The Church is the only permanent public structure in the village where people can gather indoors and we would like to make more use of it. The Parochial Church Council have spoken to the diocese and found them supportive as they have seen many churches go through a process of improvement and modernisation so that they remain at the heart of local communities.
A group of villagers recently founded the Friends of St Botolph's Stow Longa to try to raise the funds and generate the ideas to help to make better use of the church. You can find out more on the FoSB page and by looking for events on the Event Diary page.

How can I help?

Welll... there's always fund raising.
An email describing what the monument means to you and the village, how you remember it and how much it will mean to have it restored would be something I can offer to the Heritage Lottery fund to support our claim for funds from them.
We can also put together some sort of event during the year that involves people. A grand reveal celebration when the work is complete for instance. We need to show our support for the work and perhaps host an event that involves people to show how the heritage has benefitted from the project such as a presentation by the history society. If we can show that we have generated memories for our neighbours that will last, then we can demonstrate the benefit the project has for our village.
We can also count some of our voluntary labour towards the costs of the project. So if you think you can help, let me know.

Jon Young

On the triangle in the middle of the village there is a comfortable seat and the monument colloquially called The village cross. It was scheduled in 1951 and the details that were recorded at the time noted that
"It is of the 15th century and of stone with a moulded base. The octagonal shaft is complete and at half its height are four defaced carvings, perhaps of half-figures. The cross has a modern head, replacing a 17th-century ball, now in the vicarage garden, and stands on three modern steps. Condition—Good."
The condition, these sixty five years later, is no longer good and in fact it badly needs some restoration and repair.
Various structural repairs have been carried out in its chequered history. Not all of them were very sympathetic, but our knowledge of such things has improved in the meantime and so we see those repairs as insensitive nowadays.

• In the 1860s after it was accidentally knocked down, the fox weather vane, now on the village sign, was mounted on top.
• In 1902, it was repaired and renovated by the architect who repaired and refurbished the church, Sidney Inskip Ladds (ARIBA). He added the steps around its base. It isn't clear if the stone cross was added at this time or in work done in 1926 when cement was used to repair the base.
• The cross seems to have had another fall in 1972 when the cross was deemed beyond repair and a stone lantern structure topped with a pyramid was added.
• Most recently, the monument was blown over in a storm in 1993, after much discussion that lasted until 1997, the structure was truncated and capped with the ball we now see to the dismay of the local villagers who had wanted the more imposing structure to be reinstated. The ball was specially made, copied from the original, for the monument when the original did not survive the work to put it back on the column.

Our monument now needs the attention of a specialist repairer and the approval for any work from Cambridgeshire County Council and Historic England. We have been working with the local authorities to define what needs to be done and what can be done, and will continue to work to gain the required approvals and appoint specialists to make the repairs. The process is not a quick one.
The current appearance of the cross that includes the globe on top of two segments of the stone pillar is not popular and is not what the cross once was. It has had various appearances over the years and, where it has lost parts as old age has over taken it, those parts have been rescued and retained so that they could be reinstated in future.
We are now looking at the options we have to reinstate the cross to a more significant appearance and resemble the more imposing monument that it once was.
The structure will have to be dismantled completely, right down to the foundations. The mortar that was used previously will need to be removed and replaced with lime mortar and the iron rod that was inserted into the pillar must be removed and replaced with a more stable stainless steel version that will not rust and burst the stones apart as may have already happened causing cracks to appear.

The trees on the green were planted within the last seventy years and have grown to be very close to the cross. Our proposal is to reinstate some of the height of the monument and this would bring it into the canopy of the tree as you can see in the photos. We can either prune the tree or move the cross. The tree would be easier and the better archeological choice.

Whether we trim the tree or move the cross, both options are bound to find both supporters and opponents. In dismantling the cross so completely, it is possible to install the new foundations in a new location, so moving the cross would be part of the repair work that is required and allow us to site it so that it would not conflict with the boughs of the trees.
Reinstating some of the height of the monument and the replacing the cross at its top, rebuilding the foundations and structure using the correct materials is an expensive process.
We would like to invite anyone who would like to help to consider ideas for fund raising, so that we can contribute to the restoration as a village, along with our Parish Council's efforts to raise funds from local authority budgets and other sources such as the Heritage Lottery Fund.
If you would like to have your say about the restoration, please come along to the next Parish Council meeting where you can speak during the public forum.
We would like to thank Max Turner for his involvement since 2009, one of a number of villagers who have volunteered to help restore the cross over the years. You can talk directly to Max on 860 661 or your parish councillor now looking after the project, Jon Young, on 861 523 if you prefer.

We have been trying to get the Post Office to move out post box to the other side of the green for a number of years.
The old one will remain, but be closed and a new box would be mounted on a post near the telegraph pole outside the Old Chapel.
This would make it safer to get to along the foot path, cause less damage to the verge and prevent Post Office and other vehicles from parking on a blind bend.

We would like to plant some commemorative trees in the Church grounds, replacing some that have died, to remember parishioners Peggy Convine and Ray Convine who were so important to the village. Peggy organising events and raising money for the Church, and Rae who was a Parish Councillor for so many years.

This is now a completed project!
The Parish Council took over the ownership of the BT telephone box. The telephone itself was removed with the electrical supply.
We are grateful for the efforts of our parishioners who have volenteered to help restore the box which now looks amazing, fresh and new in its coat of red paint.
Thanks go to Steve Butcher and Andy Griffiths for their efforts.