St Mary the Virgin - A 12th century church
Church fund-raising event!
White Elephant Sale,
Saturday February 23rd in the Village Hall, 2pm until 4.30pm.
The event is being held to raise funds for a new set of bell ropes for
the Church of St Mary the Virgin. Work on repairing and
refurbishing the Church tower should start in the Spring. This
will give us a new bell-ringing floor and a better space for our
bellringers to ring from. The current set of bell ropes is worn
out; one rope has already frayed and broken off. A new set of bell
ropes comes at £198 per rope plus VAT and we have five bells to ring.
Come along and check out what's for sale!
Refreshments will be served.
Lottery award! The PCC is pleased
to announce the award of a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund.
This is for urgent repairs which are needed for the Tower, its roof and
internal structure, and for the roof of the church porch.
An important part of the grant conditions is to develop the Heritage
display in the church and make the church history, which is interwoven
with our village history, available and accessible to as many people as
possible.
A further condition is to include the community in this development of
our heritage project. We held an Open Weekend at the
Village Hall on February 3rd and 4th from 2pm to 4pm to allow as many
people as possible to see the scope of the work that the grant will
cover. We are looking for support for the project in many ways:
helping with research, the technical aspects of the project,
information, photographs, stories, ideas.
St. Mary the
Virgin - Appeal for Funds for urgent repairs to the Woodville Tower
and Memorial tomb of John Woodville, great grandfather of Elizabeth
Woodville.
Woodville Tower and Tomb
Urgent repairs are required to the roof of the Woodville
Tower; portions of the lead have slipped exposing
the roof timbers to the weather. Some of the lead on the roof show dates
0f 1692, 1743 and 1744.
While this work is
being carried out we plan to refurbish the tower by:
-
Replacing the existing wooden ladders, which give access to bell
chamber, with modern safety ladders.
-
Replacing a rotton wooden floor the bell chamber.
-
Putting in a new floor above the ground floor for the bell ringers
to ring from.
-
The existing vestry can them be moved to the ground floor of the
bell tower
The John Woodville tomb was moved from a central position in the church
to the back of the West end of the church in the 19th
century. This end of the church suffers greatly from damp, our 12c
century church has no foundations, and as a consequence the stonework
has suffered over the last 100 years.
The tomb is listed by Churchcare as one of the top 100 church treasures
in U.K. Churchcare is fund
raising for the restoration of these treasures and has started work on
the restoration process when funds have been donated .
By moving the vestry to the tower the tomb can be moved back to a
central position in the church.
You can make a donation
directly to the church funds through our
Paypal
account. Just visit
paypal
and use our
paypal@grafton-regis.co.uk email address.
Read about
the visit of the Bishop of Peterborough in April 2014
Detailed History of St Mary the Virgin Church
Church Bells and Bell Tower
We welcome young, old and everyone in between, and we welcome worshippers of all faiths. Join us for a cup of coffee
and a chat after the service. Our monthly church services are held
on the 3rd Sunday of each month at 11 a.m.
We celebrate Holy Communion, Morning Service, and Festival services
throughout the year. For the younger members of the congregation we hold
a Sunday school group while the main service is taking place.
For further information or if you have any queries, please email the
Church Warden.

Christenings,
Marriages and Funerals
For information regarding Christenings, Marriages or Funerals please
contact the Rector of the Parish
andrealwatkins@hotmail.co.uk
Grand Union Benefice
St. Mary the Virgin at Grafton Regis is one of five churches in the
Grand Union benefice. The benefice consists of the parishes of: Blisworth,
Milton Malsor, Stoke Bruerne and Shutlanger, Alderton and Grafton Regis.
The services for each church are published in Grass, the church magazine
and available on their website.
Grass is the
original church newsletter for the parishes of Grafton Regis, Alderton
and Stoke Bruerne with Shutlanger, hence the name. The Rector of
the Parish is the Rev'd Andrea Watkins.
Brief history of the Church
The
original building on the site of St Mary the Virgin was built in the
Norman times and is recorded as early as 1189. Very little remains of
the original building as it has been extended, built up and generally
tinkered with through the centuries.
For further information or if you have any queries, you may email the
Church Warden.