January 2005

Exciting things have been happening since our last Newsletter, but first, our AGM will take place on Thursday February 24th, in the Tremadog Memorial Institute at 6.30 pm. The majority of news, not sumrprisingly, is concerned with the former St. Mary's church.

Former St. Mary's Church

Readers will, by now be aware that on January 11th, the Heritage Lottery Fund informed us that we had been awarded a grant of £750,OOO for the proposed work of restoration and re-ordering for change of use on the church building and the coadstone gateway. This is inclusive of VAT. This is, ofcourse, in addition to grants already received from the WDA, the Architectural Heritage Fund and Gwynedd Council's Community Regeneration Fund, (Cwlwm Gwledig). A grant of £300 towards the cost of external repairs to the church building has also been promised by CADW. We are extremely grateful to all the grant-making bodies who have responded so generously to our project. Our special thanks are also due to Mrs. Frances Voelcker our Secretary, and also to Mr Wilf Jones, our Project Financial Administrator, who together, carried out the work of preparation of the applications for major funding. We now look forward to the time when work can commence. Meanwhile necessary repair work has been carried out to rainwater goods on the church building and safety work has been carried out on some trees within the churchyard area.

Church Listing

Notification has been received that the architectural listing of both the Church and the coadestone gateway has been revised and upgraded from Class II to Class II*. This, of course, enhances their status as objects of architectural importance, and therefore renders our work of restoration of even greater importance.

Illustrated Leaflets

A grant from the Rebecca Trust of £200, for which we are extremely grateful, went a tong way towards covering the cost ofproducing new coloured notelets, based on a watercolour by Falcon Hildred. The notelets are now on sale at £1.50 incl. VAT for a pack of four. They may be purchased at The Fleece and the Post Office in Tremadog, or ordered direct, making your cheque payable to "Cyfeillion Cadw Tremadog".

Keyrings

The Trust also has on sale some fob keyrings at £1.00. While providing a handy means of keeping your keys together, the 'fob' which bears a 'smiley face' logo is the same size as a £1 coin and also acts as a means ofreleasing your shopping bolley if it is secured to others in the trolley bay! While stocks last they can be obtained from Trustees.

Fundraising

Even though we have received such a wonderful level of grant aid, it is still important to realise that we are still required to raise a substial contribution ourselves towards the funding of the St Mary's Church project. The Trust will be holding various fundraising efforts, but we are always very grateful for suggestions and more importantly offers of help.

Because of the imminence of the Annual General Meeting, this Newsletter is, of necessity, short. It is hoped that we will produce a fuller version in the spring.