AN EXOTIC visitor from Africa has helped a historic rural church to raise £500 towards its roof restoration fund.
When Upupa epops dropped in to the paddock next to the Grade II listed St Nicholas’s, Hinxworth, in north Hertfordshire, villagers found themselves inundated with twitchers desperate to catch sight of a rarity colloquially known as a hoopoe. They quickly cashed in on the influx, offering refreshments and other facilities to up to 70 visitors a day.
“Someone suggested on the village website that perhaps we should offer teas and coffees, and we just ran with the idea,” the Rector of St Nicholas’s, the Revd Christine Campbell, said. “The road was getting blocked with cars; so we opened the church car park, and then we opened up the toilets. We didn’t charge a fee. We just put a donations box out and asked people to pay what they wanted.
“Over the six days the bird was here, we raised £500. The twitchers were absolutely lovely. They posted directions on their app telling [other twitchers] to park in the car park and to make a donation to the roof fund.”
The enthusiasts had been alerted at the end of last month after one of the villagers posted details on a website logging appearances of unusual birds. Word spread almost instantly, drawing watchers from across the country. According to the RSPB, hoopoes stray from their European migration routes up to 100 times a year, and one was once spotted in the Shetlands, but the last recorded sighting in north Hertfordshire was in Victorian times, when it was promptly shot, stuffed, and put on show in a local museum.
The lead roof of St Nicholas’s was stolen 40 years agom and the plastic replacement, which was supposed to last only 25 years, urgently needs replacement, at an estimated cost of £120,000.
“St Nicholas’s is marking its 700th anniversary this year and we were going to use the event as a focal point for launching fund-raising for a new roof,” Ms Campbell said. “Its arrival was certainly a great way to get the project in front of everybody. It was a happy coincidence of events — maybe the hoopoe was heaven-sent.”