Little Chapel project 'out of money before the year is up'

Thursday 15 November 2018

The restoration project for Guernsey's Little Chapel will run out of money before the end of December, according to its Head of Fundraising.

Jack Honeybill said it is not the end of the world, however, as the team are about to kickstart a new fundraising campaign for their new future plans.

The restoration project is costing the Little Chapel Foundation approximately £6,000 a month for works to continue, and the project as a whole is "going well", but the money fundraised over the last few years has dried up.

"We only have enough money to last the next month or so - we have lots of ambition but it is all subject to costs - we will run out of money before the end of December," Mr Honeybill said.

"It is not the end of the world though, we now have these plans for the future that we are preparing to unveil, and we have some money pledged to us, so a contingency plan is in hand and a new round of fundraising is about to begin."

Mr Honeybill said the next thing on the agenda for the Foundation was to give the final stamp to their new plans for the future of the chapel, and then release them. Express will report these plans when they are released, but a new fundraising drive is sure to accompany their publication. 

Most recently, the renovation work at the Chapel has included the re-installation of a church bell. The bell, which was donated, is a bronze bell forged in 1898 for a schooner called 'Liverpool' - that ship sank off of Alderney on its way to San Francisco in 1902. 

As far as the work is concerned, things have been progressing well, and while Mr Honeybill said they could spend more money if they had it on projects such as having dead trees professionally taken down, they were still on track.

"Things are going well, the restoration is probably going to take a maximum of two more years to finish completely," he said.

"We do keep finding new things when we uncover areas that we have to then tackle, we have got to make sure the building is stable so are always planning for those unfortunate discoveries. There are certainly some hidden costs that we are yet to encounter."

For the whole project and the contents of these upcoming plans to be finished, Mr Honeybill said the committee would need another £1m. But this would include work on the surrounding gardens, the construction of new infrastructure like an entrance pathway, and also the potential erection of an information centre overlooking the chapel.

Pictured top: The Head of Fundraising for the Little Chapel Foundation, Jack Honeybill.