After a busy weekend featuring two weddings and a baptism as well as the regular Sunday morning service, All Saints Shelley has gone under cover. The scaffolding is up. The alarms are installed. Polythene sheeting drapes the pews. Dame Margaret Tylney, who has been forlornly staring up at the pulpit for over 400 years, sports a rather fetching orange plastic wrap. It matches the organ in the south aisle. The work on the roof has begun at last, and All Saints is braced for action.

The tiles on the north nave slope are being replaced and the work will take around 10 weeks. It is being generously funded by The National Churches Trust, The Wolfson Foundation, Suffolk Historic Churches Trust, Garfield Weston Foundation, Belstead Ganzoni Charitable Settlement and Alfred Williams Charitable Trust, plus local churchgoers, residents and friends who have contributed enthusiastically to our appeal and fundraising events. Despite cost rises and unexpected extras, the money has been found, and contractors Lodge and Sons have taken up residence.

Our services will continue throughout. We are looking forward to welcoming Bishop Martin to a special evensong on 6 November, to celebrate what will hopefully then be Shelley's smart new roof.