Keeping A Roof Over Our Heads

 Well it's been a long time since there has been a blog, but it has been a really busy summer. It's now time to catch up with all that has been going on. This Harvest-time, the Ladies and Gentleman of the Wisbech &  North Nene Parishes Mothers' Union decided to make some harvest loaves to celebrate the harvest home. The trusted "bread-in-a-bag" approach was employed so minimise the mess and maximise the success. This involves adding all the dry ingredients to a (strong, zip-locked) bag, then adding the water and the oil and kneading it in the bag. The loaf can then be left to prove in the bag, "knocked back" and given a second rise and then baked for the perfect lunch time accompaniment. Here they all ready to get going....  ....and the group hard at work. Kneading bread also allows for catching up on the gossip so good multi-tasking Each bag carried with it the Mothers' Union Harvest prayer so that each loaf felt special. And here is the end res...

 Today has been a busy morning sorting out some of the mountains of paperwork that has accumulated in the office. Some of it dates back to 1933: beautiful copperplate handwriting with a fountain pen in dedicated  minute books. Lovely. PCC meetings haven't changed much in the last 89 years it has to be said. But in amongst the dusty boxes there was some hidden treasure: we found some copies of the Parish Magazine from 1900 and 1929. Amazing. All work stopped immediately to check out what was happening in and around the parish in the 1900's.  So, in December 1929 St. Peter's Boys' School celebrated their prize giving whilst the Mothers' Union had a talk on The Religious Education of Children from 4-8 years (trust the MU to  be having a good time!). St. Augustine's held a family Gathering at the Alexandra Theatre and Lady Lucas-Tooth gave: " a winsome little speech" to open the proceedings and the new Mayor showed up. The Octagon Church congregation were ...

  It's Celebration Time. The team have been working very hard to put together a fantastic programme for the St. Peter's Summer Festival: our first opportunity to run events for the last 2 years (thank you Covid 19)! So here goes! On Saturday 2nd July we have a table top sale in the Church Hall with all sorts of goodies for sale: plants, cakes, bric-a-brac and the opportunity to come and have a cup of tea and, perhaps, a bacon sandwich with friends. It starts at 09.00 and goes on until 12.00. On Friday 15th. July The 9 Lives Theatre Company presents a Summer Selection box; songs from all those famous West End Shows. The doors open at 6.45 p.m. and the show starts at 7.30 pm. You can call 07817622732 to book tickets. And then if all that is not enough, Trumpet Virtuoso John Barker is giving a Celebration Concert on Sunday 31st. July in the Church. The doors open at 1.30 for a 2.45 start. This is a free concert so just come along!   Ever since Hilary Robinson, Producer of ‘G...

 The dust is settling and we are definitely in the endgame now! Just waiting for the drain saga to resolve and then we are off and running with our amazing new facilities and (largely) waterproof roof. How exciting and what a reward for 5 years of slog, anxiety and stress. The Lottery Bid team are lying down with an aspirin. So where do we go now? The Summer Festival is well on its way and there is much to look forward to, but to kick off we held an activity fun day for the year 6 pupils at one of our local schools. And what a day it was: the sun shined as we opened the doors to about 50-60 young people and their teachers. 5 special activities were planned: gardening, bellringing, stonemasoning (if that's a word), paper sculpture and playing the organ. The garden teams joined our Wisbech in Bloom colleagues and planted and weeded and turned the patch of ground around the boat into a beach. Amazing how fascinating a bucket of seashells are to people who rarely get the chance to go t...

Mothers' Day Daffs; taken with a mobile phone, of course!  Hello! Spring is here and the building work is a hair's breathe from being completed (apart from some drain-related dramas). We have the most beautiful kitchen ever and soon the hard work, sleepless nights and stress of managing such a major project will be over. An amazing achievement for all those incredible people who have had the tenacity and vision to make this happen. So now for the good stuff. The Summer Festival is well on in the planning stage so watch this space for the brilliant series of events that are planned for June, July and August.  To start things off, we have just had the Photography workshop run by local professional photographer Adam Fairbrother (to whom we are very grateful for his time and patience).  Some expert tuition from Adam The plan was to show the group how to frame and set up the background of their shots to get the best possible results, and to practice on some of the items and vi...

The video from Tuesday's session in repairing the mullions in the Vicar's Vestry. Steve the stonemason talks about the work that he is doing in conversation with Val, our multi-tasking Treasurer.

