A collapsed churchyard wall at Holy Trinity, Norton Malreward, has sparked an extraordinary wave of generosity from the local community and a neighbouring church, with almost £30,000 raised to help rebuild it.
Clare Tibbs is the Churchwarden at Holy Trinity, she said, “We had a retaining church wall collapse in January. Our churchyard is a good eight feet above the bridle path around the outside of the church, so when the wall came down it blocked the footpath and created all sorts of challenges. The remaining wall wasn’t safe either, so although we had lots of volunteers offering to help move the stones, we simply couldn’t let them do it.” That was what the church community of Holy Trinity, Norton Malreward were faced with when the wall in their churchyard collapsed. But what could’ve become a major setback and financial headache has instead become a story about community support and generosity.
After the wall collapsed members of Holy Trinity PCC were faced with the daunting task of finding ways to fund the expensive structural repairs and the cost of undertaking them whilst also balancing the immediate safety concerns required by the council as debris from the wall had fallen on to a footpath.
Clare said, “There are only five of us on the PCC, and while we all had faith that we’d be able to do something, we didn’t really know how. We’d seen another church in the benefice sponsor roof tiles for a building project and thought, ‘That’s a good idea.’ We started thinking about how to get people interested and came up with the cream tea.”
So, the idea was formed and the planning began. The sun shone for the fundraising event a fundraising ‘Scones and Stones’ Cream Tea attended by Bishop Fiona and Archdeacon Charlie which allowed everyone to sit outside in the church yard. It launched the ‘Sponsor a Stone’ scheme, which allowed people to sponsor one of the stones for the wall. More than 120 people came along. Clare says they were delighted when more than £6,000 was raised on the day.
“Having Bishop Fiona at the cream tea was wonderful. We didn’t want the event to be formal; we wanted people to be able to come, chat and enjoy themselves. Bishop Fiona spent her time walking around the churchyard talking to people which was lovely.
“On the day we raised £6,100, but what has really amazed us is what happened afterwards. What started as a slow trickle of people sponsoring stones has turned into a river. We’re now up to almost £30,000. We would never, ever have imagined that when we first started. We are so overwhelmed by the generosity and support we’ve received.”
The Stones and Scones also helped spread the word about the campaign meaning donations continued to flood in after the cream tea. Donations came from across the church and local community with people contributing anything from the suggested £25 cost of sponsoring a stone for the wall to larger gifts. Much support was also received support from elsewhere in the benefice, including a significant donation from another parish church within the Chew Valley East Benefice.