The Bradninch Refugee Support Group is planning to hold a further three collections for good quality clothes, food and toiletries. These will be on Saturdays, September 8th, 15th and 22nd from 10.0am–12noon in St Disen’s Hall.
Support has been amazing in the past— keep it going!!!
Our 4th Wednesday coffee mornings are proving very successful, so we have decided to extend them.
The VERY informal, and free, coffee mornings will now be held on the 2nd and 4th Wednesdays of each month, from 10.30 –12noon. Do please come and join us!
Beautiful flower arrangements in church this week. Thank you, Sue Stanbury and Hazel Excell.
If anyone would like to join the flower-arranging group, please contact Dorothy Parsons on 01392 881766.
Progress is being made towards the installation of a mobile phone mast in the tower.
Another beautiful wedding on another beautiful day!
Congratulations to Daisy and Tom, married at St Disen’s on July 21st.
Many thanks to all who donated to our collection during Christian Aid Week and especial thanks to those who collected ‘door to door’.
As a result, we have been able to contribute £1,035 to help some of the poorest people in the world.
Revd. Olly Mears’ name has been added to the generations-long list of incumbents at St. Disens.
……. and the notice board has been up-dated, too!
At the recent APCM, the following people were elected:
Churchwardens : Jill Lucas and Dorothy Parsons
PCC members: Sue Watts, Hazel Excell, John Emerton, June Bolt, Bryan Parsons, Gwyneth Garner, Lyn Lucey, Marion Brown and Warwick Knowles.
We wish them a very successful year in office.
At our last Messy Church meeting, we heard the story of the great draught of fishes. Eleanor taught us a very cheerful song about the net that didn’t break and the children all took part in lovely craft activities.
Afterwards we shared a super meal together — tuna pasta — very appropriate!
We all have great fun at Messy Church — do come and join us!
Following the recent flooding in church, it was necessary to lift the carpets in the N and S aisles in order to dry them out. This revealed seven grave stones laid in the N aisle, dating from the 17th and 18th centuries. The most legible of these was that of Henry Shapcott:
“Here lyeth interred Hennery Shapcott of this parish gent. and also Margaret his daughter y wife of M Christopher Samford of y city of Exon merchant who died the 13th day of January 1689.”
Further research found that Henry was a rich man, owning a great deal of property in the area. He was born in Knowstone but lived in Bradninch, where he requested to be buried. Henry’s first wife was Wilmott Hill, by whom he had five children–Winifred, Elizabeth, Margaret, Robert and Francis. Wilmott died in 1627 and Henry subsequently married Mary Codner who survived him. Henry died in 1632, when all his children were still under 21 years old. He had been a churchwarden of St. Disen’s from 1621 to 1625 and Mayor of Bradninch in 1625 and 1630.
Henry’s son, Robert, was a colonel in Cromwell’s army. He was also Recorder for Bradninch and Tiverton before 1647. He is commemorated in a window, above the stage, in St Disen’s Hall.
Further names to be researched are three more Shapcotts, Humphrey Marshall, Anne Martyn, Samuel Lymmington and Catherine?, the wife of Thomas?.
