Testimonials

Six longer voices from the parish.

These are the people who do the work. Most of them sit in St Margaret's on a Sunday morning; some of them mow the yard on a Saturday; some come to evensong from outside the parish. Each was happy to be photographed and named. The trust thanks them.

Margaret, 78, seated at the end of an oak pew at St Margaret's, hands folded over a printed parish bulletin in her lap.

Above · Margaret Wittall in the second pew on the south side, March 2026.

Margaret, 78, white hair, grey cardigan, seated in a pew at St Margaret's.

Margaret · 78 · Great Barr

Vestry warden, 31 years

‘The thing I would tell you about the trustees is that they write back, by post. You write in and within the fortnight a letter on parish paper finds you. That is now a rare and welcome thing.'

Margaret has folded the vestments at St Margaret's every Saturday morning since 1995. She is the unofficial keeper of the cope-cupboard and the most reliable source of parish history before 1980.

Edward, 64, retired bus driver in a navy gilet, at the edge of the long-grass meadow strip in the churchyard.

Edward · 64 · Hamstead

Saturday mower, 17 years

‘My wife is buried in the south corner. The trust mows that corner first, in spring, every year. Nobody told them to. They simply have, since 2008.'

Edward retired from the Travel West Midlands depot in Hamstead in 2018 and has been on the mowing roll since 2008. He leads the autumn working party.

Pauline, 71, retired district nurse, kneeling between two limestone headstones in the south-east corner.

Pauline · 71 · Pheasey

Sacristan and burial-records transcriber

‘The orphrey on our Pentecostal frontal had a tear nearly the length of my hand. The trust met the conservator's fee in full. It came back better than it had been for fifty years.'

A retired district nurse, Pauline has been the parish sacristan since 2017 and runs the home-from-home Burial Records team.

James, 52, journeyman stonemason in a navy boilersuit, against a freshly dressed Hollington sandstone block.

James · 52 · Aldridge

Stonemason on the Fabric Fund roll

‘I have worked on twenty-three churches in the West Midlands. This trust gives the clearest brief and the most patient timescales of any client I have. I think because they have been doing it since 1891.'

James qualified as a stonemason in 1993 and has been on the trust's Fabric Fund roll since 2016, working on quoin replacement and string-course repairs.

Irene, 83, in a cream silk blouse and pearl brooch, seated at the organist's bench at St Margaret's.

Irene · 83 · Pheasey

Widow of the parish organist

‘My husband was the organist here for forty-two years. After he died, the trust paid for the organ to be voiced once a year so that the bench he sat at would not fall silent. That is, I think, charity in the old meaning.'

Irene has been a member of the electoral roll at St Margaret's since her marriage in 1964. The organ is voiced each January in her presence.

Thomas, 67, retired engineer, in a navy V-neck jumper, holding a sally rope in the ringing chamber.

Thomas · 67 · Streetly

Tower Captain since 2021

‘I came for the bells in 1979 and stayed for the tea. New sallies in 2022 trebled the Tuesday band. I am not sure I would have managed without that small grant.'

Thomas retired from an engineering practice in Walsall in 2019 and took over as Tower Captain in December 2021. He runs the Tuesday beginners' practice.

And yours?

If you would like to tell your own story of the trust — perhaps a long history with the church, or a recent encounter — we would be glad to hear it.

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