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 better off.

The roof did its job without complaint for most of the chapel's 150 years. Lately it has begun to make its feelings known. Three slates came down in the February gales, a fourth in April with what witnesses called a theatrical flourish, and the bucket at the back has been quietly promoted from temporary measure to established fixture.

The full cost is £62,000. Doreen Pickles ran the tea urn at full capacity for three hours without a single incident, and Cyril Bostock donated a marrow of frankly unsettling proportions to the raffle, won by a gentleman from Privett Street who has been carrying it home in stages ever since.

A slate costs £10 and buys a name in the appeal book in the vestry, and 218 were taken on the day, one lot by post from a former Sunday School class in Canada.

This will be a long haul rather than a single good morning. A soup lunch follows monthly until Advent, with a sponsored silence in September that several people have already called optimistic and an organ concert in October. Donations can be handed to any member of the appeal committee, who are easy to spot and very difficult to avoid.