Audlem in Gossip magazines

Each month, the AudlemOnline team sends a 500-word article about the village to the publishers of the Whitchurch Gossip and Market Drayton Gossip magazines.

These excellent publications are widely (and freely) distributed in North Shropshire and many in Audlem see a copy, particularly of the Whitchurch magazine. Many of our readers, however, are outside their distribution area.

We thought you might like to read what we said about the village this month:

Audlem's Amazing Grace goes world-wide

The south Cheshire Village of Audlem, population 1,791, has seen well over half its population singing an up-beat version of 'Amazing Grace' to help raise £100,000 to pay for a local resident's cancer treatment as it is not available on the NHS.

The video has been seen on many national and regional TV news bulletins, across Europe and nationally on Canada's CTV news. It also attracted a double page spread in the Daily Express.

As reported in last month's Gossip, this summer, Berni Cliffe's two daughters started a fund-raising website called Mend our Mum after Berni was diagnosed with stage four gall bladder cancer. Ideas started to flow in as well as donations and sponsorships. A mass fancy dress walk, special meals, quiz nights and so much more have been underway.

Then, in one of Audlem's pubs, up popped the idea of a DVD that could go on sale before Christmas and, hopefully, go much wider via social media, YouTube and iTunes. The Audlem Music Festival team jumped at the idea and since mid-November, they have been filming groups and individuals, all singing the well-known song 'Amazing Grace'. Well over a thousand singers are involved in many locations including a finale on the church mound.

It's so professionally produced – even though all the production team are local – that the DVD and its audio version are selling really well. The audio, just two days after going on iTunes, topped the Religious & Gospel chart and was climbing the overall charts rapidly. Even the village website AudlemOnline has had over 10,000 viewings of the video.

It can be found by searching Mend our Mum on iTunes and Google Play while you can donate by going to gofundme.co/cij464

Tim Lawton, who runs a local hairdressing business, was the man with the video idea while local dynamo Ralph Warburton took up the challenge. He gathered his Audlem Music Festival team around him, a group that includes a self-taught but technically brilliant film editor; the owner of the village recording studio; and experienced musicians – all with that vital ingredient, enthusiasm.

Over 300 man hours went into filming and editing, with over 200 minutes of footage edited down to 3.5 minutes while the credits reads like the local telephone directory.

The DVD has kept selling out and its success is the talking point of the area.

TV crews have been a regular sight in the village over December and that has garnered support and donations from across the United Kingdom and overseas. Almost £20,000 came in after one broadcast on the BBC Breakfast Show while the Charity Quiz in The Lord Combermere, one of Audlem's three pubs, raised a staggering £5,300 on the night.

Over £85,000 of the target £100,000 has now been raised and Berni and her two daughters Hannah and Terri are quite overwhelmed by the support of the Audlem community and the interest in the Amazing Grace video for Mend our Mum.

Mend our Mum are the words you need to search iTunes, Google and YouTube to enjoy this wonderful video and song sung by 1,100 villagers.

Almost ten years ago when the government, through Defra, set out to find the most community spirited village in England, Audlem won the top spot out of England's fifty counties. This latest effort shows that its community spirit this Christmas is still burning very brightly.

This article is from our news archive. As a result pictures or videos originally associated with it may have been removed and some of the content may no longer be accurate or relevant.