St Francis Church, Dudley where the funeral of football legend Duncan Edwards was held appeals for donations after rot and mould is discovered. Rev James Treasure explains.
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00:00My name's James Sturge, I'm the Team Rector at Dudley Parish and I'm in St Francis at
00:05the moment. As you can see, we need your help. So, St Francis has been at the heart of the
00:10community, particularly for Ren's Nest and Priory Estate for almost 100 years, but right
00:16now we are really facing a difficult situation. We have discovered, sadly, dry rot and wet
00:22rot in quite a few of our rooms in the church, but particularly here in our church hall,
00:28which is a place that holds so many memories for people of funerals, of weddings, of baptisms,
00:34of moments of celebration, of beautiful church services, and we really need the community's
00:40help to fix it. We've raised quite a lot of money ourselves and the Church of England
00:44have put some money in as well, which is wonderful, but what we really need at the moment is a
00:49whopping extra £50,000 to sort out our roof. So, the way the roof was constructed meant
00:55there isn't the ventilation that a size of this building needs to ensure that it's safe
01:00and healthy and a really good place to be. So, as a consequence, we've got some rot and
01:04some mould, but if we raise these funds, we can secure the future of this church. But
01:09it's not just about our worship on a Sunday, but over in the corner there, we have the
01:13Duncan Edwards window, and Duncan Edwards was a local legend, grew up in Dudley, grew
01:18up round the corner from here, and this church was the place that had his funerals. We've
01:23had Bobby Charlton and Jack Charlton and all of that wonderful generation here to pay
01:28their respects to Duncan Edwards, who's a real local legend. And we have a very special
01:33window which people visit from across the world to pay their respects in as part of
01:38the Duncan Edwards tour of our area. So, we want to preserve it, yes, for our church,
01:42but also for the memory of Duncan Edwards and all those who value his contribution to
01:46Dudley. So, anything you can give, you'll see the link in our Just Giving page, or if
01:51you want to speak directly to me, you'll see my details there as well, but we'd love
01:55to be in touch. Thank you.