Be a friend of St Mary’s and join a

A group who raised half a million pounds in just five years to restore their church are looking for people to join them.

The Friends of St Mary’s Church Beaminster have a thriving committee – but a couple of the volunteers want to step down this year, so they are looking for a treasurer and a secretary in particular to take over.

Current treasurer Gill Sansom is stepping down after eight years, having stepped in ‘temporarily’. “It’s not onerous,” she said.

Anyone who joins will join a committed band of volunteers.

In the autumn of 1999

Reverend Timothy Biles approached 12 parishioners to form The Friends – principally to raise the £500,000 needed to fund a major restoration of the late medieval church.

An appeal committee was formed in February 2000 with the task of raising £500,000 over the next ten years. Essential work was required to the stonework, the lead roof, the electrical system and a new heating unit among many things. A lift was also to be installed, to ferry parishioners up from the street below.

Potential donors and charitable trusts and organisations were approached and a series of fundraising events were held.

In 2003 Prince Edward visited and was shown the renovation work, which was well in progress.

Committee member Peter Brook said: “He was most charming and very impressed with the energy and enthusiasm from the

Early medieval church has been rebuilt several times

A Norman church once stood on the site of St Mary’s, just off The Square in Church Street.

The early medieval church was rebuilt several times, with the striking west tower – a 100ft Gothic beauty – added around 1500. Carvings on it show the town was involved in making sackcloth and rope from locally-grown hemp and flax.

The tower roof corbels include an eagle, a phoenix, an angel, fox and goose, fox and snake, and a pelican. There are more carved beasts decorating the pinnacles. Parts of the building date from the 13th century, however the Purbeck marble font is 12th century and there were additions to the building in the 15th, 16th, 17th and 19th centuries. The roof corbels were carved by the same team of masons who created the corbels for the Palace of Westminster in London.

The Britain Express website says the font ‘was removed from the church during the Victorian restoration. It was later discovered gathering dust in a stone mason’s yard and brought back into the church.’

A large memorial to George Strode of Parnham, who died in 1753, stands to one side. Strode carved the monuments to William Shakespeare and author John Dryden in Westminster Abbey.

Beaminster residents.”

By 2005 the committee had reached their target –in half the time.

The Friends have since gathered some 80 members, who each contribute a small amount towards the upkeep of the building, and many of them are on the committee.

Would you like to join

That’s your lot: Fairey Band concerts are over

Tony and Margaret Greenham are calling time on their annual Fairey Band concerts after first holding one in 1979. The couple have run 43 fundraising concerts over the years, raising thousands of pounds for a range of charities including Cancer Research UK, Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance, Weldmar and Beaminster Church.

The couple, now both 87, told The West Dorset Magazine they hope everyone who heard the band enjoyed their music and thanked their many sponsors and supporters over the years, adding: “We will miss you.”

The last Fairey Band concert will take place on March 26 at St Mary’s Church, Beaminster at 2.30pm.

Tickets are £12.50 from Symonds and Sampson, Beaminster Church Office and Yarn Barton Centre or by calling 01308 862493.

The Friends? Could you help on the committee?

Peter said: “We are still very active but are in need of a few more volunteers.

“This is not an onerous task, only a few meetings each year and assistance with some of our fundraising social events.”

Email peterbrook@ btinternet.com to get involved.