The St Mary's 600 Appeal was launched in October 2020 and planned in two main phases.

Phase 1 was complete by October 2022. In those two years funds were raised in a wide variety of ways enabling us to completely replace the antiquated heating system (£126,000), create and equip a brand new Servery (£30,000) and to have work completed upon the spire and stonework of the church both external and internal (£93,000).

 

Now we are focusing on Phase 2 by fundraising for work needed on another of our Grade 1 Listed buildings - the Bede House. Generations of youngsters (myself included) have grown up enjoying attending Brownies, Guides and Rangers groups here or having fun at Holiday Clubs, Youth Fellowship and a multitude of children's parties and activities. Grown ups have held their celebrations here too with weddings, anniversary and birthday celebrations. The Bede House hosts the monthly Farmers Market Coffee Mornings (on the last Saturday of each month during the year) as well as concerts, quiz nights, Medieval Banquets, Christmas celebrations, Barn Dances - in fact every possible community occasion that you can think of. You can also find Morning Worship and Breakfast Church taking place in the Bede House on certain Sundays of the month.

As you can see, the Bede House nestling in the grounds of our beautiful parish church dedicated to St Mary, is vital to the life of our town but it is currently very much in need of repair, and that's a major undertaking when it is a six hundred year old Grade 1 Listed building that is the responsibility of the parish within which it sits. We are currently working to raise the next £200,000 to enable all the following repairs to be done -

1. Remove and replace tiles to the north side of the roof

2. Repair timbers and guttering as necessary

3. Re-mesh the eaves to protect from nesting birds

4. Repair external stonework and the bell-cot, undertake similar work to the south side as necessary and repair the fireplace chimney where water is entering the building.

The repairs started in the first week in August and the tiles have now all been stripped from the north facing roof allowing repairs to be made to the underlying timber as seen in the pictures

 

All of this is prior to moving inside to redecorate and make further improvements so that our Bede House can continue to be the community hub in the centre of our historic town. Thanks to a generous legacy left by a former parishioner along with some very successful fundraising events we are about half way towards raising the money needed for this vital work. Future fundraising events are listed on separate pages so please do support us by coming along to these or by organising an event of your own or offering a raffle prize or donation. All of these things will help us to complete Phase 2 of the 600 Appeal whilst ensuring the Bede House is ready and waiting for your next family occasion - your help will be much appreciated.

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