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This page holds all of the previous 'News and Views from Tibenham. Appeal news dated March 03 Well, such a lot has happened. It's hard to know where to begin. The main news is that the National Lottery Heritage Fund has agreed to donate £31500 to Tibenham's Peal Appeal. This means that the work has commenced and that the bells will be in and ready for the re-dedication service. More details of the Re-dedication Service are here. However, we still need to keep fundraising as the grant from the Heritage Fund does not cover all of the costs. Here are the pictures of the bells when they were removed from the tower. The work at Whitechapel's Bell Foundry has now finished and the bells are completely ready. The bell frame is being constructed locally and the builders are busy in the Tower getting the preliminary work done to allow the bell frame to be put in. The work is due to be finished by the beginning of May. At some time in April, the bells will come back to Tibenham. Before the bells are put back into the Tower the Rector will hold a ceremony of hallowing them with the children from our local schools.
Appeal News dated Jul 02 The Bells The Restoration Committee have decided to set the date for the re-dedication of the bells as May 31st 2003 with the Bishop of Norwich conducting the service. So it is all out now to get the funding in to get the work done. We take the bells down in September, and the builders come on site in November with a finish of February/March. This is what we have planned in any case. We hope that some of our US friends will be able to make the trip over to join in the celebration. 2003 is a celebration for Tibenham as an anniversary: 1913 was the year that the Tibenham Band first rang Spliced Surprise - the first band in Norfolk to do so - so this peal will be rung at the service. The Family History Weekend The Family History weekend was a great success. The weekend went very well and everybody enjoyed themselves. As well as the flowers and Family History Weekend display in the Church, the high spot was definitely the puppets at Black Barn, Ian Allen and friends had opened up his Aladdin's cave of the most wonderful puppets used in commercials and also the Button Moon puppets from the childrens' TV series. They gave tours and talks that were very well attended and enjoyed. After expenses, the event raised £1200, split equally between the Peal Appeal, Tibenham Village Hall and the Church Organ Restoration fund. News and Views from Tibenham dated 27 Feb 2002 The Quiz Night on Saturday 25th February at Carleton Rode Village Hall, was a great success. We thank John and Sue Pennell for all their hard work, especially John Quiz-master extroadinaire! We were glad to welcome Ringing Teams from Attleborough, Thetford and Diss, and thank them for their support. Financially we made £510.00 with main expenses covered by Dr. and Mrs. Money, I-Labels Ltd for their raffle prizes and Julia Jones who donated the first team prize. This was quite embarrassing, as it was her team that won the first prize. Julia has resigned from the Bells Committee, but will be assisting, where she can.Our next, and largest fund-raising event, that we have ever tried, will be for the Queen's Golden Jubilee weekend. Your memories can help us, so we look forward to your participation.
Dated Jan 2002 As we start a New Year, 2002, after all the changes we had to overcome in the previous twelve months, I thought you would like a short update. The events, which took place, were most successful, for which we are gaining a good reputation. The Medieval Fayre was cancelled due to Foot and Mouth disease restrictions, and a Summer Lunch was arranged in its place. Although the weather was doubtful when we were preparing the Summer Lunch, by the time the visitors arrived, it was beautifully and sunny. There was plenty of room for the children to play, with a selection of toys, including climbing frames, bicycles. After the lunch, the children’s obstacle races, was great fun, and there was even a chance to ride one of the ponies on Walnut Tree Farm. Everyone enjoyed their lunch and meeting old friends, Dr. and Mrs. Money were present, and a good time was had by all. Our next funding event was at the village fete, held on the playing field at the end of July 2001, and profits went to the Village Hall Fund, but Tibenham Peal Appeal had a tombola stall, which made just over £100.00. Seventy veterans and family of the 2nd Air Division U.S.A.F visited us, on the 8th November 2001, the previous day they had received the Freedom of the City of Norwich and attended the dedication of the new Memorial Library. It was planned as a fairly relaxed day, coffee at the church, a memorial service here and on the airfield, and lunch provided by the Norfolk Gliding Club, as you will appreciate they had a busy week. There was a great storm, which continued for most of the morning. A tree was blown across the road, making travelling difficult, the coaches from Norwich were diverted, the Rev. Dakin, taking the service, coming from the other direction, had to get help with his car through the flooded lanes, the organist, and our Vicar, Heather, were delayed too, as she was taking another service for the Veterans at Carleton Rode, but eventually peace prevailed, and we had an excellent service, with Rev. Dakin, reading the Presidential Citation. Jay Niemela, who lives in Copenhagen, generously sent this to me. ( His father was Lauri Niemela, who was a member of Lt Ray Bolin's crew