Grant from Sussex Historic Churches Trust

We are delighted to announce the award of a grant for £10,000 from the Sussex Historic Churches Trust towards the cost of the work to be done on St Michael's.  With the money raised by our fundraising events and the first part of our Heritage Lottery Fund award, we have now raised over £54,000 towards our total. 

St Michael's has participated in the Sussex Historic Churches Fund "Ride & Stride" event for many years.  The funds raised from this event are split 50:50 between the Trust and the church, providing another welcome source of income.  We thank James Tolson for continuing to organise this event, and the participants from the village.

Amberley Sculpture Gardens 2017

The Sculpture Gardens event on 10 June was a great success.  The weather was perfect; the gardens were in beautiful condition; the sculptures were exhibited to great advantage; the musicians added greatly to the experience.  Over 400 people visited, and there were sales of artists' works in each of the five gardens.  The event raised £5,600 for the ACTnow Appeal.

How proud we were about the comments about our village  We attracted many people who had never been to Amberley before who said what a beautiful village we lived in and what a wonderful community spirit we had. The exhibitors were also very complimentary about the event

The list of people involved who gave their time so generously is endless, but we would like to acknowledge the help we got.  We thank Peter Strudwick for allowing us to use his field for parking and Peter Cozens and his team for managing it.  Cyndy Kennett and her team did a sterling job with teas.  We thank the ticket sellers who were at times rushed off their feet.  We thank the bar stewards for keeping the fizz flowing.   We thank the garden owners for allowing us the use of their beautiful gardens and the stewards who managed the crowds of appreciative visitors.  Suzie Coates did a wonderful job with signs advising people where to go. 

The ACTnow Team (now working on the next events...)

Amberley Sculpture Gardens

Saturday 10 June 2017
3.00pm-8.00pm

Over 60 works by 20 artists displayed in five of Amberley's beautiful gardens.

Live music by St Martin's Voices from St Martin-in-the-Fields and jazz musicians from the Guildhall School of Music.
Afternoon teas, wine and soft drinks. Free parking.
Entry £10, includes a free glass of sparkling wine.

Amberley is one of Sussex's "show villages" and its gardens are stunning, creating magnificent settings for the sculptures, most of which are for sale.                                                                                                   Gale Force Nun by Philip Jackson
Artists exhibiting:
Maria Albiez                              Gill Lawson
Jane Bohane                             Allan Mackenzie
Tessa Clegg                              Abby Martin
Su-Peta Cloud                          Teresa Martin
Jon Edgar                                 Christopher Marvell
Graham Heeley                        Carol Orwin
Zeljko Ivankovic                       Alexandra Osmond-Jones
Philip Jackson                          Hazel Reeves
Michael Joseph                        Eve Shepherd
Belinda Kelland                        Alex Smith

Heritage Lottery Fund Award

The ACTnow St Michael’s Church Tower Appeal committee is delighted to announce that it has received initial support from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) for essential repairs to the church tower.

HLF grants are awarded in two phases: a Development Phase, which in our case includes further preparatory and investigative work before the main works to the Church tower can be carried out; and a Delivery Phase, when the main works will be done. During the first phase we will prepare a detailed application for the second phase grant. As long as plans have progressed satisfactorily and according to the original proposal, an award for the second phase will be confirmed.  Our original outline application was for a total grant of over £140,000, and we have been successful in obtaining a first phase grant of £16,600, towards expected costs of £19,656.  We are confident that we shall succeed with our second phase application and that we may be able to begin the main works on the tower in 2018.

We have already raised £20,000 ourselves, from various events, including concerts and talks, and generous donations from a number of sources.  But we will still need to raise up to £50,000 more, so ACTnow will continue with its fund-raising activities for some time yet. 

Several events are already scheduled and being planned for this year, and we look forward to your participation in these.  Additional help would be very welcome, particularly with the organisation and manning of events.

Valerie and Ian Galbraith
Simon's Lee
01798 839 006
valerie@ecomis.com