Friends of St Cyrs AGM 2023

The 17th Annual General Meeting of the Friends of St Cyr will take place on  Wednesday 22nd March 2023 at 7.30 pm in the Church. All are welcome. This is a chance for you to meet the committee and hear about our progress and plans for the coming year for the maintenance and improvement of our beautiful Church.

Any nominations for the committee should be sent in writing with a proposer, a seconder and the permission of the nominee, to reach the secretary by Wednesday 5th February 2020 If you would like a copy of last year’s minutes please contact me preferably by e-mail.

We look forward to seeing as many of you as possible
Lynn Brown (Secretary)




Safari Supper 23

The Stinchcombe Safari Supper Returns

Three years ago the Friends of St Cyrs held a Safari Supper on Friday 14th February. It was held to raise funds for the planned Disabled Access, Kitchen and Toilet in the Church.

Now, three years later, all the above has been completed, thanks to a wonderful community effort.

However, the work continues. We now need to make the back of the church more suitable for events and now, thanks to the rain, we need to look to repair the leaking roof.

So, the Safari Returns to St Cyrs to start the next tranche.

What Can I do to help?

  • Buy a ticket. Tickets are now on sale through the web! See the QR code below or just click here . Tickets are £40 per person for a 4 course dinner including drinks.
  • We have people making starters in batches. If you can make a dozen or twenty please contact us.
  • The same with desserts, have you a special pud?

Remember the date

How it works

  • We all start at the church from 7.00pm for starter / canapés
  • At 8.00pm we move on to various hosts in the village for the main course.
  • From 10.00pm we all come back to the Church for puds, cheese and coffee

To buy a ticket

Tickets are only sold on-line. Just Scan the QR (Quick Response) code below with your phone or just click here to get to the sales site.

Quick Code for web page to buy a ticket

Questions and Contact

The main contact for all queries and questions and to offer help is Roger Batty: 07765 468 756 or rogerbatty2@aol.com




Friends of St Cyrs AGM 2022

Dear All

Thank you all for your continuing support for The Friends of St Cyr’s Church Stinchcombe.

You are cordially invited to our AGM on Thursday 17th March 2022 – 7pm – in the Church and we look forward to seeing as many as possible.

You will have a chance to hear what we have achieved in the past year and about our forthcoming Open2All Project which starts in the next couple of weeks and our aims for the coming years.

Any nominations for the committee should be sent in writing with a proposer, a seconder and the permission of the nominee, to reach the Chair by the 3rd March 2022

We are grateful for your help in these difficult times as every contribution is valuable to us.

Russell

Russell Legg.

Chair




A New Year’s Present for St Cyrs

Open2All

The funding required for the ‘Open2All’ project has now been achieved. We are now in a position to start the work to provide a disabled access ramp up to the Church door. At the same time as this, a wheelchair lift into the Church, the provision of kitchen and toilet facilities in the South West corner of the Church. 

For 5 years the Friends of St Cyrs Church and the Parochial Church Council have been working together on “Open2All”. The purpose is to make the Church available for many more groups to use as well as for religious services. The models of the plans have been available to see in the Church over this period.

Over the hurdles

There have been many hurdles to overcome during the planning of the Project. However, finally, we are in a position to commence the build by this coming spring. The facilities should then be fully open by mid to late Summer 2022.

The Friends and PCC now have obtained

  • The Faculty from the Diocese
  • Planning and Listed Building Permission for the work
  • Permission from Stroud DC Building Control
  • Agreement from a Church Conservation Architect.

(The Agreement from The Church Conservation Architect is to confirm that our plans are sufficiently robust so that the Grade 11* nature of the Building will not be compromised by the Project.)

The Costs

The Project is planned to cost £83,038. We reached our funding target for the at the end of November. This now means that we can now commence the build work.

The Friends are providing £18,408. These funds have been raised over the years by Villagers and other attendees to the many events organised by the Friends. In addition the Parochial Church Council have provided £5,535 in funds through giving and organised Church events. So nearly 30% of the cost has been raised through the Parishioners, Villagers and supporters of our Fund Raising activities. We are extremely grateful for the support that has been given.

Donations and Funding

The remainder of the funds of approximately £60,000 has been generously given by donations, grants and pledges of funds through various Charitable Trusts and organisations that support our type of Project.

The Charities supporting the project are:

Thank you to all in the village who have supported the Friends and the Parochial Church Council with Donations

So, most of the hard work is now done and we look forward to welcoming everybody to the launch of our finished Project in a few months time.

The Friends of St Cyrs Church Stinchcombe & The Parochial Church Council




Friends of St Cyr AGM 2021

What are “The Friends”?

It would seem to me that anyone moving into the Village would hear “The Friends of St Cyr” would think that it’s some sort of secret sect or an order of medieval knights building a pyramid under the foundations of the church.! Perhaps it’s a small clique of gymslip teenagers.

Actually the Friends of St Cyr is neither of those. It’s just a group that started out in 2006 to raise money for the Fabric of the church. Half the “Friends” are not regular church goers, they just want to see our church buildings preserved and looked after.

However, like many societies which start out with one single mission, the “Friends” has evolved over the years and partly because of it’s fundraising needs also does much to bring the village together both in spirit and a corporeal way.

Time will eventuate

The Friends has now been in existence for 15 years and time will eventuate that new “Friends” are needed to step up as old “Friends” step back. So, are you able to answer yes to any of these questions?

  • Able to bring any expertise to the group?
  • Want our village to keep our church?
  • Able to give time for the village?
  • Want to help keep the village together socially?
  • Able to work on small committees?

The AGM

This years AGM is on Tuesday 23rd March and anyone is invited to join. Especially if you would like to join the committee. If you are, please feel free to contact our Chairman Russell Legg or Secretary Jill Holloway.




Open to All

A project undertaken by the Friends of St Cyrs

I can’t believe it was three years ago that we considered creating a disabled access to our village church. How time flies? St Cyr’s suffers from being sited in an elevated position that requires. This requires steps to enter the churchyard, and yet more steps to enter the interior of the church. In consultation with representatives from the Diocese plans were drawn up and models made to illustrate a feasible solution.

We have come a long way since then. We reduced costs and refined the design. Now have a practical and attractive solution to the need.

We have used the time well by enjoying ourselves and raising money. To contribute to the cost of realising our dream. Thanks to all those people who have joined us at barn dances, safari suppers, open gardens and many more activities. We now have sufficient funds to move to the next stage.

We now have planning permission, that involves Historic England and have Building Control and a Faculty from the DAC.

Also, we now have secured quotes for the groundwork, electrics, plumbing, carpentry, ironwork, lifts, joinery. We want to try to employ local contractors wherever possible. Therefore most of the prices we have received have been from such people.

Then will have a definitive costing of the Project within the next few weeks. We will then advise everyone what funds we are seeking to raise to complete the work. Also, how we intend to raise those funds

At present The Friends of St Cyr’s are applying for grants to match our finances.

Thank you to all those generous villagers and friends for helping to make this ‘Open to All’ initiative possible.

If you would like to know more about the project, please do contact one of the ‘Friends of St Cyrs




Churchyard Cleanup

We are having a churchyard clear-up and church vacuum and dusting on
Saturday 28th March starting at 9.30 am.

If you can help it would be much appreciated . Even an hour or two would be very useful .

Anyone who has, or can use a lawn strimmer or mower, or could bring a rake or stiff brush or secateurs or stiff brush that would be massively helpful .

Many thanks for your support

Paul