Building Project
February – Update on Church Reordering
End February
We can now report that the last of the pews have been disposed of, which means that thanks to Mike Clark, all the pews have gone to “good homes”. Work started this week to lift and relocate a couple of the ledger stones (grave slabs) in the tower, ready for work to install an accessible toilet and associated plumbing on the south side. On the fundraising side, we are delighted to report that the Benefact Trust have granted us £12,000 and we raised a further £13,000 for “teas and tours” thanks to some very generous people. We are still hoping for further grants in March and are confident that we now have sufficient funds to complete the project, but we would like to raise a further £70,000 to replenish reserves.
Mid February
Good progress is being made on work inside the church and the project is on schedule. The underfloor heating pipes have been laid, with screed over the top, the walls are being replastered up to about six feet and a couple of the radiators have already been fitted. The new gas boiler has been installed in the boiler room on the north side of the church that will generate heat for the underfloor heating and radiators. The next big piece of work is the accessible toilet in the tower and a new foul water drain through the churchyard to connect with the existing drain that leads from the parish centre to the main road. This work is scheduled for March.
There are challenges to laying a foul water drain from the new toilet in the tower through the churchyard to the main drain that leads from the Parish Centre out to Ferry Lane. As the churchyard is in a Conservation Area, we need to minimise any damage to tree roots and to burials, which are not mapped. At present, the project is still on track to be finished in April, in time for us to return to church for Easter.
Bernadette Clark and Mark Stockdale
Major re-ordering project at Holy Trinity Church
The church building at Holy Trinity will be closed for major re-ordering works including a new heating system and installation of an accessible toilet from 7 October to 29 March 2025.
The church has been without a heating system since 2019, and we have been making do with a temporary boiler which blows hot air into the building. The church has been bitterly cold in the winter months. We now have authority from the Diocese to lay underfloor heating in the nave and south aisle which will provide constant background heat, supplemented by wall mounted radiators there, and in the east end of the church. To do this, the pews will need to be lifted and new cream coloured stone will be laid in the nave and south aisle, in the areas where the pews are now. This will match the stone in the chancel and side chapels. It is not practical to reinstate the pews (they are in poor condition after over 160 years’ service) so we will replace them with free standing chairs, some with arms, that will allow the church to be used for a variety of events as well as church services. On completion of the work, the church will look much brighter, and all the floors will be covered in a mix of new cream coloured stone and the red and black chequer pattern tiles.
