A carving in memory of Ron Piggott who helped raise £94,000 for the essential repair and conservation work to St Mary’s Church Datchet has been created by Taplow based, Cliveden Conservation, who are currently working on the historic building. The carving which is made from Bath stone will be installed as part of the restoration project in December.
Ron Piggott who successfully steered a campaign to save St Mary’s Steeple sadly passed away this October, aged 82 before the works had been completed. In memory of his dedication, St Mary’s Church plan to replace the two worn figures on the steeple with carvings to represent Ron Piggott and the steeple whose repairs he championed as his final project.
Jem Hobbs who is a stone specialist for Cliveden Conservation (Main Contractor for the repair and restoration of St Mary’s Church) created the carving of RonPiggott from photographs provided by the family (video of carving being created https://vimeo.com/192240475)
“I felt honoured to create this carving of Ron Piggott to mark his incredible achievement. A clay maquette was made and then every detail has been hand carved in stone to create Ron’s likeness and capture his characteristics for years to come,” says Jem Hobbs of Cliveden Conservation.
Crowdfunding is now underway to raise a further £9000 for St Mary’s Church to create the other carving and to carry out more works to the stone work including replacing two worn griffins whilst the scaffolding is in place.
“St. Mary’s Church is very excited and pleased that our steeple is being restored and given a new lease of life for generations to come,” says Revd. Peter Wyard.”We hope that everyone who values the place of the steeple as an iconic landmark in the centre of Datchet, and everyone who loved and respected RonPiggott, will contribute to the crowdfunding campaign. Please do so urgently: November 30 is the deadline for giving the green light to the final work on the steeple.”
The carving will be installed by Cliveden Conservation during December along with the other planned works to St Mary’s Church. The church is thankful to everyone who has been involved in this restoration project including the village charities who have given generously