Early in 2025 we will be starting building work in the north-west corner of St Mary’s Church. The main reason for this work is to repair plasterwork on the walls in the north-west corner. Removing pews, panelling and plaster and improving drainage and ventilation will help address problems of rising damp, and replacing the plaster and pointing with a type more suited to the building will help prevent problems occurring in future.
As part of this work, instead of putting the existing pews back in place, we plan to:
- Level the floor to create a new, flexible open space. This can be used for wheelchair seating, overspill from our family corner, small groups and more, whilst still allowing us to put out chairs for busy services where needed.
- Replace the current temporary AV desk and cabling with a more permanent solution, making it more comfortable for operators, improving robustness of our service streaming, hiding away cables more neatly, improving storage of equipment and future-proofing our technology.
- Create much-needed new storage space within the church, making it easier to store things close to where they’re needed and in turn freeing up space elsewhere.
During this time there will be some changes within the church building to allow the work to take place and keep everyone safe. In particular:
- Some areas of the church will be blocked off and inaccessible.
- Dust covers will be placed on some parts of the church, in particular the organ and some monuments.
We are expecting all of our usual services to run as normal, although there may be some disruption to things like the availability of our family corner and to our service streaming. We’ll do everything we can to keep this disruption to a minimum.
Timeline
The approximate timeline for this project is as follows. This is only an estimate, as working with ancient and listed buildings can be complex and plans may need to change partway through.
Early February
- Get things ready for building work to begin, set up dust screens and move our AV equipment.
Mid-February
- Remove the existing pews and wall panelling.
- Remove the pew flooring, adjust its level and replace it.
Late February and early March
- Remove existing plasterwork.
- Make adjustments to the stone flooring.
Mid-March
- Fit new cabling and sockets.
- Improve the French drain around the outside of the walls.
- Finish joinery work and reinstall AV equipment.
April
- Once the walls have dried out, replace internal plasterwork.
- Weather permitting, replace external pointing where needed.
Later
- Once the plasterwork has fully dried, decorate as necessary.
Documents
Drawings
