Marazion Meeting House Reopens
The Marazion Quakers held an Open Day on 2nd July 2022 to celebrate completion of the long and complex process of restoring their three-hundred-year-old Meeting House, the oldest public building in Marazion.
We were delighted to join the Friends to view the result for which the CHCT awarded a grant of £4,000 towards the new roof and air source heat pump underfloor heating system in June 2021.
Additional work was required when it was discovered that the floor joists were rotten and the wooden floor has been replaced with hemlock pine boards made from salvaged beams. The result is magnificent!
A short history of the Marazion Meeting House can be found here.
St Andrew’s, Stratton chancel roof repair begins
We are delighted to report that work is well underway to repair the chancel roof at St Andrew’s Stratton for which the CHCT pledged a grant of £3,000 in September 2021.
Everyone should be involved in a church restoration project at some time in their life
Those words were recently said to me by someone who contacted us to make a donation a few years ago and is now immersed in St Sampson’s Unlocked, the half a million-pound restoration project at St Sampson’s Church, South Hill, Cornwall. The more I thought about his words the more I realised what a profound statement this was.
A church restoration makes you realise the importance of things, temporal and spiritual. It makes you think about the faith of others and your own faith. It draws you into something deeper than bricks and mortar. It gives a sense of your place in history and the continuation of history. It provides a timeless stabilising effect on the fast pace of modern life. It makes you see the scope and size of a project which sounds so simple on the outside but is complicated and involves layers of expertise. It is a slow process. It demands working and praying with others. Part of the joy of being a Christian is having hope for the future and serving others.
Being involved in a restoration project brings many opportunities, joys and challenges. It quite literally can change your life! There are discoveries to be made, skills to be learnt, people to get to know and never-ending excitement.
Community Fundraising
2022
East Wivelshire
Landrake with St Erney – Open Churches Day – £37.50
Maker with Rame – sponsored Bicycle Ride – £250
Powder
St Cuby – Afternoon Tea for the CHCT Friends’ Outing – £55
Trigg Minor and Bodmin
St Julitta Lanteglos-by-Camelford – Afternoon Tea at the CHCT Annual Meeting – £100
West Wivelshire
St Neot – Midsummer Event £500
2021
St Austell
St Mary’s Biscovey and Good Shepherd Church Par – Pop up Stalls – £400
East Wivelshire
Maker with Rame – Ride and Stride – £200
Powder
Grampound with Creed – Afternoon Tea at the CHCT Annual Meeting – £156
Trigg Minor & Bodmin
St Tudy with Michaelstow – Coffee morning hosted by Jenny Muir – £90
St Neot Midsummer Event
A thoroughly enjoyable evening was enjoyed by 120 people at Trevenna, St Neot celebrating Midsummer and raising the magnificent sum of £2,500 for church funds. CHCT is immensely grateful to the PCC for donating £500 of this to us. Thanks are due to PCC member Jonathan Rowe for allowing St Neot Church to use his wedding venue, Trevenna, Mandy and all the staff at Trevenna plus all the community volunteers who dressed the marquee, set up the games, entertainment and music.
Going to Church in Medieval Cornwall
Friends assembled at St Julitta’s at Lanteglos-by-Camelford for our Annual Meeting on 25th May 2022 and were privileged to be addressed by Canon Professor Nicolas Orme, Emeritus Professor of History at the University of Exeter on the subject “Going to Church in Medieval Cornwall”. His illuminating talk made all those attending wiser and is best summed up by a remark overheard afterwards “We would have flocked to lectures at university if Nicholas Orme had been teaching us.” For those who missed it his book “Going to Church in Medieval England” is available and has been shortlisted for various prizes.
Afterwards we were treated to a sumptious tea which raised £200 split between the PCC and the CHCT as St Julitta’s Cornwall Churches Day event for this year.
Pop-up stalls at St Mary’s Biscovey and Good Shepherd Church, Par
St Mary’s, dressed in her new grey granite tower and reddish Biscovey stone body!
Jill Hore, Churchwarden, writes “We haven’t done anything remarkable in fund raising this year, but once lockdown restrictions were lifted we did manage to hold 3 POP UP stalls outside the Good Shepherd Church in Par, selling home grown plants with an additional stall of homemade cakes, pies, and preserves.”
Being opposite the Post Office, we had enthusiastic customers throughout the first morning’s event, – who were as eager as we were to get out, meet people and have a chat about being under lockdown restrictions, that we decided to do it again! And again! Our “green fingered” member had so many bedding plants and perennials thriving in her polytunnel and garden, that it was an obvious event to arrange.
Next CHCT Event
Garden Open Day & Tea
Sunday 30th April 2023
Boskenna, St Buryan 2 – 5pm
In the meantime why not take a virtual trip around some of Cornwall’s historic churches here or if you fancy a day out why not try one of our Drive About Trails.