Latest Restoration Information

The scaffolding is up! The engineer and architect have been viewing the walls in the cherry picker and marking up every elevation that needs work. So far, broadly, things are as they had anticipated – the parapets will have to come down to the 1st arched window. There are concerns about the buttresses and some excavation will be required in order to investigate further. When a report is available, the building committee will meet and a draft report will be sent to English Heritage. The access audit and the maintenance plans have been completed. Finally, as soon as temporary repair to the roof is done we will be able to reopen the church.

Donation from the NHMD

The North Herts Metal Detecting group have kindly donated £200 following Cherry’s presentation at their meeting. Cherry went on to say that the NHMD group sell off their finds and that we may have another donation from the proceeds of the sale. One of the group will attend our fete and offer people a chance to do some treasure hunting with his metal detector, as well as organising a 2 day treasure hunt under their guidance. Finally they very generously offered to do one of our Autumn lectures.

Barn Dance

The Barn Dance was huge success raising £1180; everyone enjoyed the evening and said they are looking forward to the next one. Cherry went on to say that Mrs. Keech offered her band as a possible option for another Barn Dance in the Autumn.

Hitchin Market

The Hitchin Market raised £285. The St Mary’s Square charity stall was very busy and managed to raise £464. Numerous plants, kindly donated by St Ippolyts parish, where also sold during the day. Jackie reported that they had enjoyed running the stalls and are looking forward to doing more.