1000 Years, 1000 Voices

To celebrate a church being at the site of All Saints’ Sandon for 1000 years, we are running a series of events to recognise the passage of history during that time and the role of local people in the life of the church over the ages. Details of these can be found in our events pages and they start with a Quiz at Sandon Parish Room on Friday 23 January at 7.30. We are grateful to the Dog and Doublet for donating a prize for the Quiz.

We then get going with our series of Knit and Natter Groups to be held at the Greyhound at Burston starting at 1.30 until 3.00 on Thursday 29 January and continuing each fourth Thursday through the year. Our aim is to knit 1000 poppies for Remembrance. We are grateful to the Greyhound for the use of a room at their pub. Details of the knitting patterns can be found on the events page.

On 21 February we will hold a Down Memory Lane day at the Sandon Parish room from 10.00 to 4.00. Drop in to share your memories of the local area and the church, perhaps bring photos or an object from the past. We will be launching our Time Capsule project the same day.

Watch this blog and our Events pages for more details of these free events through the year.

Would you like to be a volunteer at the church?

Would you like to be part of our team of volunteers at the church? We have a variety of roles with help to maintain, support and celebrate the history and heritage of All Saints’ in Sandon. Please see below for details. We would love you to join us.

Royal Coat of Arms Taken Down for Conservation

After a couple of weeks of anticipation, today was the day that the Royal Coat of Arms finally came down from the wall to be taken to the conservator’s workshop to be cleaned and repaired. The scaffolding was build in the church and we watched in admiration as people clambered up to release the fixings on the wall. These turned out to be brackets held to the wall by handmade nails which pulled out quite easily. Six people, two at the top, two in the middle and two at the base took the weight of the frame and gently lowered it down to the floor. It was great to see the painting up close finally and to see it in a better light which made the colours much clearer. We can’t wait to see it cleaned and restored and back in its usual place on the north wall of the church.

Work starts in the Church

Our contractors are now on site and the chancel is very much out of bounds to the congregation as work starts on repairing the internal ceilings to remove years of damage by jackdaws who have pecked through the plaster as part of their nesting activity. The outer eaves were closed off earlier this year before the breeding season started and the jackdaws have retired to the roof in the south aisle where they can’t do any internal damage. We improvised for our Remembrance Service on 9th November with a huge poppy suspended on the screen to give us something to focus on other than the closed off space and we may use this approach again in future as it was a strong reminder of the purpose of the service.

If you visit the church you will notice the contractors site in the car park. Access to the church is only possible with permission from the contractors while work is underway other than planned services and events details of which are on this website.

A note from our Press Cuttings Section

We have extracted this interesting note written in 1934 about a visit to the church to demonstrate the ageless nature of the building which still feels the same today. Search our Press Cuttings for more historical information about the Church and life in Sandon over the years.

6th October 1934

RANDOM NOTES

Not many days ago I went once more to Sandon, and in the sunshine of a lovely afternoon was able to see the many beauties of the church of All Saints, which has undergone vast changes since it was described by a county historian a few years ago as being in need of careful restoration. There is no gloom in Sandon Church as there should not be in a building which is situated on a hill whence can be seen one of the most attractive landscapes in Staffordshire. There is the freshness of the light oak, the colour of the memorials, the general neatness of the whole to create a feeling of brightness and to stir the emotions. In addition, there is the pleasing consciousness that memories of the centuries long since gone are mingled with the knowledge that gratitude for mercies and blessings in latter days have led the members of the distinguished Harrowby family to restore the edifice in a singularly successful manner. In no village church that I have been to for so many years have I been more delighted with the skilful and loving manner in which restoration has been carried out. There is a ring of deep sincerity about the dedication inscription in the rood-loft of the Harrowbys, in which is placed on record the thankfulness to Almighty God for the spared life through the Great War of an only son, and for the life and example of that only brother of Lady Harrowby, whose career was filled with good character and service. The many improvements effected by the restoration have considerably atoned for the damaging alterations made in the so-called “restoration” of over ninety years ago, and I would advise that all who wish to see how admirably a modern restoration can be made to pay a visit to Sandon Church. There are features which have made the ancient look better, and uncoverings which reveal mural histories from past centuries. Mr. W.D. Caroe, the well-known ecclesiastical architect, who supervised the transformations, can be remembered with gratefulness, and I wish it were possible for him to take in hand with similar thoroughness the beautifying of other churches in our county which today are languishing in dire decadence.

