Friends of St James Church, Swimbridge
Annual Report by Secretary and Treasurer for 2021 – tabled at the AGM on 2.2.22
We welcomed new members this year – Dr Richard Westcott (no. 70), Caroline Gatehouse (No.71) and Mr and Mrs Ron and Chris Johnson (Nos. 72-73). We also welcomed new Trustees, to whom we are most grateful – John Hayes, Philip Dalling and Brenda Dyer.
In addition to members’ much appreciated and generous subscriptions, we also received special donations from Mrs Anne Benham (for general funds) and from the Rev. Prebendary Peter Bowers (for conservation of the pulpit), plus a bequest of £500 from our late Captain of Bells Perce Saunders. Friends have continued to make generous financial contributions this year, which have been especially helpful when so much revenue-creating church activity had to stop because of Covid regulations.
We continued with our programme of works to maintain and improve the church and its curtilage, which David Netherway has overseen and will describe in a separate report. David also organised the most enjoyable and profitable Duck Race held in July – a truly communal event. Many, many thanks to David for all his good works.
We held two Q&As in the Spring via Zoom: my own talk, ‘The Listed Buildings of Swimbridge’ and Paul Scott’s talk ‘From Slums to Suburbia: a Family History Journey’. These talks were well-attended and prompted generous donations via the Donation Buttons on our church website. The website was initiated and is paid for and maintained by the Friends. Donors are now able to choose whether to give to the Friends or to specific projects of ours, such as the Streamside Garden, the Refurbishment of the Old School Room or the Conservation of the Pulpit.
The autumn Q&As returned to face to face meetings, held in the church as it is well ventilated and spacious. The talks featured the Rev David Chance (11 November) on Beckett’s tomb at Canterbury Cathedral, which he vividly reconstructed in a watercolour informed by his detailed research into the monument, which was destroyed in 1540 during the Henrician Reformation. Andrea Chance spoke fascinatingly on 25 November on the painting of Icons and their symbolism. Considering cautiousness about Covid at the time, both talks were well attended. We are most grateful to all our speakers and our appreciative and generous audiences.
In addition to paying for maintenance works such as guttering and roof repair, the Friends paid for the new CCTV, church clock maintenance and repair and the church website. We were also able to contribute £2000 to the PCC to help with the bill for insurance of the church, its contents and curtilage. Renewed thanks to everyone who helps the Friends carry out their mission: ‘to preserve, maintain and enhance for the public benefit
the church of St James, its churchyard, Old School Room and Streamside Garden’.
Mark Haworth-Booth Secretary and Treasurer
Friends of St James Church, Swimbridge 1 Jan – 31 December 2021 f.y.
Statement at 1 January 2021 £2772.62
Incomings
Subscriptions £1261.61 Duck Race donation and ticket sales £144.90 Duck Race profits £278.97 Spring Q&As £149.99 Autumn Q&As £84.00 Donations and Bequests £850.00 HMRC Gift Aid 2020 and 2021 £650.07 Craft Fair £88.15
Grand total £3507.70
Outgoings
M&E Alarms CCTV maintenance £132 Mrs S-A Balment accounts audit £30 Colin Jones – website services £125 Matt Cullen – Pre-School Stopcock repair £50 SSG fence repair materials – £26.18 SM Scaffolding £300 Matt Cullen – church roof repair £540 Raffle tickets for Duck Race £62.34 Portion of Duck Race profits to Pre-School £425.83 Cumbria Clock Co – clock maintenance and repair £246 Smoke alarms for Old School Room via D Netherway £25 PCC – contribution to annual insurance of church and curtilage £2000
Grand total £3962.35
Statement at 1 January 2022
£1821.89
Mark Haworth-Booth Treasurer, Friends of St James Church, Swimbridge 18.1.22