MEMBERS of the community gave a warm welcome to Princess Anne when she visited Minchinhampton parish church this afternoon.

Her Royal Highness is patron for the 6PS campaign, protecting the past, preserving the present and planning for posterity.

 The church is aiming to raise £1.25 million over the next five-years to pay for renovations including underfloor heating, removing the pews for more flexible seating, refurbishing the main entrance to make it more welcoming and paying for major repairs to the organ. 

Nearly £500,000 has already been raised thanks to a major legacy from David Thomas, granted through the David Thomas Trust Fund, who was a valued member of the congregation until his death in 2012.

 The Princess Royal was treated to a short tour of Holy Trinity Church where she met various groups of people including the fundraising team, members of the planning committee and other friends of the church.

The Rev Helen Bailey welcomed HRH and thanked her for attending the event, before introducing the vision behind the re-ordering and its importance to the Minchinhampton community.

HRH gave a short speech where she praised the planning and organisation of the project.

She said: “This church has been the centre of Minchinhampton for a very long time.

“I do think that you have sensibly planned for the future and the time scale for fundraising is certainly a reasonable one and I wish you well with that.

“I believe that the renovations will allow for a much wider range of events and I offer my congratulations for the committee recognising that pews are not the be all and end all of churches.”

Princess Anne was not the only guest with Vice Admiral Sir Timothy Laurence, Dame Janet Trotter, Rt Hon The Countess Bathurst, Rt Hon The Earl Bathurst, Cllr Nick Hurst and Mrs Kathy Hurst also in attendance.