As the Eco Angels trail draws to a close at the end of September, the impact is being celebrated in terms of inspiration and encouragement to all those involved from local schools, organisations and parishes.
The King, a Norfolk fungi expert, Lisa Simpson and a womble starred in the trail of ‘eco-angels’ linking 10 Norfolk country churches this summer. Twelve eco-angels have been on display in the churches from July 14 to September 30, with a pilgrim trail linking them all.
An added attraction was a specially devised 25-mile bike ride to see six of the hand-made models to coincide with the county-wide Norfolk Churches Trust Bike ride in mid-September.
Most of the real and fictional environmental champions were chosen and created from recycled or repurposed materials by children at local schools to pay tribute to people and characters who have helped to make the world a better place.
Some comments in church visitor books stated that folk had come specifically to see the Eco Angel trail.
“I really enjoyed cycling the routes to visit the Eco-Angels because I like being active and because it was better for the environment”, said Jacob, aged 12 “It was lovely seeing the different creations that the other schools had made, and seeing the way that had used lots of different recycled materials.”
Hannah, aged 10, said, “Some of the angels only used a few materials but they still looked amazing. Cycling to visit them was fun, but hard work because my gears stopped working and my chain came off!”
The Revd. Andrew Whitehead, Team Vicar for the Western Parishes of the Aylsham & District Team Ministry said, “In Cawston we get lots of visitors who come to see the church’s stunning medieval roof angels. This summer the Eco Angels trail has added an extra angel for them to see in the form of Uncle Bulgaria, made by the children at Cawston Primary Academy. We’ve had visitors who have come to see the timber angels and have been intrigued by the presence of a womble in the church, and we’ve had others who’ve come in search of Uncle Bulgaria and have discovered our wonderful medieval church building for the first time.”
Bishop Graham said: “In the Bible we find angels giving us messages from God. We have an angel announcing the birth of Jesus. Sometimes they bring joyful messages, sometimes a warning. These eco-angels have been carrying a message about how we look after this planet home that we have been given to share with all creation.”
He said the trail was a chance to explore some of our ‘treasure trove’ of Norfolk churches and talked of his ‘hope and prayer’ that ‘we who have been responsible for so much damage in the world might hear the message of these 12 angels.’
The Eco-Angels trail was created by churches in the Ingworth and Sparham Deanery, in partnership with Scrapbox, the Reepham-based re-use charity.
The trail included:
Cartoon character Lisa Simpson at St Peter’s church Easton, made from plastic bottles, cardboard and old clothes by the children of St Peter’s Primary Easton.
Robot film character WALL-E, who cleans up the rubbish on a future deserted and uninhabitable Earth, made from cardboard boxes by children from Hockering Primary Academy, and on display at St Michael’s, Hockering.
King Charles III in All Saints, Weston Longville. His Majesty was made by the children of Great Witchingham Primary Academy, who chose him in honour of his work for the environment.
A model made of crisp packets, of Lyng Primary Academy teaching assistant Julie Warnes, honoured at St Margaret’s, Lyng, by her pupils for her work ranging from recycling crisp packets to running a gardening club.
Womble, Uncle Bulgaria, made of newspaper, wool and old carpet tiles by the children of Cawston Primary Academy, in St Agnes, Cawston.
Fungi expert Dr Tony Leech in St Mary’s, Itteringham. He has been very involved in the work of the Norfolk and Norwich Naturalists Society and Norfolk Wildlife Trust and was modelled in recycled plastic, paper and wood by people at the Mannington estate.
Greta Thunberg made of recycled material from Norfolk’s craft recycling specialists Scrapbox, at All Saints, Marsham, by Crispin Clark and the Buxton Church Family.
Norfolk naturalist Ted Ellis at All Saints Church, Horstead, made in willow by Horstead Centre staff and visitors.
At Aylsham church models of author and conservationist Gerald Durrell, Elizabeth Wanjiru Wathuti who encourages young people to love the natural world and founded a charity in Kenya which has planted more than 30,000 trees, and ocean environmentalist Sylvia Earle were on display. They were created by children from St Michael’s Primary School and Nursery and John of Gaunt Infant and Nursery School, in Aylsham.