Thank you for supporting us in 2024 we look forward to seeing you again

Shelter Box

Everyone deserves a place to call home. It is a human right and the first step towards recovery after disaster.Shelter is so much more than just a roof. It’s the foundation for life, families and communities. It is a place to feel safe after days or weeks of fear. It offers protection from harsh weather, privacy, and helps to preserve dignity. It’s a space to heal from trauma. 

Previous Beneficiaries

Guide Dogs UK 

Founded in 1931 by two amazing British pioneers, Muriel Crooke and Rosamund Bond. These remarkable women organised the training of the first four British guide dogs from a humble lock up garage in Wallasey, Merseyside.We’ve come a very long way since those early days. Today Guide Dogs is the world's largest breeder and trainer of working dogs. And thanks to our dedicated staff and volunteers – and your vital donations – 36,000 lives have been transformed through a guide dog partnership since 1931.

“The foodbank was there when we really needed it, it was an absolute lifeline.”

We don’t think anyone in our community should have to face going hungry. That’s why we provide three days’ nutritionally balanced emergency food and support to local people who are referred to us in crisis. We are part of a nationwide network of foodbanks, supported by The Trussell Trust, working to combat poverty and hunger across the UK.

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The Cotswold Canals Trust is a charity run by volunteers from the local community, giving time and energy to save our heritage and improve our local environment for the benefit of everyone.The origins of The Cotswold Canals Trust date back to 1972 when it was the Stroudwater Canal Society. By 1975, the Trust was a registered charity and incorporated for the purpose of preserving, maintaining and improving the Stroudwater Navigation and the Thames & Severn Canal (i.e. the Cotswold Canals)​.  Our mission includes: “The preservation, maintenance in good order and improvement of canals, navigable rivers and inland waterways for the use of the public” with the objective to restore the canals from Saul Junction at the western end to Lechlade in the east so linking the two great rivers of Thames and Severn. This will provide navigable links to the wider UK canal network”.

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St George's Church, Nailsworth
RE-ORDERING OF ST GEORGE’S CHURCH

In November 2020 the Parochial Church Council (PCC) appointed the Architects – Millar+Howard Workshop (MHW) to draw up a scheme, under the title “Project 2024”, for a major re-ordering of this Parish Church. The intention is to make the interior of the building much more flexible for public and community events whilst being able at the same time to use the space more creatively in terms of providing accessible and different types of worship. Subject to Diocesan approval and funding becoming available “Project 2024” will consist of three distinct phases.

VGBF Project 2024

Phase 1 will cover the disposal of all the existing Chancel/Choir area furniture and their replacement with new contemporary and stackable Choir Chairs, Frontals and Priest Chairs. It will also involve installation of a new and extended wooden Stage Platform/Performance area across the whole width of the church and purchase of Q-Build demountable units to provide movable multi-level staging anywhere on it. 

Phase 2will see the replacement of the side aisle pews with chairs and installation, on a lowered floor, of side aisle cupboards for chair storage. The tiered pews below the Mural/West Window will be “lightened” and the Children’s Corner refurbished with new furniture and storage cupboards. 

Phase 3 will involve the replacement of the central Nave pews with chairs and installation of new flooring to match the new side aisle flooring installed under Phase 2. The total cost of all three phases is anticipated to be around £400,000 and need fund raising and work extending over two or three  years. The first priority will, of course, be to complete Phase 1 to bring St George’s into the 21st Century with a contemporary setting and make it even more so the heart of the Nailsworth Community. 


BEAT

We are the UK’s eating disorder charity. Founded in 1989 as the Eating Disorders Association, our mission is to end the pain and suffering caused by eating disorders.

Around 1.25 million people in the UK suffer from these illnesses, many in secret. They are of all ages, genders and backgrounds – eating disorders do not discriminate. Eating disorders include bulimia, binge eating disorder, avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID), other specified feeding or eating disorder (OSFED), and anorexia, which tragically has the highest mortality rate of any mental illness, though all eating disorders can be deadly. While this is the worst-case scenario, there are many ways in which eating disorders severely affect the quality of life of both those suffering and those who care about them. They steal childhoods, devastate relationships and pull families apart. But, with the right treatment and support, recovery is possible.

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Holy Trinity Minchinhampton

Minchinhampton Parish Church is a grade 1 listed building that 
dates back to the 12th Century. The oldest part of the building as we see it today dates from the 14th Century.

There are many points of interest both inside and outside including 
the grave of James Bradley​, English astronomer, who in 1728 
announced his discovery of the aberration of starlight, an apparent slight change in the positions of stars caused by the yearly motion of the Earth. That finding provided the first direct evidence for the revolution of the Earth around the Sun. Bradley was an ordained Minister and was Astronomer Royal after Edward Halley.

The Church underwent a serious make over in recent years to 
transform it from a dark Victorian edifice into a building full of light.

The resulting change in the accoustic of the Church make it ideal for concerts.

The Stuart Singers perform their "home" concerts in this venue in December and June. Nearly every year The Stuart Singers make a donation to the Church  - this year is no exception.

You can find out more about the Church on their website.

Longfield

Longfield (formerly Cotswold Care Hospice) was formed in 1987 by Barbara Curd, a health visitor from Nailsworth and Helen Hutchinson, a Macmillan Nurse in the area.

“ I had one particular lady who had cancer and her husband went out in the morning, and I thought, gosh, there’s nothing for her. All she had was a plate of sandwiches and I thought, this is terrible. We ought to do something for her, ” commented Barbara at the start of the campaign to develop a new service in Gloucestershire to support people with a life-limiting illness.

“I could see there was a terrible need which we could not fulfil in south Gloucestershire. There was nothing, nothing at all where patients could go.” Helen Hutchinson, Co-Founder.