We have just had a real boost to our efforts in raising funds for the work needed on the church. CGP, the publishing company based in Broughton-in-Furness, have given us a grant to help us on our way. This gets us further towards the money we need to build up so we can apply to those grant-givers who need us to have matched funding. This is hard for a small community who have to work through the year to meet day to day running costs. We have also set up a JustGiving page which will make it simpler for those who want to donate to St John's and will encourage them to Gift Aid their contribution. Later this month, look for news about our project on the John Betjeman website. Watch this space for further updates - we are hoping to have an online meeting of the Heritage Group - hence the title of this article!
As a team we've put in a huge amount of work over the last two years to raise funds for our Heritage project. Despite everyone who worked with us from the National Lottery believing we had a fantastic project, the decision-making committee did not award us a grant. This is hugely disappointing for the whole community, but isn't the end of our plans.We have some funded work already underway - the cross fragment is being conserved in York (funded by the Veneziana Trust) and we have planning permission for the conversion of the Old Laundry to include toilet facilities (funded by Copeland Community Fund).We have decided the best approach is to break the project into chunks, applying to as many small funders as we can. The most expensive work will be that needed on the church to sort out the damp problem. This will cost over £120000! Many of the bodies who give large grants require 50% matched funding so we need to focus on building up a "war chest" towards this work. This is a huge challenge for us, but we are committed to getting the work done - we have a responsibility for this ancient building which means such a lot to the community. We can't be the generation who allow it to decay. Keep following our progress here or on Facebook.
Browsing in a local vintage shop I came across Ronny Mitchell's book North West Coast From The Air and found in it the most amazing aerial view of St John's. The photo attached is another taken at the same time in 1999. I was able to contact Ronny to tell him about our fundraising for the church, and he has very kindly sent us a number of the photos he took in preparation for the book, with his permission to use them in our campaign. We are grateful to Halsgrove, (the publishers of the book), who helped us to contact Mr Mitchell.
You can find this quotation in John Betjeman's Guide to English Parish Churches (Harper Collins' edition)."WaberthwaiteSt John the Baptist1m/2kmS.E, of Ravenglass across R. Esk SD 1095Some 15th century windows, Norman font, pulpit of 1630, and Saxon crosses. There is a beautiful view of Lake mountains and Scafell from the churchyard, which thrusts out into the very sands of the Esk estuary - the strangest, most remote little church."The church was given the highest star rating as an exceptionally attractive church, or as he put in his introduction, "worth bicycling twelve miles against the wind to see."
