Cheese Charcuterie and Wine Evening.

What lovely evening! Wonderful to see old friends and welcome fresh  faces. As the food and wine seemed to have disappeared by the end of the evening, I have to assume everyone enjoyed themselves. There was certainly a lovely atmosphere. A big thank you to the team  that prepared the event and those that cleared up. These events are hard work, and every bit of help is gratefully received. Thanks to a full attendance and some very generous donations the evening raised a magnificent £821,52. The highest total so far for this yearly event. The money will be used to give grants to the PCC to help with various agreed projects to maintain and improve the fabric of St Lawrence Church Bradfield.

Quiz and Ploughman's Evening 2025

What a great turnout! Teams from Ipswich, Harwich, Lawford, Manningtree, Mistley and Bradfield arrived making it over one hundred people taking part in our annual quiz. Lots of laughter and head scratching as we waded through the eight rounds of questions. Good effort everyone as you all got over 50%correct. A big thank you to the team of volunteers who helped organise this event giving up their time and energy to get everything ready and clear up! I would particularly like to thank Richard Scott for giving up his time to help us sort out the sound and projector systems. Thank you to those people who donated raffle prizes and everyone’s generosity in buying tickets . The raffle raised £435. The final total for the event was £1,323.52. This money will eventually be used on a project to help maintain our ancient building of St Lawrence Church.

Gardens Open Day 2025 results

The total raised at this event is £2,665 which is the second highest total in 27 open days and only beaten by 2021 the Covid year when the whole world seemed to descend on Bradfield! We anticipate that this total may increase over the next few days with additional donations.

We were lucky with the weather which although hot, was tempered by some cloud and a slight breeze. It was so nice to welcome visitors to the 17 venues open in the village. What a lovely lot the visitors were, leaving our garden owners feeling very positive and happy.

These events do not happen without a lot of planning and hard work. The gardeners should be congratulated that their hard work produced some lovely gardens for people to admire. The people organising the stalls and refreshments also worked hard before the event and in the heat on Sunday. We were pleased to receive offerings of cakes (£332) and plants (£386 + still selling!) from a large number of people. Thank you! The garden train was working well and people were able to enjoy a tour of Ballister House garden. Think the ice creams in garden 9 went down well too! They seemed to be a bit of a party going on there!

As you know, the money we raise is held to make grants to the PCC of St Lawrence Church Bradfield. The grants are given for projects agreed with the PCC for maintenance and improvements to the church fabric.

We have recently given a grant of £475 for the refurbishment of the outside noticeboard which had started to show its age! There are at least four further projects under discussion, including the second phase of the tower access from the bell tower to the roof. More information on projects will be available as decisions are made.

Thank you everyone involved in this event for making this a pleasant and successful day.