Medieval stone churches with thick walls and stout roofs do not easily admit the marvels of 4 or 5G mobile Broadband networks. Many of our beloved buildings must therefore resort to a hardwired solution if they wish to commune with the internet. Such was our lot at All Saints and so we set out with a spring in our step down a path which little could we guess led directly to a slough of despond...Churches are apparently classed by Openreach as 'Non Served Premises' aka uninhabited buildings and the only route into the 21st century is via a tortuous bureacratic process involving BT and the omnipotent monopoly that is Openreach. Lovely, helpful people from Openreach soon began arriving unannounced in vans ready to 'connect' us but sadly had to be turned away as we had yet to be visited by a 'poling' team (who erect poles) and they, it turned out, were very busy being busy elsewhere and so it dragged on through the long hot summer until, oh frabjous day, we had a pole but had then to await a 'ducting' team (they dig cable ducts) so we waited and waited until... finally we had a cable peeking out of the ground in a discreet corner ready to be run into the church. This was, however, someone else's job but luckily he was not too busy and so soon we had a cable leading into the church but, there is always a but, still no router.This, it turned out, was a DIY job for your brave editor who only just managed to arrange for royal mail to deliver it to the village post office narrowly avoiding further delay as you cannot deliver a router to a church that is a 'Non Served Premises', has no letter box and no official post code.Job done and having to wait only a day or so for a Purple light on the router to turn Blue, we were finally are up and running and, to be fair, the signal really is remarkably good bouncing around feverishly into every corner of our church as one might expect within a medieval stone building! So laptops at the ready, digital card readers to attention and mobile phones switched to WiFi calling, 21st Century here we come.
Several church members made a special effort in September 2022 to visit as many churches as possible on the day of the Norfolk Churches Trust Bike Ride. Not only did we raise nearly £800 for our church it seems we were the most improved church, recently collecting a cheque for a further £1000 at the presentations for the 2022 Bike Ride on Thursday 31st August at Prior’s Hall in the grounds of Norwich Cathedral.This sponsored Bike Ride is run every year and raises funds in support of work to help maintain all our wonderful old churches scattered across the Norfolk landscape and is held in early September. Friends of All Saints Church again took to the saddle, seat and shanks's pony in September this year raising a further £780 for this wonderful charity. It was a blisteringly hot September day and we were glad of the opportunity to see inside some beautiful old Norfolk churches and to experience the wonder of God's very own natural air conditioning!For more information visit www.norfolkchurchestrust.org.uk/bike-ride or contact Bernard Chase Tel: 07899948986 or Email: bgpchase@gmail.com for a sponsorship form. Get planning for next year today!
