On Thursday I visited the site of St Mary The Less Church on Bury Road with the Breckland Council Historic Buildings Officer (Mr Andrew Gayton) and Stuart Wilson of the Thetford Society. The Church is still in an appalling condition and continues to deteriorate - this has been the case for a number of years now. Much of this deterioration is due to no maintenance and a lack of care on behalf of the owner, Mr Ron Collins of East Finchley, London, but sad to say some of the damage is due to vandalism, including damage to some of the tombs and graves - a heinous act.
The obstacles in the way of doing anything about St Marys Church are fairly substantial, but something surely has got to be done, or at the very least - tried to be done! In the near future I hope to help initiate a local campaign to Save St Mary's Church - please let me know if you would like to be involved.
1 comment:
The Church has a problem with Breckland Council trying to block the sale of the Church, to anyone who is willing to convert it into a house or flats.
Mr Andrew Gayton has done almost everything he can to obstruct the sale of St Mary the Less, including commissioning a Council report which states how much it thinks it would cost to carry out the conversion. Their costing is about 3 times the amount required to do the work.
In other words They do not want the Church converted.
When the Church was originally sold for £1 to Mr Guy, He signed an agreement that he would carry out all the work required to make the church sound & water tight.
No one forced him to carry out his obligations, but they gave him Planning permission, & then allowed him to sell the Church for £124000. Without spending a penny of that on the Church.
Try asking who Mr Guy was, What was his original connection with Breckland Council & the Church commissioners. Where did the money go? was it shared? or?????
I bought the Church intending to convert it, & live in it. Unfortunately things went wrong in the economy & my business.
My story is the truth, & has many more parts to tell, when someone wants to listen.
Thanks for reading.
Ron Collins 10-09-14
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