St. Pauls Blog

St Paul's Churchyard in Bloom

Published 02-Mar-22 Website

by Paul Barfoot

Once again the churchyard at St Paul's is in full bloom with the most beautiful crocus and snowdrops to the delight of passers by and local photographers (if not to the band of locals who tend to the churchyard!). Once these have died back then the primrose will be out in force so well worth a return visit in April or May.

[St Paul's in full bloom - by kind permission of Susan Wood]

[The crocus at St Paul's - by kind permission of Susan Wood]

[The snowdrops at St Paul's - by kind permission of Susan Wood]

 

See some of Susan's other photographs on her Facebook page, Lovely Lancashire.


St Paul's, Warton Graveyard Now Recognised by CWGC

Published 16-Aug-20 Church Events

by Paul Barfoot

Those eagle-eyed and observant among you may have noticed a new addition to the wall by the entrance to St. Paul's Church in Warton. After initially being contacted by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) last year, the PCC agreed to the erection of a sign at our main entrance identifying that our churchyard contains the graves of those that fell in the First World War and since. The CWGC has now completed their work and the new sign can be seen in the picture below.

But who are the 3 brave men who now lay at rest in our churchyard? The CWGC lists them as:

 

D SLATERPrivateService Number: 18892 of The Loyal North Lancashire RegimentUnited Kingdom.

Died 14 February 1919, 27 years old.

EDWARD SNAPEPrivateService Number: CH/2258(S) of the Royal Marine Light InfantryH.Q. (Chatham)United Kingdom

Died 16 November 191824 years old.

JAMES CROSSPrivateService Number: 181038 of the Machine Gun Corps (Infantry)Home Bn.United Kingdom.

Died 28 October 191834 years old.

Click on the names above to view their information on the CWGC website.

 

If you want to find out more about the CWGC and its work please visit their website:

https://www.cwgc.org/who-we-are/

 


Church Roof Completed

Published 05-May-20 Other Events

by Paul Barfoot

Good news everyone - the church roof works have now been completed!

 

Here's an update from our Churchwarden, Ian Fraser:

 

No-one could have predicted the current lockdown situation as a result of a global pandemic. However, in spite of these unprecedented events over the last few weeks, we are pleased to report our architect has granted us a Certificate of Completion for the works. This means that our church building is officially, back in our hands! Sadly, we cannot use our church at the moment due to the Covid-19 restrictions. Once they are lifted our roofing contractor will also need to return at some stage to carry out some additional jobs that we have requested.

 

The inside of church is also looking very different, but again we will have to wait a while yet before we can make use of the new facilities. A cleaning firm were due to come into church to carry out a 'sparkle clean’ on the day that that the lockdown came into place. This work has also been postponed.

 

Without doubt the cost of the roof work has been a drain on our energies and financial reserves. However, we believe that restoring the church building for the benefit of our community, both present and future, has been the right course of action. Now that the work has been all but completed, we have the opportunity to renew our mission of service to the people of Warton and to share the gospel message of love and redemption.

 

When we took on the roof restoration project we had expected to be back into church in six months, which due to additional work was extended to seven. Obviously, we don’t know when our church building will re-open, but we pray for, and look forward to, being able worship together again in the not too distant future. We hope that when it does re-open that you will be able to join us at one or more of our services.


Progress Update on St. Paul’s Church Roof Fund

Published 18-Jan-19 Church Events

by Paul Barfoot

Update as of 26th August 2019:

As some of you may have noticed work has now started on the repairs to the church roof. Scaffolding has gone up and the start of the actual repairs is imminent so please stay safe when in the churchyard by following the signs that have been placed near the entrances and any directions given by the workmen on site.

During this period service locations have been changed as follows:

The Sunday 0945 service will take place at the usual time but in The Village Hall.

Other Sunday services will be held at Holy Trinity Church in Freckleton which is our sister church.

The Wednesday morning 0930 service will take place at the usual time but in The Vicarage on Church Road (opposite the entrance by Church Gardens).

Please keep checking the Church Noticeboard for any further updates. 

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Update as of 28th July 2019:

Further funding has been received and work is set to start on the roof at some time after the 18th August 2019. Many thanks for all who have supported our fundraising efforts so far.

During the period of the repairs Church Services and other events will be relocated so please check this website, the Church News Sheet or the Church Notice Board for details.

There will also be a 1/2 Boon Day on Saturday 10th August to help prepare the Church for the repair work so all are welcome from 1pm on that day to support that work.

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St. Paul’s roof is leaking and is in desperate need of renovation. We have been raising funds to pay for this roof project for over five years.

We have held a number of community events that have been very enjoyable and have helped to raise money including, the InUnison, Oktoberfest and Gemma Doyle concerts. The Christmas market has also been a popular event. We have also received generous gifts, donations and legacies that have enabled us to make progress towards our target.

However, we are unable to start work on the roof until we have all the funds in place. Unfortunately, although we have made steady progress, we are still have a long way to go to reach our target.

In recent weeks we have approached a number of different organisations to seek their support. I am pleased to report that three organisations have awarded us varying amounts of money for the project.

1) We have approached house building companies in the village, and have received a donation of £250 from Miller Homes who are currently developing the Blackfield Green site on Church Road.

2) We have received a grant from the Duchy of Lancaster Benevolent Fund. This award was for £1,000. This is a charity set up with the consent of Her Majesty The Queen to benefit causes primarily within the County Palatine.

3) We have also received a grant of £2,200 from Allchurches Trust which is one of the UK's largest grant-making charities and gave £15.6 million to churches, charities and communities in 2017. Its funds come from its ownership of the ‘Ecclesiastical Insurance Group’.

