St. Botolph’s Church, more commonly known as ‘The Stump’ by locals, is currently undergoing restoration work and the Church runs a programme that allows people to sponsor a Lego brick that will help fund the works.
Due to the Church’s location being on flat ground near the sea, the Church and Boston itself have always been at risk of flooding and the current works will also hopefully help prevent damages from floods, with the most recent flood being back in 2013, which saw 2ft of water inside of the Church.
Not only can you sponsor a Lego brick, you are also able to pick where you’d like to place it on the design of the Church. Adam Kelk, Head Verger at St. Botolph’s Church, spoke about the restorations and what the Lego construction actually means, he said: “We are actually the first Parish Church to have a Lego model of the Church, people come in and sponsor a brick for a pound, there is one hundred thousand bricks, that’s the target”.
The Church itself is still under restoration and it will hopefully be finished by the end of the year, Adam explained: “we are hoping that the capital works will be done by the end of the year, we have got a lot of community work going on through 2020 and hopefully we will build on it from there”.
Neil Whitfield, a Boston local who lives just minutes away from the Stump, said about the works: “they’ve been going on for a while and hopefully when they’re done there wont be too much trouble with it, thankfully its still accessible and a lot of people seem to go every week”.
Symon Akel, who works with a company assisting the restoration works, said: “It’s not the usual way of raising money but its a good idea and it’s helping keep something important in good shape.
“we’re not sure on an accurate timeframe of it all being completed but the donations made to the building is helping push the work to be done”.
Just under 50% of the money raised for the restoration works was from the National lottery Heritage Fund, helping preserve the Church for future generations with works to the west side of the tower and inside of the Church, £2.7 million was raised via the fund and the works should be finished by the end of this year.