Villagers leap at rare chance to jump over Barrowby church weathervane

Parishioners of a village church had the rare opportunity to jump over its weathervane.

Repair work has been taking place over the last few weeks to the tower and steeple at All Saints’ Church, in Barrowby.

New louvres were fixed to the tower windows to keep the church bell ringers warm and dry, and part of the steeple was repointed.

As the peacock weathervane was inspected it was found to also need repair work, and so it was brought down to the ground.

Church lay reader Kate Waghorn said: “Church weather vanes don’t come down to earth very often – we think ours was last down in the 1980s – so once the repairs were completed we gave our church family a socially distanced chance to jump over the weathervane.

“Each ‘jumper’ was given a certificate, just in case people don’t believe they’ve done it – now that the peacock is back on top of our spire.”

It was fun for all ages – the youngest jumper was just two months and the oldest in their 80s.

Kate added: “In different times, we would have loved to share this opportunity with our village community, but sadly we weren’t able to do that this time.

“Thank you to Cedar Steeplejacks for carrying out the repairs, and Shaun Kitching, of S&G Site Installation Services, for restoring our peacock to its former glory.”