The Church members of Holy Trinity Paulton are hoping to receive generous support for their Grand Harvest Appeal Weekend (17th to 19th September) to ensure the turret clock and Church organ are once again in tip-top working condition.

The Church has been fundraising for the last two years to enable a major refurbishment of the Church organ. The two manual organ had a lot of attention just over 25 years ago – but only to its accessible ‘top areas’. The hope is that the upcoming work will attend to the ‘inaccessible areas’; removing all the pipes to re-leather the bellows, re-leather parts of those pipes not accessed in the last refurbishment and re-site the bellows motor.

Once completed, the work should see the organ through at least another thirty to forty years of service to the village community!

The total refurbishment will cost around £30,000 and, despite Covid interrupting the fundraising activities, around two-thirds of the total has been raised so far.

The appeal weekend will also help towards the renovation and repair of the Church turret clock. The Church tower itself was built during the reign of Edward III and refaced in 1757. Its most noticeable feature is probably the clock – with faces

appearing on its North and East sides. This historical two-faced clock has been helping villagers and passers-by keep to time for nearly 150 years; (given as a gift to commemorate King Edward VII’s recovery from typhoid in 1872).

Sadly, during lockdown, the winding mechanism broke and the hands stand idle. So far, the Church has managed to raise around half of the £12,000 needed to repair and renovate the clock.

The Appeal Weekend will consist of a series of events in the Church over three days. They begin with a sing-a-long to the ‘top 20 hymns’ requested over ‘lockdown’, on

Friday, 17th September from 7.30 pm; followed by a big breakfast, tower tours and organ music on Saturday morning from 9.30 am to 12 noon – with tower tours, organ music and craft activities from 2 pm to 4 pm in the afternoon. Finally, the activities end with our Harvest Service at 11 am on Sunday morning, followed by a ‘Bring and Share’ Harvest lunch.

There is a colouring competition – sponsored by ‘Sweet Spot’ – open to children up to twelve years old (in three categories). Entry forms can be collected from Sweet Spot or the Library in the centre of the village. Visitors to the Church can also purchase a leaflet of the Church’s history for just £1 and discover some of the interesting features both within the church and outside in its grounds. Susan Burnett