Update on Cultural Recovery Fund Grant - White Horse Team Ministry

Update on progress from All Saints’ Church

In January this year we applied for a Cultural Recovery Fund Grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund. This was part of a £1.57 billion support package from the Government in response to the Coronavirus pandemic. At the end of March we learned that we were successful in our bid for £24,400. This was given to support works to enable All Saints’ to provide a welcoming space for visitors, engage more with the local community and support our long term financial sustainability.

There were three main areas of work

Essential maintenance works

These were works to make essential repairs to the roof to prevent leaks and to to the damaged and missing rainwater goods which were causing damp in the building. The roof works will be taking place during July. We also carried out essential safety checks such as portable appliance testing on our electrical equipment and our fire extinguishers to ensure that our building is safe both for our congregation and for visitors.

Cleaning and de-cluttering

Since March 2020 our usual weekly cleaning had stopped as the usual team disbanded due to the pandemic. Since then lack of volunteers has meant that only basic cleaning has been carried out. There was also a good deal of clutter that had collected over the years. We wanted to clear this to create a better impression to visitors. This included the removal of organ pipes that were surplus to requirements.

We hired a skip and a team worked hard to fill it! The basement was cleared and a number of items were disposed of that had not been used for decades. The space created behind the organ created has enabled us to relocate a number of items to improve the way that we use the church circulation areas. We are investing in storage shelves so that items can be stored tidily. This has created a much better vestry for the clergy and choir.

All the curtains have been taken down and dry-cleaned and we held two spring clean events. We invited volunteers from outside our church community to join us and were pleased to welcome around half a dozen to help with around 30 people joining in over the two days. Thanks to their hard work the dust and cobwebs that had built up over the past year were a thing of the past and our silver and brass ware shines once more! Those that came not only worked hard but enjoyed fellowship with others, for many, for the first time in a long while.

Improving the offer to visitors

We have developed a pilgrimage route around the church with attractive information banners to help to explain the Christian faith and how we use our building to see that faith out. These were written by a small team and then professionally designed banners created. These are supported by postcards and leaflet which also provide information on how to contact us for life events and how visitors can make a donation to support our work. We are keen to improve the experience for visitors to attract more into our church and to increase the number of donations we receive from them. We are using our online giving facility to enable visitors to give with a new contactless giving station which will be coming later in July.

Wiltshire Medieval Graffiti Survey

As part of the plan to open our church more to the wider community we welcomed the Wiltshire Medieval Graffiti Survey to record the many marks on the walls and windows some going right back to the time the church was built in the 1300s. The Survey team invited members of the public to join them when undertaking this work and we were pleased to welcome around a dozen church and non-church members to investigate the dusty corners of our church building. The Survey team were impressed by the wealth and variety of marks they found and will be returning later in the year to show what they have discovered.

Finally we wanted to refresh our noticeboards both within the church and at the two main entrances to the churchyard through the Market Place and Church Lane. These will be bold and modern with plenty of space to put up posters and information about our events and services. Look out for these at the end of July.

Thank you

We’d like to thank the small but committed group of people who supported this work and of course the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport who provided the Cultural Recovery Grant