After receiving £4000 from the Yorkshire Historic Churches Trust towards the repair and restoration of the church tower, a morning service of dedication was held at St Mary’s church in Little Driffield on 5 July.
St Mary’s is a beautiful Grade II listed village church, with a tower that dates back to the fourteenth century. Inevitably with such an old church, over time, the tower has eroded, and by 2010 urgent repair works were needed to ensure the future of the church.
The dedicated church team, the congregation and the local community all pulled together to ensure the necessary funds were raised, and after a lot of determination and hard work, the restoration was finally complete in December 2014.
Trustee Jane Hedley attended the service and tells us about the event:
“I arrived at the charming church in Little Driffield for the service of dedication to find it beautifully decorated with flowers from village gardens which looked magnificent next to the new decorations.
During the service we heard about the restoration and the fund raising events, as well as the history of the problems and how they had developed. A successful concert had been held the night before with a brass band at the church.
Afterwards coffee was served and the churchwarden took me on a tour of the outside showing many ancient items in the walls as evidence of its great age”
The image above shows the carved heads on each side of the Tower arch. On the right the vicar is about to leave on his motorbike for his next service!
The YHCT were delighted to be able to support this project, to help ensure such a beautiful, much loved church remains standing for many more years to come.