It was impossible to linger in loneliness that afternoon in Sandon Church without recalling the visit made to the building in 1780 by Thomas Pennant, as he made his way from Chester to London. It was in the springtime of the year that Pennant found himself in the delightful woodlands of Staffordshire, where “the steep slope is beautiful, cloathed with plantations of recent date, but extremely flourishing.” The traveller was greatly interested in the Erdeswick monuments, particularly in the one to Sampson of that name, who took care to provide his own massive memorial two years before he died. Pennant’s comment was that Erdeswick might have spared himself the expense of a monument, as his work would have perpetuated his name; a gracious compliment, indeed, by one chronicler to the memory of another. Pennant gave in an appendix of his book particulars of the Erdeswick genealogy inscribed “Upon a curious monument and tomb against the North wall,” and Shaw, writing in 1794, said he had been to Sandon Church “to compare copies of the divers monuments, arms, etc., in the fine old church, of the celebrated Erdeswick and his ancestors, which still remain in the highest preservation.” As neither of these writers make special mention of the genealogical trees discovered on the walls of the church in the latest restoration, it may be presumed the paintings were hidden in the 18th century by the plaster, which has now been removed. The trees—which are supposed to have been designed and executed by Erdeswick himself—are intensely interesting, and, as restored by Professor Tristram, the noted expert in this important branch of antiquarian research, they constitute one of the most valuable heraldic possessions of the county. It was a happy circumstance that exact drawings of the heraldic trees were made before they were stowed away under the plaster-work, so that the present-day restorers had first-hand information to guide them. Erdeswick was a big man in his day: he knew it and so do we, and he occupies a great deal of space in Sandon Church. There have been other big men in Staffordshire besides Erdeswick, and the cynical comment of many of the present generation often takes the form of the query: “What a glut of stonework there would be in our parish churches, and how little room there would be for the worshippers if everybody of any note were to make their own monuments before their death, and sprawl their genealogies over walls and floors.”

© Successor rightsholder unknown. Image created courtesy of THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD

Follow us on Social Media

In addition to our website www.sandonallsaints.com we are now active on Facebook and Instagram. Whether you are fan of social media or not we know that it’s another way to tell the world about our beautiful church and our National Lottery Heritage Funded project. If you have an account on these platforms please give us a FOLLOW and LIKE our posts and ask your family and friends to do the same. It really helps to spread the word and it keeps you up to date with our forthcoming events and activities. Next year, we will be celebrating centuries of worship and heritage at Sandon so we will have lots of news to share. 

You can find us by clicking on the social media  links at the bottom of our website  www.sandonallsaints.com or go directly to

https://Facebook.com/allsaintssandon  

https://www.instagram.com/allsaintssandon/

Conservation Project finally underway

 We are delighted to announce that the National Lottery Heritage Fund has approved an increase in our grant to cover a shortfall in funding and to enable some additional essential works. The contractors will be set up by the end of October and work will start on 3 November to remove the Royal Coat of Arms for restoration and start testing the wall paintings to determine the best approach to their conservation. The church will remain open for our usual services during the period of works. Visitors to the site will see a contractor’s compound; some external areas will be cordonned off and anyone wishing to enter the building outside service times and publicised opening times is asked to make themselves known to the contractors on site.

You can see from the picture below how dirty and sagging the canvas of the Coat of Arms has become. It has been in the church since the early 17th Century and as the church porch was added later, it is going to be a tight squeeze to get it out. The entire frame will be lifted from the wall, protection added and then it will go to the conservator’s workshop. We can’t wait to get it back fully restored.

We will be making a photographic record of the works and the restorers and conservators will be giving/recording talks about their work. We will update you here, through COMPASS our Benefice newsletter and through social media.

Our funding is exclusively for the Heritage project so please continue to support our fundraising events to ensure we can still cover the church’s running costs. See our Events pages for all our events for this year.

Wonderful Concert at Sandon Hall

Those of us who were fortunate enough to attend our fund raising concert on 1st July held at Sandon Hall were treated to an amazing event as we heard from three performers from The Birmingham Conservatoire. This the second time the Conservatoire have visited Sandon Hall to support our fundraising and they provided a wonderfully varied programme which made a most memorable evening.

