FOWC Portfolio

Peace Garden
Sometime in the 1980s, a fire ripped through the South
chapel and destroyed its roof, door, windows and
interior. The only remaining remnants were the empty
shell of the building, some of the floor tiles, and a fully
intact tower.
The Friends had already decided that, with money being
a very big issue and the opposing chapel being more
structurally secured, it was best to leave this one as an
open space and adapt it into something else. So we
decided on a memorial garden, which we would entitle
the ‘Peace Garden’.
Our efforts began when we applied for the Jubilee People’s
Millions grant, which we were shortlisted for by ITV Calendar
News. Our plea was to be filmed and aired on the 6pm news,
where we were up against other groups for votes to win the cash
prize.
Unfortunately, though we did come close, it wasn’t close
enough. Another group won over us and were awarded the
money for their project. However, being on the TV sparked
interest from a wealthy anonymous donor who was willing to
give us the whole sum. For some reason, all contact fell silent
after a few weeks of communication, and we heard nothing
afterwards.
Still determined, we decided to take to the streets to fundraise, and apply for small grants to slowly
work towards renovating the chapel. Soon enough, we had enough to start the work. We began by
removing the debris and overgrowth from the inside and seeing what we had left to work with. We
had no idea how much of the structure was safe, or what we would find inside. The only thing left
from the original interior, apart from the bricks making up the walls, was a large section of the tiled
floor which was revealed when we cleared away the dirt.