If you could climb into the tower above St Mary's, you would see what a century and a half of Surrey weather does to timber. Our spire - 150 years old in 2030 - has quietly done its job through all of it: rain, wind, the odd determined woodpecker. Lately, it's been telling us it needs some help to keep going.

A full structural survey earlier this year confirmed what we suspected. The repairs are considerable, though not beyond us: full cost £172,000. The church is meeting £50,000 of that from its own reserves - money set aside over years for exactly this kind of moment. We're hoping to raise a further £25,000 through this appeal, with the remainder coming from grant funding that we're actively pursuing.

This is no longer a proposal - it is already a project with real progress. We have started the process of getting the necessary permissions from the Diocese, engaged an architect to prepare the specification, and received tender submissions from heritage contractors.

While going through old PCC notes recently, I came across something that feels worth sharing. In 1930, marking the spire's fiftieth year, the then Rector, Reverend Francis Edward Hooper, asked the parish for three things: to Interest them in the building, Instruct them in what it needed, and Inspire them to act. It's where this campaign's name comes from - inSPIREup - and, oddly, it still feels like exactly the right ask, a century later.

We're not looking for anyone to fund this alone. But every gift - whatever size - is a vote that this building still matters to the people who live around it, not just a line in a grant application.

Full giving details, including our giving pyramid and Gift Aid information, are in the campaign leaflet, available online or at the back of the church.

Thank you for reading, and for whatever part you're able to play in keeping St Mary's spire doing what it has always done.

For more information, please contact St Mary’s Treasurer Lauma on [email protected].

inSPIREup campaign_leaflet, PDF

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