www.stmaryspurton.org.uk https://www.stmaryspurton.org.uk:443 News for www.stmaryspurton.org.uk en-gb Wed, 31 Mar 2021 00:00:00 +0100 Copyright: (C) St Mary's Church 15 Renewal Progress - March 2021 stmaryspurton_11349 Wed, 31 Mar 2021 00:00:00 +0100 General. Site cleared. General tidy up. Electrical works. No work Heating works. No work Toilet. Minor finishing off work Dais. No work Kitchen. No work Lighting. No work Plaster/stonework repairs. No further work. Limewashing. Minor finishing off Ringing Chamber Screen. Glass panels finally installed and sealed Flooring. No work Other. No work Lady Chapel. Glazed screens installed ]]> https://www.stmaryspurton.org.uk:443/306/Renewal-Progress---March-2021 Renewal Progress - February 2021 stmaryspurton_29330 Sun, 28 Feb 2021 18:03:00 +0000 General. All scaffolding removed except inside the Ringing Chamber where it is still needed for the glass screen installation. Electrical works. Minor finishing-off work.  Heating works. The pipework was completed and most of the radiators were installed (delivery of two radiators still delayed). The boiler was commissioned and the heating system  tested. Church heating was restored on a permanent basis to start drying out the plaster and limewash. Toilet. All sanitaryware and fittings installed. All floor and wall finishes completed and doors hung. Dais. All joinery work completed. Work on new tiled area delayed while suitable tiles are sourced. Kitchen. Water boiler installed. Lighting. Lighting installation commissioned. Plaster/stonework repairs. No further work. Limewashing. Limewashing was completed in all areas except for minor repair patches. Ringing Chamber Screen. No further work as delivery of the glass panels is delayed. Flooring. Final floor repairs completed and existing timber flooring sanded. Other. Font moved from the back of the Nave to its new position near the front. Braydon memorials reinstalled on the south wall of the St Nicholas Chapel. Old pulpit repositioned on the north wall. Lady Chapel. Chancel flooring extended under the Lady Chapel arch. Joinery for the glazed screens installed. ]]> https://www.stmaryspurton.org.uk:443/414/Renewal-Progress---February-2021 Renewal Progress - January 2021 stmaryspurton_10937 Sun, 31 Jan 2021 16:17:00 +0000 General. Most of the scaffolding in the Nave, the north and south aisles, the chapels and the crossing were taken down. A scaffold was erected to limewash the accessible walls either side of the organ.  Electrical works. Wiring for the dais was installed. Sockets and appliances were connected in the kitchen. Heating works. A start was made on the new heating pipework in the Nave. Toilet. Most of the plastering and floor finishes were completed and ventilation fans installed. Dais. Work started on the dais. The floor strengthening was completed and most of the dais framework was constructed.  Kitchen. All the units and worktops were fitted. The ovens were installed. See also electrical works. Lighting. Minor installations only. Plaster/stonework repairs. Final plaster repairs completed Limewashing. Limewashing at high level was completed allowing the scaffolding to be brought down.  Ringing Chamber Screen. Steelwork was completed: further progress awaits delivery of glass panels. The heating unit for the ringing chamber was installed. Flooring. Floor strengthening was carried out below the dais and the pulpit areas. Other. No work Lady Chapel. No work ]]> https://www.stmaryspurton.org.uk:443/288/Renewal-Progress---January-2021 Renewal Progress - December 2020 stmaryspurton_10716 Sat, 19 Dec 2020 19:48:00 +0000 General. An extra scaffold platform was created for work on the Ringing Chamber screen. Electrical works. Wiring of lighting circuits was completed. Also wiring in the toilet area was completed. Heating works. The new boiler was delivered and moved into the boiler shed Toilet. Internal partitioning and plasterboarding was completed. Installion of the water heater also completed and work started on ventilation ducting. Dais. No work Kitchen. Water supply and drainage pipework all ready on plywood frame. Lighting. Most luminaires were installed throughout the church Plaster/stonework repairs. Repair work continued and was mostly completed. Limewashing. Limewashing continued throughout the month. More coats were needed, than expected, and cold temperatures are also slowing progress. Ringing Chamber Screen. On the last working day (18th) before the Christmas break, the steelwork for the screen was delivered and installed. Flooring. No work Other. No work Lady Chapel. No work ]]> https://www.stmaryspurton.org.uk:443/273/Renewal-Progress---December-2020 Renewal Progress - November 2020 stmaryspurton_10715 Sat, 19 Dec 2020 19:24:00 +0000 General. No work. Electrical works. Rewiring of the majority of the lighting circuits was completed and work began on making good the chases in the wall plaster. The power cables for the kitchen sockets/appliances were fixed to the west wall with the tails routed through cutouts in the plywood frame (see Kitchen). Heating works. Circulating pump and pressure vessel installed in void below toilet floor. Toilet. The joists for the new floor were fixed and the underfloor cabling and pipes were installed. The new roof was built and work began on the internal partitioning. Dais. No work Kitchen. A plywood frame, with cutouts for all the electrical fittings, was attached to the west wall where the kitchen units will eventually be installed.  Lighting. Work began on fixing some of the luminaires. Plaster/stonework repairs. Areas of damaged and/or unstable plaster were identified and cut out. Some areas, such as on the south wall of the St Nicholas Chapel and on the north wall of the North Aisle were quite large because of damage from previous water ingress. Repair work began using lime plaster. Limewashing. Limewashing walls and ceilings continued throughout the month. Ringing Chamber Screen. No work.  Flooring. No work Other. No work Lady Chapel. No work. However, at the end of the month, improvements in our funding situation allowed us to accept the Contractor's quote for the the glazed screens to enclose the Lady Chapel. This work can now proceed in parallel with the rest of the work. ]]> https://www.stmaryspurton.org.uk:443/272/Renewal-Progress---November-2020 Renewal Progress - October 2020 stmaryspurton_10428 Sat, 31 Oct 2020 19:07:00 +0000 General. The birdcage scaffold was completed throughout the church. This is up to 3 storeys high and gives safe, secure access to all walls and ceilings Electrical works. The main activity this month was the stripping out all the old defective lighting circuits and installing new wiring. Most of this wiring is routed up the central tower staircase and then distributed to the different parts of the church along the timber wallplates at ceiling level. Work began on cutting chases in the walls, down from the wallplates, to the locations for the new light fittings. Heating works. The heating pipes and cabling were laid from the boiler house to the church and the trench backfilled. The removal of the old boiler was completed. Toilet. The door opening between the church and the new toilet room was created. This was a major activity of critical significance as the opening was cut through the 0.7m thick Victorian west wall just below a large window. All went well, the new lintels were fixed securely in place and the stonework each side of the opening was made good. The existing roof of the toilet room was removed in preparation for its replacement with a new, slightly higher roof that will give the required headroom for this space. Dais. No work Kitchen. Work on the underfloor cabling and drainage was completed. Lighting. See Electrical works Plaster/stonework repairs. No work started but an initial assessment was made of the areas where plaster repair was needed. Limewashing. Cleaning all the exposed roof timbers and ceilings began - at times a very messy, dusty task! This allowed limewashing to begin on the Chancel ceiling. Ringing Chamber Screen. No work Flooring. No work Other. No work Lady Chapel. No work ]]> https://www.stmaryspurton.org.uk:443/259/Renewal-Progress---October-2020 Renewal Progress - September 2020 stmaryspurton_9973 Wed, 30 Sep 2020 16:46:00 +0100 General. After taking possession of the Church on 14th September, the contractor established the site compound, set up toilets and converted the Choir vestry into an office/welfare area. Most of the protection work was then carried out - for the tiled flooring,  monuments, wall paintings and items that were still stored in Church. Work began on the birdcage scaffold that would eventually allow access to all the walls and ceilings. Electrical works. All electric circuits were disconnected. Work started on some of the new underfloor cables. Heating works. The existing heating system was drained down, radiators were disconnected and the old boiler was partially dismantled. Outside the Church blockwork walls were built inside the shed for the new boiler house and the heating pipe trench was dug. Toilet. No work Dais. No work Kitchen. Work began on the underfloor drainage from the new kitchen. Lighting. No work Plaster/stonework repairs. No work Limewashing. No work Ringing Chamber Screen. No work Flooring. No work Other. No work Lady Chapel. No work

