Oops – this time with the attachment…
It’s not the first time the village needs to raise funds for restoring the church. In July 1878 the then vicar – JB Kearney – had a letter published in the North Wilts Herald offering tuition in support of a church restoration fund. His letter is shown below.
It’s not clear whether the Archdeacon of Berkshire, who had inspected the church in the previous year, was qualified to conclude the church would soon be a ‘…mass of ruins…’. The church had been standing less than twenty years: it was only built in 1859.
The appeal must have been successful as the letter states that any surplus funds would be spent ‘..in buying a small organ…’. The organ was installed less than three years later, in May 1881. More of that in another post…
