After over 18 months of waiting, and 3 stages of grant applications, the essential works to repair parts of St Swithun’s Church finally commenced on Monday 4th March. Hopefully, they will be completed by early August; during the intervening months church services will be held in the Village Hall.
The works are being undertaken by CSL, a Peterborough company, at a cost around £200,000. The Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) is providing £142,800 of this sum, with the rest of the funds coming from other smaller grant providers (Marshall Trust, Lincolnshire Churches Trust, and hopefully the Garfield Weston Foundation) and funds raised by the Parochial Parish Council.
A Press Day was held in the Church on Thursday 28 February to thank the HLF and all Lottery Players for their support of the Repair Project, this was attended by villagers (see picture) who enjoyed a selection of cakes and drinks whilst being given an overview of the planned works by David Andrews. There was also a demonstration of the Info Point System to be installed in the Church and the Village Hall on which a range of information, such as a number of walks from the village, a Village Trail, and a history of the village War Graves will be available for download.
During the period of the works access to the 2 Memorial Areas and the graves at the front of the old churchyard will remain available, and every effort will be made to keep the area tidy.