The performers were:
Victoria Harley - soprano who has just returned from singing The Magic Flute.
Alex Hocknull - French horn player who makes guest appearances in the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra
Jonathan French - pianist who is the Principal Accompanist at The Conservatoire and a brilliant solo performer too.
The programme was varied and Victoria, Alex and Jonathan had gone to the trouble of finding a piece that combined voice with French Horn and Piano - quite an unusual combination.
It is difficult to single out any of the pieces as all were excellent but we have noted one from each performer:
Victoria -  Der Hölle Rache ( Queen of the Night aria from Mozart’s The Magic Flute).
Alex - Introduction, Theme and Variations by Franz Strauss
Jonathan - Rhapsody in Blue, Gershwin.

Our thanks to everyone involved in making this a great night and a massive thank you to Sandon Hall too.

Our next concert is on Wednesday 3rd December and details on how to get tickets are in the Events section of this website.

Visit from Probus Group Stone

We were delighted to have a visit from the Probus Group at Stone for a tour of the church followed by tea and cakes. As the picture below shows, we do very good cake at Sandon. Our visitors had a guided tour of the church and the opportunity to chime one of our six bells. We are grateful to them for their generous donation towards our heritage project. If you or your club would like to have a tour of the church (with cake) please contact us via the contact details on this website and we will be pleased to arrange something for you.

News from the Bell Tower

On Thursday 8th May at 6.30pm we rang the bells to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War in Europe (VE Day). We rang the bells for an hour with everyone taking turns. Our youngest ringer was 8 years old and two of our ringers were over ten times her age!

It is traditional to ring bells for significant occasions, which we always try to do and certainly bells rang out all over the country on the actual VE Day.

Visit from Sir Gavin Williamson MP

We wrote to our local MP, Sir Gavin Williamson, to seek his support regarding the concerns we had about the new limit for claims being introduced to the Listed Places of Worship Grants Scheme in 2025/26. This scheme exists to support Listed places of worship, churches, mosques or Synagogues to recover the VAT on repairs and conservation work. The delivery phase of our own conservation programme includes a significant grant from this scheme so we wanted to share our concerns with our MP. Sir Gavin asked to visit the church and we had the pleasure of showing him around in February.

Sir Gavin was impressed by the history of the church and the work we have done to date to restore and improve the facilities. He also supported our desire to work more with our local community to make the church building more of a shared space and to encourage school visits, tours and improving access to the building and its heritage both physically through increased opening time and virtually through this website. He was kind enough to take our concerns to the Department for Culture Media and Sport and while they were unable to provide any assurance that the Listed Places of Worship Scheme might be amended, we felt at least we had raised the point and been listened to.

Thanks to Sir Gavin and his secretary Ryan Hillback for arranging the visit.

Gift of an Inventory of the Church

The Church Recorders, a group of historians with a love of old churches, have been documenting the contents and history of the church over the past two to three years. It is a painstaking task which draws on the experience and knowledge of all in the team. The result is a beautiful bound book containing an accurate and detailed record of all the contents of the church illustrated photographically. We were delighted to receive this book at a church service and to have it blessed by the Reverend Viv Starkie.

We are looking at ways of sharing this wonderful resource digitally on this website and in an accessible form in the church. Our thanks go to all the Church Recorders who have given their time to capturing All Saints just as we start our conservation work. Thanks to Bill Cottiss for the photographs on the day and many of those in the book.

High Tech Scanning of Graves

Commonwealth War Grave of H Lockley of the Royal Artillery

As part of our National Lottery Heritage Project we are having the burials and graves in our churchyard scanned and recorded digitally. In a pack carried by the technician, the scanner records and photographs each grave to allow those seeking the graves of relatives to access an image alongside the details records we have already created and mapped over the past few years. Once cross referred to our index and maps, this information will be available to search on-line on this website or via an index in the church porch for those just visiting for a look around. We are most grateful to Graham Clay, a member of our Heritage Committee for his painstaking recording of the thousands of burials in the churchyard, his wonderful drawings and maps and his attention to detail in the creation of the index. Graham and his colleague David answer many queries via the enquiry form on this website about family burials and that service will still be available.