A Great Boon

 
June 2025

Dear Friends

Later in May we are holding ‘Boon Days’ at both churches to which you are warmly invited.  I had never heard of this term until we moved here 11 years ago.  I knew that a ‘boon’ was something very helpful in life but not that ‘boon day’ meant a day of work without pay, including those days when neighbours got together to help each other out.  Farmers told me that there was a tradition of helping each other with tasks that needed many hands – boon days would be held in turn on different farms and they would all go to help each other.  Those were special days because working together is better than working alone.

So our church boon days are an invitation to come and help look after the village church and, especially, the churchyard.  We ask for help because we know that many value these historic and beautiful spaces in our villages, and because the buildings and churchyards are available to the whole village, for worship and prayer, for weddings and funerals, and for the burial and remembrance of much-loved relatives. 

In England each local church has to provide the funds and manpower to look after its own building and churchyard – that is why a fee is charged for every burial (whether full or of ashes) and for introducing memorial stones or for adding an inscription to an existing stone.  Your payments help us to maintain the churchyards while the rest of the money comes from the gifts of our congregation members and sometimes from generous legacies.  Mowers and their fuel and maintenance are expensive, as are the services of professionals like tree surgeons.  Our churchyards are looked after by a small number of volunteers who work very hard to maintain these large areas with all the challenges of mowing around graves and walls.

Our Boon Days run from 10am – 1pm on 17^th May (Burton) and 24^th May (Holme)   All help is welcome even for a short time.  If you can bring gardening equipment that is helpful but we also have some available.  It is an encouragement to those who usually maintain the buildings and grounds when a good number of us give a few hours to tackle the parts that they cannot reach.  Be a boon!

Sincerely

Graham Burrows