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From left - churchwarden Mike Edwards, Rev. Godfrey Simpson and churchwarden Dorothy Watson outside St Michael and All Angels Church, Guiting Power.

THE parishioners of Guiting Power have launched a campaign to restore a flagpole to the village church of St Michael and All Angels.

Churchwarden Mike Edwards said the cost of installing a new fibreglass flagpole and mountings was £1,200.

Letters have been sent out to parishioners asking them to make a donation to the appeal.

"No-one can remember the flagpole on the church this side of the war. They think it was last there in the late 1920s," said Mr Edwards.

"We are proud to be English and we need to express that Englishness occasionally," he said.

"It is the only public building we have got in the village and we need to let them know we are about," he added.

Vicar Reverend Godfrey Simpson said he was 100 per cent behind the campaign to restore the flagpole to the grade II listed church.

"There was a flagpole here before. We have a photograph of the church way back in 1903 and there was a flagpole on the tower. It has obviously been without a flag for many years," said Rev Simpson.

"We will fly the flag of St George. We are very patriotic," he added.

Mr Edwards said he has already secured the services of two young lads in the village to act as flag captains to fly the flag on special days, including, of course, St George's Day.

He said it would be "wonderful" if the flag could be flying over the church for St George's Day on April 23 this year but thought it may take a bit longer to raise the funds and get the work done.

The issue of the missing flagpole was first raised at the annual village assembly.

The church has to obtain a faculty from the Diocesan Authority Council in Gloucester to erect the pole.

A recent Sunday Times survey rated Guiting Power as one of the three most sought-after postcodes in Britain.

10:27am Thursday 27th March 2008

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