The Friends of St. Peter and All Hallows Church in West Huntspill have launched an appeal to raise funds for a new handrail for their recently-renovated church tower.
Villagers were able to hear more about the appeal on Saturday (July 6th) during the church’s summer fete.
Dave Paul, Chair of the church’s Friends group, says: “As you can see from these pictures, the steps in the Tower are very steep with only a thin rope on the inner edge at present.”
“It is planned to install a handrail but this is not within the scope of the grants received for recent repairs and so the Parochial Church Council has formally asked the Friends to provide a grant to fund this work.”
He adds: “There are 97 steps in the Tower and you can ‘Sponsor a Step’ with a donation of £25. You can choose your step number, providing it has not already been claimed. So, for example, you may wish to sponsor a particular step for an anniversary or birthday. Step Sponsors will receive a Certificate of Sponsorship recording the step number.”
“We have agreed to raise £5,000, and this month through sponsorship, donations and gift aid we are over half way there. Since the launch of the appeal, 45 steps have so far been sponsored.”
Details can be found online at https://friendsofspaahc.org/. The Friends are a secular group of people who care about the future of the Church of St Peter and All Hallows in the Somerset village of West Huntspill. They are not part of the Church but value it as a historic building and community resource.
