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