GREAT NEWS!

We have been granted £19,288 by the Essex Environment Trust and are delighted that, by the time you read this, work will have started on the renovation of Priest House. With this grant added to the generous grants from the Friends of All Saints, the Dagwood Trust and from the Garfield Weston Foundation as well as some of the money kindly donated for our gift weekend, we have enough to complete Phase I of the renovation – the repair and replacement of the soleplate – the foundation on which Priest House is built. This phase will take 5-6 weeks and Priest House will be closed for this time.

The gift weekend, and subsequent donations, raised almost £24,000 in total and we are delighted and amazed at the generosity of everyone who made a contribution. Most of the money was given in small donations and we would like to say an enormous ‘THANK YOU’ to everyone who has helped.

We are currently seeking quotations for the work scheduled for Phase 2 – replacing doors and windows and repairing the guttering, drains, walls, ceilings and woodwork, as well as upgrading the loft insulation and re-decorating. We have a reasonable sum still available from the previous donations to spend on this, but if you can help us with any of this work we would be very grateful as it will significantly cut down on the bills. We will need to seek further funding for Phase 3 – the much needed up-grading and refurbishment of the kitchen and toilet areas. We will keep you posted!