thank you!
Liz Armitage, Churchwarden September 2024.