Nearly there....

Fantastic news! Leeann Herbert Secretary and Gill Jepson Chairman attended the annual Awards evening for the Keswick to Barrow Walk last night. It was a fantastic night and they came home with a cheque donation for £3000 for the crosier cabinet appeal! The funds raised were from the 40 mile walk held every May and in 2014 there will be a team of 12 entering the shorter 23 mile Coniston to Barrow Walk. A big thanks to Keswick to Barrow Walk committee and all the walkers who raised the money!

This brings our total to £4300 and we now only require another £1700! We have more fundraisers planned and our next event is on Sunday 1 December 2013 at 2pm-a Winter Fair at Abbey Mill. There will be mulled wine and mince pies, stalls, raffles and carols. Make sure you come down it will be a nice start to December.

The crosier in its temporary cabinet

Testament of youth?

Very sad to report that there has been some vandalism at Furness Abbey this week. The usual suspects...youths! Its such a shame when English Heritage are trying to conserve the abbey and are spending lots of money to do so; that these idiots come and try to destroy things just for the sake of it! I can only wonder at the mentality and hope that they suddenly realise the stupidity of their actions. 

Bad enough that the toilet door was damaged, but for them to enter the restricted area on the scaffolding is sheer lunacy. Not only could it be dangerous for the professionals who have to work there, but for these young people themselves. Its sad because it gives youngsters a bad name-but they are definitely in the minority. I saddens me because I know so many young people who are admirable and help to improve the community not destroy it. The abbey is a fairly hazardous place at present and I have chastised kids before for being in there at night. I called some over one evening when we were passing-they were playing football against the Cloister wall and in the church. When we suggested it was unsafe they were shocked...hadn't even thought of that...and then they left as I started to dial the police!

So please if you are local dont hesitate to get in touch with -

Barrow police on 101 or call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

Hobble with us for your Heritage!

We are looking towards a rosy future with the Fellowship! Everything is beginning to come together and the group is progressing. We are planning a number of events over the coming months, one in particular which will hopefully be very effective in putting the abbey on the map!

First though we are holding two events in June! On 9th June the Heritage Hobble will begin at 11am. This is a short but enjoyable ramble around the Abbey Greenway and back. It will cost £1 to join and each family can collect sponsorship as well. At the end every participant will receive a certificate and free refreshments. The funds raised will go towards our running costs and will pay for things like the website, leaflets to encourage visitors, supporting fun events in and around the abbey and much more. People can obtain the forms and register either online or by post. We will have a registration desk on the day for late joiners too!

On 16th June we will be at Morrisons with some Ulverston Scouts doing a Bag Pack again to raise funds. We will share this with the scouts and they will help us at the Heritage Hobble too.

So if you are interested in joining us email on : furnessabbeyfellowship@gmail.com

Freezing, friends and fundraising

There was a lot of interest today at Abbey Mill Easter Egg Rolling. It was freezing cold with a bitter wind but it did not seem to put anyone off! We had a steady flow of visitors and sold a few memberships and lots of raffle tickets. We raised a healthy £86 which will go towards running costs and essential items which we need to raise the awareness for the abbey.

some of the committee

Our raffle

Our next event will prove to be exciting-we are having a Heritage Hobble which is a brief walk in a 4 hour loop from the abbey and back along the cycle path. We will be launching this news in the local press soon. It will be open to families and individuals over 12. It will have £1 entry per person and then there is the opportunity to raise sponsorship too. We hope this will help towards the costs for our large summer event which will be unveiled soon.

We are still recruiting members and look forward to welcoming lots of new people. You can find us online or email us on 

furnessabbeyfellowship@gmail.com

A bit of fund raising goes a long way...

Welcome to our first blog! We will keep you up to date with what we are doing and hope to be able to share events and activities with you to increase funds and raise awareness of and for Furness Abbey. You can also join the Fellowship and be part of the work to help support and promote it.

Why bother, don't English Heritage look after the abbey?

We know that people will sometimes ask this question and obviously it is a valid one. Yes, they do, but like many other publicly funded bodies they have had their funding slashed dramatically. Additionally, they have poured in  massive amounts of money to the conservation project-which although entirely necessary, has been a drain on resources-and it's not over yet. Over previous years the visitor numbers to the abbey have fallen and one of the issues EH have had is that they can't justify a massive marketing bill to increase visitors. So, a charitable body like ours can act as an advocate and support mechanism to work with and on their behalf.

What is Furness Abbey Fellowship?

Furness Abbey Fellowship is a volunteer group of like minded people who love the abbey and recognise it's significance and want to return it to its former significance. It has a small charity and has six trustees and a constitution. We don't yet have a charity number as this is not issued until we have an income of £5,000 per annum.

Can anyone join?

Yes. We have memberships for individuals for £5 p.a. for families £7 p.a. and for schools free. If you are interested you can ask for our leaflet on any of the socail media platforms we have and then remit your payment and join. We are trying to build a following and a proper membership scheme provides us with validity.

What else do you do?

We will be providing a range of activities and events in and around the abbey to raise the profile and to raise money for running costs. There will be a calendar of our events posted soon. Additionally, we have launched a larger long term appeal to support EH in purchasing a secure display cabinet for the return of the Abbot's treasure. This is our initial target of around £6,000, but we are keen to be more ambitious and raise enough to provide a complete gallery to display the artefacts properly.

http://www.channel4.com/news/medieval-abbots-grave-discovered-at-furness-abbey