Before he died in 2019 Sir Howard Guinness was keen to give a piece of land to our church in Glanvilles Wootton with a view to finding a permanent solution to issues around parking and access. Most people will be familiar with the current access and parking arrangements but maybe not the actual status of those arrangements.

The current carpark is on private land. Robert Frankcom very kindly allows the church to use this land and to access it by car along his private drive. Although it has been in place for a number of years this is a temporary arrangement. At any time, we could lose this parking at which point the church would become effectively landlocked, except by the footpath or along Rectory Drive. The alternative would be parking on the B3146 road through the village or on the first (public) part of Rectory Drive.

For many people in this village and surrounding areas the continuing survival of the church of St Mary’s Glanvilles Wootton as a functioning building is very important. We need to avoid a situation arising in which the Diocese of Salisbury opts to close the building, something they would be more likely to consider if access and parking became difficult. We believe that there may already be pressure to close a number of rural churches in our area, so the threat is real.

Sir Howard Guinness’ gift of the land to the Church finally completed last month. Subject to Planning approval being obtained and through agreement with the owners of The Old Rectory, to replace the existing right to access the church along the full length of Rectory Drive with a new right to access the gifted land, the PCC would like to use it for occasional parking primarily for church services. Nowadays there are typically two regular services a month plus a small number of weddings, christenings and funerals. The numbers attending the regular services are low and since some people walk to church there are relatively few cars. The car park we require would reflect this and be low key, there would be no lights, no tarmac, just an informal surface akin to that we currently have on the temporary car park. Furthermore, there would be no interruption of the public footpath that runs diagonally across the field.

We hope that people in Glanvilles Wootton, whether churchgoers or not, would like St Mary’s to continue as a living part of the village and will understand that this parking provision will help to achieve that.