The PCC and the Trustees of the Friends of St Lawrence Church Bradfield were delighted to welcome over 55 people to a reception celebrating the completion of the spiral staircase project. The ribbon to officially open the staircase was cut by Bettina the wife of the late Simon Bullimore, former President of the Friends of St Lawrence. Simon was very enthusiastic about the staircase project and loved St Lawrence Church. The evening continued with a celebration buffet to thank all those involved with the building work and fundraising for this project. Thank you to Bradfield Village and the surrounding communities for supporting fundraising events and to those who gave donations. We were also grateful to the following organisations who supplied grants : Friends of Essex Churches Trust £8,000 , Garfield Weston Foundation £4,000 ,Benefact Trust £2,100 and The Friends of St Lawrence Church £19,367. Our thanks also go to the following village organisations for their support. Grapevine and Bradfield Buzz - reporting and advertising, Village Shop - Sale of programmes and tickets, Village Hall - use of equipment and facilities, Parish Council - use of Village Hall car park, Bradfield Evening Women’s Institute – Cakes. A real community effort ! Thank you!
Please see events tab for information and help requests on Gardens Open Day
A visit and an unexpected donation
On Thursday 16th January I was able, along with Rev. Sam Winney, Jean Points and Sue Reeve to be at the church to receive the Earl and Countess of Verulam and two of their friends, who had requested a visit to St Lawrence Church, with the intention of viewing the family monuments (Harbottle / Grimston). We made use of the knowledge gained by the Friends history team to produce their family tree and a chart of the various monuments. We added the 3 photos from the vestry over the correct monument stones. We also owned up to the helmet being stolen, which he took well and was impressed with the model replacement. I also explained to him that his uncle the 5th Earl had, in the 1950s paid for the improvements to the choir area including the pews. The Earl sat in the front choir pew and touchingly stroking the wood said that this must have been one of his uncle’s last projects! We presented him with the Village and Church history books and some photocopies of documents regarding the helmet.
Following the visit The Friends have received a donation of £1000 to be used on a project agreed with the PCC. He thanked us for an interesting visit.
Norma Barrow Chairman of the Friends
Hooray the staircase is in ! See project tab for details
Our final fundraiser of 2024 saw 19 teams from Ipswich, Harwich, Lawford and all places in between competing over eight rounds of questions. To keep the grey cells ticking over, the teams were served yet another great Ploughman’s Supper halfway through the evening. Following the break, we continued with a music round – -- sorry about the Bluetooth connection problems, but we got there eventually, thanks to Steve! It was a very close contest with the “Hungerdowners” from Lawford, pipping “The Team from Mars” actually from Bradfield by a quarter of a point! A big thank you to everyone who helped with this event, made donations or gave raffle prizes, but also to the wonderful teams who were very generous with their money resulting in £1,321 being added to the church staircase fund. Work on the staircase is under way and everything should be completed within the next two weeks. Watch this space for more information. Thank you for the wonderful support this year.