FRIENDS OF GREAT BEALINGS CHURCH – CHAIR’S REPORT 2012/13

The Friends was set up in 2011 with the double aim of bringing members of the village together by arranging a range of events designed to bring pleasure to all members and their families and to raise funds for the fabric of St Mary’s Church, Great Bealings, to ensure its future as a building central to village life.

Reading from the Calendar of Events for 2012, I think that we are well on the journey that we started some 18 months ago.

There were a number of highlights in 2012 because of the Jubilee and the Olympics, but , arguably, the outstanding event of the year for the Friends was the inaugural Great Bealings Great British Farm Fair in September.  We were blessed with beautiful weather but the event would not have been the success that it was without the generosity of Adrian Melrose and his family who gave both their time and their home – a brilliant location, to host the event.  They were supported by quite a small group of people who worked tirelessly to organise and stage the event.  Our thanks go to everyone who helped to make it such a success.  We are planning to repeat the event on Saturday 21^st September, and hope that many more people will help with the arrangements, even if only for an hour or so.

Other fun – and fund raising, events in which the Friends have been involved have included the annual plant sale, held jointly with Little Bealings, the Cricket Match at Barn Pightle,  the River Orwell walk and  Carol Singing around the village (which raised money for E.A.C.H).  But special mention should be made of the revised  History of St Mary’s, which came into being thanks to the hard work and creative talents of Norman Porter.

Adrian will shortly be telling us about the sums that have been raised. (click here for the report or to download the Treasurer’s Report here)  The Friends do not decide how the money will be spent.  This is a decision for the PCC.  Unfortunately, Charles Barrington, who is the expert on the Quinquennial report on the condition of the building, cannot be with us this evening.  However, he has told me that:

1. The PCC has agreed that, largely due to the great success of the FOGBC initiative, we can set a budget for priority works as set out in the Quinquennial Review of £6,000 in the current year. The Review estimated that total works might cost over £25,000.

2. A meeting will take place of the Fabric Committee (Chris Chestnutt and Charles) on 3rd April at the church.

3. Charles is in the process of establishing via the Diocesan website those works that require a faculty and those that do not. If they do, detailed costings are required and architect advice is needed. Charles is determined to keep such fees to a minimum – in my experience they can easily eat up a big part of the budget. He will almost certainly have to meet the architect on site at some stage and go through what we intend to do.

4. He has received some help from John Wright who masterminded the repairs at St Mary’s, Woodbridge. He has pointed Charles in the right direction for grants, faculties, etc. We should consider applying to both the Suffolk Historic Churches Trust and the Wolfson Foundation for grant assistance. The sums may not be great but all help is valuable. We have a splendid case: we are not simply sitting back and asking for help – we have formed the FOGBC and we have a programme of work to complete. We also now have Norman’s splendid history to add gravitas to our cause.

5. Once the list of faculty jobs vs. non-faculty repairs is established, we will start to get quotes. Charles has for example found a manufacturer of grilles for the windows which is one of the priority jobs.

6. When the list of jobs is prepared, we intend to circulate to the members of FOGBC so that we can either ask for sponsorship for particular items, or draw on specialist help from members if they would like to be involved.

7. The list of priority jobs is likely to include inter alia:

• Window grilles
• Loose tiles and flashings
• Flagpole
• Stonework
• Drainage trench round East End of church needs a rope or railing barrier
• Seckford Memorial plasterwork surround

Charles concludes by saying that the interior paintwork and plaster repairs may need to wait another year.

We shall keep Friends informed of what is happening.

That leads me to the issue of communication.  We currently rely on the Benefice magazine and the Bealings and Playford News as our means of communication. We are aware of the limitations of this and do intend to find a more effective way of communicating progress more regularly to members via email to those on our database.  It would be good if we could recruit a communications expert.

We are also intending to publish another diary of the year’s event, as we did in 2012, after tonight’s discussion on future events.

These events will continue to be a vital part of what we do. However, I want also to thank people who make their contributions in hard cash, by regular payments.  These are vital and represent the hidden contribution by many people. The Friends, as an organisation, is extremely grateful for all the contributions, in whatever form they are made.  The collective efforts help to enrich us as a community and support the building that stands at our centre

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