Fantastic Community Effort Saves

Bawdsey Church Tower

The Suffolk Historic Churches Trust has been able to help the campaign to restore the tower of St. Mary the Virgin Bawdsey with a grant of £6,500.

The structural failure of the south west corner of the tower led to the church being placed on the “Heritage At Risk Register”. The cost of repairs rose to £86,747 a seemingly impossible sum for a small community to raise. Bawdsey is a remote village of less than 200 households but they contributed an amazing £22,950 to the total needed. This together with fund-raising events and successful applications for grant aid enabled the target to be reached and the repairs completed.

On Sunday April 14th the residents of Bawdsey celebrated with a service of thanksgiving led by the Bishop of St. Edmundsbury and Ipswich The Right Reverend Nigel Stock. During the service Churchwarden Mrs Lydia Calvesbert gave a vote of thanks to all those who had contributed to this great achievement.

On behalf of the Trust Celia Stephens, Chairman of the Grants committee officially presented the cheque.  She congratulated the whole community for getting behind the campaign to save their church tower and thanked them for supporting the Annual Historic Churches Bike Ride.  The funds raised by the sponsored Bike Ride enables the Trust to award grants to help keep churches and chapels across the county in a good state of repair.

 

The sun shone and Suffolk looked its very best..... and over £155,000 was raised!  Thank you to everyone who got involved with this year's Suffolk Historic Churches Trust Sponsored Bike Ride on Saturday 8th September. Whether you are a sponsor, or were riding, walking, helping with the signing-in at one of the 728 Suffolk churches that were open - or made cold drinks and refreshments - thank you very much! 

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