The church wall restoration project began in 1999 when four members of Lubenham Appraisal Group applied to enter the Better Villages competition. Their nominated challenge was the rebuilding of the deteriorating church wall.

In June 1999 it was announced that Lubenham had won a first prize of £5000 which enabled work to begin.

The first stages(from our records)
Months of planning were undertaken - with quantities of material, storage areas, safety matters, arranging professional help on dry stonewalling and iron railing repairs.

March 2000 saw the first of many work parties and lots of local volunteers under the expert guidance of Trevor Alcock a member of the dry stone walling association.

June 2001 Update
Our wall project has won joint second place in the Village Ventures Competition recently run by the Rural Community Council and sponsored by the Leicester Mercury. The award carried a £50 prize, which has been added to the Wall account.

Phase Two is now complete and, as well as finishing it, our hardy volunteers also cleared the path from the South Porch to the steps and set gateposts at the top of the steps. The path looks good, and was much appreciated by Julie and Mark at their wedding last month! The steps have also been repaired. A huge thank you to everyone who helped!

There is some stone left over which may be suitable for garden rockeries or walls. If you would like some, in return for a small donation to the Wall fund, please contact Diana Cook on 464890. We can help with transporting it within the village if necessary.

There has been some debate about the rest of the wall (fiom the yew tree to the end of the churchyard). Some people think it should be continued in line with the what we have done; others hold that, since that part, along an extension to the churchyard, was originally a cut stone and not a dry stone wall, it should be restored only to its former state. (Others feel that they are weary from their efforts and that unless additional regular strong volunteer help can be mustered, the project is more than they can manage.)

In order to build a dry stone wall additional permissions will be required, since this part of the churchyard is still used for burials. Almost certainly the width of the wall will have to be increased, to do it properly with backing stone, and this might entail extending further on to the grass verge - which may be a problem. We would be interested to hear the views of others in the village so that those involved can make a decision.

We hope there will be enough funds to restore and rehang the gates on the north side of the church. Our bank balance currently stands at around £3,500.

August 2002 update
When we asked villagers for their views on how the church wall should be completed, only a disappointing 51 voting papers out of 305 delivered were returned. However, I am pleased to confirm that the majority wish for the wall to be finished using the dry stone wall method. (The poll carried out on this site indicated 81% in favour of the dry stone wall method). This will match that already rebuilt and the job will then be complete.

David Blair has successfully negotiated with the Listed Buildings section of the planning department of Harborough District Council, and they have no reservations about our intention to rebuild the remainder of the wall. At its last meeting the Lubenham Appraisal Steering Committee agreed to fund the necessary faculty and Trevor has indicated that he will be available again to complete the works during August

From our archives 2002
The Church wall project was completed in 2002. For more pictures go to our historical gallery of pictures.

Sadly before phase 3 began one of the founder project planners (David Blair) died. Donations in his memory, gifted to the church wall project, provided for the restoration of the main gates leading to the church. His brothers and family from Yorkshire had heard so much about the project and had been shown the wall frequently on family visits that they were inspired to join us to help with the last phase in David's memory. This enabled the project to finish ahead of time and were were pleased to be able to share the moment of completion of David's work with them.