 We have been very privileged throughout our restoration project here at St. Peters to have had the experience of an extraordinarily skilled Master craftsman and Stonemason, Steve. The blog-team caught up with him (on a typically wet and windy day)  as he  starts the difficult task of renovating the window mullions in the Vicar's Vestry.  The mortar holding it together (the mullion not the Vicar) have become very rotted as a result of water ingress and spider activity. The stonework is very dirty from the general pollution and age (see below). The old rotten mortar, that was in danger of failing completely allowing the window to fall out, has to be sawn out using this lethal instrument.  Steve holding a section of the mullion Steve talked about making the repairs and how the stone is quarried, cut and laid. He said that out of the 4 apprentices who started with him, he is the only one who qualified. He estimates that there are only about 10 stonemasons left in E...

  Hello there and welcome to 2022.  All the Lottery-bid team at St. Peter's wish you all the very best for the coming year. We are looking forward to it with excitement and anticipation as the project enters it's endgame and we can look forward to all the new opportunities that the changes will bring to us, the congregation, our visitors and the people of Wisbech. Can't wait! To open the New Year, I was recently handed a nondescript envelope by one of our Churchwardens, but inside there turned out to be treasure that I wanted to share! These are some old photographs taken from the tower of St. Peter's giving a panoramic view of the town. Excellent stuff. So here they are. Here is the view looking north over the market place. Looking south over the churchyard towards the Church hall (before the trees were chopped). Also a view of the roof that has now been replaced. Interestingly, St. Peter's is unique in England for having a roof that spans 2 aisles. The footprint o...

 Such a lot has been happening. Despite supply chain issues, a dearth of scaffolders and no oak to be had for love nor money, it looks as though we are on the home straight. The stalwart project team  (well Trev mainly) are lying down with an aspirin in darkened rooms to recover. It's been a long slog. To celebrate here are some of the latest pictures as the kitchen and loos take shape. The almost kitchen! Units and everything One of the almost toilets The almost choir vestry (looking bigger than it did when it was just a stud framework which is a relief!) and last but not least.. the scaffolding is coming down so we are almost at the end.

  Time to celebrate! We are really getting into our stride now. Not only is the restoration work at the Church rapidly reaching the end, the Church Hall has also been fully redecorated and refurbished. To celebrate this event we are holding a coffee (and bacon sandwich) morning at the hall on Saturday 20th November 2021 from 09.00 to 1.00 p.m. Do come along and have a look at the beautifully re-painted Hall and have a browse of the stalls. We would really love to see you there.  There will be a selection of cakes, preserves, plants, handbags & accessories, books, jigsaws and a tombola so you might even find the odd Christmas gift. The Hall is now also open for bookings for dances, quizzes, receptions, meals and meetings etc. There is ample parking and the Hall can seat up to 120 people (or 90 people seated at tables).  Please contact Angie ( damanning.manning9@gmail.com ) and she will be able to help you with any booking enquiries.

  Great progress! The roof is almost done and green polythene has disappeared from the side aisles at last. Hopefully the scaffolding will be down soon so that the Stygian gloom in the church will be replaced by the winter sunlight at last. Just in time for Christmas. A little while ago some members of the congregation applied to have their  names added to a piece of the lead for the roof and Canon Matthew spent a couple of productive afternoons tapping out those names into a piece of the soft lead.  The panel was handed over to the architect who is now tasked with placing it into a secret place on the roof. This is no ordinary bit of lead, but rather a time capsule to be found in the next 50-100 years when the roof is having its next repair job. Which explains  the need for secrecy so that no one, not even Canon Matthew, knows where the panel will be placed. What a lovely gift for builders, architects, clergy and congregations to find in the future!  

 And so it begins!  Here are the details for the first of the planned concerts and events to happen now that the ubiquitous green polythene is disappearing from the aisles: Hooray. All the booking information is on the flyer, so give us a call. This should be a rousing pre-Christmas Prom (any excuse for a mince pie)! See you there.  

  The dedicated group of volunteer guides ready for action One of the great things about working with the HLF is that it stretches you to do things that you might not otherwise have done. Last Tuesday we held another of a series of highly successful visits by local primary schools to St. Peter's to tell them some of the key stories of our Christian faith through the fabric of the church itself. The beautiful Victorian painted stained glass windows are great sources as are the various "props" of Christian worship: the high altar, the font etc. So ready for action, 60 children aged 8-9 years came along with their teachers and support staff  and were split into 6 groups to be led by our dedicated volunteer guides. The first stop was the high altar (looking a bit naked as Covid has forced a slightly different approach to giving and receiving communion).  The beautiful, ornate Reredos telling the story of the Last Supper. Our namesake saints of St. Peter and St. Paul both with...