The Ross Parishes: Ross-on-Wye, Walford & Brampton Abbotts
Inspiring faith, hope and love in each generation.
St Mary’s Choir has just returned from singing six services in Chester Cathedral. It was an excellent weekend.
There are plenty of posts on the choir Facebook page.
If you’d like to hear what we sounded like you can do so here.
St Mary’s Ross is undertaking a major reordering of the interior of the building. About half of the existing pine pews (installed in 1862) are to be removed. Several members of the community have expressed interest in one so here are the arrangements for purchasing. All money raised from the sale of the pews will be used in the building project. All the complete pews have been reserved in less than a week – an amazing response!
The pews that remain are all missing an end, and all around 2.5 – 3 metres in length . However, it’s likely that many people will be shortening them anyway so if two pews, with matching ends, will work for you they are available for £100 for the pair. If you have some other plan which only requires one end then £75 for a single incomplete pew. The Ross charity, Enviroability, is available to do any work on shortening, creating corner seats, re-fixing ends etc if required (see below).
If you’d like to come into church to take a look please do; the church is open each day from about 09:00 – 16:00. Pews are all clearly numbered and you can reserve them by writing your details on the label on the pew. Alternatively, please contact John or Mark (details below) to reserve pews.
Pews are sold on a buyer collects basis and collection can happen shortly after the work begins on Monday 4th September. We will let you know.
If a complete pew is really what you need, and you can wait, then phase two of this project will be happening – we hope in 12 – 24 months time – and there will be a very similar quantity of pews available then. Please contact us and we’ll keep you informed.
Church contacts (for purchasing):
Mark Sanderson – 01989 565386 – (up to 21st August)
John Setchfield – 01989 564535 (from 24th August)
Enviroability can be contacted by email or on 01989 763388 should you want them to do any work on your behalf, Paula Evans is the contact. They will quote you for that work.
We are delighted to report that a grant of £213, 500 from the Heritage Lottery Fund has been secured. Furthermore, that the grant has been match funded by grants from the Hereford Historic Churches Trust and the Allchurches Trust.
Thanks to National Lottery players, we are now able to turn our vision into a reality.
In the meantime services are thriving twice a month at the village hall and at Brampton Abbotts School.
St Mary’s choir is off to Chester at the beginning of September to sing the weekend’s services. If you fancy a weekend in Chester you would be most welcome to come along as part of our supporters club! Our accommodation with be in a nearby University hall of residence (Sumner House) double rooms are £60 per night. Please let Mark know if you’d like to be included in the group booking.
Various organisations in Ross-on-Wye worked together to put on a day of celebrations for the 380th birthday of their most famous “all round good egg” John Kyrle.
As a part of this event Brampton Abbotts, Bridstow and Walford Primary Schools came to St Mary’s Church for a workshop day where the task was to create 5 films about the great man that would then be on display for visitors to the Sunday event. You can view these at https://mrkyrle.wordpress.com or by visiting St Mary’s Church and scanning the QR codes that will remain in the building for some while.
The children were assisted by a number of adults from St Mary’s congregation (who had their own workshop afternoon prior to develop their film making skills) and by local historian Jon Hurley who’s book “In Search of John Kyrle: The Man of Ross” was invaluable for the historical background to the project.
BBC Hereford and Worcester has been to Walford to record a piece about Paddle and Praise. You can hear the item at about 08:20 on Sunday morning (12th February) or catch up with it for a few days after on the iPlayer.
We heard on 27th January that the Chancellor has granted us the faculty to begin work on phase one of the reordering. This is great news and brings to a close the planning stage of this phase of work. We will now be approaching building contractors for quotes and once we’ve decided who will carry out the work we can begin.
We had hoped to be at this point by Easter so we are well ahead of schedule. You can learn all about the reordering plans for St Mary’s at http://www.reordering.wordpress.com
This took place on Thursday 5th January when we welcomed ‘Mary and Joseph’ (and their diary!) back after their journey around the parish. Soup, cheese and wine was provided. We are able to send £87 to Christian Aid for their Christmas appeal to help refugees fleeing from conflict.
Have you seen the new website for the reordering scheme at St Mary’s yet? The latest news and updates are there for the reordering which it is hoped will be happening by the middle of 2017.
Go to http://www.reordering.wordpress.com to see the latest.
If you’re feeling in need of a little winter cheer you’ll find some pictures of this year’s St Mary’s Flower Festival here
The Ross Parishes: Ross-on-Wye, Walford & Brampton Abbotts 