"If I were a shepherd I would bring a lamb"

This line from the familiar Christmas carol seemed to fit our parish - there must be many thousands of lambs in Bewcastle. If every farm donated just the price of one lamb from their autumn sales our repairs would be well funded. Even non-churchgoers donated and remarkably one farm took their lamb money to organise a spectacular social evening which netted the price ten-fold, just as in the parable!

The story made regional TV and the giving continued. Support from beyond the parish started to flow in.

And so we undertook those urgent repairs; we did other repairs that the architect deemed important to tackle in the next ten years. That felt good. Local craftsmen gave their time and skilled work voluntarily.

But then we noticed a huge new problem - the mortar on the entire tower was failing, damp patches started and, alarmingly, grew over the winter.

The funds were once again insufficient! With two generous grants we could top up our repair fund. The National Churches Trust supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Archbishops’ Council Buildings for Missions MR&I Grants Fund both supported us.

This work starts next week after Easter.

The list of repairs to the fabric of such an ancient building we now recognise will never end. 

Here for 1,200 years faith and community have intertwined, as the Bewcastle Cross and tiny museum remind us. Within its walls generations have met to mark great occasions of family, community or national life - a wedding, a birth, a funeral or special festivals like Christmas, Easter, Harvest, Remembrance, a coronation, the cessation of war. Loved ones have been laid to rest in the churchyard. Sunday by Sunday worship has taken place within it. It's a heritage which has been entrusted to us, which we in our turn should treasure and pass on to those coming after us.

We've asked the local farmers to support us - may we ask you too?