The Friends of Pirton Parish Church

The Friends main fund-raising activity is Open Gardens, an annual event now firmly fixed in the calendar and diary of visitors, many from outside the area. With ongoing financial support, The Friends have - over the past few years - been able to pledge funds for the refurbishment works on major projects. These have included: church porch, west window, sound proofing of the bell chamber, church lighting, repairs to gates and decoration of the organ. However The Friends are not resting on past successes - there is more to be done.

With the continuing help of loyal supporters further funding is being raised which will be pledged to the Parochial Church Council for them to progress projects.

Chairman's Letter 2025

FRIENDS OF ST. MARY’S CHURCH

Dear Friends of St. Mary’s any thanks for your donations and support during 2024/25. I am pleased to report that we have seen another successful year of fundraising and we now have enough in the coffers to assist the Parochal Churh Council to go ahead with the next phase of the renovation works identified in the last quinquennial inspection.

The Friends have been raising money for the church fabric for 50 years and this year we themed the Open Gardens event to celebrated our golden year. We saw a number of new gardens opening and with thanks to the Methodist Church Stewards, the Chapel opened its new garden

area and the chapel as our second tea venue. This year we were blessed with good weather attracting a bumper harvest of visitors and I am happy to report that thanks to the efforts of our

garden openers this year we achieved a record taking in excess of £6,500 . We are always looking for new gardens so if you would like to open yours, or know of someone who would

please contact us.

This year we have been looking at ways to increase our membership, to that end, we distributed

our three fold, Friends of Pirton, leaflet to every house in the village. The leaflet explains the

work of the Friends and gives information on how to become a Friend. If you know of someone who loves our beautiful Church, please encourage them to join us.

This past year with the help of Stuart Robinson, our Treasurer, we have moved our banking to accounts that pay us a better rate of interest but still allow us to withdraw cash at relatively

short notice This, with our new accounting system has allowed us to claim Gift Aid enabling us to further increase our funds.

My thanks to current Committee members for all the work they have put in this year, Our Committee members are: Joy Stimson (secretary), Stuart Robinson (Treasurer), Simon . Gooderham, David Joyce, Marisia Hyde and Lesley Low.

Our thanks go to Philippa Toon who recently stepped down from our Committee after many of years service. As well as being a great member of our Committee, Philippa, with Peter Williams, has been the driving force behind our plant stall.

At the moment, we are looking for Friends who would like to become a member of our Committee. Please contact if you might be interested in joining us.

Finally a personal thank you to our Friends and Committee members for their support over this

past year.

Graham Gibbs (Chairman Friends of Pirton Parish Church)