MINUTES OF THE 21st ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING of THE FRIENDS OF MORSTON CHURCH

HELD AT THE VILLAGE HALL, QUAY LANE, MORSTON

ON SAT 8th July 2023 AT 6.30 pm

 

Committee Present

Dr. Peter Tibbetts, Chairman

Mrs. Carole Bean, Deputy-Chairman

Mr. Rob Metcalfe, Treasurer

Mrs. Sandra Morris,

Mrs Sally Metcalfe

‘Friends’ and Members Present

Mrs. J. Tibbetts

Mrs G. Kay

Sir R. ffolkes

Mrs. S Wingfield

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1. Apologies. These were received from Mrs Susy Harrison, Rev. I. Whittle, Mr & Mrs Pell and Mrs. Shirley Everett.

 

2. Minutes of 20th AGM. Held at Morston Village Hall on Saturday 18th June 2022 at 6.30 pm. Proposed as correct by Dr Tibbetts, seconded by Mr Metcalfe, they were unanimously approved and were signed by the Chairman as a True Record.

 

3. Matters Arising.  The Chairman announced that the PCC had re-elected Mrs Sally Metcalfe as their representative on the FMC Committee. Approved unanimously.

 

4. Annual Appointments/Reappointments.  P.Tibbetts proposed the re-election of Mr Rob Metcalfe and Mrs Sandra Morris to the Committee. This was seconded by Mrs Carole Bean. (Dr Peter Tibbetts, Mrs Carole Bean and Mrs Susy Harrison were re-elected in 2022). The appointments were approved unanimously.

 

5. Committee vote for Chairman and Secretary. Dr Tibbetts was nominated for the combined position of Chairman and Secretary. This was proposed by Mr Rob Metcalfe and seconded by Mrs. Sandra Morris. The appointment was approved unanimously.

 

6. Committee vote for Vice-Chairman and Treasurer. The Chairman proposed Mrs Carole Bean to be re-elected as Deputy-Chairman (seconded by Mrs Sally Metcalfe) and Mr Rob Metcalfe to be re-elected as Treasurer (seconded by Mrs Sandra Morris). The appointments were approved unanimously.

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7. Treasurer’s Report. (FY 2022-2023). Mr Metcalfe presented the accounts and stated that, although the FMC’s income was up nearly £2000 on last year, this was because the year 2022/3 actually included two years’ worth of income from Gift Aid and an annual donation from the Carr-Ellison Foundation. Expenditure was up on last year, largely because the cheque presented to The Anchor for the Shovell Dinner in 2021 was never cashed. The balance of income over expenditure was up on last year by just over £1000. The balance in the Current Account is, consequently, up to just over £92,700.

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8. Chairman’s Report (including the Architectural Adviser’s Report). The Chairman welcomed the attendees to the AGM and thanked them for coming. He started his report by saying a few words about Mally Bullard, who, sadly, passed away in December 2022. Mally was one of the founding trustees of the Friends of Morston Church in 2003 and remained on the committee until 2017. She continued to be a great supporter of our events until the pandemic restricted all of our activities. At every event she was always there to give encouragement and to help, whether it be providing raffle prizes, cooking food for the Quiz and book sale, helping with plants at the plant sale and beavering away behind the scenes with endless washing up at the Quiz night. She had a great send-off in March at All Saints, the church she loved, and she will be missed by all who knew her.

 

The chairman read out the Architectural Adviser’s report. This stated that, as far as building work was concerned, there is nothing to report. However, the scaffolding erected for the restoration of the tympanum allowed a more detailed inspection of the eastern end of the nave. This has indicated that a further detailed inspection is needed on the rest of the parapets of the nave, for which a quote of £4257 has been received. This work will require the temporary removal of some pews for the erection of scaffolding but will allow proper documentation to be drawn up and priced and fully informed decisions to be made by the PCC. The Chairman thanked Mr David Carnwath for his report.

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In 2022/3 all our usual annual events were held with the addition of ‘Impromptu Shakespeare’ a couple of weeks ago. This was a most enjoyable and very successful evening, held in Gill Kay’s lovely walled garden. He extended a big thank you to Gill for letting us use her garden and for all the time and effort she put in to making the garden look so beautiful. The event raised over £2000. He thanked the committee for all their help in running these events.

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The Shovell Dinner in October retained a nautical theme. Robert Smith MBE, the Harbour Master at Wells gave an interesting talk entitled “Tales of a Harbour Master”.  Although it ventured away from Naval history, there was plenty of history about Wells harbour and even references to Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell.  The event departed from our usual pattern in that an extended Question and Answer session was held after a slightly shortened talk. Robert is a natural storyteller and his tales, from incendiary bombs to people smuggling, were both fascinating and amusing. Due to the renovation of the Anchor Pub in Morston, the evening was held in the Blakeney Harbour Rooms.  Paul, Manders and the chef Mark Sayers at The Harbour Rooms did us proud and produced a delicious meal, which was much appreciated by all.

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The quiz night was held, in the absence of the Chair, at its usual time in February and returned to its normal venue of Morston Village Hall.  The Chair stated that he was indebted to Sandra Morris, who organised the event and spent most of the time in the kitchen and to Richard Longley, who did a sterling job as quiz master. As usual, all present were treated to a dinner of Cottage Pie with salad followed by delicious puddings. Thank you so much to all the volunteers who produced the meal. Thank you also to the Rob and Karen for scoring and David Beale for managing the bar.

 

As was stated in the Treasurers report, Rob Metcalfe and family have still been collecting books and selling many at on-line auctions. This has raised over £8000 this year, which is, by far, the largest contributor to the ‘Friends’ accounts. After a particularly traumatic year for Rob and Sally, the Chairman thanked them both for their continued dedication to this cause. He also thanked Sue Smith for all her work in raising over £750 through book sales and car boot sales.

 

The Chairman noted that we still have 18 supporters of “EasyFundraising” (although five of these have never raised any money!), who have raised £2245.29 since we started , of which £193.55 was in the last year. This is well down on previous years, so he is planning to send out a reminder about this facility to all our members.

The Chairman stated that we are still indebted to the members of the “Friends of Morston Church” and thanked them for their continued support.

 

9. 2023-2024 Special Events.  The 2024 Quiz was agreed to be on Sat 24th Feb and will again be held at Morston Village Hall.

The 2023 Shovell Dinner will be on Sat. 4th November 2023 when Jonathan Hooton, who has written several excellent books about the North Norfolk ports will give a talk entitled “The Glaven Ports to 1800”. Due to the new layout of The Anchor in Morston, the event will again be held at the Blakeney Harbour Rooms. The 2024 Shovell Dinner was agreed to be on Saturday 19th October 2024.

 

The 2024 AGM will be on either Saturday 15th or Saturday 22nd June. A decision will be made when the 2024 Tide Tables are published, so that we do not clash with an evening tide.

 

The date of 3rd-6th May 2024 (first May bank holiday weekend) has been pencilled in for a sale of old artwork. Although plans are in their infancy, this may include getting an auctioneer involved to sell some of the better paintings and possibly sponsor drinks and a preview on the Friday evening (possibly selling tickets for this evening). The sale will then be held in Morston Village Hall on the Saturday, Sunday and Monday.

 

10. AOB.  The Chairman, having seen an RSPB project to help Swifts, wondered whether the Morston PCC would be interested in introducing Swift nesting boxes in the tower of All Saints’ Church. The attendees suggested that this should be approached with caution, as it may add cost or impair the timing of any future work on the church tower. The subject will be discussed at the next PCC meeting.

 

Peter Tibbetts

Chair