Community aim to raise £1.6m via a community share crowdfunding scheme to buy the vicarage in Olney and use the building to create the Everything Amazing Grace Museum
John Newton's Vicarage is currently up for sale and has tremendous historical significance for Olney town.
St Peter and St Paul Church has visitors from all over the world as John Newton is buried in the cemetery. Further promotion of this, by making it the Everything Amazing Grace Museum, could increase footfall and revenues for Olney. The forming of the Olney Community Circular Walk and High Street Heritage Walk will also assist with creating a day's visit to Olney for coaches and overseas visitors increasing length of stay visitor spend.
Raising this money and buying this historical house and gardens will allow Olney to seek to use for academia (seeking to work with universities with Cowper collections, such as Yale and Princeton in America), research around Cowper & Newton’s collaboration, 'Amazing Grace', its words and meaning and why it is so popular including preservation of the words on the walls of John Newton’s study at the vicarage, The beautiful gardens could be a garden of peace espousing the acts and deeds of John Newton and William Cowper and how we can use these today in the 21st Century.
Wedding and reception packages could be considered working in partnership with St Peter and St Paul Church with a wedding in the church and receptions in the museum gardens using local catering companies during the Summer months. It is proposed this will raise much of the yearly running costs of the venue.
The minimum investment is £25 and the maximum £100,000.
Please send your expressions of interest to the below address / email
Colin Rodden (Olney Councillor and Resident)
Big Sky House, 116 Weston Road, Olney, Bucks MK46 5BH
07515 285575
Mosaic.initiative@talk21.com
