Welcome to our Spring Newsletter from Friends of St Mary’s!

Firstly – a big THANK YOU to all of you who have signed up as a Friend of our lovely church, either annually or as a life member, we are very grateful. The funds raised through membership will help keep our church fit for the future and the next 600 years of its life.

At our next committee meeting we will allocate some of the monies raised thus far to some smaller repair projects and these will be detailed in the next newsletter. Meanwhile our larger Restoration and Renewal project, which is being managed by SMATCH under the auspices of the PCC is going on apace; the architect has done a condition survey of the tower and building and the next stage will be to draw up the plans.

Seeing the plans and read about why the project is so very necessary. The tower restoration is the biggest part of the project and the raising of the bellringing platform with the installation of a toilet in the base of the tower will greatly enhance the usage of the church , as well as making it fit for the future.

Candlelight Concert was a great success before Christmas; the church looked so wonderful lit by candles and the acoustics for the guitar recital were just perfect. We raised £269 at the concert – thank you again for your generosity. Our next event:

Pimms n Pipes in the Pews is on Saturday June 20^th 730pm so put the date in your diaries! The Revd Canon Peter Gilks will treat us to a talk about the church organ, along with some light-hearted organ music and singing by a local group and other music. The evening will round of with Pimms or apple punch and (hopefully) a chance to see the midsummer sun setting over Dartmoor. St Mary’s is the halfway point on the Two Moors Way footpath and the views to the moors from the churchyard are really beautiful – see you there!