This is a video presentation which explains the history of our SMILE appeal and the events leading up to the Open Day. There is no sound. It starts in seconds

The foundation stone for St Martin’s Church was laid on the 9 October 1909 by the Countess Beauchamp at a very grand gathering on the site.

Choirs, brass bands, dignitaries and a huge number of people turned out for the event.

And they all turned out in their Sunday best

A great deal of fundraising took place for the new church, organised by Lord Beauchamp. Eventually the church was completed and on 8 June 1911 it was dedicated to St Martin by the Bishop of Worcester.

Originally the architect George Fellowes Prynne had specified gas lighting in the church, but the Churchwarden, Francis Barnitt, who was Managing Director of Lea & Perrins, took it upon himself to upgrade the gas lighting to electric lighting and generously paid for it himself.

Some re-wiring was done during the 1950s, but essentially the electrical system in the church is as it was installed 100 years ago. In those days the electrical earthing was provided by the conduit in which the cables ran. Over the years this conduit has rusted and in 2011, after the statutory five year survey of the church, large parts the electrical system were declared unsafe.

We had to decide what to do. Make do and mend or be positive and replace the whole electrical system in the church. Eventually it was decided to replace the whole electrical system except for the Vestry and Office area downstairs which had been done recently.

We have had to think very hard about what we wanted. We have done a great deal of research into church lighting. We have visited other churches to see how they have done it.

Berkswell Church

Eckington Church

We invited some church lighting specialists to make presentations of what they would do with St Martin’s. After much discussion it was decided to go with HSE Electrical Services Ltd, based in Hertfordshire. They had re-lit Berkswell Church near Coventry and we liked what they did very much.

So we started to map out what we wanted. The use of the church today is very different from 100 years ago. Not only are there services, baptisms, weddings and funerals in church, there are many other events: concerts, Messy Church, memorial services, meetings, lectures, school services and lots more.

The new lighting scheme must cater for all these activities. And we must think of the environment. Nearly all the replacement fittings will be energy efficient LED lamps. These lamps are about the size of a baked bean can. There will be over 200 of them in the church.

Only the refurbished corona pendants will have halogen lamps.

We plan to light the Rood Screen for the first time. It has recently been refurbished and re-gilded.

And there will be special lighting for concerts and exhibitions.

But this is not the end of the story. The Diocese of Worcester has its Diocesan Advisory Committee (DAC) for the Care of Churches. We have to get permission from the DAC to do the work at St Martin’s. They have scrutinised our plans very closely and have recently given us the go-ahead. English Heritage has also been involved because we were recently made a Grade 2 Listed building.

St Martin’s Church regularly gives to charity, in appreciation of the many ways in which we have been richly blessed. As part of our giving, we shall make a donation to the international charity Solar Aid of £3 for every lamp that we install in the church.

Each donation of £3 enables the charity to provide a clean, affordable solar lamp to people in rural Africa - replacing the kerosene lamp, which is expensive to run, dirty, dangerous and environmentally damaging.

So this is where we are today. The cost of the new lighting and electrics in St Martin’s is going to be in excess of £90,000 + VAT. Under current legislation, we should be able to recover the VAT. But we still need to find more than £90,000.

We have to do it. We want to do it. But this is a lot of money for us to raise.

Can you help? Will you help? We would be most grateful.

Thank you for watching this video.