Wesley's roof appeal gets off to a flying start

The appeal to replace the roof at Wesley, Dappleford, was launched on Saturday morning and by half past twelve it was already 3,180 pounds better off.

The chapel has stood in the middle of town for nearly 150 years, and for most of that time the roof has done its job without complaint. Lately it has begun to make its feelings known. Three slates came down in the February gales, a fourth followed in April with what witnesses described as a theatrical flourish, and the bucket at the back of the chapel has been quietly promoted from temporary measure to established fixture. The surveyors' verdict, delivered kindly but firmly, is that patching has run its course.

The full cost of the new roof is 62,000 pounds. Nobody at the launch pretended that was a small sum, but the morning's turnout suggested Dappleford is not ready to give up on the building just yet. Doreen Pickles brought the tea urn across from Glebe and ran it at full capacity for three hours without a single incident, which those who remember the Christmas Fayre will recognise as a considerable achievement. Cyril Bostock donated a marrow of frankly unsettling proportions to the raffle. It was won by a gentleman from Privett Street who has been carrying it home in stages ever since.

Under the sponsor a slate scheme, ten pounds buys one slate and a name in the appeal book, which will be kept in the vestry. Two hundred and eighteen slates were sponsored on the day, including one from a former Sunday School class who clubbed together by post from as far away as Canada.

Rev'd Wendy Warburton thanked everyone who baked, poured, counted and carried, and reminded us all that this will be a long haul rather than a single good morning. Still to come are a soup lunch at Wesley on the first Thursday of each month until Advent, a sponsored silence in September that several people have already described as optimistic, and a concert in October at which the Morgan-Croaker organ will be doing most of the hard work.

Donations can be given at any Sunday service, sent to the church treasurer, or handed to any member of the appeal committee, who are easy to spot and very difficult to avoid.