Local News: Stoke Mandeville fundraising goes like the clappers

Readers please forgive the awful pun, but Ellen Cowley, Church Warden at St. Mary’s Church has told Wendover News that they have reached their target to get the church bells repaired and serviced. Ellen thanked everyone who had donated to the fund and said that the work would start in early March and that they would be ringing out again across Stoke Mandeville later in the spring.

Also as part of the VE80 Day commemorations on 8 May, and in conjunction with Stoke Mandeville Parish Council, the church is holding a retrospective exhibition about life in Stoke Mandeville in the 1940s. Ellen is appealing for anyone who may have any familytype photos or similar showing village life 80 years ago. They may have been taken in front of the church, the school, station, shop, Methodist Chapel, Ex Service Men’s Hall, football team, or even picnicking in a field!

If anyone has a couple of photos and would be willing to share those captured memories with local community, then please contact Ellen on 01296 415615 or email her at bookingsattheark@gmail.com. Any photos lent to the exhibition will be carefully looked after and returned.