A couple of Christmas pressies to the volunteer team

I've got a couple of pieces of good news for you before I head of on my Christmas hols.

Firstly, the Bristol St John's team have been selected to receive the Marsh Christian Trust  Volunteer Team of the Year award! This is in recognition of the fantastic contribution you've all made in providing an outstanding visitor welcome at the church in 2015.

The Awards are being presented on Friday the 22nd Jan at the London Transport Museum. You will receive an official invitation to this event in due course, but please pencil it into your diaries in the meantime if you'd like to attend. There will also be £400 awarded to the team, which we’ll have to decide what to do with – please do email me any ideas!

Secondly, I mentioned this briefly at the Volunteers Christmas gathering last week, but we've been fortunate  to receive a £2000 pledge from a corporate donor to get the clock in the tower of St John's working again. This money will cover the cost of stripping and cleaning the mechanism and building a protective cover to prevent dust from clogging up the mechanism again.

Best wishes and Merry Christmas to you all!

The organ is working!

You'll all be pleased to hear that the organ is now finally working thanks to specialist John Budgen; who has given his time and expertise to fix it for us for next to nothing, which we will send a huge thank you from the St John's team.

John had originally fixed the organ several weeks ago but we had to call him out again because 16 screws had been removed from the organ which had caused the problem. Please note that no-one should be opening the organ without consent from CCTs Conservation Project Manager.

Please also note that there is now an organ use policy specifically for St John's and we will shortly be introducing a organ use rota, just to keep track on how often it is used and by whom.

Thanks and happy playing! Ed

 

Keep it creative

A few shots from the latest sessions! Now that the poster is up on the grills outside St John's, it was fantastic to have more members of the public specifically coming along to draw in the building!

Bristol Door Open Day - Drawing Session

As it was Bristol Open Doors Day it seemed the perfect moment to hold a special Saturday Location Drawing session at St Johns! Here are selection of drawings and photos from the day.

Location Drawing poster!

Latest from the drawing sessions!

More expressive drawings and local poet Dave Pearse wrote this beautiful poem in response to the building!

ST JOHN THE BAPTIST 

In its atmospheric ancient nook in quiet glory,

Stands the church of St John the Baptist,

Shielded from the modern city's fumes and noise,

Its mediaeval beauty still shining as a pearl in the oyster,

There to see for those willing to look,

Stone that's witnessed 700 years of worship,

Stone that's seen 7 centuries of Bristol folk come and go,

A silent witness to the city's history,

Sense the burning atmosphere of the centuries emotions,

Feel still the pride of Walter Brampton in the church he founded so long ago,

The church that still stands to embody his devotion,

From 14^th to 21^st century his achievement lasting,

His earthly remains laid beneath his creation,

Still standing as a glory of times long past,

Relaxation and awe as one reaching gently from mediaeval to present day!

By

Dave Pearse

by Jeff Johns

By Chris Rose

By Betty Sargent

By Charlotte Pain

Window grilles and excavations!

Beatrice Haines, Artist in residence for the old city has completed her ingenious cable tie installation (inspired by my habit of attaching cable ties to the window grilles, don't you know?) on the window grille of the crypt and it's a huge success already. Wojtek and I helped her erect it whilst crowds gathered to watch...and then they all wanted to come into the crypt!
I've already witnessed 3 group "selfies" in front of it, and numerous people having a sneaky touch (it's very tactile) as they stroll past.
This should be a great draw to get people into the church so I encourage all of you to open the crypt whilst the upper church is out of action - due to the tiles being set in the vestibule.

Also in the crypt, the lovely Lydia from Corbel Conservation is digging another couple of holes in the vault space in order for us to make further assessments  on the age and structure of the proposed location for the loo and sink. Whilst the crypt is a bit untidy while this takes place the work does not present any access issues to visitors, and is indeed quite interesting, so please do feel free to open up if you like.

I will of course let you all know when I have an update on when the work is going to be completed and things can go back to normal.

Centrespace

http://www.centrespacegallery.com/exhibitions/old-city-residency/

Location drawing part 3

More members of art + power stopped by to take part in the drawing sessions. Most have not been to St Johns before but explored the building through drawing.

Favourite of the day! Chris created this beautiful sketch and this piece of creative writing in response to the Unicorn.

A few new drawings!

A great location drawing sessions today! A few members of the community arts group art + power came in to take part and produced some beautiful sketches.

We were also given a history tour by volunteer Richard, who's knowledge of the site is quite impressive!

Conservation Churches project evening

A massive thanks to those hardy volunteers who came along to our info / feedback evening on the Conservation Churches project for St John's on the evening of the 30th. There really was quite a lot of information to share about this big project, and we really do value your feedback on how we are progressing so I suggest the best way forward for any of you who want to find out more will be to come into the office at St Thomas' when I'm in and I can talk you through whatever points are of most interest to you.






I will be in the office on the 24th and 26th August, the 3rd, 8th, 10th and the 15th of September. Being the only Volunteering Officer for 42 other churches as well as St John's my calendar does fill up rapidly, so please use this opportunity to book me in if you want to discuss the project!


Thanks


Ed