THE children at All Saints', Fulham, have been working hard to
save their church tower and bells. The Sunday youth-group raised
£95 by making and selling cup cakes. The junior choir put on a
performance of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor
Dreamcoat, and the retiring collection added an impressive
£350.
All Saints' C of E Primary School mounted an art exhibition of
their watercolours and acrylic paintings in Fulham Palace, and
raised a further £167. Eight-year-old Ishbel Mylchreest alone
produced £83 by making coasters and Christmas decorations from hama
beads. And their latest effort has been washing and valeting cars
in the Vicarage driveway (above) while the owners enjoyed
coffee and bacon butties, and more of the cup cakes. Cars queued
up, large quantities of butties were eaten, and that total came to
more than £200.
All this helps towards the £471,000 needed to stabilise
stonework of the medieval tower, and provide a new frame for the
ten bells so that they can be safely rung without loosening the
structure. With a substantial grant of £89,000 from English
Heritage, which started them off, the All Saints' press officer
Kate Hedges, says, together with all their own fund-raising, this
London parish has already raised £341,000.
A community fête and dog show produced £6000, and they have just
held a black-tie Tower and Bells ball in Fulham Palace which was
"extremely successful", she says. Some 200 people paid £130 each
for their tickets, and an auction of items such as holiday homes,
work experience, and the services of a well-known chef raised
£25,500 to bring the total for the event to £41,500. It is a busy
and thriving church, with clearly enough enthusiasm to enable it to
reach its target.