CHURCH
Raise the Roof Appeal
The Raise the Roof Appeal got off to a good start with Harry Bucknall’s talk last month, raising just over £1,000 with tickets, book sales and donations.
Sponsored Walk from St Peter’s Winterbourne Stoke to St Peter’s Rome
Jonathan will be setting off on his sponsored walk to Rome on Sunday 22nd August after the usual fourth Sunday church service. He now has a Blog http://pilgrimsprogress.blog if you’d like to find out more about the route he will be taking and interesting facts about the villages, towns and cities he will be passing through. It is free to subscribe to this to keep updated. Many have already kindly asked how to sponsor him and we now have a JustGiving page. However, we are still waiting for the final step from HMRC for the Gift Aid link, so it may be worth waiting until this has been completed, to take advantage of the extra 25%, which will make all the difference! The details are at the end of Jonathan’s Blog, but can also be found by following this link https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/jonathan-dutton5. We hope to give him a good send-off on 22nd and some have already said they would like to join him for part of his walk on the first day from St Peter’s to Salisbury and then on to Pitton, which is fantastic!
VILLAGE HISTORY
Even Dung Heaps Have A Silver Lining
Back in August 1797, a dung heap in a farmyard in Winterbourne Stoke was moved and the farmer’s 14 year-old daughter found a clay pot with its rim at ground level. It contained 30 shillings in silver coins, all of the reigns of James VI and Charles I. It was assumed that the pot had been buried for safe-keeping during the English Civil War, below the floor of a building that had once stood on the site of the dung-heap and had never been recovered. The coins, despite being buried under the dung heap, were said to look remarkably fresh upon their discovery. The girl took the pot with the coins home, with the intention to offer the coins to Lord Chedworth, who was then the Lord of the Manor. The Press of the day suggested that Lord Chedworth might want to reward the girl by returning the value of the coins to her. I wonder if he ever did? For reference, in 1797 the average wage for male agricultural workers in the south west was around 12 pence (1 shilling) per day, so the face value of the coins was roughly a month’s wages for her father.
Winterbourne Stoke entries
Olivia Dutton collates the news from Winterbourne Stoke to submit to the Parish Magazine. Please contact her on 01980 621247/07760 618078 or olivia.dutton@outlook.com. The deadline for going to print is noon of 16thof the month, so please make sure to send it to her by 14th of each month.