 

See September 2020 photos.

]]> https://www.stmaryspurton.org.uk:443/240/Renewal-Progress---September-2020 Renewal Progress - start date announced! stmaryspurton_8951 Mon, 31 Aug 2020 13:02:00 +0100 https://www.stmaryspurton.org.uk:443/206/Renewal-Progress---start-date-announced Renewal Progress - close to contract sign-off stmaryspurton_8833 Mon, 03 Aug 2020 13:02:00 +0100 It has been a long time since our last update on the Renewal Project in April. At that time we were hopeful that work could start in June – this proved far too optimistic! The disruption caused by Covid has meant that finalising a contract has been difficult and protracted. However, we are now into the last lap and expect the contract sign-off within 2 weeks and the work to start in early September.

As reported in April we do not currently have sufficient funds for the Lady Chapel enclosure so this element of work will not be in Phase 1. We have left open the possibility of extending the contract to include this work later in the year, if the funding situation changes – by securing more grants, further donations or by committing more church reserves. We do pray that the extra funding will be realised in the next few months - for the added mission benefits that the enclosed Lady Chapel will bring, especially for teaching children, for meetings and as a separate, quiet space for reflection and prayer.

Six months ago we confidently expected to celebrate Christmas 2020 in the renewed Church. This is not possible now, but Easter 2021 is! – please do pray that we will be able to meet again in Church by that time.

]]> https://www.stmaryspurton.org.uk:443/192/Renewal-Progress---close-to-contract-sign-off Renewal Progress - start of contract negotiations stmaryspurton_8834 Fri, 10 Apr 2020 13:18:00 +0100 Great news! We have now started negotiations with one of the Church Renewal tenderers and hope to agree a contract by early May. Of course, in the current situation, we don’t know for sure when the contractor will be allowed to start work in Church but we hope it will be soon.  In the meantime, we’ve being doing some preparatory work – including moving the old pulpit to a temporary location!

The funding situation continues to be difficult, as it is for many charitable organisations at this time, and when an important grant application was unsuccessful last month it was touch and go whether we would be able to proceed. But Church members have stepped forward with further encouragement and financial support which has allowed us to move forward, at least with Phase 1 which leaves out some £80,000 of the contractor’s work for now.

Many readers will know that as part of the renewal the pews are being replaced by good quality upholstered wooden chairs. This both provides a comfortable environment for a range of local organisations who may wish to use the church for meetings and concerts - as well as enabling flexibility of space – something especially valuable for activities involving children and young people. Some people have already offered to donate a chair or two and we have arranged for permission to include a small metal dedication plaque on the chairs showing a person’s name and a date, if donors wish. This might be the name of the donor – or it might be in memory of someone or in thanksgiving for a child or grandchild. There will be more information on this opportunity in a month or two. Meanwhile, the sale of the old pews has enjoyed significant success enabling many in the village to have something from the recent period of our church’s eight century heritage. There are still some pews available – if you are interested, please email renewal@stmaryspurton.org.uk.

]]> https://www.stmaryspurton.org.uk:443/193/Renewal-Progress---start-of-contract-negotiations