St Oswald's Church of England £50,000 English Heritage Grant

Praise be! Thank Heaven!

Now St Oswalds can stop whingeing about being short of money and constantly asking for support.

Wrong:

How English Heritage sets about making a grant:

They consider each application on it's merits; St Oswalds scored well there as Grade 1 listed building of considerable historical interest, but in need of structural repairs.

They then send their specialist architect to do a thorough inspection of the whole building to see what needs attention.

It is at this stage that problems start to appear

The Parochial Church Council may think that some slates need replacing on the roof. English Heritage with it's superior knowledge will decide that the wooden beams below the slates are now rotten and will have to be replaced.

It is on the basis of the English Heritage inspection that the grants are made. Then comes the sting in the tail:
The grant that they give is only a proportion of the whole cost(based on a number of calculations). In St Oswald's case, this works out at roughly half the estimated cost of the necessary repairs,

Leaving us to find the other half - another £50,000

We despair not. We have lots of forthcoming events had hope for your support. We are open to ideas for other ways of fundraising to keep our very special Church Building safe and sound for the future.

Any suggestions to the Church Wardens. Sponsorship, gifts in memory of loved ones, donations for any reason you like. Anything as long as it's not illegal or immoral - fattening is all right.

Fothergill Family weekend

For June, 2006 we are planning a major Fundraising Event when we will invite members of the Fothergill Family and anyone interested in the Fothergill Family's connections with Ravenstonedale to come and spend a weekend in the parish and take a tour of some of the houses connected with the Fothergill Family, see the slide show, local history exhibition and some of the family silver.