St Aidan’s Raise the Roof appeal was officially launched on March 9th 2008.

Over the last few years, at times of heavy rain our services have been frequently conducted to the background of water dripping into buckets and serious water damage has occurred around the main door by the tower.

The end to this is however now in sight thanks to English Heritage and the Lottery Heritage Fund. On the advice of the Architect to the Diocese who carried out our last inspection we made an application for a grant towards the cost of completely rebuilding and widening the roof valley which blocks and causes the rainwater to pour in. The grant will also cover making good some serious deterioration to some of the stonework and other high level defects. We shouldn’t perhaps be too hard on the famous Church Architect, Temple Moore, who designed it 100 years ago – it has lasted but the valley there has really reached the end of it’s life.

The cost of this including all professional fees and incidentals is estimated at £124,000 and we are delighted to have been offered a grant towards this of £94,000. Of the balance we shall be able to reclaim VAT amounting to £18,000 and we also expect a Grant from Historic Churches. The remainder however we are expected to raise ourselves through fund raising.

However the Church Council has decided on a bold fund raising initiative too not only cover the balance but to refurbish the interior of the Church and also improve the access and car parking facilities. We have set ourselves a target of £50,000 over two years and a flying start was made at our lunch meeting to launch the appeal.

Raise the Roof is appropriate as a slogan in two ways. First, we shall really be raising part of the roof, but as figure of speech too, we want to have fun and enjoy our fundraising. We aim to make this a turning point in the life of St Aidan’s.