The "Friends" is currently supporting three major projects at St Edmund's Church, in addition to several smaller projects. 

Church Lighting
Regular visitors to St Edmund's will know that the church is often very dark inside; even on bright sunny days. Part of the problem is the lack of clear windows on the south side (several were removed by the Victorians when they fitted the present roof), but the situation is not helped by the very poor electric lighting, which was installed in 1963. The electric lighting system has never been 'good', but failure of light fittings over the years, and the difficulty of changing light bulbs safely means that fewer and fewer of the lights now work!

There is nothing that can be done about the windows as the church is Grade One listed, but there is an ongoing project replace the present electric lighting system with high efficiency metal halide lamps, which will provide much better light whilst reducing electricity consumption. The discharge lamps will also have a much longer life than at present. 
The total cost of this scheme is likely to be in excess of £40,000, so completion is some way off. However, work has already started on providing a new sub-main to the west of the building, to provide reliable power to the Welcome Room and the new lighting system. 

If you would like to know more about this project, or can offer any help,  please contact any one of the Friends committee members on the Contact Us page

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