who did not fly on the Kassel Mission due to injury and completed his 35 missions. Sadly, Lt Roy Bolin of 703rd Squadron died over Germany 27th October 1944). The exhibition arranged, was appreciated, one item which seem to strike a chord, was the old fashioned bicycle, with front basket, full of eggs, with a flying jacket draped over the handlebars. The Churchwardens received a card of thanks from Chuck Walker, Vice President. At the beginning of December 2001 Mrs Rosemary Shelmerdine, held a coffee morning at her home, at Hill Farm, monies were divided between the Organ Fund and Tibenham Peal Appeal. On the Friday before Christmas, we entertained the Norwich Diocese Ringers, for their annual Carol Concert. We ordered 14 dozen mince pies, and large quantity of mulled wine, which all disappeared afterwards. We enjoyed the excellent singing of a group of friends based at Cambridge University, and thank them for a lovely evening. This too, was a fundraising event, and from the raffle we made £365.00. So, although we had to cancel our Medieval Fayre, owing to the farming crisis of foot and mouth disease, we have still been busy, on the fundraising front. We have also been helped with donations from Mrs. K. Norman, who ancestors the Everett Family were blacksmiths in Tibenham. From The Paul Bassham Charitable Trust, The Allan Evans Memorial Trust, and The Allchurches Trust. Also many small donation, which are all gratefully received. The other changes, which occurred this year, are most important. After long discussions English Heritage Conservation Officer, Mr. G. Pledger, decided after further inspection of the underside of the Bell Frame, that it could not be used, but it will still be kept in place, as this has been separately listed as a Grade One important treasure! However, it needed some urgent repairs, which were done by Messrs. G.F. Atthowe, finished mid November, costing nearly seven thousand pounds. The new bell frame, which will be metal, will hang lower, and so we start again with quotes, faculties, and all the other red-tape!! So for the New Year of 2002 fundraising, we start with an old favourite, which has been most successful, a Quiz Night, definitely one to tax the brain! Dretails to follow As there has been a good response to this website regarding Family History, we thought this would make an interesting theme to the Queen’s Jubilee weekend. 2-4th June 2002. The theme is " The village from 1952 to present time" including histories of families, houses, and what the village was like. We have already sent out questionnaires to the entire village, and are pleased with the response. There will be a major exhibition in the Church and marquee. Also stalls selling goodies, cakes home made sweet, and craft things enticing to children! More details later, but if you wish to be involved, please let us know.
Feb 2001 Not such good news this month. We have failed in our bid to gain National Lottery funding this year and we have failed to secure a grant from the Diocesan Association of Ringers, small in financial terms but psychologically important. Nevertheless we will continue to apply for these grants, especially as the total cost has now risen to £82000. Our major fundraising event for this year will be the Medieval Fayre on 16th Jun 2001. The village will be celebrating as if the original bells and bell frame had just been completed, in a field close to the church in Cargate Common, by kind permission of Mr John Scales. We hope to have displays of Falconry, Rare Breeds, Archery, Juggling and medieval music, and there will be a Hog Roast with a Food and Drink Tent. We would very much like to hear from vendors of
Pitches for this Fayre would be very cheap compared with normal Craft fairs and Car Boot sales (up to £15 depending on size) and we would like stall holders to enter into the spirit of the Fayre by being in appropriate costume if possible. Anybody wishing to have a stall please contact Jennie Hawks by email or by phone (01379 677843). Dec 2000 The fundraising continues . . . The Church Exhibition and Floral Display in September was very successful and the flowers were beautiful. We were very pleased to have local sponsors for the cost of the flowers - please view the pictures of the displays and support our sponsors. The open weekend raised £313 towards the appeal. The Tapestry raffle was drawn at the Harvest Supper and it was won by Sheila Carver of Tibenham. The raffle raised £340, all thanks to the generosity and artistry of Holly Ault in the USA. The two autumn events have been very successful. The Fun and Race Night, held in Winfarthing Village Hall on 11th Nov, raised £800. This was a very enjoyable and successful evening. An evening of Victorian Carols and Readings was held in the Church on 10th Dec. The collection and the mulled wine with mince pies raised £150. We have been busy with grant applications. So far, we have received grants of £1000 from the Lord Cozens-Hardy Trust and £375 from the Sharpe Trust. We have received many other private donations, please visit our Sponsors page. We have had 2 quotations for the works required to the Tower, and the permission for the works from the ecclesiastical authorities appears to be progressing smoothly. The ambitious schedule for the restoration appears to have been as advertised - we are about 2 months behind so far, as we are still awaiting the Faculty. See the Restoration Progress Chart for details. So, it's just noses to the grindstone and keep on fundraising, or, as they say in Norfolk, "Keep on a' troshing !"
