A small team of volunteers meet most Monday mornings throughout the year, at St Bart’s Church, to maintain the churchyard. During the summer months grass mowing, hedge trimming and control of brambles and weeds takes up much of the team’s time. With more than 100 trees and shrubs in the churchyard there are also many other tasks. In the Autumn, bulb planting helps to enhance the spring colours when primroses, bluebells, daffodils, tulips and crocuses put on a fine display. Some areas of the churchyard are left with little disturbance to provide a home for nature. Most importantly, the team take a mid-morning tea/coffee break which always provides the opportunity for some good banter. If you would like to help, please drop by on a Monday morning to see what we do, speak to Jon Horne or contact the Parish Office. At the moment we are in need of a new mower - there is a lot of grass to cut - and if you have one no longer in use that you could donate we would be very gratefu!

Second Saturday Squad

The second Saturday Squad meet on the second Saturday of each month, sometimes at St Bart’s and sometimes at St Anne’s to carry out DIY activity inside and outside our church buildings. Activities include clearing gutters (not too high) and drains, tightening screws, changing light bulbs (not too high), clearing cupboards, fixing simple plumbing problems etc. We are working through a list which inevitably grows! These are beautiful buildings with wonderful histories and it is a pleasure working together helping to ensure their integrity for generations to come. We are always pleased to have more volunteers and if you would like to help, please contact Jon Horne or the Parish Office.

We can facilitate times of collective worship with school children in engaging and interesting ways as well as supporting teaching staff with the RE curriculum.

St Anne's Fulshaw CE Primary School

The connections between church and school go back a very long way and that is true here in Wilmslow. Our church school is St Anne’s Fulshaw on Nursery Lane and (in addition to everything that we have said above) this school has a special place in the life of the parish. The church we call St Anne’s actually used to be the school itself and we cherish that relationship to this day, with members of the church family contributing to the vision and governance arrangements there.

Wilmslow Parish Hall is located next to the Carrs at Cliff Road, SK9 4AA, and has two halls, the Hunt Hall and the Vincer Hall. These halls share entrance, toilet and kitchen facilities.  The Carrs car park is a Cheshire East Council facility and not our own.

As the needs of our community have changed, so too has the thinking around how best to meet those needs. In recent years, we've come to realise that providing food alone—though essential—is not enough. It is necessary to provide a broader range of support services, and signposting into other schemes and projects. With this in mind, we believe it’s time to change the way that the very real needs which we see in Wilmslow are served.

Hope Central, a local church-backed project, is already offering this kind of holistic support in addition to food provision and they have been operating in our area for many years. So, we are confident that through Hope Central those we serve will find not just help with food poverty but the kind of support and empowerment that might make a real difference in the longer term.

We are proud of the part we've played and anticipating the good work that lies ahead - determined that we will take our place alongside Hope Central and play a part in supporting their work. We hope that we will be able to provide a place for them to operate in the centre of Wilmslow, and will join them in volunteering roles and offer them practical and financial support.  We will now ensure that the people who have used Food Friend will be referred to Hope Central.  The collection points and our stocks will be used to run Food Friend unchanged for a transition period, and any surplus will then be donated to Hope Central.

Food Friend has served vulnerable people in Wilmslow for well over a decade and we know that it has been a huge blessing to witness God’s love in action through the countless shopping bags handed over, conversations had, and lives touched. We are deeply grateful to Flo and every volunteer who has given of their time, energy and love to serve. We are grateful too for all those individuals and organisations who have supported the project practically and financially.  

We hold a Social coffee morning twice a year (at Easter and Christmas, when we also send cards), and these gatherings are always well attended enjoyable events. We also organise smaller get-togethers within our groups. Neighbourhood Network volunteers, along with others, help to man the Saturday Open Mornings (Café Church) in St Bart’s.

We don’t want anybody with a link to the Church to feel isolated and try always to be on the lookout for new people.

Neighbourhood Network is coordinated by Jackie Watts (who is also Churchwarden). You can contact her by email at office@wilmslowparish.co.uk.