Friends of All Saints Staplehurst

Registered Charity No. 1037964

Friends Remit

The Friends of All Saints’ Church Staplehurst is a registered charity with very simple objectives: to maintain, repair, restore, preserve, improve, beautify and reconstruct, for the benefit of the public, the fabric of the Church, its monuments, fixtures, fittings, furniture, stained glass, ornaments, and other chattels, and its churchyard.

Formation of The Friends

Since our formation in 1994, The Friends has undertaken a number of activities to provide funding for several projects. These have included the gas-fired central heating, bell restoration, electrical winding of the clock, the provision of a vestry and draught excluding doors to the West Tower, the kitchen with accessible toilet, repairs to the south-facing roof, and a significant contribution to the project funding for the lighting scheme.

On top of project funding, we also contribute towards regular maintenance and this includes tuning the historical organ and day-to-day repairs. We recently paid for new bell tower louvres to the South and West faces, and a significant contribution to repairing stained glass window damage.

Membership of The Friends is open to anyone interested in the objects of the society and who has paid an annual member’s subscription of at least £5. Membership details, including an online contact form, can be found below, or download our Membership Form here and send it to the Membership Secretary, Andrew Brady.

Committee Member	Office	Telephone	Email
Val Wallis	Trustee – Chair	01580 891390	N/A
Lianne Price	Trustee – Honorary Treasurer	N/A	N/A
Dermot Budd	Trustee – Secretary	N/A	N/A
Andrew Brady	Trustee – Membership Secretary	01580 891840	The Friends
Janet Pink	Trustee – Committee Member	N/A	N/A
Tony Henley	Trustee – Committee Member	N/A	N/A
Adam Houghton	PCC Representative to the Friends	N/A	N/A

LEGO® Festival 27th September 2025

Our recent LEGO® Festival was a great success with 20 LEGO® builds on display, and it was great to see so many people come through the door, especially children. It is a long time since we have heard the lovely hubbub of so many children having fun in the Church.

See the Programme below for more details on the builds that were on display.

Visitors voted for their favourite in 4 age groups, and the results are as follows:

5 years and under Jake Bassett – Build No. 13
11 years and under Beth Hughes – Build No. 14
16 years and under Tyler Pengelly – Build No. 16
Over 16 Daniel Brady – Build No. 20

The event was a great success, not only helping with our fundraising but also as a community event. We have already penciled in 26th September 2026 for next year’s event as a lot of people said if we did it again, they might exhibit builds so that is very encouraging.

Previous Friends Events

Autumn 2024 Tea Party

Our Autumn tea party held in October was great fun, a delicious tea with plenty of cake was served.

The next Friends event is our Christmas with Friends evening on Saturday 14th December in the Parish Room starting at 7:30pm. Tickets are £10 available from Val Wallis on 01580 891390. Come and enjoy an evening of singing Christmas Carols with a supper and mulled wine.

Moving into 2025 we have booked Sunday Lunch at the London Beach Hotel, Tenterden for February 16th, more details will follow but do put the date in your diary now.

The annual Brain Game will be in March and we are planning a craft fair on April 5th.

Val Wallis, Chair Friends of Al Saints

Our Croquet afternoon was great fun and despite the very doubtful weather at the beginning of the week, the sun shone brightly throughout the afternoon.

We tried to live up to our theme, Alice in Wonderland, and if you are familiar with the story, from the picture you see the mad hatter (Dermot) who actually was anything but mad, indeed very skilful at organisation and incredibly hard-working in preparing the Croquet Lawn. The Red Queen (Lianne) o played a very competitive game but did not utter “off with your Head” all afternoon and Alice (Val) playing a gentle game, didn’t fall down any rabbit holes and was very much invited to tea. The only things missing were flamingoes and hedgehogs. We used wooden mallets and ordinary balls. Thank you to Dermot for hosting the afternoon.

Our next Friends event will be a Christmas with Friends Evening on Saturday 14th December in the Parish Room starting at 7:30 pm. Tickets are £10 and available from Val Wallis on 01580 891390. Come and enjoy an evening of singing Christmas Carols with a supper and mulled wine.

Val Wallis

Chair Friends of All Saints’ Staplehurst

Making a Donation

Anyone can make a donation to The Friends for the maintenance of the church either directly to a member of the committee, via Give a Little or JustGiving.

Donate via Give a Little

You can give via our Give a Little Donation page.

Click the QR Code below or Scan it with your mobile and follow the instructions to donate via a credit or debit card.

Donate via JustGiving

You can donate via our JustGiving Donation page or use the Donate Button below.

Membership

The Friends, administered by an elected committee, continues to spearhead fundraising and social events.

Membership of The Friends is open to anyone interested in the objects of the society and who has paid an annual member’s subscription of at least £5. All Friends members – who pay Income Tax – should sign a declaration form to enable the tax to be reclaimed on their contribution, which increases the gift by some 28%.

Members receive informative Newsletters which give updates on the progress of projects and details of fundraising events to support and enjoy. A very wide variety of events are planned to ensure that all members find something of interest.

Becoming a member is very simple and your support will be much appreciated. Telephone Andrew Brady the Membership Secretary, on (01580) 891840 or email The Friends for further information.

Friends of All Saints Church – A fundraising body that helps finance projects of maintenance and improvement to All Saints Parish Church Staplehurst. It aims to involve members of the community through the promotion of a varied program of events.

If you would like to join the Friends please download the Membership Form by clicking the image below and post or email it to the Membership Secretary (contact details are on the form):

Friends Merchandise

We have a small range of merchandise to help us raise funds. Please check out our Merchandise page here.

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