Jul 2000 The Draft Schedule of Works has been published for consultation. Please see the Restoration Progress page for details. Money continues to trickle in - Donations of £100 each were received from Bernard Matthews plc and NatWest Bank plc, Diss Branch. Final sum raised by the Quiz night was £700, and the Summer Fete raised the sum of £500 towards our target. Whitechapel Bell Founders Ltd were engaged for the refurbishment of the bells and terms to secure the work required at a known cost and timescale were agreed. The next fundraising
event will be the Exhibition and Floral Display - see the advert above.
Sponsorship for the cost of the flowers and flower arranging volunteers are
still being sought. For more details please
Bell Tapestry. Holly Ault of Mass, USA has been working very hard making a tapestry to raise funds for the Peal Appeal. This beautiful wall-hanging tapestry is now finished. It depicts the Church Tower and 3 peals, in the notation used by bell ringers. To view a picture of the tapestry, click here. The tapestry was displayed at the Royal Sandringham Show, attended by Her Majesty the Queen Mother in July. The float was a combined effort by Bunwell, Carleton Rode and Tibenham Churches and included a floral decoration of a bell and Handbell ringers from the three parishes. The tapestry is being raffled to raise funds. May 2000 The Peal Appeal continues to make progress towards our goal of restoration of the bells. Significant happenings in May include:
April 2000 A generous donation of £1000 has been made from an anonymous source. If the donor is reading this, thank you very much for your generosity and assistance in helping us ring our bells again. March 2000 Many thanks to the generous veterans from the 445th Bomb Group, 2nd Air Division, who have donated the sum of $2000 towards our Peal Appeal. Other donations from villagers have also been received, and more profits from the sale of Tibenham Tour leaflets have also been put into the bank account. Dr Paul Cattermole, Diocesan Advisor on Bells, gave an interesting and enthusiastic presentation to villagers, and parishoners from the Bunwell, Tibenham and Carleton Rode group of churches and other interested people at The Greyhound, Tibenham. This was appropriate as when the bells were last rehung in 1787, the bell ringers had a celebratory lunch at The Greyhound Inn, as it was then called. The English Heritage Surveyor's report has been received. The report recommends a policy of 'conservation in use' by repairing the existing medieval bell frame. The Peal Appeal Committee and Parochial Church Council (PCC) have agreed with this policy, provided that English Heritage allow Mr Graham Pledger, the surveyor, to oversee the project, at no cost to the appeal. There are very few men of Mr Pledger's calibre: to countenance the project with a lesser talent would be risky, and we therefore hope that English Heritage will assist us in this, especially as there appears to be no available funding from them.
February 2000 As you might have noticed from the Peal Appeal page, the process of deciding the details of the restoration is really a four way boxing match, trying to balance the views of the Church authorities, English Heritage, the bell ringers and the villagers. At the moment all parties still seem to be in general agreement, although we are awaiting formal notification of the results of an inspection by the English Heritage surveyor, as to whether the restored bell frame will be structurally sound in the stone tower. It seems that the surveyor will recommend that the bell frame is supported by some extra wooden beams to ensure stability. Fundraising has started slowly, although there have been some significant donations from villagers. The website has prompted one donation and one pledge so far and it is averaging about 80 'hits' per week, mainly, it seems, from those browsing the 445th Bomb Group links. However, I am expecting this to increase once the major search engines have listed the site - apparently it takes about 6 weeks for a human to check out the content. Chuck Walker and Fred Dale, both of the 445th BG and 2nd Air Division Association, USA, have volunteered to assist with the fundraising from Veterans who were stationed at Tibenham Air Base during WW2. Chuck and Fred have both helped with fundraising in the past for the Church restoration, and asked the wives of 445th BG airmen to produce needlepoint kneelers for the Church at that time. Many thanks for your help. Before Christmas, the villagers held a coffee morning and raised the sum of £349, from various stalls of produce, a tombola and donation. Many thanks to those who helped and many thanks to the owner of the house for the invitation to hold the coffee meeting. We are still expecting substantial grant aid for the works; this is why we have to have English Heritage approval for the works as their approval, as one of the UK's advisers to custodians of historic buildings, will open many doors. We will be seeking funding from the proceeds of the UK's National Lottery, from various Church and bellringing charities as well as from the Local Authority, via the proceeds of the Landfill tax. I will let you know when the grants happen. Please let your friends know about the appeal and this site. regards,
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