We knew that the main draws for people coming along to the Heritage Morning would be the tours with Canon Roy Tricker BEM, and a trip up to the bell ringing chamber, and we weren't disappointed! All three of Roy's tours attracted a good crowd, and he was hugely informative, interesting, and colourful. He is well known in the area, and we were very lucky to have him here.A queue formed for the ringing chamber, as we could only take up to eight people at a time, because it's quite a small area, and the bells rang out several times over during the morning as our ringers demonstrated their art.We are hugely grateful to everyone who helped with the Heritage Morning, visitors, volunteers, and organisations such as Woodbridge Museum who provided lots of interesting information that was displayed along the north wall, and the Church Recording Society who showed off the 5-volume record of everything within the church that they worked hard to document over a long period of time. It was definitely a team effort.Our Church Shop manager, Jackie, and team were doing an excellent trade, selling a selection of items from the Shop, including our 'hot off the press' Christmas cards (sold in aid of our Building Project Appeal). If you haven't been in to the Shop lately there is a huge array of cards and gifts, bibles and books...so please pop in!Andrew Stevens, Organ Builder, donated a wonderful array of fascinating objects, some of which even our Director of Music, James Davy, hadn't come across before, such as the variety of different leather samples, from very fine to much thicker examples. James had a 'mystery item' he encouraged people to come and look at to see if they could work out what it was...do you know?Part way through the morning we were delighted to receive a donation of freshly baked bread from Janet Moore, which sold...well, like 'hot bread'...and was soon gone! Our volunteers served tea, coffee, and cake almost non-stop, as we invited people to partake of the mouth-watering creations donated by members of the congregation.There were interesting and detailed displays from families with local connections, and the Friends of St Mary's spoke to many of the visitors about our beautiful church. They 'recruited' a number of new 'Friends' who chose to support us financially and will (hopefully) get involved with or come along to many of the activities that the Friends organise throughout the year. All proceeds from Friends' subscriptions and events go towards the 'fabric' of the church, to continue to maintain it for generations to come.As you will have read, our heating broke down last winter, and so the primary focus of our Building Project Appeal at the moment is to raise money towards the cost of replacement heating, and donations made on the day will boost our 'Heating Appeal.' We are extremely grateful for all the generous donations we received, and were delighted that these amounted to over £4,000 on the day, with more coming in over the following days. If you weren't able to come along to the Heritage Morning, but would like to donate towards our 'Heating Appeal' please click here to go to our GiveALittle page. All donations are gratefully received. Thank you.
Suffolk and the town of Woodbridge were privileged to have been chosen to host the first stage of the Men's Tour of Britain, on Tuesday 2nd September, and we were delighted that the stage began just down the road from the church (near the Crown in Quay Street) and that our Bellringers were asked to ring the bells in celebration of the start of the event. There's something special about the sound of church bells, and this was no exception.By 8am it was obvious something big was happening, as there was a hive of activity around Market Hill, with recovery trucks, a whole host of motorbikes, and all manner of support vehicles arriving. What a huge amount of organisation an event such as this needs in order to run successfully, safely, and on time!Groups of people arrived throughout the morning, to bag their spot to see the cyclists go past, and there was an increasing air of excitement as it got nearer to 11am. With just a few minutes to go until 'the off' people were still arriving, the bells began to ring, and the sounds of cheering, shouts of encouragement and car horns swelled up from Quay Street as the cyclists set off, travelling up Church Street, past the church and onto Market Hill. The peloton passed by in a blaze of colour, passing St Mary's House, turning right and then left, leaving along Theatre Street.We knew they would reach Great Bealings around 11.15am, and the television coverage clearly showed them passing St Mary's, Great Bealings, easily identifiable (even though the church wasn't visible) by the sight of the War Memorial opposite.As the crowds dispersed from Market Hill, the bunting came down, and the signage and vehicles all quickly disappeared, it was soon 'business as usual' but, even if you're not a fan of cycling, you couldn't help but feel this was a great event, and were glad you'd been here to witness it.
On Sunday 30th June we launched our Building Project Appeal, the plan to refurbish St Mary's House and improve facilities for the Church. The Parish was delighted to welcome back some former clergy members - David Pitcher, Kevan McCormack and Paul Hambling - as well as Mr Michael Booth (former Master of the Abbey School) and Sir Nick Young (former CEO of the British Red Cross), both of whom have agreed to serve as two of the project’s Patrons. At a very moving Eucharist, the Rt. Rev Tim Stevens, former Bishop of Dunwich, preached about the need for trust and faith in all communities and, afterwards, fizz and canapés were shared and enjoyed!Mindful of the need to preserve a building at the historic heart of Market Hill, and after receiving a very generous legacy from Dr James Harper (former Deputy Head of Woodbridge School) and other donations, earlier ideas have led to plans for a robust hub for St Mary’s House and wider community, well into the future. The church would welcome help from any local person, who may be able to support any part of the fundraising process to completion. Details and some listed events may be found here, and any such offers made via email to parish.office@stmaryswoodbridge.org
