The bells of St Laurence church in Alvechurch, Worcestershire date from 1711 and have been ringing across the village for nearly three hundred years. There are eight bells ranging in weight from 4 to 12 hundredweight (200 to 600 kg) and the ringers of St Laurence ring them in the traditional English pattern of Change Ringing.

Running Total March 9th 2010

The bells have survived three centuries but are showing signs of wear and we need to raise around £60,000 to have them repaired and refurbished. The work is expensive because we have to retain as much of the eighteenth century structure as we can. These pages describe the problems we are facing, the work that we need to do, and the progress we've made towards raising the money.

Latest News

Strictly speaking it's nothing to do with the appeal but a team from St Lawrence entered the North Worcestershire Striking Competition on Saturday. We've won the competition for the past two years and were very pleased to come first again this year. We've been competing in the Change Ringing category but after three wins in a row we're going to have to move up to a higher category next year and ring methods instead.

We've eased back on the pace of the fundraising whilst we're in discussion with English Heritage. Work can't start without a faculty from the Diocese and we can't get a faculty without having had our plans approved by English Heritage. The process of approval is liable to take several months so we decided to give ourselves (and the village) a rest.

One recent positive development is that we do now have the Church Architect helping us to prepare our plans. This should help our progress through the approval process.

Future Events

We have a full season of events planned for the next 12 months. Here are the dates for our Spring events:

• February 21st 2010 - Free Easter Eggs - We'll be giving away a couple of hundred tubes of Mini Eggs again this year. All you have to do is fill the empty tube with small change and give it back to a ringer before Easter. This year, Cadbury's have given us a large egg as a prize for a raffle.
• April 24th 2010 - Table Top Sale - The Ark.

More details will be posted here and around the village closer to the date of each event and you'll find our events listed on www.wherecanwego.com.

Donations

We are offering our supporters the chance to sponsor a bell. You can read details on our sponsorship page or download our brochure with an application form.

Visit our donations page and help us towards our target. You can use your credit card on-line or print out a GiftAid form.

The Bell Fund is raising money on behalf of St Laurence Church. We are working under the following Bell Fund Terms of Reference.

Email us and help with the St Laurence Bell Fund.