Our Vision

 

 

Filby is a village in rural Norfolk. It lies on the eastern edge of the Norfolk Broads, between Filby Broad and Ormesby Little Broad, some 6 miles north-west of Great Yarmouth and 16 miles east of the city of Norwich. The parish has an area of a little over 2.2 square miles (543 acres) and, according to the 2021 Census, it had a population of 897.

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The village is also well known for its amazing floral displays for the annual Britain in Bloom competition, frequently winning prizes at both local and national level.

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It is a thriving and modern English village that has maintained a lively community spirit and a great tradition of pulling together to benefit the whole community.  When a new village hall was needed, as a result of the closure of the Church hall, shut, on the grounds of safety in 2008, there was great support for the project and there is now a beautiful village hall in Filby, opened in 2015, which will serve the community for many years to come.

 

Before the Hall was built, the village's All Saints Church was the village community hub. Now there is, once again, an ambitious project which, we hope, will restore the Church back to its important place in the community. Our project will draw the attention of the village to the church encouraging an expansion of the building's secular role as centre for village activities.

 

The focus of the project is our vision to restore the Church’s bells to full working condition. This will be achieved at an approximate cost of £330,000, with £103,000 of this already in place, the balance to be raised by local fundraising supported by applications to the appropriate grant bodies.

 

The 5 bells at All Saints Church are hundreds of years old.  The oldest bell was made in 1607 and the youngest in 1722. The tenor bell is famous in the bellringing world as it is the largest bell ever cast by Edward Tooke at his Foundry in Norwich and was made in 1675.  It bears the words “Edw: Tooke made me 1675”.  

 

The bells have not been rung full circle, in the traditional English way, for many decades and we feel the time has come to restore these magnificent bells to their former glory and enhance them by adding a 6th bell.  To do this, the bells will need to be removed and professionally restored, a new metal frame with new fixtures and fittings constructed and an additional bell added. 

 

Once the restoration work is completed, we plan to have an active ringing band and provide an opportunity for people to learn how to ring. The ringing of bells marks significant occasions in our lives and speaks of these events to everyone who can hear them ring out.  We are delighted that this may once again be a part of Filby Village life, as was for hundreds of years, and we hope the sound of the newly restored bells ringing will be something that the community will be proud of for many years to come.

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Bell ringing is just one of the many new activities that will take place in the church as part of its revival as a community hub.

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Nick Dawes – Chair of Trustees