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Baker, 90, raises £30k for church window repairs

Luke Deal
BBC News, Suffolk
Reporting fromMarket Weston
Alice Cunningham
BBC News, Suffolk
Luke Deal/BBC Gerry Smith smiles at the camera. He wears a light green cowboy hair, blue coat and purple polo t-shirt underneath.Luke Deal/BBC
Ninety-year-old Gerry Smith raised £30,000 to help replace windows in his local church

A baker said it was "incredible" he had helped raise £30,000 with his bakes toward replacing a church's windows.

Six years ago St Mary's Church, in Market Weston on the Suffolk-Norfolk border close to Bury St Edmunds, started a project to replace its worn out Victorian windows.

However it faced a cost of £100,000, something churchwarden Richard Chatham said they "could never have envisaged".

Gerry Smith, 90, decided to help by selling cakes and sausage rolls, raising thousands toward the project which has now been completed.

Richard Chatham A view of a church window inside St Mary's Church. The large altar sits in front of the window with steps leading up to it.Richard Chatham
The church started with one window before moving on to the others

"The Victorian windows that were put in had buckled and were very frail," Mr Chatham explained.

"They were held in position with iron bars. The iron bars had rusted and had forced and separated all the masonry holding them up."

The church used props to support the windows, but they knew they would need to be replaced.

After initially focusing on one large window, Mr Chatham said interest gathered in fundraising to work on more.

"Once people could see a window was under way and we were able to do another, it gathered momentum and we achieved our goal over the next six years - we've just finished," he added.

Luke Deal/BBC Churchwarden Richard Chatham smiles at the camera. He is largely bald with some grey hair around the side of his head. He wears a blue gilet with a white jumper underneath.Luke Deal/BBC
Churchwarden Richard Chatham praised Mr Smith's efforts as well as the wider community's

Mr Smith, who lives in the village, only learned how to bake when he was about 82.

"A Victoria sponge costs £6 on my stall and I made £30,000 plus the sausage rolls and steak and Guinness pies," he said.

This meant he sold 5,000 cakes over the project and he added he never thought he'd be able to sell so much.

"It's God-given, the gift that I can bake," he continued. "I must be good at it because people buy it.

"It's just been incredible, there's been a lot of praise."

Richard Chatham A view of St Mary's Church. Grave stones sit in the church yard outside the church and wild flowers in a variety of colours grow around the yard.Richard Chatham
Twelve windows at St Mary's Church in Market Weston have been replaced thanks to a community effort and grants

Mr Chatham said Mr Smith had been a "great catalyst" for the project.

"Everybody has contributed in different ways, but Gerry's baking has underpinned that all the way through," he said.

"We're really grateful... it's been a wonderful process and really beyond our dreams that it has come to fruition."

The project was also supported by grants including from the Suffolk Historic Churches Trust and the Alfred Williams Charitable Trust.

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