The following is an extract from the December 2020 news page and is written by The Revd Preb. Pippa Thorneycroft, MInister in Charge at St Bartholomew’s Tong.

“Over the first lockdown [2020] and until recently I have been busy recording the burials in the churchyard since 1901 as written up in the Burial Register, as well as scrubbing some of the older gravestones some of which date back to mid 18th century, though not all are legible. I have become very familiar with the names and when I received an enquiry recently from Australia about the Wedge family, I was able to reply with the touch of a few computer keys that there were 13 recorded including any information about their date of death, where they lived and their ages. The Ven George Frost and his wife Joyce have been instrumental in getting all this recorded on Word which will be available on our website. For the current lockdown I am going to start on the 757 entries in the Baptism register which ultimately will also be available on the website too. That register is now 100 years old. In our new arrangements around the South Porch ( the work is all but finished except for two major installations which are the glass doors and the bedding down of Humphrey Vernon Tomb top) there is a touch screen to which these registers will be added, but also the five films done by Geoff Ward and spoken by Simon Bates. They are very professional and well worth a look talking about the most salient points of the history of the church.”