These grants are in addition to an earlier grant from a local charity, the George and Maisie Blackburn Fund(George’s Garage) who awarded us £5,000 last year.

As a result the total for the grants that St. Paul’s roof fund has received, to date, stands at £8,450.

 

A big Thank You to everyone who has supported us through either direct donations or by supporting our fundraising activies. There's plenty more to do and we will keep you updated on progress.

 

Ian Fraser, Church Warden

 

 


Night-time shots of our Church

Published 21-Feb-16 Church Events

by Paul Barfoot

Recently a local amateur photographer sent us this fabulous night-time picture of our Church.

St. Paul's, Warton at night
St. Paul's, Warton at night - click on the picture above to see a higher resolution version

 

Here, in Jon Byles Hardman's own words, is how he came to take it:

"Hi Mike.

We heard that you weren't feeling too good, so thought you might appreciate a smile.

Firstly, Milly's christening went very well, and the service was lovely. Many thanks to your "stand-in" on the day, who was brilliant. If you can let him know that the hot pot was excellent, and its a shame he couldn't join us....

Anyhow, completely unrelated, you may remember that it snowed a few weeks ago, and after our chat about me wanting to get a long exposure photograph of the church, I considered it a great opportunity.

I didn't get out of our house till quite late on, however, when I got to the church thee was a beautiful layer of snow on the ground, the roof, and a dusting on all the brickwork. The floodlights were lighting it up superbly, and the scene resembled the perfect Christmas scene for a Christmas card. You get the idea.

I set up my tripod, correct lens on camera, ISO and aperture settings checked, lens cap off, remote shutter release in hand, I raise my thumb to depress the shutter......and........ YOUR FLOODLIGHTS TURNED OFF !

I now realise that they must be on a timer, and 10.30 pm is their time for switching off.

I'll be honest, it made me laugh, despite the frostbitten fingers....

So, I ventured out last night. No snow I'm afraid, however I got a shot which I quite like.

It's on my Flickr page if you want to have a look. https://flic.kr/p/E4yYRf

If you'd like a print of it, let me know,

And please feel free to put it on the website if you see fit. 

As I'm a bit of a perfectionist, I've got another one, which is slightly lighter, so its up to you which you think works best. (sending separately, as Gmail doesnt like large files)

On a serious note, its a beautiful church, and I hope the pic does it justice. I hope to get some more soon, and would love to get some of the interior at some point.

Hope you are feeling better, and hope to speak soon

Thanks

Jon Byles Hardman"


Welcome to the new St. Paul's website

Published 08-Nov-15 Website

by Paul Barfoot

If you're reading this you have either come purposefully looking for the St. Paul's, Warton website or you have stumbled across this site accidentally. Either way, you are here now, so welcome!

This website has been a long time in the making and thanks need to be made to Stephen Pammenter for the development work he has done to date, and to Rob Willetts and Mike, our Vicar, for the work they have done in the background to make it possible.

Until now the only site for Warton's Parish Church of St. Paul's was the A Church Near You site but there we were just one of a huge number of similarly branded web pages. Now, thanks to Stephen, we have our own, uniquely-styled website.

My first involvement was when I agreed to take over the updating of the old site (many thanks to Margaret Jacobs for her work keeping the site running up until then). Since then I have tried to keep the weekly updates of the News Sheet ongoing, and have added new events in the hope that they would drum up new visitors (it didn't do much for the Aviation displays in the Church last month but at least I tried!). I have also updated the service times since they changed at the beginning of September 2015.

So to this new site; after a quick demo on-line from Stephen I was raring to give it a go. All I needed was an account on the site and some admin privileges which were soon arranged between Rob and Stephen. I got my first try yesterday and found it quite straight-forward and intuitive to use. The About Us page and Service Times were copied over from the old site and links made to the Baptism Form and the News Sheet (still currently hosted on the old site if you check out the links - just got to find out how to upload files onto the new site itself) and it started to take shape.

Before today's Remembrance Service I put the Events for the next week on, and then this afternoon I have added the information about the many Church groups (MU, WI etc.) and all of the events for November. I have spotted that the times for the events aren't related to UK time because one hour before the Remembrance Service it said there was 8 hours to go! Not sure how to solve that one - Ste, any clues? The Blog topics links return the dreaded 404 Error message, and a link to the Pages page doesn't seem to exist. I've had a play with Notices but then couldn't find the one I created - it's gone into a great black hole somewhere (just like all of my Granddad's word processor files that he used to insist had "just disappeared", but that's another story...)

Well, it's over to you all now to use the site and let me know what you think. You'll get the most out of it if you register as you will then get updates about new or changed content, you may even be allowed to contribute yourselves to save me from doing it all. If you like what you see, then thank you, if you don't like it then I'll refer you to my partners in crime, Rob and Stephen!

Best wishes and enjoy the site,

Paul Barfoot

Website Administrator


Fundraising for Church

Published 08-Nov-15 Church Events

by Paul Barfoot

Whenever you want to purchase anything online please go to http://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/stpaulspreston and not only will you get a great discount yourself but hundreds of companies will give money to Church. You can even help raise funds by using their search engine, for further details please contact Margaret Jacob on 01772 679665.

If you have used EasyFundraising to make purchases that will benefit St. Paul's then let us know how the experience was for you by commenting below.

 

Please sign up to #easyfundraising and help us raise FREE funds for St Pauls Church Warton Preston when you’re doing your everyday shopping online. THIS IS FREE MONEY FOR US! Plus, when you raise your first £5, easyfundraising will match it!!

This short video explains how simple it is and it doesn't cost you anything – http://efraising.org/cv1Wj5Bman.

Sign-up using our unique link: https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/invite/3O4TT6