Parish church will hold 'wonderful' events - but on a smaller scale
The Fenland church behind one of the area's most popular and grandest flower festivals has big plans to provide supporters with some 'wonderful' events - but on a smaller scale.
As previously reported the parochial church council for St Peter's in Wisbech has taken the difficult decision to withdraw from running its annual Rose Fair Flower Festival and the associated charity stalls that fill its gardens.
However, the church's treasurer Val Spriggs, who is also the project co-ordinator for the major refurbishment work currently being carried out at St Peter's said: "It was a really difficult decision as you can imagine, however it is hoped the Summer Festival concerts, which are part of the National Lottery Heritage Fund bid, will go on to replace Rose Fair in the future.
"From the church’s point of view, they will be wonderful occasions and much easier for us to manage. The gala evening which is planned for May 14 2022 is going to be a memorial concert for Lesley Mardle, who was church warden at St Peter’s as well as headteacher at Nene School and a founder member of Angles Theatre, and a great supporter of the idea of summer concerts and art festival in the church."
Val said the church is continuing to run various activities including art classes and is planning flower arranging sessions with the intention of training up new recruits to enable a smaller scale flower festival to be held as part of future Summer Festivals."
She added: "I don’t think anyone ever appreciated the fact that the flowers for Rose Fair cost about £4,000 and the displays took a lot of preparation before they could be created and they were all put together by a dedicated team of volunteers."
Work on the church to create a new kitchen area and to instal toilets to make it more suitable for the 21st century is continuing and is on schedule.
The work is being carried out thanks to the National Lottery Heritage Fund, which has given a grant of £363,200 not only for the kitchen, which will be used to provide hot meals for those in need, but also for urgent repairs to the church building.